“I think it held up pretty well, all things considered,” Lex said. “The collision protocols didn’t even engage.”
“Yes. I’ll have a word with the engineers. I rather think that is sign of poor calibration, considering the blood on your cheek.”
“There, see? I’m not crazy, I’m thorough. Better we find out this stuff now than when we’ve got forty of those babies on the track.”
“On that we can agree.”
“So, listen, about those tunnels.”
“I’d warned you not to leave the track.”
“No, no, hear me out. I really think those have potential as a racing venue. I mean, you know, lay them out right, map them right. Boost the accuracy on the IMU, but you’d probably have something nobody else has.”
“… Interesting. I’ll discuss logistics with our infrastructure teams. Perhaps some of the exhausted veins can find new life in that role. Naturally, the insurance team will have something to say about it.”
“Bah, they’ve got something to say about everything.” He cracked the seal on a bottle of water and took a sip. “So, you talk to your uncle lately?”
“Mr. Patel called me this morning. He continues to express excitement at the speed at which his racing league is coming together.”
“Well, when he put you in charge, I’ve got to imagine he was expecting top-tier results.”
“Your consultation has been invaluable. You’re sure you can’t stay longer? Two or three more weeks as fruitful as these and we’ll be ready to start exhibition races on our first track within two months.”
“Hey, I’ve been here for three weeks straight already. Counting the shorter stints it’s been like a month and a half total. If I keep this up, Mitch is going to forget my address.”
“You can always have her visit you here. Two whole floors have been completed in the new hotel. The Operlo Racing Intersystem Circuit would be happy to host a journalist of Ms. Modane’s caliber.”
“Is that what you’re calling the league now?”
“Marketing says it tests better than prior suggestions. ORIC is a pronounceable acronym.”
“Ah. Trust me, you don’t want Mitch coming here. It’s sort of a fork in the microwave situation when you mix her with organized-crime types.”
“Surely you’ve informed her that ORIC is an entirely legitimate enterprise.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve informed her. But getting her to believe it is another thing entirely. Nick Patel’s name is all over this thing, and in her head, he’s nothing more than a racketeering thu… well, you know.”
“I’m sure Uncle has been called worse things than a racketeering thug, but I’m hopeful that ORIC will illustrate his commitment to not only legal and wholesome entertainment enterprises, but to bolstering and building Operlo as a tourist destination.”
He raised the water bottle. “Here’s to hoping.”
“If you will be leaving us, we’ll need to finalize your payroll,” she said. She raised the pad and swiped the screen for a few moments, then presented it to Lex. “Please look over the figures. If everything is in order, approve with a thumbprint.”
Lex raised his eyebrows and whistled. “If you’re trying to convince me to stick around, this is the way to do it.”
“That’s what we pay all of our consultants. Are you having financial problems?”
“I’ve got some debts. I haven’t been able to get the delivery or chauffeur gigs back. VectorCorp hasn’t been quite so overtly trying to destroy me, but the freelancing gig has gotten very dicey.” He touched his thumb to the screen. “This is pretty much keeping me fed until I actually start racing.”
“All the more reason to remain on-site to hasten the completion of the league prep and continue to earn your fee.”
“I really appreciate it, but again, I’ll have to pass. Besides, I don’t think Squee is much of a fan of the heat.”
The edge of Preethy’s lips curved into the hint of a grin. “Well, we can’t have an unhappy puppy, can we? By the time we bring you back for the first races, I’ll see to it the indoor dog run is finished. When will you be leaving?”
“I guess this afternoon.”
“So you have a few hours. Perhaps after you get cleaned up, you’ll join me for lunch. We’ve just finished the bistro in the lobby level, and the chef has arranged a tasting menu.”
He shrugged. “Sure, sounds like a plan.”
#
Lex waved good-bye to Preethy as he stepped out of the cart that had dropped him at the recently christened Solar Port near the hotel. It was a series of enclosed and cooled docking ports aligned in a complex grid. Each was topped with a retractable solar array as a roof and existed for no other reason than to ensure the personal ships of high-class hotel patrons weren’t hot enough to fry breakfast on if they decided to leave during the day. It was only a short walk to the door of the facility, but Lex opened a silvery umbrella of sorts to shade himself during the trip. Say what you will about the potential unmanliness of parasols, one learns to embrace them when coping with the sun of a desert planet.
Even with the portable shade, he was sweating heavily when he reached the door. The adorable black-and-white ball of fluff known as Squee wasn’t making things any better either. His pet passed for a dog, but she was actually a genetic experiment with a custom genome combining fox and skunk traits. The not-quite-right shape of the head and the enormous fluffy tail should have been a giveaway, but the general public could be excused for not leaping to the conclusion that the four-legged critter being walked in the park was a science experiment. The official species name was funk, and every one he’d met so far had a peculiar tendency that didn’t seem to stem from either the fox or skunk half of the equation. The little cutie positively loved to perch on the shoulders of anyone nearby. This was doubly so when they were wandering about in the open during Operlo’s punishing daylight hours. Probably it was just to spare the critter from scalding her feet on the hot ground, but Lex couldn’t shake the feeling that it was actually an act of protest. Having the furry devil about his shoulders instantly made it feel twenty degrees hotter.
