by M. R. Forbes
“Garvan,” the Don replied, smiling. “How are you, today?”
The driver was impressed the Don knew his name. He smiled. “I’m well, sir.”
“Good.”
Garvan moved to open the door for them. They all climbed into the back.
“I think this thing has the Chalandra beat,” Tibor said, nestling into the padded seats.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Hayley said. “This is business.”
“Roger that.”
Garvan got behind the wheel. It was a little strange to Hayley that the Don was using a human driver instead of a synth. For her sake?
“Where to, sir?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” Pallimo said. “We’re looking for employees of mine. Smugglers.”
The Don surprised her again, telling the driver they were looking for criminals.
Garvan laughed. “Does it reflect poorly on me if I may know who you’re looking for and where to find them, sir?”
“Not at all. That’s why I asked Captain Hern to send you. I’m aware you have a bit of a gambling problem.”
Garvan’s qi shifted to yellow and green. Nervous and embarrassed. “Uh. I.”
“Relax,” Pallimo said. “Bring us to the right place, and I’ll make sure your debts get cleared. I’ll also arrange for you to enter treatment.”
“Sir?” Garvan said.
“I’m in a unique situation at the moment. I’m also buying your silence. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
The car got underway, rolling a short distance down the tarmac before the driver engaged the anti-grav and the vehicle lifted into the sky.
Thankfully for Hayley, the trip from the Hauler launch site to Proxis only lasted a few minutes. She never enjoyed being too far from the ground, where her world became limited to the small box she was sitting in. She enjoyed it less without the visor, and without Gant to feed her details she might need later. If she had to jump from the car, how would she know how far she had to fall? How would she know if there was something on the ground that might be soft enough to allow her to survive?
The city started coming into view as they began to descend. The wash of color from the many thousands of individuals living on Proxis was a welcome relief from the darkness, even if it was a chaotic mess she had trouble getting under control at first. As the planet closest to the Worldbrain, Proxis was a hub of activity at all times. Traders, travelers, and especially scientists flocked to the city in preparation for their visit, proudly carrying the passports that gave them access to the Worldbrain’s services. There was even an entire tourism industry built around ferrying people past the Worldbrain, allowing them to gawk at it from low orbit.
None of that meant anything to her. She would never see the Worldbrain the way they did. She had heard it was a marvel of engineering, with thousands of kilometers of lighted neural pathways, spires, and towers that defied physics as they rose and twisted many kilometers into the sky, each of them containing more computing power than could be found on entire planets, including Earth. It was said the Worldbrain had access to every bit of knowledge ever created by any of the intelligent races in the galaxy, and that the real skill was in locating it amidst the infinite data stored within. It was said individuals spent their entire lifetimes on elusive hunts for esoteric knowledge.
Whatever. Hayley just wanted to find one lost, super-intelligent little girl.
They landed on the streets and kept driving, heading through the city at a smooth pace. Hundreds of pedestrian crossings stretched over them, while hundreds of cars kept to the air above that. Hayley noticed every sort of alien in the Republic as they moved. Trover, Atmo, even a Gant. She kept a careful eye out for the red-gold of the Gift, the white-silver of the Shard’s Light, and especially the green-copper of the Collective. The naniates from Hell’s Gate hadn’t spread this far inward yet, and she didn’t expect to come across them here.
They drove for nearly twenty minutes. The population slowly thinned out as they did. Hayley could tell by the shape of things that they were moving into an older part of the city, descending beneath the more impressive upside of the construction to the darker reaches. Every modern Republic city had places like this. They were where the real business of the universe was done. Drugs and guns, gambling and sex, and everything that fell in between. Being close to the Worldbrain didn’t make it any different. It just meant there was a lot more trade for gray and black market data.
They came to a stop outside of a dark, unmarked building where a pair of armed thugs were standing guard outside.
“This is the place, sir,” Garvan said. “Are you sure you want to go in?”
“I’ve been in worse places than this,” the synth replied. “And I’m hardly an easy mark.”
“Yes, sir. Do you want me to come with, or wait here with the car?”
“Wait here, please.”
“Of course.”
The driver opened the door for them. They climbed out in front of the building. The two guards were on them before the driver could close the door.
“We need to scan your credit,” one of them said. They didn’t know who they were talking to.
“Of course,” Pallimo replied.
He held his wrist out toward them. They ran a machine over it, and then glanced at one another. The scan had given them the total dollar value of one of the Don’s accounts.
“Welcome to Palisade,” the same guard said.
“No weapons inside,” the other said.
Pallimo smiled and raised his arms so they could pat him down. They did a thorough job, making sure he didn’t have anything tucked away. They paid special attention to his cane, examining it before deciding it was harmless.
They moved on to Tibor, obviously seeing the males as a bigger threat. He wasn’t carrying anything. He didn’t need to. He was the weapon.
They finished with Hayley, successful identifying the knife she had tucked into her boot and the pistol against the small of her back and claiming them for safekeeping. She had used the Uin to hold the bun in her hair, and they only gave it a cursory look.
