Gambler

by S. J. Bryant

  "Cal, get me a history of this guy," Nova said under her breath.

  She waited and watched as the ragged man tossed thousands of credits into the centre pool, sometimes to lose them and sometimes to win them back.

  "Dustin Feders. Son of billionaire and planet founder Geron Feders." Cal's voice came through to Nova's ears.

  "That's Geron Feders's son?"

  Geron Feders was known through most of this galaxy, and the next, and probably the one after that. Geron had made his fortune as a young man by exploring unchartered planets. He would claim these as his own and then sell them off piece by piece to development companies. It was dangerous work, but it had paid off for him many times over.

  "What's Geron's son doing here? And like that?" Nova asked, her eyes still fixed on the scruffy man.

  "The specifics I don't know, but the Cloud says Dustin has always been a thrill-seeker and chose not to follow in his father's footsteps. There's not much information about him in the Cloud other than a picture and a few irrelevant facts, birthday, etcetera." Cal's drone filled Nova's ears and she shook her head.

  If only she had been given the opportunities Dustin had been given! She would have become a planet founder herself. She still might if she saved up enough money. The only undiscovered planets now were many light years away and that was an expensive trip. Not to mention she'd have to cross the Confederacy's damned border.

  "I doubt he would need to steal money from the casino," she said.

  "Quite right. Despite their falling out, Dustin still receives a healthy sum from his father, according to the Cloud."

  "I guess it's not him then," Nova said, looking away from the solitary man.

  The next table sported a young woman in a dark suit. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders in curls and created a stark contrast against the dark fabric. Thin stripes covered the jacket which came down to her wrists.

  To either side of the woman were young men. They bent over the table and fought for position next to the woman as she continued to play, uncaring. The men wore tight-fitting black shirts and similarly tight black pants. Every strand of hair on each of their heads sat perfectly in place as they jostled amongst themselves.

  Nova couldn't help but shake her head as the men fawned over the woman. It was quite a common sight in places such as the Lucky Coin. 'Hangers', Nova liked to call them. They trailed around after the wealthy and successful, hoping to be taken in, ideally married, and live out the rest of their days in luxury. Nova had had to restrain herself from striking hangers on many occasions.

  She eyed the group. She dismissed the hangers immediately; while they probably needed the money, she doubted they had the collective brainpower to pull off a casino heist, let alone individually. The woman caught Nova's attention though. She sat with confidence and seemed unfazed by the men around her. She barely spoke to the dealer, but gestured to him for another card.

  Nova sat at the bar and studied the woman. She had simple pearl earrings and her face was plain. Nova suspected the woman was 'all original', a rare occurrence in a place like the Lucky Coin. Her fingernails were short and her mouth remained a firm line. Nova watched the woman for nearly an hour, but in the whole time the woman did nothing to raise concern.

  Nova shrugged and moved on, she would keep the woman in mind, but for now it was a dead end. Similarly, the rest of the casino had little to offer; ordinary people sat at tables and machines, but they all seemed to be doing what they were supposed to be doing: losing money and feeding the casino machine.

  Nova walked around the edge of the floor to get a look at the other side. The soft green carpet bounced underfoot and she took the time to enjoy the flawless wooden decorations. Halfway around the casino, a firm hand grasped her arm and pulled her through the crowd.

  She let out a yelp of surprise mixed with pain, but before she could stop herself she was dragged into a small side room. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the dim lights and the smoky air. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. The grasping hand on her arm was gone.

  She looked up; her hand already resting on her stunner. To her left was a burley security officer, obviously the one who had pulled her in. Across the room, Nova was surprised to see Cracos and Zodac, the Zine addict, whom she had accosted just a few nights ago.

  Cracos sat in a large armchair with his customary cigar leaning out of the side of his mouth. The addict stood with his arms folded across his chest as he glared at Nova. Cracos's usual jovial expression was gone, his thick eyebrows drew together.

  Nova's stomach sunk as she looked around the room.

