8:10 p.m. CST, June 18th, 2673; Clearwater Prime Hi-View Restaurant

Anna was not happy about the clothes Beth had forced her to wear to join her at the restaurant. Her casual clothes would have stood out too much at the restaurant, but the new clothes were definitely not to her tastes. The studio had a broad range of clothing for women to wear, but the general theme for evening wear was not something Anna was comfortable with.

Beth had gone all out for her own outfit, and she had made sure Anna’s outfit was only a little more subdued. The two women had desirable and athletic figures, and the outfits had been made to show them off. Anna’s strong, heavy worlder body was displayed in ways she was not used to. The look was strong yet still feminine. Her legs were mostly exposed, and the straps on the dress left her arms bare. The front of the dress made her modest bust look bigger than it actually was. The dress even left a portion of her hips exposed.

Anna was thankful that the taller and blond Beth was with her. The taller woman drew the eyes of the crowd more than she did. Anna’s heavily applied cosmetics and hairstyle changed her looks so much that she looked nothing like the fleet’s signals officer.

The two sat down at a booth near the back wall. With Darline’s notoriety they sat in the more exclusive section, which kept the regular people away. The actress-turned-producer’s fame worked in their favour this time.

“At least from here, both of us can watch the entrance,” Anna said to Beth.

“Yes we can, just don’t make it obvious. I like tables at the back of this restaurant for that reason. Let’s hope we’ll be able to find someone this time, or at least a few more straws to grasp.”

They waited for a few more minutes before someone walked in, in uniform. It took Anna a moment to realize it was the same junior commander that she almost ran into on her way to the bar outside the tender’s docking port. She cursed under her breath.

“What is it?” Beth asked.

“I think he’s from the tender that received the signals.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I almost ran him down as I was trying to get to the location of the signal, but that was hours ago. I don’t know if he’s connected to this or not. The new signal I intercepted could be for something completely different.”

“Interesting,” Beth said and covertly watched the junior commander. “He’s the squadron commander for the tender, and it looks like his name is Robertson. Either the navy’s fitness requirements have gone downhill since I left, he’s a very good squadron commander, or someone is helping him out.” Her eyes picked up more details in one glance than Anna had when she ran into him.

“I’ll have to check that out when I get back to Glasgow,” Anna said. She did her best to watch the officer as he moved along her field of vision, without moving her eyes to follow him. Robertson sat down at a table farther along the wall. Anna looked to Beth.

“Lots of bathroom breaks tonight?”

“Looks that way. Give it a few moments, of course.”

Beth was the first one of the two to get up five minutes later and head toward the ladies’ room. She was not there for long before she wandered back toward the table, her hips swaying as she walked on high heels.

“There are three other men with them. One is the stocky man we chased earlier. The second might be whom he was meeting, and the third is Martin Ashby.”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s from Olivier, one of the elite. Officially he’s on Clearwater Prime as part of the trade delegation. He’s also one of my vectors with Dalrun. I’m not sure his connection with Dalrun, but he sometimes talks in an offhanded matter about the gel suits.”

“We won’t be able to get close enough to them to figure out what they’re saying. Though I may be able to get close enough to plant one of my bugs. Maybe my outfit will be distracting enough. It has to be good for something.”

“Oh, I bet it would be good for something, especially if Phillip were here. You know I could plant the bug for you.”

“No, your outfit is too distracting, and you’re too famous. We don’t want them to remember more than the dress.”

Anna watched as the waiter made his rounds. As he was walking toward the table with the four men, she spilled some of the water in her glass over her dress. She did such a good job of making it look like an accident that Beth raised an eyebrow in approval. Anna grabbed the napkin from the setting before her and started to dry herself off.

When the waiter was close to the table with the four men, but not quite there, she got up from her table and walked over to the waiter. Her hand casually bumped against the side of the booth as she asked him for some more napkins. Her bare hip shifted to draw attention away from her hand as she did so.

She rushed off to the ladies’ room and stepped inside. When she returned a few minutes later, she was more presentable when she got back to the table with Beth.

“So what are they saying?”

“I don’t know. They went quiet when I went by. I’ll have to dump the conversation from the bug in an hour. It’s only a simple one, hardly bigger than a grain of rice.” Anna pulled a small tablet from her purse and set it down on the table. It looked very much like one of the expensive personal computers many high-class businessmen and businesswomen carried around, though it did not have the holographic display the high-priced units had.

“Right now there’s only one bug in the area. At least that’s all that my little toy can find.”

Beth nodded her head. “Well then, we’ll have to enjoy ourselves till they leave. I assume that for a bug that small, the range is limited.”

“Very limited. We’ll have to be about three to five metres away for me to get a good dump from it. It could have a better range or a bigger storage capacity. Personally I like the bigger storage capability.”

“I agree with you. We’ll have to get the conversation from those racist boys later.”

“Racist?”

“Didn’t you notice how they acted? When I walked past, they didn’t even look at me. But when you stopped by, they couldn’t keep their eyes off you, even when you rushed off. And when you walked past, they looked at you again.”