When he reached the door, some manner of automatic identification system activated it, which was a blessing because outdoor touchscreens were a recipe for blisters. He stepped into the relative dim of a small entryway with doors on each side. The outer door shut, a glorious blast of climate-controlled air rushed into the entryway, and the inner door slid open.
“Man I love that,” he said, lingering in the entryway and maneuvering until he and Squee could each feel the breeze ruffle their hair.
“I don’t have all day,” muttered a voice.
The guest spoke in a gruff, impatient tone that startled Lex primarily because the only thing that was supposed to be in the bay was his trusty ship, the SOB. Lex slapped the lighting controls, activating high-efficiency floodlights in each corner. They illuminated the sleek black masterpiece of his pride and joy, a ship every bit worthy of his frenetic level of skill behind the controls. Leaning on the far wall, arms crossed and assorted snack wrappers scattered at his feet, stood an odd-looking fellow. Irregular stubble peppered his chin and cheeks, though it refused to grow on a patch of skin on one side of his face. Similar irregularities plagued most of his visible flesh, with bits and pieces looking much newer and much less natural than others. The features gave him a subtly unsettling appearance. Nothing was overtly wrong about him, but lots of things weren’t quite right. The most bizarre feature was a single chrome iris in his right eye. He heaved his slightly stocky body off the wall and wiped his fingers on his dark blue jumpsuit. The remnants of some sort of dark red meat stick dangled from between his lips like a cigar.
He was Karteroketraskin Dee, known as Karter by most who dealt with him, and known to be a sociopath and malcontent on the best of days by all who dealt with him. The impatient look on his face suggested this was not the best of days.
Squee hopped from Lex’s shoulders and trotted over
to Karter, leaping to his shoulders to say hello. The act didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest. He simply scratched under her chin and pocketed the remainder of his snack.
“Karter!” Lex said. “What the hell are you doing here? And how did you get in here? This is a private docking bay!”
“Yeah, believe it or not, hotel security isn’t impenetrable.”
“Since when do you willingly leave Big Sigma?”
“It was under duress. Anyway, I’ve got a job for you.”
“What sort of job?”
“The sort that would motivate me to leave my personal planet rather than risk talking specifics over a com channel, let alone in a hotel parking lot. Now let’s go. You’ve got a job to do.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“I didn’t ask you if you wanted a job, Lex. I said you’ve got a job to do. As in, you will be doing a job for me. Ma’s been calling you about it.”
“Yeah, I know. We chat all the time. But I told her then, and I’ll tell you now: I’m not going to be doing any more testing for you.”
Karter crossed his arms. “We’ve got a contract.”
“Preethy had her lawyers look at it, and they say I’ve already fulfilled the minimum requirements three tests ago, so I just have to agree not to do product testing for anyone else until the contract is up.”
“What do you call what you were doing in the hoversled this morning?”
“Consultation. And it’s not a product, because it won’t be for sale,” he said confidently.
Karter grumbled. “Loopholes and semantics. I hate lawyers.”
“Turns out they’re not so bad when they’re on your side… and someone else is paying their bills.”
“Fine, whatever. Let’s get moving. This one might have a time limit, so I want to get on it.”
Karter glanced to the SOB. As if reacting to the gesture, the cockpit popped open. Squee excitedly hopped from Karter’s shoulders to the fuselage and trotted inside, looking out expectantly.
“Were you not listening? I’m not doing jobs for you anymore. I’m serious, I can’t risk that stuff. In less than a year I’ll be back in the seat of a hoversled, racing professionally again. This is a second chance I was never supposed to get, and I’m sure as hell not going to spit in the eye of fate by risking my life doing something idiotic for you.”
“I’ve got satellite footage of you taking a hoversled subterranean on a whim.”
“I said nothing idiotic for you. I reserve the right to indulge my own idiocy from time to time,” Lex said. “Especially in the pursuit of the sport.”
“Uh-huh. This is one of those world-saving gigs. Ma said that would matter to you.”
A flicker of conflict came across Lex’s face. “What sort of…?” He shook himself. “No. Damn it, I’ve done enough. How many times does one man have to put his neck on the line and do something that no sane person should even consider possible? Call it selfish if you want, but I’ve got a chance to live the life I was supposed to live before I made the mistake of borrowing money from the wrong sort of people…”
Karter rolled his eyes and adjusted his left wrist. It produced a series of mechanical clicks and dings.
