chapter Nine part Two

Ignoring the signs that warned against straying from marked paths, Gus mounted a low hanging branch and followed it up into the tree. Thankfully, she was an old hand at navigating the Lord of Titan or she’d be like those tourists.

Hopelessly lost.

The tree’s interior was a maze. The interwoven trunks that allowed it to expand indefinitely outward, or at least until it bumped into the spine’s edge, enabled pockets to form, creating a complex network of paths and chambers should someone choose to follow them.

And choose Gus did.

She wound through its trunk, ducking low in places where its growth obstructed her way, and climbing up slightly slippery inclines as she worked her way to the room waiting at the tree’s heart.

Her office.

Normally, Gus wouldn’t have chosen to work out of a tree. More because of a lack of imagination than any real objection. The office had been left to her by her predecessor. A person she’d never met.

Strictly speaking, she’d fallen into this position by accident. If she hadn’t found the room, she’d probably still be pretending to be a dock administrator.

The room changed things.

Sliding down the last root, Gus landed on a spongy surface where dirt and other matter had collected over the years to form a moss shrouded floor in a hollowed out cavern deep in the tree’s interior.

From exploration she’d done over the years, she’d determined the cavern was located somewhere between decks ten and twelve. If she were to continue her descent, working her way through the tree, the roots would eventually turn back into towering branches. The Lord of Titan was probably one of the only trees in the universe to grow limbs from each end.

The reason for that was located right in front of her. A giant root ball was cradled in the center of the cavern-like chamber in which she found herself. Trunks extending off it like mad tentacles.

The root ball had formed over what had once been the shell of the seed from which the tree sprung. It was the largest seed Gus had ever seen. Then again, it would have to be to grow something as large as the Lord of Titan.
She moved carefully over the carpet of moss since one wrong step could send her on a one way trip to the bottom of the shaft. Gus learned that the hard way. As evidenced by the handful of holes she could see in places.

Thankfully, she had the reflexes of a cat.

Reaching the root ball, Gus scanned it for the entrance. Locating it a moment later, she pulled back a couple of dangling roots before placing her hand on the metal alloy door underneath.

There was a tingle in her palm as it scanned her.

“Access granted,” a disembodied voice said. “Welcome Titan’s administrator.”

Gus released the breath she was holding as the door unlocked. Every time she did this it was with the expectation of rejection. It was still a mystery as to why the room had accepted her in the first place. Until she knew the reason, it was hard to trust.

Despite its location and the stringent security measures on its entrance, the room Gus stepped into was surprisingly cozy. The former owner had managed to integrate the beauty of nature with the more austere needs of technology.

In a way, it reminded Gus of a Tuann design. A small section of their population, most notably those belonging to Luatha and Kashori, strove to coexist with nature rather than dominate it. Their buildings flowed around natural landmarks, taking advantage of the resources already present.

That was the case here too. The exposed roots of the root ball made up the ceiling, walls, and floor. Gus could see evidence of the seed’s shell that was the tree’s previous incarnation. Pieces had gotten stuck between some of the roots. The previous owner, taking advantage of the organic nature of their structure, installed shelves between some. Each one a different length.

Gus suspected that person had also used one of the tree’s branches from above to create some of the furniture in here. Including the hand carved desk along one wall. As well as the day bed opposite it.

Tiny cracks between roots allowed narrow beams of outside light to infiltrate the gloom. At Gus’s entrance, the lamps dotted throughout the space turned on, emitting a soft, warm glow.

Gus headed for the desk and the computer sitting on it. Like Kyle’s system, it was hardwired directly into the station, giving it access that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. With this computer, she could run Titan. Every airlock. Every positioning system. All hers to control.

Of course, Gus had never felt the need to go down that path.

The last administrator had been something of a hermit, rarely showing themselves to those they ruled. Gus had decided to continue in that tradition. On occasion, she issued proclamations. As was the case with the gardens scattered throughout Titan.

Mostly, though, she remained hands off.

Titan ran just fine on its own. Her lieutenants played a role in that, but even without them it would have continued operating as others in positions of authority picked up the slack.

At Gus’s approach, the computer booted on. She sat down in front of it and rested her hands on the desk.

Drops of rain appeared on the screen. As if the screen was the camera and the drops were hitting it. The same disembodied voice from the entrance came again.

“Welcome, Titan’s administrator. What can I do for you today?”

Gus clasped her hands in front of her as the rain drops pinged in time with the voice. “Can you retrieve the feed from the dock camera 4636 Alpha?”

“That footage is slated for deletion in twenty eight minutes. Should I stop that process?”

Caught in thought, Gus tapped a finger against the desk. Her instinct was to say no. The desire to conceal her presence warring with the knowledge that she might have to sacrifice her home for safety.

“Yes,” Gus finally answered, coming to a decision.

If things played out the way she hoped, she’d need that footage to prove her innocence. Here’s hoping Kira would be able to follow the trail of breadcrumbs Gus was leaving her.

The problem was how to get it into Kira’s hands without letting anyone know it had come from her.

A quandary.

Lucky for her, Baran’s presence on station gave her an idea. From what she knew of Tuann hierarchy, the oshota would send anything he found up the chain.

