“Quino was never very original, but he was also never a slaver. Well, unless you owed him money, then you could work it off. I made sure I never owed him anything,” Sun said.
“Well, there are a lot of escaped slaves there, I’m thinking there are some slave hunters running around too though.”
“Where there’s one, there will be the other. Could a bounty notice from the Countess reach that far already?”
Spin checked the sector map and guessed how far the transmission containing their bounties had spread, if there was one. “If she transmitted as soon as I escaped, it would take at least another few days to get there using hyper-transmitters. Unless the UCA has repaired everything along the route, which is unlikely, then it could get there today.”
“Here’s hoping they were busy elsewhere,” Sun said. The Fleet Feather slipped into the wormhole and she engaged the autopilot. “Let’s see what Nigel got his hands on. Thankfully, we won’t have to depend on his loot.”
Nigel was already holding court in the small galley. Most of their passengers filled the dozen seats, including Mirra and Della. On his head was a crown made of lollipops and sweet veggie snacks that was held together by their loudly coloured, interconnected plastic packaging.
Around his neck he’d strung chocolate medallions with snack bags and drink pouches. He finished dumping the contents of the backpack he filled on the station, revealing more snacks and a wealth of low-cost, low quality novelty items.
A few of the passengers sat back with their arms folded, obviously thinking they were above the convenience store junk. Mirra shook her head but couldn’t help but smile at Nigel as he handed her a green sour pop. “I’m going to make a guess here, that your favourite flavour is green apple. Careful, it’s so sour your face might pull itself inside out.”
“Thank you, not big on green apple, but I love sour,” she said as she accepted the pop.
“I’m taking these if no one wants them,” Della said, laughing as she pulled a box of disposable thongs from the pile. “There’s one missing?” she asked as she examined the broken seal.
“I can assure you that they are very comfortable,” Nigel said with a grin. “I’m wearing one right now!” His audience erupted, mostly with laughter, but a few recoiled, unimpressed with the mental image.
“Oh, so you’d rather we share?” Della asked.
“Nah, I think they’re more your style,” Nigel said. “And for our Governor,” he said, passing him a long string of chocolate coins in golden foil. “You should dress that consuit up with something.”
The Governor stood and bowed his head so Nigel could put it on him. “Normally only Mayors in my territory wore chains of office, but I thank you, the British Alliance and her territory of New Parisia thanks you.”
“You’re welcome,” Nigel said as the Governor fixed him with a warm smile and shook his hand firmly.
“Now for something more serious,” Nigel said, pulling a medical hand scanner from the pile. “Got a couple of these, one should go to our medic.”
Leland, who was only a little shorter if you didn’t include a wild, tall head of dark hair that shot straight up from his head, accepted the pair of new hand scanners. “Wow, I couldn’t afford this brand, thanks. I’ll put one in medical.”
Spin watched as Sun took that as her opportunity to make her announcements. “Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d all like to know we’re headed to an active port. It’s off the map, but they’ll most likely have working long range communications, transport so you can get to where you’re going, and shops that can provide what you need. I don’t expect we’ll be there long.”
“What about our slave marks?” asked Tamara, one of the formerly wealthier slaves they’d rescued. “There could be hunters there.”
“From what we could figure out knowing that a lot of the data hyper-nodes are still out of operation, so slave hunters don’t have your information yet, but you can expect to be on wanted lists as they update throughout the sector. You can either run or contact someone you trust like family members, your oldest friends, people who have a real incentive to make sure you stay free and hidden. Please only reveal your next location, not where we land.”
“What’s the place we’re going called?”
“Mi Sao, a port city on Wayland Prime. It’s in Red River Province. We know someone there who may help this ship and crew.”
“That was in the nullified zone,” one of their passengers said. Spin had to check with her manifest to remember his name, Colin Drey, he was enslaved by the Countess’ people when they were on patrol around the operation they rescued him from. “Listen, I’m an all right electrician and can help with just about anything around the ship, can I just sign up with your crew?”
“Is it that bad?” Tamara asked, wide eyed. “The place we’re going?”
