At Galactic Central

by Kate MacLeod

  Scout sucked in her breath, then squeezed between the rocky protuberance that dug into the front of her neck just above her collarbones and the other that dug into the small of her back. It was like being choked and stabbed in the kidneys at the same time. Not pleasant, but she’d done this before. She knew exactly how to contort her body to slip through into the larger space beyond.

  It was completely dark on the far side, her own body largely blocking the little light that made its way in through the fissure from the less-than-total darkness under the bridge. But darkness was no problem for her glasses, and even without them, she had come this way so many times her feet knew exactly where to step.

  The fissure ran for only a few meters, took a sudden turn to the left and another back to the right, and then ceased to resemble a natural formation in the rock, if indeed it even was. Scout had her doubts.

  Now she was in a long hallway lit with little red lights, not enough to penetrate the darkness at the cave mouth, but enough for even those without glasses like hers to see enough to make their way to whichever of the endless rows of doors they called home.

  None of the doors were marked, and they were all locked. Scout had occasionally seen one of her neighbors moving through this hallway but had never made eye contact with any of them. They were all teens like her and Daisy, living here in the sublevel of the largest of the floating islands, down beneath even the level of the sewage treatment facilities. They all had reasons for living in hiding and no interest in sharing those reasons with each other.

  It had been the perfect place for Daisy to bring Scout after selling the ship they had arrived on. Scout didn’t know how Daisy had even known about it, and Daisy wouldn’t talk about the things she had done those first days in Galactic Central, just like she didn’t talk about what she did all day now.

  Travel through hyperspace on that superfast ship had been bad for Scout. She had been so very sick, not just during the journey but for a long, long time after. When the ship had arrived at Galactic Central, Scout had been too sick to move; she knew that much.

  She knew she had talked to Bo, but only because Daisy had told her so. She couldn’t even summon a mental picture that felt real, and not like a daydream in which she inserted everything Daisy said Bo had told her.

  Her memories were little more than flashes of images, snapshots that she didn’t think her mind even had in chronological order. But someone had helped Daisy bring Scout down here to the largest of the islands, to bring her all the way down to the sublevels deep within the bedrock, to one of these little rooms that must once have been intended for storage but had long since been forgotten by those who lived in the city above.

  But the teens knew they were here. And one of them had told Daisy. And now it was home.

  Scout stopped at the fifteenth door on her left and took a moment to push back her still-wet hair, adjust her twisted clothing, and take a deep breath before typing the code into the pad on the wall next to the door.

  The lock gave a little click that was all but lost in the sound of enthusiastic barking from the room behind. The more persistent was a high-pitched bark only a degree or two away from being a yip. The other, more considered bark was deeper, almost frightening, even when it was clearly a bark of welcome.

  Scout’s face broke out into a broad smile even before she opened the door just enough to slip inside without letting anything get out past her.

  It was a damp, dark, miserable place to live, far from fresh air or light or warmth. But her dogs were in it.

  And that made it home.

  4

  When Scout had been Bo Tajaki’s personal guest on his starship, she had been given her own room with a walled-in garden, the bedroom and living room both full of light from the artificial sun, the kitchen stocked with delicious food, and the bathroom equipped with the most wondrous shower she had ever had the pleasure of cleaning up in.

  On Schneeheim, she had been given a cabin of her own, small but snug against the cold wind. The bed had been a mountain of warmth, layer after layer of soft blankets for her and the dogs to nest in.

  She had gotten to spend exactly one night in each of those places. But this place, this cold, damp space with barely enough room for the bed on the floor and the table and two chairs beside it—this place she had been sleeping in for weeks now.

  But she didn’t mind it. She had never grown up with the sort of luxury Bo Tajaki took for granted. She preferred the dry, hot air of her prairie home, but she didn’t mind sleeping in this place.

  She knew for certain it came with no strings attached.

  Scout slipped quickly inside the room, shutting the door behind her before either of the dogs could escape.

  Not that they were interested in getting past her. No, they were both beside themselves with joy, just as they were every day at this time when she came back home.

  Scout dropped to one knee, tucking Shadow’s little rat terrier body close to her side and reaching out to the frantically wiggling Gert. Gert leaned her head into Scout’s ear scratches and gave a contented sigh.

  Once they both seemed content with the amount of attention she had given them, she got back to her feet and turned on the little heater built into one of the walls. She and Daisy didn’t run it when they were out, as the fuel cells were expensive, but the dogs didn’t mind the cold. They just burrowed under the bedcovers.

  The little light standing on the middle of the table she did leave on for them, though. The idea of her dogs waiting for her return in the dark was too much.

  Daisy hadn’t objected. Scout didn’t know exactly what Daisy did during the day, only that every night she returned with hot food and occasionally an extra coin or two for fuel cells, clothes, or other needs. So far, they hadn’t had to dip into the money she had gotten for selling the starship they had arrived on.

  That money might prove very necessary when Shi Jian finally showed up. The two of them might have to flee or find another place to hide, one not so cheap.

  Those kids. Had they worked for Shi Jian? The child assassins that had pursued her in the past had been a lot wilier than those five, and yet if they didn’t work for Shi Jian, who were they?

