by Zach Winderl
“It’s me,” she agreed after she finished adjusting her hair and turned to Atom. “How did you know?”
“Your eyes, when you looked at me there was a flash of familiar.”
The woman spun back to the mirror and examined her eyes. “Interesting.” She held her head at various angles to let the light play off her features. “Is that why you came here, to look at my eyes?”
Atom rose and stalked to the door. With his hand on the release, he stopped and turned back, his eyes traced patterns in the worn carpet as he spoke. “I was on my way to fulfill the contract on your head.” He lifted his gaze to the handsome woman in time to catch her hand drifting toward her obi. “But the Genkohan has terminated that contract with me. It seems I owe you another debt, so I’ll settle with information. The Genkos have hired someone to take my place.
“What name are you going by with this face?” Atom held his hands up in peace.
“Since you’ve seen through the mask, you can call me by my real name, Lilly,” the woman said as she shifted to face Atom, folding her hands in her lap like a delicate flower. She looked up to study Atom. “Do you know who they’re sending?”
Atom shook his head. “But it can’t be good if they think this boke is better than me.”
“Cocky?”
“Confident.” Atom made to slap the door open, but paused when he caught the woman’s amused expression. “What?” he demanded.
“Seems quick for a tumble.”
“It’s been a long time in the Black,” he snapped and punched the button.
As he left the room, he adjusted his belt and slacked his face.
“If you’re cutting her loose, what’s your play?” Kozue asked as he returned to the couch and lifted Margo with practiced ease.
“Get out of here alive.” He rubbed Margo’s back as he kicked the auto-servos on the pram and set out to find a room.
***
The springs, a mineral rich byproduct of the station’s gas mining process, occupied an entirely separate ring above the top deck of the inn. A hundred meters across, the spa spun on a gear independent of the main station gravity fields. An oasis of steamy pools and faux rocks tucked between the barren waste of the Black and the hubbub of the refueling docks, the spa provided a singular draw for spacers of all walks. The centrifugal force of the spin held the steaming mineral waters in the synthetic rocky channels wending through the space-bound paradise like a low-grav river.
Atom, clad in a fluffy robe, carried a naked Margo through the lock that linked the springs to the inn.
A squeal of delight escaped the girl’s lips when she saw the swirling pools and the lavender scented steam rising from the mineral waters. After the lift dropped them to the floor of the ofuro ring, she squirmed until Atom set her down on the synth-stone pavers. Shameless in her innocence, she bolted for the nearest pool of mist-wreathed water like a little brown missile, only to stop at the very edge to squat down and poke a finger into the water.
Her face lit with delight and she plopped down on the edge to dangle her toes in the steaming water.
Atom, with more discretion, draped his robe across the back of a chair and slipped into the waters beneath Margo’s perch. He drifted deeper into the waters with a contented sigh, allowing the heat to seep into his sore neck and leg. Closing his eyes, he leaned back against the rock and listened to the trickling water that fell in a spreading, three-hundred-and-sixty-degree waterfall from the spinning hub of the ofuro cylinder.
After her feet adjusted to the heat of the pool, Margo slipped in to stand beside Atom. She kept a small hand on his shoulder for stability.
“Hot, hot, hot,” she chirped as she danced around with the water at her belly.
Atom smiled at the serenity of the moment.
“That’s a lot of scars for a merch,” a soft voice swirled out of the steam.
Atom lurched up, disturbing the tranquil waters. He scanned the surroundings and found nothing to further arouse suspicion. Allaying fears he turned to the voice.
“Who’s there?” he called out, a hand beneath the surface drawing Margo close.
A figure swam from the mist with barely a ripple, a head floating towards them like weathered driftwood. Atom watched the head approach and relaxed as he recognized the face of the seasoned tumbler. Lilly. She swam closer, but settled on a rocky seat at a discreet distance.
The water lapped at her chin. Atom followed the pale flow of her hands gliding just beneath the surface, like flashes of koi dancing in a decorative pond.
