《Adelaide》 1. Transcribed from the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.1.2100 Hooookay, so! It¡¯s a whole new year. A whole new century, even.
Not to rain on your parade, but the 22nd century does not begin until January 1st, 2101.
Oh, shit, really? That sucks, but uh¡­thanks, Athena.
Also, we¡¯re not on Terra and you¡¯re not evenfromTerra so I¡¯m unsure why the Terran new year even matters to you.
We¡¯re on a Terran ship. We use the Terran calendar. We might as well celebrate the Terran holidays, right? Anyway, my new year¡¯s resolution is to keep a log of events on the ship to help me keep track of things better. Like a captain¡¯s log, except I¡¯m not the captain. I¡¯m the first mate¡ªor as I like to say, the captain¡¯s babysitter. But let¡¯s face it, Jules isn¡¯t keeping any logs, so I suppose it falls to me to, ah, document. Granted, you wouldn¡¯twantdocumentation about what happens on a smugglers¡¯ ship under normal circumstances, so I can¡¯t blame Jules for not keeping records. But the thing is, circumstances haven¡¯t been ¡°normal¡± here in¡­well,ever,really. So I figure it¡¯s time to keep track, start connecting things. I was worried at first that it might pose a security risk, but then I realized that if anyone got a hold of our ship, they¡¯d findwaymore incriminating evidence than just this log. I mean, hell, we¡¯d all be lined up and shot if anyone knew the truth about Athena.
Oh, we¡¯re including that in the log? You¡¯rethatconfident that you can keep this thing safe?
I wouldn¡¯t risk it except that it¡¯s so ingrained in how we run the ship. I mean, we couldn¡¯t run an FTL ship with a four-man crew without wetware. How would I explain that? So yeah, I guess it¡¯s going on record that we, the crew of theAdelaide,are running wetware. It¡¯s crazy illegal, literallywar criminalillegal, but it lets us keep the crew small without using any neural implants. Besides Athena, it¡¯s just Jules, me, an engineer, and a medic. Oh, and Athena and Jules¡­well, why don¡¯t I just give a rundown of the crew¡¯s history? I don¡¯t know much about what happened before Jules hired me on.
And it¡¯s none of your business, considering¨C
Athena, please. I¡¯m just doing the log, not trying to pry. You promised not to butt in too much.
Right. Keep the natter down. Sorry.
Thanks. As I was saying, before me it was just Jules and Athena. I don¡¯t know how they met. I don¡¯t know what either of them did before that. But for a while, it was just the two of them on theAdelaide.I met Jules a few months ago on Fakir, where they¡¯d stopped to deliver some weaponry. Unfortunately this happened right in the middle of the whole Bloodied Hand business in that part of the galaxy, so anti-human sentiments were running high. I remember I was sitting in my apartment when I noticed that the light was different than it should have been. An orange cast settled over everything, tinting the chrome walls copper. It was like sunsets I¡¯d seen on video¡ªreal, planetside sunsets where the light¡¯s at an angle and everything instead of the simulated stationside sunsets where the light just dims. It was pretty, but I felt a sense of unease right away. I¡¯d never seen that happen before¡ªand on a station where the routine never changes, seeing something new means there¡¯s an emergency. Within minutes, alarms blared across the station. Sounds, lights, heat patterns, chemosignals, all broadcasting to every available sense that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. In this case, it happened to be fire. Among other things. I grabbed a backpack I¡¯d packed with supplies in case of this exact event¡ªthe news had been nothing but the Bloodied Hand for weeks and I knew tensions were rising, so I¡¯d prepared to run out in a hurry. What I waslessprepared for, though, was the bigass puchin standing outside my door, ready to grab me as soon as I made a dash for it. I know there¡¯s plenty of humans out there who¡¯ve never seen a puchin before, or even any ETs at all, so let me clarify: roughly eight feet of muscle with a humanoid body type topped by a wedge-shaped head full of teeth. Rows and rows of big ol¡¯ fangs. They see with heat, so they don¡¯t have eyes, just these bald pits in their faces. They¡¯ve also got porcupine spines and rabbit ears. Not something I¡¯d make a habit of messing with. They make up most of Fakir¡¯s population, since they¡¯re the ones who built it. So that¡¯s what dragged me off, blindfolded, to a room full of other¡ªhostages, I suppose? I¡¯m not entirely sure what they planned to do with us. It could be they were holding us hostage to get something out of the Hand, or maybe they meant to kill us later in some sort of public demonstration. My captor shoved me and I feel onto my knees amid a crowd of other humans. I could tell not just by context, but by scent as well. You wouldn¡¯t smell a dog and think it¡¯s a human. Same goes for puchins and humans. Oh shit, I should probably clarify in case anyone other than me or Athena ever hears this. I know I keep using the word ¡°human,¡± but I don¡¯t sympathizeat allwith the Bloodied Hand. I¡¯d be just fine calling us terrans. It¡¯s not a political statement when I say ¡°human.¡± I¡¯m not ¡®refusing¡¯ to use the planet-based species name or anything, it¡¯s just what I¡¯m used to. It¡¯s what everyone on Fakir said, though usually with quite a lot of venom. And it¡¯s what everyone on theAdelaidesays besides Jules, because nobody else has had many interspecies dealings. They¡¯ve tried to break us of the habit, but it¡¯s¡­slow going. In the meantime, to keep us from getting shot like a bunch of idiots, Jules talks to all our ET clients alone. Anyway, I started to panic. I began to hyperventilate, and I suppose the person next to me must have noticed. A second later, my blindfold slid up just a sliver and I found myself looking into a pair of flat brown eyes, just barely visible beneath the blindfold. My neighbor jerked their head towards the ground, were I saw a written note on a piece of paper. It said, ¡°Their vision is thermal and also rather poor. They can¡¯t tell if you move your blindfold, and they can¡¯t read what we¡¯ve written. Do be quiet, though. Sharp hearing. My name is Jules. They/them. You remind me of a friend. I will get you out of here.¡± I picked up the pen laid out beside it and wrote, slowly and carefully to avoid making any noise. As I stole a glance around the room, I saw that our puchin captors were behind us and facing away from us, towards the doorway. They peered over their shoulders occasionally, but Jules and I were placed towards the back of a crowd of around forty humans, so we had some cover. Thankfully, the pen used gel ink and glided across the page smoothly and any noise my writing made was easily covered up by the general breathing and shuffling of the crowd. I wrote, ¡°I¡¯m Marie. She/her. How?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a ship waiting in the nearest hangar,¡± Jules wrote back. ¡°We just need to get to it. Any ideas?¡± I felt a surge of annoyance at that. This bastard, acting like they¡¯d take care of everything only to askmewhat to do next! But ultimately, Juleshadshaken me out of a panic, and I realized soon enough that I was perfectly capable of pulling my own weight in this situation. I knew the terrain better than Jules did, after all. And I knew our captors better, I realized with a jolt as I recognized a certain puchin. Mnirin, an old friend of mine. Puchins are kind of phenotypically homogenous, but there was no mistaking Mnirin for anyone else¡ªpoor bastard had his left ear torn mostly off in a fight years ago. The resulting ragged mess was distinctive, to say the least. ¡°I am going to take a risk,¡± I wrote. I turned around, so that I was now facing our captors instead of the wall. I yanked off my blindfold. I didn¡¯tdarestand up and I didn¡¯tdareyell. I raised my voice as high as I dared but kept it calm. Any aggression and I was sure I¡¯d be shot. I spoke in the puchins¡¯ own language, which is more commonly spoken on Fakir than Trade Standard is. Roughly translated, I said, ¡°You¡¯d do this to me after all we¡¯ve been through?¡± Mnirin turned around at that point. I¡¯ll be honest, reading puchin facial expressions doesn¡¯t come easily to me, but I think he looked the way I wanted him to. Which is to say, surprised and hurt, but trying to hide it from the other puchins in the room.Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Are you listening to me, Mnirin? Youknowme. We were classmates. We were training partners. We werefriends.We went through the fucking institute together, did everything we could to make it out alive¡ªtogether¡ªand you¡¯re going to throw that all away here? For what? For politics? Youknowme!¡± I hoped to create infighting among our captors by implying Mnirin was a human sympathizer of some kind. It was an amoral thing to do¡ªMnirin reallywasa good friend of mine back in my institute days, and there I was saying something I knew could get him killed. But you know. Desperate times. To my surprise, another puchin turned to Mnirin and said, in a shockingly non-murderous tone of voice, ¡°That one was with you in the institute?¡± Mnirin nodded mutely. ¡°Alright then. Take her.¡± Mnirin¡¯s head snapped up suddenly, like he¡¯d been shaken out of a stupor. ¡°Are you serious?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve been there. I know how it is. Take her and go,¡± the other puchin said. As Mnirin stepped forward, a path cleared through the crowd of cowering humans, right to me. I yanked Jules up by the elbow. Mnirin had no doubt been expecting this kind of move from me, and he took it in stride. His friends, however, did not. ¡°Notthe other one,¡± said the puchin who¡¯d given him permission to save me. I gripped Jules¡¯ arm tighter and fixed Mnirin with a hard glare. I knew he couldn¡¯t see anything about my eyes besides the heat they gave off, but I hoped that somehow the steel in them would carry through anyway. He knew me well enough that it should have. And it must have, because Mnirin started leading both of us to the door. ¡°Hey! The other one stays!¡± Another puchin spoke up then. ¡°Bothof them stay,¡± she snarled. Chaos broke out. I¡¯ll break it down as best I can. At this point, Mnirin wanted me and Jules both out, his friend wanted me and only me out, and exactly nobody else was okay with either of those plans. There were four other puchins guarding us who didn¡¯t wantanyoneleaving that room. Those four focused their aggression on the two of their own kind who had, from their point of view, betrayed them. Mnirin decided to make a dash for the door with us. His friend lunged towards the door also, reaching for Jules. Gunfire rang out, but Jules and I were already so close to the door. The two of us made a dash for it as Mnirin and his friend slumped to the floor behind us. They weren¡¯t dead at that point. It takes a hell of a lot more than a couple bullets to kill a puchin. ¡°Fuck! You shitheads let them out!¡± I heard someone shout. Then screaming. Horrible, beastly, screaming, fading gradually as Jules and I put more and more distance between ourselves and the gristly scene unfolding in that room. We weren¡¯t pursued. It was¡­lucky, I guess. But it was hard to see it that way when I knew it was only because the people who should¡¯ve been chasing us were instead busy killing the people who had tried to help me, one of whom was a friend of mine. That¡¯s when I came aboard theAdelaidefor the first time. I asked Jules where the rest of his crew was. ¡°It¡¯s just us and Athena, the ship¡¯s AI. Athena, this is Marie. Say hi,¡± Jules said. Athena said hi. I raised an eyebrow. ¡°No way in hell are you running an FTL ship of any size, much lessthissize, with just you and an AI. The number of implants you¡¯d need would kill you.¡± ¡°Yes, it would,¡± Jules said in that calm, disaffected way of theirs. ¡°That¡¯s why I ask our wetware friend here to run the ship.¡± ¡°You¡¯re shitting me,¡± I said. ¡°You havegotto be shitting me.¡± ¡°Athena, start our launch. And step on it, I¡¯d like to be out of here before the authorities come,¡± Jules said. And then, without anybody sitting at the console, without a single crew member touching a single button on the control panel, the ship exited the hangar and jumped to light speed. I stared at Jules. I stared at Athena¡¯s display screen, which showed a gently pulsating blue ring on a black background. I stared the ship. Athena spoke up. ¡°Of course,¡± she said, ¡°We can¡¯t exactly let youoffthe ship now that you know about me.¡± I swallowed. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Athena, stop teasing the poor woman,¡± Jules chastised. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I would not have bothered to help you if I only planned to kill you.¡± ¡°Whydidyou help me?¡± ¡°As I mentioned earlier, you remind me of a friend. Also, I didn¡¯t have a plan to get out of that room. I don¡¯t speak the language so I can¡¯t be sure what you said, but it certainly got the job done,¡± Jules said. ¡°Anyway. I take it you live on Fakir?¡± ¡°Lived,¡± I corrected them. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be going back anytime soon.¡± ¡°Do you have anywhere else to go?¡± I was silent. ¡°I assumed as much. Let¡¯s talk over tea.¡± We moved to the ship¡¯s kitchen. While Jules boiled water and set out drinkware, I tried to figure them out. Most of their features suggested that they were about thirty, except for their hair. It was silvery grey and tied back in a low ponytail. Their build looked lanky at first glance, but their movement betrayed a hint of muscle. Their face had sort of a permanent curious look on it, as if they were always staring at a new puzzle they wanted to solve. They made tea in a rather elaborate way by my metrics¡ªinstead of simply pouring boiling water onto a teabag in a mug, they boiled water, poured it onto looseleaf tea in a teapot, let it steep, andthenpoured the finished tea into mugs. They hummed a little tune to themselves as they handed me my cup of tea. They sure as hell didn¡¯tseemlike a war criminal. Which raised all kinds of questions. Who were they? Why andhowdid they run wetware on their ship? How had they come to be a one-man ship crew, and how had they ended up on Fakir? What ensued was a bizarre reverse job interview where Jules told me all my qualifications and I asked them all the questions. ¡°So you have nowhere to go,¡± Jules said slowly as they dropped into a chair across from mine. ¡°I have a proposal that I believe will benefit us both. You see, I¡¯m looking to expand my crew, and I believe you would be a good fit for what I have in mind. I¡¯d like someone who has experience dealing with extraterrestrial races, and I¡¯m sure life on Fakir has provided you with plenty. And I¡¯ve already seen how well you do in high-pressure situations. You can, as they say, think on your feet. Aaaand while Athena was only trying to rile you up earlier, I have to say Iamworried about letting someone run free knowing she¡¯s wetware. I believe hiring you would be a good compromise between murder and stupidity on my part. What do you say?¡± ¡°I say I need a hell of a lot more information,¡± I said. Or maybe ¡°squeaked indignantly¡± is a more accurate descriptor. ¡°Whoareyou and what are you even hiring me to do?¡± ¡°My name is Jules, and I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s the only one I have these days. I am a smuggler¡ªin fact my business in Fakir today involved delivering a shipment of illicit weaponry. It backfired a bit, I¡¯m afraid. I was supplying the very group that started the disturbance you and I were caught up in. But besides weapons, I do business transporting everything from narcotics to fugitives to artifacts of various kinds,¡± Jules explained. ¡°As for what I¡¯d like to hire you for, it¡¯s a rather open-ended position. I¡¯m captain of this ship, theAdelaide,and you¡¯d be her first mate. Essentially, my assistant, my lieutenant, my second in command.¡± ¡°Command of who?¡± ¡°Nobody at the moment, but I plan on hiring at least two more people. We¡¯ll need an engineer and a doctor of some kind,¡± Jules said. ¡°In any event, your job would be basically whatever I need you to do.¡± I stiffened. ¡°Look, I¡¯ll tell you right now that I¡¯m not going to kill anyone for you,¡± I said gravely. Jules¡¯ eyebrows shot up, possibly the first real facial expression I¡¯d seen them make. ¡°Oh goodness, no. I¡¯m a pacifist myself, and I wouldn¡¯t expect a member of my crew to do anything I wouldn¡¯t do.¡± I was relieved, both that I wouldn¡¯t have to hurt anyone and that Jules wouldn¡¯t be hurting anyone, either. But at the same time, it confused the hell out of me. ¡°Smuggler¡± and ¡°pacifist¡± usually don¡¯t go together. That¡¯s just how Jules is, though. Unconventional, through and through. I¡¯m getting used to it. Slowly. Anyway, I was sold. We shook on it. ¡°Welcome aboard, Marie,¡± Jules said. ¡°Thank you, captain,¡± I said. Jules¡¯ mouth curled up a little at the corner. Then their face grew solemn. ¡°If you left any family behind on Fakir, we could attempt a rescue,¡± they offered. I shook my head. ¡°My mother left when I was young and my father died when I was a teenager. After that I was raised by the institute.¡± ¡°The institute?¡± I¡¯d forgotten he wouldn¡¯t know about that place. Everyone on Fakir knew about it. ¡°The Hylmir Institute. Most people on Fakir just call it the institute. It¡¯s sort of an experimental boarding school slash military boot camp. You don¡¯thaveto be an orphan to go there, but it¡¯s the best option Fakir has for orphans, so we all end up there. It¡¯s¡­not a nice place.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that,¡± Jules said. ¡°Onward, then. I think we¡¯ll go find our engineer.¡± As theAdelaideflew on, Jules showed me to my quarters. Or rather, they showed me to theenormous and overwhelming hallway of crew quarters,from which I was free to choose whatever room I wanted. At fifty rooms with four bunks in each, this ship¡¯s made for a crew of two hundred, and there¡¯s onlyfourof us that have any need for quarters. At this point I¡¯ve taken over a block of five rooms as my own. On that day, though, I just picked the one nearest to where I was standing. Jules explained the general rules of the ship to me then. They¡¯re basically the same rules you¡¯d expect from, say, a roommate. Anything in the kitchen is fair game unless it¡¯s labeled, your room can be messy as long as common areas are clean, that kind of thing. Jules showed me how I could ask Athena to bring up a map, then pointed out the bathrooms and the captain¡¯s quarters. They turned to leave after that, but stopped in my doorway. ¡°You know,¡± they said. ¡°I think the universe had a very good reason for placing us in the same room today.¡± And then they left.
Jules¡¯s whole ¡®destiny¡¯ thing gets on my nerves sometimes.
They did that to you, too?
Yeah. They¡¯ve said similar things to the whole crew. When we first met, they went on and on about how it was meant to happen. So really, only mentioning it once is an improvement.
Hm. Well, I can¡¯t say I buy into the whole mysticism thing, but I have to admit that Jules and I meeting was damn lucky for both of us.
Well. Real luck would be if neither of you had been taken hostage in the first place.
Maybe. I guess it depends on where we go from here. Oh shit, it¡¯s getting pretty late, isn¡¯t it?
It¡¯s 0230 hours ship time. Wake-up call is at 0600.