“Not if you can buy passage off to a place that’ll take you, they’ve got transport there, for sure. I’m just so far from my people that I’d never make it, and I’d rather stick with this crew if they’re going to put a hurt on House Bridgewater, the Countess and her grandson have it coming.”
Sun looked to Spin who nodded. “If you can contribute, you can join the crew, but we’re going to be monitoring all your transmissions. If you’re caught jeopardizing anyone’s freedom, I’ll space you myself.”
“Oh, and we’re not continuing on this ship,” Sun added. “Whatever we end up on won’t be nearly as posh. What we’re going after won’t be big profit stuff. This trip is about staying free, and we’re going to look for a way for Aspen – sorry, I mean, Spin, to stay alive past her expiration date. That could mean we go to some dangerous places.”
Spin was surprised to hear the announcement. “I don’t want to put anyone through what that could take. I don’t even know if it’s possible.”
“I’m going to make that happen for you,” Sun said. “And anyone who isn’t with me on that shouldn’t sign up for the crew.”
Nigel pulled his crown of goodies off and surrendered his necklaces to the middle of the table. “Yeah, that’s gotta happen. I want to see Captain White dead, the governor here back where he belongs, and maybe get some payback on the Countess and her house, but most of all, I’d hate to see you die before your time, Spin. Boro said something, you know, when we were in the swamp. He said he couldn’t find something he didn’t like about you, and you know, I couldn’t either. People like that should be around. Should be around for a long time.”
“I’ll help however I can,” Governor Dantor said. “Keep in mind, I probably won’t be able to get my post back, but I may still have connections. I won’t be able to stay on the ship for long, depending on what I’ll have to do.”
“If you can be more service to your people by leaving, then I’d rather know you’re helping thousands of people rather than just me,” Spin said.
“Millions,” Tamara said. “He’s not a regional governor, he’s a planetary governor.”
“Then you definitely have to go if you can help them.”
“Thank you for your leave, young lady,” Governor Dantor said with a little impish smile. “But I’ll make that decision for myself. I’ll help on the ship with information and whatever I’m qualified for while I figure out what my next best move is, if you’ll have me.”
“No one has to decide right away. We have a few hours before we get to Wayland Prime,” Sun said. “Nigel, can I speak to you out here for a minute?”
He retreated from the galley and stepped outside. Sun closed the door. “Listen, I understand that you wanted to have a little fun while you got some time off ship, but we were there to gather valuable technology, something that everyone would value from port to port.”
“I couldn’t find more than a medical centre that was already scraped bare, except for a couple scanners someone tucked back on the top shelves. Then I ran into a convenience kiosk on the way out and thought I’d load up.”
“On junk?” Sun asked.
&nb
sp; “Morale boosters,” Nigel said, the pace of his speech picking up rapidly as he explained himself. “I know we’ve got the best of the best on this ship, the cupboards have food in them I’ve never even seen before, but what I brought back is exciting, look at it, it’s like a colour explosion happened on that table, and I think everyone we care about is having a laugh. We needed that, you know, because that plantation was fucking terrifying, we all thought that was it for us, we gotta forget.”
Sun smiled at him a little. “I get it, and those medical scanners are a big deal, I’ve never seen one of that quality at close range. In the future, stick to the plan and stay in communications range, okay? We’ll have time to raid abandoned stores every once in a while.”
“All right, no problem,” he replied. “There’s something I’ve gotta tell you though. I’ve been spending a lot of time with our passengers, half of them should be crew, and they want to be. I bet they’ll stick around even if they know it’s not about the money. There are others, though, like Tamara and her friend, they’re going to burn us. The moment they can send a message home, I just know they’re going to trade our location to get back in with their people, or maybe just because they think their rescuers should have come in on a white horse or something. It’s like we’re not good enough to lend a helping hand, and they’re just a bunch of greedy fuckers.”
“Point them out to me, and we’ll leave them on Wayland Prime to fend for themselves,” Sun said.
