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Chapter-3

The ship that met them was an ore miner; a real one, not one of the ones flying around transporting illicit cargo and personnel. Theo could tell because of the damaged engine two of the crewmen were working on as the ships docked. No one within covert operations would let a ship get that damage. They had to be in a real hurry if they felt the need to use a privately-owned ship for this mission.

Theo looked around, he was the only one by the view port. Everyone else was off taking care of their duties. "Cass, have you received anything?"

"No. If one of us is on that ship, they aren't talking."

Theo frowned. That wasn't like them. Usually, when an agent was making contact with another one, their Beta AI would initiate the contact.

The ship shook as they docked.

"Still nothing," Cass said.

He headed for the airlock. He didn't have anything to take with him. Agents like him traveled only with what fitted inside their prosthetic limb. Only when they were on a mission did they get more, and that only if the mission called for it.

While he was on Titan, he'd had lodging and accessories for the position he supposedly occupied, and that had been left behind to be cleared out by whomever Anderson had on the station to take care of cleanup. Clothing was never an issue for him

He reached the airlock as a crew woman opened it. Captain Emerson nodded a greeting to him before focusing on the opening portal. The airlock was empty.

Theo had a moment of concern, and wished he carried something more effective than a plasma welding torch, before the other side of the cordon whined and protested. Six hands appeared around the edge and the sound of people straining reached them as it slowly opened.

The crew around Theo exchanged looks.

When the other side was open enough to let someone pass a thin canine squeezed through and crossed the cordon to their side. Theo was stunned at the sight, not just that he was dressed as a civilian, in his gray slacks, now dirty with what looked to be grease and soot, thick black cardigan and carrying a small travel case. He was a civilian, not an agent.

"Professor Bockle?" the captain asked.

"That'd be me," the light brown dog said.

"I'm Captain Helen Emerson, welcome aboard the Mystery."

"It's a pleasure to be here." He turned and beamed at the tiger. "Theodore, how have you been." He gave Theo a tight hug.

"What are you doing here?" Theo hugged his mathematical science teacher back.

The dog let go. "Is there a place we can talk in private?"

"You can use your cabin," the captain offered.

Someone cleared his throat at the other end of the cordon. "Is this going to take long? I've got a schedule to keep." A gray fox's head was poking from between the door.

Theo's teacher sighed and turn. "It's just going to be a few minutes, I told you I had to talk to my student before he came over."

"Student my ass," the fox grumbled, and startled as his voice carried and echoed to the other side. "Make it quick. Sitting here's not earning me and money."

Theo led the dog to the end of the corridor, where his cabin was.

He closed the door and studied his old teacher, who now appeared nervous. "What are you doing here Professor?"

"Do you have it?"

"Have what?"

"Whatever it was you were sent to get."

Theo made his features those of a confused man. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I've been on this ship for the last year and a half."

The dog sighed in exasperation. "She said to get you to give it to me before you..." he trailed off. "Right." He sighed. "I'm to tell you that you did a great job. They haven't seen such a clean system since the old days on earth."

"That's the code phrase," Cass said. It had been embedded in the message Captain Emerson had shown him, coded so only Cass would be aware of it.

Theo smiled. "Did she say to make sure to say it as part of the conversation?" He ran his finger along the hidden seam on the inside of his right forearm and it opened up, the fur parting to reveal a metal compartment with small tools in it.

"She might have," the dog sighed. "I'm not used to this stuff."

"Why did she send you? I expected someone from my line of work." He pulled out the small box and handed it to him.

"She said she didn't have anyone else she could spare. She asked me because you know me." The dog turned the box over in his fingers. "What is it?"

"I don't know."

His old teacher ran a finger against an edge, then put a claw there. Theo closed his hand over the dog's "Don't."

"Aren't you curious as to what's in it?"

"Not my job. Not yours either. You're a courier. She should have given you something to put it in."

