Starbearer

by Rock Forsberg

  Part III

  Yesterday’s future is now.

  — Warrigal the Valorous

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Someone jerked the virtual helmet off Evie’s head. She had just been talking with Gus inside the game, and the sudden transition made her lightheaded. The blur of her vision clearing, she found Reina standing before her, pointing a pistol at the door.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she said, and rubbed her eyes.

  A squealing noise revealed a small winged creature under Reina’s boot; she gave it a quick glance and quieted it with a shot to its head.

  ‘They’re on to us,’ Naido said from behind her, and put Evie’s virtual helmet on its holder. ‘We have to move.’

  ‘What happened?’ Evie said, as Naido pulled her up from the chair.

  ‘If there’s one, there will be more,’ Reina said. ‘We have to leave before they get here.’

  Still reeling from the sudden change of worlds, Evie grabbed her coat, and confirmed she still had the Starbearer chip. She recalled Gus's words: Guard it with your life.

  She followed Reina outside. ‘They’re after the Starbearer, right?’

  ‘I believe so,’ Reina said as she led them through a narrow corridor. ‘You keep it safe, and we’ll keep you safe. All right?’

  Evie nodded, and followed her with Naido. She glanced back; there were no creatures. They went up a flight of stairs, to a walkway that connected the building to the next one. Compared to the fancy walkways on upper levels, down here the view outside was a fogged accumulation of grime over the years, and the people dragging themselves along seemed to be fogged with the same tarnish.

  ‘I think we lost them,’ Naido said, as they slowed down to walk along the crowd.

  ‘For now,’ Reina said.

  ‘I need to go in the game.’ Evie told them about the mission from Gus. It was critical she was there at a given time.

  ‘There’s time then,’ Reina said. ‘I know people who can help keep you safe in the meantime.’

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Naido asked.

  ‘Daler Tait’s people,’ Reina said, glancing at Naido. ‘You should know them too.’

  Hearing the name reminded Evie of Daler and Shosana in Runcor and that while Gus had said they were all right, she wished she could do something. ‘Daler has people in Spit City?’

  ‘He used to run a big organisation,’ Reina said. ‘Sweeps, it was called, and it had operations across the galaxy. He’s a smart guy, but surrounded with enemies and friends worse than enemies, he became paranoid, and in the end, lost it all.’

  ‘She’s met him,’ Naido said.

  Evie said, ‘He didn’t seem paranoid.’

  ‘Well, he was. Everyone was after him, even the spirits.’

  ‘Spirits?’

  ‘He referred to Marc as a ghost,’ said Reina.

  ‘No, I’m not talking about him. This was different. He confided in me just days before the FIST caught him. He said he had met a spirit woman.’

  ‘A spirit woman?’ Reina said, as they stepped onto yet another inter-building bridge.

  He shrugged. ‘I know she appeared to him once—he said she was otherworldly beautiful, moved like a ghost, and asked him to kidnap a girl. She also made it clear that if he didn’t do it, a curse would fall upon him.’

  ‘Well, did he?’ Reina asked.

  ‘No. He never believed in curses.’

  ‘Perhaps he should’ve,’ Reina said.

  ‘Superstition.’

  ‘Like the Shades are?’ Evie asked.

  An awkward grin appeared on Naido’s face. He’d been with Evie through the Remola, and come face-to-face with Warrigal and Nenetl. ‘No, they’re certainly real, but wait—’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Shades are gods, Evie,’ Reina said.

  ‘I know! And guess what? I’ve met and spoken with some of them.’

  Reina looked down at her the way a mother looks at a child who says she wants to be a princess when she grows up.

  ‘Are you listening to me?’ Naido said. ‘I just realised that it was Nenetl who visited him a long time ago, and she wanted the girl.’

  ‘Is that one of the Shades?’ Reina asked.

  ‘The description fits perfectly,’ Naido said. ‘I remember when I saw her and Warrigal down in Remola. It all makes sense. Daler didn’t want to do it, so she got that other guy, Tommy.’

  They entered a corridor with blinking green lights and some unidentifiable soot on the floor; just like the dark corridors on the lower levels of the Pentafol building. It seemed to be a standard feature of the monolithic blocks in the city.

