She nodded. “Aye Co—Aaron.”
Vee descended into a fit of laughter.
Aaron looked at him. “Vee?”
He was still laughing. Tears formed in his eyes. Everyone waited until he composed himself.
“I’m sorry, Aaron, oh my . . . that felt good. It’s just . . . the way the Lieu—I mean uh what’s her name again? Forget it. The way she said your name, her mouth twisted like she had tasted raw eggs.”
No one else laughed. The lady spy’s features contorted into a look of confusion and pity.
Aaron sighed. “Right. Clearly, it formed an image. Glad it tickled you. What is your first name anyway, Miss—”
“My first name is Rachael, si—Aaron.”
Vee dissolved into a fit of laughter again.
“Vee, as you were!”
Alvarez took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Aaron. I’m good, please continue.”
She cut her eyes sharply away from Vee and continued.
“If they were in fact Imperial agents,” she began again, “then I submit it makes no sense to attack us. Unless the Empire is the catalyst behind the Separatist movement within the Border Worlds and they wish to avoid exposure.”
Aaron considered that for a moment. “Is there anything you are aware of which might suggest they are inciting the separatists?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not even a working theory inside the Intelligence community. Atlas Prime is the core strength of the Border Worlds Alliance and all of their worlds are tech-5. They are one of the strongest independent Conclaves throughout the United Star Systems. We have yet to get an agent on the inside of the Separatist movement. We tried several times, but lost contact with each of them.”
“Then is it safe,” Vee asked “to discard the thought of Imperial involvement without having infiltrated the separatists?”
“No,” she said. “However, there are other ways to expose Imperial tampering. We’ve uncovered it before and have become very good at locating their spies and imprisoning or deporting them. USSI has a much less offensive spy network in contrast. Not many agents are deployed in the Empire, though there are some. We believe their operatives within the USS have a high turnover rate since we’ve perfected our measures at detecting them. Without infiltrating the Separatist movement, there are many other ways to have assessed it for Imperial taint. The priority for USSI was to identify their leader. Although they seem to have several spokes-persons, we’ve been unable to identify an apparent leader.”
Aaron slapped his thighs. “Which brings us full circle—we can’t even speculate a reason for the attack on our team. What about misdirection regarding our mission, put out by your people?”
“That is not an uncommon tactic,” she answered, “but in this instance, if they did, then they put out something about the mission which attracted Imperial attention. This would mean the Imperials believe the mission’s success would disadvantage them in some way. Which puts us in the crosshairs of our mortal enemy. I am inclined to dismiss such speculation as well.”
Aaron sighed. “This mission is completely off the books. Other than Shepherd, no one else is aware of it. This has to be said . . .”
“Could there be a mole within our inner circle?” Alvarez finished the thought for him.
“It’s not impossible,” Rachael said. “But it’s highly unlikely. Yet, to suggest the United Star Systems is compromised from such a high level? Unless you’re suggesting it’s one of us on the team.”
“If not a mole, a leak somewhere. Maybe someone got careless handling something related to our mission,” Alvarez said.
“That’s the danger of speculation,” Rachael said. “It can take us to extreme possibilities and without further information, extreme paranoia.”
Aaron pondered her words. “With the shenanigans involved in politics, given the state of alert on both sides, and the Border Worlds factor, we could be a piece in a larger part of someone else’s scheme.”
“I concede it is something to bear in mind,” Rachael said. “It would not be the first time elements within a State used their own people for a grand scheme such as you are suggesting.”
“Okay,” Alvarez said, “so we keep that in the back of our minds. I guess this is the part where paranoia sets in.”
Damn, it was a wonder a spy got any sleep. Who could an operative trust? Your own people could disavow you at any moment, an accepted fact of an operative’s life. It’s as though your only ally was your wits. You might feel your cause is just, yet everything is so twisted, upside down, and inside out. You could never be sure on whose behalf or whose interests you were acting. He couldn’t wait to be back on the bridge of a starship patrolling deep space and leave this insanity behind. He had to admire the Lieutenant. It was a tough pill to swallow—the fate of an intelligence officer.
“Indeed, Vee,” she said, “to avoid paranoia getting the better of us, the best we can do is fact check, dig deep, and toss the ideas around as we are doing now. But there’s never a guarantee.”
“I don’t envy your job, Rachael,” Aaron said.
“Neither do I envy either of you. I’ve never been in a spaceship under fire before.”
“Oh it’s nothing compared to this mind boggling spy thing,” Vee said.
She half smiled. “Indeed, you say that from a position of experience, you’ve learned to handle it, just as I have learned to handle my duties. So don’t think yourself any less capable than me,” she said.
Aaron looked at Vee, who was staring back at him.
“Thanks.” They both said.
But Aaron wasn’t finished speculating yet. “Now, moving on from Imperial agents. Could they be Border Worlds operatives? Supposedly chosen or cut to look like Imperials? Do Imperial spies even look clean cut? I figured they would change their typical appearance to avoid the obvious.”
Rachael slipped her hand through her wavy hair and rubbed the back of her head before answering. “Could they be from the Border Worlds? Yes. And yes, regarding the appearance of Imperial citizens. Especially given that persons with such flawless features are assumed to be Imperials or harbor Imperial ideology. As for the appearance of enemy operatives, which USSI has captured, some resemble you and I, and others look like a typical Imperial. While others are drastically different. They vary from extreme to typical and everything in between. Speculation based only on appearance is also ineffective.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Alvarez said. “Maybe we need to get to a relay network and try reaching the SC and consulting with him on this. He might have learned something or have further insight.”
She shook her head. “I would prefer not to risk exposure, without first encountering further complications. It would take several days before we even received a reply,” she said.
Aaron nodded. “I agree. We’ll continue to play this out until we have something more and need further guidance from the Supreme Commander.”
Aaron drew a deep breath. “In one month each battle group would have assembled on either side of the border near the Atlas system. During that month alone, tensions will keep escalating. It doesn’t give us much time to find the answer to our questions. We need to find out who is responsible for attacking ships between the space bordering the Empire and the United Star Systems and who attacked us on Rigel.”
Beep!
The console in front demanded attention.
Aaron frowned deeply as he digested the latest tactical readouts. “The destroyer is accelerating beyond known specs.”
“How?” Rachael asked.
“Got me . . . I imagined its captain could squeeze a little more fire from those old engines and we included those calculations in my estimates generously. But he’s not squeezing now. Whoever he is, he’s got his chief jumping up and down on those things pulverizing the life out of them. The only silver lining I see is his engines will have sustained heavy damage by the time he arrives. It would render them incapable of further pursuit. However, he’s going to intercept us before we reach your space chariot.”