by Sara King
Rabbit shoved her aside. “Look, I know we don’t look like what you’re used to, but we have the means to pay, I assure you.”
The woman at the door sniffed. “We’ll have to take her gun as collateral. Make sure you don’t try anything inside.”
“Bullshit!” Athenais roared. “You thieving tramp, you can’t just—”
Rabbit casually jammed his elbow into her ribcage, then swiped the gun from under her belt as she doubled over for air. “Not a problem, miss. Here you go.”
Athenais watched in horror as he passed the weapon over to the guard. The woman looked it over, tuning it in her hands, then sniffed again and stepped aside. Her burly companion pulled one of the double-doors open and motioned them to enter.
“Come on, Attie,” Rabbit said, giving her an irritated tug. Athenais followed, still scowling at the woman when the door slammed shut behind them.
“Just great,” she growled when she heard the tumblers lock into place. “Now we’re sitting ducks for any flesh-trader who takes it upon himself to knock us over the head. What were you thinking, Rabbit? Why couldn’t I just shoot them?”
“I’ll protect you,” Rabbit said, patting her arm. “Don’t worry, dear.”
Athenais prickled like a cat that had been approached with a running chainsaw. “I don’t need protection.”
Rabbit glanced at her, looking surprised. “You mean you actually decided to learn a decent fighting style since the last time I saw you?”
Athenais fisted her hands and kept them pressed against her sides to keep from flattening them on Rabbit’s face. “I can fight fine.”
He snorted. “Dear, clumsy barroom brawls do not count.”
“You ‘dear’ me again and I’ll cut off your head and feed it to a dungrunner,” Athenais bit out. “We’re not married anymore.”
“Yes, dear.”
Athenais’s eyes narrowed.
“Come on,” Rabbit said. “These guys will be able to help us.” Then he stepped forward into the labyrinth of holding cells, leaving her the option of going with him or being left behind.
Grumbling, Athenais followed, making a mental note to bring the quick little sensei down a peg or three, once she had her flesh-seeker back. Dodge that, oh martial master. Oh, whoops. What’s the matter, not fast enough? Too clumsy?
Inside each of the cages lining the walls, a strange or exotic creature lay in the straw, a well-worn feeling of misery seeping from behind the stainless steel bars. Outside, the seller stood with armed guards, eying every passerby with a keen eye. Athenais felt sick at first sight of them, remembering a similar situation all-too-well, back when she had been on the other side of the bars.
“Come on, Attie,” Rabbit said, tugging gently on her arm. She hadn’t realized she had stopped. She was staring at a dirty, naked woman sitting in the straw, hunched over, staring off into nothingness. Reluctantly, she allowed Rabbit to pull her onward.
As they passed, Athenais saw more men and women, some with grotesque genetic alterations, watching them through the bars with resentful gazes. She saw aliens, both on and off the Endangered Races list, and plenty of exotic non-intelligents. Tigers and slender, long-haired eshwers were a specialty here, it seemed.
Rabbit took them to the back of the maze to a small door set in the wall. It was flanked by four guards, each toting a fully automatic flesh-seeker and dressed in energy-resistant body armor.
“What’s your business here, little man?” one of the four demanded.
“Is this where they keep the exotics?” Rabbit asked politely.
“The exotics are behind you, moron.”
“He’s talking about shifters, you stupid son of a bitch,” Athenais interrupted. “We’re here to buy three of them.”
The guard eyed her. “Careful, or I’ll blacken the other eye, wench.”
Athenais fisted her hand, but Rabbit caught her arm. “That won’t be necessary, sir. You see, we’re looking to buy a breeding population for a very important collector on Wyvin. We heard Odan was the place to come, but we still haven’t found any shifters.”
“We don’t let nobody past these doors unless we got confirmation they’re not S.O.,” the man said. “Sorry.” He sighed and glanced the other way, looking bored.
Athenais grabbed the front of his shirt and shoved the barcode on her scalp under his nose. “That look like S.O. to you?”
The man’s eyes widened. “That say Orplex?”
“Wow. You can read. Amazing.”
“Damn it, Attie!” Rabbit snapped. “Let me take care of this, okay?”