Fuck, I really have to stop staying up this late. I¡¯d better leave off here for the time being. This is Marie Ruiz, signing off. 2. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.2.2100 Where was I? Oh, right. Alec. We set a course for Demali. A couple months earlier, sixteen people had died on the space station Darwin when the life support system in their module failed. When the station admins investigated, they found a ton of poorly made knockoff parts being used throughout the station. One of them malfunctioning caused the accident. Darwin¡¯s budget for repairs and parts was big enough that they should have been able to afford the best parts anywhere in the galaxy. They figured someone in the engineering department must have been buying cheap parts and pocketing the difference. Problem was, the engineers didn¡¯t keep any real records of who was responsible for what. They went wild accusing one another, but nobody could prove a damn thing. Security footage showed who installed each part, but of course anybody caught on tape claimed that someone else had bought it and they had no idea it was junk. After a few weeks of running in circles with this investigation, the station just up and fired the entire engineering department. All two hundred engineers. They dumped ¡®em all on Demali and told them to arrange their own rides home. Jules figured most of them didn¡¯t have a home outside the Darwin. The station was built on Terra back when it was habitable and that¡¯s where an awful lot of the crew came from, so those folks had nothing to go back to. Jules decided this was our big chance to grab a skilled engineer on the cheap. After all, only one or a few had done wrong. The rest were some of the best engineers in the business, not a damn thing wrong with them except they had the bad fortune of working with a thief or two. Demali was a big deal when it was first discovered because it¡¯s naturally fit for human life. The oxygen level, climate, gravity, and so on are perfect. It¡¯s covered in plants but has almost no animal-like life aside from a few tiny pollinators here and there. So, bugs. Colonizing it was relatively easy¡ªno need to terraform, just have to deal with pathogens and the like. It was the in place to be for a while, but that was all before I was born. These days it¡¯s¡­seedy, to say the least. It¡¯s full of organized crime, is what I¡¯m saying. I suppose I can¡¯t judge, given that I¡¯m presently involved in disorganized crime. And I can¡¯t complain, either, since it made our arrival there much easier. Being a smuggler and all, Jules can¡¯t go through the usual security measures most stations and inhabited planets have. Normally their clients set up a way in¡ªthat was how they got onto Fakir, for instance: by having a guy on the inside. That kind of thing can be tricky to set up¡ªcops sometimes pose as buyers and claim they¡¯ll get you in, so there¡¯s a bit of risk involved. On Demali, though, you just have to pay off the mob wherever you plan to land. Athena brought the ship into orbit over Demali and Jules called up the local mob boss. I noticed that they didn¡¯t haggle at all. The price of entry was non-negotiable. Once Jules had transferred the money, we landed in what appeared to be an abandoned corn field. Alec says everything on Demali just looks wrong if you¡¯re used to Terra, but to me it looked almost exactly like pictures I¡¯d seen of Terra. Trees, grass, and all that. It¡¯s even got one moon like Terra, which loomed overhead like a face peering down at us, half visible even in the daylight. The only major difference I could see was the sky, which was pale, creamy yellow in stark contrast to Terra¡¯s famous blue. Having been a station dweller my whole life, I was immediately distracted. The air smelled fantastic; alive with vegetation and fresh water somewhere nearby. I knelt down and ran a hand over the bristly dead stubs of old corn. Then I dug a finger into the greyish soil. It felt silkier than I expected, and surprisingly warm. ¡°Is this your first time planetside?¡± Jules asked a little incredulously. I straightened up, embarrassed. ¡°Not my first time,¡± I said, ¡°The institute brought us planetside now and again to get us used to it in case we were ever needed there. But I¡¯ll admit I didn¡¯t get off-station much.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no shame in that,¡± Jules said. ¡°I don¡¯t spend much time planetside myself. I believe the longest I¡¯ve ever gone at a stretch is a month.¡± ¡°Did you grow up on a station, too?¡± I asked. ¡°No, I was born in space,¡± Jules said. I assumed they meant on a spaceship, but I didn¡¯t have time to ask for clarification before they announced that it was time to find our engineer and started walking. After what must have been nearly a mile walk, we reached a small town. Fairly generic, as far as human-made towns go: storefronts shoulder-to-shoulder along a main street, trees lining the roads, little ranch houses with lawns guarded by the ethereal blue glow of laser fencing. Jules paused on a street corner outside a deli and stroked their chin in thought. ¡°Now, if I were a disgraced engineer with a dead home planet, where would I be hanging about?¡± They muttered. ¡°The bar?¡± I suggested. ¡°Oh, goodness, no,¡± Jules said, wide-eyed. ¡°Non-locals don¡¯t tend to enjoy the bar scene here. The locals are somewhat less than accepting of foreigners in their drinking establishments, and while the occasional bar fight is undeniably invigorating, I doubt an engineer would go looking for that sort of trouble.¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Extolling the virtues of brawling, are we? Weren¡¯t you a pacifist a few hours ago?¡± ¡°I abstain from both violence and alcohol these days, but it wasn¡¯t always so,¡± Jules explained. ¡°Right,¡± I said. ¡°Okay, no bars. Could we¡­ask at an inn, maybe? Look, I¡¯m gonna level with you, my entire strategy here is based on fantasy RPGs.¡± Jules shook their head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid most real-life innkeepers deal in room and board only, not information. We¡¯ll simply have to find our engineer the same way I found you: wait for fate to¨C¡± The sound of nearby gunfire cut them off. ¡°Ah. I believe that¡¯s our cue,¡± Jules said. And as they ran towards the gunfire, I began to question for the first time whether accepting their offer of employment had been a good idea. I followed anyway, of course. One of the stupidest things I¡¯ve ever done, but I didn¡¯t know Jules all that well at the time, and¡ªyou know what, putting it like that makes it sound like an even worsedecision. My point is, I thought Mx. Pacifist was going to run off and get themselves killed, so I, a well-trained product of the institute, would have to dash in and protect them. I couldn¡¯t tell you how I planned to do it, given that I was completely unarmed and without an institute-trained partner, but I guess I just hoped my training would kick in. I was starting to think this was a little too much like the way Jules had found me when the gunfire stopped. I caught up to Jules and stood beside them at the mouth of a dead-end alleyway. At the other end of the alley, two gun-toting men lined up cans on the rim of a dumpster. Realizing it wasn¡¯t a gunfight, I started to relax. Until Jules called out, ¡°Pardon me, gentlemen,¡± and those two ¡®gentlemen¡¯ pointed their guns at us. I put my hands up and took a couple steps back, but Jules looked completely unfazed. For all the tension in their body language, they might as well have been chatting with their next door neighbor. ¡°I do believe you¡¯re on the wrong side of town. I could escort you safely out¡­for the right price.¡± The taller of the two men laughed. ¡°The hell you think you¡¯re gonna do, pretty-boy? You ain¡¯t armed.¡± ¡°I am armed with knowledge¡ªwhich, incidentally, is the currency I¡¯m trading in today. You answer a few questions, and in exchange I won¡¯t use my dying breaths to call up Mr. Morgan and let him know where you are,¡± Jules said. They were strangely chipper for someone attempting to use blackmail while at gunpoint. I think that¡¯s when I really began to wonder if Jules was crazy.
Is that the point of these logs? You¡¯re recording observations to figure out what¡¯s wrong with Jules?
I¡­okay, honestly? It¡¯s far from the only reason, but that is part of it. When you say it like that it sounds bad, but I want to know if Jules is okay, you know? If they need help, I¡¯d like to do what I can to getthem help. Athena? Are we good?
I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t like that you¡¯re speculating about this behind Jules¡¯ back.
Look, it¡¯s probably nothing. From what I¡¯ve seen so far, Jules is probably just¡­very eccentric. And that makes sense based on what I know about them. Like how they were born ¡°in space.¡± Being raised on a spaceship can make a kid pretty weird, you know? It¡¯s an isolated environment, only a handful of people and all that. Social norms are hard to learn in those conditions. And I know it has been so far, but it¡¯s not going to be entirely behind Jules¡¯ back. If I start seriously thinking that something actually iswrong with Jules, I will bring it up with them. In person and everything. Right now I just want to keep some notes so I know whether or not I should be concerned. I don¡¯t want to waste Jules¡¯ time nagging them about every little quirk they have.
Fine, but if you say anything I think Jules should know, I¡¯ll tell them myself. That applies to anything you say about anything, not just log entries about this in particular.
I understand. Uhhh, where was I, where¡ªguns. So the tall guy had his gun pointed at Jules and I was staring down the little guy¡¯s barrel, when suddenly tall guy glanced over at little guy and they made eye contact and put their guns down. Sort of down, anyway. Still at low ready. ¡°What d¡¯you need to know?¡± The tall guy asked, eyes narrow. ¡°Anything and everything you know about the former crew of the Darwin,¡± Jules said. The two guys looked at each other again, but this time they were delighted. I swear, their eyes lit up. ¡°If you¡¯re lookin¡¯ to get yourself an engineer, we¡¯ve got a pair of ¡®em available back at headquarters. ¡®Course, once we get there, you¡¯ll have to deal in more than information to get ¡®em.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± Jules said. And so we set off, leading two thugs through town. At the time I had no clue how Jules pulled that off, but they explained it to me later. They¡¯d recognized the sound of the specific brand of gun those men were using, which is apparently the weapon of choice for a particular gang that controls the uptown area. We were downtown. If the downtown boss, Alexander Morgan, knew uptown guys were on his turf, they¡¯d be dead in minutes.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. We walked a specific path Jules knew would keep us out of trouble. Away from prying eyes. For someone who doesn¡¯t spend much time planetside, Jules knows that town really well. Maybe that¡¯s where they spent their month, or maybe they have some way of researching it thoroughly. Either way, they picked their way through to the uptown guys¡¯ base without incident. It was an inconspicuous brownstone in a row full of inconspicuous brownstones. ¡°We¡¯ve got a buyer for those Darwin dolts,¡± the tall guy shouted was we walked in the door. The whole place reeked of tobacco smoke and sweat and, distantly, blood. Half-rotted floorboards complained loudly under our tread. ¡°Finally. I¡¯ll bring them up,¡± called a voice from beyond the foyer. Jules and I waited on an uncomfortable velvet sofa under the watchful eye of the men who¡¯d brought us there. Jules was totally composed. They sat with their legs crossed ankle over knee, hands folded. Their face was as calm and attentive as always. Their eyes moved around the room with interest, brushing smoothly over the worn-out carpet, the bookshelves, the heavy desk in one corner. I, having realized we were now involved in human fucking trafficking,was in a bit of a state. I picked nervously at the upholstery while darting uneasy glances at our thuggish chaperones. I glanced over at Jules periodically, which only made me more agitated wondering how they could be so relaxed in a place like this. Every small detail I noticed seemed to speak of some terrible deed that had been done in that house¡ªthe suspicious stains on the wallpaper, the huge battery on a nearby table that looked like it belonged in some kind of vehicle, the yellow rubber gloves neatly folded over one another sitting on top of a bookshelf. After a few tense minutes, a pair of miserable humans in engineers¡¯ jumpsuits shuffled into the room, shepherded by someone who wore a bulky environmental suit that made age, gender, and even species difficult to determine. All I can say for sure is that they were generally humanoid in size and shape¡ªbut since that¡¯s true of what, four out of five known sapient species?
Just over nine in ten, actually.
Yeah. Doesn¡¯t narrow it down much. If you assume they wore the suit because the conditions on Demali would be harmful to them, that narrows it down plenty, but for all I know it could¡¯ve been a human in there just hiding their appearance as an intimidation tactic. Which worked. I just about shat myself when I saw that coming at me, all shiny visors and old, yellowed body armor. The engineers they brought up looked scared out of their wits, too. Though I guess the suit wasn¡¯t what did it for them. They were afraid of us. I tried to convey somehow that we weren¡¯t going to harm them. I hoped our looks hinted at good intentions, but I quickly realized the opposite was true. I was wearing the same tank top and jeans I¡¯d escaped Fakir in. The once-white tank top was marred with scorch marks and one very obvious bloodstain on my hip that I somehow hadn¡¯t noticed before. Jules¡¯ clothes were more presentable, but they looked far from harmless. Their brown leather flight jacket, embroidered silk shirt, and chunky solitaire ring spoke of wealth, and on Demali only the dangerous could acquire wealth. Jules made a big show of inspecting the engineers, prodding at them and looking into their mouths. The two of them suffered through it wordlessly. As Jules examined them, they made the occasional complaint. ¡°This one has a broken wrist. They¡¯ve both clearly been without proper exercise for quite some time; this is nowhere near the muscle mass a space station engineer should have. I assume they¡¯ve been held in tight quarters? It¡¯ll take ages to get them in working shape again. How much exactly are you planning on charging?¡± The suit-wearer quoted a per-each price and a price for the pair. It was more money than I¡¯d ever had, yet still less than I¡¯d expected a human being to sell for. Jules let out a low whistle. ¡°That much? Oh my. Now, I¡¯d expect that sort of price for a pair this age if they were healthy, but they are in very poor health. Listen to the rattle when this one breathes. I guarantee you, that is pneumonia.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a little cough,¡± the besuited seller insisted. Jules shook their head as they ruffled the hair of one of the engineers. ¡°If pneumonia is just a little cough, I suppose you¡¯ll also tell me that these head lice are just dust?¡± I couldn¡¯t read their face through the visor, but something in the seller¡¯s silence told me they were getting flustered. Jules must have noticed, too. ¡°Now, handling these issues could be a decent investment considering the reputation of the Darwin crew¡­but certainly not for that price. Knock off some to treat the pneumonia, some for the attention this wrist will need, a bit more to deal with the lice, and a little extra since I¡¯d have to pay another engineer while these ones recovered, and I¡¯ll consider it,¡± Jules said. ¡°Oh. And a touch more for the risk.¡± ¡°The risk?¡± The seller repeated, irritated. ¡°The risk that one of them may have been responsible for the deaths aboard the Darwin, of course,¡± Jules said. ¡°You simply can¡¯texpect to sell them at the price of a skilled engineer when one¡ªor even both of them¡ªmight be a thief.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll cover the medical expenses, but forget the risk,¡± the seller said. ¡°You wanna buy Darwin engineers, you already know that¡¯s the risk you take.¡± And with that they quoted a final figure. Jules accepted and transferred the money via comm. Our thug friends walked us to the door with our new purchases in tow. ¡°Not a word until we¡¯re back on the ship,¡± Jules warned me once we were outside. We walked in silence. I¡¯d forgotten how long the trip back to the ship was. The engineers started hobbling pretty early on, and by the end Jules and I each had one leaning on us. Once the ship¡¯s airlock closed, the silence broke. ¡°Well. Now that we¡¯re out of there,¡± Jules said, ¡°My name is Jules and this is my first mate Marie. You¡¯re aboard the Adelaide. And you¡¯re free to go. We¡¯ll drop you somewhere if you like.¡± The engineer whose arm was around my shoulders perked up. ¡°Wait, seriously?¡± He said. His voice was hoarse, but optimistic. Jules smiled and nodded. The engineer let out a whoop and tried to pump his fist in the air, only to yelp in pain. He was the one with the broken wrist. ¡°We can take care of that as well,¡± Jules said. ¡°Incidentally, what are your names?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Alec Bauer,¡± said the engineer who¡¯d leaned on me. The one leaning on Jules did not respond. ¡°He¡¯s Nick Glass,¡± Alec said. ¡°Nick, buddy, you okay? Hey, cheer up, we just got bought out of slavery!¡± Nick remained silent, aside from his labored, rattling breathing. We rushed him to the medbay. Jules worked quickly, laying Nick out on the cot and checking his temperature and heart rate. Alec and I looked on from the doorway. We tried not to get in the way, but in the end there wasn¡¯t much to get in the way of. ¡°It¡¯s the pneumonia. I hadn¡¯t thought it was severe, but I suspect the lengthy walk did him no favors,¡± Jules announced. ¡°We don¡¯t have the medicine we need to treat this. The best we can do for now is keep him stable while we find a doctor. Athena?¡± ¡°Already on it, Captain,¡± Athena said. It was the most mechanical I¡¯d ever heard her sound. The effect was jarring. In hindsight, I suppose it was for Alec and Nick¡¯s benefit. No need to let people know you¡¯ve got wetware if they might only be temporary guests. ¡°The nearest qualified medical professional whose information I can find is Frances Young, 1.23 miles away. Would you like me to contact her?¡± ¡°Yes, put me on a call. Audio only,¡± Jules said. Five minutes later, Frances arrived on a jetbike. She¡¯s probably the scariest-looking doctor I¡¯ve ever met. Actually, she¡¯s very specifically not a doctor, since she never got any kind of formal degree, but the point still stands. She¡¯s well over six feet tall, covered in tattoos and brands, and I¡¯ve never seen her smile. Her eyes are both cybernetic and you can tell by the scarring around them that the originals were removed violently. Despite all that, she did seem professional. Her dark, curly hair was braided back in a neat, clean style. She wore soap-green scrubs that looked cleaner than anything else on the planet, and she carried a suitcase full of well-organized medical supplies. Jules showed her to the medbay and the rest of us got the hell out of the way. We ended up in the kitchen, where Jules started making tea for everyone. ¡°Well, Ms. Young may be our only option, but I suspect we¡¯re rather fortunate to have her,¡± they said as they lined up three mugs. Alec¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°Wait, Ms. Young? Not Dr. Young?¡± Athena chimed in, broadcasting only to the kitchen. ¡°Frances Young has no formal degree, but has over ten years of experience as a quote-unquote ¡®mob doctor.¡¯¡± ¡°It¡¯s more impressive than it sounds,¡± Jules assured him. ¡°Pneumonia is nothing to someone who treats gunshot wounds on a daily basis.¡± ¡°If you say so,¡± Alec said. He sounded unconvinced, but did seem to relax a little after that. ¡°Now, Mr. Bauer, was it?¡± Jules began. ¡°Just call me Alec. I¡¯m too young to be a ¡®mister¡¯ to anyone over the age of ten,¡± Alec said. ¡°Fair enough. Alec. Do you have any notion of where you¡¯d like to go?¡± Alec bit his lip. ¡°Uh¡­I don¡¯t have anywhere, really. My whole family¡¯s still on Darwin, and before that I lived on Terra.¡± My heart twinged a bit. Terra¡¯s degradation had been going on since the industrial revolution, but it reached its critical point so suddenly. Assuming Alec¡¯s family left Terra shortly after the Darwin was first built, they couldn¡¯t have known that they would never be able to return to their home planet. Between that, the engineering cock-up, and his little brush with human trafficking, the poor boy has some terrible luck. ¡°Not to worry. I have an offer for you,¡± Jules said. Alec cut in before they could continue. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you right now, I won¡¯t do anything involving children or animals.¡± Jules looked perturbed for a moment before they caught the shit-eating grin on Alec¡¯s face. They sighed and shook their head. ¡°I believe I can still find something suitable for you,¡± they said. ¡°We are in need of an engineer to take care of this ship.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Alec said. ¡°I can do that.¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°You¡¯re not going to ask what it is we do here? Or about the pay or anything?¡± I asked. Alec shrugged. ¡°I mean, I definitely wanna know that stuff, but it doesn¡¯t change my answer. I¡¯ve got no better options, and you didjust buy me out of slavery so you can¡¯t be that bad.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Jules said. ¡°Then I have just one question before I officially welcome you to the crew.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bet I know what it is,¡± Alec said. ¡°But go ahead and ask me anyway.¡± ¡°Were you the one responsible for the incident on the Darwin?¡± Jules asked. ¡°No. And I don¡¯t know who was, either,¡± Alec said. ¡°That¡¯s all I needed to hear,¡± Jules said. ¡°Welcome aboard.¡± Nick survived. Once he regained consciousness, he mentioned he had family on a different, slightly less seedy part of Demali, so we dropped him off at the hospital in the city he named. Frances stayed on board and splinted Alec¡¯s wrist. ¡°You¡¯re dehydrated,¡± she told him sharply as she worked. ¡°Not to mention malnourished, and your muscles have atrophied. You¡¯ve got a long recovery ahead, and a spaceship is a shitty place to recover in. Especially one with no doctor and such a poorly stocked medbay.¡± She gestured wildly at the shelves and cabinets around her as she spoke. ¡°I have to recommend that you stay at a real hospital and get treated by a real doctor.¡± ¡°Aww, but I just got a job here,¡± Alec whined. ¡°A job¡¯s no good if you¡¯re not alive to do it,¡± Frances snapped. ¡°I have a solution in mind,¡± Jules announced. ¡°Oh, of course you do,¡± Frances snapped. ¡°Let me guess: I stay here and work in your shitty little medbay because you know I¡¯ll come cheap, just like this fresh-out-of-college kid you purchased.¡± Jules opened their mouth to speak, but Frances cut them off with a wave of her hand. ¡°Well, fine. You¡¯re just lucky things on Demali are such shit right now. Whatever the hell this operation is, it¡¯s got to be less of a mess than what I just came from,¡± she said. ¡°But I hope you¡¯re ready to shell out for some real equipment in here. My goddamn coat pocketsare better supplied than you are right now.¡± Jules smiled. ¡°I can arrange something.¡± As we left Demali, Jules and I left the other two in the medbay while we stood in the bridge letting Athena do all the work. ¡°How do you think they¡¯ll react when they realize you¡¯re running wetware?¡± I asked. ¡°I imagine that, like you, Alec took note of the discrepancies between crew size and ship size immediately. No doubt he deduced the reason before accepting the job,¡± Jules said. ¡°As for Ms. Young, I couldn¡¯t say. I hope to earn some degree of loyalty before she has that revelation.¡± And just like that, we were out in the black again. We went on a few small trips for supplies, then Jules found a new job. We¡¯ve been en route to our pickup site on Thyris ever since. The trip¡¯s long and boring enough that we¡¯ve settled into a routine. Frances has been working on getting Alec back into good health. He¡¯s upbeat, but he¡¯s not an easy patient¡ªat first, he kept making himself sick by eating too much, too soon. Then later he hurt himself by trying to work out before he¡¯d recovered enough. Jules was right about Alec figuring out the wetware thing, so we had to swear him to secrecy. He thinks it¡¯s ¡°cool.¡±
I am cool.
Sure, but the massive violations of human rights that led to your current state aren¡¯t.
Point taken. Still, it¡¯s nice to be appreciated.
