by M. D. Cooper
“Alright, we have our lane and auth.” Cheeky lowered her sunglasses, loving the look the mirrored lenses gave her face. “Dropping in five, four, three, two, here we gooooo!”
The pinnace detached from Sabrina, flung out into space by the angular force imparted on it by the station’s rotation. Cheeky let them fall out for several hundred meters before engaging the craft’s grav drives to slow their momentum, steering them toward their descent lane. It took just a few minutes to drop onto the prescribed vector, and once there, she nosed the Sexy down, beginning their descent to Illium.
“Nice-looking world,” Fina commented. “The sort of place one could go to get away from the rat-race for a bit.”
“Sure.” Cheeky couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s loaded with core AI sympathizers.”
Sabs snorted. “How does someone sympathize with beings that are no longer present? We don’t know anything about their goals and motivations—other than that they hate organics and most other AIs. That doesn’t seem like much to bond with.”
Fina shrugged. “Big galaxy, I guess. Takes all kinds and all that.”
“That’s for sure,” Cheeky nodded. “Like those people we ran into at the Disknee World. Now that was an odd bunch if ever there was one.”
Sabs giggled. “I kinda liked them. Especially Cindy. She said the funniest things when she got angry.”
Cheeky ran through a series of deceleration burns, slowing the pinnace until they were only a few hundred kilometers above the planet’s surface, traveling at twenty thousand kilometers per hour.
“Coming up on our marker,” she advised. “Been a while since I’ve done this maneuver.”
“Want a real pilot to take over?” Fina asked.
“Oh, you’re a riot. When’s the last time you ran a geosync landing?”
Fina winked. “Two weeks ago. Did it with a kilometer-long cruiser, too.”
Sabs whistled. “Who put out the fires?”
“No one, I did it over the ocean. Safe as houses.”
“Landing a ship that big in a grav well is never safe,” Cheeky intoned. “I seem to remember someone named Sera telling me that.”
The blue-skinned woman grinned. “Well, that’s not me, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Notice how she does that?” Cheeky turned to ask Sabs, who stood behind them. “Convenient, isn’t it?”
A wide grin split Fina’s lips. “Benefits of being a clone—I am Sera, and I’m not.”
Cheeky gave her a sidelong look. “Seems like cheating. You’ll notice I never use that out.”
“Wasted opportunity.”
“So,” Sabs interjected, changing the subject. “The place we’re going to tonight has this amazing music and dance show. They do a mix of unaugmented dancers as well as highly modded shows. It’s supposed to be quite the sight.”
“According to who?” Fina asked.
“Uhhh…their net site.” Sabs gave an apologetic shrug.
“But the vids they had were amazing. They do full-sens, too. Sights, sound, touch. It’s wild.”
“Here we go,” Cheeky said. “Time for our own wild ride.”
The Sexy fired increased thrust, slowing from orbital velocity to near-zero in a matter of seconds. Those inside were protected by the graviton emitters firing negative gravitons through the ship, though even so, they felt a few gs pushing on their chests.
“You know,” Fina said after drawing in a labored breath. “Part of me wonders if you selected this landing pattern, rather than being forced to come down this way.”
“Who? Me?” Cheeky asked in an innocent tone. “I would never do such a thing. You know I prefer to fly the most sedate routes I can.”
Sabs snorted. “Sure, whatever. It is way faster, and the Sexy can take it.”
“Exactly,” the pilot replied as she nosed the ship down and fired the grav drives. “Express elevator to Hell!”
The pinnace shot straight down toward the planet, the indistinct blue and brown surface rapidly increasing in definition until the rows of ships at the spaceport came into sharp resolution. The Sexy was on a vector that would see it approach the ground a hundred kilometers to the west.
Once the ship reached a few kilometers above the surface, Cheeky leveled off the near-vertical descent and brought the ship on a slow approach toward the port.
“Got us a cradle close to the tower,” she said as they drifted over the rows of starships—most on the smaller side, like the pinnace. “Just a short walk to the maglev.”
“Important for the trip back.” Fina laughed. “I’ll definitely let you fly back up.”
“Then we start hunting those core AI sympathizers.” Sabs’s tone grew sober. “And give them a piece of our minds.”
Cheeky laughed as she brought the pinnace over their assigned cradle. “Not a literal piece, though. I only have so many.”
“I’ll clone a copy of myself just to slap sense into them,” Fina added. “Actually…no. That sounds like torture for my clone.”
“Clone of a clone might not be the best plan, either,” Cheeky replied.
The pinnace settled into its cradle, and the blue woman snorted as she released her harness and stood, stretching languidly. “I’m not some analog recording. My DNA is clean.”
“Sorry?” the pilot asked as she gazed at Fina’s lithe form. “Were you talking just now?”
“Not about anything important,” Fina replied as she turned to face Cheeky, settling her hands on her hips. “Feel free to feed my ego with compliments about how amazing I look.”
