by Clara Woods
When they didn’t get an answer from Doctor Lund after several minutes, Cassius got up from his seat. Lenah took the ship into a spin, almost making him crash into the dashboard. He caught himself on her seat, making its metal structure creak. “I’ll go check on the doctor.”
She nodded and concentrated on the next asteroid.
“Let me know as soon as you can,” she finally yelled after him, but the hatch was already closed.
Being alone made her enjoy the maneuvers even more and, grinning, she flew dips and spirals.
Another hit jolted the ship hard. “Shit.”
She hadn’t seen the small rock that had impacted with the area of the hull that was already leaking. Resolved, Lenah continued what she was doing, letting her instincts take control, jerking the creaky ship in one or the other direction. Suddenly there was nothing but black, glittering space in front of her. They’d left the asteroid field behind. She kept braking their speed until they were back to normal. Tapping her fingers nervously on the dashboard, she waited for the cyborg’s update.
“He’s alive, but unconscious,” his deep voice finally came over the intercom. “He must have hit his head on something.” Cassius hesitated. “He was playing with the stone.”
“He what?”
When he didn’t answer, Lenah took one last look ahead to make sure no more asteroids were incoming and ran down the hallway toward the doctor’s cabin. She met Persia on the way, and they continued together.
“I shouldn’t have given him the stone while it was creating a warp bubble for us,” Persia said.
“You’re right about that,” Lenah hissed. “You know what organization he belongs to. He’s going to prove that there’s nothing magical about the stone. Stars, he might have even tried to destroy it.”
When they entered the room, Cassius was settling the doctor’s body onto the single bunk. The stone was lying on the small desk next to the fuming remains of an electronic device.
Lenah joined Cassius at the bunk.
“His temple is bleeding, but he has a regular pulse,” he said.
“Okay, let’s hope he wakes up soon. I have no idea where we are right now, and we might not have enough fuel to get him in the proximity of a doctor. Besides, I want an explanation.”
Cassius nodded.
“The stone is scorched,” Persia remarked behind them.
Both Lenah and Cassius turned around, and they assembled around the small table as Uz walked in.
The doctor had a clunky-looking cable connected to some kind of measuring device. The latter was a molten black mess. The cable had been connected to the stone, but the connection had popped off, leaving the cable burnt and the stone scorched in one spot.
“Why would he do that?” Cassius mumbled, probably more to himself than anyone else.
“He’s part of USO,” Persia said. “I should have never let him have the stone.” She put her face in her hands and proceeded to shake her head. “Of course he’d do some weird science woo-doo and break everything.”
Cassius lifted an eyebrow at her.
“You do realize that he’d most likely take offense at you calling his scientific methods ‘woo-doo’?” Lenah offered.
“The warp bubble must have broken when this exploded,” Cassius said, still looking skeptically at Persia. “Why did you give your stone away? Don’t you know what it is?”
“Who are you to ask, cyborg?” Persia said, removing her hands from her face.
“Do you think we should try to start another warp bubble?” Lenah interrupted to distract some of the tension between Persia and Cassius. “I mean, we don’t have a lot of fuel, and I’ll need to do some calculations on that. But what if the stone is broken somehow?”
“You believe we could get trapped in the warp bubble?” Uz asked, picking up the stone, her eyes never leaving it.
“That would be a possibility.”
“None that’s ever happened,” Cassius remarked.
“How many people use stones to warp?” Lenah asked, lifting her chin.
He shrugged.
She was getting frustrated. “If no one has a better idea, I’ll go back up and do some calculations. We need to figure out where we are and how damaged the ship is. Uz?”
Uz finally looked away from the stone, her eyes large. “You want me to repair the Rambler?”
“Yes. Can you do it?”
“I – yes! Yes, I can take a look at the ship.” With those words, Uz dropped the stone back on the table and ran out of the hatch. Both Lenah and Cassius were left staring after her.
