Prime Deceptions

by Valerie Valdes

  Pink shook her head again, and Vakar also declined by raising his hands and lowering them. Eva had the sense they were being wildly rude, but she also didn’t like the idea of accepting random tech from a stranger with questionable motives.

  Min took the one Damaal held out, turning it over in her hands with undisguised delight. Sue was also enraptured with hers, letting out a squeak of surprise.

  “Oh, it’s asking to sync with my commlink,” Sue said.

  ((Don’t,)) Eva pinged her, but Sue’s blush and guilty expression told her it was too late.

  Me cago en la mierda, Eva thought. Some people would let anything past their comms safeguards. She’d have to make sure Min coached Sue on proper safety protocols and did whatever damage control she could.

  Damaal’s psychic waves turned suddenly apologetic, but still authoritative. “To my intense regret, I must request that you permit my associate to escort you to your next destination,” she said. “I have received a summons from my superiors that I am obliged to answer in the affirmative. I hope you can forgive my extreme discourtesy in this and all things that may have occurred within our extremely pleasant visit.”

  “Sin pena,” Eva said, feeling like a rug she hadn’t known she was standing on just got yanked. “We’re, uh, honored to have met you at all.”

  “Gromira, my deepest gratitude for your assistance in this matter,” Damaal said, but her tone was commanding in a way that Eva found deeply uncomfortable.

  Worse, Gromira immediately approached Damaal and knelt in front of her. Damaal extended her tail, which Gromira pressed to her head, just as Eva had seen her target do so many years ago.

  Eva fought the urge to gag. They were mind-linked now, the two of them. That meant Damaal had every intention of following their crew herself, whatever bullshit she was spinning about having an important meeting to attend or whatever.

  Did she know Eva knew about that? If so, it was pretty bold of her to act this way in front of Eva. Was this a mind game? Her way of deliberately telling Eva she was keeping an eye on them, so they’d better behave?

  This place fucking sucks, Eva thought. I hate it and I don’t want to be here and fuck everything.

  Sue gave another soft gasp of delight, and Eva sighed. There were perfectly good reasons to be there. They had a job to do, for better or worse.

  “Farewell, honored guests,” Damaal said, interrupting Eva’s thoughts as she drifted back to the other end of the room. “May you walk in the Light.”

  Pretty hard not to with all the windows, Eva thought, but she plastered on a smile and inclined her head politely. Her crew followed suit, each in their own way, and without another word they followed Gromira back out into the common area with all the resting xana.

  It wasn’t until they reached the elevator that Gromira turned her enormous black eyes to Eva and projected polite helpfulness at her. “To what destination may I convey you and your companions?” Gromira asked.

  “It’s getting late,” Eva said, looking to Pink for confirmation. “Would we be able to stay overnight somewhere? Rest up, start fresh in the morning, kind of thing?”

  Gromira paused as if conferring with someone silently. “As honored guests, we would be delighted to extend to you the hospitality of local accommodations,” Gromira said slowly. “I will have Watcher Rakyra deliver you to an appropriate location.”

  “Perfecto.” Eva snuggled up to Vakar as they began their descent. His scents were still suppressed, but he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his palps twitching as if in surprise.

  Or concern, maybe. If the xana knew they were a couple, it could be dangerous for both of them. But different species treated the various stages of mating and relationships in different ways, so she had no way of knowing whether they’d realize it was a potential piece of leverage in their case.

  Also, she didn’t give a shit; she really needed a damn hug. Because once they got to the hotel or whatever it was, she was going to call her mother, and that was going to be a bigger pain than any poison spores.

  Chapter 13

  Loca Como Una Chiva

  The local accommodations were astonishingly beautiful, housed as they were in one of the skyscraper-trees. The lobby, for lack of a better word, was a wide-open space whose ceiling was four stories up, decorated in the same vivid reds and greens and golds that proliferated elsewhere. They were arranged into shapes like leaf patterns, light and shadows playing on each other like in the home-trees of Rilia, somehow both geometric and organic in a way that blended seamlessly. There were also representations of different Attuned etched into the gold lines that served as boundaries between colors, visible when the light hit them from different angles.