The dog opened his case and pulled a book out. And old-style paper book. They were making a comeback within the Independents, although Theo couldn't understand why. The dog opened the back cover and there was a space there for the box. The dog place it in, and closed it. There was the sound of air being sucked out, then a fain click. The Professor tried to open it again, and couldn't. The front two third opened normally, and even had words on the pages.

"Put that in your case and don't touch it again until you hand it to Anderson."

"I left a case in my cabin," the dog said. "I don't know what's in it. She said not to open it."

Theo was certain he'd tried. His old teacher had a serious curiosity streak. "Did she give you any other information for me?"

"No."

"Alright, then I'm going to head to the other ship. Can you tell my parents I'm sorry for missing their anniversary? I'll make it up to them next time I'm home."

"Of course."

Theo turned, but the dog grabbed his arm. "Theodore, what are you mixed in?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." The dog tapped his case.

"I'm afraid I don't. I'm a sanitation officer."

"Please, don't give me that. I know very well-"

Theo clapped him on the shoulder and gave him his biggest smile. "Don't over think this. I'm just an engineer. Whatever else you think I might be. I'm not. And if I was, would you really want to say it out loud? Where you never know who might be listening in?"

"You were one of my best students, Theodore. I expected you to amount to more than this."

"There's nothing wrong with working sanitation. It's as valuable a job as anything else."

Theo left his old teacher with a disgusted expression on his face.

"I think I should send Anderson a message to warn her Professor Bockle may start digging into your civilian cover."

Theo finger typed his agreement as he nodded to the passing crew.

The Captain was still by the airlock. "It was a pleasure having you on board." She offered Theo her hand.

"Thank you." He looked at the crew woman on the other side of the airlock and indicated for her to leave. She looked at the Captain, who nodded. When it was only the two of them, Theo lowered his voice. "Can you monitor Professor Bockle's communications during his trip? And send that to the Sanitation head when you dock?"

"Should I expect problems?"

"I don't think so, but Sanitation is delicate work, and I'd rather err on the side of caution."

"Of course, you can count on me."

"Thank you."

Theo crossed the cordon, avoiding looking around at the thin membrane keeping him safe from the vacuum of space. On the other side, he had to squeeze through the gap, and for a moment he wasn't sure he'd fit.

"Welcome aboard the Hard Worker," the gray fox said. "I'm Captain Gregory. Now help me close this thing so I can get us on our way." He, Theo and two other crew men put their backs against the door and pushed it. Ever so slowly, it creaked close.

They got out of the airlock and the interior door closed on its own, if slowly. Theo hoped there wouldn't be an emergency while he was on board.

"Okay," the fox said. "I'm told your name is Theodore and that you work sanitation. I don't give a damn if it's true or not. My ship might not look like much, but I run things clean, so if you're bringing troubles with you, keep them to yourself. I don't want to have anything to do with that. Now, my ship shows you as being part of the crew, but I don't want to see you touch so much as a loose screw, am I making myself clear?"

"Yes Captain."

The fox smiled. "Good, you can be respectful. Keep that in mind and we'll get along fine." He led him down a cramped corridor and opened the door to a room barely deeper than the hall. "That's where you're staying."

The room had the bed against the wall, a small foldout table and not much more, not even space. He'd fit on the bed, but if he brought a partner, one might have to sleep on top of the other.

"The toilet's through there." The fox indicated a door on the side of the room. "Shower's down two level. There's only three of them for the twenty of us, so you better learn to share." He sighed. "You got any questions?"

"What's the ship's policy on sex?"

"Keep that in your cabin. This isn't an Orr ship, I don't want to hear about it happening in the shower or anywhere public."

Theo nodded and closed the door.

'Private?' he finger typed.

"Yes. I don't detect any listening devices. I can barely talk to the electronic components on this so call ship. I'm afraid we might not make it to Titan."

"We'll be fine."

"You have more faith in this thing than I do. The few maintenance records for it I can find are horrible."

"Then don't go poking in them." Theo found the case under the bunk. "What did she go for this time?"

"I can't unlock it."

Theo studied the clip, and felt the needle as he ran a finger over it. "DNA lock. We'd better hope my tags are back to normal."

