Christopher Nuttall - Barbarians at the Gates

She studied the panel thoughtfully and allowed herself a tight smile. So far, so good.

She paced around the airlock until she located the command node and flipped it open. Placing her armoured hand against the panel, she extruded a small wire from her suit into the command node, hacking into its tiny brain. If the governor had been very paranoid, she’d just set off an alarm, but he would have to be clinically insane to even consider the possibility.

No alarms sounded.

She allowed herself a moment of relief before hacking deeper into the command node and rewriting the software to her specifications. As she had expected, there was an alarm circuit, which she bypassed, then dumped altogether. If she had to leave in a hurry, it was easier to have a way out that she knew was unguarded.

Swinging over to the airlock itself, she pulled the manual override and stepped into the airlock. A moment later, the other door hissed open automatically, and she was in. The easy part of the mission was over.

Hartkopf hadn’t realized it, but his paranoia had actually weakened his position. He’d set up hundreds of computer programs to watch his subordinates, yet he didn’t realize that those programs could be subverted. No one knew how Hartkopf had built the system, but Alicia had quickly discovered that he hadn’t developed something new or even—as the Colonial Alliance had done during the Inheritance Wars—worked an alien computer system into his network.

Her implanted processors accessed the nearest communications node, slipped into the system and raped it, inserting a series of comforting lies into the network. No one would detect a trace of her presence.

Unless, of course, the paranoid asshole had added a secondary security system. Detecting that would be tricky.

Finding a small compartment, Alicia started to undress, removing her combat suit. As much as she loved it, it would stick out like a sore thumb if someone saw her. The uniform she wore below it stank—the result of four days in the suit—but it would pass for one of Hartkopf’s uniforms at a distance.

Accessing her implants, she transferred the hacking link from the suit to her internal systems, before running through a quick weapons check. She might look like a normal aide, very unlike a soldier, but her implanted weapons and systems were deadly dangerous—and unseen.

The security systems insisted there were only seven hundred people on the fortress, although Alicia knew better than to take that for granted. If she’d been programming the security network, she would have programmed it to ignore security officers.

The hacked link told her that one of Hartkopf’s female officers was four compartments away, so she stepped out of her compartment—locking it behind her—and walked down the corridor, watching carefully for anyone who might see her. Hartkopf, it seemed, had stripped the fortress’s crew down to the bare minimum, thankfully.

She keyed an override code into the door’s processor and stepped through while the room’s occupant was still turning to face her. Alicia saw the surprise on her face—she loved that moment—as she shot her neatly with a stun bolt. The woman crashed to the floor and lay still.

Alicia picked her up effortlessly, rolled her over onto her back and started to undress her. Governor Hartkopf’s uniform designer, she decided, had been insane or blind or both. The uniform was bright green, with yellow and black markings that reminded her of a Terra Nova Wasp. When Alicia donned it, after having a quick session in the fresher, it pinched her in uncomfortable places. If nothing else, she decided as she studied her uniform in the mirror, males would be distracted from her face. It was a shame that she couldn’t mimic the stunned woman’s face and figure, but even the most advanced implants couldn’t do that quickly.

Picking up the naked woman, she tied her hands and feet quickly before stuffing a sock in her mouth. By the time she was discovered, it would be far too late.

Leaving the stunned woman behind, she walked down the corridor, avoiding cameras and security nodes whenever possible. When it wasn’t possible, her hacking programs simply edited her appearance out of the sensors, leaving the security staff blind. They wouldn’t see her even if they were watching the monitors. But she knew better than to assume that she would pass completely unmolested.

As she turned into the governor’s private quarters, she almost ran into two burly security officers. Alicia braced herself, carefully activating some of her combat implants. If they realized that she was a fake…

“Lieutenant Brogan, here to see the governor,” she said quickly. She’d taken a brief look at her victim’s ID before abandoning her. There was no way to know if the governor would send for a sexual partner, or if he would prey on the women serving under him, but she knew his reputation. “I’ve been told it is priority business…”

“I’ll bet,” the older of the guards said gruffly. He exchanged a wink with his comrade that Alicia pretended not to see. “I’ll have to run your implant through the scanner anyway, I’m afraid. Please place your hand against the panel.”

Alicia prepared herself as she pressed her hand against the panel. A standard ID chip was buried in the palm of an officer’s right hand; she, as it happened, had a processor that should feed another series of comforting lies to the scanner. If it failed, however, she would have to kill the two guards quickly and then get inside before the system registered her presence and sounded the alarm. She didn’t want to do that, but she’d have no choice; once the fortress went into lockdown, finding and assassinating the governor would be much harder. She might even have to detonate the fusion cell built into her implants and take out the entire fortress.

“Access granted,” the guard said. Alicia pretended that the issue had never been in doubt. “Have fun with the governor.”

The armoured airlock hissed open and Alicia stepped into the governor’s private sanctum. She hadn’t been certain what to expect, but it was clear that rumors of Hartkopf’s depravity hadn’t been exaggerated. It reminded her of a high-class brothel on Paradise that she’d visited once, while waiting for a target to show his ugly face. The room was filled with comfortable cushions, the walls were decorated with erotic paintings and one corner was entirely devoted to pleasure tools.

Alicia wrinkled her nose in disgust as she prowled through the piles of cushions, looking for her target. She’d lost her hacking line as soon as the airlock closed, and no processor within the room responded to her pings. The governor had probably programmed them to respond only to him. Given time, she could have hacked in anyway, but she had the uneasy feeling that time was running out.

“Who’s there?” a querulous voice demanded. Her implants checked it against the record she’d been given. It was Hartkopf.

Alicia stepped around the corner and saw the governor sitting at a desk, studying a tactical map of the sector. The horde of red icons in a nearby system had to be the Grand Fleet. She allowed herself a small cough as the governor turned and stared at her.

“Who are you?” he asked, lunging for a button on his desk.

Alicia shot him neatly through one eye, and watched as his body flopped down on the deck. He was heavy enough to make lifting him difficult, even with her enhanced strength, but eventually she got him onto the bed. A moment later, she had beheaded him.

She artistically placed his head on her forehead. His computer system still responded to the ID chip in his palm and it was a simple matter to program it to transmit a message right across the system. She didn’t intend to speak, but it wouldn’t be necessary. The image of Hartkopf’s dead body would be all that was needed. She hoped that his subordinates would see sense and surrender to the Federation, or perhaps they’d start a civil war within the Bester System instead. But either way, her work was done.