As Bentley took a deep, pained breath, Legba opened his eyes. He looked at her, reading the distress on her face. “My dear Bentley. You seem troubled.”
Bentley looked away, trying to avoid making eye contact. “Well— I guess. How can you tell?”
Legba smiled. “It’s all over your face. It wouldn’t take a round of telepathic communication to tell that you have something quite negative on your mind. And judging by the fact that you don’t seem too interested in looking me in the eyes, I’m guessing that it has something to do with me.”
Bentley sighed, tracing her fingers on the armrest of the examination seat. “Kind of.”
Legaba nodded. “Although perhaps this point of concern actually has more to do with you.”
Bentley looked up, meeting his gaze. “H— How did you know?”
Legba smiled. “When dealing with others, it is always a safe bet that they are preoccupied with themselves.” His smile dropped, his expression becoming more serious. “But at this moment, I fear you’ve been overtaken with… regret. Or guilt.”
Bentley looked away once more. “Well. To be fair, I do have some stuff in my past that’s worth regretting, and stuff that could reasonably bring up a lot of guilt. And some of that stuff bears pretty directly on you. Like… you know… killing you…”
Legba leaned closer to Bentley. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. “I know. What you are going through, it is hard. But you must remember that guilt is only useful when it is used as fuel to move forward.” His face broke into a smile. “And what better way to move forward than with a look backward?”
Bentley looked into his eyes. She sighed. “You know, I’m not really in the mood for riddles. But I am in the mood for getting out from under this guilt.”
Legba closed his eyes. He leaned back, centering himself on the stool, relaxing his posture. “Then close your eyes, and follow me.”
Bentley sat back in the examination seat and closed her eyes, slipping into the darkness. She focused on her non-visual senses, settling into the initial phases of meditation. She felt the weight of her body pressing against the seat’s soft padding, which was somehow both yielding and firm. The medical bay had a strongly antiseptic scent, which was broken only by the smoky notes that wafted from where Legba sat. Jesus, I wonder how many changes of clothes he has, Bentley thought. One? Is zero actually the most likely possibility? Did he even bring a bag with him?
To avoid getting distracted by this line of thought, Bentley focused on what few sounds she could detect in the medical bay. She heard a dull, monotonous electronic buzz, likely from one of the lights. There was also the soft sound of Legba breathing from a few feet away. She locked in on the sound of her own breathing, a sound that was close, within her. She focused on the pattern, inhaling, then exhaling, again and again.
As she continued to breathe, falling deeper and deeper into her meditative state, she noticed that the darkness was starting to shift. What had been an unbroken expanse of black was now broken by a small splash of yellow light. She focused on the light, and realized that it was coming from a lantern, which was being held by a figure who was walking through an incredibly dark place. The light was just strong enough that it made its way up the figure’s side, barely illuminating the lower half of the figure’s face. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Bentley to recognize the figure: it was Legba.
As she watched him walk, she tried to piece together what exactly it was that she was seeing. He held some sort of cylindrical vessel in his other hand as he walked in silence. He seemed to be alone, and wherever he was, it was very dark, and very rocky. He passed various outcroppings of rocks that jutted out of the uneven ground, some of which looked like spikes, until at long last he approached a small desk, which sat beside a wingback chair.
+++
Bentley’s home planet, Dacca Noir, Dracon System, Kaunox Sector
Legba strode purposefully through the port’s visitor complex. The complex was operating far below its normal capacity, the wide concourses containing only a few dozen people, rather than the tens of thousands that would surge through them during peak hours.
As he walked past a long bench, he glanced at a group of young men who were piled on top of it. All of the men were fast asleep, some snoring loudly. They looked like miners, perhaps waiting for their third connection, to finally bring them to whichever planet they would spend the next few months burrowing into.
