Spectra's Gambit by Vincent Trigili Page A

space until the azure energy of jump space wrapped around me. As soon as we cleared jump space I took a quick, deep drink of power from the craft, just enough to satisfy my hunger pains, and leapt from there into space. I drifted on the gravity wakes, hopped onto another craft, and rode that into jump space.
    I jumped across several trade merchant vessels and military supply craft until I reached my destination, a secure military outpost. For what would be the last time, I assumed the human shape of Special Agent Byron. I only had a few hours left before Karl presented his information. I knew that our commander would laugh and want to use this as an opportunity to put Karl in his place, but once they did the species test it would be the end of my charade, not only for me but also for those who had helped me keep my secret over the years. I could not let them suffer over this.
    I slipped into a secure communications room and logged on to the terminal with a fake identification code which I had prepared for just this situation. First I had to cover my tracks, so I fired off a set of scripts to erase any and all logs of my visit to this station and I disabled the room’s security monitoring systems. I would have to sneak off the station undetected but that was a problem for later.
    Next I needed to ‘kill’ myself in the line of duty so that I would have a hero’s funeral. That part was not strictly necessary, but I wanted to leave on a good note. Before I could second-guess myself, I fired off the scripts I had written years ago. They would use access codes and back doors I had created over the years to send a false report that I had died while helping some people escape from certain doom. I included images of my decidedly human corpse being burned, for dramatic effect.
    Now that the false report had been sent, command would quickly shut down my access to everything and there would be a rush to make sure any information I had had access to was secure. I had considerable access and authority, so they would take no chances.
    I put a false recording into the security system to make it look as if this room had been empty the whole time and slipped out of the room. The guards were distracted playing some dice and card game and paid no mind to my coming and going. I quickly made my way into the robotic maintenance shaft. These shafts ran throughout all stations, but no one ever thought about them. As people never went into these shafts, they usually had little to no air and generally poor environmental conditions, but none of that mattered to a native of the hard vacuum of space like myself.
    I would need to head to a neutral crossroads and find a place to lie low for a while. Just before I slipped out of the maintenance shaft into space I packed all of my Special Agent Byron IDs, key passes, and anything else tied to that life into a bag. I would find a place to dispose of it along the way, but I could not risk leaving it here. Special Agent Byron was dead, and it was Greymere’s turn to rise up. This was the fourth or fifth time I’d had to kill myself and start again. I hated it more and more each time. I longed for a place to call ‘home’ where I could just be myself.
    After the third time I restarted life I had stopped making friends, so very few people would miss me this time around. My co-workers would remember me as disconnected and probably arrogant, at best. It was a lonely life, but you have to play the hand you are dealt. I longed deeply for the companionship of a real friend, perhaps even a mate, but unfortunately that was not to be.
    Once the bag was packed, I left the maintenance shaft and coasted on the gravity wakes until I found a supply ship leaving the station. I attached myself to the hull and sipped on the power ever so slightly until it jumped away from the outpost.
    Once I reached the civilian shipping lanes it was easy to hop from ship to ship until I found a convoy heading toward Hospital Station. I