  As a concession to the tourists, while the walls and ceilings and floors were translucent, technology had been added to render them blurry, frosted, so light would pass through but the guests could retain some semblance of privacy. It was unnerving to look up and see so many shadows milling around, dark spots against the bright colors, like a mold or contagion spreading across what should have been pure and unmarked.

  A few lights were also present, some similar to the ones they’d had at the Communal Center in Rilia: tubes or large clear vessels filled with creatures that glowed softly, including a massive central pillar with so many of them that it lit most of the room. But apparently that wasn’t enough, because mechanical lights had been added in other places—subtle, hidden, so as not to disrupt the effect created by the natural ones.

  Eva was reminded of her fish, swimming around in their tank back on La Sirena Negra. At least these bioluminescent critters were useful for more than looking pretty. Maybe she could invest in a glowing fish or two . . .

  Watcher Rakyra conferred briefly with a xana who was apparently in charge, and who then escorted them, amid constant waves of psychic deference and friendliness, to a private room on a floor high enough to make Eva’s ears pop more than once on the way up. Multiple hammocks hung from the ceiling, presumably serving double duty as beds and chairs, though there was also a small piece of furniture like a couch. A holovid station was set up discreetly in one corner, while the bathing and toilet facilities were in another corner behind clear partitions that Eva hoped could be made opaque for privacy. Enough people had seen her bare ass today, and she was very interested in the oblong thing that might be a tub. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real bath instead of a sonic shower.

  Probably the last time you visited your mom, her sullen head-voice supplied.

  Thanks for reminding me to call her, Eva thought back, but she was just arguing with herself and frankly it was tiring. She groaned loud enough to cause someone in the next room over to startle.

  “You said it,” Pink said. “You sure you want to do this here instead of back on the ship?”

  “We can’t be sure we’d ever get back off the ship,” Eva said. “Let’s go to comms.” She allowed herself a deeply satisfying scowl after maintaining a pleasant expression for so long, then summoned her isohelmet and set it to private mode, darkening it to avoid lip-reading software. Pink and Vakar followed suit.

  Vakar spoke first. “I have already penetrated some of their security systems,” he said, “but their networking methods are highly dependent on their own innate physiologies, which complicates the situation.”

  “And I tried to volunteer for doctor duties back in Rilia,” Pink said. “They assured me they didn’t need any help. I can try again at another center, but the way things are locked down here, it’ll probably be more of the same.”

  “I doubt I’ll be able to chat anyone up now, with Watchers up my ass everywhere we go.” Eva sighed again. No plan survived contact with the enemy, as the saying went. And speaking of enemies . . .

  “My mom is here,” Eva added without further preamble.

  “She’s what?” Pink asked.

  “Why?” Vakar asked simultaneously.

  “Did you mention anything about this to her?” Pink ask
ed.

  Eva racked her brain, pacing in a tight circle. “I don’t think so,” she said finally. “And we didn’t get the info from her that led us here, not really. That came from poking around at all the random places Josh went before he disappeared.”

  “I would also note that we have only arrived earlier this cycle,” Vakar said. “She would have had to depart at roughly the same time we did in order to arrive concurrently.”

  None of it made sense. Her mother was a lot of things, including overbearing, but somehow sniffing out what Eva was up to enough to track her here was some next-level shit. She was a fucking bank auditor, not a Wraith.

  Except she was working for BOFA now, she’d said. Doing what, exactly?

  “I wonder if she’s here for work,” Eva said slowly. “She was going on a business trip . . . Maybe it actually is a coincidence?”

  “God works in mysterious ways,” Pink said. “But that’s a hell of a coincidence.”

  “I’m going to call her,” Eva said. “See if I can’t get an answer without blowing our mission.”

  Vakar rested a hand on Eva’s shoulder. “That seems prudent,” he said. “But be cautious.”

  Eva almost snapped that she was always cautious, but that would be a lie, so she took his hand and squeezed it instead.

