“You’ll be fine.” I gained her attention and flicked open my shirt to show her the hand-terminal. Her eyes widened. “Now let’s go feed some Earthers.”
We pushed the rack back out, and I felt her pat me on the back as we passed through the door. All my life I’d worked jobs with fences, all on my own. Sometimes I’d be partnered up with another thief, but we were always out only for ourselves. Usually we didn’t converse much more than signing each other from across a room.
I knew I shouldn’t—not after the crimes I’d seen Maya and her crew commit—but right this moment it felt good to be a part of a team, part of something beyond the pursuit of credits.
Chapter 20
The meal didn’t last long before the Earthers were shepherded away to be restrained for Zero G. Maya, the rest of the Ringer staff, and I were tasked to help clean the kitchen. Out of the generosity of his heart, the head chef left behind meals for us—the same lumpy goop I was fed on the Piccolo. I was just glad to be eating anything other than a ration bar, but Maya wasn’t nearly as enthused, and skipped the meal entirely.
“What now?” I asked her, lifting my last spoonful to my lips while I scrubbed down a counter with the other hand.
“We wait.” She glared at the security officers by the exit. They would see if I pulled out a hand-terminal. The rest of the Ringers were too busy and overheated to notice that we were strangers, however. Once again, I found sanitary masks to have a greater use than simply keeping germs out of my mouth. They were a scoundrel’s best friend.
“What about the others?”
“Worry about us.”
I nodded. Her confidence was infectious. I kneeled and scrubbed the grime out of the inside of an oven. Some got on my glove, and I considered licking it off just to get a taste of real steak. Then I recalled my mom’s lessons about washing my gloves as often as I could to avoid germs and did that instead.
“All right, Ringers!” one of the officers shouted. “We’re breaking atmosphere soon. Finish up and head to holding.”
—
After the kitchen was cleaned, Maya and I stuck to the back of the pack. I was nervous that beyond the commotion of the kitchen someone might realize we were impostors, but Maya seemed calm as ever. A few members of the Ringer staff complained about their sore arms during the walk, but that was it—almost complete silence. I wondered if we would’ve been noticed on the Piccolo under similar circumstances. It seemed impossible that we wouldn’t have been, but Culver’s incessant yelling had a way of making me want to be alone.
The holding cabin was somewhere toward the stern of the cruiser, on a level beneath the cargo hold where the rumble of the ship’s ion-engines made it difficult to perceive anything. Unlike the rest of the vessel, the room had a military feel. Rows of bolted-down seats lined the walls. They were fitted with heavy-duty restraints. Officers in the entrance let us sit wherever we liked, so we selected the farthest positions.
Once we were seated, I watched the jaded faces of more Ringer staff trickling in. Lucky for us, the flow stopped shortly after and we were left without anybody sitting next to us. It seemed the crew wasn’t large enough to fill every seat; perhaps the shortage of willing workers that had plagued the Piccolo was widespread.
“Sorry we’re late,” someone at the entrance said to the officers, who then left. Two Ringers slipped into the room, wearing staff uniforms. It took me a second to recognize them as Vick and Gareth, since their faces were half-covered by sanitary masks and I’d never seen them outside of helmets. They scurried over and took a seat on either side of us.
“I was worried you two wouldn’t show up,” Maya said.
“Yeah, well, if Gareth didn’t take his sweet-ass time,” Vick answered.
Gareth signed something discreetly to Maya. I couldn’t see what it was, but she smirked.
Vick rolled his eyes, then whispered: “We spread everything throughout the cargo hold, so it should take security hours to comb through it all.” He stretched out his legs, his knees cracking. “I’ll miss the suit.”
“You get used to it,” I said.
All three of them regarded me with blank expressions, but said nothing.
Restraints suddenly lowered over our shoulders. My body was forced back against my seat seconds before it started to shake violently. The cruiser was accelerating through Saturn’s atmosphere. An incredible pressure built up in the center of my chest and behind my eyes, which would’ve been unbearable if I hadn’t been getting so accustomed to it. My short stay on the Sunfire had bolstered my endurance.
“Ascension has initiated,” an automated voice announced. “Please remain in your seats until our arrival at Pervenio Station. Approximate flight time is five hours and thirty-six minutes.”
