by M. D. Cooper
She didn’t miss the momentary expression of worry that crossed Greer’s face before he nodded. “Very well. I’ll ensure that the strategy reflects that goal.”
“Good, now I’m off to discuss the economic implications of feeding resources to Scipio with the secretaries. Wish me luck.”
Greer laughed. “Good luck, indeed. I’d rather face SC-91R than deal with that lot.”
Sera nodded in agreement. She shared the same sentiment.
NIGHTSHADE
STELLAR DATE: 02.27.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Wells Station
REGION: Azela System, Coreward Edge of Praesepe Cluster
“Watch yourself, Admiral,” Nadine cautioned as they walked off the pinnace and onto the bay’s deck. “This is not the safest of stations.”
“Few places are safe, anymore,” Tanis replied.
Flyboys, Tanis thought.
“Seems like a strange place for Nerischka to set up shop,” Tanis said to Nadine as they walked up the long, gently sloped ramp to the station’s passenger decks. “Though I guess it’s just the place the stuff she’s tracking would pass through.”
Nadine shrugged, her blue and purple ombré hair sparkling in the passageway’s bright lights, setting off against the figure-hugging white dress she wore.
Tanis was clothed similarly, but her dress was more of a long tunic, red and black, paired with black leggings. When selecting an outfit for this mission, Tanis had realized she so rarely acquired new clothes that most of her wardrobe consisted of items Joe had given her as gifts.
Whenever she was out of uniform—which, admittedly, was rare—her style reflected Joe’s tastes more than hers.
Tanis shot back.
Angela snorted.
While Tanis continued to speak with Angela, Nadine replied, “Well, it’s where the mission seems to have taken her. I’m quite curious to learn what she’s found. Sera said that Nerischka thinks this biotech has ties back to Orion.”
“Not really their M. O., from what I hear,” Tanis replied as they reached the top of the ramp.
The concourse ahead of them was filled with foot traffic, and a few dockcars driving down a designated lane in the center. Nadine wove through the crowds and signaled for a car. A few seconds later, one slowed to a stop, and they climbed in.
“Nightshade,” Nadine said, and the car made a sound signaling rejection.
“Destination restricted,” the vehicle replied.
Nadine shook her head and sighed. “Well, as close as you can get, then.”
The car made an affirmative noise and pulled back into the center of the concourse.
Tanis chuckled as they picked up speed. “Never a good sign, is it.”
“You read her mission brief, right?” Nadine asked. “The guy that’s moving this biotech is pretty strange. Not surprised that whoever runs this dockcar service doesn’t want to go there.”
“I’ve yet to see anything as strange as half the stuff I dealt with back in Sol,” Tanis said as she watched the people on the concourse. “Trust me, until you’ve seen a man whose body is made out of the bodies of other people, you’ve not seen anything.”
Nadine shuddered. “What do you mean…’made out of’?”
Tanis saw John Cardid’s monstrous form in her mind; an image hundreds of years in her past, but still not one she’d ever forget.
“Like limbs constructed from the bodies of people…all merged into one body. I really don’t want to describe it further. It made the people with spikes driven through their eyes and out the backs of their heads seem perfectly normal.”
“Disguuuusting,” Nadine breathed with a small scrunch of her nose. “OK, yeah, Nightshade should be a piece of cake for you.”
“One thing that wasn’t clear in the brief,” Tanis said as she pulled it up over her vision. “I thought ‘Nightshade’ was the guy’s name, not the place he…whatevers…at.”
“I was a bit fuzzy on that, too. That’s why I just asked the car to take us there. From what I can see on the station map, there is a place called Nightshade, so I figured why not see if they’re one and the same?”
“Seems reasonable,” Tanis nodded as she reviewed the station layout further. “Station isn’t big enough for them not to be connected.”
Tanis saw Nadine give a small shudder. “I hate bio-mods. I know that we all have them, but keeping them under a nice human-shaped package is best. Some people just get…”
“Icky,” Tanis filled in.