Athenais shrugged.
Rabbit walked up and said something quietly to the nearest guard. The guard’s eyes opened wide and he made a nodding motion to the rest of the men. They stepped back, allowing Rabbit to step through. When Athenais tried to follow, however, they blocked her progress.
“Just stay there a minute,” Rabbit said. “I won’t take long.” At that, he closed the door behind him.
Fuming, Athenais stalked back and forth, scowling at the four guards.
“Probably a fake, anyway,” one of the guards jeered. “Either that or she got a sex change.”
“You kidding?! She didn’t need a sex change.” The guard who had spoken broke off into hearty guffaws.
Athenais stopped, glaring at the man who had spoken, wondering what his face would look like when introduced to an engine turbine. He winked at her. “You want some of this, sister?” He grabbed his crotch and bounced it.
Athenais quietly swallowed down the little bit of vomit that had risen up into the back of her throat and turned to look at something else. She was busily inspecting the stonework when Rabbit opened the door.
“Well?” she demanded.
Rabbit shook his head slightly, then led her away from the guards. “I’ll tell you once we’re outside.” He hurried to the front door, knocked, and waited—somewhat impatiently, for Rabbit—as they unlocked the door.
On the other side, Athenais held out her hand for her Phoenix, and the woman reluctantly untucked it from her belt and gave it back. As she and Rabbit walked away, Athenais inspected it for damage. “And? What did you find out?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at a little scratch in the gleaming blue steel. Had that been there before?
“They were here three weeks ago,” Rabbit told her. “All bought by the same woman. Ordered them to be delivered to a ship called New Divinity.”
Athenais cursed.
Rabbit glanced at her. “You know it?”
“No, but with a name like ‘New Divinity,’ I’ve got a pretty good idea.”
“Who?”
“Juno.”
Rabbit’s face darkened and he turned back to their path. “That would be bad.”
“Indeed,” Athenais said. “Hey Rabbit.”
Rabbit turned. “Wha—”
Athenais blasted him with the Phoenix.
…except the skinny little bastard dodged. A flesh-seeking missile. At point blank. Athenais stared at the barrel of her gun, utterly betrayed.
Eying the liquefied stone where the shot had hit, Rabbit said, “New Divinity… Wasn’t that the name of her project in Psy-Ops?”
“Proposed name,” Athenais muttered, holstering her weapon. “The admiral didn’t think The New Divine Path of Humankind was politically correct. They ended up calling it the Ultra-Sensory Communications Task Force. USCTF.”
“Oh lord,” Rabbit muttered, rolling his eyes. “All right, let’s go see if we can talk some sense into her.”
“How did you dodge that?” Athenais growled. “It was aimed right at your face.”
Rabbit smirked at her. “I’m just that good, baby.”
“Where’s Tommy?” Dallas demanded when Rabbit and Athenais returned.
Wow, Stuart said. Athenais looks like she ran into a freighter at light-six.
Indeed, the space pirate’s face was a mass of healing bruises, with one of her eyes black and her bottom lip split and puffy.
/> “Never mind that prick,” Athenais said. “Get Port Authority on the line. We need the flightplan of a ship called New Divinity. Was here three weeks ago, don’t know the exact dates. Probably from out-system. Doubt it’s registered.”
“Actually, you do that,” Dallas said. “They see all those bruises, they’ll feel sorry for you. Maybe think your pimp is after you. Who beat you up, anyway? Thought you were a big badass with that gun of yours.”
Can we please try not to provoke the lunatic with the gun? Stuart asked.
“I’ll do it,” Rabbit interrupted. “Attie, go see if you can find anyone in the hub who knows where the Divinity was headed. I’ll bet you Juno never logged a flightplan, and if she did, it was a fake.”
Athenais fisted her hands. “Let Fairy screw around with the natives. I’ll bet you anything that ship was bound for the Black.”
“Why?”
“Last I heard of her, she was gonna start a mission for Psy-Ops out on some newly-discovered planet. Whenever they start something like that, Utopi bigwigs wipe experiment planets off the map, make it look like they were never there. So wherever she is, it’s probably in the Black.”
“What did you say Psy-Ops was, again?” Dallas asked.
