“There's a message from Frost marked urgent,” Cynthia announced. “It came in with the communications packet but I didn't find it until now.”
“Put it on the main display,” Captain Valance said with a sigh.
“It says it's for your eyes only.”
“Sure it is. Put it up anyway.”
“Yes sir,” Cynthia said with a smirk.
A moment later Frost's head and shoulders appeared on the main holographic display on the bridge and Ashley recoiled exaggeratedly. “God, that's just gruesome.”
“Captain, it's a difficult thing ta admit, but I've seen the error of my ways.” He paused for a moment, red faced and not looking straight into his wrist recorder. “Silver and Burke drained my accounts and made off with me savin's. I'm marooned on Ao Katamari with nothin'. I've been marked as a ship thief so no Captain will have me. I pray on yer kindness sir, I'll serve on the Samson as an able crewman if that's yer pleasure, just make your way over and pick me up in Ian Vale Market. Please, there's no one else.”
The communication cut off and as everyone else on the bridge went into hysterics Captain Valance just lowered his head. When the mirth subsided Stephanie shook her head. “Ao Katamari, wow, that is a good place to find a ship, but a two meter by one meter night chamber costs over five thousand credits. That is unless you end up in the lower levels. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, not even Frost.”
“We'd better go pick him up. I know the Market he's talking about.”
“We're taking Frost on again?” Ashley said with a groan.
“I'll make leaving you alone a condition of his service, don't worry. That and he'll have to deal with our new First Officer,” he said, eyeing Stephanie. “That should bruise his ego a bit, but at least I won't have to look for a new tactical officer.”
“Good point,” Finn commented. “Just looking at the controls for the maxjack gives me a headache.”
“All right, we'll take four hours to make the ship ready with some help from the station, give anyone who wants to depart a chance to disembark and then we'll make best speed to Ao Katamari and hope Frost hasn't found even more trouble.” Captain Valance ordered.
The Price Of The Evening
He had kept everything she left there in a drawer under his bed. Alice was surprised and starting to realize that the ten weeks they spent together made a huge impact on him. The night before was just like old times. The fact that she had been gone didn't so much as come up.
Alice had forgotten how much he made her laugh. How safe and content she felt when she was with him. For a few hours and through the restful sleep that followed she felt like all the pressures she was under, the urgency in her life was far, far away.
They had both woken up when one of his five crew members woke him up. He had to help load their latest cargo. So he kissed her neck, wrapped the sheets around her and left.
The light mood and contentedness of the night before had begun to fade while she was in the shower. He had a custom water shower built into his quarters, something especially rare in space and she had tried it for the first time shortly after meeting him. It was a luxury, something no one did for fear of drowning if the gravity ever gave out while the water was on and because it put more pressure on a ship's recycling systems. Pulse showers were common in space, they shook particles of dead skin and dirt off of the body and gathered them in a reservoir. Some of them even converted the waste material into energy. No risk of drowning, but the feeling, of which there was little to none since the vibrations were so quick and finely tuned, was completely different. It just didn't seem as cleansing.
As she brushed her hair thoughts of just staying around for a while were difficult to dismiss. Alice just didn't want to leave. She was filled with a kind of regret, a sort of dread that she didn't understand before she had become human. As an artificial intelligence she could store the memories of the last night perfectly and revisit them in every detail whenever she liked, the only thing missing was the spontaneity and unpredictable nature of a new experience. As a human things were vastly different. The memories were already fading, the emotions were already tainted with the thought of leaving, the idea of having to tell him she was only passing through. At least she'd have the chance to tell him this time, to say goodbye just in case she could never return.
Her brooding was interrupted as the door slid open. Bruce smiled, stepping inside so the door closed behind him and he just looked at her.
She smiled back, very aware that she was wearing nothing but a towel.
“Want to come along for a run to the third planet? Our cargo won't keep for long.”
“I wish I could,” she replied sadly.
Bruce sat down beside her and took off his work gloves. “You took Wendy's run to Yuelle Varr.”
Alice leaned against him and He put his arm around her shoulders. “I had to. I found my father, he's looking for me. If I don't take this I won't have enough fuel to make the trip.”
“That overgrown fighter. You should sell it and buy something that refuels every twenty years like the Skipper.”
She ignored his comment, it was an old argument and she knew that wasn't what was frustrating him. “I'm sorry, I have to go find him.”
“Why can't he just come out here? Why doesn't he come after you? He's your father for God's sake.”
“I can't risk sending a relayed transmission.”
“Right, the guys who're after you. The ones that hauled me off.”
She looked up at his face. He didn't seem as angry as she expected to be when this came up. She knew they'd talk about it eventually. “I'm so sorry.”
“Don't worry, they just roughed me up for a couple hours, dug around in my brain with some kind of scanner and knocked me out for a couple weeks. I woke up in a crate they had dropped off for the crew. You should have seen their faces. It was almost worth it.”