“Yeah…’icky’ is right. As in, ‘I don’t care what your tentacles can do, I’d rather not’.”
Tanis was reminded of the informant she used back on the Cho in Sol.
The dockcar drove out over a broad atrium, easily a kilometer across. The roadway was suspended high above the deck below, and Tanis could see that it was once a park, the center marked by a dry depression where a lake had been. Now it was filled with small, ramshackle buildings, and chickens. A lot of chickens.
“You bring me to all the nicest places,” Tanis said as she peered down.
“Stupid stationers,” Nadine shook her head. “This was their best greenspace, and they let it die. Who does that? I’d rather sacrifice lights in my quarters before a station’s parks.”
Tanis shrugged. “Don’t look at me. If I can’t fly around with at least fifty square klicks of parkland, I turn into a very grumpy woman.”
Nadine covered her mouth to hide a laugh, and Tanis sighed.
“S’OK, I can take a compliment.”
They passed beyond the atrium and turned onto another concourse. The state of repair in this section of the station wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, either.
The car took a few turns and then pulled into a disembarkation lane a few hundred meters from Nightshade.
“Thank you for your matronage,” the car announced.
Tanis laughed as she stepped out. “ ‘Matronage’. My gender feels so satisfied now. What would I have done without that?”
Nadine stepped up beside Tanis. “It’s like that a lot on this side of Praesepe. They like to alternate gender honorifics and stuff.”
“Why not use gender neutral words like everyone else?”
“I don’t know.” Nadine shrugged and began walking down the corridor ahead of them. “I’ll be sure to query the…well, they don’t believe in schools, here. I have no idea what I’d query.”
Tanis shook her head as she followed after Nadine, keeping her eyes peeled as they passed clusters of people who appeared to be clean and well-kempt, but also eyed the two women hungrily.
Nadine mused.
Nadine almost laughed aloud.
A minute later, they reached a wider concourse. The street was several decks high, and in front of them, vertically spanning four decks, was Nightshade.
The entrance was on the lower level, and the pair of women walked through the thin crowds to where a large man and almost rail-thin woman stood before the doors.
The man looked them up and down and glanced at the woman, who nodded for him to open the door.
Tanis was glad she passed muster—she’d worn her nice shoes, after all—and the two stepped through the entrance, finding themselves in a long hall.
On either side of the hall were pillars supporting holos hinting at the sorts of things they’d see within. Tanis sighed as she saw a holo of what looked like a mermaid with flippers instead of arms.
< ’Maximum commitment’ in places like this is often fatal.>
Tanis nodded slowly. She knew that all too well.
Sound and light suddenly flooded into the corridor as a man and a woman pushed open the doors at the far end.
They were laughing and half draped over one another, entwined in a way that made it hard to tell where one ended and the other began.
This was made more difficult by the additional appendages both possessed. Tanis wondered if the meter-long thing in the middle of the man’s face could best be described as a tentacle, trunk, or maybe a flaccid penis.
She realized the woman had two of them coming off her face, as well, and decided that she’d prefer to think of them as tentacles.
Tanis tore her eyes from the pair…either they were talking by exchanging chemical signatures on their extra limbs, or they were having sex. Either way, looking felt like intruding.
Nadine stepped through the doors first, and Tanis followed. She’d already had a view of what to expect, having flushed her nanocloud through when the couple exited, but seeing the sights all around her was something to behold.
The room was a well-lit, open space, filling all four levels. Displays were scattered across the main floor and on the walls above, where catwalks encircled the open space, allowing the ‘artwork’ to be viewed up close.
The artwork, of course, consisted entirely of humans with extreme bio-mods. Directly in front of them was a woman who was standing vertically in a tank of water, with her head protruding from the top. From the neck up, she looked relatively normal, though bald; from the neck down, her skin seemed leathery, more like an octopus’s hide, and things resembling sea anemones grew out of her body in various places.