I worry a little about Alec¡¯s maturity, but he¡¯s proven himself to be a capable engineer so far. I¡¯ve spent the past couple months scurrying around the ship finding problems for him to look at, and he¡¯s recovered enough to resolve some of the less physically demanding issues. Meanwhile, Frances still doesn¡¯t know about the wetware thing. It¡¯s easy enough to keep it from her. She stays in the medbay, the kitchen, or her quarters most of the time; far from the bridge. As long as she doesn¡¯t see me and Jules at the same time while the ship¡¯s flying, she¡¯ll assume one of us is doing the flying. Athena¡¯s getting tired of hiding it, though. Whatever sign of loyalty Jules is looking for, I hope they see it soon. Well, that about catches us up to the present. Just in time, too. We should be landing on Thyris in about 30 hours, so I might actually have something to log about. For now, this is Marie Ruiz, signing off. 3. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.4.2100 We have our cargo, but things have gotten a bit¡­complicated. We landed on Thyris yesterday at around 1800 hours ship time, midday local time. Most of the planet¡¯s surface is taken up by frozen wastelands. You¡¯ll see moss growing on the ice up there, and supposedly some critters living in the moss if you feel like pulling out a microscope, but not much else except in a couple geothermically active areas where the snow melts long enough for small, shallow-rooted plants to grow. As we prepared to land, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if we were in the wrong place somehow. This didn¡¯t look like a place to pick up cargo. As it turned out, that¡¯s because the real party is underground. The planet¡¯s entire society and the vast majority of its biosphere is nestled deep within its crust. There, its inhabitants enjoy the warmth of the planet¡¯s core. On most planets, the base of the food chain is some form of photosynthesis, but on Thyris it¡¯s all about chemosynthesis. Microscopic organisms in the underground seas feed on chemicals that seep out of vents in the sea floor. According to Alec, the same thing happens on Terra. The difference is that on Terra it all takes a backseat to photosynthesis, but on Thyris it¡¯s the opposite. The moss on the surface only sustains its own small community, just like hydrothermal vents on Terra, while chemosynthetic creatures take the place of Terra¡¯s plants and algae. Jules and I deboarded the ship in parkas. The wind whipped around us, flinging ice at what little skin we¡¯d left exposed. Even dressed for the weather, the cold was challenging to deal with. It felt like my eyeballs were going to freeze over. Fortunately, that didn¡¯t last long: we entered an elevator that stood alone on a plain of snow and began our descent to the city proper. After a couple minutes in the still-chilly elevator, we stepped out into a blissfully warm intake center. It was an overwhelming experience after the emptiness of the surface. For one thing, it was almost pitch black down there. Since they evolved in subterranean caverns, thyrins are completely blind. The only lighting in the city came from tiny strips of lights running along the floors wherever they met walls¡ªan accommodation for sighted species that came to visit. It wasn¡¯t enough to see by; just enough to keep us from walking into walls. Fortunately, the locals knew to stay out of the way of visitors who normally relied on sight, so tripping over people wasn¡¯t an issue, either. I don¡¯t know what a thyrin actually looks like and I¡¯m not sure I want to. I¡¯ve seen pictures of animals that are adapted to life in caves before, and they¡¯re¡­bad to look at. But from what little I could see, thyrins are about three feet tall and definitely not bipedal. Based on the rhythm of their footsteps, I¡¯d say they have eight legs. We weren¡¯t allowed to use flashlights in the city because apparently much of the planet¡¯s technology and wildlife can be damaged by bright lights. Since I¡¯m from a station where the majority species can¡¯t see light, I¡¯m fairly used to dealing with bad lighting, but at least Fakir was diverse enough that there was usually some light and I was always able to carry a flashlight. Thyris was just plain frustrating. ¡°So how are we going to talk to them?¡± I asked Jules as I followed them into the darkness. ¡°Do you know the language?¡± ¡°There is no language. Thyrins are preverbally telepathic,¡± they replied. My stomach lurched. ¡°They¡¯re what?!¡± My past experiences with telepathy are all¡­highly negative, to make a long story short. Jules laughed, and in that moment I kind of wanted to slap them. ¡°Relax,¡± they said. ¡°Some thoughts are broadcast while others are not. Generally, things you want them to know will naturally be broadcast while things you¡¯d rather keep private are naturally suppressed. The main problem for beginners is suppressing impulsive outbursts¡ªfor instance, every thyrin within range is now keenly aware of how you feel about telepathic communication.¡± That was different enough from my previous experience to calm me down a bit, but still I shuddered, wondering exactly how much they¡¯d gotten. My gut reaction had been a potent mixture of fear and disgust coupled with flashes of memories of things I don¡¯t talk about and certainly don¡¯t want strangers knowing about. If all they got was the emotion, I honestly feel a little guilty about that. In fact, in the moment I tried to broadcast an apology, even though the very act was distressing to me. I don¡¯t want to believe they got any of the memories. We followed a little stream of lights to the customs desk. On most civilized planets, we would have had to go through customs before we could even enter orbit, but Thyris had no such security. After all, there¡¯s nothing on the surface to protect. It¡¯s cheaper and easier to vet new arrivals after they¡¯ve come down. Preverbal telepathy is, by its nature, hard to describe in words, but basically the desk clerk welcomed us to the city and asked us to state our business. Presumably Jules explained, though as a non-telepath I couldn¡¯t hear anything they were ¡®broadcasting.¡¯ Their conversation went on for several minutes while I just stood there. I was probably broadcasting the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. At the end of the conversation, the clerk handed something to Jules and we walked away. Jules snapped the things in their hands¡ªa pair of dim yellow glowsticks. They handed one to me. ¡°These are the brightest things permitted down here,¡± they explained. ¡°Still insufficient to actually see, I know, but this way we can at least locate one another.¡± I accepted the glowstick so that Jules could find me in the dark, but as I then explained, ¡°I can just smell where you are, you know.¡± Jules¡¯s scent¡ªoil and metal from the ship, vanilla from their soaps and shampoos, and the general odor of being human¡ªtrailed out behind them wherever they walked and billowed around their person. For me, following that scent was as easy as following the lights on the floor. I heard Jules sniff their armpit. I sighed. ¡°You smell fine, captain. It¡¯s just that scent is a pretty important part of the culture on Fakir, so I notice it more than most humans.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Jules said. Then their voice dropped to a whisper. ¡°In that case, take both. I¡¯d like to remain as inconspicuous as possible.¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Any particular reason?¡± But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I noticed the odor of two other humans somewhere in the room mingling with the relatively mild scent of thyrins. ¡°One of the locals kindly informed me of where our ¡®friends¡¯ are,¡± Jules whispered. ¡°As they are not currently carrying their glowsticks, and are therefore remarkably difficult for one to detect by sight.¡± We walked on, and our mysterious ¡®friends¡¯ followed. Eventually, we reached a room where a thyrin gave Jules a nondescript metal box about the size of a toaster. Once again, I couldn¡¯t witness whatever mental conversation they had. Then we turned back the way we came. To our mutual surprise, our shadows approached us this time. Or at least one of them did. ¡°Idiot,¡± the other hissed from farther away. ¡°Hi there,¡± said the one approaching us. His voice was clear and warm. ¡°My name is Mac. Are you Jules?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Jules said. I smacked a hand to my forehead. ¡°My partner Ana and I have a few questions we¡¯d like to ask you, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Mac said. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m neither religious nor inclined to become religious, thank you,¡± Jules said. ¡°That¡¯s not¨C¡± Mac started to say. But we were already running away. ¡°I¡¯ve alerted our client about those two and they¡¯ve agreed to send security out,¡± Jules said as we ran. ¡°We should be able to get away.¡± ¡°Do they want what¡¯s in the box?¡± I asked. ¡°I told our client I suspect so, but in truth I very much doubt it,¡± Jules said. ¡°I believe it is me they are interested in.¡± When we reached the surface, something bizarre caught my eye. Right beside the Adelaide, a paper thin layer of snow hung in midair. ¡°It seems our new friends have an opitcal cloaking device on their ship,¡± Jules said. ¡°Cutting-edge technology, yet so easily foiled by its interactions with the environment. If you look closely, you can also see the imprint of their landing gear in the snow.¡± They paused and stared at the empty space for a while. ¡°Well. We had best leave quickly.¡± The elevator whirred behind us. ¡°We had best leave now,¡± Jules said. We ran back to the Adelaide,her doors opening in sync with the elevators. We caught a glimpse of Mac and Ana in daylight¡ªhe was a squat, muscular fellow with short black hair and a beard; she was a wiry, equally muscular woman with lavender-dyed hair held back in a ponytail. They were both brandishing weapons. Hers was a gun I¡¯d seen before. ¡°That¡¯s an institute weapon,¡± I told Jules while we stood in the airlock frantically waiting for the door to close all the way. At least, I was frantic; I¡¯ve yet to see Jules be frantic about anything. Finally, the door clicked shut. And then the ship blasted off, sending a flurry of snow flying at our pursuers. ¡°Oh dear. Athena, we are not in position yet,¡± Jules said. ¡°Oooh shit, we¡¯re not in position,¡± I echoed. ¡°Sorry captain,¡± Athena said. ¡°I panicked. Those two were sniffing around here right after you went down, and¡ªI-I think we need as much of a head start as we can get against them.¡± Jules rubbed their chin. ¡°I agree with you on that,¡± they said. ¡°I suppose it couldn¡¯t be helped. Has Frances noticed that anything is amiss?¡± Athena didn¡¯t need to answer that, because not a beat after Jules finished their sentence, we heard a heavy pounding on the airlock¡¯s inner door. ¡°Hey! What the fuck!¡± Frances shouted, still pounding away. Jules sighed and opened the airlock door. ¡°Hello, Ms. Young,¡± they said. ¡°I suppose you¡¯ll be wanting an explanation.¡± ¡°Who the hell is flying this thing?¡± Frances demanded. ¡°Shall we discuss this over tea?¡± Jules suggested. ¡°No!¡± ¡°May we at least step out of the airlock?¡± ¡°¡­Fine.¡± And so we found ourselves standing in the corridor like a bunch of assholes for the entirety of this conversation. Alec appeared as soon as the airlock¡¯s inner door had closed. ¡°Captain, I¨C¡± he began. ¡°Shut up!¡± Frances snapped. Then she turned to Jules. ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°This ship is run entirely by Athena,¡± Jules said calmly. ¡°She is an experimental AI unit derived from a human brain using both organic and inorganic components.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s a pretentious and roundabout way of saying you run fucking wetware,¡± Frances said flatly. ¡°With her consent,¡± Jules bargained. ¡°With my consent,¡± Athena confirmed. ¡°What can I say? Smuggling is my calling.¡± ¡°Oh, fuck this,¡± Frances said. ¡°I came aboard because I thought this would be less messy than working for the mob, but this is insane. No wonder those people started following us!¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°No, they don¡¯t know about Athena yet,¡± Jules said. ¡°They couldn¡¯t possibly.¡± Frances glared at him. ¡°Then what the hell do they know? What the hell else is there that I ought to know about? You know what, for that matter, why did everyone but me apparently know this?¡± ¡°I just figured it out on my own,¡± Alec told her. ¡°The ship¡¯s too big. Jules and Marie couldn¡¯t run it alone without a ridiculous number of neural implants. And implants are still so imperfect that even one can seriously screw up your brain if it¡¯s not installed and used correctly. I can¡¯t imagine a person being able to function at all if they had enough implants to run this thing on their own.¡± ¡°I noticed the same thing when I first came on board,¡± I explained. ¡°The information was on a strict need-to-know basis,¡± Jules added. ¡°But allow me to explain. The ethical implications are not as black and white as one might expe¨C¡± Frances cut them off. ¡°Save the lecture. This isn¡¯t about the goddamn ethics! This is about the absolute shitstorm I¡¯ll be caught up in if the wrong people find out about this!¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Jules said. ¡°I suppose there is a certain risk of¡­what is the punishment for this again?¡± ¡°The Republic of Free Planets calls for the execution by firing squad of any person who makes use of wetware,¡± Athena said. ¡°The Council of Interplanetary Law is a little more lenient¡ªthey use a lethal injection. And of course, for offenders captured by the Bloodied Hand, a mysterious yet undoubtedly gristly fate awaits.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just a ray of sunshine, huh?¡± Frances grumbled. ¡°A certain risk of execution,¡± Jules finished. ¡°The elephant in the room being that if you turned us in immediately, you would be spared.¡± Frances and Jules stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity. Jules¡¯s gaze was calm, of course, while Frances¡¯s conveyed a volatile blend of outrage and fear. ¡°You¡¯re not going to kill me,¡± Frances said slowly, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. ¡°You¡¯re a pacifist. The rest of the crew¡¯s not, but they answer to you.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Jules replied. ¡°So there¡¯s nothing to stop me,¡± Frances said. ¡°No real consequences. As opposed to the very real threat of death if I don¡¯t report this.¡± ¡°Mostly true,¡± Jules said. ¡°Though I wouldn¡¯t say there is nothing to stop you.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± Frances said. ¡°What, then?¡± ¡°You know better than I, Ms. Young. Why haven¡¯t you simply left this conversation and reported us already? Why not clean up the mess?¡± Frances was silent for such a long time, I thought for sure she was going to walk away and call the authorities. But eventually, she swallowed and spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t want to screw up the only decent ending a wetware unit¡¯s ever had.¡± And then she walked away. A short while later, I found Jules laughing hysterically on the bridge, folded over in their chair. ¡°Are you alright, cap¡¯n?¡± I asked. They jerked upright suddenly. ¡°Quite,¡± they said. ¡°It¡¯s only that this has all gone¡­better than expected.¡± I stared at them, uncomprehending. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s wonderful that we¡¯re not going to be executed,¡± I said flatly as I sat down in my own chair. ¡°By the way, what is our cargo?¡± Jules leaned back in their chair and relaxed. Whatever episode they¡¯d been having had subsided. ¡°Narcotics,¡± they replied. ¡°The thyrins have no word for this drug, naturally, but the people we are transporting it to call it ¡®stardust.¡¯ Its precise effects depend upon the species of the user and the method of consumption. In terrans, it is primarily a stimulant but has secondary hallucinogenic effects.¡± Just then, the radar started beeping. ¡°Oh, shit, did they catch up to us?¡± I asked. Jules was unfazed. ¡°Doubtful,¡± they said as they peered at the screen. ¡°Or at least, doubtful that this particular alert is them. If they have technology as advanced as optical cloaking, surely they have radar cloaking as well. Oh, dear.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°There¡¯s an oncoming ship broadcasting a black flag signal,¡± Jules explained. ¡°It seems we have pirates on our hands. Isn¡¯t that adorable.¡± ¡°I¡¯m assuming Athena can run the weapons on her own?¡± I asked. I had the training to run them myself, but I¡¯d never done so outside of simulations. Besides, there¡¯s no doubt Athena has better aim. ¡°Good heavens, no,¡± Jules said. ¡°This ship doesn¡¯t even haveweapons; I¡¯m a pacifist.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m fucking not,¡± I pointed out. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± ¡°We initiate a game of piracy chicken by sending a black flag signal right back,¡± Jules said. ¡°Athena?¡± ¡°On it,¡± Athena said. I watched the radar screen tensely over the next few minutes. Eventually, the pirates moved away. It was baffling. ¡°If that works, why are pirates even a problem?¡± I asked. ¡°For one thing, it¡¯s certainly not foolproof. They could easily have called our bluff. For another, any ship that raises a black flag is considered a pirate vessel and its crew can be prosecuted,¡± Jules explained. ¡°So innocent parties generally won¡¯t risk using that trick. For us, it hardly matters.¡± And it¡¯s exactly that kind of thing that makes me wonder what the hell kind of turn my life¡¯s taken. Back on Fakir, I always had to put myself above reproach. With anti-human sentiments as prevalent as they were, even breaking a minor rule could land me in serious trouble. To keep myself out of danger, I followed the institute¡¯s strict honor code to the letter, strove for excellence in everything I did, and never questioned anyone¡¯s authority. I was a good little soldier. Until I caused my training partner¡¯s death and ran off to become a smuggler on a ship that runs wetware, something so illegal that no other crime I commit could possibly carry a harsher sentence. Granted, it¡¯s not as morally reprehensible in practice as it seems on paper, but it¡¯s still a far cry from the honor-based mercenary¡¯s life I was supposed to live. And it scares me sometimes, that after this there¡¯s no going back to what I had before. No career based in honor would let me in if they knew about this little episode in my life. I don¡¯t know when or if my time here will end, but if that day ever comes, I¡¯ll either have to move on to a similar job somewhere else or lay low and, I don¡¯t know, work on a farm or something. Maybe it¡¯s better. I have more freedom now, if nothing else. And it¡¯s a blessing to be away from some of the less pleasant things that went on at the institute. But I do miss the structure of it all. I guess they trained me to miss it, though. I¡¯m indoctrinated. This is what they wanted. So it¡¯s probably for the best that I can never go back. Maybe it¡¯s the same for Frances, whose old job was almost as disreputable as this one anyway. Alec, on the other hand, would probably love to go back to engineering for a legitimate employer, but I have no idea who else would hire him without being able to guarantee that he wasn¡¯t responsible for what happened to Darwin. And as for Jules¡­ ¡°Jules?¡± I asked. ¡°Who were you before all this?¡± They turned to face me. ¡°I was angry,¡± they replied. ¡°And small-minded.¡± I have to admit: that was interesting to hear. I¡¯ve never seen Jules angry. I¡¯ve never thought of them as an angry person. As for small-minded, it¡¯s hard to say. Jules¡¯s concerns don¡¯t seem to extend much beyond the smuggling jobs they take on, and normally I¡¯d consider that a pretty small-minded view. But it¡¯s hard to know what the hell¡¯s going on in Jules¡¯s mind at any given time. For instance, why did they feel the need to give such a cryptic response to a fairly simple question? ¡°I meant more like, did you have another job before you got into the smuggling business,¡± I clarified. Jules turned back to the radar screen and watched the vastness of space move by in the form of tiny flickering lights. ¡°Suffice it to say that I have been many places and seen many things in my lifetime,¡± they said. Suddenly, they stood up. ¡°I will be in my quarters,¡± they said as they left. It was pretty early for them to be going to bed, but it had been a long day, so I wasn¡¯t too worried. I stretched out in my chair and tried to enjoy a moment of peace. I¡¯d just put my feet up when a fearsome tremor went through the ship, nearly knocking my mug off the panel I¡¯d set it on. My first thought was that something had gone haywire. ¡°Athena, where¡¯s Alec?¡± I asked. ¡°Heading towards the engine room now,¡± Athena replied. ¡°But from what my sensors are telling me, there¡¯s nothing wrong with the ship.¡± ¡°Then what the hell¡¯s happening?¡± ¡°I¡­think another ship is docking,¡± Athena said slowly. Then, more panicked: ¡°We¡¯re being boarded.¡± Nothing had approached us on the radar, so it had to be the cloaked ship from earlier. I wondered whether Ana and Mac had reinforcements, or if it was just the two of them. Instinctively, I reached towards my hip, but found nothing there. It¡¯s generally a bad idea to use firearms on spacecraft, where there¡¯s nothing but a little lightweight metal between you and a vast vacuum. Plus I hadn¡¯t grabbed any when I left Fakir. ¡°Well, close down the airlock!¡± I shouted. ¡°They¡¯ve brought with them the means to cut through the airlock doors,¡± Athena said bitterly. ¡°I have Jules¡¯s approval to open the way so we don¡¯t have to pay for repairs.¡± ¡°Fantastic,¡± I groaned. ¡°What are Jules¡¯s orders?¡± Athena was silent for a moment, presumably asking Jules. ¡°They say, and I quote: ¡®As with any players who lack a script, it falls to us to improvise.¡¯¡± ¡°My school didn¡¯t exactly have a theater club,¡± I muttered. But artsy metaphors aside, this type of confrontation is where I¡¯m most comfortable improvising. I usually had more weapons available, though. I grabbed a kitchen knife on my way to the airlock and hoped we¡¯d be able to bluff our way out of this without it coming to a fight. When I arrived, Jules was already there and already handcuffed. They took one look at me and said, ¡°I see we¡¯ve brought the proverbial knife to the gunfight.¡± In a snap movement, Ana leveled her gun at me. ¡°Put it down,¡± she demanded. I let the knife fall to the floor with a clatter. Ana seemed stunned into silence for a moment, as if she hadn¡¯t expected me to actually drop the knife. She recovered quickly, her face returning to its usual grave expression. ¡°Who the hell are you people?¡± I demanded. ¡°I am Ana Mercer and this is Mac Nichols. We are mercenaries operating under the authority of the Republic of Free Planets, Orange Sector,¡± Ana answered calmly. ¡°We are taking this individual into custody on the grounds that they match the description of a person of interest. The rest of your crew is free to go, but we will be in contact if our investigation reveals anything incriminating. That is all we are legally able to tell you.¡± I looked at Jules. ¡°Comply with the authorities, dear,¡± was all they said. ¡°Well, how long is this going to take?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say,¡± Mac replied, sounding almost apologetic. ¡°It depends on a lot of things.¡± ¡°One way or another, Republic authorities will give you a call when it¡¯s over,¡± Ana said grimly. And with that, they hauled Jules off the Adelaide. I returned to the bridge, numb with shock, and made an announcement over the intercom. ¡°All crew to the kitchen.¡± There was a conference room on the ship that might have been more appropriate, but it was built for use by dozens of people at a time. The kitchen provided a more practical option for our tiny crew. Within a few minutes, Alec, Frances, and I were seated at the kitchen table. I¡¯d put a kettle on while waiting for them to arrive, just so I had something to do, so we all had tea. But I didn¡¯t much feel like drinking it. I explained the situation. ¡°Orange Sector?¡± Alec said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of that. They investigate the things you hear about in conspiracy theories. Clone farms and mass brainwashing and that kind of thing. I wonder what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll just have to keep wondering,¡± Athena said firmly. ¡°Looking too deeply into Orange Sector shit can be legitimately dangerous. After all, not every conspiracy theory is wrong.¡± She let the silence say the rest. We all knew it had once been a conspiracy theory that Stormsoft was performing the human experimentation that eventually resulted in the creation of wetware. ¡°We¡¯ll do what we have to do to clear Jules¡¯s name and bring them back,¡± Athena said. ¡°But nothing. Else.¡± Alec looked disappointed. ¡°I mean¡­Marie¡¯s the first mate, so¡­¡± All attention was suddenly on me. I wanted desperately to know what was going on. Clearly they hadn¡¯t arrested Jules for the obvious reason, or they would¡¯ve checked the ship for wetware instead of leaving the rest of us alone. On the other hand, Athena made a damn good point. Sticking our noses into Orange Sector business could easily get us killed if we learned to much and crossed the wrong people. ¡°Getting Jules back is our best bet at finding out what the hell¡¯s going on,¡± I said. ¡°So you think Jules actually is their person of interest,¡± Frances said. I swallowed. I absolutely did think that, in fact. Jules might not have been malevolent, but they were definitely suspicious. We didn¡¯t know where they¡¯d come from, we didn¡¯t know anything about their past, we didn¡¯t even know their last name. If they were mixed up in the kind of thing that the Orange Sector would investigate, then all their secrecy would make sense. But I wasn¡¯t about to inspire even more distrust in Frances after that day¡¯s epiphany. ¡°I couldn¡¯t say,¡± I said. ¡°If they are then they¡¯ll definitely be able to explain this, but even if they¡¯re not, they¡¯ll be able to tell us what kind of questions the Orange Sector asked them. That should give us a hint about what¡¯s happening.