Sabs waved a hand between the pair. “Whoa now, you two. No sex before we even leave the pinnace. Once you start, you’ll never stop, and I want to see the performances at that club.”
“Fiiiiiiiine.” Cheeky drew in a slow, calming breath. “But once we get there….”
“Of course.” Sabs nodded. “Have at it and don’t count me out.”
The trio exited the pinnace and released a passel of nano to keep watch over the ship and the surrounding area before stopping at the yardmaster’s office. The visit wasn’t necessary, but Cheeky found that it never hurt to get to know the people watching over the spaceport.
The office occupied a building next to the STC’s tower, a low, one-story structure with a window filling half the wall, and a nondescript door next to it.
Cheeky pushed it open and sauntered up to the woman at the front counter. “Hey there, just popping in to see if there’s anything you need us to lay ident on in person.”
She kept her tone cheerful, but the baleful look the woman gave her was enough to suck all the joy out of the room.
“If I’d needed ya to come in, I woulda asked ya over the Link. No. I don’t need anything from you, now go.”
Cheeky blinked in surprise, but her smile didn’t diminish. “Oh, sorry, I just like to say hi to folks. Tell you what, we’re going into the city for the evening, but won’t be back too late. If you want, we can pick something up for you…or for the office.”
“What are you suggesting?” The woman’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Nothing illegal.” Cheeky held up her hands and laughed. “But, like, maybe a bottle of wine? Some takeout from a favorite restaurant?”
For the first time, the woman seemed to realize that the two organic-looking women were entirely naked, with Sabs approximating the most attractive cyborg most people would ever lay eyes on.
“Where ya going?” she asked.
“The Primal Pyramid,” Sabs chimed in with a smile. “Really looking forward to the performances.”
The woman snorted. “I’ll bet. But, since you’re offering, do you think you could get me a full-sens recording of the night? I’ve heard their shows are out of this world.”
Cheeky shrugged. “Sure, that’s easy enough. Nothing else?”
“I mean, I won’t say no to the wine. Red. Brut.”
“You got it!” Cheeky’s smi
le widened, and she turned to walk out, glancing over her shoulder as the trio returned to the door. “Have a great day.” She finished off by blowing a kiss, and then they were gone.
“You sure love to put on a performance,” Sabs said with a laugh once they were a few meters away from the building. “I’m not sure if the Sexy will be safer because of it, or if she’s going to plant a bomb on our cradle.”
“It’s going to be totally fine,” Cheeky replied. “Did you see the look she gave us? She’d do anything to get a full-sens of what we get up to tonight.”
“You’re gonna scrub it, right?” Fina asked. “She is a stranger, after all.”
“Not my first rodeo,” Cheeky said as they followed the walkway to the maglev platform. “I bifurcate my feeds when I make these for other people. It’s easy to strip out any real personal details and situational info.”
Sabs laughed and shook her head. “You’re such an incurable exhibitionist.”
“Am I?” Cheeky tapped a finger on her chin. “I’ve never actually tried for a cure…who would want to do something terrible like cure me?”
“You’re right,” Fina laughed. “That would be terrible.”
Sabs joined in the mirth. “I beg your forgiveness, I never meant to suggest that you should change in any way, Cheeks.”
“Good.” Cheeky gave a mock-huff. “Not that it would ever happen. Even death wasn’t able to stop me.”
They rounded a corner and caught sight of the maglev platform. Several groups of people stood waiting for the next train, and the three women joined them, standing at the end of the platform where the sign read, ‘Next Train to Ursa in two minutes.’
“Perfect timing,” Fina said with a smile.
“Nah,” Sabs said with a conspiratorial wink. “I hacked their control system and had the train skip a stop to get here faster.”
Cheeky snorted. “Nice try, Sabs. We all know you’re too strait-laced for that.”
The AI gave a slow blink, her expression carefully schooled. “I see my long game has paid off.”
“Dammit…we fell for it,” Fina said with a laugh. “Played by our own ship’s AI. What’s your real game here, Sabs?”
“Sex. Lots and lots of sex.”
Cheeky laughed and shook her head. “This I believe. Heck of an elaborate plan, though.”
“I’m patient,” Sabs replied as the train came into sight.
The crowds began to move onto the lanes marked out for boarding, and the three women fell in behind a group all wearing Bella Nord shipsuits.
Fina shook her head, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
The doors opened, releasing the cars’ passengers before those queued up made their way in.
A man in a long, black coat with a disheveled head of hair leered at them as he walked past. “What’s your berth, ladies? I can come by later for a good time.”
Fina snorted. “Is that a beard, or are you just eating your hair? I can’t tell.”
He muttered a curse and walked away while the three women moved forward to stand at the front of the car.
“That was a bit mean,” Cheeky said. “You probably made him really sad.”
Fina shrugged. “I can handle just about any style there is—except filthy. And seriously, I couldn’t tell what was going on there at all.”
“He was eating his hair,” Sabs confirmed. “Or at least stuffing it into his mouth. I watched him do it as the train came into the station.”
