This Work Is Part Of A Series (The Messenger Archive Book 2)

by DC Bastien

  [Sianor: Are you going to find some deep and archetypal reason for us writing three books?]

  [Ashroe: I could if you wanted me to.]

  [Sianor: Whatever makes your heart soar, babe.]

  [Ashroe: There's not three of Homer's books, though. Odyssey and Iliad, if you even grant that they were done by the same person. I suppose you could add the Aeneid and make it three.]

  [Sianor: Now you're looking for exception to your magic rule?]

  [Ashroe: The exceptions are where the formula is really tested.]

  [Sianor: OK. Other threes: blind mice, little maids from school, British wizards, ships sailing to America...]

  [Ashroe: That last one doesn't count. It's not fiction!]

  [Sianor: But it is magic.]

  [Ashroe: ...there might be other reasons behind that one.]

  [Sianor: Redacted. How about the witches: the crone, the mother and the maiden?]

  [Ashroe: Good one!]

  [Sianor: Two - I mean people, not books - is normally a couple. Either there's the chase, or there's the lull of contentment. Three... you've got so many more dynamics.]

  [Ashroe: And in books, you get the opening, the twist, then the end.]

  [Sianor: Are we back to the building blocks of writing?]

  [Ashroe: It's true, though. It's also why you can give the same short summary for several huge films, and they're indistinguishable. But you'd not say they were the same, or even copies. Same with music. There's a dozen ballads, or rock anthems, or even classical movements... they follow set paths, but they're their own thing.]

  [Sianor: How did we even get onto classical music?]

  [Ashroe: I think I was trying to use it as a reason not to go to bed.]

  [Sianor: Because you are BAD.]

  [Ashroe: That is not up for debate.]

  [Sianor: I love you, but I can't be responsible for you getting sick.]

  [Ashroe: This is the tough love bit, isn't it?]

  [Sianor: Afraid so.]

  [Ashroe: Okay, I can take a hint. I'll go to bed.]

  [Sianor: Kisses!]

  [Ashroe: Gropes!]

  ***

  Chapter Twenty-Eight - Mission: Accession

  "Something's following us."

  "Do you mean 'someone'?" Kre asked.

  "Look at the readouts."

  "How did you hack it to-- never mind. I do not wish to know." She palmed through the biometric scanner. Either the vehicle behind them was unmanned, or else it had some of the best shielding ever. Both were sort of worrying. "How long?"

  "Since we left the Tuadan. I'm going to try a localised hail... Mes? Mes, is that you?"

  "Biann, yes, it is me," came the warm, but slightly weak voice of the Messenger's currently disembodied AI. "I knew it was you, because of your driving."

  "Everyone's a critic."

  "Are you... flying yourself?" Kre asked.

  "Yes. I brought the Captain and the Enforcer, but I detected your departure and I wished to ensure you were safe."

  "You're such a sweetie!" Biann had never been so relieved to hear a mechanical voice in her life. "Wait... where have you been?"

  "I was first with your sister and Loap, but when they were kidnapped, I was found by the Captain and the Enforcer. I have been with them ever since."

  "Were... were they okay?"

  "I believe so, until they were kidnapped. After that, I cannot say. May I suggest you abandon and burn out your current vessel, and come aboard me? I am untraceable, and there are alerts for your current vehicle now appearing on the Ur network."

  "Is there anywhere we can do it and be discreet?"

  "I believe so. Would you like me to remote on to your console and guide your ship?"

  "...fine." Biann rolled her eyes. Sass from a ship. Although, considering whose ship she was? Not too surprising.

  ***

  [Ashroe: And all this could have been averted if they had a backup plan. Like, check in points and protocols.]

  [Sianor: And Kip is secretly kicking himself, because he should have done it. But he thought if he just ignored the problem, he could carry on mooching around the universe and occasionally shooting things.]

  [Ashroe: They're going to have to set some up. When they all get back together. I know the Judge gave them his thingy, but only Kip and Ith, not Loap and the ladies.]

  [Sianor: Just so you know, Loap is both horrified and over the moon he's lumped in with 'the ladies'.]

  [Ashroe: To be fair, he could be a she if he felt like it. And wow, I did not expect to have to say that, ever.]

  [Sianor: Now I want a fic where he decides he wants to be a she. He wants to be a mommy, so he either adopts or clutches, and he goes all gooey over his little scaly babies, and Kip is secretly horrified because now he's surrounded by girls and he feels out-numbered.]

  [Ashroe: And Biann starts holding up bow-strings to his hair and then wandering away, and he feels slightly emasculated... until she convinces him to try a girly night in and they all sit on comfy cushions and eat popcorn-like things and watch a movie and he really enjoys it and then they agree to do a 'masculine' thing of sports and he's worried by just how into it the sisters get, and how they know all the rules and the players and then he wonders if he's too girly and they laugh at his pathetic gender social constructs the end.]