One of the guards whispered something, speaking into a hidden comm. Then the door behind them opened. Another guard was there, and he waved them in.
The inside of the building was a test to Hayley’s senses. Loud music played in the background, while the crowds of people made her vision lose nearly all of its cohesiveness. She reached out for Tibor, grabbing his arm and staying close while she fought to get her perception back under control. She wanted her damn visor, or she wanted to get the hell out of there. She knew she couldn’t have either of those things. Not yet. She had to get a grip.
They moved through a controlled crowd of other individuals. Hayley could feel them brushing against her, but all she could see was a sea of colors, a rainbow soup with no definition. Her heart was starting to race in the kind of panic she hadn’t felt in years.
Damn it; she needed to stop telling herself she couldn’t do this without the visor. Quark believed in her. She had to start believing in herself.
One thing at a time. It would be easier to start filtering the sounds than the sight. She concentrated on that, breaking the music away from the speaking until she could hear individual words. They continued deeper into the club while she worked on pushing the sounds toward the background, finding some relief in her success.
They stopped a few seconds later. She could hear laughing, and one voice that was rising above the group.
“Come on, baby,” a man was saying. “Don’t let me down.”
She heard something spinning, and then a cheer rose from the crowd.
“Yes!” the man said. “I am on a fragging roll!”
“That’s our target,” Pallimo said to her. “Let’s try to get a little closer.”
“I’ve got you, Hal,” Tibor said.
They started edging through the crowd again. Hayley continued working on restoring her vision, getting the qi
of the many individuals around her separated and organized. Removing the overwhelming noise had helped immensely, and she started breaking everything apart and getting a look at the bodies around her.
“One more time,” the man said, his voice louder and clearer as they closed in. “I’m doubling down.”
She could hear his chips sliding across the table, offered up for the spin. The qi of the crowd around her was shifting with nervous excitement.
She found the wheel a moment later, just as it started to spin. She eyed it curiously, noticing a small spark of color near the base, electricity helping to guide the rotation and alter the outcome of the spin. She focused on it, using it as an anchor to get her vision the fully under control.
Her eyes narrowed as the small blue spark was suddenly replaced by a vein of white and silver that rose up from the base and took over the wheel. It held fast, slowing the spin almost imperceptibly until the wheel came to a stop.
On the number the man had chosen.
She jerked her head toward him, searching his qi. He was no Seraphim. Just a regular human, though she could see in the color of his life force he was in on the cheat. Or was it a counter-cheat? Whatever. Where was his accomplice?
They cleared the last of the onlookers, coming to stand beside him. The man’s head turned, his eyes stopping on Don Pallimo. His qi was slightly nervous, but only slightly. He glanced at Tibor, and then at her.
His qi change again. Surprise. Shock. Affection?
“I don’t believe… Hayley? Is that you?”
Hayley stared back at him. “Do I know you?”
“I… I don’t know,” he replied. “It’s been a while. You might not remember me. Geez, I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe you’re grown up. Like, really grown up. And you can see again?” He looked back at Pallimo. “Don, why are you here? And why are you here with her?”
“Who are you?” Hayley asked forcefully, getting his attention again.
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. It’s me. Bastion. Bastion Merritt. I’m a friend of your mom’s. Well, I was.”
18
Bastion Merritt?
Hayley tried to remember the name.
“Worm,” Bastion said. “That was my call sign with the Rejects. Back when I was with the Rejects. Before your mom dumped me.”
She eyed him for another second. Then she let go of Tibor’s arm, pushing closer to him, reaching out and grabbing him by the collar.
“Where is she?” she cried. “My mother. Where the hell did she go? I need her help.”
He was surprised by her aggression, but he didn’t try to fight back. Hayley saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Someone was coming toward them.
Someone tinged with the Light of the Shard. A Seraphim.
“Bastion,” she said. “Who the hell do you think you are. Let go of… Hayley?”
Hayley turned her head to get a better look at the Seraphim. Her Light was soft within her. She wasn’t overly powerful, but she was definitely one of them. She had used her power to cheat the game.
“You know me, too?” Hayley asked.
“My name is Eleison,” she said. “I was a friend of your mother.”
“I gathered that much,” Hayley replied. She was still holding Bastion’s collar. “Do you know where she is? I was just telling your friend, I need her help.”
“She’s gone,” Eleison said.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“I don’t know, exactly. Bastion and I split from the Rejects a few years ago. Not that we had a falling out or anything. We just wanted to do more.”
“The Don here hooked us up,” Bastion said. “Gave us jobs as smugglers. Gave us a ship. Started sending us to places where the Nephilim were rumored to be. I told Queenie about it, and she said she understood. We were doing what she couldn’t because she was too high profile.”
“Then one day we went onto the GalNet to deliver an update to her, the way we always did. She didn’t respond. Not the next day, the next day, or any of the days for months after that. So we went looking for her. We know where she was hiding. But she was gone. So were the rest of the Rejects, and their ship.”
