by Casey Lea
“No, gods no. It wasn't like that. I'd never run and leave you to assassins. I love you more than anyone in my life, you know that.” His mind underlined the tie between them and Free accepted it.
“So what was it like, then?”
“I went to Crest.”
Free’s eyes flicked open in surprise. “Our Crest? Who raised us?”
“Ye. He had a secret that I'd discovered years past.”
“Tell.”
“Crest was an agent for the Shadows.” Wing threw back the last of his drink, before checking Free's reaction to his revelation. It started as a laugh, but quickly changed to amazement when Wing’s mind reinforced the truth of his words.
“A Shadow? Like the super spies of old? Working for good and to keep all kres safe?”
“Just like. I could scarce believe it either, but I did my own spying and found it was true. He admitted such when I asked him for help saving you and escaping Goldown. He also recruited me then.”
Wing was interrupted by another guffaw of disbelieving laughter. He gave his cousin a long look, supported by his most serious mental touch. “I am a Shadow, Free. I know it sounds crazy, but Crest needed me to investigate the t'ssaa.”
“Wait, wait.” Free settled back further in his seat to stare at the roof. “Are you saying you're in mission now? Something to do with the t'ssaa?”
“Exactly. They've been hunting kres.”
“Hunting us? I’ve never heard of such.”
“That’s because there have only been four incidents. Two attempted snatches were foiled by Shadows and two by the Fleet. However, Sharpeye considers them random acts of piracy.”
“But t’ssaa aren’t pirates and they've never shown such interest in kres before.”
“Which is why we Shadows are so worried. I've placed tracking cells with a group of t'ssaa and I can follow them to gain information. But I need your help to do that.”
“Don’t you have backup? And what of the Arck? He may not agree with them in this, but doesn’t he support the Shadows?”
“Support?” Wing laughed. “The Shadows find no favor with Sharpeye. Our resources are still impressive, but not publicly. We work for our people all alone and in secret.”
Free gazed absently at the roof, circling his glass so that the ice gave a tinkling accompaniment to his abstraction. “We used to play Shadow agents as chicks,” he murmured and shook his head in wonder.
He sighed before finally sitting forward to study his cousin. “Alright, you’ve my full support. I’ll follow the t’ssaa for you, despite the risk. I’ll get you close enough to reach them and spy on them and I’ll wait as long as you need for extraction. I would send a strike team with you too, but not on the Rim.”
“Indeed. A group of kres out there would raise more than just suspicion. My thanks, Free. I’m debted to you.”
“I just hope I get to collect.”
“Don’t fear for me on the Rim. I’ve won a place there as an Honorless exile and none will question it.” Wing raised his empty glass with a cynical smile. “Here’s to being outcast.”
Free lifted his tumbler in a matching salute. “Here’s to coming home.”
34
Gratuity
Darsey stepped onto her second alien world and straight into a riot. She dropped from a public access tube onto a metal walkway that groaned and swayed beneath the booted feet of a surging throng. Bodies pushed past her, running and shoving to a constant accompaniment of thrumming metal. She was thrust aside and crashed into the single metal railing that stopped that crowd from plunging onto lower walkways.
She was folded over it by the impact and, for a second, her body tried to passage past the barrier. There was a sickening sensation of metal slipping between her cells before she managed to stop the process. Darsey pulled back from the rail, just far enough for it to reappear outside her skin. The metal finally stopped tingling, to feel properly cold and solid against her bare waist.
She was still unconvinced by Jileea’s choice of a cropped gold top, above a purple hip wrap over striped leggings, but no-one seemed to be staring. And at least she’d got her way with the boots. They were black, solid and looked seriously dangerous. They were definitely the type of footwear needed to tackle an alien world.
Or they would be, if she ever found a way to break free. The pressure against her squashed waist was still intense as aliens continued to push past, keeping her trapped. Instead of struggling, she hung there, draped safely over the handrail and took a moment to study the rest of Gratuity. The first thing she realized was that, despite her initial perception, she had not arrived in the middle of a riot. The frantic movement and noise seemed to be part of the ongoing life of the settlement. There were people of various shapes and a huge range of sizes in constant motion. The noise of footfalls and collisions against a gigantic web of metal stairs and ramps was overwhelming.
Darsey’s console had told her that Gratuity was a ball of icy rock, no bigger than Earth’s moon and far distant from its suns, but its inhabitants had transformed it into something unrecognisable. Around and below her vantage point spread a maze of gangways, ramps and gridded steps that spiralled inwards to the planet’s surface. However, that far distant ground was invisible. It was completely lost within a metal cage, a rock trapped inside a scarred and dented tin can.
Massive footfalls made Darsey’s perch sway and groan when a mutt shouldered his way past. She was distracted and her abdomen almost merged with the rail again. She straightened in frustration, using some of her com’s precious power to push back against the surrounding press. She turned and forced her way into the crush, darting forward when a gap appeared.
It was suddenly easy to move through the press and Darsey slipped quickly into place behind a broad back. Their pace increased and the crowd parted ahead of them. People fell over themselves to get out of her way- no, of course they didn’t. Everyone was jumping aside for the tall figure she was following.