  ‘I recently realised there are people in this city who remember Sweeps and wish those days could come back.’

  ‘Really?’ Naido said.

  ‘They call themselves the Noir.’

  ‘As in black?’

  Reina nodded and stopped by a door. She pressed the buzzer.

  The door opened and they walked into a hazy room full of mood fumes, a picture of a woman pouting on the wall, and a slowly rotating fan on the ceiling. A group of men sat around a table, playing Jester, everyone focused on the battle that was playing out on the board. As the final barracks on the beach fell, one man stood, hand up, and shouted ‘Yeah!’, the others congratulating him, while the loser organised his remaining troops.

  ‘It’s Reina Wolfe!’ someone said, and the group quieted down. ‘Naido, is that you?’

  ‘Yeah, good to see you,’ Naido said, and went on to shake hands with the group; he seemed to know everyone in the room. Evie noticed there was also a woman at the back of the table. When Naido went up to her, he stopped and they embraced in a big hug.

  Someone extended a hand to Evie. ‘Haven’t seen you around. I’m Sawamar.’

  ‘Evie.’

  ‘So, what brings you down here?’

  ‘Reina says you might be able to help.’

  The man chuckled. ‘Look around. Does this lot look like they’re gonna help anyone?’

  Evie shrugged, as Naido came around. ‘Hey, Sawamar, old pal.’

  Naido explained about how they had gotten Daler’s head from FIST, how he had met Evie, and their run-in with the navy. Evie found herself biting her tongue when he tiptoed around the topic of entering Remola, and said that the navy had got his partners Cressor and Henk. He was quite the storyteller, especially as there was so much he made up on the fly.

  He said, ‘But now he’s caught by Marc Puissance on Runcor.’

  ‘Puissance is alive?’ the woman said. ‘Daler killed him, didn’t he?’

  ‘He thought he did.’

  ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘We went to his blasted hideout!’ Evie said. Everyone quieted down. ‘Now we’re being chased by half this universe and the next.’

  ‘Calm down, sister.’

  ‘I’m not your sister.’

  ‘Listen to me, young lady,’ the woman said. ‘I run this lot, and while it doesn’t seem like much, we hold a certain power in the city. Now the only reason we’re talking is because of these folks,’ she gestured to Naido and Reina, ‘and if I call you sister, you’re part of us. Got it?’

  ‘I guess.’ There was no need to argue. The word sister had just reminded her of Shosana’s predicament.

  ‘So, let’s start again: Hi, I’m Jude Mendek.’

  ‘Evie Yeoh.’

  They shook hands.

  ‘Welcome to Noir, sister.’

  Evie cringed. ‘So, what is it you actually do?’

  ‘The purpose of Noir is to provide discreet service in the spirit of Sweeps—’

  ‘No need to be diplomatic,’ Naido said.

  ‘All right. We provide the Spit City underground with the means to fight the establishment,’ she said, and nodded to Reina, who was tapping her palms together. ‘Like those grippers we got for Ms Wolfe—how’ve they been?’

  ‘Impeccable,’ Reina said. ‘These people can get you anything. It won�
�t be cheap, but they get the job done. I’m a happy client.’

  ‘And what’s her role in all this?’ Jude nodded at Evie.

  ’Marc Puissance got my sister. She’s with Daler.’

  ‘And they’ve her mentor too,’ Naido said. ‘Someone who has also done a lot for Sweeps. August Tierna.’

  Someone gasped and another whispered. ‘August Tierna has been teaching her?’ asked Sawamar.

  Naido nodded. ‘That’s what I said!’

  ‘He never takes disciples.’

  Evie shrugged.

  ‘It’s obvious we want to help,’ said Sawamar. ‘Is there anything we could do?’

  Jude sighed. ‘If they’re in Runcor, there’s not much we can do, unfortunately. We operate in Spit City, and while our network extends wide, most of us are not welcome on the planet because of what happened with the Sweeps.’

  ‘No doubt about that,’ Naido said. ‘An éminence grise, Marc’s got the planet under his grip, operating from what once was our base inside the ground underneath the Fearanor plains.’