I must admit, Legba thought, although quantum entanglement does sting quite a bit, it is quite nice to not have to waste any time waiting around. Mere moments ago, he had traveled from the dead rock into an empty stall near one of the complex’s dining areas, and he found that his nerves were still stinging from the trip. He quickened his pace, finding that the additional exertion dulled the pain slightly.
He soon arrived at one of the complex’s many bars and slipped through the front entrance. It was a gaudy, expensive place that would surely be out of business if it weren’t a hundred or so yards from a refueling bay. Legba pivoted his head around, looking past the drunk business people and the callow, excited youths who seemed astounded by the mere fact that they were in a bar, until he found the individuals he was looking for.
In a booth near the back, Legba saw Loco chugging a carbonated amber fluid from a cartoonishly large stein. The stein looked more like a bucket made out of glass that happened to have a handle, rather than a container one would use to serve a drink. Shango and Olofi sat with him in the booth. They didn’t have any drinks in front of them, and they looked at Loco with a mix of concern and impatience. Loco put the now empty stein on the table and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
Shango looked down at the empty stein, then at Loco. “Okay. I think that’s enough. The ship should be finished refueling by now, so—”
Loco threw a hand in the air, his expression joyous, and lightly contorted by inebriation. “C’mon. Just one more. For the road. I know there’s no actual road, but I like the sound of the, the—”
A waitress walked up to the booth, a broad smile on her face. “Hey, gents. Anything else I can get for you tonight?”
Loco slammed the stein against the table. “One more of these. But full, instead of empty.”
Olofi placed a hand on Loco’s stein and faced the waitress. “Actually, we’re fine. Just the bill, thanks.”
Loco pulled the stein away from Olofi. “NO! I CAN’T DRINK A BILL!”
Legba nodded to himself, smiling, and quickly left the bar. He strode through the concourse, towards the customer service area of the refueling station. Since the complex was at such low capacity, only one of the dozens of desks was open, and there was no line.
He walked up to the desk, which was staffed by a young man. The man straightened his back and plastered a false smile across his face. “How may I help you this evening, sir?”
Legba smiled genially. “I’ll just be picking up my ship. It should be done refueling by now.”
The man’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Did you bring it in to refuel… tonight? In the last few hours?”
Legba nodded. “Yes. Perhaps a couple of hours ago. It’s the Chesed, if you’d like to look it up.”
The man turned to his keyboard, and after a few keystrokes, he glanced at the screen on his desk. “Hmm. Well, that ship has finished refueling…”
Legba smiled, reaching for one of his pockets. “Great! I’ll just be on my way, then…”
The man’s lips were twisted in an expression of indecision. “There’s just the issue of… of the fact that… I didn’t see you bring in that ship. I’m the only one who’s been working the desks this shift, so if you’d dropped off this ship, I’d remember you.”
Legba removed a black card from his pocket. “Oh, that’s no issue. You do remember me.”
The man looked at Legba, confused. “I— I do?”
Legba nodded. “Of course. I was with those three particularly large gentlemen. I’ll readily admit
, they are quite impressive, so it would have been easy to miss me, but you didn’t.”
The man scratched his head. “I… I didn’t…”
Legba smiled an exaggerated grin. “Of course not. Who could forget a smile like this?”
The man started to nod slowly. “R— Right. Of course. I remember you. The smiling guy. Right. Sorry.” He resumed typing on the keyboard. “So will the fuel charges be on the same account you used to check in?”
Legba placed the black card on the desk and slid it over to the man. “No, we’ll use this one for the fuel charges. It’s my turn to pay.”
The man accepted the card and placed it into a device near the screen. Paying for their fuel seems like the least I could do for them, thought Legba. One good turn deserves another, and all that.
The man handed the card back to Legba and smiled. “Well, that’s all settled. Please follow the green line to your ship, and have a pleasant voyage!” At that moment, an illuminated green line appeared on the floor, leading from the desk to a nearby bank of elevators.