"After four months, I can guaranty they are."

Theo pressed his finger on the needle, felt the tiny pinprick and the latch opened.

"Oh joy," Cass said. "Papers."

"Safest way to transport sensitive information. Can't be copied through the case, or even detected."

"And I can't read them."

"Of course, you can, at the same time I do."

"Of course, but, and don't take that the wrong way, you read so slowly."

"Maybe you'd prefer I simply ready them out loud?" He unfolded the table and spread the papers on it.

"Should I feel honored, or worried that you just spread those out without worrying about any sensor?"

"Honored. I trust you to keep it from seeing anything it shouldn't."

"And what if this place was so old, I couldn't send any gammas around to take control of it?"

"Not that it could happen, but I figure you'd have freaked out the moment we set foot on here if that were the case."

"I don't freak out."

"No, you just become argumentative."

"I am not argu-" Cass was silent for a moment. "Alright, I might be slightly uncomfortable being in this thing."

"Just stop thinking about it. Work on a movie or something. Now let me read this."

He started with the mission parameter. He was to head to Mars, via Titan station. Arrange to travel in the company of Marcus Bowfinger. To obtain his DNA tag to gain entry to the Central Mars information hub, where he was to deploy an Alpha Casanova.

Theo put the papers down and took the case again. There was nothing else inside, which was to be expected. They'd never transport an Alpha AI in the open.

"Cass, are there any electronic signals from the case?"

"Of course not. Why?"

"A Casanova is hidden in it." Cass knew about it, he'd seen the information the moment Theo had glanced at the page, but they'd agreed early on that Cass wouldn't think too far ahead of Theo unless it was vital. He ran his fingers along the inside, then the outside. Nothing registered by touch. He opened the compartment in his arm and took out a small scanner, and ran that over the case.

"We get to transport Casanova." Cass said in awe.

"A Casanova. I don't expect they erased him from the colonies for this."

"Still, he's going to be an exact copy. We're talking about the original, the master romancer. I'm but a pale imitation of him."

"Don't sell yourself short. Your movies are well received." The scanner picked up an electronic wafer on the bottom of the case, but it was without power.

"Yes, but movies are easy. He 'writes.' Do you have any idea how much more difficult it is to write a good erotic romance story than make a movie of one?"

"You know me, I'm not much for reading. I'm in it for the instant gratification." He felt against the inside of the case again. If it didn't have power, he had to be able to connect to it, provide the power to initiate the transfer.

"That's why you like having sex so much. You get someone else to do the work."

"Hey, I do as much as the other guy. More, most of the time. I like making sure they really get into it." He chuckled. He was going about this all wrong. They wouldn't have put a connector, anyone could find those and figure out how to use it. He removed the fur off his little finger and placed it over the middle of where his scanner said the wafer was.

It used induction.

"Get ready to received Casanova."

"I'm ready."

Theo sent the energy in, and the scanner indicated the wafer was activating.

"Receiving. Received. Verifying the data integrity. Verification complete."

Theo took out he plasma torch, and burned the bottom of entire inside of the case, hiding where the wafer was as he destroyed it.

"I hope you weren't planning on needing that anymore," Cass commented.

Theo rolled his eyes. "When have I ever needed a carry on?" he put the case back under the bunk. He'd get rid of it at some point. He got back to reading.

He was being sent to Mars so Casanova could work with Mirror and Angel to get the schematics to the terraforming technology the earth-bound corporations had come up with. The reason as to why they would all be on Mars wasn't given, and it didn't matter to him.

He knew why he was going there to help retrieve it, the Independents had a ship heading for deep space, to a planet that was almost earth like, and they needed the technology to ensure it could be adjusted if its environment changed in the thousand plus years it would take the ship to reach it. Theo knew of six attempts to get the schematics from the individual corporations over the fifteen years since they found out about their existence, but operating within the corporation was nearly impossible.

His target, Marcus Bowfinger, was a mongoose from SolGov who had been based on Titan station for the last five years. He was an information manager and he had been tasked with being one of SolGov's agent on Mars for a conference taking place while the schematics were there.