“So, you two get in contact?” Vick asked us through gritted teeth.
Maya tapped me on the leg. “Kale, the terminal.”
Everyone else in the cabin was too busy dealing with the forces of acceleration to pay us any attention, so I reached into the folds of my uniform and pulled the device out. I couldn’t extend my hand much due to the restraints, but my long fingers again helped me out. Maya took it from me and held it between our thighs.
“You sure you can do this?” Vick asked.
“I contacted that brother of yours after we went missing, didn’t I?”
His cheeks turned a light shade of pink and he leaned back in his chair without another word. Maya’s thumb shifted across the touch screen of the device, rifling through commands. She didn’t operate it with the natural grace that Cora did when she sat at a command console, but she knew what she was doing.
In a few minutes she breached Solnet through the cruiser’s long-range navigation systems. In one more she sliced into the black parts of the vast network, where the fences I’d worked with operated amongst people with far more reprehensible cravings. She entered a contact number—a clutter of numbers and characters that it must’ve taken her weeks to memorize—then typed a message.
CHANGE OF PLANS. CAN YOU TALK?
Since we were on Saturn and Mazrah was on Titan, there was a natural delay. It took about two minutes for a reply to come through. Letters arrived, scrambled and nonsensical at first before they each flickered and changed individually to reveal words. Clearly, the Children of Titan were extremely careful when it came to communications.
ONLY LIKE THIS. I’M UNDER WATCH. THEY TRACED THE TERMINAL BACK TO ME AND BROUGHT IT HERE.
IT’S NOT ON THE STATION?
IT WASN’T. IT’S BACK ON ITS WAY NOW FOR ANALYSIS. THEY SENT TWO COLLECTORS AFTER ME, ONE A COGENT. I GOT THEM TO BELIEVE I WAS COERCED…SOMEHOW. THEY’RE BEING HANDLED.
GOOD. AS SOON AS THEY PLUG THE TERMINAL IN ON THE STATION I NEED YOU TO SLICE INTO THE SECURITY NETWORK AND HELP US REACH THE DETENTION BLOCK.
DETENTION? WHAT HAPPENED TO WIPING THE MEDICAL RECORDS? I CAN’T DO BOTH.
LIKE I SAID, CHANGE OF PLANS. WE HAVE OUR TRASS. THE TIME HAS COME. CAN YOU DO IT?
NOT SURE. THE OFFICERS HERE MAY BE STUPID BUT THEY AREN’T BLIND. THEY’LL SEE MY SCREENS MONITORING THE STATION.
THEN GET RID OF THEM!
WAIT.
The conversation went silent for one minute, then another. By the third, the Ring Skipper had broken through Saturn’s atmosphere and the ship stopped shaking. Restraints continued to hold me down, but my body became weightless. It was a welcome relief.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Maya grumbled. “C’mon, Maz.” She tapped the device to make sure it was still working.
Much of the Ringer crew had conked out from the stress of breaking Saturn’s gravity well, but a few of them eyed the device. Though none of them said anything, it made me nervous. On the Piccolo, no Ringer would ever rat out one of their own for doing something wrong, and I could only hope that extended to every crew.
“Here,” Maya said. A new message came through one letter at a time.
SOMETHING IS HAP
PENING DOWN HERE. EVERY MEMBER OF THE TEAM WATCHING ME JUST LEFT IN A HURRY EXCEPT ONE. SEEMED URGENT. PERVENIO OFFICERS THROUGHOUT DARIEN ARE MOBILIZING.
WHAT IS IT?
THE COLLECTORS LOCATED OUR BASE BENEATH THE Q-ZONE BEFORE WE GOT RID OF THEM, BUT SECURITY OFFICERS ARE GATHERING OUTSIDE OF THE MAIN Q-ZONE TRAM ON DARIEN LIKE THEY DON’T KNOW THAT.
I noticed a shade of panic cross Maya’s face.
THE DOCTOR?
ESCAPED. HER PATIENTS ARE BEING EVACUATED THROUGH THE TUNNEL NETWORK. WHEN AND IF PERVENIO GETS THERE, ALL THEY’LL FIND IS ROCK.
Maya breathed a sigh of relief. “Katrina will be fine then,” she whispered to me. Though I didn’t know enough about what was going on to realize I should’ve been worried, I found her assurance oddly comforting.