As Tanis watched, a fish swam close to one of the anemones and was caught in its mouth. The woman moaned in pleasure, and Tanis resisted the urge to shake her head. She and Nadine were, after all, masquerading as patrons—or matrons—of the establishment, and sights like this shouldn’t disturb them.
Tanis followed Nadine’s gaze, which was directed at the bar. Instead of the usual polished surface, the bar consisted of people. At first, Tanis thought it consisted of alternating men and women, but there were a few combos in the mix that made it hard to tell if a pattern was present.
Tanis breathed a sigh of relief. Mostly because she was certain that the people who made up the bar were all physically bonded to one another.
It really didn’t bear thinking about.
Nadine led Tanis to a display near the bar, and Tanis appeared to focus her attention on it, though she was actually reading a recent supply report. She had it over her vision, front and center, to block out what was going on.
They didn’t have long to wait before a woman walked out from behind the bar—on legs, thank the stars—and approached Tanis and Nadine.
Her general form was hominid, but from there it diverged rapidly from the norm, appearing to be made of a flexible, veined granite. Coral grew out of it in artful patterns, running along her limbs and creating whorls around her breasts and abdomen. Her head was covered in a crown of coral, and when she spoke, Tanis saw that even her tongue had small bits growing from it.
“What could I possibly get for you fine ladies?” the woman—who Tanis assumed was Nerischka—said in a voice that sounded half like grating stone, and half like a bubbling fountain.
“What is your special?” Nadine asked. “We’re in a hurry, need to meet a friend very soon.”
Nerischka’s face took on a sad expression. At least that’s what Tanis assumed; her facial movement was restricted by the coral tracing her cheekbones.
“I’m sorry, we’re out of the Ambrosia Red. I can offer you our house vintage, though—it’s very close.”
Nadine shook her head. “No, I need the Ambrosia Red. Nothing else will do. Top shelf.”
Nerischka nodded, her eyes darting to her left for a second. “I will have to double-check our supplies in the back. You don’t need to wait for me here, I’ll find you.”
“Thanks, we’ll sate our curiosity,” Nadine replied, before turning back to look at the display they were standing in front of.
Tanis replied.
Tanis and Nadine wandered the floor for another ten minutes looking-without-looking at the various displays. Once the prescribed time had passed, they broke into an argument, and Tanis stormed out, followed by Nadine.
Once outside Nightshade, they took a circuitous route around to the shipping and receiving entrance at the back of the establishment.
The pair ducked into a dark corner behind a stack of empty crates and proceeded to pull off t
heir clothing. Underneath, both wore flow armor, and Nadine shivered as it spread over her hands and across her face.
With their clothes tucked under a pallet, Tanis triggered the flow armor’s stealth systems and led the way across the shipping corridor. She approached a smaller door beside the larger freight entrance at the rear of Nightshade.
Angela giggled and whispered in their minds,
The door popped open, and the two women slipped inside, moving in the direction Nerischka had indicated. They followed one hall, then another, and finally came to a room where a door was ajar, revealing racks filled with bottles.
The pair slipped in, gently closing the door behind them.
Tanis’s nano cloud revealed Nerischka standing in a back corner, pretending to be reviewing a few bottles.
“Nishka,” Nadine said quietly as they approached.
For her part, Nerischka didn’t even flinch as a disembodied voice spoke next to her.
“Did you kill the surveillance in the room?” she asked.
“Of course,” Nadine replied. “Not our first op.”
Nerischka nodded, still looking at the bottles ahead of her. “Who’s your friend?”
“I’m Tanis Richards.”
That grabbed Nerischka’s attention, and her head turned toward the sound of Tanis’s voice. “The Tanis Richards?”
“Maybe. I imagine there must be other people with the same name.”
“What are you doing here?” Nerischka hissed, regaining some of her calm. “I’m just days away from finding out who Nightshade is working with. This tech is crazy advanced stuff, it rivals some of what we have in the Transcend.”
“And he’s using it just for his kink-fest in there?” Tanis asked.
“No, that’s just him skimming off the top. The real bulk of what passes through his hands is going elsewhere, but I don’t know where, yet.”