  “Well, as long as we’re here, I’m taking a bath,” Pink said, stretching her arms all the way up.

  “Me next,” Eva said.

  They all deactivated their helmets, Eva plopping down on the couch with a sigh after Pink got up. Vakar joined her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder.

  Sue and Min had taken their Pod Pals out of their storage containers, which was itself a physics-defying feat since the capsules were way too small to fit what had come out of them. Each robot was about the same size as Mala, and moved with a fluidity that suggested they were extremely high quality.

  Min’s Pal resembled a large caterpillar or other insect larva, a buttery yellow with multiple segments and small legs, its sides adorned with circular markings that looked like eyes. It inched along the floor, raising itself up occasionally as if to get a better look around, its tiny forehead stalks wiggling like it was sniffing the air or using some other sense beyond human perception.

  Sue’s Pal, on the other hand, looked like a sphere with a giant eye in the middle, with two metallic arms and a thick antenna on the top. It floated around her like a combat drone, rotating its arms and making buzzing noises that Eva expected would get very old, very quickly.

  Both Min and Sue were completely enamored with their strange new toys. Min crouched next to hers, watching it scoot back and forth and occasionally petting it on the back, eliciting a wriggle that suggested the bot was pleased by the contact. Sue giggled over and over, turning in place to track the Pal’s airborne trajectory, even though it seemed to be orbiting her.

  Something about them made Eva uneasy. Hell, everything about them did. Hopefully Sue and Min hadn’t been foolish enough to give unrestricted commlink access to the bots, or they could be rummaging through confidential information easier than they were currently meandering around the room.

  And speaking of that, no sense in further delaying the inevitable.

  “I’d better make that call,” Eva told Vakar. She stood and summoned her isohelmet in full privacy mode again, running a few scrubbers and relays before the harsh buzz of the line connecting began to make her teeth ache. It took so long for her mother to answer that she had already started composing a message she probably wouldn’t leave, because she hated voicemail.

  “Hello?” Regina said. “Eva, qué se cuenta, mija?”

  “Mami,” Eva replied. “I, uh, got your picture. You’re on Garilia? Looks like you’re having fun.”

  Regina paused, the sounds around her shifting as she apparently moved. “Sí, bueno. The ocean is beautiful, and everyone has been very nice. So much personal attention, more than any other resort I’ve visited, and I’ve been to a few.”

  “Good, good. Are you on vacation, or was this the big work trip you were telling me about?” Eva paced around the room, avoiding Sue, who had grounded her Ball Buddy and was examining it while a pair of her own yellow bots watched.

  Regina paused again, and this time all the background noise vanished. “I’m flattered you’re so interested. You usually ignore my q-mails.”

  Mierda. That was true. Hell, Eva had already spoken to her mom more in the last week than she had for years, and they hadn’t ended their last call on good terms. Then again, it was also a dodge.

  “Just curious,” Eva replied. “Garilia is pretty far out there, and not super well known.”

  “Sí, cierto,” Regina said. “I’m surprised you’ve heard of it. Y además, I’m wondering how you know where I am. I never mentioned it in the q-mail.”

  Mierda again. Eva had punctured her hull and everything she said made the hole bigger.

  “The building behind you was pretty unique,” Eva said casually. “I had one of my people look it up. Are you sure things are safe there?” Not that she expected any Attuned to randomly attack her mother, of all people, but she didn’t know what the xana were up to. The vibe she got from Damaal wasn’t good, and while that wasn’t a lot to go on, it was enough that she didn’t want anyone else she cared about to get involved.

  Worse, since Damaal knew who Eva was, it might not be a huge leap to connect her to Regina . . .

  “It seems perfectly safe to me,” Regina said. “The coup was years ago, and things have been mostly peaceful since then.”

  “Mostly peaceful,” Eva repeated. “Cuídate, vieja, ‘Mostly peaceful’ can turn into ‘arroz con mango’ in a second.” Madre de dios, she sounded like Mari. It made her want to scream.

