Free Redemption Protocol (Contact) by Mike Freeman

shielded equipment two hundred million kilometers away.”
    Havoc absorbed this as Stone pointed at a geyser bursting out from the side of Jötunn.
    “What’s that?”
    “Ah, yes. Jötunn is very active with coronal mass ejections.”
    Better and better, Havoc thought.
    “Will we be in range?”
    Fournier’s hand described a figure eight through the holo.
    “The target planet orbits the two stars in a figure eight pattern. When the target planet orbits Jötunn, it's definitely possible for it to be caught by one of the larger coronal mass ejections. On the return path from Neria to Jötunn, the target planet also passes through the Oovort cloud, which you can see here.”
    Havoc knew where this was going.
    “There’s a collision risk with debris in the Oovort cloud?”
    “Precisely.”
    Havoc pointed at the adjacent holo that encompassed the wider galactic segment, where two translucent spheres surrounded the binary system.
    “What are these two spheres?”
    Fournier glanced over.
    “Ah, yes. We’ve no idea. We can date the origin events though. They were ejected at sublight velocities from points consistent with the orbit of our mission target around nine thousand and six thousand years ago. We have no idea what they are or what caused them. Interesting, aren’t they?”
    There was a considered silence.
    Stone made a face.
    “So we're looking at an unstable giant ball of death being sucked into an unstable tiny ball of death. Unstable. Death. And we're going here? On purpose?”
    Fournier frowned as he reviewed Stone’s points.
    “Well, yes.”
    Havoc drank in the display.
    “Looks good though.”
    Kemensky nodded.
    “As a mission backdrop, it's incredible.”
    “Wonderful photographs,” Touvenay said.
    “Most hostile system I've ever visited,” Havoc said.
    “Same,” Fournier said.
    “Same,” Touvenay said.
    “Same,” Kemensky said.
    “I think I've eaten too many chicken nuggets,” Stone said.
    Havoc looked at Stone sympathetically. Stone looked back at him, his expression glum. Havoc was keen to hear about the mission target but Stone was dying here.
    “Let's get you a drink then off to the automed.”
    Stone nodded, mopping his head as they walked away. Touvenay's voice followed them over.
    “He thinks that’s chicken in those nuggets?”

 14. 
     
     
     
     
    Havoc walked with Stone toward two women and a man standing at the end of the bar. The three of them looked somewhat under the weather, but nowhere near as bad as Stone.
    “Hi. I was going to take Stone to the automed, unless anyone here is a doctor?”
    The two women turned to the tall man with silver hair. He hurriedly gulped down a mouthful of sandwich.
    “Oh cock.” He took a quick slurp of his drink. “Chaucer, doctor.”
    Havoc pointed at Stone.
    Chaucer looked Stone up and down.
    “Feeling a little under the weather, darling?”
    Stone nodded.
    Chaucer raised his arm toward the nearby armchairs.
    “Why don’t you step into my office?”
    Chaucer escorted Stone away. Havoc was left with the two women. He felt an icy breeze wafting over him.
    “Hi, I'm––”
    The nearest woman cut him off.
    “We know who you are, Mr Havoc.”
    Ah, Havoc thought, his criminal status finally resulting in the treatment that he was accustomed to.
    “And you are?”
    “Leveque. Psychologist.”
    The small oriental girl with messily parted shoulder length hair poked her head around Leveque.
    “Hi, I'm Violette Hwan. I’m a systems programmer.”
    Leveque regarded him icily.
    “And what is it you do, Mr Havoc?”
    Havoc worked in a male dominated industry. Talking to two pretty girls was an unusual treat. Leveque's level of hostility was much more familiar. Havoc could have skewered a rabbit on Leveque's tone of voice.
    “I don't know yet. I didn’t volunteer for this. I woke up here.”
    Leveque nodded as she took this in, clearly not believing a word. She stared at him, focused and determined. It looked like this level of