“I need everyone to be reasonable now,” Lenah said. “Our ship is damaged. We have little fuel and we don’t know where we are. Persia, go help Uz in the cargo hold. Cassius, come with me. Help me figure out our fuel problem.”
To her surprise everyone complied, even the cyborg. They made it back to the cockpit, and she calculated their coordinates in relation to Lunara Station. Cassius checked the fuel tank to make sure creating another warp bubble wouldn’t empty what remained there before they could get to their destination.
“We should have just enough fuel, rich girl,” he said after a few moments. “If we’re really where you say we are, then we can make it.”
Lenah nodded and then hit the comm button. She didn’t appreciate the doubt in his voice.
“Uz, how are things looking in the cargo hold?” She turned on the camera, showing Uz in an old space suit, leaning over the breach in the hull. It took a while for the Cassidian to answer, and when she did, her voice had a metallic sound coming through the suit’s microphone.
“Almost done, Captain. Give me a few more minutes to fix these holes. None are major.”
“Nice.” Finally, Lenah breathed a sigh of relief.
20 Lunara Station
Lenah landed the ship softly on Lunara Station’s private ship bay. Compared to Oscuris, Lunara Station was a beautiful place, though old. It was a five-kilometer ring that had been constructed on the surface of a large moon ages ago, right after humanity had arrived in this sector of the galaxy. Everything looked clean and practical, a nice break from the dark and gloomy. Metal stairs led to different levels of the landing station, where hundreds of ships were parked. This was a busy place. Large signs pointed toward the exit leading into the commercial area. She suspected the bar they were supposed to drop the cargo in was going to be that way.
“You ready?” Cassius asked.
“Yup, coming.” Lenah had to admit she was glad for his presence. Now that it seemed he was on their side, at least temporarily, she felt a lot safer walking into an illegal cargo delivery next to a cyborg with criminal experience.
She pressed the power down sequence and got out of her seat. Cassius led the way to the cargo hold, where the others were already waiting.
“So is this goodbye?” Lenah felt a pang of sadness to see Uz and even Doctor Lund leaving, though she did blame him for getting them into a dangerous situation by destroying their warp bubble. His insistence that magic didn’t exist had gone from mildly perturbing to really dangerous with that one action. Just thinking about it, Lenah had to keep herself from shaking her head. He’d explained to them after waking up a short while after the incident that his scientific readers were made in such a way as to not disturb any science. All he’d been doing was getting basic statistics on the stone to start explaining its phenomenon. A stunned silence had followed that declaration until Uz had proclaimed him even crazier than she’d thought. The argument had lasted throughout their whole trip to Lunara Station, but somehow Lenah had gotten used to their constant bickering, and even to Doctor Lund’s edgy opinions. Not that she didn’t fully understand why they wanted to get as far away as possible from the Star Rambler, after being held hostage on it twice.
“Not goodbye yet; we’ll go to the knowledge terminal first. We can meet up there before leaving.”
Uz patted Lenah on the arm, then pulled her hand away quickly, as if realizing it was an awkward
gesture, especially for a Cassidian. It seemed Lenah wasn’t the only one feeling sad about them breaking up. She returned the pat, earning a smile from Uz.
“Do you have all your stuff, though?” She eyed Uz’s empty-looking pack. “I don’t want you to leave anything behind, in case something goes wrong in the cargo transfer and we need to leave in a rush.”
She hoped it didn’t come to that. After all, this was her only lead to get behind what her father and the so-called Queen were up to.
“Ay, Captain, that’s all I have,” Uz said with another smile, before hitting the button to open the outer hatch.
Lenah looked at Persia. “You sure you’ll be fine on your own?” she asked quietly.
“Sure. I’m not the one doing the illegal stuff. I need to find affordable fuel and food, and buy it once you and the cyborg get paid.”
Persia walked down the stairs first, quickly vanishing into the crowd.