  [Sianor: You know he also doesn't mean it. He'll be all 'ew, girl stuff', but then he'll put a flower crown on and grab Loap and dance with him. If he's in a good enough mood, he'll even dance with Peters.]

  [Ashroe: And Peters would play along, because he's actually a really laid back guy, and he'd dance with Mes, pretending to hold her so she doesn't feel left out because he's such a gent.]

  [Sianor: Gosh, I would watch the shit out of that. Like, them all just being super relaxed in one another's company. I know it would pad an episode too much, but you know they rattle around one another when they're in deep space, so they either have to find ways to keep it pleasant and interesting or they'd murder one another.]

  [Ashroe: It's almost like the army, except with less guns. Or... navy, I guess. Probably more fitting.]

  [Sianor: Hence why space 'ships' use naval ranks?]

  [Ashroe: You know what bugs me?]

  [Sianor: What in particular at this precise moment of time?]

  [Ashroe: 'Up' only really matters when it comes to being inside of atmosphere. Once you break the gravity-well, once you're up, up and away... there is no down. Not really. Planets don't all exist on a flatish plane like countries do, with the occasional mountain or valley. And even if they did, they have a spherical presentation. You could come in 'upside down'.]

  [Sianor: Uhm. OK. What's bugging you? Because surely they just adjust when they come into orbit, so they're facing the right way?]

  [Ashroe: Space battles! Because whenever ships meet one another in deep space, they are all on the right plane. None of them are upside down, or at right angles, or even flying straight upwards into the belly of another ship. Everyone's always flat like it's a sea they're flying on. Only when the little fighter jet types come out do you get people using the full three dimensions.]

  [Sianor: Uh. Yeah. That's... a good point.]

  [Ashroe: And docking! Unless a ship is derelict and floating dead through space, they're always facing precisely the right direction to dock.]

  [Sianor: Damnit, why did you point that out to me? It's going to bug me now.]

  [Ashroe: Because sharing is caring and when we watch sci-fi together we can both hurt at the same time.]

  [Sianor: Anything else you want to say?]

  [Ashroe: Yes. You just lost The Game.]

  ***

  "Well," Vadim said, rocking backwards and forwards on his feet. "Nice to meet you, boss-lady."

  "Who are you?"

  "We're here for our friends," Avery explained. "We just came to find them. Take them home."

  "That doesn't answer the question of who you are." The Hleen was beautiful, but in a cold, sharp way, lik
e diamonds. Her facial structure was all angles, accentuated by paints over her china-white skin and the framing dance of bow-strings like hair down the sides of her face.

  Vadim did not like her. Instinctively, he flinched in her presence. Something just felt... missing. Like the smile was there, perfectly calculated in its sine curves, with nothing behind it.

  "You first, lady."

  "I asked first."

  "We got two guns, and your worker here sensibly don't want it to come to shooting."

  "I am surrounded by my security staff. Two guns are hardly enough."

  "Tell that to Brian," Avery said, and Vadim could hear the smirk. "Sorry, fella."

  "No... it's fine," said not-Brian.

  "I'm Nessin. I'm the CEO of Tuadan Corp. And you are trespassing on my property."

  "See, there's that word again: trespassing." Vadim sighed, a heavy sigh that heaved his chest up and down, that made it sound like he was carrying three times his weight on his shoulders. The buzz from the patch was starting to wear off, starting to make his brow sweat cold. "Why does that warrant an armed response?"

  "You stole someone else's credentials, and then the power went out. I'm not sure how you did it, but you did. You have caused untold harm, death, injury and loss of profits and customer perception."

  The Captain hummed at the list. "Is that ranked in order of importance? And if so, which way is it going?"

  "Who are you? Tell me now, before I have you both shot and let the Ur identify your remains."

  Avery snorted. "You'd not get far if you shot one of them."

  "If I... I see." Her voice dripped with dark sarcasm, venom in every syllable. "Of course. Silly me. I forgot that the Ur sometimes break into buildings without warrants, and act like common criminals or vigilantes. I'm sorry. Please, let's start again."

  "I'm on sabbatical, but I'm still Ur," Avery told her. He'd let his rifle swing low against his hip, but Vadim knew it would be easy enough for him to snatch it up and gun half of the security personnel down. He was 'Gunner' for a reason. "Enforcer Ithon Avery, at your service."

  "Captain Vadim," he added, because screw her, she didn't deserve his full name.

  "I see. And you decided to barge into my building because...?"

  "You have something as belongs to us," Vadim pointed out. But then he paused, and waved the rifle about. "Well, not so much 'belongs to' as 'belongs with'. Should maybe be careful about my prepositions. One of them is... ye tall..." he reached up, using the barrel of the rifle to indicate. "Furry. Kinda growly, obsessed with science. The other is..." he lowered the gun. "Cheery, bright thing, obsessed with engines..."