WHAT’S YOUR STATUS? Mazrah asked.
I’LL HAVE MY WATCHER TAKEN CARE OF IMMEDIATELY.
YOU HAVE FIVE AND A HALF HOURS TO BREACH THE SYSTEM AND PASS US OFF AS STAFF ABOARD A LUXURY CRUISER NAMED THE RING SKIPPER. CAN YOU GET IT DONE?
I ALWAYS DO.
TRANSMITTING NAMES NOW.
“IDs,” Maya said to us.
We handed over the IDs stuffed into the pockets of the Ringer outfits we’d stolen. They were little more than transparent cards with a data-chip embedded in one corner and the Pervenio Logo ghosted across the middle, like my real one had looked before it got left behind on the Piccolo. You received one for living in a colony run by Pervenio Corp.
Maya sent her sister each of the names. I was Gavin Davier, in case anybody asked me, which I doubted. Messing with IDs was supposed to be impossible, but I’d been finding that claim disproved a lot recently.
DO YOU NEED AN IMAGE OF KALE TO DOCTOR? she asked.
I’LL MAKE DO WITH WHAT I’VE GOT.
I shot Maya a sidelong glare. She shrugged.
YOU STRAND US WITH THESE AS IS AND WE’RE DEAD.
YOU’LL BE FINE. CAN YOU MAINTAIN CONTACT THROUGHOUT?
NOT WITH THIS TERMINAL. IT’S STOLEN AND A RISK. I’LL FIND A WAY BACK ONTO SOLNET. PREPARE A ROUTE.
GOOD LUCK.
As soon as the last message went through, Maya closed out of Solnet, switched the device off, and used her nails to pry out the power source. The nearest crew member peered at her over the top of her sanitary mask. Maya shot a scowl back at her, so piercing that she instantly turned her head and closed her eyes to pretend she was asleep.
“Better rest up,” Maya said, leaning her head back.
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Vick replied. Gareth grunted his agreement.
I tried to take her advice, but I couldn’t fall asleep. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Captain Saunders’s face before I locked him in the airlock. I thought I’d feel guiltier about condemning him to a slow death, even though he’d begged to die. I didn’t. I wondered if that was because he deserved what he got, or if I was no different from the people sitting on either side of me who’d murdered half of his crew. Then I pictured Cora, with the blood of a man she didn’t even know was her father being washed from her cheeks by tears, and I knew I would’ve done it the same way all over again.
Ever since I was sent off to work on the Piccolo, I’d felt out of control of my life, but that wasn’t completely true. I’d chosen to break into an Earther’s house, just like I’d chosen to do whatever it took to get my mom right. At every stop I could’ve continued along like most people did, gone through the motions, made a simple living. But ever since I was a child I’d reached into the darkness and grasped for more. I stole what I wanted to, snuck wherever I could, and lied when I had to. The truth was that I hated every second aboard the Piccolo, taking orders. I hated feeling like a cog in a wheel.
Was it the blood of Trass in me? Was that the only reason I decided to break prisoners out of Pervenio Station—to do the impossible—or did I actually care?
—
“We are arriving at Pervenio Station,” an automated voice announced. “Please prepare for disembarking.”
Maya’s eyes snapped open like she’d been stirred from a nightmare. Vick yawned awake, and had to nudge Gareth a few times to get him to come to. My eyes stung from exhaustion. Five hours, and yet I couldn’t quiet my mind enough to even nap for a few minutes.
No viewports were available to see into space, but I felt the gentle pull on my body of the cruiser tilting in order to land on the inner face of the moon-station.
“We can’t keep this,” Maya said, wasting no time. She slapped the hand-terminal down on my lap.
“What do you want me to do with it?” I asked.
“Ditch it before we hit any scanners.”
I nodded and stowed it in my uniform. The ship stopped moving, and then our restraints popped off. The soothing tug of near-Titan-level G drew my feet to the floor. I was sore as hell. The G-pill we’d taken had apparently worn off in Zero G, but even though it hurt to stand I was glad to do it. My bones and muscles were built for similar conditions.
A Pervenio Security Officer appeared in the holding cabin’s doorway. “All right, Ringers, everybody off!” he barked. “No dragging your feet.”