  "Nova," Cracos began. "Nova, Nova, Nova."

  Nova expected more but Cracos stopped speaking and went back to staring at her. She shifted on her feet.

  "Um… Yes?" she said. Her hand moved from her stunner to rest on her gun.

  "Can you please explain to me why poor Zodac here came home to find you in his apartment?" Cracos asked. Zodac glared at her.

  "You told me to investigate. That's what I was doing."

  "From what I hear, you weren't so much investigating as accosting," Cracos said.

  "She threatened me!" Zodac swung his arm up to point at Nova before returning it to its position across his chest. Cracos gestured for him to stay still.

  "He's obviously on Zine; he will need money from somewhere. What makes you think he's not the one stealing from you?" Nova asked, incredulous that Cracos could be mad at her for investigating as he'd instructed.

  "He wouldn't do it," Cracos said, shaking his head.

  Nova stared with her mouth wide open. How could someone like Cracos be so foolish? Then she remembered one of Fenton's photos. Hadn't it shown Cracos naked with Zodac, before he was high on Zine.

  "Look, you told me to do whatever was necessary. I was completely within my rights to question him." Nova waved her hand at Zodac.

  "Breaking and entering one of my employee's homes is not within your rights," Cracos said, his voice getting louder with each word.

  Nova's eyes flashed with rage and she clasped her hand around her gun.

  "Don't you dare. You'll be dead before you can get it out of your belt," Cracos said. "I knew I shouldn't have hired you. Vicki warned me, but did I listen?"

  "Vicki." Nova's skin went cold as she thought of the other woman whispering into Cracos's ears.

  "Yes, she told me all about you."

  "Everything she said to you is a lie. She's a venomous, conniving bitch and—"

  "Enough!" Cracos yelled, slamming his fist onto the wooden desk. "What would make you feel compensated?" Cracos said more gently as he turned to Zodac and placed a hand on the other man's arm.

  Zodac stuck out his bottom lip and pouted as he looked between Cracos and Nova. His hands shook and his lips were covered in scabs from where he had chewed at them.

  "The Hole," Zodac said after a few moments.

  "You're right. It's nearly show time." Cracos nodded to the large security officer and before Nova knew it, her arms were pinned behind her back. She fought with all her might but his hands were like vices about her arms. She kicked and yelled, but all she managed to achieve was to knock over one of Cracos's chairs.

  She ripped her arm free and shot her elbow up at the security officer's nose. He grunted but didn't miss a beat as he grabbed hold of her arm again.

  Nova yelled until a meaty hand covered her mouth, blocking all noise. She tried to bite down on the flesh, but the man behind her twisted her arm so far it felt like it might break so she released her teeth.

  He half carried, half dragged her through the door and onto the casino floor, then across to the other side of the room and a broad set of double doors. The room beyond had an odd scent to it; like sweat and blood, a rowdy crowd gathered in the centre, yelling obscenities at one another.

  Nova tried to look around, but her head was held tight and she could barely see over the thick fingers covering most of her face. Fingers jabbed her in the ribs,
sending agony through her fresh wound, and jeers cast after her as the security officer hauled her through the crowd.

  Tension crackled through the air and she knew that trouble was coming. The noise of the crowd beat at her eardrums. Then, in one quick motion, the security guard tossed her forward. She expected to be stopped by the wall of people, but she kept falling. Then, she expected to be stopped by the floor, but that didn't happen either. When her eyes finally focused she saw herself falling into the bottom of a circular cement pit.

  She held her hands out to break her fall and managed to roll off to the side. Agony whipped up from her injured side and blood wept from grazes on her hands.

  The crowd sneered down at her, laughing. A fat man in a blue suit spat at her, the goblet landing on her bare leg.

  Bile rose in her throat as she pushed the pain out of her mind and scrambled to her feet. She spun in tight circles, searching desperately for any way out, but there were no stairs and the pit was too deep for her to jump and reach the edge.

  "What are you doing?" she yelled up at the faces.