The details of what Marcus was to do wasn't indicated in the file, but it did have personal information. Marcus was male compatible, which gave Theo the how he would go about getting a sample of his DNA.

"You know you don't have to have sex with him, right?" Cass commented.

"Did someone modify the auditory connector while I was sleeping? Maybe the visual one? Are you able to read my min now?"

"Please, I've worked with you for eight years now. I know you'll aim to sleep with someone if a mission lets you."

"And I give you material for your movies, I don't see why you complain. Which aliases do we have setup on Titan?"

"Vulps has been burned," Cass said. "The best fit is Theodore Tremain."

Theo took a moment to mourn Vulps. It hadn't hit him until now that he was fully burned. He and Cass had built him with care, sort of in honor of his parents. He'd never get to be him again.

Information appeared in his field of vision and Theo focused. "No, not him. I'm not playing SolGov unless the mission specifically calls for it. Do you have any idea how boring it is being one of them?"

"How about Theodore Zemphyr?"

"He won't do," Theo didn't need to wait for the information, he knew that identity quite well. "An Orr Citizen is going to be too forward for a SolGov. I need someone who'll be able to move slowly."

"You don't even need to have sex with him, making him fall in love with you is even less vital."

Theo shrugged. "But this makes me think of something. Can you get his travel plans? They aren't in here."

"Not from here. I don't trust this bucket of rust to have anything resembling secure transmission. I'll have ample time to get that once we're on Titan Station. The schematics are going to arrive on Mars in eight months and the Intel said it would be there for six months after that."

"Okay, then how about the ship's arrival and departure? You got that before we left, right?"

"Yes, not counting unscheduled changes, I have it for the next year and a half."

"Good, show me the list of ships that will be going to Mars when we get there and for the month after that." The list contained fifty-seven ships, almost two a day going to mars. It was a popular place. The only information Cass had was the ship's class, schedule and owning corporation. Theo went down the list, and two weeks after his arrival there would be an Orr passenger ship departing for mars, the Mercury. The name felt odd for an Orr ship, they tended to name them as lewdly as possible. Still, he smiled. That would be a perfect place to get a SolGov citizen stuck so he might seek the company of someone who wasn't Orr. He did a quick check, and it was the only Orr ship in his time frame. Hopefully there wouldn't be any change in that schedule.

With that idea in mind, he went back to figuring out which identity he would use.

* * * * *

"Hey Jimmy," Theo greeted the crewman and he leaned against him to look out the view port. He and the dalmatian had gotten close over the four months he'd been on the ship.

"Theo," the man replied, "Will you look at that?" Awe in his voice at what he was looking at. He didn't even comment at their closeness. Usually, because of the Captain's attitude toward sex, he complained the moment Theo touched him in public.

Theo used the excuse to press against Jimmy. The view outside was impressive, the large ship nearing completion near the station looked large, even at this distance. It was larger than the one his people had launched twenty-five years ago. SolGov, who was building it, had plans to put twenty thousand people on it. Families who would give birth to new families for generations during the long trip to another planet.

Theo wondered for a moment if they were planning on the one the Dreamer's ship was heading for. Wouldn't that be a surprised. SolGov arriving to a new planet, only to find it was already populated by people who didn't want anything to do with them. Well, that might be harsh; after a thousand years attitudes were bound to change.

"Yeah, it's impressive," Theo said. Then he turned his gaze to the station, a large ring with a half sphere in the center, the Park. Where nature was recreated for the enjoyment of all in the outer solar system. The one place where most of them had any chances of seeing a real tree or feeling real dirt under their feet.

Theo spent time there any chance he could, and he tried to remember Earth. He'd been five when he left it with his parents, and he barely remembered any of it, except blue skies. He remembered how blue a sky could be, which was one thing the Park couldn't quite match, being so far from the sun and not having the thick atmosphere that diffused its light.