¡± ¡°Alright, so we just wait for due process of law,¡± Frances said, sounding happier than I¡¯d ever heard her. ¡°That should be easy.¡± I inhaled through gritted teeth. ¡°If I was absolutely certain Jules wasn¡¯t involved in¡­whatever this is, that¡¯s what we¡¯d do,¡± I said. ¡°But given that they could be¡­¡± ¡°We have to get them out of there before they get disappeared,¡± Alec said. ¡°Yeah. That,¡± I said. ¡°And even if Jules is innocent, I doubt the interrogation process will be pleasant. The sooner we get them out of there, the better.¡± Frances grimaced. ¡°Greeeaat. How do you plan on doing that, exactly? We don¡¯t even know where Jules is being taken.¡± ¡°We do a little recon. There are only so many places the Republic could take people, right?¡± I asked. ¡°If by ¡®only so many¡¯ you mean ¡®over five hundred,¡¯ then you¡¯re absolutely right,¡± Athena informed me. ¡°But with your permission, I¡¯d like to reach out to a few of Jules¡¯s contacts who may be able to help.¡± ¡°Go right ahead,¡± I said. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll send out encoded transmissions right away. It may take a while for any of them to respond, what with time zones and the encryption and all,¡± Athena said. ¡°But any of them should be able to tell us Jules¡¯s location, or at least give us some clues.¡± Frances raised an eyebrow. ¡°Uh, how, exactly?¡± ¡°Jules has a wide network of contacts with less-than-legal talents,¡± Athena explained. Alec perked up. ¡°So they¡¯ll hack into Republic records and find out where Jules gets checked into? Coooooool.¡± Frances shook her head. ¡°Alright, alright, look. Let¡¯s say we get the location through whatever bullshit Athena¡¯s doing. What do we do then?¡± ¡°We do a prison break!¡± Alec shouted. ¡°Clearly,¡± I agreed. We spent about an hour hashing out the details of that prison break, but ultimately we couldn¡¯t finish the plan without knowing what facility we¡¯re breaking into, so we called it a night. This morning, Athena got word from one of the people she contacted, a woman by the name of Flora Leeds. Supposedly Flora knows exactly where Jules is, but was unable to tell us without some non-specific entity listening in, so now we¡¯re on our way to meet her in person on the space station Voltaire. She¡¯s assured us that Voltaire is on the way to Jules anyway, but I still hate how much time we¡¯re using up on this. The whole crew is restless, even Frances. I think she¡¯s reorganized the medbay about thirty times since waking up. Everything¡¯s going to shit, but on the bright side I finally have an excuse to arm myself. I plan on picking up something with a bit more substance than a kitchen knife while we¡¯re stopped on Voltaire. Not for the prison itself¡ªI don¡¯t plan on messing with the Republic¡ªbut for the aftermath if we do end up uncovering some kind of conspiracy. If we find out something that dangerous people want to keep quiet, well, then we¡¯d better be ready for a fight. Marie Ruiz, signing off. 4. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.7.2100 We landed on Voltaire two days ago. I have to say, it¡¯s a hell of a lot fancier than Fakir. It looks more like a tiny artificial planet than a space station. The whole thing is encircled by a sphere made up of triangular panes of glass. The glass changes between opaque and transparent on a 24-hour cycle to simulate Terra¡¯s day and night¡ªmuch higher tech than Fakir¡¯s use of UV lamps. Spaces for living and recreation are on the surface of the inner sphere, so residents can enjoy the natural light. That leaves the station¡¯s core for power generation, life support systems, automated manufacturing, UV-lamp greenhouses, spacecraft hangars, and so on. Meanwhile, Fakir looks like somebody put a big metal box around the slummy part of a city and shot it into space. Which makes sense, considering Fakir was originally built as a military base and Voltaire was built as a field station for some rather well-funded researchers from a prestigious university. Anyway, we entered through one of several landing ports¡ªlong, tubular passageways that protrude from the glass sphere like pores and lead to hangars within the station. Flora had provided us with the codes we needed to enter¡ªeasy enough, since researchers were allowed visitors. They didn¡¯t even look up records on our ship to make sure we¡¯re not criminals, which is fortunate since we absolutely are. The worst offenses aren¡¯t on public record, but the Adelaide has certainly been flagged as a smugglers¡¯ ship by now. ¡°I have to see the rest of this station,¡± Alec said as we landed. We were all gathered in the bridge, and he¡¯d been staring slack-jawed at the ship¡¯s video feed ever since I first came into sight. I suppose it must have put Darwin to shame, too. ¡°Please let me come with you.¡± ¡°Oh, feel free,¡± I said. ¡°This place isn¡¯t even slightly dangerous. Just be discreet about why we¡¯re here. Frances, are you coming?¡± Frances looked up from the doorway she was looming in. ¡°I¡¯m going to pick up some medical supplies while we¡¯re here. Shouldn¡¯t take long, but text me when you¡¯re on the way back.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± I said. ¡°Athena, you need anything?¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re stocked up on everything I need,¡± Athena replied. ¡°Oh, but I should probably mention that Flora doesn¡¯t know about the wetware thing, and she¡¯ll have to fly along with us to keep us updated in case they move Jules, so¡­it¡¯s up to you whether you¡¯d rather explain it to her yourself or have me do it.¡± ¡°Oh. I¡¯m surprised to hear that,¡± I said. Flora had seemed pretty close to Jules, given that she knew their location somehow and had jumped at the chance to help them. It seemed natural that she¡¯d know about Athena as well. Then again, I guess nobody but the crew really needs to know, and if someone doesn¡¯t need to know that you¡¯re committing a war crime, it¡¯s usually best not to tell them. ¡°I¡¯ll play it by ear, I guess. If there¡¯s a time when it seems right to tell her, I¡¯ll do it.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± Athena said. ¡°Text me when and if you tell her. If I don¡¯t hear from you, I¡¯ll assume I have to tell her myself.¡± ¡°How do you think she¡¯ll react?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never met her in person, so I can¡¯t really say. But at the very least, I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t rat Jules out or anything. The two of them go way back, and they¡¯ve been through some pretty intense stuff together,¡± Athena explained. With that, those of us who were able to left the ship and ventured out into Voltaire. From the hangars, we took one bullet train to the surface and another to the general neighborhood of our destination. It looked something like the inside of a mall: level after level of white floors rising around you, natural light streaming in from above, the occasional potted plant. The only real difference was that instead of storefronts, there were front doors. Some looked like homes, with little personal touches like brightly colored paint or decorative wreaths. Others, drab and unadorned, looked like office buildings or labs. ¡°An entire planet indoors,¡± Frances remarked. ¡°Kind of claustrophobic, if you ask me.¡± I grew up on a station, and this one had more open space than Fakir did, but somehow I agreed with her. Fakir was like an enormous building. Maybe you got cabin fever sometimes, but everything looked like it was supposed to be enclosed. This was different. The buildings rose up as high as trees, leaving only a small sliver of sky visible from the ground floor. And then there was the shiny whiteness of it all. It felt like a hospital that had grown out of its walls. ¡°Well, you kids have fun,¡± Frances continued. ¡°I¡¯m off to buy some drugs.¡± And with that we went our separate ways. Alec spent the entire walk gawking at our surroundings, though I¡¯m not sure how that entertained him for long considering everything looked the same to me. I spent the whole time looking at the people. It was all humans, at least that I saw. There weren¡¯t many wandering around, which made sense considering that in this sector of the station¡ªwhich, by the way, is big enough to have time zones¡ªit was late morning on a work day. Everyone must have been at work or school or wherever. But a few stray folks crossed our path here and there. I watched each of them carefully, checking for weapons. Nobody seemed to have guns, except one guy who carried a tranq gun meant for use on wildlife. Most people carried utility knives. Pretty typical for a research station, I supposed. ¡°Does Fakir use the three-shift system?¡± Alec said suddenly, tearing my attention away from the posture of the man across the way from us. ¡°The what?¡± I asked. ¡°I guess not,¡± he said. ¡°On Darwin, we¡ªthey¡ªsplit up the day into three eight hour shifts. Each person sleeps for a shift, works for a shift, and has free time for a shift. So really there are three completely different crews each working a different shift. That way nothing is ever left unattended, you know? But they can¡¯t do that here, because it ruins the point of using real sunlight if a third of the people on station are asleep when the sun¡¯s out. I¡¯m sure they must have a small emergency crew on call to deal with anything that comes up at night, or something like that.¡± ¡°Actually, I think Fakir does do that with station staff, except we¡¯re on a thirty-hour cycle. It¡¯s just that my job didn¡¯t have anything to do with the station itself, so my schedule didn¡¯t line up with those,¡± I explained. ¡°What was your job?¡± ¡°I was a bouncer at a club for a while before things got out of hand. After that I worked in a wealthy family¡¯s private police force until Bloodied Hand stuff made its way towards Fakir, and, well¡­let¡¯s just say I was between jobs when Jules came along,¡± I said. All mostly true, and more information than Jules had ever given about their past, so I figured that was all I really had to say about myself. ¡°What do you mean, things got out of hand?¡± Alec asked. Of course he¡¯d ask. And I wasn¡¯t nearly as used to dodging questions as Jules. ¡°Well, do you know what a puchin looks like?¡± ¡°Uh¡­they¡¯re the really tall spiky ones, right?¡± ¡°Yeah. Now imagine about twenty of those, but half of them are high on stimulants and have decided to pick a fight with the other half while the other two bouncers on duty are going at it in the bathroom,¡± I said. ¡°Not to mention that this is Fakir, so everyone is armed.¡± Alec sucked a breath in through his teeth. ¡°Yikes. What did you do?¡± The corner of my mouth twitched up slightly. ¡°Well, I tried to break things up, but I got shot in the foot pretty early on in the process, so I was like, fuck that. I marched my ass right into the bathroom knowing full well what was going on in there, and then I yelled and bled all over my coworkers until they went out to deal with the situation. But of course, two against twenty still isn¡¯t great, so pretty soon they came back with a few new holes and we all barricaded ourselves in there while we called the cops. After they cleared the place out, they stayed to ask us a few questions. And then suddenly, in walks our manager¡ªthree hours late. I quit on the spot. I hope the other two got fired, but I didn¡¯t stick around to find out.¡± ¡°Wait, were the other bouncers puchins or humans?¡± Alec asked. ¡°One of each,¡± I said. ¡°This was before the Bloodied Hand really started bearing down on Fakir, so that kind of thing wasn¡¯t unusual. No need to worry about birth control that way.¡± ¡°So the Bloodied Hand is¡­anti-human? Pro-human? Pro-puchin? Anti-puchin? Just against interspecies relationships?¡± I nearly stopped in my tracks. ¡°Wait, you seriously don¡¯t know?¡± Alec shrugged. ¡°They haven¡¯t really done anything on Terra or Darwin, so the name¡¯s familiar, but I don¡¯t know much about them.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t hear about them on Demali? That should be close enough that¨C¡± ¡°I was a little bit locked in a basement on Demali,¡± Alec interrupted. ¡°Oh, right,¡± I muttered. ¡°Okay, so, the Bloodied Hand is this sort of¡­pro-human terrorist group that roams the galaxy. Or I guess more human supremacist than pro-human. Point is, they have a roving fleet of ships that attacks any ET settlements that it feels are too close to human ones, or any ET populations that it thinks have privilege over humans living in the same area. For the past decade or so, they¡¯ve been making trouble in the neighborhood. I think they had a problem with some puchin-run mining operations on nearby asteroids. Within the last few years, Fakir caught their attention because, well, it¡¯s a pretty militaristic culture and puchins have a lot of physical advantages over humans. And sure, that caused some problems, but the Bloodied Hand coming in and making threats only made those problems worse.¡± ¡°Did they ever make good on any of those threats?¡± Alec asked. ¡°They attacked a lot of shipments coming in and out of the station. The biggest incident led to thirty or so casualties. Nothing on the station itself, though,¡± I said. ¡°At least not while I was there. I¡¯ve kind of been avoiding news from Fakir. No point stressing myself out about something I¡¯m no longer a part of.¡± Finally, we reached our destination: a powder blue door on the corner of 17th Street and 5th Avenue, number 655. The doorbell sang a cheerful little tune when I pressed it.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. It flew open and out danced a woman about my own age. Her skin was dusted all over with freckles, and she wore a colorful, flowing skirt. She smiled up at me, brown eyes shining, and said, ¡°You must be Marie. And Alec?¡± Alec nodded. ¡°Flora Leeds?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s me!¡± she chirped. She seemed¡­I don¡¯t know, my first impression was that she didn¡¯t seem like the sort of person who would have the ¡°illegal talents¡± necessary to track down someone who¡¯d been taken into Republic custody. She looked like she¡¯d fit in better with a sewing circle than a ring of criminals. But about six seconds later, I realized that made perfect sense for someone who associated with Jules. Even her attitude, which I thought was strangely chipper for someone about to carry out a high stakes rescue mission, made more sense when I remembered she and Jules were close personal friends. ¡°Oh! But I almost forgot!¡± Flora darted back inside, only to reemerge a moment later carrying a sizable cardboard box. ¡°That big order Jules put in for the two of you is finally done.¡± She pressed the box into my arms. I accepted it with no small amount of confusion. ¡°What big order?¡± Alec asked. ¡°Oh, shoot I guess I ruined the surprise,¡± Flora said. ¡°Jules said you two had nothing but the clothes on your backs when you joined up, so they ordered some custom work from one of the shops around here. Clothes and a few extra goodies!¡± Had I been in a lighter mood, I probably would¡¯ve laughed out loud. I came aboard the Adelaide with about three changes of institute-issued clothes in my backpack. Alec came with a dirty tee shirt and khakis. We¡¯d been making do with the various crew uniforms stashed away on the ship, with Alec being partial to engineers¡¯ jumpsuits and me tending towards the convertible pants and logo-embroidered polo shirts that had apparently served as the ground crew¡¯s uniform. Either of our wardrobes could¡¯ve easily been improved at any planet we stopped at if Jules thought it was necessary, but instead they waited months because they wanted to buy us custom-made clothes. ¡°I guess that explains why Frances took so many different measurements during that last round of physicals,¡± I muttered. ¡°Any chance ¡®goodies¡¯ includes weapons? I meant to pick something up while I was here.¡± ¡°Oh, no,¡± Flora said. ¡°You can¡¯t get any real weapons here. At least, not without going through some very rigorous paperwork and licensing exams.¡± I sighed. So much for that plan. ¡°Shall we get going? Oh, by the way, how safe is it to speak openly here?¡± ¡°The only thing to worry about is being overhead by the people around us,¡± Flora said. ¡°This is a research station, not a police state.¡± ¡°The two overlap more than you¡¯d think, but okay.¡± I took a look around and saw that we were alone. I lowered my voice anyway. ¡°Just so you know, um. You¡¯ll probably notice that our ship is pretty big for a four-person crew. We¡¯re able to get away with having such a small crew because we have, uh, a particular crew member who experiences a non-typical existence of a slightly illegal¨C¡± ¡°The ship is run by wetware,¡± Alec interrupted. ¡°That,¡± I confirmed. ¡°Oh! Uh. Why?¡± Flora asked, her face going from shock to confusion to concern in rapid succession. ¡°You¡¯d have to ask Jules,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯ve been doing it since before either of us joined the crew. But anyway, our, uh, wetware unit¡¯s name is Athena. She¡¯s the one who contacted you in the first place.¡± ¡°She¡¯s really chill,¡± Alec promised. ¡°Not even a little bit murderous. Just very, very illegal.¡± Flora seemed to stop working at that point. She didn¡¯t seem especially distressed, just¡­zoned out. She stared into the middle distance. If I had to describe her expression, I¡¯d say maybe vague frustration? Her lips were pursed and her jaw was tight. ¡°Uh, Flora¡­?¡± I asked. ¡°This isn¡¯t a dealbreaker or anything, is it?¡± Just like that, she snapped back into the present. ¡°Oh! Sorry. No, it¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll be fine. Let¡¯s go.¡± And so, after I paused to let Athena and Frances know the deed had been done, we made our way back to the ship. We gathered in the kitchen and brought up a holo screen at the table. Flora pulled up a map and pointed out Jules¡¯s location to us¡ªa Republic holding facility on Ethros. A few minutes later, Frances wandered in. ¡°Did you find what you needed?¡± I asked. She scowled and shook her head. ¡°I got some basic first aid shit, but if you want the good shit, they need to see a real medical license first. Damn civilization.¡± I turned to Flora. ¡°What are the odds we¡¯re going to need the good shit after this?¡± She bit her lip. ¡°I¡¯d say¡­I¡¯m optimistic about this,¡± she said. I didn¡¯t put much stock in it. She seemed like she¡¯d be optimistic about anything. ¡°From what I can tell, Orange Sector doesn¡¯t know as much as they think they do.¡± ¡°So there is something real going on here,¡± Frances snapped, slamming her hands down on the table. She thrust her face towards Flora and glared at her, cybernetic eyes gleaming fiercely. ¡°Jules actually did whatever the hell they were arrested for.¡± Flora didn¡¯t even flinch. ¡°For once, it¡¯s not about something Jules did. It¡¯s more about something that happened to them,¡± she said, maintaining her usual cheerful demeanor even as Frances stared her down. I expected Frances to back down after that¡ªfor all her hot air, she usually only raged for a few seconds before deciding it wasn¡¯t worth it. But instead, she tilted her head a little, stared a Flora curiously, and came in even closer. ¡°I¡¯ve got a question for you, Flora,¡± Frances said slowly. ¡°When¡¯s the last time you felt fear?¡± ¡°Frances,¡± I hissed. ¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± ¡°You want answers, right Marie? You¡¯re damn loud when you do those logs,¡± she said. ¡°And I think I¡¯m onto something here. So, Flora, when was it? When¡¯s the last time you were afraid?¡± Flora raised an eyebrow and smiled a little, like it was just some strange, funny question asked casually. Like it wasn¡¯t an interrogation from a six-foot-and-change, scarred-up mob doctor. ¡°When I found out Jules was running wetware, of course,¡± she said. ¡°No offense meant! But that kind of thing could get them into serious trouble.¡± Frances looked at me. ¡°What was her reaction when you told her?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how to describe it,¡± I said. ¡°Surprised, I guess.¡± ¡°But was she afraid?¡± ¡°¡­No. She wasn¡¯t. I still don¡¯t know where you¡¯re going with this,¡± I said. I was starting to get annoyed. If not for the fact that Flora didn¡¯t really seem to care, I¡¯d have been worried that Frances was going to chase her off before she could really help us. Frances turned back to Flora. ¡°I¡¯m not talking about worry here. Not just ¡®oh no, what if this happens.¡¯ I mean fear. I mean the thing that freezes you in your tracks when you see a gun barrel pointed in your direction. I mean the thing that makes you jump when you hear a noise in the middle of the night. I mean the thing that anyone in their right fucking mind would be feeling right now!¡± she shouted. ¡°When was the last time you felt that?!¡± Alec backed away from the table, but Flora stayed in place, still looking more confused than anything else. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough, Frances,¡± I said firmly. ¡°Go put your supplies away.¡± Frances lingered, still glaring, and at first I didn¡¯t think she would obey. But in the end, she did, making a little ¡®I¡¯m watching you¡¯ gesture at Flora as she left. The table was silent for a little while, giving Frances time to get out of earshot. ¡°What was that about?¡± Flora asked. ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure,¡± I said. But I was pretty damn sure. Jules walked right towards the sound of gunfire. Flora was unfazed when Frances screamed at her. Whatever the hell was wrong with Jules, Frances saw it in Flora, too. I let it go, though, because surely asking Jules, who we¡¯d known for months, would be more fruitful than trying to get something out of Flora, who we¡¯d known for several minutes. ¡°That was our medic, Frances, by the way. Sorry about¡­whatever that was.¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite alright,¡± Flora said. ¡°Let¡¯s get to planning, then.¡± And we did. It¡¯s quite a long flight to Ethros, so we set our course and launched before we planned any further. Then, for the rest of the ship¡¯s day cycle, we worked out our general strategy. We¡¯re still bickering over the details, and I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to stop anytime soon, but at least we have some idea of what we¡¯ll be doing. Shortly after we turned in for the night, Frances found me in my quarters. One arm propped her up casually against the doorframe while the other rested on her hip. ¡°So,¡± she said. ¡°I overhear a bitfrom your logs, but not enough. Come on. What are your theories on this whole mess?¡± I sat up on my bunk. ¡°The logs really don¡¯t go that deep,¡± I said. ¡°I have no idea what all the Orange Sector business is about. Up until now, I just thought Jules was a bit cracked in the head and I was trying to figure out how to help.¡± Frances let out a dissatisfied grunt. ¡°Well, you know what I think?¡± she said. I sighed. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I think this is going to be a fucking mess.¡± And with that, she stalked off. ¡°Wow! What a beacon of positivity!¡±Athena piped up. At that exact moment, I realized surely Athena knew more about this situation than the rest of us. She¡¯d known Jules for longer and had access to all their contacts. Something in me questioned the wisdom of trying to fish for information she hadn¡¯t volunteered, but I figured asking nicely couldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Say, Athena. Do you know what the hell¡¯s happening?¡± ¡°More than you do, that¡¯s for sure,¡± she said brightly. ¡°Still not saying much, though. Jules is secretive about their past.¡± ¡°But you do know what Orange Sector wants with Jules.¡± ¡°Vaguely,¡± Athena confirmed. ¡°So what the hell is it?¡± I asked, exasperated. ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell you without Jules¡¯s permission.¡± ¡°Fucking seriously?¡± ¡°Seriously.¡± I groaned. ¡°Look, everybody on this crew has already accepted the fact that Jules runs wetware. What could they possibly have done that would be more concerning than that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about whether the crew accepts it or not,¡± Athena said tersely. ¡°It¡¯s about respecting Jules¡¯s privacy. There are some things they might not want you to know yet, and it¡¯s not my place to tell you those things.¡± ¡°Even if those things are extremely relevant to the rescue we¡¯re carrying out?¡± I asked. The door to my room, which had been open, slammed shut. I heard a click as it locked. A chill ran down my spine. I¡¯d seen this movie. ¡°Athena, open the damn door,¡± I demanded. We made jokes about this kind of thing all the time, but for the first time since boarding the Adelaide, I found myself seriously thinking about all the ways Athena could screw me over if she felt like it. She had control over the life support system, the course we were taking, the artificial gravity, the goddamn coffeemaker. Everything. Given that and the fact that we were way out in the ¡®middle of goddamn nowhere¡¯ region of space, it suddenly seemed appropriate for her to use the name of a deity. ¡°Calm down,¡± Athena said at a lower volume than usual. ¡°I just don¡¯t want anyone to overhear. The thing is, I owe Jules more than I¡¯ve ever¡ªI owe them more than I can repay. Do you know how big the bounty is on wetware units? It¡¯s more than Jules will make in their entire career. They could¡¯ve shipped me off to the authorities and retired comfortably on that money. But they didn¡¯t. This life is better than any I could reasonably have hoped to live after¡­that¡­and it¡¯s all thanks to Jules. So I think you can understand if I¡¯m not comfortable spreading their personal business around without their knowledge or permission.¡± The door unlocked, and the tension melted out of my shoulders.