  No one replied.

  "Sensing distress. Is intervention required?" Cal's voice was like that of an angel in Nova's ear.

  "They've trapped me! They're planning something. I need you to—"

  "She's got a chip!" the man in the blue suit yelled.

  "Start the interference," another voice said.

  "Awaiting further command," Cal said.

  "Cal, I need you to—" but the rest of Nova's message didn't reach Cal. The casino was well equipped with jamming devices. Usually, they were left off for the pleasure of the clients, but here in this room, in the Hole, anything goes.

  "Dammit!" Nova said and spun in a desperate circle.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Nova stopped mid-spin when she caught the sound of screeching metal. On the other side of the Hole, two large men lowered a cyborg soldier. Nova's eyes widened with horrified realisation. The individual looked as if it had been made of two separate creatures, then stitched together. The left half was that of a man, with brown hair and a green eye that eventually fixed on Nova. He had no shirt and the muscles of his arms and shoulders glowed in the neon lights. Over his waist he wore a simple pair of jeans and a thick boot covered his left foot.

  The left hand side, the man, might have been handsome if it wasn't for the right half. The right side had no hair; instead a shiny metal surface reflected the many lights. A dark orb sat in place of his right eye. His nose and mouth were gaping holes.

  Where skin met metal it looked as though the two had been fused together with extreme heat. The seam continued down the bare chest, which on the right side glinted hard steel. The metal groin and leg were unclothed, the jeans crudely cut in half. Nova tried not to let her gaze linger too long on the cyborg's crotch, although a part of her wondered how that part of him had been fused.

  The cyborg reached the floor of the Hole with a crunch and the crowd cheered.

  "What is this?" Nova yelled up at the people. No one responded.

  "Begin in five seconds," the cyborg said. His voice was an odd combination of human and computer and the lips of the man moved while the robot's features remained motionless.

  "Cracos!" Nova whirled around to get a look at the man but he was nowhere to be seen. "This is madness!"

  "Three, two, one," the cyborg counted down, its tone remaining consistent.

  At zero Nova pulled the gun from her belt and rolled to the side. The cyborg raised its right hand and a red beam of light shot out. It hissed over Nova's head and slammed into the far wall, creating a burning hole.

  Nova rolled to her feet and turned on the cyborg. The creature was fast; it had already got her back in its sights and she was forced to roll to the side again, sending new waves of pain up her side. She clenched her teeth and hoped that her stitches stayed together.

  She darted towards the cyborg before she'd even finished her roll and fired at the creature. Her own gun emitted a blue flash as it sent out a deadly blast. The cyborg stepped forward and the blast made barely a dent in its metal surface.

  "Shit," Nova said, running as fast as she could to the other side of the Hole. Sure enough, another beam of red shot across the arena and left a burning crater.

  "Look, let's be reasonable," Nova said as she darted around the small area. "I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to kill me. Let's call it even."

  "The main imperative is to survive. Only one of us can leave the Hole," the robot voice responded, much to Nova's surprise.

  "No, no! I promise to lay down my weapon just as soon as you lay down yours. I've been a friend to the cyborgs, I always supported your rights," Nova said, pleading with her eyes as the creature fired at her.

  The battle for cyborg equality had been going for decades; the right to marry and the right to bear children had all been hard won, and still there were many areas of the known universe that a cyborg shouldn't tread - at least not if they planned to go on living.

  "It is not my decision. It is them." For just a brief second the cyborg stopped shooting at Nova and gestured to the jeering crowd.

  Security guards with large guns resting on their shoulders stood at intervals around the Hole.

  "Only one will live. The imperative is to survive." The creature stopped talking and started barraging Nova with red blasts of energy.

  She dropped low to the ground to avoid being hit and ran, half crouched, towards the creature. She refused to think about the man before her and instead focused on the gun in her hand. She ran past red energy blasts and dodged the pieces of rubbish hurled into the ring by the onlooking crowd. She sprinted up to the human side of the creature and there she stopped.