Legba took his card back, returned it to his pocket, and nodded to the man. “A pleasure doing business with you.” He followed the green line to the elevators, and just as he approached them, one of the sets of doors slid open. The green line continued into the elevator and Legba followed it inside the chamber. The doors slid shut behind him, and the elevator shot upwards at an incredible speed.
Legba leaned back on his heels, enjoying the agreeable feeling of speeding upwards. Ah, he thought. This is far more pleasant than having your nerves burn like detonated fireworks. I shall have to look into whether it’s possible to make quantum entanglement teleportation feel a bit more elevator-like, and a bit less like an instantaneous immolation.
Legba was snapped out of his reverie by a light electronic chime. The doors of the elevator slid open, revealing a private docking facility. The illuminated green line sped from Legba’s feet across the length of the large platform, to the entrance of the Chesed. He followed the line, looking up at the Chesed, taking it in. Not the most magnificent spacecraft I’ve ever seen, but it’ll certainly do, he thought to himself.
Legba arrived at the entrance to the Chesed and noticed an electronic panel that was built into the ship’s exterior. Whatever security system the ship happened to have, Legba was confident that he could crack it, but before he could even start his work, the door shot open, revealing an android. The android appeared to be female, and her digitally-created face was staring with clear disapproval at Legba.
The android crossed her arms. “May I ask what business you have with this ship?”
A look of concern immediately washed over Legba’s face. “Bad news, I’m afraid. There’s been a bit of trouble at one of the bars in the complex.”
The android’s digital eyebrows angled skeptically. “Go on.”
Legba ran one of his hands through his hair. “Oh boy… Well, I do apologize if I get any of the names wrong—it was all a bit of a blur—but as far as I could tell, a guy from your ship named Loco, he, well, he’d had a bit too much to drink, and he got into a bit of an, a disagreement, with some toughs from the Dracon System, and it, uh, it escalated pretty quickly…”
A look of concern flashed across the android’s face. Legba suppressed a smile and continued. “So they get to fighting, six versus one, and these two other guys, who I understand are also from your ship, a, a Shango, and, a, a, not Olaf, not Ollo… Olofi! They try to break it up, but that’s when the complex’s security agents come in, and they, well, they pretty much cuffed everybody. I was just sitting there, in the bar, minding my own business, far enough away that I didn’t get cuffed, but as these guys are getting dragged out, the Shango one, I think, he yells at me, he yells, ‘Hey! You! Get down to the Chesed, and tell ‘em that Loco got into a fight, and Shango, Olofi, and Loco are all getting detained! They’re taking us to the Zone 15 security station!’” Legba shrugged. “So now you know.”
Legba noticed the android’s right leg bend forward quickly, as if preparing to dash off of the ship, into the complex, straight to the Zone 15 security station. However, just as quickly, the leg froze in place. Legba watched the look of concern on the android’s face transform slowly into a look of calculation. She’s more intelligent than I gave her credit for, Legba thought. Impressive, but inconvenient.
After a moment, the android uncrossed her arms. “Thank you for the message. I’ll contact the security station from the ship, and see if I can be of assistance remotely. Zone 15, you said?”
Legba nodded, somewhat defeated. “That’s right. Zone 15.”
The android nodded curtly. “Very good. Thank you again. And good day to you.” She turned, and the door to the ship’s entrance slammed shut in Legba’s face.
He sighed. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to do this too many times in one day, he thought. He closed his eyes, in deep focus, and felt a painful, sharp sensation, as if the entire platform had instantaneously shattered into a multitude of shards, and each individual shard had pierced right through his body.
He opened his eyes, wincing in pain. He was no longer on the platform, but standing in a bedroom. The private quarters of some individual, seemingly situated on a spacecraft. Although he was almost blinded by the pain of yet another quantum entanglement teleportation, he managed to glance around the room, noting the arrangement of doors relative to the window. Based on his memory of the Chesed’s blueprints, he was mostly likely in Shango’s quarters. He thought to himself, That means that the bridge is…
He turned to his right, towards a door, and smiled. Right through there.