“It’s a secret military group dedicated to psychological warfare,” Rabbit said. “Boosting Utopi morale, destroying their enemy’s. That kind of stuff.” Then he cocked his head. “Well, it was. Got shut down millennia ago.”
Athenais grunted. “Bet that pissed Juno off.”
Leaning back in the plush leather navigator’s seat, Rabbit let out a long sigh between his teeth. “So, if we’re right, she could be on any one of those planets Psy-Ops blacked out during the wars. If that was even her ship.”
“It was.”
“Who the hell’s Juno?” Dallas demanded. “I thought we were looking for shifters.”
“Juno’s our business,” Athenais said. “Go comb your hair or something, twit.”
Dallas’s mouth dropped open as she searched for something to say.
You could always tell her that her pimp called, Stuart suggested, and told her to throw on some makeup, ‘cause he didn’t want her scaring off any customers.
Delighted, Dallas repeated it.
“Juno’s the last original,” Rabbit said hastily, glancing between them. “Attie, me, Marceau, Angus and Juno.”
“Another one?” Dallas squinted. “If she’s anything like her, count me out.”
“Great,” Athenais said. “Stay here and fly shuttles. You’d probably be good at it.”
“I took out Erriat’s entire fleet saving your life, you stupid bitch.”
In her head, she felt Stuart suck in his breath.
“Get off my ship.” Athenais’s face was like wrought iron.
“It’s my ship.”
In the silence that followed, Dallas and Athenais locked gazes, the air between them becoming thick. Then Athenais strode toward her and grabbed Dallas by the hair.
“You won’t get out,” the pirate snarled, “I’ll throw you out.”
“Attie, it’s her ship.”
“Shut up, Rabbit,” Athenais snarled, fist in Dallas’s scalp. “I’ve had enough of this little tart.”
The woman was strong. She pulled Dallas off balance, yanking her hair from the roots. As Dallas struggled, the space pirate maneuvered her to the door and punched the button for the airlock. She was about to shove her outside when Rabbit stepped forward and jammed his fist into Athenais’s solar plexus. As the space-pirate stumbled, he rammed his knuckles under her jaw and into her throat. The woman’s grip on Dallas went limp as she collapsed on the floor, wide-eyed, mouth open, wheezing.
“Go open the door to her room,” Rabbit said, his face grim. He bent down, dragging Athenais up over his back.
Dallas complied. Rabbit followed, the unconscious space-pirate slung over his wiry shoulder. He threw her inside her room without care to what she hit. Dallas winced as she heard the thud of metal.
Outside, Rabbit shut the door and entered a code.
“Override’s 8Q579K.”
Dallas nodded, stunned. Not only had Rabbit given her the captain’s codes to the ship, but he had locked Athenais in her room.
Well, on the plus side, Stuart said, You just officially became captain. …On the other hand, I’m pretty sure she’s gonna kill you, first chance she gets.
Rubbing her stinging scalp, still a bit cowed from the violence, Dallas just nodded.
She meekly followed Rabbit to the helm, where he sat down in the pilot’s chair and queried Port Authority. It took all of two minutes to find out that New Divinity’s flightplan was missing—an embarrassing situation, since ships were not allowed to leave port without filing some sort of documentation. The confused clerk came to the conclusion that New Divinity must never have docked at Odan.
Rabbit put the comset down in frustration. “Bribed,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“She sounded pretty sincere,” Dallas noted.
“Not her,” Rabbit said, making a dismissive wave of his hand. “Someone else. Got rid of the file.”
“Why not just file a fake flightplan?”
“I’m sure they did, but whoever was piloting that ship wanted to be extra sure they could not be traced. Port Authority didn’t have the registration numbers, the ship’s origin or class, the cargo, the crew roster… I’m surprised they even had the name.”
“That’s a big bribe,” Dallas said, frowning. “They’re usually pretty strict about that stuff.”
“Probably had to pay off most of the Authority,” Rabbit agreed.
“So why are we looking for the New Divinity?” Dallas asked. “They got the shifters onboard?”
“As far as I can tell, yes.” He sounded tired. “Gods. I think it will be the Jimbai Mountains, after this. A nice hillside. Hire a masonry crew. Maybe raise some goats.”