“I needed to get away from the press.” She closed her eyes and soaked. “Sometimes I just need quiet to talk to the voices in my head. My ship is my usual refuge, a quiet sanctuary, but I can’t get there right now.”
“I can relate.” Atom settled back, keeping his eyes on the woman. “Except I don’t care who sees me talking to myself.”
Margo eluded Atom’s distracted hand and wandered along the seating ledge towards the trickling waterfall. She crawled out of the pool with childish care as she padded on all fours like a bear to keep from slipping down the water-smoothed stone.
Atom watched, studying her movements.
Without warning, Margo turned, stood tall, and threw herself into the center of the pool.
Sitting still, Atom watched as she plunged beneath the surface. The waters closed over her head and settled. Atom remained motionless, a stern scowl on his face. Bubbles plopped to the surface.
Lilly leaned forward, but Atom held up a staying hand.
Surging water broke in a spray that wet the side of Atom’s face. Margo thrashed with wild panic, then gasped a huge breath and settled enough to remain afloat with novice proficiency. Spluttering water from her mouth and nose, she beamed and doggy-paddled to the ledge near Atom.
Standing in the water up to her waist, she thrust her hands to her hips. “Look, da—I swimmed,” she stated with proud emphasis.
Atom smiled and pulled her into a tight hug.
A squeal erupted from Margo as Atom tickled her ribs, then he turned her loose to paddle around the infinite pool. With water in her eyes, she ended up pulling herself onto the ledge where Lilly sat with an amused smile.
Fondness filled the woman’s eyes as she studied the toddler. “She’s beautiful,” Lilly said as she reached out and turned Margo’s face to study her features. “True beauty.”
Margo pulled back from the touch, not in fear, but with mild distrust and anticipation. The child cocked her head and returned the studied stare. Lilly’s hands slipped back beneath the surface like the retreating flukes of an orca, death and beauty wrapped into one silky being. Trusting herself, Margo stepped forward and with child-like intensity, touched Lilly’s face.
“Wha’s wrong wiss your face?” Margo kneaded the fine cheekbones and moved up to trace the outline of Lilly’s eyes.
The woman laughed, a light, gentle tone that trilled across the waters like music.
“Your daughter has true-sight.” Lilly took Margo’s hands in her own and kissed them. “I have yet to find an adult who can match that.”
“It’s why I keep her around.” Atom smiled at the interaction and drifted in the water.
“I was taught to trust what children see. They are more perceptive than we adults could ever hope to be.”
“What does she see?”
“She saw in a moment what has taken you three meetings to begin to suspect.” Lilly smoothed Margo’s damp hair. “She knew the first time we met. This is just the first time she’s been close enough to confirm her initial perceptions.”
“Is it true?” Atom wiped steamy sweat from his face.
Lilly nodded.
“So, you’re from the Ghost Tribes?”
Lilly rolled her eyes. “Why has it taken you so long to see what is so obvious.”
“What family?”
“Baugs.”
“Lilly Baugs?”
“Lilly Prizrakov Genko-Baugs, if you must know.” Lilly held ou
t her hands to Margo and the girl settled into the embrace on Lilly’s lap. “Although, with my husband’s death, I suppose it would be appropriate to drop the Genko.”
“Baugs?” Atom searched the water as he dug through his memory for any mention of the name. “I don’t remember hearing that one.”
“Body augments.” Lilly bounced Margo on her knee. “I have more body augments than I can count. They allow me to change shape and size to slide into any role I am assigned, or any character that will keep me alive.”
“That’s interesting.”
“I can change my height and shape, bust size, hair and eye color. You call it, I can change it. I can even change the shape of my face and alter my age. The only thing I can’t change is my total mass, but looks can deceive the eye. I can be the heaviest, tiny child or the lightest giantess, but you would never be able to tell from looking at me.”
“In all my years, I’ve never heard of the tech for what you’re telling me.”