Lenah followed Cassius, who was carrying the small cargo box. She didn’t know what was in it, but suspected it would be medicines or drugs. It had to be something valuable, or no one would be paying them 400 credits to deliver it. She itched to get rid of it and get the cash. Being out of money wasn’t one of the things she enjoyed about this adventure.
Looking at her wristpiece with its map of Lunara Station, she motioned for Cassius to take a right turn. It took them away from the buzz, and Cassius started to walk briskly past her. Lenah had to take several accelerated steps to catch up. His gaze was constantly roaming, and she watched him, trying to pick up his technique. Being vigilant would have come in handy several times already. Then again, the mafia guard on Oscuris hadn’t been subtle at all, and still Lenah and Persia hadn’t realized they were after them. Once again, she was grateful for Cassius’ presence. She didn’t know how the guards on Oscuris had been alerted so quickly about their presence, and was worried the experience might repeat itself. Lunara Station was a decent place, though, and even here in the older sections, all the holes in the metal plates were being patched.
As they walked, loud shouts from numerous sources became even louder, until a large hall full of booths with colorful roofs appeared. A market.
Despite the crowd of shoppers and merchants, Cassius barely slowed down, and Lenah was tempted to grab hold of his hand to avoid having to run the zigzag course around leisurely walking people. She realized that would mean touching his metal hand, as he was using his flesh and blood one to carry the cargo. She discarded the idea.
“A flower for your beautiful lady?” A merchant blocked Cassius’ way, wiggling his eyebrows at Lenah in a knowing gesture. Maybe she’d looked a little too desperately at Cassius’ hand, and he now presumed she wanted to cuddle with it. At least the man slowed Cassius down enough for her to fully catch up.
Cassius didn’t answer, and tried to push by, but ended up with a bunch of red roses pressed against his nose.
“Smell this. Your lady will do anything you want of her, if you give her this bundle of love.”
Cassius mumbled something that sounded like, “She isn’t my lady,” and tried to push by again. This time, the merchant let him pass, but stuck the roses out toward Lenah.
“For the lady, then? Win over your prince’s heart if you give him— ”
“—this bundle of love?” Lenah finished for him. “Really, that’s the worst sales pitch,” she said, as Cassius grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. Even though she’d been eying that same hand before, her body pumped full of adrenaline at the contact. He wasn’t hurting her, obviously skilled in controlling his strength; it wasn’t even unpleasant, but she’d spent too much time thinking of him as nothing more than the enemy to acknowledge that he wanted to rescue her from a flower merchant.
“Aren’t flowers known as romantic gestures among cyborg females? Do you give each other motor oil instead?” As usual, when she was nervous around him, she couldn’t control her tongue. He glared down at her, his light-green eyes piercing, and Lenah wished she could shut up for once.
“Where I come from, a man, cyborg or not, is romantically interested in a woman before giving her flowers.”
“Huh. Go figure,” she said, feeling a familiar tightness rise up in her chest.
“Maybe that’s different in your circles, your highness.” He slowed his step to give a mock imitation of a bow toward her. Lenah pressed her lips together. Cassius probably didn’t know it, but he’d hit the hammer on the head. Stupid Mason, still having this power over her. Even in the middle of a smuggling mission, on an unfamiliar space station, she couldn’t help remembering Mason’s shocked face when she’d told him that she didn’t plan to be his stepping stone up the family hierarchy in exchange for his family’s money, as if there had never been any more in their relationship than that. And she’d almost married him; even worse, she’d fallen in love with him. She shook herself out of it to find Cassius still staring down at her, green eyes studying her face.
“Let’s go,” she said, and passed by him to take the lead. Several people looked her up and down. He quickly caught up, striding easily at her side. Lenah wasn’t happy to be reminded that she seemed to stick out just by the way she was moving. On Oscuris, everyone seemed to have picked up on her upbringing from kilometers away. She didn’t think she was faring much better here.
They continued on in silence, and finally their destination came into view.
“That’s the one.” Lenah motioned Cassius toward the corner bar. It was set at the end of a corridor, with more corridors splitting off to the left and right.