The crew stood with a collective groan. They were all as exhausted as I was, and if we were actually going to be punished for dragging our feet the officer would’ve had to electrocute us all. We shuffled one by one out of the cabin, and were escorted through the luxurious halls of the cruiser.
First, we stopped at the Ringer dorms so the crew could retrieve their baggage. Despite the majesty of the cruiser, they looked like oversized versions of the ones on the Piccolo. We waited to go in last, and kept our heads down as we found the only four bunks with any unclaimed bags beneath them.
Then we set off for the main exit ramp, which of course was located on the far side of the cargo hold. My eyes darted from side to side as we entered, searching the scores of containers and racks for bodies, weapons, and armor. I was used to handling almost everything on my own during jobs, so it was difficult not to feel anxious. I saw nothing, not even a speck of blood on the stark, metallic floor. Vick and Gareth had taken care of their end impeccably. They’d even reattached the vent cap we’d busted in through.
We passed the container Gareth had stuffed the first Ringer staff member we’d replaced into. I half-expected to hear the man banging on the inside to be freed, but it was silent. The thought that maybe Vick and Gareth had taken care of things too excessively popped into my head, but I couldn’t afford to let it fester.
“Good as new, eh?” Vick said, nudging me in the back. “Old Gareth loves moving shit.”
Gareth flicked him the middle finger in response. Then he stealthily reached into a nook between two containers and snagged the supply bag we’d brought over from the Sunfire so that we wouldn’t starve while we hid on the station. In its place he dropped one he’d taken from the dorms.
“Stop it, you two,” Maya whispered. “Focus.”
The ramp exited into a massive hangar, larger than any I’d ever been in before. Deep trusses swept overhead, thirty meters into the air at least, their surfaces shining like they had been installed recently. I instinctually turned my head and gazed upon the cruiser in awe. From the atmosphere of Saturn there was nothing to provide scale, but standing next to it I realized how tremendous it was. Its top nearly scratched the ceiling, and it extended what had to be half a kilometer behind me.
“Focus,” Maya repeated directly into my ear.
I looked straight ahead. The Earther patrons were already waiting at the bottom of the ramp, preparing to pass through a security inspection post. The first thing I noticed was how light security was. Only two officers in addition to those who served on the Ring Skipper were present. The Piccolo’s hangar typically received at least three times that for a crew of only around forty.
The second thing was the plump Earther I’d robbed earlier. He was standing with his arm around a woman, likely his wife, barely able to stand. I knew the symptoms. His cheeks were pale, and he appeared
hungover enough to vomit at any moment. Drunks always made the easiest Earthers to pickpocket. He probably didn’t even remember he’d had his terminal on him and figured it was stowed in his baggage.
I veered toward him. The others followed me, no questions asked. I sped up and purposefully bumped into his wife. Compared with him she was slender, but she was still an Earther; it was like walking into a wall. I reached behind her back as I collided with her and dropped the hand-terminal into his pocket.
“Watch where you’re going, ghost!” he slurred, then hiccuped. His wife flashed me a look of disgust and towed him away.
“Sorry,” I said before falling back in line with my team.
Vick wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Nice one, kid.”
My grin was swiftly wiped away by what Maya said next.
“Now remember, Kale, you’re the most wanted man on the Ring,” she whispered. “Don’t remove that mask, no matter what. Fake a cough. You’ll be fine. They won’t expect anyone new coming from Saturn.”
My throat went dry. I’d forgotten about that little detail. Without the mask, I would be locked up within minutes of being spotted.
We fell into line at the scanners and I forced out a few grating coughs. There were no decon-chambers on the way back in, only before hopping on a shuttle back to Titan. It maintained efficiency during disembarking, and considering how wiped I usually was after a shift I never minded. That would help me as long as the officer at the gate was in a decent mood.
The line ticked along. I grew more and more nervous with every step. I didn’t even know Maya’s sister, and we were essentially trusting her with our lives to falsify the IDs we had. I was trusting her, and them.
“ID,” the security officer said to Maya when it was finally our turn. She was the first out of us. She placed her bag on the scanning belt and then handed her ID over. He ran his scanner over the data-chip, and when her information appeared on the view-screen his brow furrowed in a way that boosted my anxiousness. “I’m going to need to see under that mask.”
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