“… The stars had to align for this to happen. A whole new league had to form just because I’ve been permanently barred from the existing ones for race fixing. If there’s karma or whatever, then this is my reward for saving planets the first few times. I mean hell, probably the only reason Preethy and Nick are even doing this is because Operlo is one of the planets I’ve saved! Find another hero. Go bother Silo again. I—what are you—?”
His unwanted guest thrust his left arm out, and a small panel of slightly too-pale skin popped up from the back of his hand. It produced a hiss and blur. A moment later Lex reeled backward, three sharp pains in his neck.
He felt for the source of the pain and found three small plastic barbs, each the size of a toothpick, stuck into the flesh. He tugged them out to find each tipped with a needle.
“Did you…?” Lex gasped, rubbing the point of impact. “Did you just shoot me with tranquilizer darts?”
“Only one of them was a tranq dart. The other ones were an anti-inflammatory and a seizure inhibitor.”
“For what?”
“To prevent permanent damage from punctuation. Because you’re coming with me.”
“I don’t—”
“Period,” Karter said.
He stepped forward and grabbed Lex by the collar, yanking him forward while at the same time thrusting his head down. Lex’s skull met Karter’s, with roughly the same effect as if the racer had run headlong into a girder. The world went black, his last moments of fading consciousness registering the distant sensation of being dragged across the ground.
Chapter 1
Lex awoke the way he usually did these days, with a warm tongue darting across his chin and cheeks. The mild headache and stinging pain in his eyebrow were new. He tried to raise his hands but found them restrained somehow. The motion caused the licking to excitedly intensify for a moment before a whiskery muzzle nestled itself against his neck.
“Good morning, Lex.” The comment was formed from recordings of three different women, assembled into a slightly disjointed whole.
“… Ma?” he said muzzily, fighting his eyes open.
The lighting in the room was mercifully dim; he wasn’t sure his aching head could handle bright light at the moment. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the glow of a few dozen points of multicolored light, status indicators for assorted appliances and machines. He was lying in a small alcove recessed into the wall. Both his arms and legs were belted down. Soft clamps on his temples immobilized his head. This last restraint was the most troubling currently, since Squee had curled up between his shoulder and neck and her fluffy fur was tickling him to the point of madness.
A screen directly in front of his immobilized face showed various vital signs and a thumbnail of a medical scan of his entire body. Beside the screen was a speaker grill. After a moment, the voice returned.
“It is pleasant to have you as my guest once again. Your frequent visits were an enjoyable diversion, and one that has been sadly absent in recent weeks.”
“I’ve explained that,” he said, wincing at a throb in his head. “Where am I right now?”
“Before we engage in social pleasantries, I must determine your mental status.”
The information on the screen vanished, and a pattern of small white dots replaced it.
“How many circles do you see?”
“… Four.”
“Correct. What day of the week is it?”
“Friday.”
“Incorrect. By Galactic Standard Time it is currently Saturday morning. However, as midnight passed while you were unconscious, I will accept your answer. Are you experiencing any nausea, irritability, or dizziness?”
“I’m probably at about a nine on the irritability scale.”
“Would you assess this status as having a psychological or physiological cause?”
“I think it has something to do with being assaulted and kidnapped.”
“Would you assess this status to be a direct result of the physical aspect of the assault or the feeling of violation associated with the act?”
Lex glared at the speaker for lack of a set of eyes to glare at.
“I shall continue to observe this status. Please hold still for a final scan.”
A thin red line swept him from head to toe, then from shoulder to shoulder. An image of his body constructed itself, starting with the skeleton and being layered somewhat grotesquely with organs and muscle until it concluded with his clothing. Beside it, the same buildup occurred for Squee.
“All physical readings are within acceptable parameters, with the exception of a mild tissue hematoma and a general moderate vascular contraction in the cranium. You will have no lasting effects from your concussion. Squee is in good health as well, though extremely mild epidermal
irritation in the pads of her paws suggests she may have been experiencing some recent discomfort, and her blood glucose is slightly irregular. You have been spoiling her with sweets.”
“I took her with me to the tasting at the resort bistro on Operlo. It turns out she really likes bread pudding.”
The straps and head clamp released, allowing Lex to slide his legs out and stand. Doing so caused another throb in his head. He paused to put his fingers to his brow until the pain passed.
“I can administer a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug if you wish,” Ma said.
“Not just yet,” he muttered.
Lex opened his eyes and looked around while Squee jumped down and padded over to a water bowl on the floor in one corner. He was certainly in a medical bay of some sort. The wall behind him had a grid of nine medical beds like the one that had held him, and the wall opposite had another nine. An elevated platform with a gantry of assorted medical devices mounted above it dominated the center of the room. The whole room felt cramped, as though it was designed to have just enough space for one person to maneuver. Little thought had been put into the aesthetics either, with brushed stainless steel and exposed structural elements dominating the design scheme.
“Where am I right now, Ma?”
Temporal Contingency Page 2