He walked towards the door. It slid open, revealing the same android who had met him at the ship’s entrance.
She crossed her arms, a clear look of anger on her face. “I knew that there was something suspicious about you. Please remain in this room. I will not hail the complex’s security system, but only because I imagine that you bear some sort of relationship to some combination of Shango, Olofi, and Loco, and they would likely prefer to have you in their custody, rather than in the custody of a group of poorly trained private contractors.”
Legba smiled, extending his arms, attempting to appear friendly. “My dear android. I don’t mean you or your lwa masters any harm, so I believe that talk of ‘custody’ is perhaps misplaced. But if it will make you feel more at ease…” He put a hand on the android’s shoulder. “Then I promise you that I will—”
Using a transmitter that was up his sleeve, Legba released a sharp electronic pulse into the android, knocking her out cold. Her joints seized, and rather than falling to the floor, she just froze near the doorway, perfectly still.
Legba slowly retracted his hand. “That is, I promise you that I will only borrow this ship for a little while.” He looked over the still android. Perhaps I ought to drag her down to the platform, he thought to himself. Get one of the technicians to give her a wash, clear her memory, keep her on standby until the others return. That way, there will be fewer fingerprints, and the dear lwa won’t believe that they’ve lost everything…
Legba looked at where her face used to be, the digitally-created countenance now completely blank. He sighed. No, he thought. She was fairly impressive. No need to be cruel. He moved through the door, easing his body around the static android. And no need to put my back through more stress than it’s facing as it is.
The navigation console was a familiar model, and within minutes, Legba had piloted the Chesed into the orbit of Dacca Noir. He set the ship on standby mode and walked down the steps of the command deck, towards the main screen of the bridge. It showed the planet below him, which rotated in a slow pirouette.
Legba took a deep breath. I’ll see you soon enough, Raven Black, he thought. A moment later, the only being that remained on the bridge was the stationary android.
+++
Aboard the Chesed, Deep Space
Bentley began to shake her head, feeling the movement of the tendons in her
neck and the movement of her hair across her shoulders. She started to come back into her body, forcing herself out of the deep meditative state. The image of Jelly Bean, shut down, silent, and alone on the bridge of the Chesed slowly faded from her mind, and her visual field reverted to an expanse of unbroken darkness. She opened her eyes, returning to the medical bay. Legba sat before her on the stool, and she watched as his eyes fluttered open, his face still projecting a sense of deep calm.
Bentley sat up in the examination seat and looked at Legba with an accusatory glare. “I’m sorry. Why exactly did you steal the Chesed?”
Legba smiled coyly. “Not quite. I borrowed it. And as any legal scholar will tell you, that is a very important distinction.”
Bentley sat back in her seat, crossing her arms. “Borrowing usually involves a request to borrow.”
Legba nodded. “Oh, indeed. ‘Usually’ being the key word. And remember, I not only borrowed the ship, I also returned it. In even better condition than they left it. I did pay for their fuel, after all.”
Bentley narrowed her eyebrows. “I’m not quite sure that you left Jelly Bean in a better condition than they left her. You knocked her out!”
Legba sat back on the stool. “That was regrettable, but you must understand, I was very gentle. I used a very simple transmitter to deliver a single electronic pulse through her casing. It was delivered so quickly and so accurately that your friend never felt a thing.”
Bentley’s lips twisted into a grimace. “Did she tell you that she never felt a thing?”
Legba looked somewhat uneasy. “Well… no. She was… incapable of speech, at the time. But I can assure you, I was very careful. I have used this pulse before, on a fair number of robotic subjects, and it shuts down their language centers, pain processors, and sensory input mechanisms, all at the same time. She could not have felt a thing, because she could not feel. At that moment, she did not even have a mind that would have been capable of noticing pain.”
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