“I wish I could have warned you. I never meant-”
Bruce cupped one of her cheeks in his hand. His eyes told her everything she needed to know about how he felt. “If I could follow you I would. If I could make the galaxy safe for you somehow-”
“I know,” was all she could manage through the oncoming tears.
There was so much pain, he was used to being in control of everything around him and knew there was nothing he could do to change her mind, to make her stay. “Just come back. Some day when it's safe, or when you're tired of running. Tell me how you are, where you are if you can. I'll be here, you know I'll be here.”
She nodded, wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I will. As soon as I can I will.”
They held each other for long minutes until the intercom beeped. “We're just about ready Captain.”
“I'll be up in a minute,” his voice didn't show the merest hint of what was going on in his quarters.
They let each other go and he tilted her chin up, wiping her tears away again with big, gentle fingers. “I love you. Don't forget us out here,” he whispered.
“I'll never forget,” she replied before kissing him briefly.
“Be safe out there,” he stood and made for the door.
“I love you Bruce,” she said before it could open.
“Just don't wait too long,” he said quietly as he left.
She washed her face, got dressed and quietly made her way off the ship.
On his way to the bridge Bruce stopped inside an empty bunk room and activated a computer terminal. Without looking at the keys he typed in the twenty seven digit code to open a secure channel and proceeded to punch in the ninety one point alphanumeric pass code. The signal travelled through the station's communications network to satellites in dead space then to a micro wormhole generating transmitter.
He turned and started tidying up, smoothing down creases in the made beds, blowing out the dusty corners on the small desk and straightening the chair. It was all in the programming. If he were to remember anything about what he was about to do it would be heavily over
shadowed by his memory of straightening up. He wouldn't know why he was doing it, but he didn't have to. As long as there was a memory to fill the lost time he would suffer while waiting for the transmission to be acknowledged.
The computer terminal signalled that someone on the other end of the transmission had received the codes. He turned, entered in the coordinates of Yuelle Varr, a description of Alice's ship and its approximate expected arrival time then shut the terminal down.
A moment later he had arrived at the bridge hatchway with nothing but the sorrow of a parting lover on his mind and in his heart.
More Trouble
The planet was one massive city divided into thousands of districts. Millions of buildings reached for the sky, a few were even taller than the environmental control facilities that punctured the grey blue sky with their rods and platforms. Most travellers considered the entire planet a port, since no one could imagine anyone in their right mind staying to try to make a life amongst the sixteen billion inhabitants.
The ground had disappeared ages ago, before anyone living could remember what it looked like. Smog choked the inhabitants of the lower cities while the criss crossing walkways and guide rails going around, through and between most of the tall structures blocked out the sun. As one moved higher up they found everything became more expensive. If you were to go further down to find what you wanted things got dangerous, competitive and selection tapered off. The poor, desperate and hidden folk ruled the congested underside. Anyone who could avoid taking a trip beneath the upper districts did. The underside had a reputation for swallowing less fortunate travellers.
The Samson set down on a landing platform that billed by the hour. It was only twelve levels down from the sun baked upper section. The closest place they could find to Frost's refuge.
“Last time we were here I wasn't allowed off ship. This should be interesting,” Stephanie said as they walked away from the Samson. The rest of the crew, lead by Ashley and Finn, were beginning their inspection of the outer hull. They had orders to not leave the platform.
There was no decontamination chamber, security checkpoint or duty post. Just a beat up port listing panel for declaring any goods for trade, announcements and browsing the bulletin boards. Any other programming or information cost extra.
Captain Valance didn't bother using the panel, he brought up a map of the area on his command control unit. “Last time we came here I brought four heavily armed boarding crew.”
Steph looked down at the rifle in her hands and shook her head. “Just me this time?”
“I don't plan on staying long enough to find trouble.”
“I'm surprised we're allowed to carry this kind of weaponry around.”
“It's part of their population control program.”
“You're kidding.”
Jake nodded, smiling a little. “I guess a few million visitors a day are just too hard to regulate. Things sort themselves out here.”
“Didn't you get shot last time?”
“I had it coming. I was lucky it was just a graze. A regeneration patch healed it up in just a few minutes.”
“Any chance we'll run into the shooter?”
“I doubt it. I tossed him over a railing.”
Stephanie peeked over the edge of the walkway and shuddered. There were walkways, building tops and gaps between with dark depths she couldn't begin to guess at. They turned the corner and saw one of the major thoroughfares for the first time. It was over twenty meters wide, half dedicated to high speed traffic with tunnels for people to walk under that area and get to the walkway proper. Small two to eight person transport cars were limited to travelling along guide rails to reduce open air traffic. The cost of a rail pass was based on how many kilometres one travelled, and there were few straight paths anywhere.
Jake pulled a safety cord out from the waist of his vacsuit and offered it to Stephanie. Normally the device was reserved for space, so two people could stay tethered to a ship or other large body using one line, but she could see how it was necessary here.
The milling crowd ahead was shoulder to shoulder in most places. It was a milling biped sea and she didn't want to get separated. Hooking the line onto her vacsuit gave her an idea, and she attached one of her own slender tether lines to the stock of her short assault rifle. “This is insane.” She commented as they walked down into the tunnel.