“Huh?” Dallas said.
Rabbit waved his hand. “Ignore me. Just thinking out loud.”
“Okaaaay,” Dallas said. “So we don’t have a flightplan and Athenais thinks the ship’s headed somewhere in the Black.”
“Yes.”
“So that’s it, then?” Dallas demanded. “We have nothing else?”
“No.” Sighing, Rabbit leaned forward and reached into the pocket of his slacks. He pulled out his wallet and extracted a memchip. “Ever since I had to leave Millennium, I’ve had to keep detailed maps of each Quad, paying special attention to systems that might have colonizable planets.”
“You had to leave Millennium? Why?”
“I stole some money.”
“How long ago?”
“Seven thousand years, approximately.”
Dallas stared. “Nobody cares anymore.”
“The man I stole it from does.”
“Who? Angus?” Then Dallas’s eyes widened. “Marceau?!”
Rabbit shrugged. “It was a corrupt company, anyway, but he owned most of the shares. Millennium Biomedical. They made tissue and organ replacements for fractions of a credit and sold them for thousands.”
“You stole from Marceau?!”
“From the company,” Rabbit said irritably. “I bankrupted the company. Marceau just lost some of his net worth, that’s all. Had to live in an apartment for a few years. Postponed his governorship awhile. No big deal.”
“No wonder you’re in hiding,” Dallas said.
“Like you said, it was a long time ago,” Rabbit muttered.
“Yeah, but rumor has it Marceau remembers everything. Has he made any attempts to find you?”
“Yes.”
“Recently?”
“Yes.”
Dallas stared. “You’re a dead man.”
Rabbit scowled at her. “What I was saying before you interrupted me was that I have maps dating all the way back to the time I was planning my escape from Millennium, updated every ten years. I’m going to plug them all into the computer and see which inconsistenci
es it can find. It’s going to take a lot of concentration, so perhaps you should go find a good vidtext to read.”
Dallas winced at the thought of staring at two different maps, trying to find stars that didn’t exist. “Tommy would probably be good at that. He’s pretty anal.”
“He would, at that, wouldn’t he?” Rabbit sighed as he plugged the chip into the console. “Unfortunately, Colonel Howlen is most likely not coming back.”
“What?”
Rabbit switched the mapper to 3-D rendering and began entering commands into the computer. Distractedly, he said, “He had an altercation with Athenais and separated from us.”
Dallas narrowed her eyes. “You mean she pissed him off and he went looking for new work.”
“No, he went looking for his wallet,” Rabbit said, eyes on the screen. “I’m sure he fully intended to return.”
“What do you mean, ‘intended to return?’”
“By pointing fingers at the locals, he most likely found his way into a meat market.” Rabbit hit a button and a three-dimensional plot of the Quads appeared on the screen. He tapped a few more keys and most of the stars faded, leaving only a few dozen, outlined in red.
“A meat market?” Dallas cried. “And you’re okay with that?!”
Rabbit sighed, looking up at her from the map. “He pulled a gun on Athenais. He’s got problems with you. He’s got an irrational fear of aliens from his days in the S.O. He doesn’t like criminals. We can do without him. Hell, I’d say he’s better off on Odan, because if he stays with us, eventually Attie’s gonna kill him.”
“So that’s who beat the shit out of Athenais?” Dallas cried. “Howlen?! The old prude’s got balls.”
Rabbit shrugged. “He won’t for much longer. They usually remove them on aging Utopis. Leaves them better suited for clerical and secretarial positions.”
“Go get him.”
Rabbit glanced up. “I was just joking. He’ll keep his balls. They only do that to youngsters that don’t make the stud grade.”
“Go get him!” Dallas repeated.
A frown creased Rabbit’s brow. “He was the riskiest member of the operation from the start. Former Utopi. Possible undercover. Unpredictable. Intolerant of aliens. It crossed my mind several times that his dismissal was just a setup to get the shifters back once Governor Black kidnapped them. If that’s the case, they’ll rescue him in the slave pens somewhere. If it’s not, well, he shouldn’t have attacked Attie.”