  “I’m sure you would know, Eva-Benita,” Regina said, her voice growing colder. “The last time I talked to you, you were still trying to find that missing engineer for his criminal sister. Y ahora qué?”

  Eva exhaled in a huff, weaving around Min, whose caterpillar-like bot regarded her curiously, its antennae waving at her. “How long are you planning to stay?” The last thing she needed was to run into her mom while she was trying to find Josh.

  “Why, do you need me to help you again?”

  “I was just curious.”

  “You already said that. Are you writing a book, mija? Ya tu sabes what you can do with this chapter.”

  “Shove it up my ass and make it a mystery?” Still not a straight answer. Eva made a disgusted noise. “Bueno, ya, whatever. Enjoy your trip.” Watch your back, she almost said, but instead she hung up before her mother could respond. Then she immediately felt guilty for doing something so immature, so she stalked over to the corner of the room and screamed into her isohelmet before resuming her pacing.

  So that conversation had gone nowhere. But she was fairly certain of one thing: this was the business trip, not a vacation. If it had just been a vacation, her mom wouldn’t have evaded her questions the way she did. Regina hated lying, but she was loyal to her work, the same way Mari was, so it made sense that she would duck and weave instead of saying something outright untrue. Which meant that not only was this a work trip, it was probably confidential.

  What was BOFA up to on Garilia, and why was her mom involved?

  She stopped her agitated pacing just in front of Sue, recoiling with a shouted “Ave Maria!” when she saw what the engineer was doing.

  Sue was systematically disassembling her Pod Pal, which stared sightlessly, serenely up at the ceiling. She’d started by taking apart the larger sections, which meant it was already in three main segments, and she was now sitting cross-legged on the floor with one of the segments in her lap, surrounded by tiny glittering pieces of robot.

  Eva deactivated her helmet and glared down at Sue. “What are you doing?” When Sue didn’t answer, Eva nudged her with the toe of her gravboot.

  “Ah!” Sue shouted, startled. She dropped the piece she was working on, and tiny shards flew off like a
spray of glitter, clattering against the hard floor.

  “This is a giant mess,” Eva said. “How are you going to put it back together?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve been tagging every piece as I remove it.” Sue tapped her head. “Got a working schematic open, you know?”

  Eva nodded. “Find anything interesting yet?”

  Sue frowned, her lips pursed in an exaggerated way that made Eva think of a cartoon fish. “A lot of this is weirdly familiar, but there are things that don’t make sense. I’m trying to figure out how it grows and shrinks without, you know.”

  “Violating all the known laws of physics?” Pink asked. She’d emerged from the bath and was dressed in her newly laundered spacesuit.

  “What does a doctor know about physics?” Eva asked, eyebrow raised.

  “Enough to know nobody’s invented a shrink ray yet.”

  Min, also still fiddling with her Pod Pal, perked up. “I saw a holovid about that! It was pretty funny. This guy made himself super small, and he found this whole species that like, rode tardigrades and he had to save them from an evil scientist.”

  “I remember this holovid,” Vakar said, smelling like jasmine. “You and Leroy were very concerned about whether a particular tardigrade would survive the hostilities.”

  Min laughed, her robot buddy climbing her leg. “You were so confused. You kept telling us it wasn’t real and that we probably ate tardigrades every day by accident.”

  Eva crouched next to Sue and picked up a random piece of Pod Pal. It felt like metal—smooth, oblong, with no sharp edges and no dangerous points. Almost like one of Vakar’s scales, but much smaller and a dull gray.

  “Does this use nanotech of some kind?” Eva asked Sue. “I’ve seen . . . things that can take apart a living creature and replicate its form. Would something like that be able to shrink and grow?”

  “Nanotech is by definition incredibly small,” Sue said, brushing away one of her yellow bots as she spoke. “Like, we don’t bother using it in our custom ships mostly because it can’t do much.” She pursed her lips again, as if thinking, then continued. “Like, imagine a tardigrade trying to move an orange. It can’t. Even bazillions of them are still too tiny. Nanotech is best for dealing with things on the, you know, molecular or atomic level.”