Did you really think I was going to¨C
YES! I fucking¡­you can¡¯t just¡­look, you could kill me so easily.
So could Frances.
Wh¡ªshe¡¯s taller than me, but I like to think I could hold my own against her. Institute training, remember?
But she¡¯s the only doctor you have access to way out here. If she decided she didn¡¯t like you, she could just¡­slip you something, one day.
Great, that¡¯s gonna be fun to think about next time I get my flu shot. Thanks, Athena, you¡¯re really great at this whole ¡®reassuring¡¯ thing.
Jules could kill you, too. They¡¯re a pacifist, sure, but there are loopholes. Most of the time, you¡¯re following them pretty blindly. They could lead you into a trap one day, and that would be that.
Are you gonna tell me how Alec could kill me now, or can we skip right to the point?
Well, theoretically Alec could kill you by replacing the ship¡¯s parts with cheap counterfeits, but I¡¯d kick his ass if I caught him doing that. Anyway, my point is, even though the rest of the crew could kill you, you¡¯re never waiting for it to happen. You sit still for Frances¡¯s exams, you follow Jules¡¯s plans pretty much unquestioningly, and you let Alec do part replacements without your supervision. So why¡¯s it only me that freaks you out that badly?
Are you¡ªYou were deliberately trying to intimidate me, slamming the door like that. Don¡¯t even pretend!
I was frustrated, and I reacted to that frustration. Frances does that constantly and nobody blinks an eye. Look, what I¡¯m trying to say here is, I¡¯m a crew member like any other. Yes, I have control over things that are important to your survival, but so does everyone else on this ship. And just like everyone else, I¡¯m occasionally going to have an emotional reaction to something, maybe even an overreaction. And despite those things, you¡¯re going to have to trust me.
I¡­Fine. Fine, okay, I see what you¡¯re saying. And I¡¯m sorry. I just¡­don¡¯t¡­ You should warn me. If you need to do that again. The sound of it just¡­ Listen, it¡¯s late and tomorrow¡¯s a big day. We¡¯ll work this out better when all this is over. Marie Ruiz, signing off. 5. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.9.2100 So that was a hell of a day. Let me start at the beginning. Ethros is as barren as Terra¡¯s moon aside from a single dome colony on its equator. There¡¯s really nothing there except for a Republic outpost and the little village surrounding it. It¡¯s essentially a company town¡ªeveryone living there either works for the Republic or does work needed by the people who work for the Republic. Security is high there, naturally, but the nice thing about dome colonies is that they have to send a lot of things in and out. It¡¯s a modern-day mercantile system: the colonies are usually built by a sponsor of some sort who wants to take advantage of some natural resource the planet has, usually valuable ores and minerals. The colony then has to ship those materials back to its sponsor. The sponsors also get to sell the colony everything it needs. Water, oxygen, manufactured goods, you name it. Anything they can¡¯t get from the colony itself comes to them through the sponsor. Ethros is a tiny bit different because they¡¯re not exporting anything. There¡¯s little to nothing of value there. It¡¯s just a strategic location for the Republic of Free Planets to have a base¡ªlets their ships refuel and their people rest planetside in what is otherwise the middle of scenic nowhere, things like that. But because the planet has so few resources, they need to bring in a lot of goods from the outside. Enough that they can¡¯t possibly be vigilant about every single shipment that comes in. Flora was able to call in a favor with the guy who ships water converters to the colony. Ethros has no liquid water to call its own, but it does have hydrogen and oxygen, and at the end of the day that¡¯s all you need. Since water is heavy, shipping in machines to turn those ingredients into water is a hell of a lot cheaper than shipping in water itself. The great thing about these converters is that they have empty tanks inside them where the water is stored once it¡¯s made. And they¡¯re huge; like, water tower huge. And they¡¯ve got ladder bars on the inside in case someone slips in while doing maintenance or inspections. In other words, there¡¯s plenty of space for four adult humans to strap themselves in. And the converter itself is so massive that the weight of four stowaways is easily overlooked, especially if you happen to know a guy who can make sure it gets overlooked. But it is not a comfortable journey, let me tell you. When I say we strapped ourselves in, I mean that literally. We had a bunch of strong fabric straps, like seatbelts, that we normally use for cargo, and we used those to lash ourselves to the ladder bars inside the empty water tank. We were lucky in that most of the journey took place within a larger ship whose artificial gravity gave us a smooth ride. But for the very last leg, the water converters get fired down to the surface of Ethros all on their own. Being electronic, they don¡¯t have their own life support. We all had to wear EVA suits complete with oxygen tanks and pressure regulators. Luckily, the Adelaide has them in great supply for its theoretical crew of hundreds. Though they¡¯ve come a long way from the Apollo days, they¡¯re still heavy and not all that comfortable. Still, I was grateful to have mine; the padding in the helmet was the only thing that kept my skull from repeatedly ramming against the steel bars behind me as atmospheric turbulence shook the converter like a cocktail. The turbulence, though, was nothing compared to the thunderous shock of the converter slamming into the ground for the first time. The converter has parachutes to slow it down and airbag-like balloons that inflate on impact. It has to land softly enough not to damage the equipment, but the equipment is not nearly so delicate as the human body. I hissed in through my teeth as the impact sent ladder bars into my back and straps into the rest of me. I knew right away it would bruise and bruise ugly. But I¡¯d survive, so long as the suit didn¡¯t rupture. The next bounce was almost as bad as the first. After that, the airbags and the loss of momentum worked to calm things down a bit, but the damage was done. Every bounce sent straps and bars into places that were already bruised. Finally, we rolled to a stop. For a long, uncomfortable moment, I was essentially dangling from the ceiling. Next to me, Alec and Frances dangled sideways while Flora lay on her back. Then the converter¡¯s landing gear kicked in and righted it, so that we all had feet towards the planet¡¯s surface. ¡°Everybody okay?¡± I asked over the EVA suits¡¯ comm system. ¡°I think I broke a rib,¡± Alec said in a weak, panicked voice. ¡°Fine over here,¡± Frances said. I could hear the grimace in her voice. ¡°And I¡¯ll check Alec out the second I get myself down.¡± ¡°Okay here,¡± Flora said brightly. We all began the arduous process of un-strapping ourselves and taking inventory of our bumps and bruises. We wouldn¡¯t know the full extent of our injuries until we were out of the suits, but I could feel a hint of whiplash. We definitely should have secured our heads better. Alec turned out not to have one broken rib, but several. The best we could do was give him something for the pain once we got into the dome colony, which wouldn¡¯t be for a while yet. For now, we were playing a waiting game; waiting for the colony¡¯s runners to come load up the converter and bring it into the dome. The very lucky thing about these converters is that they do have lights in the storage tank. Should someone fall in, they don¡¯t want them swimming around blindly, they want them to be able to see the ladders. But it is just enough to let you see the ladders. Luckily none of us planned on doing any reading. We gathered near one of the ladders, where the lighting was best, and sat on the floor. In case the runners came earlier than expected, we couldn¡¯t make any conversation. I ran through the plan in my head again and again. I don¡¯t know how much time passed, but eventually we were on the move again. The tank resonated with the low rumble of the rover that carried us. From there, it was another long wait until we stopped moving again, and another wait still until we were sure we were alone and in conditions that could support life without the suits. We ditched them in the tank. We wouldn¡¯t need them on the way back¨Cwe had a much worse, riskier plan. We climbed the ladder to the top and popped the emergency hatch. I could hear poor Alec whimpering the whole way. We emerged in a warehouse. Our immediate vicinity was occupied by the other water converters that had been dropped, while the farther reaches of the building contained all manner of crates and metal tanks and shelves upon shelves of boxes. Some of those boxes contained the janitorial uniforms worn in Orange Sector¡¯s base here. You can probably see where this is going. Once we had all dressed, the group split. Alec and Frances went to secure our getaway shuttle while Flora and I searched for Jules. For a field biologist, Flora¡¯s pretty good at this kind of thing. Again, I guess it shouldn¡¯t surprise me since she¡¯s friends with Jules. But I have to say, I was impressed by her confidence as we moved through the cold gray Orange Sector halls. She kept her cool even when we passed by various Orange Sector employees wearing suits or labcoats or shirts and ties, all of them with a steely look in their eyes. We didn¡¯t really see much of what was down there¨Cit was mostly a lot of doors. Some were made of steel and bolted shut from the outside. Some were made of what I can only assume was lead. Others were made of ordinary wood fiber and would have looked at home at your typical office building. I kept my eyes peeled for a sign of where we should be going, but everything looked the same. There were signs pointing out various points of interests¨Cforensics lab here, so-and-so¡¯s office there¨Cbut none of the listed locations seemed like a place they would have taken Jules to. So it¡¯s lucky for me that Flora seemed to know where she was going. She took the lead after the first few minutes¨CI think she might have been humoring me to begin with. I followed along as she wove her way through the corridors. We went up and down stairs several times for reasons I don¡¯t really understand, considering we wound up on the same floor we¡¯d started on. Maybe she didn¡¯t know her way all that well, or maybe she knew it very well. Who¡¯s to say? We stopped at one of those office-type doors after a while. It didn¡¯t look any different from the hundreds of other doors we¡¯d passed to me, but Flora reached out to open it. And a hand came down on my shoulder. ¡°I think the two of you had better come with me,¡± said an unexpectedly warm voice. I waited patiently to be sedated or tased, but that moment never came. When the tension in my muscles melted enough for me to turn around, I saw Mac¡¯s broad face staring back at me, his mouth drawn into a frown. Not a serious government agent frown. The frown of someone who¡¯s just caught a child with a hand in the cookie jar. For once, Ana was not with him. Flora and I exchanged a glance. ¡°We¡¯d better,¡± I echoed. Mac brought us to a boiler room, of all places. It was dark and cramped and hot. Flora and I were backed against a water heater while Mac stood in front of the door. I tried not to pay attention to how thoroughly trapped we were. ¡°So is it a good sign or a bad sign that we¡¯re here and not in a cell somewhere?¡± I wondered aloud. ¡°This is one of only a handful of rooms here that doesn¡¯t have surveillance,¡± Mac explained, which was A) not comforting, and B) not something you should tell people who are currently infiltrating your building. ¡°You¡¯re here because I¡¯m giving you a chance I¡¯m not supposed to give you.¡± He left us in silence until I gestured for him to go on. ¡°The way I see it, you and your friends are just everyday people who got mixed up in all this somehow. You deserve one last chance to turn around and run. Get out of here and go live a normal life. So if you¡¯ll agree to do that, I¡¯ll make sure you get out safe.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Not without my captain,¡± I said. Mac sighed. ¡°I was afraid you¡¯d say¨C¡° Before he could finish his sentence, an alarm started screaming overhead. Red lights flashed on and off in the darkness of the boiler room. Every head in the room whipped towards the speaker on the wall. ¡°Leave,¡± Mac insisted, straining to be heard over the siren. His eyes met mine with a fevered look. ¡°Something¡¯s gone wrong and you don¡¯t want to be a part of that. Leave now and everyone¡¯ll be too distracted to stop you. Go!¡± And with that one last shout, he ran out of the boiler room, leaving us unattended. ¡°So, that was Mac,¡± I told Flora as we, too, dashed out of the room. Again, I wasn¡¯t sure where we were going, but Flora sure was. She wasn¡¯t walking or jogging, but running. I wondered faintly where Ana was and whether we had to worry about bumping into her. The flashing lights turned the halls nightmarishly disorienting; staccato bursts of red over the endless doors. Flora stopped at a door again, but it wasn¡¯t the same one from before. This was an overhead door. She hefted it open and inside was a small shuttle. ¡°We¡¯re taking Mac¡¯s advice, then?¡± I shouted over the alarm. ¡°No,¡± Flora called back from the shuttle¡¯s open airlock. In too much of a hurry to question it, I hopped in with her. Still in atmosphere, there was no need to wait for it to pressurize. We stumbled directly into the shuttle¡¯s passenger area, where we were met by Alec, Frances, and Jules. Jules looked like shit. A red-and-purple bruise covered most of one cheek. Their usual ornate wardrobe had been replaced by an orange jumpsuit, which they¡¯d zipped down to reveal a white undershirt stained with sweat. If the bags under their eyes were any indication, they were exhausted. But they sat with their ankle crossed over their knee, chin resting on one hand, and a slight smile on their face. It looked, for the most part, exactly like their usual serene expression, but I couldn¡¯t help but detect a hint of smugness. And their eyes had a distinct glint to them. ¡°Welcome aboard,¡± they said. ¡°I do hope the adjustments to our plan did not cause you an excess of consternation.¡± I, being excessively consternated indeed, could do nothing but sink into the nearest seat. They were good seats, properly padded to help the human body withstand the enormous force associated with launching a spacecraft through the atmosphere. With real seatbelts. Much better overall than strapping yourself to a ladder. Jules¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°Marie, I was hoping you would act as our pilot. I would do the honors myself, but I am afraid my wrist is broken.¡± So I got up and moved to the pilot¡¯s seat and everyone belted in and shockingly no one bothered to shoot us down as I flew us out of a secure government facility from which we had just somehow extracted a prisoner. Pure exasperation carried me silently out of atmosphere and into the Adelaide¡¯s docking port. It¡¯s not a short journey, but the time barely registered with me. Once everyone was safely aboard, I marched to Adelaide¡¯s bridge and jettisoned the shuttle. We couldn¡¯t afford to let the Republic track us by it. ¡°Welcome back, Captain,¡± Athena said. ¡°Thank you, Athena. It is, as always, a pleasure to return unscathed.¡± Frances barked, ¡°You call that unscathed?¡± ¡°Have you not seen a great number of more severe injuries?¡± ¡°Shut up and let¡¯s get some imaging done on that wrist,¡± Frances said. ¡°As you wish.¡± I followed them to the med bay. Alec and Flora, having nothing better to do, came along. ¡°I suppose you all got an explanation while I was flying?¡± I asked. Alec laughed. ¡°Nope.¡± Flora was silent. When we¡¯d all gathered in the med bay, Frances yelled at us to get the hell out of the x-ray room. About ten minutes later, she came out scowling over an image of Jules¡¯s shattered wrist. And I do mean shattered. ¡°What the hell did they do, hit it with a hammer?¡± Frances demanded. Jules followed her out of the x-ray room somewhat hesitantly. ¡°It was caught in a closing door,¡± they explained. ¡°And what happened to your face?¡± ¡°An overzealous interrogator.¡± ¡°Of course. What else?¡± Frances said. She led Jules to an exam table and started fitting them with a wrist brace. ¡°By the way, mind filling us in on what you were being interrogated for?¡± ¡°Oddly enough, they declined to tell me.¡± ¡°How ¡¯bout a guess?¡± Jules winced as Frances adjusted the brace. ¡°With the sort of life I have lived, it could have been any number of things. Something or someone I once transported, perhaps, that was out of the ordinary. Or perhaps one of my many contacts has attracted their attention, and I am merely wanted as a witness. Or,¡± they said, looking directly at me, ¡°It is a matter of the kind of person I am.¡± ¡°What kind of person is that?¡± I asked slowly. ¡°A vagrant with suspicious amounts of money. An individual who came out of nowhere within the past few years. The implantless captain of a very large ship. All things worthy of investigation.¡± ¡°They said you were a person of interest,¡± I said. ¡°They said I matched the description of such a person,¡± Jules corrected. ¡°I have done many things and met many people that might be of interest to the Republic. Whether I am the person they sought, I can¡¯t say, as they never described that person to me.¡± Frances finished adjusting the brace. ¡°All set,¡± she said, giving Jules a slap on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t go sticking it in any doors.¡± Jules sprang off the exam table. ¡°Very well, then,¡± they said. ¡°I believe we have narcotics to deliver. If we are fortunate, and if Flora will allow us to postpone her return to Voltaire, perhaps we can still arrive within the expected time frame.¡± ¡°But how did you get out?¡± Alec asked. Jules looked over their shoulder as they left the room. ¡°With inside assistance,¡± they replied. All of us¨Cme, Alec, Frances, and Flora¨Cchased after them. ¡°I was able to contact someone familiar with the layout of the building,¡± they added when they noticed our pursuit. ¡°So I thought I ought to meet you halfway.¡± ¡°How the hell¡¯d you know where to meet us?¡± Frances demanded. ¡°Flora and I have been in contact.¡± ¡°How?¡° Jules stopped almost in their tracks and considered it for a moment. ¡°That is, for now, a secret,¡± they said at last. They yawned. ¡°The hour grows late. We all ought to sleep.¡± Frances tried to argue with them. From what I could hear from my quarters, it sounded like she followed them all the way to their quarters and spent a few minutes shouting at them from outside before giving up. As for me, exhaustion sank in the second I heard the word ¡°sleep.¡± I didn¡¯t get the answers I wanted, but the crisis was resolved and sometimes you¡¯ve just gotta take what you can get. And you know, if Jules says they don¡¯t know what Orange Sector wanted with them, I believe them. I don¡¯t think Jules lies. Even when it¡¯s the smart thing to do. So really, there¡¯s nothing to be gained by questioning Jules further. What are we supposed to do, press every single thing it might possibly be out of them? So now it¡¯s back to business as usual, I guess. We have to deliver the stardust we picked up on Thyris. Flora made a compromise and she¡¯ll be heading back to Voltaire in one of the Adelaide¡¯s shuttles so we can stay on schedule. We¡¯ll pick it up from her when we get a chance¨Cuntil then, we have three other shuttles we rarely use. But something¡¯s wrong, and that¡¯s not going away. Whatever the Orange Sector wanted, they didn¡¯t get it this time. They¡¯ll be back. I wonder, will they send Ana and Mac again, or will it be someone new? Probably the former. Now they¡¯ve caught Jules successfully once, and they probably won¡¯t be blamed for their escape. Or maybe it¡¯s just wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking? About people coming after us? Dare I ask?