  “Hello, Teacher,” Scout said as she sat down at the table.

  The AI hologram who was her tutor appeared in the chair opposite. “Hello, Scout,” she said. “You look worried.”

  “Preoccupied,” Scout agreed. “You can access Bo Tajaki’s library from here, right?”

  “Correct,” Warrior said. “Do you need to do some research?”

  “Not exactly,” Scout said. “Maybe more searching news reports or something. I was chased today by a group of five people. I think they were my age; they were all using gliders. They dressed all in black with masks over their faces. They had reflective lenses over their eyes, but they didn’t seem to have any sort of enhanced vision.”

  “How could you tell?” Warrior asked.

  “I hid from them in the dark,” Scout said. “I would have spotted myself easily, but they didn’t.”

  “Interesting,” Warrior said. “Perhaps the lenses were just to protect their eyes from the elements?”

  “Maybe,” Scout conceded. “Can you dig into it?”

  But before Warrior could answer, the door beeped and then swung open. The dogs barked their greetings as Daisy fumbled through the doorway, arms loaded with packages.

  Scout didn’t have to tell Warrior to disappear. She never had to. The AI just knew without Scout ever saying it out loud that she was to be kept secret.

  It was almost creepy, how she seemed to read Scout’s mind. Creepy, but convenient.

  Scout scrambled up from her chair to help Daisy get in the door. That mainly involved restraining the dogs until the door was closed and she had dumped the packages on the table and collapsed into the chair.

  “Long day?” Scout asked, but when Daisy looked up at her, it was with assessing eyes.

  “What happened?” she asked.
>
  Scout touched her fingertips to her cheeks. She hadn’t been hurt, so what was Daisy seeing?

  “I got chased by some troublemakers,” she said dismissively. “I gave them the slip in the marketplace. They didn’t follow me back here.”

  “Shi Jian?” Daisy asked.

  “No, definitely not,” Scout said.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Positive,” Scout said.

  But Daisy was still looking her over with a little worried line between her brows. “Are you still feeling OK? No episodes?”

  “No episodes,” Scout said.

  The tumbling, falling, bobbing, spinning feeling that had made her completely unable to function while traveling on the high-speed starship had not gone away when they had dropped back to normal speed. It hadn’t gone away even when they had left the ship. It had taken days and days before Scout was even able to sit up, let alone move about. And even then, she would occasionally feel it recur. But not lately.

  Scout wished she could trust that it was gone for good, but she kept waking up uncertain if it was back. She would lie still for several minutes, unwilling to move her body until she was sure her mind was not going to freak out and think a lot more motion was going on than there was the moment she sat up.

  It was a deeply unpleasant feeling.

  Finally, Daisy looked away, turning her attention to the packages on the table. “We should eat while it’s still hot,” Daisy said.

  “It smells good,” Scout said, grateful for the change in conversation. “That spicy chicken thing again?”

  “Different spicy chicken thing,” Daisy said with a small smile. “I’m not sure what the sauce is, but it’s green instead of red. Try it.”

  Scout popped the lid off the container and dug a spoon into the soupy liquid. There was a variety of vegetables in there as well as the bits of chicken. As usual, nothing that Scout could identify. Food from all over the galaxy was available in Galactic Central; some things were similar to food they had on Amatheon, but others were completely alien to her.

  Daisy watched her face as she put the spoonful in her mouth. Scout’s first thought was that it wasn’t as spicy as it smelled, but as she chewed, the spiciness kept building. By the time she swallowed, the entire interior of her mouth was buzzing warmly.

  Scout could feel the broad smile on her face, and Daisy smiled back. “I’ve never met anyone who adores spicy food the way you do,” she said, lifting the lid from her own container. She’d given herself a smaller serving, either to be social or just for the taste. She met her own need for sustenance in quite a different way.

  “Did you find another supplier for what you need?” Scout asked. Now she was the one looking assessingly at her friend. Did Daisy look pale? It was hard to tell in the artificial light. And although Daisy was keeping her hair cut short on the back and sides, she had let the front grow long enough to cover her eyes when she bent her head. Like she was doing now.

  “Yes, I did,” Daisy said. “It’s a different manufacturer than what I’ve consumed before, but it seems to be working just fine. I haven’t felt this alert in weeks.”

  “That’s good,” Scout said.

  “How are your friends doing?” Daisy asked between spoonfuls.

  “Good, good,” Scout said. “Seeta is looking stronger by the day. I wish I could find a way to communicate with them, though. Maybe a system of signals, like we have with Bo.”

  “We would have to get a message to them first,” Daisy said. “If you want to risk it—”

  “No,” Scout said. She and Daisy had mapped out the Months’ entire island. They had found a way in through the drainage system that ran under the garden pond. They had refined their plan for getting in and getting her three friends out.

  But it would likely only work once. She couldn’t risk exposing the route to the Months' security team just to see her friends, to talk to them.

  “Any word from Bo?” Daisy asked.

  “Not yet,” Scout sighed. “Any news on the street?”