Anna flushed. “That could just be because they don’t want to get water spilled on them.”

The two continued to talk of other things as they continued their evening of entertainment. They watched Robertson and the other men finish up their meal and whatever they had come to the Hi-View for.

Back at the studio, after Anna had changed into her casual clothes, the two went over the recorded conversation. A few areas had to be cleaned up from the background noise. Some areas were completely lost, due to countermeasures that was probably carried by one of the four men.

“They’re from Olivier for sure. It seems like they are backing our boy Robertson and aiding in his promotion. He’s not making them too happy.”

“Which isn’t surprising. I wonder if I can get a personal message out to Phil. See what his impressions of his new squadron commander are.” A lot of the conversation was of Robertson complaining about the new torpedo boat senior officer and how he was not playing by the rules.

“That shouldn’t be too hard. He’s still in the system, or he should be. Last I checked, it was at least three days to where they make the interstellar trip. Though you heavy worlders like to push that.”

“About that. The fleet is going to be leaving soon, Beth. I can probably help you tomorrow, but that’s it.”

“I know that, but your help has gotten me some leads I can follow up on. Can you see if you can tail Robertson tomorrow? He should be easier to pick up. And he seems to like you. I can set you up with proper clothing. I’ll see if I can find out who the other two men are in the meantime, but I’ll focus on Ashby.”

* * *

2200 hours CST, June 18th, 2673; TRCS Glasgow

Dear Phil,

I’m glad that you are settling into command, and I’m confident that you’ll be great at it. Just don’t focus too much on one task, that’s your biggest problem you know. I’ll worry for you when you’re on patrol, but you’re probably right there is no reason for pirates to be there.

Don’t tell anyone about this, but most of the reports we get show them to be at least two or three systems away. The admiral is worried that they attacked a bulk hauler so close to Clearwater though. It shows that they’re getting bolder; it could also mean that they’re getting desperate. And you know what they said at the Academy: Desperate men do desperate things.

Even though this will probably be your last posting in the navy, I think you should give it everything you can. In a year or so I’ll probably hand in my papers with you, and we can both go back to Terrace. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something to do there together.

But you never know. Maybe your commanding officer will recommend you get that promotion to senior lieutenant. And you won’t have to worry about being dismissed from the navy. What do you think of him? Think that would work out?

The fleet is getting ready to depart. We shouldn’t be too far behind you.

Don’t ever change, Phil. I love you.

Anna

Anna finished her quick letter to Phil and sent it off to him before she turned in for the night, hoping he would get it and get a response back to her by the time she woke up. She hacked into the fleet computer system and checked to see when Robertson was due to wake. She set her own alarm so she could be at the bar outside the tender before he could leave the ship. She was not going to take Beth up on the offer to outfit her.

The alarm woke her at 0400 hours. She was no better at waking up short on sleep than most people were, and she almost rolled over to hit the snooze button. She saw the message light instead and found a message from Phil on it. She scanned through it and smiled to herself before she hit the head and prepared herself for the day. Duty demanded that she take a few moments to make sure everything was handled properly by the fleet’s signals officers before she left the ship.

By seven o’clock she was at the bar outside the John Charlie having breakfast. She did say a gushy hello to the marines guarding the hatchway that led to the tender, but that was just so she could plant a few audio and video bugs by the air lock. She was not going to be caught flat-footed again, and today she had time to prepare her surveillance.

* * *

5:30 a.m. CST, June 19th, 2673; Clearwater Prime Alpha Disk

Beth woke up at an early hour. She did not keep military time, but she was used to waking up early to prepare the studio for a day’s work. She was up at five thirty, not too early for someone in the movie business, and fortunately she had always been a morning person. Besides, her cover dictated a perky personality at all times, and it had become a habit for her. She woke up instantly and was in the bathroom to get ready for the day before a quarter to six.

She skipped breakfast and headed toward the diplomatic sector of the disk. This sector was where some of the best breakfast places set up shop, and it gave her a good excuse to be there in her role as a movie producer. She was often there for other purposes, so she was taken as part of the background activity.

One of the cafes she enjoyed was pretty close to the Olivier consulate; all the major planets of the Republic of Terrace had offices in the area. It was also a good place to be a spy looking for other spies. The other large local star nations, New Terra Firma and the Caliton Empire, also had large embassies in the sector. Smaller powers and even the Sol system had buildings for its diplomats. In all there were over a hundred embassies and consulates in the relatively small area of the station.

Beth was not sure if she was known to the other agents yet. She had been on the station for a while, and she had a commercial reason for being on the station. Her cover had been in the works ever since the war, and it was mostly done on Terrace or the other systems close-by, such as Rosswood and Courtenay. She did not fit the profile for a spy yet. She mainly stayed around the studio and the high-society social circles. The past day was the first break she had from her standard profile. She was not happy about the risks, but she had to take the chance.