  "They are gone." Arms across the chest, scowling. "And you mean to say you had nothing to do with it?"

  "They... for heaven's sake! Would none of my damn crew stay put for one simple rescue mission?"

  "I have to say, you've trained them well," Avery said, chuckling.

  "We were about to do a broadcast, and they vanished." Her eyes got suddenly sharper. "So you're the renegade with the warrant out for his arrest? And you're associating with an off-duty Enforcer?"

  "Sabbatical," Avery reminded her. "It's a bit longer term than just not being on duty. Like a bit of a break, without losing the perks."

  "I think there's some of your colleagues who would be delighted to know you're associating with a wanted criminal," she purred. "Isn't there something in the statues about aiding and abetting fugitives?"

  "You're not going to call the Ur," Vadim said, rifle back by his side.

  "I'm not?"

  "Nope. We're useful."

  "I see. And how are you useful to me?"

  "You had Kre here for a reason," Avery jumped in. "And if she was about to broadcast, I'm assuming you wanted to break her story. Get in with the powerful people. But you overplayed your hand, and she ran."

  "Or was kidnapped."

  Ah, that was his angle. Vadim picked up quickly. "...or was kidnapped. If she was kidnapped, then she's still amenable to your plan. If she wasn't, then we're the only ones who can convince her to give you an exclusive. To help you... spin this right."

  "And how could I be sure that if I... forgot your names... you'd actually pull through on this?" she asked.

  "You can't," the Captain answered. "But what would you actually get by handing us in, and reporting this? You'd get 'disgraced ex-Ur pirates and Za's daughter', but without her in hand, she could claim she was being kidnapped by us, or that she was just a victim of circumstance. That's it. Not really juicy. But if you play your cards right... there's hands pulling strings within strings. Think: cross-species strings. Think: infiltrating Ur strings. Think of all the things a Za could hand you on a platter."

  "And what's to say I don't already have that?"

  "Please, Eru?" He scoffed. "I met her. If you've got her in your pocket, you want to be careful. She's only in it for herself. No loyalty. She'd be even harder to control than Kre, who is so caught up in her principles that if you play to them, you're her best friend, ever."

  "Alright. I'll give you two weeks. Two weeks and you come back with something worth my while, or I'll do an expose on the pair of you, and your sordid little sex-ship of pirate scum."

  "Sordid little... hey!"

  "It would sell," she purred. "An inter-species commune. A Za-le fornicating with a Hale. Sisters screwing sisters. Oh, I have a story, alright."

  "A month," Avery spat at her.

  "Fine. A calendar month. But after that, your faces will be synonymous with sin and lechery."

  "I really don't like you," Vadim said, narrowing his eyes. "My ship is not like that."

  "Of course it isn't," she purred. "But who is going to believe you? Sex and scandal sell. It doesn't matter if it's true, if it's interesting. Now... I believe you have a story to get for me?"

  "Fine."

  "I'll see you gentlemen soon. Kevin, could you see them out?" she called.

  The man who was not Brian - Kevin - nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

  ***

  "I do not run a sleazy sex ship!" Vadim grumbled.

  "It could be much worse."

  "How?"

  "She could... call you... murderers? Con artists?"

  "But it's not a sex ship!"

  "Kip, you spent your Academy years fucking your way through the intake! How is this a bad thing to be known for?"

  "Yeah, but... my crew! And... it's just creepy when people think you're screwing and you're not. I feel violated." He shuddered, and rubbed his hands over his arms. "I just don't like it. And I know there's plenty of my crew wouldn't want their face plastering over screens and called degenerate sex-fiends. I'm thinking of them."

  "Right."

  "So... what the hell now?"

  "Now," Avery said, lifting his little metal circle. "We make contact with the Judge, and with Mes. Wherever she's gone. Then we find Kre and Biann, and finally Saidhe and Loap."

  "...right. So we're actually less further forwards."

  "No. Kre and Biann are free, now. That's good."

  "...if you insist."

  "And I have a funny feeling that we won't be putting our feet up until the Za announces his heir-apparent."

  "I had a feeling you were going to say that."

  "Also, I need to get you patched up." Avery tugged his shirt up, examining Vadim's side. "You're a mess."

  "...I blame you."

  "You always do."

  ***

  [Ashroe: And now... *posts*. There.]

  [Sianor: Gosh. So now it's time to work out the next one.]

  [Ashroe: And you thought this would be a nice little hiatus project. Just to keep us ticking over.]

  [Sianor: We should probably just admit we're not cut out for 'short'. There's so many things we can do!]

  [Ashroe: Okay, I think I'm going to call it a night. Speak to you tomorrow, darling?]

  [Sianor: You bet <3]

  [Ashroe is offline.]

  [Sianor is offline.]

  er>

 

  DC Bastien, This Work Is Part Of A Series (The Messenger Archive Book 2)