He nodded but didn’t answer. She did notice his grip tightening on the box, however. They entered the bar, Cassius taking the lead.
On the inside, the place reminded Lenah of Oscuris. There was a severe lack of light sources, and it took her a few moments to be able to see anything. Up ahead lay a long bar, with several creatures of different races sitting there, having solitary drinks. Most tables were cast in shadows. In the back, a staircase led up to the second floor. That was the way Cassius took. They weaved around several tables, drawing the eyes of most guests. She wondered if that was Cassius’ fault for being a cyborg, or hers for being…stars knew what she was to them.
When they reached the beginning of the staircase, the barman stopped them. “Where’s you going, eh?”
“I’m here to see Mr. Slouch,” Cassius answered in a different accent. Normally speaking clear G-Standard very much like her own, he now had the distinct slur she’d come to associate with smugglers. She didn’t know much about his past, but suspected he’d grown up around the kind of place they were in right now.
“An’ what you want with Mr. Slouch?” the barman asked, no friendlier. He was a bulky man, with thick hairy arms sticking out of his brown vest. By the way he was holding the kitchen knife that he’d been using to cut lemons, he knew how to handle it outside the kitchen.
“Got a delivery. From Big Rat.”
“Ah.” The barman finally lowered his knife a little. “Why did ya na’ say so before?” Then he stretched out his hand, motioning upstairs. “First door to ya left.”
Lenah climbed the stairs behind Cassius, constantly checking her back to see if they were being followed. When they reached the top, he motioned for her to stay a step behind as she watched him put his ear against the door.
After a few seconds, he said, “Someone’s alone in there, typing on a data pad. Loudly.”
She was impressed, but quickly remembered Cassius was enhanced. As outer signs went, he only wore his metal arm, and she’d seen his spine enhancements before, but ear implants were invisible. Given she hadn’t heard a thing, he must have some. Being able to overhear people was probably helpful when doing smuggler business. How, by the stars, did one type loudly on a touchscreen, though?
Cassius knocked and slowly opened the door. “Mr. Slouch, I’m here to drop off a delivery from Big Rat.”
“Come on in,” a friendly but strangely rough voice said.
Inside it was hot, and a red light illuminated the space. Lenah understood why when she got her first glimpse of Mr. Slouch. He was a Craff, a lizard race from a planet full of active volcanoes and lava lakes. She’d once visited on a sightseeing expedition in college. They’d never even left their ship, because the average temperature on the place could kill a human within minutes. This room wasn’t that bad, more like a sauna, but she was instantly covered in sweat.
“Come in, friends. Don’t mind the heat. It’s comfortable, don’t you think?”
Yeah, right, Lenah thought to herself, but held her tongue. She’d agreed to Cassius’ idea that he’d be doing the talking. She needed to be there as one of the original recipients who’d taken charge of the cargo request back on Oscuris.
The lizard pulled up a data pad with clumsy hands. His hands were stuck to short arms, and instead of fingers, he had claws. They seemed made for killing, not handling mundane tasks such as a data pad. At least that explained the loud typing.
“Which of you is Elle Stardust, and which is India Kan?” Slouch’s view went from left to right as if it was a totally normal question. Maybe he didn’t realize those were both human female names.
“I’m Elle Stardust.” Lenah stepped forward, Cassius mimicking the movement with her.
“Wonderful. And you bring my cargo?”
“Yes.” Cassius held up the box.
“Let’s see it, then.” The lizard clapped two claws together in a gesture of delight, but Cassius didn’t move.
“We’ll hand it over once we receive the payment.”
“Ah.” The Craff’s good mood visibly faltered, but he started to pull out a metal box from somewhere under his table.
“200 CGC, was it?” He quickly started to type something on his pad, and the box opened. He took out a small pile of plastic cards and handed them over.
“Miss Stardust,” Cassius said without looking away from the lizard, “please check if it’s the right amount.”