That meant Graydon. From there, it was a short skip and hop to Kira, given the relationship between the two.

How to get it to Baran though?

As a Tuann, he wasn’t likely to have an virtual identity she could exploit. There was no mailbox she could send a file too or handy comm code she could access.

That left her stuck at square one.

Maybe she was going about this the wrong way, Gus decided. There was no need to send anything directly to Baran. The oshota was here to gather information. From what she’d heard, he was rather good at infiltration and spy work. All she needed to do was put the file somewhere it was likely to be seen. Baran would do the rest.

If Gus was an oshota in search of information, where would she direct her attention?

There were several places she could think of. The whisper forum where less than legal jobs were posted and sensitive information was passed back and forth. The video archives slated for deletion. Security’s inner news bulletins that were meant to keep their people apprised of the latest threats and risk assessment.

To name a few.

None of which guaranteed her breadcrumb discovery.

The best way she could think of was to spread her little file far and wide. Put it everywhere so Baran couldn’t overlook it.

Gus used her access as Titan’s administrator to infiltrate all the places she could think of, uploading the file into each system before placing it behind a firewall only accessible via Tuann technology. As her last insurance policy, she used Tuann to name the file.

For the wizard’s eyes only.

That should do it. Humans would assume the file had been mislabeled. They might try to delete it but would soon find out how impossible that was. Only an administrator could take down something they’d added to the system.

Finished, Gus sat back and eyed her work. She’d done about all she could do. Now it was up to Baran and the rest.

Pushing aside her worries, Gus switched focus, accessing the video clip Kyle had sent her. It wasn’t long before she was forced to give up in frustration. Kyle was right. There was nothing there. With the angle of the video, she couldn’t even read any lips to get an idea of what was being discussed. And once the subjects left Cat Three, they quickly disappeared from surveillance, leading Gus to believe they possessed a certain familiarity with the deck’s blind spots.

Such foresight was to be expected from her siblings. Even Baran since his synth armor likely possessed some type of technology that detected when he was being surveilled.

The humans, however.

They would have to be familiar with the station. Either residents or frequent visitors.

Except a search using Titan’s facial recognizing software failed to yield any clues as to their identities.

It was frustrating.

More importantly, it was suspicious.

Like someone had gone into the system and deleted the relevant data.

“Impossible,” Gus murmured.

Titan’s administrator or its lieutenants were the only one with that sort of capability. She knew she didn’t do it.

Her lieutenants though.

That was a thought.

Gus considered it for a moment before she shook her head. She didn’t want to go down that path quite yet. Paranoia was all well and good until it had you jumping at shadows.

Still, just in case, Gus checked in with her lieutenants. Most of them were where they were supposed to be, carrying out their assignments.

There was one anomaly.

“Brooks,” Gus whispered, wondering what that man was up to now.

From the very beginning, the former space marine had always been something of a wild card. He was one of the few who’d seen her true face. Though he didn’t know she was also Titan’s administrator and Belladonna’s creator. Like Kyle, he was under the mistaken impression that she was a cog in her alter ego’s organization. Much like them.

If he ever had doubts as to her identity, he was smart enough to keep them to himself.

He was the second lieutenant she recruited and by far the most problematic. Headstrong to an obnoxious degree with a tendency to wander off on his own.

Gus had to give it to him though. His instincts proved right more often than not. More than once, he’d uncovered issues that could have jeopardized the safety of either herself or her residents. It had bought him a small measure of leeway.

She wondered if that was why he was hanging out in Cat Three. The same bar her siblings and Baran had been sighted in.

Curious and curiouser.

That was quite the coincidence. Her lieutenant being spotted in the same place where a clandestine meeting had taken place days before.

He could be on the trail of something, Gus thought, deciding to play devil’s advocate. Maybe he’d caught wind of the same thing she had and was even now tracking down the culprits.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Or maybe he’d joined the ranks of her enemies.

Gus rubbed her forehead, not liking that thought. She didn’t believe it either. In his own way, Brooks was as loyal as they came.”

Sitting here questioning things wasn’t going to give her an answer, however.

To that end, Gus shot him a message requesting an update and explanation as to why he was not where he was supposed to be before rising.

She was giving him a chance to allay her suspicions. It was more than she gave most.

The computer shut off as soon as she was no longer in front of it. A safety measure that the former administrator had set up.

Letting herself out of the office, Gus made sure the door was sealed behind her even as she sunk deep in thought. Preoccupied by the problems in front of her and their possible solutions.

Perhaps that’s why she didn’t notice the stillness that gripped the tree’s hollow. It wasn’t until she was halfway across the mossy surface that her brain finally caught up with her body and she started paying attention to what the station was telling her.

An intruder.

Here, in the safest place on Titan. A place that existed on no schematic and that not a single soul other than her knew existed.

Gus froze, even as her gaze darted around the hollow in search of that feeling’s source, finding it as a person stepped out from the crevasse between two trunks.

That’s why she hadn’t sensed him before, she realized. The tree’s energy had hidden him.

“Hello, Pityrodia Augustensis. I’ve been looking for you.”