You do dare, apparently, even though I asked you not to butt into my logs. But hey, I guess I¡¯m a giant hypocrite if I don¡¯t explain. You remember I said Ana had an institute weapon?
Yeah. So she was your classmate or something?
She¡¯s at least a few years older than me and I don¡¯t recognize her, so no, I don¡¯t think so. But she might be close enough to my age that we were in the institute at the same time, and I¡¯m hoping she might remember a few things better than I do. There are things that¡­ that I think happened, but other times I think I must be making them up, or that I¡¯m not remembering things in the right order. And maybe if she went through the same things, I can get some confirmation that I¡¯m not just imagining things.
Aaaaaand you¡¯re not going to explain what things, are you.
My memory of it is all screwed up, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve been saying. I don¡¯t want to claim certain things happened when I don¡¯t know if they did. I don¡¯t want to make any accusations without first knowing if I¡¯m just pulling them all out of my ass. Some of it¡¯s far-fetched.
Memories don¡¯t just come out of nowhere.
Well, no, but there was plenty of bad shit going on at the institute that I do remember. I think maybe looking back, my brain just adds in every bad thing I heard from rumor, or that happened to someone else, or that I read in a book once. All that gets tossed in with the stuff I don¡¯t want to think about, and it all starts to blend together.
So where¡¯s the line between what you know happened and what you might have made up?
I don¡¯t know. That¡¯s the hard part. Once I doubt one thing, I start doubting everything else. And it works the opposite way, too; once I admit that one thing happened I start thinking everything did. But there are a handful of incidents that I know were real because I remember telling people about them shortly after they happened. Or because they left visible scars. Once I got shot with live rounds during what was supposed to be a training exercise, and I know that¡¯s real because I¡¯ve still got the mark right there on my leg.
Uh. What kind of school was this again?
They don¡¯t usually use live rounds like that. That was either a fuck-up or another student sneaking real ammo in specifically to hurt me. Never really found out which. But I told you that the Hylmir Institute was partly an experimental school, right? Well, sometimes the experiments were a little more extreme than average. After all, the institute¡¯s main purpose was to produce better soldiers. At one point, they decided they needed a way for soldiers to coordinate better on the battlefield, so they fitted a bunch of us with neural implants that formed a telepathic link to our training partners. Only there was no distinction between broadcasting and not broadcasting the way there is with the thyrins. Everything came over. Sensory information, thoughts, feelings, identity¡­ The link obliterated the distinction between us. It was overwhelming. And then they tried to make us fight like that, but the thing is, we could barely walk like that. Same-species partners had it a little easier, but Mnirin and I were each dealing with a sense we¡¯d never had before, yet also dealing with memories of always having that sense, and¡­ it was just¡­ bad. The program was canceled and the implants removed, for obvious reasons, but it was about a week of absolute hell before that happened.
Wow. I guess that explains why you got so freaked out on Thyris.
It sure does.
You should mention that to Jules. They¡¯d been wondering why you reacted so badly to telepathy.
I suppose you¡¯re going to tell me that if I want Jules to explain themselves to me, I should do the same for them.
Not a bad idea, but no. Mostly you should do it because they were worried.
Not just about my well-being, I take it? But fine. I¡¯ll talk to them soon. Anyway, I¡¯m hoping to get a chance to talk to Ana at some point to compare notes. See if she remembers any of the stranger things I think might have happened. If she doesn¡¯t, I guess I¡¯m just crazy, but at least I¡¯ll know it for sure. If she does, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do. Bask in vindication? Report it, I guess. None of that should have happened, assuming it ever did. So yeah. Today¡¯s just a travel day. Gives me some time to catch up on the log. And sleep. And¨C [door slams] Was that Frances?
Yes. She¡¯s currently running down the hallway like something¡¯s crawling up her leg. Looks like she¡¯s headed for Jules¡¯s room again.
I thought she¡¯d have given up by now.
Guess she got a second wind.
[muffled shouting] Oh, this¡¯ll be wonderful for my audio quality. [shouting intensifies] I [indistinct] [indistict] get a word in edgewise here. [indistinct] HEY, SHUT UP! [Frances replies with several expletives] [shouting resumes at slightly reduced volume] Ooookay, I guess I have to go mediate this. Marie Ruiz, signing off. 6. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 1.31.2100 It¡¯s been weeks since my last log. In my defense, things went sideways. So, right after last time, I went to sort things out with Frances. I found her pounding on Jules¡¯s door and convinced her to sit down in the kitchen instead so we could talk. Jules hung back for a minute while I led Frances there. I put on tea because I had nothing better to do. ¡°What kind do you want?¡± I asked. ¡°Coffee,¡± Frances spat. She may be a pain sometimes, but believe it or not, I actually kind of like her. She¡¯s¨Crational isn¡¯t the right word, not with the fits she throws. But she¡¯s very practical. Down to earth. That¡¯s not something we have a lot of around here. Alec doesn¡¯t have the maturity for it, and Jules is Jules. So I went ahead and put on the coffeemaker, too. I had to dig it, and the coffee, out of some forgotten cabinet and dust it off a little, but it still worked. While it was bubbling, I sat down across from Frances. ¡°So, why don¡¯t you tell me what the problem is here?¡± I asked. ¡°The problem,¡± she said slowly, ¡°Is that we just invaded a secure government facility to bust out our captain and they have not bothered to tell us why that was necessary, except to say that it could have been more than one thing. And quite frankly? I don¡¯t find that comforting.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I wasn¡¯t totally sure how to respond. My goal was to defuse the situation, but as much as I hate to admit it, Frances had a point. It was clear by now that Jules was mixed up in worse things than the average smuggler, and knowing that those things were multiple wasn¡¯t reassuring. ¡°I don¡¯t like mysteries, Marie,¡± she said. It had the tone of a warning to it. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± I promised. Frances snorted. Jules came in just as I was pouring out beverages. They had their usual serene air about them, gracefully sweeping in and taking their seat as if they hadn¡¯t spent the past few minutes being cornered and ranted at by an enraged former mob doctor. Frances glared as if she was about to start ranting all over again. I took a deep breath. I¡¯m not exactly a trained mediator or diplomat or anything. I used to break up fights when I worked as a bouncer, but those were generally physical fights. But I wanted to get this sorted out before I had to physically pull Frances off of Jules. ¡°So, the problem as I understand it,¡± I began, ¡°Is that Frances is uncomfortable with not fully understanding what she¡¯s getting herself into as a member of this crew. And Jules, given recent events, it seems like we all might be getting into worse things than we originally thought. If there¡¯s any more information you could give us, I think it would help a lot.¡± Jules¡¯s brow knit. They rested their braced wrist on the table. ¡°As I said before, I can¡¯t be sure exactly what prompted the Orange Sector to investigate me. I am not even certain I¡¯m the person they wanted. It could very well be a case of mistaken identity.¡± ¡°Yes, but you did say there are many things it might have been,¡± I pointed out. ¡°That alone is worrying. Can you tell us about some of those things, maybe?¡± ¡°Much of it has to do with the people I¡¯ve been in contact with. I deal with all sorts,¡± Jules explained. ¡°I once did business with someone who believed the entire universe was controlled by a telepathic species capable of mind control. Another client was utterly convinced that the scientists on Voltaire conducted unethical experimentation on sapient life forms. I have heard many of the conspiracy theories the Orange Sector would be interested in directly from believers who are more than happy to explain in great detail. And occasionally I transport people or things without being overly inquisitive about them. It could have been something I was entirely unaware of.¡± I looked over at Frances. She seemed unimpressed. ¡°Can you tell us about the questions they asked you?¡± I asked. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll give us a clue.¡± Jules gave a half-shrug. ¡°Very basic questions, initially. My name, where I lived, what I did for a living. I took a few liberties with my answer to the last¨CI told them I deal in imports and exports. From there it was primarily questions about where I was and what I was doing on specific dates within the past few years. All were long before I took on my current profession, curiously. I was, once again, creative with my answers, which they did not appreciate.¡± Their face was slightly swollen under the bruise. ¡°I don¡¯t much appreciate it, either!¡± Frances snapped. It went on like that for a while longer; Frances demanding answers and Jules delivering statements that failed to meet her standards. I occasionally stepped in to try to calm Frances down, but eventually Jules said, ¡°My dear, there are times when we must make ourselves comfortable with uncertainty,¡± and nothing I said could stop her from storming out of the room. I hardly blame her. Jules stared after her blankly. ¡°That did not go well,¡± they said. They took a sip of their tea. ¡°No,¡± I agreed. ¡°It didn¡¯t.¡± I¡¯m not stupid enough to go after her right away. I figured I¡¯d let her cool down a bit before I started preaching to her. In the meantime, I had a cup of tea to finish. Jules stayed in their seat and was silent for a while, fiddling with their used teabag. Eventually, they commented, ¡°This is genuine Camellia sinensis, you know. I source it from a greenhouse on Voltaire.¡± Then they sprang up and left in a hurry for no clear reason. They left their dirty teacup on the table for me to tidy up. I took my time with my drink and the cleanup. I even found a few extra spots in the kitchen to clean while I was at it: the microwave oven Alec had splattered with an accidentally exploded meal a few days ago, the perennial layer of grime in the sink basin, some crumbs and things spilled on the floor over the weeks. Frances used to do a lot of the cleaning, but got frustrated that she was the only one doing it and decided to let the rest of us ¡°live in filth.¡± At this rate I¡¯ll have to make a chore wheel. When I ran out of distractions, I meandered over to Frances¡¯s quarters. I found her packing. I stood there stunned for a moment. Frances glanced over. ¡°Pass me that duffel,¡± she said. I picked up the bag in question, but didn¡¯t hand it over yet. ¡°Where are you going to go?¡± ¡°Back to Demali,¡± she said, still furiously shoving fistfuls of clothing into a suitcase. ¡°Might get me killed, but it can¡¯t be messier than this. If you don¡¯t wanna lose a shuttle, you could drop me off.¡± The thing is, it¡¯s pretty important that Frances stay with us, or at least not leave on bad terms. She knows we¡¯re running wetware, after all. She could easily trade every crew member¡¯s, and Athena¡¯s, freedom for a huge bounty. And I figured she might, if she left as upset as she was. So I was panicking a little; desperate to come up with something that might make her stay. ¡°You were running from something when we picked you up,¡± I pointed out. ¡°And now I¡¯m running from this,¡± she said. ¡°If things really get bad on Demali, I¡¯ll find something else off-planet that won¡¯t get me murked by the Orange Sector.¡± ¡°I just wonder what someone like you could have been running from,¡± I said. I gestured at her eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve clearly already been through the wringer. Must be something big if it scared you off.¡± Frances turned her back to me. ¡°Fuck you,¡± she grumbled. ¡°Hand me the bag already, will you?¡± I passed it to her. She took it without looking back. Athena must have told Jules what was happening, because they came hurrying down the hallway and didn¡¯t seem a bit confused by the scene before them. They stopped a few feet from Frances¡¯s door. ¡°We will drop you off,¡± they called out. ¡°Marie, meet me in my office.¡± Jules¡¯s ¡°office¡± is the vestibule between the captain¡¯s quarters and the rest of the ship. It¡¯s a spacious room with rich red carpeting and walls the color of oiled brass. The edges of the room are crowded with shelves of souvenirs from Jules¡¯s travels; mainly rare minerals and preserved plant specimens. It occurred to me for the first time that some of these might have come from Flora. Towards the middle of the room, just off-center, is Jules¡¯s desk and chair. Both are your standard bolted-to-the-floor spaceship furniture, but done in a more opulent style than usual. The chair is padded and upholstered with what might even be real leather. The desk is the same brass color as the walls. Opposite from Jules¡¯s chair are two smaller seats, little more than stools with cushions. I planted myself in one of them and waited for Jules to sit down. Instead, they paced around near their desk, gazing pensively at their shelves full of knick knacks. They picked up one of their plant specimens, a set of long, saw-toothed leaves that had been pressed and set in resin. ¡°Castanea dentata,¡± they said, bringing their Latin name count for the day up to two. ¡°Effectively extinct long before Terra¡¯s ultimate demise. Frances is in conflict with Alexander Morgan, the man who controls the downtown area of Demali.¡± If there was a segue between the two topics, I missed it. Jules put down the plant sample and turned back to me. ¡°Mr. Morgan himself brought it to my attention when he discovered I had hired her. It has disrupted our business relationship somewhat, but I believe I still hold enough influence with him to smooth things out for Frances.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that just make it easier for her to leave?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Jules said. ¡°That is the point of doing it. I would not wish for her to be in danger when she returns to Demali.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried she¡¯ll come forward with what she knows about¡­ well, everything?¡± ¡°Would you like to know why Frances is no longer in Mr. Morgan¡¯s good graces?¡± Jules asked. ¡°Sure,¡± I said. At that point, who was I to say no to concrete answers? ¡°Ms. Young had been a mob doctor in Mr. Morgan¡¯s employ for several years, treating members of the downtown organization for all manner of injuries and illnesses. Mr. Morgan quite liked her, but was devastated to find, one day, that she had attended to the needs of an uptown man,¡± Jules explained. ¡°The man in question was near death when Frances found him. She saved his life in spite of his affiliation. I¡¯ll remind you that Frances has never taken any sort of an oath. She helped this man knowing it would earn her a dangerous enemy, not because of her profession but because of who she is.¡± I nodded slowly. Frances had demonstrated that she would choose compassion over continued employment, and thus over money. Significantly less money than she¡¯d get for ratting us all out, but the idea was there. I wondered if this was the trouble she¡¯d lost her eyes over. ¡°So what is it we¡¯re doing for her?¡± I asked. ¡°Mr. Morgan has been seeking a courier for a risky and time-sensitive delivery. He has not had much luck, and his time is running short,¡± Jules explained. ¡°I will offer him our services on the condition that he leave Ms. Young undisturbed when she returns to Demali.¡± ¡°And the catch?¡± ¡°Is that making this delivery would take us through the Vizel-Mennen conflict¡¯s most active war zone,¡± Jules said. ¡°We¡¯re in space, with literally infinite directions we could go in. Can¡¯t we just go around the fighting?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the conflict has grown too large. We could not avoid it and still make our delivery promptly enough for Mr. Morgan¡¯s standards,¡± Jules said. ¡°The skirmishes are sparsely distributed, however. With good fortune, we may never see any sign of battle.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°And what is it we¡¯re delivering?¡± ¡°Several pieces of genuine early 20th century uranium glass, made with nearly twenty-five percent uranium,¡± Jules explained. ¡°Quite a collector¡¯s item. Mr. Morgan promised it to a distant business partner in exchange for a favor some time ago, and now this partner grows impatient. She has delivered an ultimatum: the glass within the month, or else. Or else what I¡¯m not certain, but Mr. Morgan did not seem eager to see these threats realized.¡± So we were flying an unarmed ship into an active combat zone to deliver a bunch of artsy vases to some rich criminal. I might have mentioned this a few times, but I did not expect my life to turn out like this. Jules and I talked strategy for a while. My military background is pretty far behind me at this point, but I¡¯m still more familiar with how battles play out in space than Jules is. I left with a homework assignment: read up on how this conflict has been playing out so far, and get back to Jules with some basic predictions about where and when fighting might happen. In the meantime, we set a course for Demali. When Frances found out what we were planning to do, she was¡­ ungrateful, to be honest. ¡°If you think doing me a favor will convince me to stay, you¡¯re shit out of luck,¡± she said. ¡°But hell, I¡¯ll still take the favor.¡± So I started obsessively following news of the Vizel-Mennen conflict. I took some time to brush up on my military strategy while I was at it. Like I said, it¡¯s been a while. I¡¯m still great in a brawl, but I¡¯ve never seen a real battlefield and it¡¯s been years since I¡¯ve studied this stuff. With Frances finally satisfied, we had some downtime during travel. Alec took the time to write home¨Che has plenty of family still on Darwin. Jules focused on selling Alexander Morgan on this deal. Frances herself was busy making arrangements for life on Demali¨Ccontacting old friends, finding a place to stay, figuring out a source of income. We landed on Demali and Frances left before anyone could say another word to her. Her jetbike had been sitting in the ship¡¯s vehicle hangar since her arrival. It roared off past us as we left the ship. Alec elected to stay behind in case anybody came along and tried to sell him again, which we all agreed was fair enough. Once again, it was just Jules and I on Demali. I wondered if maybe we should try to pick up another medic while we were at it. This time around, though, our arrival was more straightforward. Jules was expected, so there was no need to park out of town and go running after gunshots. Alexander Morgan sent a car to meet us, and its silent driver ferried us to Morgan¡¯s base of operations; a mansion surrounded by what might have been real palm trees. Having never seen one before, I couldn¡¯t tell. We were escorted inside and through a blindingly white foyer, past a seating area, and finally to a room containing a wooden trunk marked FRAGILE set on a desk. Standing beside it was Alexander Morgan himself. He was a surprisingly average-looking man; middle height, balding slightly, a little out of shape. His style of dress distinguished him somewhat: he wore an ivory suit and a bolo tie with a turquoise slide, along with a bulky signet ring on one finger. He remained stony-faced as we approached, but extended a hand in greeting. ¡°Jules,¡± he said as the two of them shook hands. ¡°Alexander,¡± Jules said. ¡°Always a pleasure. I take it this is packed to your standards already?¡± ¡°Protected by the best packing foam money can buy in the most shock-absorbent arrangement possible. Don¡¯t touch a thing,¡± Morgan replied. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it,¡± Jules said. ¡°I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve met your associate.¡± ¡°Ah, of course. Forgive me. This is Marie Ruiz, my first mate.¡± And with that it was my turn to shake hands. Alexander Morgan made unnervingly steady eye contact as he told me, ¡°I hope you and your crew are as reliable as your captain claims. You should hope so, too, for your medic friend¡¯s sake.¡± Then he turned back to Jules. ¡°We are clear on that, aren¡¯t we? If this isn¡¯t delivered by the end of the month, our deal is off.¡± Jules nodded. ¡°The terms are clear. I will have Coril notify you the very second this trunk makes it into her hands.¡± ¡°And when should I expect that to be?¡± Jules hesitated. ¡°Regrettably, the timing and circumstances require us to cut things a bit closer than I would like,¡± they said. ¡°Depending upon the movements of the Vizel-Mennen conflict, we would arrive, at the earliest, three days before the end of the month. In the event that fortune does not smile upon us so, it may take until the very last day. But you have my word that we will deliver before our time is up.¡± Morgan grimaced and shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± he said. ¡°But you¡¯re the only one I can find willing to go out there right now. Your advance is paid on my end, just needs to be processed. Now get a move on.¡± It took both of us to carry the crate back to the car. Our escort did not bother to help. With some creative angling, we fit it into the trunk and headed back to the ship, where we loaded it into the cargo bay. Jules spent a few extra minutes strapping it down. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t do to make it through the fighting only for a little turbulence to doom our efforts,¡± they said. And then we were off again. It would take a little over two weeks to reach our destination on the planet Vr¡¯roq. I continued to follow the conflict as carefully as I could, but there are only so many reports in a day. I ended up with a lot of downtime, and on such a sparsely-populated ship, that can get spooky fast. The Adelaide is a ghost town, no two ways about it. It once had a crew of hundreds, and now it was down to three people with bodies and one AI. If I was looking for someone and they weren¡¯t in their quarters, the bridge, or the kitchen, it usually took Athena¡¯s help to find them within half an hour. I could wander the ship all day and not see a soul, without even trying. Nobody does inspections or maintenance alone in the far-off parts of the ship. It¡¯s not that there¡¯s anything dangerous there¨CAthena would know about it if there was¨Cbut it¡¯s easy to start jumping at shadows anyway.
Which is very funny to watch.
Oh, I¡¯m sure. You wouldn¡¯t, by chance, have broadcasted some weird scratching noises last time Alec and I were doing cargo inspection, would you?
Of course not! Why ever would I do such a a thing?