“After giving them a couple hundred pips so they’re not completely helpless,” Spin added. “I’m not going to drop them in the middle of a lawless port with no cash, even if they’re all going to screw us over.”
“A couple hundred pips?” Nigel asked. “Are we wealthy or something? What did you guys get on that station?”
“After a misunderstanding we were able to finish our raid and we made off with thirty-five programmable complex-micro quantum computers, they were using them as navigational nodes, the ones we said you should grab.”
“What? They were using that kind of tech for something a bunch of old Pinewoods could do? Little computers you could find anywhere?”
“I guess they decided quality was king when the parts were still cheap and plentiful,” Sun said.
“That haul’s worth a couple hundred grand, probably more,” Nigel said. “Now I feel bad for stopping for a corner store kiosk. They didn’t even have anything really good left. I mean, even I have to admit my haul is mostly junk, just entertaining junk.”
“Well, you may as well get back in there and enjoy it,” Sun said. “Your morale boosting seems to be working.”
“Yeah?”
“Go have some fun, make them forget about where they’ve been for a few hours,” she said.
“You two have gotta join in,” he said. “C’mon.”
“Maybe later,” Spin said, eying the door to the small infirmary.
“I have to monitor the ship from the cockpit,” Sun said. “Next time.”
“You’d better,” Nigel said as he rejoined the already mellowing crowd in the galley.
“He’s handling things well,” Spin said.
“He’s hiding, but I think it’s his way,” Sun said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m all right. I think it’s time to let Larken’s body go. We’ll be passing close to the Wayland system’s star on the way. We should stop for a moment so I can,” Spin trailed off, Sun was already nodding so she didn’t have to explain what she wanted to do.
“Celeste is a beautiful star, it’s a good place to send him,” she said.
“I don’t want to do anything, just say goodbye one last time, so it won’t take long.”
“Are you sure?” Sun asked, concern deeply etched on her face.
Spin nodded. “You should get to the cockpit. I’m going to visit.” She didn’t wait for Sun’s response, she was already tired of her concern. Half the people on the ship looked at her as though they expected her to burst into tears at any moment, but that wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t happen. Between the medication she took that put a filter between her and her sharper emotions so she could begin to cope, and the fact that she didn’t have the physical ability to create tears of grief, fear or sorrow, it wasn’t possible.
Before she realized it, Spin’s hand was resting on the foot of Larken’s capsule. The log there said that Leland, their new Medical Technician had accessed it hours before. Without thinking, she opened the top half so she could see Larken’s body, and was astounded. He’d been dressed in a white suit that even had a matching jacket.
His hair had been washed, his face cleaned, and the illusion of life had been restored. Even Larken’s expression looked peaceful. “I’m sorry, I thought it was a good idea to clean him and Trevor up last night, but I think I’ve overstepped instead,” Leland said as he entered the room.
“No,” Spin said, wondering if the medication she was on was working at all. The mixture of grief and strange happiness at seeing him whole, unwounded again, was nearly overwhelming. In one charitable act a person she barely knew, Leland, had given her the opportunity to create a final memory of the person she loved most in the universe. Larken was there, at peace, the hint of a forthcoming smile at the corners of his mouth, and she might remember him like that instead of in pain, gripped by a fear of dying. She took a shuddering breath and stared into Larken’s handsome face, the only sign that he was deceased was the utter stillness of him. “Thank you, this is good.”
“When I was training I worked for a few morticians, a truly gifted group. I did what I could for Larken with what I had. I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
He lightly touched her on the shoulder and she turned towards him, where she was caught in an embrace. Leland stroked her back gently, comforting, and she realized that she was shaking. “It’s going to be all right,” he said to her.
At first she couldn’t help but think that he was wrong, entirely wrong. Spin was designed to be a part of a pair, and Larken was the other half of that. There were other Larken’s, but they wouldn’t match her and they would have their own other half. She would never have that feeling with someone again. Leland didn’t offer any more words, just patience and his embrace.