She held a finger to her lips as she shrugged a smile. “Tribe secrets.”
“Why are you telling me?” Atom tensed. “Death information?”
“No.” Lilly shook her head. “I’m already dead to the Tribes. We seem to have started a bad habit of sticking up for each other. I’m guessing this is the start of a relationship, not the end of one, and in my estimation you’re outside the imp-law.
“Even if you started telling everyone I am a shape shifting monster, there’s no proof,” she laughed. “Plus, I know who you are. A word in the wrong ear and you are dead.”
“Threats?”
“Hardly. We are dancing together all peaceably, but we are holding each other’s privy bits at the same time. It’s a little dangerous, a little exhilarating, a little helpful, and it assures we burn together.
“I guess, it would be akin to going into battle with an umbilical hooking our ships with the hatches open at either end.”
“Doesn’t sound like a solid place for either of us,” said Atom.
“Well, if we are in the same orbit, it’s best we know we are not aiming to kill each other.”
Sitting in silence, Atom let the information wash over and through his mind. He nodded as his eyes drifted back and forth, allowing plans and formulations to float his mental tide. The trickle of the waterfall eased the flow of his thoughts.
“Two things need to be worked out and gravved for me to be comfortable with this.” His eyes drew back into focus as he slipped off his rock to drift nearer to Lilly. His voice dropped as he drew close. “What do the Genko’s have to do with all this and how does the baug work?
“I may have a thought that’ll get us off this rig if it fits in your parameters.” He kicked his feet out behind to float free.
“Neural integration.” Lilly shifted Margo from her lap and floated out to meet Atom in the deep part of the pools. “Basically, I just focus my mind on what needs to be changed and my augments do the rest.”
“Can you imitate someone?”
Lilly nodded. “The looks are the easy part.” She swam lazy circles around Atom, forcing him to spin to keep facing her. “I can do that in a matter of minutes, fifteen if I am fitting into a completely new skin. I would actually have to talk to the person to match vocal patterns. Personality and mannerisms are a whole different beast.
“Usually it takes a couple hours for the perfect voice, but I can manage in a pinch if I know my target. And it takes at least a week tailing a person to fully mimic their persona. You buy me that time and I’ll replace a person to their mother, minus some of their deeper memories.”
“The deeper stuff doesn’t matter. I would just need you to look enough like someone on this merc crew to get aboard their ship. Is that something you could pull off?”
“If I don’t have to talk to anyone, I could pull it off in fifteen tocks.”
“Good, pick someone out and get prepped. I’ll talk to my crew back on the ship and bring this plan together.”
“You know I could just get some boke to tumble me back aboard their ship.” A smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. “It would save me fifteen minutes of breaking myself to fit a new mold.”
“But they might anticipate that. I know I would.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“My way makes for a better story.” Atom laughed and backstroked to his rock. “If we can add to that story, it makes us both more marketable.”
“The story of Atom Ulvan Meriwether?” Lilly stopped her spin, but continued to tread water, her movements slow and graceful as she locked eyes with Atom. “I’m from the Tribes. Even as an outcast I have connections and information avenues that others cannot even comprehend.”
Atom resettled on his rock and returned the stare. “You already said that. What do you really know?”
“I know who you really are.” She spun and rolled over onto her back to float with casual grace and poke her toes up from the depths like tiny round icebergs. “Not that you’ve done much to hide your identity. Dropping your han name is not exactly going to ground. And from what I can tell, you haven’t done a single thing to alter your appearance. That means any face-cog is going to pick you up.”
“I’m not exactly hiding.” Atom watched her float with just her head and feet poking up from the water. “I’m wandering. If they find me, I’ll kill any Walkerhan. If I find them, I’ll kill the same Walkers.”
As he spoke, Margo clambered back up to the rocks and sat in the steaming waterfall, kicking her legs and laughing, oblivious to the conversation below. Atom glanced to her and warmed at the innocent joy.
