MINUS

“If the AI so much as suspects you’re anything other than a simple tourist, it’s going to pop you like a boil,” Captain Fresh of the Syndicate security forces said. He handed Minus a datapad. “This contains about five hundred hours of footage of the fairy crawler along with all the posts your brother made regarding her. You’ll have to rapid-inject, it as you’re going to onboard tonight. The tenth floor begins in just a few hours. We’re preparing a transfer, but you’ll need to watch as much as you can at regular speed, too, as the AI will be suspicious of too much brain recall from injected memory. There’s, uh, some snicks on there as well. Ones your brother made himself. Luckily, he had enough money saved up to purchase the ship, so if anyone investigates too closely, it all adds up. He was quite smart with his investments, and other than the people on the Snow Cones message board, he didn’t have any known associates. The last person he appeared to have contacted face-to-face was you.”

“That was five cycles ago,” Minus said.

“We know,” said Captain Fresh.

Minus sighed, looking at the corpse of his poor dead brother, Linus, who’d just been wasted by Syndicate security.

Minus hadn’t even known his brother had moved from the surface of Teelan-3 to one of the swanky habitats in orbit around the star. He took a hesitant step, careful not to get any of the garbage on his boot. His brother had made his fortune in biological license engineering for the Dream and had cashed out cycles ago. Minus hadn’t talked to him since that last time, which had been a month after their father’s funeral. Linus had said then that he’d purchased full citizenship. Minus had assumed he was going to keep working.

A wave of guilt washed across the soother. Even then, Minus had known his brother was lonely. He looked about the trash-filled berth. It smelled awful in here. I should have called him.

He couldn’t bring himself to look upon his brother’s corpse for more than a few seconds, shame overwhelming him. He didn’t deserve this.

And then he thought, Mom is going to be so pissed.

“I don’t know what I can do. Even if I do get down there, the best I can do is maybe kill a crawler or two before the system AI rips me apart.”

“You have your primary target. As you will be attached to the fairy crawler, you will likely have multiple opportunities to strike. If you can find a way to make it look like an accident, perhaps you might survive.”

“How? How can I possibly survive this? I don’t really watch the show. You say I will only be half-corporeal? I am treated like a non-combatant? Anything I do that takes more than a nanosecond is going to get stopped by the AI.”

“We’re hoping your presence isn’t considered an outside influence. If it truly believes you’re your brother, we hope it won’t be so quick to stop your actions as long as it believes your actions. So act the pervert for some time. You have your primary and secondary target. Get them all at once if you can.”

“But at this point, what will that do? Sir, I know I’m not supposed to question orders, but I feel I need to understand.”

Captain Fresh paused.

“Look, son. This is a suicide mission. You know it, and I know it. But I cannot reiterate how important this is. We are doing everything we can to nuke that entire system off the map before it can spread even farther. We are losing. That AI is stopping everything we throw at it and answering in kind. We have a few assets in place already, but none amongst the crawlers. We believe that a surgical crawler kill will destabilize the whole group, causing a systematic collapse, which will cause the Ascendency game to kick off early and allow our other assets to quickly react. I can’t say more than that. I don’t like sending good soldiers to their deaths, but we have no other choice. It’s us or them, and if we don’t do everything we can to stop it all, we will face extinction.” He waved his hands, indicating Linus’s filthy apartment. Multiple suspiciously stained posters of Elle McGib littered the walls. “And no offense, but idiots like your late brother are just as culpable for everything that’s happening because they won’t stop watching. So it comes down to us to protect the citizens before it’s too late. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Minus said, standing rigid, hand against his chest in a salute. “Whatever it takes, sir. Whatever it takes.”