Time passed, and she began to find her own understanding of his words. It was probably true, she would be all right, she thought Larken was dead before, and it took a long time, but she started to move on. So, her understanding changed, and she allowed herself to concede that things would be all right, but they would never be the same.
Spin stepped away from Leland slowly. “Thank you,” she said.
“No problem,” he replied. “I know a bit about pairing. I used to work at a shop that would gene-match couples. They’d come in with love in their eyes, and I’d set up minor modification meds to make them an even closer match than they were. Physiologically, at least.”
“Did that work?”
“A lot of people swore by it, but we had repeat customers. You know, people who got matched to someone, then they discovered that the physical bond didn’t make up for their personalities. We had two escaped dolls while I was there, sorry for using the term, they weren’t as rare as you two, but we were able to break the matching.”
“Why did they want to be separated? Larken and I were always happiest when we were together, I can’t imagine wanting to break that coding.”
“They had to,” Leland said. “If they didn’t change, any security scanner in the civilized sectors would immediately recognize them. We tried to re-match them after we changed them enough to hide, but even I could tell something was missing, like nothing we did would recapture the work that was done before they were born.”
“That makes a lot of sense to me,” Spin said. “People used to watch us together. We were as close as twins, but not related. I suppose there was a romance to our synchronicity.”
“Scientific terms for something that doesn’t feel anything like science. You loved each other. Some people try to find that
with partners over and over again and never do. You two were lucky to have so much time together.”
“You just say whatever’s on your mind, don’t you?” Spin said.
“I’m sorry, sometimes I forget that some people prefer to grieving gently,” Leland said. “I’m not good with this sort of thing. I started losing people when I was young, so I’m used to missing people who can never be there, having to depend on myself.”
“It’s all right,” Spin said. “I can’t afford to dwell on things, I don’t have much time.”
“I know, there are millions of people like you who only have a few years or months left because someone built it into their design. I was a part of the New Freedom Movement before The Fall. Not a popular stance in my field. I’m here because I want to find the solution for you and anyone like you.”
“So you’re a freedom fighter,” Spin said with a little smirk.
“I guess I am. I just look at you and him and see people. I suppose I don’t have the nerve to think that you’re different because of your origins. Issyrians are born in large clutches, and become schools of young that follow their parents around so they can be fed like pilot fish, but are any of their lives less precious because there are so many of them, or because they begin life in such a basic state? I don’t think so.”
“I’ve only met one group of issyrians. I wish I had more time to get to know them. They had trouble grasping dry land culture, but they were so excited, and they had a great sense of humour about it.”
“I’ve met a few, but mostly outcasts. Their senses of humour didn’t seem as obvious.”
“He had a really good time with them,” Spin said, looking back to Larken. She still couldn’t believe how lifelike he was.
“Why don’t you tell me about him? We have a couple hours, I’d like to know more.”
“We were the luckiest slaves. They treated us better than anyone, almost as well as royal children. When we were very young – barely out of toddlerhood – we’d cry if they separated us, so they didn’t for years. I experienced the first ten years of my life with my hand in his, and the court of the Countess spoiled us whenever they had the chance. We knew we were different from other children, especially since they were almost always cruel to us when they thought no one was looking. We were eleven years old when we saw the information package that the Countess was presented with before we were born, and we realized that we may have been treated better than any slaves in her estate, but we were certainly not free. We were treated well because we were pretty little rare creatures. That was the first time I saw him truly angry. I was furious too, but also afraid because I saw that we would die young before he did. He put his anger aside to comfort me. We were caught looking through the Countess’ records and that night she told us everything. He just let the words roll over him without reacting unless he was making sure I wasn’t too hurt by it all. Until then, we’d never doubted that the Countess loved us. After that, Larken became curious about the outside world. We both served the Countess faithfully, but I think that’s where our conditioning to love her blindly began to break. I don’t think it was ever trained into us properly anyway, our instructor was always too interested in letting us make our own choices during our educations, but she was one of the best doll teachers, so she had the estate’s trust. Larken took every opportunity to learn about the galaxy, and that’s what sparked my interest in a broader world.”
Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2 Page 3