  ‘Jude,’ Sawamar said, ‘what about the Silencer?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Why not? You said yourself we should try it out.’

  ‘It’s too risky.’

  ‘What’s a Silencer?’ Evie asked.

  ‘It’s a device that can stop electronic devices in a broad range and can be deployed from above.’

  ‘Aren’t those illegal?’

  ‘Very much so, but that’s beside the point.’

  Evie said, ‘Gus was quite adamant we should not go after him. He said the risks are too high, and he’s better-placed at the compound for what’s to come.’

  ‘For what’s to come?’ Jude asked.

  ‘I believe that something big is going to happen.’ Evie paused. ‘To the whole of our world.’

  ‘And she carries the Starbearer,’ Reina said.

  Again, a sudden silence, with everyone’s eyes on Evie. Jude was the first to speak. ‘This is true?’

  She nodded. ‘I guess. I got it from Gus.’

  Jude said, ‘If that is the case, it might actually be real. Did he tell you what to do with it?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Evie said. She had just thought of it as a data chip until… well, until the time they met Gus’s avatar in Fuu’s place. ‘He wants to use it as a foil to misdirect the enemy.’

  ‘It makes sense,’ said Reina. ‘Like our DNA, it’s the instructions for building everything there is, the holy grail for creating perfect artificial copies of our world.’

  Jude looked thoughtful. ‘If it exists, it’s worth fortunes.’

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Naido said.

  Jude shrugged.

  Reina said, ‘The Ver are after it—’

  ‘The Ver? Are you talking about those winged doom-beasts?’

  ‘Those.’

  ‘B-but,’ Jude stammered, ‘they’re gone, aren’t they?’

  ‘They’ve been popping up all around the city from those disc-shaped portals, and elsewhere, too. My guess is they are planning a mass migration, and August is working to stop it.’

  ‘Migration?’ asked Sawamar.

  ‘Swapping over from their dark realm into ours.’

  Everyone went silent, staring at Reina, probably, like Evie, considering what it could mean. But unlike her, they had no idea about the Remola, nor the creatures with whom the Remolans had teamed. They were going to take over, and it seemed as if the only thing to stop them was a little chip in her pocket, and a virtual assignment inside Momentum 6.

  Evie coughed with a dry throat. ‘May I get some water, please?’

  ‘Oh,’ someone said, and darted to the back room.

  In a moment, the man came back with a glass of water. Evie grabbed the glass and took a sip. It tasted fresh and clean, and while it served to refresh her, it also made her realise she was tired after all the running around.

  Reina probably noticed this too. ‘What you could do, what would benefit us the most, is give us a safe place for Evie to rest for a night.’

  The thugs murmured to themselves, and Jude seemed doubtful. ‘We’re not a hotel.’

  ‘If I’m not mistaken, you still have access to a few discreet residences,’ Reina said. ‘Also, remember you owe me.’

  ‘I’m painfully aware of it,’ Jude said with a sigh. ‘What do you all think?’

  A skinny man with a half-broken face and a metal-plated shirt shook his head and said, ‘There are plenty of hotels, hostels, what have you. Why does she need us?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ echoed the crowd.

  Jude shrugged. ‘I don’t think there’s much we—’

  Then a bald and chubby man with a sharp beard rose. He had been silent until now, and with a surprisingly high voice said, ‘You should be ashamed—this is Fernando de los Angeles, and there we have Reina Wolfe, whose deed alone should have us kiss the ground under her feet. The young woman has the Starbearer; giving her the Clandestine would be the least we could do.’

  One of the group spoke up, ‘But it’s already inhabited by—’

  ‘We’ll move them elsewhere,’ the bald man said. ‘It’s about Daler Tait, and it’s about Sweeps. It’s about our heritage, and it’s about our honour. Who are we if we turn these people away?’

  The group nodded in agreement.

  ‘It’s also about the Starbearer, and the future of our universe,’ he continued. ‘Ask yourself: when Daler Tait is back, what will he say you should’ve done?’

  ‘I hear you,’ said the man with the broken face. ‘Let’s get them into the Clandestine, and set up an ongoing guard.’