Often, when walking among the recreation of a plain, he wondered if he'd ever set foot on Earth again. He knew his parents couldn't, they'd broken their contract with Vanguard when they took him away, but he hadn't been an employee, so he wasn't wanted there, and even if he was, with the multiple identities he had access to, he could slip in unnoticed. Maybe he'd take a vacation at some point and visit the world where he'd been born.

"You ever think about signing up for it?" The dalmatian asked.

It took Theo a moment to figure out what he meant. "No, I don't think I'm suited for living away from the solar system."

"But you'd get to see a new world."

"No I wouldn't."

"Course you would. That's what it's about. The ship's going to take all those people to live on a new world. No more being stuck in a ship all your life."

"Jimmy, you'd be death a long time before the ship reached its destination. It's called a Generational ship because a lot of generations are going to come and go before it gets there. Anyway, they wouldn't have me. They only accept men who are female compatible and vice versa."

"Damn, I really want to see another world."

"Go to a holo room. They are pretty good at seeming real."

"Can't. No implant."

Jimmy, like everyone on the ship was an Independent, but they weren't part of Theo's people, they were part of another cluster, the Miners, who felt two hundred years ago was when scientific advancement should have stopped. They weren't as bad as the anti-technologists, back on Earth, but because of their mentality, Theo's people, the Dreamers, hadn't let them know of their existence.

The Miners only knew of 'The Rock' the first colony build hundreds of years ago in the outer edge of the Kuiper belt. It was a place where they traded with the other independent clusters living among the outer solar system, socialized and just got off their ships for a while. A lot of the Miners never left went further into the solar system than the Rock, mining beyond it in the belt or the Oort cloud, letting those like Captain Gregory make the trip to Titan to sell what they collected.

The Dreamers, along with the Searchers and the Advancers had twelve colonies, not in the kuiper belt, but hidden from everyone in the Oort cloud. Theo was a Dreamer by virtue of his parents joining them upon fleeing Earth. It was a good fit. While, like all Independents, he wouldn't submit to the invasion that was an Implant, he had no problems using technology, even getting a few basic ones implanted as part of being an agent, like the visual and auditory connector that let him communicate with Cass, and his forearm and hand replacement, another thing he'd gotten as part of becoming an agent.

Jimmy pushed away from the wall and Theo. "We're about two hours from docking. You want to go fuck?"

Theo smiled. "Always."

* * * * *

Theodore Grimly, Independent mechanical engineer from the Hard Worker, exited the ship wearing grease covered gray overalls, along with the rest of the crew, all dressed in similar ways. And like them he wore a visor and had an Interface strapped to his left arm. They all headed for the closest bar, where for thirty minutes he laughed and talked loudly with them, but no one noticed he hardly touched his drink. When he excused himself to go use the washroom, they all laughed and commented on how he couldn't hold his drinks.

Once in a stall, Theo took off the visor and Interface while his clothing became a clean white shirt with gold trim, under a stylish gray sleeveless vest and black pants. He used an odorless solvent to rub the grease out of his face fur, and then styled it into small spikes, it not being long enough for anything else.

While he did that, his boots seemed to melt away, thinning until only fabric covered his feet, then it thickened slightly, became black and acquired a shine. He'd only had those for a few years. It had taken a long time for the scientists from the Advancers and the Dreamers to figure out a way of incorporating a solid base to the fabric to simulate the hardness of most shoes or boots. Unfortunately, it couldn't do socks.

'Anyone around?' he finger typed.

"No, you're alone. No one is heading this way either at the moment."

"Extends the pants. I don't want to risk someone seeing fur at my ankles and making a fuss. This is still a SolGov facility, for all the debauchery the elite allows itself."

The pant legs extended down until it covered the top of his shoes

Theo left the stall and dumped the visor and Interface in the disposal, then looked at himself in the mirror. "How do I look?"

"You look exactly like Theodore Laramy, Hallibury Citizen and engineer with Findlen Communication."

Theo smiled at his reflection. "Well, let's enjoy the rest of Laramy's vacation by finding Marcus and learning his routine."