“The Tribes have no mark against you.” Lilly swam to Atom, coming to a stop where she could stand on the stone bottom of the pool with her chin touching the water. “Even when you held the seat of Lord High Admiral they had more contact with you than you ever imagined. Several of your agents and a couple advisors had close ties to the Ghost Tribes.”
“Did they send you to find me for some reason?” Atom asked. “Have the Walkers contracted you for my head?”
“No to both questions.” A light laugh helped ease the tension of the moment. “I have my own contract that has nothing to do with you.”
“Genkohan?”
Lilly inclined her head, but held her tongue.
Nodding in understanding, Atom rubbed his stubbled chin. “Are you still contracted?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore. I found what we were looking for and submitted the package to the clients….”
“But?”
“I found a couple other things, information useful to the Tribes.”
“And love?” Atom chuckled as she glanced away. “Never mix love and business.”
Lilly remained silent and a sadness filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Atom softened his tone. “I’ve lost love too.”
“I know.” She looked up at him from beneath long, dark lashes.
“What else did you find?”
“Something worth killing for.” Anger darkened her features. “Mix love and death together and you get a volatile cocktail.”
“Leave it for now,” he said with understanding. “Focus on what we need done to get out of here alive. I’ll visit you in your room later.”
“To talk or tumble?” She winked at him and with a coy smile drifted back through the mist to her rock, where she settled and closed her eyes. Margo slipped back down into the water and curled into her lap.
Without opening her eyes, Lilly began bouncing the girl on her knees.
***
Tucked against the wall of the circular lounge, Atom watched Margo run between scattered couches and tables, playing a game with herself. The girl twisted her jacket into a helmet, complete with a faceguard fashioned from the jacket’s arms wrapped around her neck.
“Kozue,” he said with a smile and a soft voice. “Patch me through to Shi.”
Atom waited long enough to sip his rekan cocoa.
“Kips, boss,” Shi�
�s rough voice cut through the fusion of chatter and lounge music surrounding Atom. “Kozue said you’ve got words fer me?”
“I’ve worked a plan and I’ve need for you and By to suit up for a little walk.”
“Oi, you want what now?” Byron cut in.
“Kozue, I said I wanted to talk to Shi,” Atom mumbled in exasperation.
“It sounds like he is part of this plan.” Saccharin sweetness dripped from the AI’s voice. “I assumed this would efficiently save Shi the trouble of repeating your plan to him.”
Atom’s face pinched in annoyance as he hid behind his mug.
“I ain’t steppin’ foot out in no Black,” Byron’s voice drew up in a frantic pitch. “Last I suited up you near on left me on the float. If Shi hadn’t been there I’d still be a frozen roid in the deep—”
“Micro asteroid,” Shi interrupted with a laugh.
“Don’t matter none, I’d still be there,” Byron grumped. “No sense you even tryin’ to suit me up.”
“Shi.” Atom set his mug on the low table and blew out a calming breath before continuing. “My plan is for you and Byron to slip aboard the merc ship and rig up something similar to what he did on that ship out in the Mary System, only a little smaller.”
“That took me weeks, you boke,” Byron screeched in Atom’s ear.
“Kozue, cut him out of this conversation now,” Atom snapped.
The com calmed as Byron’s protests cut out.
“He’s the wiz,” Shi drawled. “Whatcha need me for?”
“He needs someone to calm him down. He trusts you, and I trust you to keep him on task and to protect him if the need arises.”
“Righty, boss. So, we jaunt over, plant some det-line and a lil’ bug…. Then what?”
“Head back.” Atom picked his legs up as Margo crawled under and took off again. He picked up his mug and sipped, relaxing back into the couch as the plan solidified in his mind. “I’ll have a way in for you guys so you won’t have to hack or cut. I’m working that angle from my end. The situation here is cluttered and I need to clear a space for us to slip out. This diversion will hopefully do the trick.”
“Won’t a boom like Mary take out the station and us?”