  ‘It’s settled,’ said Jude. ‘We’ll take you to the Clandestine.’

  Later, Evie found herself with Jude on the roof of one of the buildings not far from Noir’s place. Tall buildings surrounded her and fell behind the curvature of the moon. On the roof lay a massive communications orb.

  ‘A perfect spot, hidden in plain sight,’ Jude said.

  ‘Spot for what?’ Evie asked.

  ‘Your hideout.’

  ‘This roof is Clandestine?’

  Other than the massive comms orb in the middle, an entrance from the staircase close to a corner, and a few air vents, the roof had little else on it.

  ‘No, the orb is,’ Jude said, and touched the side of it. A door opened, and with hinges on the bottom, it became a platform. She beckoned Evie. ‘Come on in.’

  As they stepped inside, the lights flickered on, and revealed a rather tidy two-floor apartment inside the orb. Peering through the staircase, Evie saw the top half was covered with windows. ‘Isn’t this too visible?’

  ‘They’re just images from the cameras, and can be turned off.’ Jude flicked a switch that made the windows turn to the white wall of the orb’s inside. ‘The images you saw were from the camera feed. Nobody would suspect someone of living in a comms orb, right?’

  That was true. To Evie’s knowledge, the orb should’ve been full of comms tech. Instead, it was a fancy one-bedder.

  ‘If anyone comes close, the proximity alert will go off. The red lights make sure you won’t miss it. We’ll get notified of it, too, but it might be a while until any of us get here.’

  Jude showed her to a grey metal cabinet and opened it to reveal several guns. ‘It’s a hideout, not a bunker, but these might come in handy.’

  Evie nodded, hoping she’d never have to use them. If she did, she’d be outnumbered and outgunned. From where she stood, she could see upstairs, and the sight of a bed was making her yawn.

  ‘You must be tired,’ Jude said. ‘Get some rest.’

  Evie nodded her thanks, and as soon as Jude was gone, she jumped onto the bed.

  She kept the view above her open. As if through a glass dome, she saw the movement of the red clouds on the gas giant Heeg, and the lines of shuttle craft passing between.

  Not so long ago she had found home, and now, though she had been with them for only a moment, s
he missed her parents. She also missed Shosana, hoping she wasn’t suffering wherever she was.

  Meeting Gus, albeit virtually, gave her strength. He always had her back. He knew what to do. And he had given her so much.

  But Gus’s message hid a darker undertone, which the others had missed. Only now did she realise why he hadn’t talked about it with the team in Momentum 6. He was going to sacrifice the virtual world to prevent the Remolans and the Ver from taking over. The idea gave her the chills. So many people had so much invested, like her best buddies. If Momentum 6 was gone, Bibi would surely become depressed, Wonaic would be devastated, and Zender… she gulped. She didn’t want to consider what it must have been like for them—their whole life was in the game.

  But did she have a better way to prevent the dark world from entering theirs? She didn’t.

  She closed the view above, and dimmed the lights, thinking she should sleep, but sleep didn’t come. Remolans, Ver, Momentum 6, Noir, Reina, Gus, Naido, Shosana, Daler, and her home rotated in her mind like a whirlwind, with each full circle pulling her down further and further into where Ash Macabre lay dead over grey static.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Henning and Sofia stood before the boarding chute to a ship that would soon take them back to Dawn Central. There hadn’t been any more incidents, and it seemed the bustling hub was operating normally.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Sofia asked.

  ‘With no disrespect to the Admiral, I feel I have a better chance of making a deal on Avalon with Belinda and Jill in charge—even if it’s temporary. But I need to act fast. Also, with everything that’s happened, I’m worried about Aino, but for now Dawn Central is still the safest place for her.’

  The ship’s door opened, and a Jindalar sub-lieutenant, a small but tough-looking young man, came through on the chute. He looked at the small screen in his hands, and then up at Henning and Sofia. ‘Henning Dal. Sir, welcome aboard.’

  Henning gave him a look, but he didn’t react. ‘What about her?’

  The sub-lieutenant glanced at Sofia. ‘What about her?’’