Darsey slowed her pace to fall back from the heels of her guide and studied him more closely. The plain leather-like vest and trousers he was wearing were no help, so she looked higher. He was a full head taller than her, but no more, which made him too short for a mutt and too lithe as well. His white blonde hair seemed typically mermaridian and bobbed through the crowd like dozens around them. Except there wasn’t a crowd, not in front of her icebreaker.
The stranger abruptly slowed and Darsey almost bounced off his broad back. She skidded to a halt, twisting aside and ducking to avoid a collision. She dropped panting, to crouch at his heels, but her focus was on the cause of the sudden stop. A collared mutt was charging at them at full speed. Its lowered head looked like a bony battering ram and it was twice the size of her guide. It was going to trample over her without even noticing.
Darsey threw herself to one side, but the stranger standing over her just cleared his throat. The galloping mutt looked up at the last minute and panic creased its flat face. Its eyes rolled wildly as if searching for escape and the decking bucked when it tried to brake. “Lord Nikareon,” the creature wailed and gave up trying to stop. Instead it threw itself sideways. It launched its bulk over the railing and off the walkway.
Whoa. Darsey was at the rail in a second, draped over it to stare past the metal cobwebs below.
The massive slave crashed through a rusted girder, before slamming into another gantry and making it buckle. He picked himself up amid shards of girder and people who had thrown themselves out of the way. The crowd eddied, rippled and then surged on, carrying the flotsam mutt with it.
Darsey flipped upright and looked after the formidable Nikareon. Whoever he was he certainly made an impression. No-one was about to mess with him, or with his entourage, which had just become her.
Darsey strode out confidently in the mermaridian’s wake, her kick-ass boots striking sparks from the metal trellis. Her path remained clear and growing smugness warmed her bare middle. She could do this. It seemed she didn’
t need Wing after all.
Thought of the kres brought her up short. He’d abandoned her - left her to be passed on to another owner. She could only imagine what might be happening, right now, if she hadn’t escaped. Nothing good. A new warmth filled her gut. It was a flood of pure hatred.
Her sole connection in this nightmare universe, the only person she’d actually liked, liked a lot if she was honest, had utterly betrayed her. She would never, ever even begin to forgive him.
Darsey accelerated after Nikareon, taking huge strides to catch up. She powered each grim step with a silent refrain. Hate. Him. Hate. Him. Hate. Him.
Ahead of Darsey her unknowing icebreaker dipped, before dropping lower. Stairs. She realized just in time, looking down to see the floor vanish and a gap to rusted treads below. An awkward hop saved her from falling and she skipped down the stairs. Hate him, hate him, hate him, hate him-
The mermaridian reached the bottom and stopped so abruptly that Darsey almost ran into him again. He spun to loom over her and she looked up with a gulp. Mismatched eyes, one gold, one gray, studied her coldly. “Why do you follow me, female?”
Darsey planted her hands on her hips and went with honesty. “You part the crowd.”
A pair of fronds snaked forward to brush her temples. She flinched at their tickling touch and had to hold herself still, while she tried to make sense of the ice water now trickling behind her eyes. The Harvester clearly had fronds. But fronds were a kres thing, weren’t they? And telepathy too? The strange strands tightened across her brow and a glacier began to grind through her head, but this time she didn’t flinch.
“Alright, go easy. I was hopping a ride, that’s all.”
“Truth.” However, the ice kept shearing through her mind. “But it fails to explain why you hate me with such passion. I usually know why a female despises me and you I would remember. So why follow with such hate in your head?”
“What?” Darsey’s mind cranked to top speed, despite the spears of cold and she almost laughed. “No. No, no, no. You’re not the guy I hate. Trust me.”
There was a moment of intense pain, before the glacier sheared away. The Harvester’s fronds curled back with it and he considered Darsey with a sudden, dazzling smile. “Very well, little one. There’s something odd about your mind, but I’ve no time to study such now. I do offer advice though. Don’t ‘hop a ride’ behind a Beserk again.”
It took Darsey a minute to regain the simple rhythm of breathing and by the time she had, her icebreaker was gone. “Yes, officer, no, officer,” she murmured after the strange Beserk and shook her head. Never follow a guy that everyone else works so hard to avoid. Got it.
Someone shoulder barged Darsey, half spinning her round and suddenly she was angry. With everyone and everything in space, but especially the people on this stupid rock. She was sick of them all and had no intention of being intimidated ever again.
Darsey committed herself to the crowd and instantly became part of its flow, with little chance of stopping quickly. However, she found the uncontrolled movement a surprising release. Making progress through the press was possible, but it took determination and skill. A moderate use of com enhancement gave her enough speed and strength to claim the spaces she saw and she was soon slipping between the close-packed bodies at speed.
Darsey slid and side-stepped her way down a clattering ramp, the metal under her boots swaying and vibrating, but she had her balance now and moved confidently with the mass of people crowding the station. She had an advantage over the bulkier individuals in that press and started to overtake them. However, as she worked her way deeper into Gratuity, a flicker of peripheral movement stayed with her.