The sound of the traffic above was deafening. An unending stream of various vehicles moving at two hundred kilometres or more for minutes at a time then slowing down to a crawl for seconds before picking up again echoed in the dark passage. Stephanie had to use her proximity radio to communicate with Jake. “Are we still in the port section of the city?”
“We are, I'll bet we couldn't find a resident here if we tried for days.”
There was refuse strewn in the corners, a black and brown dust of some kind everywhere and it contaminated the air from above, stirring it all around their feet and blowing the smell into their faces. It wasn't even twenty meters long, but in that space it was joined by eight other tunnels from below. When they neared the end she could see the massive moving crowd and Captain Valance offered his arm. It was a gesture she had only seen in period films, and she chuckled but took it anyway. Even though they were tied together she still didn't want anyone to get between them and catch in their line.
Without waiting they joined the crush of bodies. They made their way with the stream of people for what her arm unit said was just over half an hour but it felt like an awful lot longer. Rounding a corner they found the Regent Galactic building, standing tall and white it was more grand than anything in the area. It had its own docking platforms, hundreds of them, and massive defensive cannons on swivel mounts. Just from the shimmer around it she could tell there was a protective shield in place as well. The only access point she could glimpse on foot was a covered bridge with thick security doors. She tried to follow the street that lead into that side of the building with her eyes through the net of crossing streets above and shook her head at the sight of a line extending as far as she could see leading to those big security doors.
“I hate this place,” Jake said over the proximity radio.
“You're not the only one pal,” Came the response of one nearby traveller.
“I only come here because fruit gets a high trade value,” added another.
“My daughter's going to school here, biggest mistake I've ever made letting her but you know kids, they just won't shut up until you give 'em what they want,” griped yet another.
Stephanie patted his arm and nodded. That was the problem with proximity radio. It was made to broadcast to anyone within a certain range as though you were speaking to them verbally in a normal atmospheric setting. Normally people who didn't know you kept their comments to themselves, but here the crowd provided an amount of anonymity and people were actually bored enough to listen in on anyone nearby, not just people on their crew roster like Jake and Stephanie. Changing the default frequency was also an option, but most people outside of the military didn't bother.
They began making their way towards the centre of the pedestrian walkways in that district, where they would be able to take a ramp up or a tunnel down when the time came. Before long they were inside one of the wider passages and the traffic continued to be just as congested, only it was darker, and it was easy to feel buried, closed in. How fights didn't break out she had no idea. People were constantly bumping into her, she even had some people grab at her thigh pocket more than once, gingerly testing it to see if it would open for them. Thankfully they were sealed so only she or a few other people on the crew could get inside, and she was once again thankful for the Captain providing her with a high quality vacsuit. The form fitting style invited a couple of anonymous gropes, however, and she found herself wondering how long it would take their new materializer to make a long coat like Jake's. Maybe hers could be a deep purple or dark blue, she found herself thinking.
After taking sever
al more tunnels under the direction of the Captain's arm command unit, they came out into a widening causeway that lead to a massive circular courtyard. The builders had kept the space above clear of pedestrian and vehicle transit ways but the Regent Galactic building cast a shadow over the whole area. There was a tall, heavily built gate in front of them and they joined a crowd of thousands who were waiting for it to open. Through transparesteel windows they could see guards looking over the multitudes and control stations of some kind that were just out of sight. “The market is at maximum capacity, please be patient and we will let you in as soon as possible,” boomed a recorded voice.
The wall was white at the top, pockmarked by small weapon's fire here and there, but it was at head level where things got interesting. As they let groups inside they got closer and it looked like the gate hadn't been cleaned for decades or more. The passage of millions was marked there. High above was another courtyard. There were dozens of personal transports docked to the bottom, and she wondered what it cost to own a vehicle as she watched one of them attach itself and get locked in with heavy clamps.
It was finally their turn to enter and they were allowed into a chamber within the walls with about three hundred people. Panels separated and pushed people out or kept them in so the doorway wouldn't crush anyone when it closed. Judging from the faded bloodstains on the inside of the barrier she guessed it didn't always work. “Please standby while we gather the fee of four hundred credits for entry. When you see the request for payment, enter a positive answer within ten seconds or you will be forcibly removed.”
The request for payment came up on their control units and they approved it right away. After a few more seconds they saw what happened to anyone who didn't or couldn't pay on time. Three soft, black tubes struck out from the ceiling, grabbing hold of non-payers' heads and shoulders before drawing them inside. They moved so fast there was no avoiding them. One non-payer tried to move, to duck, to hide behind someone, but the device sought him out, dipped into the crowd and drew him up folded in half. The fellow was screaming but Stephanie was fairly certain he wasn't being harmed. The aperture adjusted, expanding to his shape and the tube behind shifted and stretched as it appeared to gulp him up. Looking to her right she saw through a window where the guards controlling the devices enthusiastically congratulated each other on a job well done. Stephanie couldn't help smiling, it must have been the best job on the wall.
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