  She took one second to look into the creature's human eye. "I'm sorry," she said as her gun fired and her blue plasma bolt punched through the man's skull, through the brain and into the robot's circuits. The moment her shot went off the cyborg's arm dropped to its side and its eyes went blank. Just a few seconds later the body collapsed to the ground.

  The two halves twitched, out of tandem with each other as if they were trying to get away from one another. Nova stared down at the display and nausea rolled through her. All around her the crowd roared, the noise pounding Nova's eardrums. She wanted to turn her gun on the watchers and fire until either there were no more bullets or no more people, but she held back. If she wanted to survive, she had to hold back.

  She refused to look up at the crowd as they cheered. She gazed at the cyborg until it twitched its last and lay still. She then went about checking her gun and when she was satisfied all was well, she stood still, staring down at the floor of the Hole.

  Her elbows and knees dribbled blood and her black dress hung in tattered rags from her hips. Dirt covered most of her body, interspersed with purple bruises, but she didn't react to the pain or the filth. She stared at the ground, unmoving.

  The crowd lost interest as Nova refused to move. Their cheering died as they moved away from the Hole to find different entertainment. A grimace crossed Nova's face as she caught the scent of burning plastic from the cyborg's head. The scent of boiling flesh came next. The smells and a faint smoke hung in the air.

  Rage boiled through Nova's veins, coursing through her body like rivulets of fire. Her hands clenched into fists at her side as she imagined the many ways Cracos and the onlookers would pay for what they'd done to the cyborg, and to her. Her anger choked her throat and made her breath ragged, stinging her eyes with furious tears.

  "Quite a fight," the familiar voice came from above the Hole. Nova refused to look up.

  "I have to say I'm surprised. Gendon has been with us for some time and never lost. Until now, of course."

  Nova glared at the floor, ignoring Cracos. Whatever he wanted, she wasn't interested.

  "Just shoot her!" Zodac growled.

  "Now, Zodac, don't be spiteful; Nova's paid her debt."

  "And what did he do?" Nova glared up at Cracos. Her sha
king finger pointed at the fallen Cyborg.

  Cracos smiled down at her with his bloated lips. "Freaks will not be tolerated here on Tabryn." His many chins jiggled as he laughed.

  "He was just a man," she said, cursing herself for speaking to Cracos, but at the same time unable to stop.

  "An animal; nothing more." Cracos's tone lost its humorous edge and he sucked hard on the cigar in his mouth.

  Nova's mouth formed a hard line and she returned to glaring at the ground.

  "You're free to go, Nova. Your punishment is done," Cracos said.

  Nova didn't look up.

  "Lower the ladder," Cracos ordered, stomping away from the Hole.

  Nova heard the rope ladder fall down the Hole's wall and come to rest a foot from the ground. Only then did she lift her gaze, and only enough to see the ladder and make her way to it.

  She climbed the twelve rungs with ease, as quick as a sewer rat, despite the pain coursing through her. She crested the lip of the Hole and stood to her full height. Her expression made the security guards take a step back and glance at one another.

  Nova's eyes flashed with intense anger. Murder filled her mind.

  "I- er- think you should leave," said the first security guard who had initially tossed her into the Pit.

  The second guard nodded but said nothing, his eyes wide.

  Nova had kept her gun in hand as she climbed the rope ladder. She took her time inspecting it and watching the way it reflected the casino back at her on its shiny surface.

  "Er- firearms are not to be possessed within the casino," the first guard said, stepping forward as if he meant to take the weapon.

  In a move too quick to follow, Nova swung the gun down and pointed it at the man's chest. "That's close enough," she said.

  "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

  "Oh I'm going. I wouldn't stay in this cosmic craphole for another second." She glared at the men, the only ones left near the Pit. "I just want to make sure that I remember the faces of the men who let this happen."

  "Look, we're just doing our jobs." The first man held up his hands. Nova's gun remained aimed at his chest.