Infinite Horizons

The waiting room had completely emptied out by the time Captain Graves made it out of the operating room. Tek jumped to her feet and saluted. The captain looked serious, which wasn’t anything new, but the tired lines in his face seemed more obvious than usual. He nodded at Tek and she released her salute.

“Well, she’s going to be okay,” Graves said with a sigh. “Eventually. Somehow she dodged a major organ issue.” With another sigh, the tall man eased himself into a chair next to where Tek had been sitting and then patted the seat next to him.

“I take it you found something,” he said, as she sat down. Tek nodded, and then paused. She wasn’t sure exactly what she had found, only that it was already way above her pay grade. She opened her mouth to speak, but Graves raised his hands.

“You know what, I don’t want to know,” he said, shaking his head. “At least not yet. Continue reporting to Lieutenant Captain Jarna, and only to him. Judging by your face, whatever you’ve stumbled upon will need to be locked up tight.” He studied her face for a moment, and Tek again noticed how tired he seemed. Finally, Graves patted her shoulder.

“Shanree is awake,” he said softly. “And somewhat coherent. They said you can talk to her if you want.” He patted her shoulder once more, then left the waiting room. Tek stood there for a moment. She desperately wanted to pursue this, but a good officer was already in the hospital and she felt like they’d barely even started unraveling this, well, whatever this was. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and pushed through the swinging doors towards the recovery rooms.

Shanree had her eyes closed when Tek entered, and she looked pale. If a lighter gold color counted as pale. When Tek entered, the other woman opened one eye to look at her.

“It’s about time you came around,” Shanree said in a voice just above a whisper. “Thought maybe you didn’t like me anymore.” Tek stood at the side of the bed and tried not to feel guilty. Shanree opened the other eye and glared at her.

“Stop that. It wasn’t your fault and you know it,” she said, as sternly as she could. Tek was startled, then irritated at forgetting about the strange ability of the Jannui.

“I know, but still…” Tek said, shrugging. Shanree was still glaring at her.

“Look, let’s just get that bastard,” she said fiercely. Tek couldn’t help but chuckle at the dichotomy of the woman’s tone and the way she looked lying on the hospital bed. Shanree slowly moved her hand to rest on the edge of the bed, and Tek saw she had something clasped in it. Tek felt like she could almost hear the creak of the golden skinned woman’s knuckles as she slowly uncurled her fingers. Metal glittered in her palm and Tek gasped.

“Dog tags?” she asked, incredulous. Shanree nodded painfully.

“Grabbed them when he stabbed me,” she said, obviously beginning to lose strength. Tek slipped the metal tags from the woman’s hand and peered at them.

“Old school,” she muttered, “But I bet it’ll work. If he’s in the System on Earth One, this should ID him.” Shanree nodded, and her eyes fluttered closed.

“That’s good,” she said, in barely a murmur. “Worth a stabbing, probably.” Tek chuckled and patted Shanree’s good hand, still resting on the edge of the bed.

“I’ll find this guy,” she said, but Shanree was already asleep.

It turned out the guy was in the System. Very much so, in fact. Tek had a name, Kyv Staner, and a whole list of wrongdoings. She just had one problem.

“He’s dead,” she repeated to Lieutenant Captain Jarna, who squinted at her through tired eyes. Eventually he sighed and leaned back heavily in his chair, his large mass causing it to creak in distress. Tek stared across the desk at him and tried to keep her face from frowning. She’d been working with Jarna consistently since the Captain had agreed to the task force, and yet she still despised the man. Jarna smiled mirthlessly at her.

“So, to clarify, you’ve had a task force for months now with exactly zero to show for it, other than a dead suspect. You have, however, racked up thousands in damage to the city and personal property that the department will have to pay for.” Jarna sat back up in his chair so he could look down at Tek.

“Does that sound about right to you?” he asked. Tek couldn’t keep the frown from her face now.

“No,” she said, hating that it sounded so childlike. “We have a lead.” She gestured to the dog tags sitting on Jarna’s desk in an evidence bag. The big man stretched his face into another smile that wasn’t a smile.

“Come on K’Nani,” he said, his tone dripping with condescension. “You know it’s a dead end.” Tek set her jaw and fixed him with her most determined gaze.

“I’m going to check it out, Jarna,” she said. “The tags were last pinged on Earth Six, in the Fractured States. It’s my only lead, and I’m going to see it through.” Her voice sounded growly. Almost like Grit, she thought, then noticed the fury rising in Jarna’s face.

“Lieutenant Captain, sir.” The title was late, but enough. Tek watched her nemesis get visibly calmer. He kept glancing over at her, but she kept her gaze fierce. Finally, he yawned and sighed.

“Fine, K’Nani,” he said. “I’m well aware that if I tell you no, you’ll do it anyway. Then I’ll have to fire your ass and I don’t want to do the paperwork.” He abruptly grabbed a pen from a mug on his desk and scribbled a signature on Tek’s interversal jump request form. Jarna stood up and stuck out his arm, but when Tek reached for the paper he pulled it back.

“Just know, Detective,” he said, emphasizing her rank, “if you spend more department money, or if you come back empty handed, or if I just don’t like what you find…this little experiment is over.” He finally handed her the form and then waved dismissively towards the door. It was all Tek could do to keep the words from exploding out of her mouth as she walked quickly out of the office. As it was, she may have shut the door a little too hard. She thought she saw Jarna jump slightly, then make an active decision to let it go. That shouldn’t have helped, but it did. She had her signed form, which meant she’d won this round. Now all she had to do was actually find something worth a damn, and on Earth Six that wouldn’t be easy.

Tek passed her jump request form to the jump tech and then settled onto the hard metal folding chair. Trust the IPF to spend the absolute minimum on a jump pad. The technician read briefly through the form.