She spent breakfast time covertly watching the entrance to the Olivier consulate, waiting for her target to come out. She could enter the grounds. After all, she did have some business interests on Olivier. It was still too early for her in the day for her to do so, and she preferred to stay outside to see what was going on from a distance. She sat under the lights of the artificial sun; the open air overhead gave the diplomatic section of the station an almost planetary feel to it. While the ceiling was not as high as the park, being only about five hundred metres away, it still gave the sector a worldly feel.

Beth did not have to wait long for her target to come into view. Martin Ashby was a short man, like most people who grew up on a heavy-G world. He was only 170 centimetres tall and fairly stout. He had thick bones and a muscular physique that was starting to turn to fat. Beth knew he was approaching seventy, but he did not look like it.

Beth hid her surprise well when Martin came by her table. Her training came in handy, and Darli’s facial expression hid any surprise that slipped through Beth’s mask. She looked up as he came by, her eyes taking on that vacant look that Darli used on all men and most women.

“Oh, Darli, I was hoping to run into you sometime soon.”

“Oh hi, Martin! But I don’t do private performances anymore.”

“Well yes, I know that. Mind if I sit down, Ms. Hughes?”

“Oh, don’t call me that, it makes me feel positively ancient. But go right ahead. I’m just finishing up my breakfast.”

“I don’t want to keep you long, but I was wondering how your work with Dalrun was going?”

Darli paused for a moment; she looked like she was searching her brain for the connection. Her eyes took on that glint of recognition that took a lot of training for Beth to simulate when needed. She looked at Martin.

“Dalrun? Oh, I don’t know anything about them,” she said. Her voice had a slightly false tone to it.

“Come now, Darli, I know they told you not to tell anyone. But I do have contacts with them as well, and they asked me to check up on your progress. So how are those gel suits doing?”

“Oh well, if you already know, then I suppose I could tell you how they’re working out. Just don’t tell anyone else. They’re supposed to be a secret.” Beth forced a conspiratorial tone into Darli’s voice. The blonde leaned forward across the table, letting her low-cut top hide the relief that Beth was feeling.

“They seem to be doing all right. I haven’t tried them on myself. They’re very complicated, and it’s about all I can do to manage the equipment. The actors definitely like to wear the undies when they put them on. Something about their dangly bits,” she said with a clinical tone, and then giggled. “The gel suits don’t really expand right for them. The actresses don’t mind that much, with or without the undies. Except when it comes to the plumbing connections. No one likes those. And I don’t think I blame them for it.”

“Uh…OK. That’s not exactly what I was asking about.”

“Oh, what did you want to know, Martin?”

“Have you done any scenes in space with them yet?”

“Well, we’ve done some on the outside of the station, but it was very hard to convince the actors to do that. I had to triple their pay to try it. It’s not really my line of work, you know. I focus on the more intimate scenes. I have a director who does the more human interest scenes. Two people out doing ‘repairs,’ for instance, before coming back inside and doing what everyone really pays to see.”

“Well, that’s good, but you’ve filmed putting on and taking off the suits?”

“Oh yes, those are very popular scenes, especially taking off the suits.”

“And you’ve used them in space?”

“Well, not personally, but yes, I did say that. We don’t do the taking off and putting on parts, but the human interest parts. Nancy says it’s the only way to get the lighting right, if we do them outside.”

“Good. So you think your work with them will help acceptance of the suits by the Terrace Navy?”

“Oh, I think so. Didn’t you know they came by yesterday?”

“They did?”

“Why yes, my good friend George said there was a navy crew that needed some skin suits quickly, so I fitted some of the crew with them.”

“You did?” Martin sounded shocked.

“Yes I did. I hope that’s all right, isn’t it? Dalrun told me they wanted my help promoting them to the navy. And we do have to support our boys and girls in the navy.”

“Oh no, you didn’t do anything wrong at all, Darline. Nothing wrong at all. Did you fit them with the full suits?”

Darline nodded her head, still leaning forward, and she spoke in that openly secretive tone. “Why yes. I had to find my books on the suits. They were supposed to be out for a couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to make any mistakes. And the book said not to mix equipment for long-term use.” She put her elbows on the table and held up her head with her hands.

“Ah, I think you did fine, Darli,” Martin said and reached forward to take one of Beth’s hands. “I think Dalrun will be very pleased with what you’ve managed to accomplish. Do you know what ship they were from?”

“Oh, I think it was something like the forty-seven-E,” she said, and Beth watched Martin closely for his reaction. He didn’t disappoint her. TBC-473 was known to Martin, and his expression was a confused one. It was a group of conflicting expressions from disappointment to satisfaction.

“Well, I shouldn’t detain you anymore, Darline. I’m sure you have plenty of scenes to shoot today.”

Beth smiled and did her best to keep the mischievousness from her lips. “Oh yes, I have three girls and two big studs just waiting to get it on. It could be some tricky shooting today, and I might just have to take a hand in it to show them how it’s done. You know how it is.” She opened her mouth to continue with the details of the shoot, but before she could, Martin made his excuses and beat a hasty retreat.

The old prude, Beth thought. But it’s good he came by. If he was looking for me, there would have been no way for me to follow him. And Anna isn’t as good at this. She hasn’t had to do any tailing for a while. We need some more help.