“And you don’t know where she went,” Hayley said.
“Geez, I’m sorry, kid,” Bastion said. “You probably feel like she abandoned you. Shit, I know I would. We never found a trace of her. The only clue we have is an electrical anomaly that occurred around the time she disappeared.”
“I have a theory that she jumped to another multiverse,” Eleison said.
“Multiverse?”
“Quark never told you?” Bastion asked. “Where is that tough son of a bitch, anyway?”
“Dead,” Hayley said flatly. “Killed in action last week.”
Bastion’s qi went white. “You’re shitting me.”
Hayley shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” Eleison said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Hayley. Especially if you came looking for your mother.”
“I didn’t come looking for her, specifically. I came looking for help.”
“What kind of help?” Bastion asked.
“Do you know anything about a Nephilim named Thetan?”
“Never heard of him.”
“Her. The short version is that she picked up the research that created Gant, and used it to make super-Goreshin and super-intelligent humans. She also accidentally created a naniate Collective.”
“Collective?” Eleison asked.
“A hive of free-thinking naniates who are unfortunately very hostile.”
“That does sound like a problem for your mother to deal with,” Bastion said. “How did you get involved?”
“Another long story. But I am involved, and we do need help.”
“Which is why I brought her to you,” Pallimo said. “You’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this.”
“I’ve been waiting for something a little more in between minor Evolent asshole and a major pain in the asteroid,” Bastion said. “This sounds kind of at the other end of the bell curve.”
“The Collective doesn’t give a shit about bell curves,” Hayley said. She turned to Eleison. “You’re a Seraphim. You have the Light in you. You can help.”
“What am I?” Bastion asked. “Chopped liver?”
“I’m not that strong,” Eleison said. “But I’ll do whatever I can.”
Hayley smiled. “Thank you.”
Bastion coughed. “Uh. Still here.”
“Are you still here?” Eleison asked, smiling.
“Not funny.”
“So you’re going to help me?” Hayley asked him.
“Sure. I always did love hopeless causes. Just call me Saint Bastion.”
“What are your skills?” Tibor asked.
“What are my skills?” Bastion looked at the Goreshin like he had two heads. “I’m the best damn pilot in the galaxy.”
“We already have the best pilot in the galaxy.”
“You do? Oh.” He hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. “I’m somewhat handy with a blaster. And I have good leadership skills. And. Damn. Well, I come with Eleison. We’re a package deal. What’s your skill, baldie?”
“I can change into a three-meter tall rage monster,” Tibor replied.
Bastion stared at him. “You’re a Goreshin?”
Tibor nodded. “One of Thetan’s experimental soldiers.”
“Are you sure you can trust this guy?”
“Yes,” Hayley replied. “With my life.”
“Okay. Sure.” He turned his head, looking somewhere in the distance. “I think we ought to get moving.”
Hayley followed his gaze. A pair of Trovers in suits were scanning the crowd. They pointed at Bastion a moment later, their qi turning red.
“They figured out you were cheating?” Hayley asked.
“What?” Bastion replied. “I wasn’t cheating.”
“Uh-huh,” Hayley said. “To answer your earlier question, no, I didn’t ge
t my eyesight back. I perceive energy. Including naniate energy.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Oh. Well. Then. Yeah, I guess they figured out we were cheating. We should go.”
He stood up, grabbing the pile of chits on the table and sweeping them into his arms.
“Leave them,” Pallimo said. “We have to go.”
The crowd was parting to let the guards pass.
“Leave it?”
“Odds are, we’re all going to die, anyway,” Hayley said. “You won’t need them, then.”
“Geez, you sound just like your mom. Fine.”
He abandoned the chits, and they started angling for the door, making their way through the crowd. Hayley could make out the qi of the Trovers ahead. They weren’t going to make it.
“We need another way out,” she said.
“Shit,” Bastion said. “This way.”
He turned them around, leading them in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going?” Tibor asked.
“Back exit is this way.”
They shoved through the crowd. Hayley grabbed Tibor’s hand again, holding it tight to make sure that if she lost her vision again she wouldn’t get left behind.
They were near the back when a second pair of Trover moved in ahead of them. They looked over the crowd, finding them easily. Hayley sighed. Couldn’t they ever do anything without it becoming overly dramatic?
The Trover parted the crowd, and a moment later the two groups were face to face.
“You,” one of the Trover said, pointing at Bastion.
“Me?” he replied.
“We don’t like cheats,” he said.
“Message received. Note, I left the chits back at the table. We don’t want any trouble.”
“You should have thought about that before.”
“Hold on,” Hayley said, moving to the front of the group. “Don’t give me the 'we’re going to hurt you because you cheated' bullshit. You cheated first.”
“What?” the Trover and Bastion said at the same time.
“Electromagnetically controlled rotation,” Hayley said. “To stop the wheel whenever they wanted. I saw it as clearly as I saw the Light.”