“Jumped before?” he asked, and when Tek nodded he looked relieved. Must’ve jumped some rookies recently. The tech went back to his desk, then counted down on his fingers from three. As the last finger disappeared, Tek’s setting shifted. Suddenly the air was so dry that Tek was sure she should’ve been able to see water leaching out of her skin. For a moment she couldn’t breathe, but then she squashed the panic and forced herself to focus. Turns out Dallas on Earth Six was not at all humid like its counterpart on Earth One. The folding chair beneath her started beeping, and Tek stood up hurriedly. Ten seconds later the chair vanished back to Earth One. She wasn’t entirely sure how the IPF could make that work. Maybe that’s why they used folding chairs instead of recliners.

Looking around, she saw she had landed in an abandoned industrial park, just as expected. She pulled up a map of Earth Six’s Dallas that she’d downloaded back at the station, oriented herself, and walked briskly towards a garish billboard for the Dallas Classic Car Show. It wasn’t long before the White Rock Convention Center came into view, complete with cowboy hats and giant trucks. Tek rolled her eyes. This, at least, was the same as the Dallas she was used to.

Tek passed through the security wanding with no problem. The IPF had long ago come up with a service weapon that could get by a metal detector. She quickly located the upstairs suite of offices where her target was located, and threaded her way through the masses. The small placard on the door simply said “Buckshot”. Tek raised an eyebrow, then knocked quietly. There was a shout in response that sounded enough like “Yeah!”, so she turned the handle and entered cautiously.

The inside was a much more normal office than she had expected, if you could exclude the miscellaneous weapons, large and small, laying around on display. There was a rugged man with a giant beard and lots of hair sitting behind an enormous desk. He nodded politely at her when she stepped inside.

“Jackson Calhoun?” Tek asked hesitantly. The man smiled widely at this. He had a long scar running in a small curve from the outer tip of his right eyebrow down almost to his jawbone, that stretched oddly when he smiled. He stood up, and Tek realized he was a giant.

“Ma’am, call me Buckshot,” he said with a heavy Texan drawl. He shook her hand and then sat back down.

“Don’t get many Feds purty as you,” he said with a chuckle. “What can I get ya?” Tek was confused for a moment before she realized the man had already identified her as a law enforcement agent.

“Impressive,” she said, and the man nodded politely at her again. “You probably don’t get many of my kind here, either.” Buckshot chuckled again, a low rumble of a sound.

“No, ma’am, not too many Raeyen ‘round these parts,” he agreed. The man seemed genuine and nice, and Tek had to keep reminding herself that he was an arms dealer with a connection to her suspect. It suddenly occurred to her that he named her race.

“You know of the Raeyen?” she asked, probably too aggressively. Buckshot didn’t seem to notice. He just gave her that big grin.

“Yes, ma’am. Y’all come through here, now ‘n again,” he drawled. “That why you’re here then?” There was a long pause while Tek stared at him in shock. Eventually she shook her head and blinked.

“I’m sorry, did you say we come through her sometimes?” she asked. Buckshot nodded slowly.

“As in, you’ve seen someone with purple skin like mine before?” Tek asked again. Buckshot looked concerned.

“Yes, ma’am. Is somethin’ wrong?” he asked. Tek shook her head, and took a breath to steady herself.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong. I’ve just, well, I didn’t know there were more…’ she trailed off, embarrassed. “Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here about these.” She tossed the dog tags Shanree had snatched onto Buckshot’s giant desk. He gazed at her for another moment, before finally looking down at the tags. Then he frowned.

“These are Kyv Staner’s tags!” he exclaimed, and Tek nodded. The big man stood up and handed them back to her.

“I ain’t got nothin’ to do with Staner,” Buckshot said forcefully. “He’s bad for business.” Tek held up her hands to calm the man down.

“Staner’s dead,” she said. “Likely murdered. I’m here because his last location was here, and intel says you knew him.” Buckshot slowly sat back down, his face a dark thundercloud.

“I know him,” he grumbled. “Always tryin’ to get me to join ‘em, or give ‘em an extra good deal. Ya know, come to think of it, those Raeyen I met were always with Staner and his boys.” Tek’s eyes widened.

“Wait, join them? Join who? Was Staner part of a group?” Tek clamped her mouth shut to avoid asking more questions at once. Buckshot nodded.

“Yeah, somethin’ shady,” he said. “Heard rumors it was trafficking, but I stayed too far away to hear more. Alls I know is they operate somewhere out of Earth 49.” Tek was entering all this information into her phone when there was a commotion outside. Tek crossed to the window and watched as a group of guys dragged a woman just barely into her view. She looked familiar…

“Say, can I test this?” She asked Buckshot, picking up a nearby rifle.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, a bemused look on his face. That changed as Tek opened the window, then swiftly grabbed the nearby box of bullets and loaded one into the chamber.

“Hey!” Buckshot exclaimed, standing up. Tek continued looking through the scope as she flashed her IPF badge in his face. Not that it meant anything to him, but it kept him occupied long enough for her to determine that Grit and Cassia were indeed in trouble down below. She watched as they eliminated two of their adversaries, but then Grit had left himself open to a direct shot from the remaining enemy. With the smallest of hesitations, Tek fired. The man dropped to the ground in a heap, and Grit looked around in shock. Tek turned to Buckshot.

“I’ll take it,” she said, and tossed him a business card. “Send me an invoice.” She turned back to the window.

“Mr. Patterson,” she called as she slipped through the opening, and began climbing down a drainpipe.. “We cannot keep meeting like this.” Grit’s face twitched, and she was sure he’d almost smiled.

“Tek. Nice to see you again.”