Riiiight. Anyway, it was a boring week and a half before we finally reached the area of the Vizel-Mennen conflict. Vizel and Mennen are two planets, both occupied mainly by an ET species called vizelans. Vizel is, of course, their planet of origin, and Mennen is a well-established colony world that declared independence from its mother planet. It¡¯s been independent for a few years now, but the conflict is just now reigniting due to disagreements over asteroid mining rights in nearby space. Vizel claims that their mining operations take priority since they are the mother planet, while Mennen believes they should have priority since their planet completely lacks many of the minerals found in the asteroids. They both kept mining, and starting fighting whenever they met one another out in the asteroid fields. One thing led to another and now it¡¯s full-scale warfare. But the history behind it wasn¡¯t what concerned me; it was recent fleet movements. I had studied the ongoing battles along our route carefully and tried to plot a course that would keep us out of the thick of it. Unfortunately, as I¡¯ve said, I¡¯m not an expert. By day two in the combat zone, we were making evasive maneuvers to avoid some dangerously close skirmishes. On day three, we got to test our shields¨Cthey work pretty damn well, but not well enough that we were going to stick around for more hits. And then on day four, we were mere hours from our destination when we were caught directly in the crossfire. A cargo ship is not as maneuverable or fast as a fighter. We were slogging through the line of fire like we were being dragged through mud. The shields took the first few hits okay, and then all kinds of warning lights started flashing. The next shot sent a reverberating shockwave through the ship, knocking down anyone unlucky enough to be standing at the time. As soon as she saw the opening, Athena pulled the ship into a sharp dive away from the fighting. ¡°We¡¯ll need the shields repaired on Vr¡¯roq,¡± she announced once we were in the clear. ¡°We won¡¯t make it through another trip like this without them.¡± By now, we were all standing in the bridge. In the distance, we could see occasional flashes of weapon fire. Around us, all was calm. ¡°How is the hull?¡± Jules asked. ¡°Cosmetic damage only,¡± Athena reported. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± I said. ¡°I can pay for repairs.¡± ¡°Nonsense,¡± Jules said. ¡°You¡¯ve likely spared us a great deal of damage along the way. And it was not your decision to make this journey in the first place.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see if I can do anything for the shields,¡± Alec said. Just as he was about to scurry off to gather his tools, a shape appeared on the viewports, seeming to melt out of space like it had surfaced from a murky pond. We all knew the ship that now lurked outside, circling the Adelaidelike a predator. Years ago it had been in the news nonstop. They tracked its movements as if it was a dangerous storm, though it was far less predictable. It would surface, strike, and not be heard from for weeks or months before its next appearance. It was the Widowmaker. Most pirates are just thieves. They¡¯ll board your ship and take anything valuable, but most people live to tell the tale unless they do something particularly stupid. Not so with the Widowmaker and her crew. They liked to steal ships, which tends to be fatal in space. And they had a reputation for much bloodier violence when it came to other pirates. Anyone infringing on their territory could expect a brutal death. Their captain, a man by the name of Hellstrand, personally saw to the fates of rival pirate captains. Notice that I¡¯m talking about them in the past tense. That¡¯s because they disbanded a couple years ago after a crash killed their captain and destroyed their ship. Nobody¡¯s heard from them since. Yet that very ship now crept along threateningly in front of us. ¡°It can¡¯t be the real one,¡± Alec said. ¡°Indeed not,¡± Jules agreed. ¡°Look there. I suspect these are nothing but miscreants with a ghoulish sense of humor.¡± They pointed to the rear of the ship, where a small logo could barely be made out. It was a stylized human skull painted in orange against the dull charcoal of the ship¡¯s exterior. Below, in the same color, was the word HAWKMOTH. ¡°Mere imitators,¡± Jules said, satisfied. The screen flashed a warning. A black flag signal. ¡°Cap¡¯n, I think they mean business anyway,¡± I said. And they looked it, too. That ship literally bristled with guns. We had size on our side¨Cthe Hawkmoth was sized for a crew of a couple dozen, not hundreds. But everything else tipped in the Hawkmoth¡¯s favor. Maneuverability. Weapons. Number of crew members. Number of doctors on board. Number of functional shields. I started figuring out how we could survive this. We sure as hell weren¡¯t getting out of it. The ship was not the real Widowmaker and Captain Hellstrand was dead. But we couldn¡¯t discount the Hawkmoth crew¡¯s proclivity for violence¨Cthey seemed to idolize the Widowmaker enough that they might copy her habits. ¡°If sending back a black flag doesn¡¯t work, we should surrender,¡± I said. Jules, already in the process of sending out our own black flag, hummed. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯m fond of the notion, but I suppose there is little else we can do. Well, one thing.¡± They typed something quickly, a little message to send along with our signal. ¡°A little diplomacy. We shall see where that gets us.¡± A few beats later, the message light lit up several times in quick succession. Jules sighed. ¡°It seems I¡¯ve only enraged them further. Very well. All crew to your quarters. Bar your doors¨Cphysically¨Cand do not come out for any reason until Athena issues the all-clear.¡± And that¡¯s how we all found ourselves barricaded in our rooms while a crew of pirates took whatever they pleased from our cargo. It was humiliating, to say the least. I¡¯m not used to giving up without a fight. I¡¯m not used to having to. But this time, there was nothing we could do but huddle in a corner and wait for them to finish stealing from us. I almost hoped that one of them would try to force their way into my room so I could actually do something. Not that it would have ended well. I never did get a weapon. My bunk isn¡¯t the most interesting place to spend an hour. I have my bed, a nightstand, and a closet. I sleep there and that¡¯s about it. Most of my entertainment comes in the form of digital media stored on the ship¡¯s computer, which the pirates had just overriden in order to get past our security measures. I couldn¡¯t watch any movies, but worse, none of the ship¡¯s locks would work. The doors are easy enough to disable if you really want to, though. You open up the inside wall and rip out a gear or two. There¡¯s no handle on the outside, so with the mechanism out of commission it¡¯s tough to get in. A determined enough person could, though, with time and/or explosives. I couldn¡¯t do much except lay in bed and wait for it to be over. Athena gave occasional updates on the situation. All the pirates wore masks, so she couldn¡¯t run facial recognition, but she assured us she would take note of every possible detail. And she kept track of the things they took. It was awful to listen to, but I have to admit it¡¯s better than having to scramble around the ship afterwards trying to account for everything. They found the uranium glass ten minutes in and that was that for our delivery. They took a lot of batteries and fuel cells. Besides that, it was mostly things I didn¡¯t even know we had. Who¡¯d have thought we had a pound of gold to take? Or a collection of animal hides from Terra? Adelaide is a large ship. They didn¡¯t get everything. After a little over an hour, they got word that the authorities were in the area, so they split. We did, too, rather than make a report. I think we¡¯d all had enough of the authorities for a bit, and besides, we still had restricted narcotics on board. Once Athena gave the all-clear, we met in the hallway outside our quarters. The atmosphere was solemn. ¡°So the uranium glass is gone,¡± I said. It seemed the thing to lead with. ¡°What do we do about our deal for Frances?¡± ¡°Mr. Morgan will not look kindly upon this incident,¡± Jules said. ¡°I doubt he would go to the trouble of hunting Ms. Young down, however. I will send word to Frances and warn her to avoid the downtown area.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t find more uranium glass anywhere?¡± I asked. ¡°Not genuine 20th century uranium glass manufactured on Terra. Not with three days remaining prior to the month¡¯s end,¡± Jules said. ¡°From what I understand, Coril is a serious collector who would spot the difference in a heartbeat.¡± We got into the ¡°now what¡± portion of the conversation. The plan was, we would do what we could to fix up the ship¡¯s shields on the way to Vr¡¯roq, then have them properly repaired planetside. Then we would focus on finally delivering that stardust we picked up on Thyris. ¡°It is good to wait a while before distributing certain substances,¡± Jules claimed. ¡°The client will understand our tardiness.¡± We landed on Vr¡¯roq¨Cfar from our original intended destination, to avoid Coril¡¯s wrath if she happened to know what our ship looked like¨Cyesterday evening ship time. It was early morning planet time. We¡¯re all jet lagged to the extreme and tired from everything we¡¯ve been through, but on the bright side, the nearest repair shop was just opening. We all slept while they fixed the ship. The day/night cycle goes by fast here, so we slept through about two planet-days and woke up on the third morning. Vr¡¯roq is a primarily vizelan planet, like many others in this neck of the galaxy. I don¡¯t know much about vizelans, but I¡¯ve seen pictures. About the same size and shape as humans, and that¡¯s where the similarity ends. Their eyes are on the sides of their heads. Their mouths sit low on their faces, practically on the point of the chin. And they¡¯re covered in fine scales, with a great deal of variation in color and pattern. Vr¡¯roq itself, I know nothing about. I¡¯ll have more to say about it once I¡¯ve actually left the ship. This hasn¡¯t been our greatest moment. I wonder what Jules would say to a little R&R once we¡¯ve delivered that stardust? For now, this is Marie Ruiz, signing off. 7. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 2.26.2100 Alright, it¡¯s been a while again. Typical new year¡¯s resolution, right? But I¡¯m really going to try to get better about logs. I¡¯d blame the confusing messes we seem to get into constantly, but the truth is, we have more than enough downtime between the chaos that I could be logging almost daily. Anyway, I¡¯m here now. Vr¡¯roq was a surprisingly nice stop, for an ET-dominated planet way out in the sticks. The air¡¯s no good for humans to breathe, so we all had to wear masks and carry oxygen tanks on our backs, but the temperatuer and atmospheric pressure are fine, so the full suits weren¡¯t needed. The shields were repaired by the time we all left the ship, but there was a big, ugly scorch mark where we¡¯d been hit. By ¡®big¡¯ I mean you could¡¯ve laid six of me end to end across the diameter. The mechanics confirmed that it was cosmetic damage only, but Jules decided to have it repaired anyway¨Capparently it¡¯s cheaper out here than it would be closer to our usual stomping grounds. We took the opportunity to restock our supplies. The sudden long journey to Vr¡¯roq had run us down quite a bit on its own. The piracy was the icing on the cake. Batteries, fuel, food, toiletries¨Cyou name it, we were almost out of it. The mechanics had batteries and fuel in stock, but the real challenge was finding human-appropriate food on a planet that sees so few humans. And being on such a planet was an experience, let me tell you. I¡¯m used to being in the minority, but here, the vizelan locals didn¡¯t even seem to know what I was. Granted, it¡¯s hard to read the expressions of unfamiliar species, but we all caught stares from nearly everyone we passed and I think that says it all. A few people took pictures and they weren¡¯t subtle about it¨Cmakes me a little nervous, considering Jules is still wanted for interrogation. At one point, Alec and I went searching for food while Jules worked a price out with the mechanics. We found ourselves in a crowded downtown area, surrounded by strangely organic-looking architecture. The buildings were nearly dome-shaped, but irregular, made of an opaque glassy-looking material that ranged from green to blue in color. At high noon, they glittered in the sunlight under an impossibly vivid blue sky. Along the way, we got to talking. At first it was just small talk, but then the conversation hit a lull and Alec cleared his throat and said, ¡°So, uh¡­ Are you also getting the impression that Jules is telepathic?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I responded instantly. It had been obvious, really, ever since the Orange Sector escape. ¡°Oh, okay, so I¡¯m not just nuts,¡± Alec said. ¡°Do you know how telepathic they are? Or, like, how they¡¯re telepathic? Either one.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t ¡®know¡¯ any more than you do, but I have my theories,¡± I said. ¡°They can definitely communicate with Flora telepathically. Not sure how far their range goes. They were for sure able to talk to each other while we were in the Orange Sector building. They may have been in communication while Jules was on Ethros and we were still in space.¡± Alec shook his head. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be possible over that kind of distance. Even naturally telepathic races have a pretty limited range. It¡¯s rarely more than shouting distance.¡± ¡°Sure, with natural telepathy it¡¯s impossible, but what about implants?¡± It conflicted with my theory that Jules never lies¨Cthey¡¯ve outright stated that they don¡¯t have any neural implants¨Cbut what better explanation was there? ¡°Hm. I guess that¡¯s really the only way it could work, right?¡± Alec mumbled, mostly thinking aloud. ¡°I mean, nobody¡¯s ever found evidence of natural telepathy in humans.¡± At that point, I became very conscious of our placement in a busy market area surrounded by ETs. ¡°Watch it with the h-word,¡± I hissed. ¡°Oh, sorry. Terrans. I always forget.¡± ¡°Me, too, but we¡¯ve gotta be more careful out here.¡± ¡°Right. Do you think Jules can read minds?¡± Alec asked. I thought about it for a moment and remembered how I had to explain to them why Frances was upset during their last big argument. ¡°I think if they could, they would understand other people a whole lot better,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe they can, but they just don¡¯t do it all the time,¡± Alec said. I preferred not to consider the possibility. ¡°Do you think they could talk to us telepathically if they wanted to?¡± He continued. ¡°Alright, focus,¡± I snapped. ¡°We have a job to do.¡± Alec looked at me like a kicked dog. I felt sorry right away, but at least we got off the topic. We didn¡¯t talk about anything but the task at hand from there on out. After a lengthy search, we couldn¡¯t find any ¡°real¡± food that we were sure wouldn¡¯t poison us, but we did find what is essentially a calorie-rich paste made of a non-toxic plantlike organism and a bunch of vitamin powder. Not exactly gourmet, but stir it all together and it¡¯ll keep you alive. When we got back the the ship, we found Frances had replied to Jules¡¯s warning. Her response was mostly profanity with a few threats thrown in for good measure. Once all our supplies were in order and the ship was like new, we set out to finish that stardust delivery. Luckily, we didn¡¯t have a strict time limit this time, so we set a course to go around the fighting. I saw very little of Jules during that leg of the journey. It¡¯s not uncommon to go a day or two without seeing them when there¡¯s no particular work to do, but this was excessive. Athena assured me that Jules was fine, though, so I didn¡¯t try to seek them out. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯d have found out by asking. Which is getting frustrating. Straight answers are hard to come by with Jules, and I don¡¯t know what to do about it anymore. I think of them as a friend and I want to trust them, but I¡¯m tired of feeling like I¡¯m stumbling around in the dark. Come to think of it, that might be why they made themselves so scarce. I can¡¯t ask them uncomfortable questions if I never see them. Anyway, with Frances gone and Jules hiding, Alec and Athena were the only people I had to talk to. And Athena¡­This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I know she can always hear me when I do these logs, but I¡¯m never sure if she¡¯s listening. But I do think she knows better than to be offended by something she was eavesdropping on, so¡­ The thing is, she¡¯s so staunchly on Jules¡¯s side in everything that it¡¯s hard to address the elephant in the room with her. Alec and I have heard more than one lecture from her about how Jules deserves their privacy. And since she knows more than we do about this situation, it¡¯s not like she can really sympathize with the confusion we¡¯re feeling. So it came as a bit of a surprise when she admitted that even she thinks Jules is going about this the wrong way. It happened while Alec and I were checking up on some of the ship¡¯s heating systems. Well, Alec was doing the actual work and I was helping. Lots of handing over tools and checking the temperature in different rooms. Alec was in the middle of fiddling with some wires when we started venting to each other about how frustrating everything¡¯s been. ¡°It¡¯s like¡­¡± Alec began as he worked. ¡°We went through a war zone without a medic because Jules has to keep a secret. That¡¯s pretty bad. I mean, they could¡¯ve at least made up a good lie to keep Frances on.¡± ¡°Or found another medic ages ago,¡± I added. ¡°Frances made it clear right away that she doesn¡¯t like it when things get ¡®messy.¡¯ Jules should¡¯ve seen this coming. And the universe is full of chumps like us who¡¯ll keep following without a decent explanation.¡± ¡°You know,¡± Athena cut in. ¡°Jules has serious problems with close relationships.¡± At first I thought she was just defending them again. ¡°That¡¯s no excuse for¨C¡° ¡°Hey, relax. Aren¡¯t you always trying to find out what¡¯s wrong with Jules?¡± Athena said. ¡°Well, I¡¯m telling you. They don¡¯t have a clue when to tell their friends what¡¯s going on. Everyone who knows, knows out of necessity. I don¡¯t know what it would take to get Jules to just tell someone.¡± ¡°What happened to ¡®they¡¯re entitled to their privacy?''¡± Alec asked ¡°Oh, they still are,¡± Athena said. ¡°It should still be their choice when and if to tell. I just think the choice they¡¯ve made is a poor one.¡± The final delivery of the stardust was a non-event. We made it to a little human-dominated planet, handed the package off to a fairly ordinary looking middle-aged woman, and got paid. Jules made sure Frances got her cut as well, since she¡¯d been part of the crew during the pickup. And then we headed to Voltaire to pick up the shuttle Flora took home after Jules¡¯s escape on Ethros. It was out of our way, but for some reason Jules was eager to go. It can¡¯t have been the shuttle¨Cwe have three others that we barely use¨Cbut maybe they just wanted an excuse to visit Flora. When we arrived on Voltaire, we met Flora at her kitchen table while she was having breakfast. At the other side of the table sat Frances. She gave a smug grin and a wave when she caught me staring, dumbfounded. ¡°G¡¯ morning,¡± she said. Alec was similarly stunned, but Jules hardly reacted. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I asked. ¡°Nice to see you, too,¡± Frances said. ¡°You didn¡¯t expect me to stay on Demali with Morgan out for blood, did you?¡± ¡°Well, yes, actually,¡± I said. ¡°But, I mean, even if I didn¡¯t I wouldn¡¯t have expected you to come here.¡± For one thing, I¡¯d thought Frances would want to cut all ties with Jules after the Orange Sector business, and who was more closely connected with Jules than Flora? For another, I kind of got the impression that Frances disliked Flora. Something about the way she practically interrogated the poor woman when they first met. The fact that Frances would willingly stay in Flora¡¯s home came as a surprise. Frances shrugged. ¡°My only off-planet contacts who aren¡¯t afraid of crossing Morgan are you all and Flora. And since all of you were out in the sticks, well, here I am. And in case it¡¯s not obvious, I want my job back.¡± ¡°After all that?¡± I said. At the same time, Jules said ¡°You are welcome to it.¡± I glanced at them strangely, but they were focused on Frances. Frances, who only a month ago had been so distrusting of Jules that she¡¯d rather risk Alexander Morgan¡¯s wrath than whatever unknown fate the rest of us were hurtling towards. If only she seemed a little more reluctant to rejoin our ranks, I might understand¨Cmaybe Morgan was so angry over the uranium glass deal that he¡¯d started actively hunting Frances down. If that were the case and she came back demanding that we transport her somewhere else, I¡¯d get it. But I couldn¡¯t wrap my head around the fact that she¡¯d come back to stay. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I said out loud. Frances and Flora shared a conspiratorial glance. ¡°My dear, there are times when we must make ourselves comfortable with uncertainty,¡± Frances quoted. So that answered nothing, but at least I had an explanation for Jules¡¯s lack of reaction now. If Frances was with Flora, of course Jules knew about it. Why they hadn¡¯t mentioned it sooner, I couldn¡¯t say. Maybe they were pretending¨Cbadly¨Cthat they didn¡¯t know. And it explained why Jules had such a fire under their ass to get to Voltaire for a shuttle we never use. They actually wanted Frances back. ¡°It will be a pleasure to have you onboard once more,¡± Jules said. And that I could agree with. Having a medic on board gave me a tiny sliver of peace of mind that I found hard to come by on an unarmed ship, especially after we¡¯d been in multiple situations that could have ended violently. ¡°We will be taking a brief vacation prior to our next job,¡± Jules announced. ¡°A week in the town of Redstart on the planet Rekham. Good for the nerves.¡± Frances raised an eyebrow¨Cand with good reason. Rekham¡¯s not exactly a nice vacation spot. It would actually make more sense to find our next job there than to spend time relaxing there. ¡°Well, I won¡¯t object to some time off,¡± Frances said slowly. Alec and I had no objections, either, though I will say there are many vacation spots I¡¯d pick before Rekham. Frances thanked Flora for her hospitality¨Cevidently she¡¯d been there for quite a while. She must have left Demali as soon as Jules warned her about the glass deal going awry. Jules and Flora said their goodbyes, and we were off, back to a ¡°full¡± crew. Having Frances back after she jumped ship for more than a month is awkward, to say the least, but it¡¯s been a couple days and she has yet to yell questions at anyone or threaten to leave or try to break down any doors, so I¡¯d say it¡¯s going pretty well. After giving it some thought, I have a pretty good idea of what happened. Whatever it is that¡¯s got the Orange Sector after Jules, Flora probably knows about it. She must have told Frances something. I don¡¯t know if it was the truth or just a convincing lie, but it must have been something for Frances to suddenly stop caring about Jules¡¯s secrecy. I¡¯d try to get it out of her, but honestly, I think I have a better shot at getting it out of Jules. I¡¯m their first mate, after all. But in order for Jules to trust me with that kind of information, I realized I had to take some advice Athena gave me a while back. Once we were underway, I found Jules on the bridge and asked if they had a minute. They did, so once I managed to clear the lump out of my throat, I started telling them about the institute¡¯s experiments with telepathy and the implant I¡¯d been forced to use. I told them everything I¡¯d told Athena and then some. I told them how I still feel the link sometimes, like a phantom limb, even though the implants are gone and Mnirin is dead. Technically, there¡¯s a chance he¡¯s still alive. I didn¡¯t see him die. But I can¡¯t imagine they¡¯d let him live after that. It sure as hell didn¡¯t sound like they were being merciful while Jules and I were running away. Jules leaned in and put a hand on my shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry you had to endure that. I am¡­ keenly aware of how distressing such a forced link can be.¡± The fog that had settled into my mind since I¡¯d started talking about the institute cleared, replaced by the good-humored exasperation that tends to go with talking to Jules. I knew they weren¡¯t going to elaborate on that, and I wasn¡¯t about to force them to. They¡¯ll tell me when they¡¯re damn well ready, now that I¡¯ve laid the groundwork. ¡°Now,¡± Jules said, clapping their hands together. ¡°Let us pierce the stars with journey bold. Off to Rekham.¡± Nobody in their right mind would consider a trip to Rekham a ¡°journey bold.