At first, Darsey thought she was imagining that shadow, but there was an unmistakable commotion behind her when she swung under the handrail and dropped to a lower gantry. She looked up quickly and caught a glimpse of her pursuer. A dirty little face, topped by greasy, blond curls, pushed past the shins of a passing mutt. Darsey glared up at the child, who looked startled, but then simply grinned at being caught. His cheeky expression was charming and she was unable to hold onto her frown, but did manage to stop her answering grin before it reached her mermaridian face. She settled for a slight smile instead and beckoned the boy closer. His expression grew instantly wary and he disappeared back into the crowd.
Darsey shrugged mentally and managed to turn against the jostling of the passing throng. She was backed up hard against another handrail, but below her was something different. Beyond the spider web of walkways was a clear space. An open-fronted square with a high ceiling offered a respite from the crush of people. It was relatively empty, especially further in, and Darsey could see why. It was well lit, but bland, an undecorated and unfurnished cavern with all the appeal of a spacecraft hangar. However, it offered room to stop and consult her com without constant interruption.
Darsey darted back into that sentient flow, having to sprint to reclaim a place in the stream of people. Retaining it was just as hard, with everyone moving faster the further she ventured into Gratuity. Stairs suddenly appeared beneath her feet and she almost fell again, but managed to jump instead and landed on the heels of the mutt ahead of her.
The creature grunted, but otherwise ignored her, and she recovered herself in time to turn onto another gangway. It was made from broader slabs of rusting gray that crumbled under her heels. It felt more unstable than ever, but it ran along the front of the strange open space and there was no handrail to stop her from entering. Instead, there was a chasm between the two surfaces. The passage never met the hangar’s floor, but simply ran parallel to it, and there were no bridges to cross the dark space between.
Darsey hardly hesitated. She knew she had to move before the weight of bodies pushing past knocked her into that gap. She eyed the daunting space intently, letting her subconscious judge the leap, while her conscious mind stomped down hard on her instinct to flee. She jabbed her elbows repeatedly into the crowd and managed to back up two steps. That would have to be enough.
Darsey took a single, sprinting stride and leapt with combat strength. She flew over the chasm, then its far edge as well, to land far into the room beyond. Her momentum was still so great she had to run on for several steps into the bright, white hangar-like cavern.
“Wow,” she murmured and elation surged through her as powerfully as any energy boost. It seemed even a silver com was definitely worth wearing.
Darsey settled on her heels and looked around for the first time since landing. The strange room was nowhere near as empty as she’d thought. Now that she had crossed its threshold, images appeared in the air around her. They clustered as thick as the crowd she had just escaped, above, below and all around, filling the chamber with a dazzling array. Dozens of products and services were beamed to her eyes, slipping past at dizzying speed when she looked around. She took an uncertain step and a further wealth of shining goods appeared, so she took another step and another, drawn further in without realising it.
Darsey turned in small circles as she moved deeper, delighted by the sparkling offers around her. She looked down, half bemused, and then blanched at the sight between her feet. She seemed to be staring into an auction pit and a resigned slave gazed back up at her. A query appeared in response to her attention, asking whether she wanted to bid on the mutt being offered. She breathed in sharply and her com responded to her distress by instantly cutting the connection.
The hologram disappeared in a shower of sparks and Darsey’s head snapped up so she could look beyond the images for the first time. She had just received an essential reminder that she was alone and still at risk. A stranger in a harsh world. The distractions of the selling hangar were dangerous and finding a passage home needed to be her priority.
She managed to ignore the bright patterns trying to intrude on her vision to concentrate on her com instead. Her simple query about the closest travel agent was answered at once. The com directed her to the far end of the echoing hangar.
>
Darsey peered toward that distant wall, past the floating pictures and into the shadows. The hangar ceiling sagged lower at the far end, angling closer to the floor. It was difficult to make out details, but the girders supporting it had dim shapes hanging from them. There seemed to be rows of boxes slung underneath. She frowned and her com enhanced the distant image to show huge crates swaying beneath the metal beams.
They were a range of sizes and shapes, each decorated differently, but all promoting wares for sale inside. Physical signs and real banners advertised what was being offered, making Darsey smile with delight. She felt an instant connection with the familiar presence of actual stores. She moved toward the back of the chamber with renewed enthusiasm.
However, when the hanging shops grew closer, their glamour started to fade. Their decorations looked increasingly dull and threadbare. The holograms still vying for her attention were much more vibrant.
Darsey hesitated, but her eye was caught by a swinging crate more brightly decorated than the rest. Its metal flanks were swathed in lengths of fabric, while its open front was a jumble of faded bolts of cloth. A sign above that crowded maw proudly proclaimed it to be ‘The Bizarre Bazaar’.
Darsey reflected ruefully that such a title would suit the entire planet, but was still reassured by the quirky name of the brightly colored box swinging above her head. She looked down to check her com and it directed her further along the row toward a travel agent. However, she had no chance to follow that advice.
A hand seized Darsey roughly by the elbow. She was propelled forward, away from public view and into the darkness beneath the hanging shops. She leaned back against her attacker and dug in her heels, but hardly slowed at all. In less than a second her freedom was stolen again.
35
Old Acquaintance