  “Of a gossipy sort,” Daisy said with a shrug. “The Tajaki trade dynasty has been a ripe subject for works of fiction for centuries. The blow-by-blow of two members of the dynasty engaged in a legal feud is pretty much all anyone in the public houses talk about. But I haven’t heard anything relevant or interesting. And no mention of a woman in black lurking about anywhere.”

  “Where is she?” Scout asked, not remotely for the first time.

  Daisy shrugged, scraping at the bottom of her bowl for the last bit of spicy broth. “Sooner or later, she’ll be here. There’s nothing we can do but wait.”

  Scout sighed. She hated waiting. How long did it take to regrow an arm, anyway?

  Or would she regrow it? Perhaps she just needed to replace it, like you would on a robot. Or perhaps it was both: replace her metal skeleton and then regrow the enhanced flesh over it.

  She could have asked Daisy but didn’t. Daisy didn’t like to talk about her own enhancements. Scout didn’t blame her. She had not been given any choice in the matter, and the endless surgeries had been extremely painful. Her entire childhood had been one agonizing procedure after another, with endless training between.

  All to make her the perfect assassin, easy to underestimate with her teenaged body.

  And she hadn’t been the youngest of Shi Jian’s assassins. Not by a long shot.

  Daisy stacked the bowls and lids together to carry them out to the water spigot at the end of the hall they shared with all their neighbors.

  Then Scout saw a flashing light in the corner of her eye. She realized when Daisy didn’t react to it that it wasn’t in the room. It was coming from her glasses.

  “I’ll take those,” Scout said, grabbing for the dishes.

  “Are you sure?” Daisy asked.

  “Yeah, you’ve been working all day,” Scout said.

  “You’ve been scaling walls,” Daisy said.

  “The dogs need a walk too,” Scout said.

  Daisy shrugged, and Scout pulled the dogs’ leashes from one of the pouches on her belt. She clipped them to the dogs’ collars but didn’t bother holding the other end as she opened the door and let them out. She could snatch them up if they encountered anyone in the hallway, but they almost never did.

  The dogs ran out of the room, tearing around the corner at the end of the hall and disappearing in the direction of the spigot. There was a deeper cavern beyond, more of a natural rock formation like the fissure, enormous with a sandy floor. She let the dogs do their business there. She felt a little guilty she hadn’t taken them out the minute she’d gotten home. Being chased had clearly distracted her.

  “Hello, Teacher,” she said as soon as she had rounded the corner.

  “Hello, Scout,” Warrior said, appearing mid step beside her.

  “That was you blinking the light?”

  “Yes, I hoped you’d infer that,” Warrior said. “I have news about your pursuers.”

  “Shi Jian?” Scout asked.

  “No,” Warrior said. “They are a youth group that does not appear to answer to any adult figure. They’re new on the scene, only showing up shortly after you arrived. Reports are scant since they don’t seem to be committing any crimes beyond ‘lurking.’”

  “Lurking is a crime?” Scout asked.

  “Some people like to think so,” Warrior said. “But the security forces in Galactic Central don’t consider it one. They will note the time and place in case it should be linked to an actual crime later. The kids in black lurk on rooftops and always escape on gliders when approached.”

  “And they don’t answer to an adult,” Scout said. “So what are they up to?”

  “They do report to another adolescent,” Warrior told her. “Here, I’ll show you an image on your glasses.”

  Scout stopped walking as her vision was suddenly dominated by the image of the marketplace at midday. The image expanded, growing blurry as it zoomed in on a girl in an oversized red hoodie talking
to three kids in black clothes. The girl turned and left them, fading into the crowds around the vegetable market. But just before she faded from view, she looked back over her shoulder, giving Scout a good look at her face.

  “That’s Sparrow!” Scout said, recognizing the girl she had met on the Months’ starship just before she had left her home world behind. “She’s still with the Months?”

  “Perhaps,” Warrior said. “Or perhaps she came this far, then left their employ.”

  “I should stake out the Months’ island closer to the arrival gate,” Scout said. “See if I can spot her.”

  “I think that would be wise, yes,” Warrior said.

  Scout washed the bowls and lids, then whistled for the dogs to rejoin her. They came barreling up the sloping corridor, tongues lolling and eyes bright. They walked beside Scout all the way back to the room.

  When they got inside, Scout saw that Daisy had already gone to bed. She needed little sleep, but Scout suspected she liked to lie down and close her eyes just to have some time alone in her own head.

  Scout didn’t know what Daisy did all day, only that it involved visiting a public house and resulted in small amounts of cash. And that Daisy didn’t want to talk about it.

  It seemed to be taking a toll.

  Scout got the dogs settled, then turned out the light. She could wait until she knew more before saying anything to Daisy.

  But if she could get to Sparrow, she might learn what had happened to Shi Jian.

  She was about to drift off to sleep when one last worrying thought crossed her mind.

  Why was Sparrow using these kids to get to Scout? To help her, or to harm her?

  5

  Daisy was up early the next morning. The dogs snuggled closer to Scout’s warmth, but she hitched herself up on one elbow, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “Daisy?” she said.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” Daisy said in little more than a whisper. “You can go back to sleep. I need to head out early today. Lots to do.”