¡± We¡¯re essentially taking a vacation in either a dustbowl or a slum, depending on where, exactly, Jules decides to land. Redstart, they said¨Cbut I¡¯ve never heard of it. Why they¡¯re so determined to go there is anyone¡¯s guess. But it¡¯s such an out-of-the-way place, maybe all Jules wants is to lay low for a little while. That, Rekham would be perfect for. I wish they wouldn¡¯t brand it as time off, though¨Cif we get time off, I¡¯d wanna spend it someplace nicer. At least I have a guarantee that for one week, I won¡¯t have to break anyone out of jail or navigate through any war zones or get attacked by pirates. Should be nice. For now, this is Marie Ruiz, signing off. 8. From the audio log of Marie Ruiz, 3.12.2100 There are moments that put a person in context. You learn something new about them and suddenly their quirks make perfect sense. An irrational fear''s origin is revealed and you realize that it is harshly rational after all. An eccentric behavior turns out to be an old habit that will die hard. A chip on the shoulder turns out to be the remains of an outdated survival mechanism. Under normal circumstances, these moments leave you with a sense of clarity. You may wonder why you didn''t see it sooner. It''s so obvious in retrospect. But Jules has left normal circumstances far, far behind. We''ve found the roots of their strange behavior, and we have more questions than ever before, and no way of answering them. Let me start at the beginning. The stop at Redstart should have been uneventful. It''s a backwater town on a backwater planet, human-dominated and far outside the interests of the Bloodied Hand, the Orange Sector, Alexander Morgan, and the universe in general. With no police force to speak of, it''s smuggler territory through and through. I''m sure Jules has stopped at a thousand such places over the years with no trouble. Nobody had a clue it would be so different this time. It all started with the dog. Jules and I were all sitting out on the porch when it went by. A flash of white tail trailing along beside a group of rough-looking folk. Everyone on Rekham was rough-looking--nothing notable there--but something caught Jules''s eye. They whistled a high twee-tweet. The dog froze and stared towards the sound. Several of the rough-looking folk noticed the whistle as well--not that Jules noticed. All of their attention was on the dog. They whistled again and moments later, the dog threw himself into their arms. Jules laughed as the dog squirmed in their embrace. The poor mutt seemed desperate to occupy the exact same physical space as them. "Hello, my friend," Jules cooed. "It has been quite some time, no?" "Uh, cap''n?" I cut in. "I know you have all kinds of connections, but how do you know a dog on Rekham, of all the planets in the universe?" "I haven''t the faintest idea how he came to be on Rekham, but this is Acer. He''s my dog," Jules explained. "So do you also know his dangerous-looking friends whose attention you''ve attracted?" Jules looked up, seeming to notice the dog''s human companions for the first time. They were approaching the porch at a pace that made me size them up for a fight. There were four of them and four of us, but they all looked like fighters and we had one pacifist and one Alec. Taking point on their side was a big-haired woman with a distinctive scar across the bridge of her nose. She was staring at Jules with an expression that bordered on pain. Jules glanced up at her, then back to the dog. "Yes, I know them," they said quietly. "I suppose it''s time you met my old crew." Before I could say a word in response, the lead woman called out "Julian?" All I could do was stare at Jules and their dog. "Captain, with all due respect, what in the hell is happening?" By now, the woman and her three friends had reached us. The woman leaned over the porch railing while the others hung back, all of them wearing matching expressions of utter confusion. I suppose I must''ve fit right in. "I can explain," Jules said, "But not here." Ten minutes of agonizing waiting later, the dog was left behind at the house while new and old crews alike met in the back room of the nearby bar. It was a space typically reserved for private parties, but a rather large sum of money convinced the barkeeper to rent it out on short notice. "I suppose you all have questions," Jules said. They were only drinking water, but they threw it back like a shot and shook their head vigorously as they put the glass down. "I''ll start with introductions. These are Marie, Alec, and Frances--the crew of the Adelaide. And these--" they said, gesturing to the rough strangers. "Are the crew of the Widowmaker. Former crew, I suppose. There wasn''t much left of the old girl when I last saw her." The woman in charge nodded. "We''ve got a new ship now." She turned to me, Frances, and Alec. "Ava Jackson, captain of the Hawkmoth. Previously first mate of the Widowmaker. These chucklefucks are Eden, Jay, and Jasper. Now, if we''re done with the pleasantries--" Her voice had taken on a hard edge, yet she stopped speaking instantly when Jules held up a hand. "I''d also like to know what''s going on," I snapped. That I wasn''t silenced by a single gesture from my captain seemed to shock and offend Ava. "I''ll second that," Frances growled. "Wasn''t Hawkmoth the ship that screwed up my deal with Morgan?" "Indeed," Jules said. "And I intend to negotiate some form of compensation for that incident. The fuel cells are easily paid for, but several of the other items taken were irreplaceable, including the uranium glass." "Uranium glass?" Ava repeated. "You''re shitting me. You mean that actually was you?" "Indeed it was." "Why didn''t you just show yourself when we boarded, then?" Ava half-shouted. "You--not only would we have stopped robbing you, we--" "I had no way of knowing it was truly you," Jules said calmly. "I assumed the Hawkmoth belonged to impostors, or admirers, or something of the sort." "We already sold the glass," Ava said, sounding oddly defeated. "We will work something out," Jules assured her. "Is anyone gonna tell anyone what the fuck is going on?" Frances said. Jules straightened in their chair and sighed. "Yes, yes, I''ll tell the whole story." They addressed the Hawkmoth''s crew first. "This first part, you already know. But we must all arrive on the same page before we may continue the script." Then they turned back to us and began. "Back in the day, I was something of a swashbuckler. A rather famous one, in fact. The captain of the Widowmaker." "You''re Julian Hellstrand" Frances said, her tone somehow both flat and incredulous. I felt my hackles rise as it sank in that the strangers across the table were some of the most infamous pirates this side of the galaxy. And that the non-stranger right next to me had once been the same. I wondered what these people were even doing in such a small-time town. "I was," Jules said. "Moving on, two years ago, the Widowmaker was badly damaged ina skirmish with some fleet ships in the Gyaneb system. I attempted an emergency landing on Akava, only to have it turn into a crash landing. I survived--clearly--but regained consciousness alone in an empty room. It was there that--well. Here''s how it went." And here, to the best of my recollection, is the story Jules told that night. They awoke in an empty room with walls of gleaming silver--two way mirrors all around, they soon realized. They had a number of injuries from the crash--all of which had been cleaned and bandaged. They must have been given a painkiller as well. Nothing hurt. Their first thought was of their crew--had anyone else survived the crash? Were they being held somewhere nearby? Jules paced the boundaries of the room, shooting glares through the glass--at their own reflection from their point of view--in an attempt to intimidate anyone who they might happen to lock eyes with. A vain attempt that showed just how little they knew about their captors at the time. That would change. Minutes later, having circled the room a dozen times without finding an escape, they started throwing their shoulder against the walls, looking for weak spots. The walls rattled, but did not give way, until finally a portico opened where previously there had only been blank, mirrored wall. Through the opening stepped a creature beyond imagining. Jules was well-traveled, more so than most, but even they had never seen a thing like this. They seemed to be viewing it from multiple, shifting perspectives at once, body parts crossing over and through one another without any apparent pattern. The overall body plan didn''t make sense, or rather it simply didn''t exist. There was no symmetry, no branching, no fractals. The akavans spat in the face of basic biology and divorced form from function entirely. How it underwent any of the ordinary biological processes with a body like that was a complete mystery to Jules. Most life on inhabited planets evolves in sensible ways by Terran standards, but Akava was truly alien. At that point, Jules was sedated by means unknown to them. When they awoke, they were shirtless, with a new bandage running from their clavicle to their navel. They ripped it off to find a newly closed incision that looked uncannily like an autopsy scar. The sight scared them half to death. They screamed, only to have their scream echoed by two others in the room with them. Their new cellmates were a pair of fellow humans; a professor by the name of Dr. Malloy and a graduate student of his--Flora. They had come to study microbial life on Akava. Like most of the scientific community, they had dismissed rumors of intelligent life on the planet as utter nonsense. According to them, there was no way Akava should have been able to sustain any but the most basic of life forms. The akavans were clearly not ordinary life forms. As far as the professor could tell, they did not meet the definition for life as we know it. They were instead intelligent non-life. How they had come to be, he could not fathom. Jules was not quite on their best behavior. They swore, spat, paced, and growled. They enumerated the acts of violence they planned to inflict upon their captors (with some creative interpretation of their anatomy). They acted every inch the pirate king and introduced themselves by their full name, the title of captain, and the name of their ship. Their cellmates were suitably terrified. Over the next few days, or maybe hours or weeks or months--the passage of time was a tricky thing to keep track of in their windowless cell on an alien planet--the three of them were taken from and returned to the cell one by one. First Dr. Malloy, then Flora, then Jules. Each returned with a new incision at the nape of their neck, where any remaining hair (Dr. Malloy had already balded years ago) had been shaven away. From there on out, things became difficult to describe. The three of them learned abruptly that the akavans communicated through telepathy. Whatever had happened to them in surgery allowed them to do the same, with each other and with the akavans. This type of communication had less to do with words and more to do with basal thoughts and feelings, the vague and nuanced impressions of the mind unsullied by language.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Reality began to slip. Jules felt as if their very mind were being pulled apart and rearranged, with things added and removed as the akavans saw fit. It was a kind of psychic surgery, a deep influence facilitated by the same device or process that allowed communication. Jules lost many of their more aggressive behaviors and violent urges during this time, much to the relief of their cellmates. However, it was a deeply unpleasant process. Throughout, Jules had episodes of a horrible sort of clarity where they were all to aware of what it means to live in a human body; to be housed in a fragile collection of cells and their effluvia constantly undergoing processes over which the conscious mind has no awareness or control. To be a thinking being whose only way of interacting with the world is a shambling mass of meat which could, at any time, be destroyed. The psychological changes were underscored by physical ones as the stress made Jules''s hair fade from brown to its present gray. For a time they felt they had lost something of themselves, but soon they realized that for every loss, there was an even greater gain. The akavans had an intelligence perhaps not beyond, but certainly vastly different from that of humans, and their work gave Jules and their fellow captives a fragment of that intelligence. A certain wisdom, too, was gained. The professor and his student underwent personality changes as well. Dr. Malloy''s impatience, which made him somewhat infamous among his students, disappeared. Flora''s nervousness and timid nature vanished as well--startling, since she''d had a rather severe anxiety disorder before being captured. Eventually, the three of them were taken out of the cell and made to live among the akavans. As far as they could tell, this was not a natural population of these creatures, but a strictly controlled test environment populated by scientists or those who had volunteered to participate in some kind of study. There were a handful of other test subjects from other species, some of which Jules had never seen before. Even without translators or a shared verbal language, communication with them was no problem. All of them had the same telepathic capabilities. They were all given jobs to do within the community, but it was all very strange. The only artificial structures on the planet had been built for the benefit of the non-akavan test subjects. The natives apparently had no use for houses or infrastructure of any kind. The jobs the test subjects performed also seemed to be only for their own benefit. They lived and worked under strict yet benevolent observation at all hours of the day until quite suddenly, every test subject was loaded up into a shuttle and launched away, each to a different planet. None were ever sure why. Maybe the experiment had ended, or maybe this was part of it, or maybe there had been some emergency that forced them to evacuate the planet. They would never find out. All in all, it had been around one standard Terran year since Jules''s captivity began. They had never been quite the same--hence the change in name, personal pronouns, and career. And ever since, all test subjects were able to keep in touch telepathically, even across solar systems. Ava was the first to speak. "I can''t believe the most feared pirate this side of Andromeda got the fucking Ludovico treatment from aliens." The Hawkmoth crew nodded agreements. "So what, you''re some kind of zen-ass pacifist now?" "I''ve lost the old thirst for blood, yes," Jules admitted. "But I haven''t quite gone straight. My current enterprise is smuggling." "Psh, big deal, you''ve been smuggling since you could walk. You don''t even drink anymore!" Ava gave an exasperated gesture towards Jules''s glass of water. "Julian, we thought you fucking died, and then you show up just to get your stupid-ass dog, and in the end it''s like... like you''re not even the same person! Like you did die! Do you have any idea how fucked up that is?" "I''m well aware. And it''s Jules now, if you don''t mind. Actually, even if you do mind." "Hey, did the akavans make you do that thing where you use fifty words instead of one?" Frances interjected. She had slumped over about a quarter of the way through the story, head in her hands, but she glanced up solely to make this comment. "That''s not new," Ava shot back. "It''s just that less of the words are dirty now." After a while, the lower-ranking crew members on either side drank themselves into a stupor and staggered off to their respective lodging facilities. At the end of the night, only Jules, Ava, and myself remained. "Now that we''ve got a bit more privacy," Ava said slowly, leaning in towards Jules. "Does Sarah know? About any of this?" Jules inhaled through gritted teeth. "Oh, god. Please tell me she at least knows you''re alive. "Ah, no," Jules said sheepishly. "She does not." Ava sputtered for a moment. "Fucking typical! Everything about you changes, but you''re still shit when it comes to your wife." "Wh--You''re married and you just ghosted your wife?" I said. "Fuuuucking typical," Ava repeated. "Anyway, this is your big chance, cap''n. We''re actually in town to see her right now. See, the crew''s been making sure she''s taken care of for you." "Sarah lives here now? Why here of all places?" Jules asked. "''Cause it''s cheap and helps her lay low," Ava explained. "She doesn''t have the benefit of your income anymore--though like I said, we''ve been helping her out for you--and running around with your surname attached isn''t a great idea in most parts of the galaxy. Anyway, I figure you ending up here is the universe''s way of yelling at you to go see your woman." "I... I do intend to. Of course I will. I have to," Jules said. "The trouble is, as you said, I am a completely different person now. I can''t even imagine how she''ll react." Ava shrugged. "Hell, she''ll probably like it. She was definitely into the whole ''dangerous man'' thing in theory, but you know... A milder temper, a safer job, weird alien powers apparently... She''ll be way into all that." Shortly after that, the bar was trying to close, so we said our farewells. Jules and I didn''t talk much on our way back to the house, and once there, I was more interested in collapsing in bed than trying to get anything else out of them. I was out the second I hit the mattress. In the morning, I awoke to a warm, wet sensation and found Jules''s dog licking my face. It was deeply unpleasant. Acer is actually the first dog I''ve seen in person. I''ve seen pictures and videos, but they''re not common pets on Fakir. Some of the videos involved face-licking, but I''d never imagined it would be so gross. The people in the videos are usually laughing. Dogs are supposed to be able to understand and follow human commands. "Don''t do that," I told Acer. But the very next second, he was going for my face again. I had to physically hold him back. "Stop," I said, getting annoyed. Frances appeared in the doorway. "Acer, off," she snapped. The dog immediately set his paws back on the floor. "Why don''t you join us for breakfast? Jules went out. Wouldn''t say where to." Her voice was a little hoarse, and I suspected that last night''s drinking had taken its toll. At the table, I found Alec huddled in his seat with his head in his hands, a glass of orange juice at the ready. "Everything makes so much sense," he said in an almost reverent half-whisper. His hangover was clearly hellacious, but his mind was preoccupied. "It all makes so much sense now." "Quiet down," said Frances, who was equally hungover and far less distracted from the fact. I joined them at the table. "But it really does explain everything," I protested. "Like how Jules and Flora can communicate telepathically across ridiculous distances." "Why they''re so against violence they won''t even put weapons on the ship," Alec added. "Why the Orange Sector was investigating them," I said, snapping my fingers as I thought of it. "I''d bet anything it has something to do with this." "You may be right there," Frances said. "After shit went south for me on Demali, Flora told me a little about what Orange Sector might''ve been after. She said Jules was a victim of involuntary human experimentation and that''s probably why they were a person of interest. I bet this is what she was talking about." "That''s why you were willing to come back!" I exclaimed. "Don''t shout," Frances groaned. "But yeah. Figured that was a good enough story. Figured Jules had a right to avoid being captive again. Came back." "You guys ever notice how Jules doesn''t have any mirrors in their quarters?" Alec asked. "I always thought it was, like, a gender thing, like body image or something, but it''s totally ''cause of all the mirrors in their cell, right?" Frances sighed. "Okay, but how do we even know any of this is true? I mean, the Widowmaker part obviously is , but the rest of it? What if there''s no akavans and Jules is just regular crazy? I mean, we all know they''re pretty out there." "I''m sure Jules is some kinds of crazy," I agreed. "But there''s so much about them that can''t be explained except by this. Like the Orange Sector escape. You were there. Jules made long distance contact with Flora by some means we couldn''t see. How would you explain that if not for the whole telepathic communication bit?" Frances shut her eyes tight against the sunlight filtering in through the window. "Maybe it''s Flora who''s doing all the work there. I dunno. It all just sounds crazy." "The universe is a crazy place," I pointed out. "But I''ll give you this: maybe there''s no akavans. It''s entirely possible that some other species grabbed Jules and did some wacky experiments and the trauma of it all scrambled their memories so they think that some bizarre, logic-defying, alive-but-not-alive thing got at them. But something definitely happened to them after that crash." "Ask to see the scar," Frances suggested. "Pardon?" "Jules said they''ve got some bigass autopsy scar. See if it''s real. If there''s really a scar, something really happened. If not, then we know at least part of that story was a lie. You''re closest to them. They''ll show you if you ask." I considered it a moment. "I''ll ask," I decided. "But if they refuse, I''m not digging any deeper. I''m not about to spy on our captain in the shower or anything." Frances nodded. "So. Is anybody else a little concerned by the fact that we''re working with Julian fucking Hellstrand?" She asked. "''Cause whatever their little brush with the supernatural was about, the pirate king part was definitely real and Jules is an actual intergalactic outlaw. In real life, for real." "They''ve obviously changed," Alec said. "I don''t think we have anything to worry about. Unless they''re a really, really good actor, and also pulling some weird gambit with their old crew." "I''m not saying we''re in danger directly from Jules or anything," Frances said. "Whatever they did in the past, I buy that they''re a genuine do-no-harm hippie now. But they''re still a wanted criminal, and now that we''re aware of that, we could get into serious legal trouble for working with them. I mean, getting caught with the things we smuggle could already get us jail time, but this could make sure we never see the light of day again, you know?" We were silent for a moment. "I''m pretty ride or die for El Capitan at this point," Alec said. "And I mean, it''s not like there''s proof that we know who they are." "Polygraphs are pretty reliable these days," Frances pointed out. "How good a liar are you, exactly?" Alec''s gaze dropped a bit, but his voice carried some determination as he said, "Ride or die, man. Ride or die." "And I''m with the captain, consequences be damned," I said, perhaps a bit too forcefully. "We know. Down, girl," Frances said. "Pretty sure we could find out Jules is--okay, I can''t actually think of a scenario more extreme than finding out they were an infamous pirate who got kidnapped and brainfucked by aliens, but the point is, you''d follow Jules through hell and high water no matter what you found out about them. Not that it''s good for you." "And what about you?" I asked. "Don''t worry your pretty little first mate head off about it," Frances said. "I got nowhere better to be, and at least I finally know what the fuck is going on. Sort of. So I''m still here. I''ll be keeping an eye on things and if a big enough shark comes after us, I''m gone. But that''s nothing new." We went our separate ways for the day--mostly back to bed. In the late afternoon, I was fixing myself something to eat when Jules came through the front door with their shirt balled up in one hand. On their bare torso was a long, pale, I-shaped scar from collarbone to navel. Just as advertised. One question answered, yet I had more questions than ever. "What happened to your shirt?" I asked "It''s been ripped," Jules replied. "I can see that," I said slowly. At moments like that, I''m never entirely sure whether Jules is being a smartass or just genuinely thought that was how they were supposed to answer. "What I''d like to know is what ripped it, cap''n." "Sarah," they said. I waited in silence for them to continue. They didn''t, and I decided not to probe. There were about two ways Jules could have torn their clothing while visiting their wife. Both were deeply personal, and I don''t really want to know if my captain likes it rough. "I''m here if you need to talk," I said with a shrug. I returned my attention to the kitchen. Things have been peaceful since then, at least externally. Which is nice, because it gives us all space to freak the hell out about what we''ve just learned. I mean, holy shit, Jules has killed people. Exactly how many ranges from less than a dozen to over a hundred depending on who you ask, and I''m not about to--
It''s less than a dozen.
Oh my god. You''ve known this whole time.
Well, yeah. With the way Jules and I met, they pretty much had to tell me. It had just happened, and I wasn''t about to work with them without knowing where they''d just come from.
I can''t believe it never occurred to me that you would already know this.
Can we turn the recorder off for this conversation?
We''re actually having a conversation? God, yeah, give me a second. Signing off.