Cheeky mouthed ‘wow’ and shook her head. “OK, well, putting that out of my mind now. Refocusing on our night out. Ohmmmmm.”
“Ohm?” Sabs asked with a laugh. “Where did you pick that up?”
“One of the vids from that vault we found. It was about an ancient religion.”
“The vault in the Perseus Arm?” Fina asked. “How many vids were in there?”
Cheeky cocked her head to the side, eyes darting up to the overhead. “Well, if you’re counting distinct titles and not extended editions, eight hundred thousand, two hundred and forty-three.”
“So you’re scraping the bottom, then,” Fina replied.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
The group fell silent as the train took off from the station, speeding across the grassy plain surrounding the spaceport before slipping into a dark green forest, hundred-meter trees rising around the track like silent sentinels protecting the city.
“Don’t see a lot of redwoods,” Fina mused as the trees sped past the windows. “They’re really particular about where they grow—kinda surprised the locals got them to do so well on a steppe like this.”
“Isn’t Illium an FGT-terraformed world?” Sabs asked.
“Oh sure, but they rarely go to the trouble of establishing late-stage growth like this. Most of the time, the planetary engineers would set the climate up, get the second wave of life on the way, and then head off to the next planet. The changeover team would stick around to provide the colonists with different templates depending on what they wanted.”
“What about all the stories Finaeus told?” Cheeky asked. “It seemed like he stuck around a lot to make some wild stuff.”
Fina winked. “I did say ‘most’ of the time. You know Fin. He was—is—a perfectionist. Worlds he did are still some of the most beautiful in the galaxy. It’s really an amazing legacy.”
“And just think,” Sabs added. “Now people can use the gate network to see them all in months rather than lifetimes!”
Cheeky nodded. “Yeah, things really have changed. Granted, a lot of systems—most, I imagine—won’t ever get gates. We’ll still get to slog our way through the DL a lot.”
“You seem happy about that,” Fina said.
“Stars know I am.” Sabs gave a resolute nod. “Gates take all the fun out of space.”
“What she said,” Cheeky jerked a thumb in Sabs’s direction. “I mean, sure, there’s insystem flying, but it’s not like transitioning at the edge of systems…hurtling across space in the DL, praying you make it to the far side and dump out in the right place.”
“So it’s a thrill ride for you,” Fina said.
Cheeky crossed her arms, giving her friend a level stare. “How is this news to you at this point?”
“Uhh…yeah, I take that back.”
“Excuse me?” A man’s voice came from behind the trio, and they turned to see one of the Bella Nord crew standing a meter away.
Behind him, three of his crewmates were standing in a cluster, eyes darting between their companion and the three women.
“What’s up?” Cheeky asked. “Can we help you with anything?”
“Uhhh…well, we heard you talking about the jump gate system. We only learned about it a few years back and haven’t gotten a chance to use it yet—none of our regular routes are in systems with gates, yet.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Cheeky replied. “It’s going to take awhile for the gate network to expand across the Orion Arm, the mirrors take a long time to manufacture.”
The man nodded. “I’d picked that up. Is the network really as extensive as we’ve heard, though? And can you really go to any destination from a gate?”
“Yup!” she replied with a cheerful smile. “So long as it’s not interdicted.”
“Wait…that’s new information. Some systems are off the network?” His brows knit together in confusion, and the three behind him shared an uncertain look.
“Not exactly. They
just might have a field set up around the star system that will knock a ship out of gate transit.”
“Stars shitting!” the man exclaimed. “Does that…does it destroy the ship?”
“No.” Cheeky smiled as she shook her head. “Just dumps you into regular space. It’s happened to us a few times, and we didn’t take any damage.”
“You have a mirror ship?” one of the man’s crewmates asked, taking a step forward.
“Oh, no.” She held up a hand, waving it side to side. “We were on a tug. They were just newly interdicted systems.”
“But you can go clear across the galaxy?” the man asked, sounding both worried and hopeful.
“So long as the tugs available have the power to go that far—you also have to pay for the time the tug will be out of commission, traveling back to the gate network. It makes jumping across the galaxy prohibitively expensive.”
“Can you just buy the mirrors and jump yourself?” he asked.
“No.” Cheeky pursed her lips. “You can’t. Only select militaries have access to the mirrors right now.”
“In the Orion Arm,” the man clarified. “From what we’ve picked up, out in the Transcend, there are private organizations with mirror ships.”
Cheeky shrugged. “I’ve heard that too, but I’ve also heard it’s nonsense. Never been out that far myself. Everything I’ve ever seen has been tugs and military craft.” She glanced back at Fina and Sabs. “What about you two?”
“Same here,” Fina said, while Sabs bobbed her head in agreement. “Never seen a private ship with its own gate mirror.”
“OK…well, I guess that makes sense,” the man replied, eyes dropping as he sighed. “We just need to make a jump out to Deneb, and it would take years to get there otherwise, but the contract is so lucrative that it would be nuts not to take it.”