by A. C. Thomas
Axel tripped on the foot Boom stuck out in front of him, but caught himself before falling face-first into a suspicious-smelling shimmering puddle while Jun and Boom cackled.
“We get it, Ax. It’s gross. Not your favorite place.” Boom sighed.
Slinging his mechanical arm over Theo’s shoulder companionably, he gestured vaguely with the other. “Actually, my favorite grub stall is stashed in one of these shadowy corners. Best okonomiyaki in the galaxy, with a side of murder for hire if you’re in the mood.”
Jun turned a flat gaze on Axel, one eyebrow titling upwards lazily beneath the shadow of his hood. “You’re definitely putting me in the mood, pilot.”
Axel pulled Theo in close until they were walking cheek to cheek. He squished his freckled face into Theo’s as he replied, “Aw, shucks, Captain. Not in front of the esteemed Dr. Campbell. You’ll make me blush.”
Boom gave a casual flick of her wrist to reveal a small blade that snapped to her metal-lined fingers. She flipped it in her hand, pulled out a tube of violet lipstick, and reapplied it using the knife’s reflection. Pocketing both, she aimed a sharp smile in Axel’s direction. “Besides, Park, why hire out when you can do it yourself?”
The rest of their walk was remarkably quiet.
It would have been tranquil, if not for the bustling city life all around them. Dark-faced buildings loomed tall enough to blot out the sky, and the sickly radiant light from omnipresent neon signage blurred together until Theo could barely make out the shape of the setting sun.
Where Theo was from, there were strictly adhered to clothing norms for men and women alike. There was nothing of the sort here.
Anyone and everyone wore trousers or skirts or very nearly nothing at all with a nonchalance Theo desperately wished to achieve.
It was exhilarating.
As drab as the garment colors may have been of those passing by, their hair, tattoos, augments, and cosmetics were another matter entirely, echoing the flashes of neon against the bleak metallic-black of their surroundings.
Axel’s green hair blended in perfectly. Theo thought with vindictive glee about all of the times his own vibrant red hair had been deemed too bright and vulgar. He would be very nearly understated, here, especially with the absence of any augments. What an enthralling concept.
Several people had very similar tattoos to the lines and circles running down Jun’s neck and torso that mimicked circuitry. Except, on the other people, the lines were glowing beneath their skin.
Theo pointed at a shirtless man so covered in glowing circuitry that he matched the flickering sign above him. “Why do their tattoos glow, but yours don’t?”
Jun stiffened, and for a moment, Theo believed he wouldn’t answer. But he held out his hand. The circuitry on his wrist terminated at the clusters of hexagonal shapes that spilled over the back. “They’re still Connected to the Stream. I Disconnected when I left my first Crew.”
Core-born though he might be, Theo could extrapolate that the Stream in the Restricted Sector must be similar to the data streams back home. However, those were only accessible through restricted-access nodes kept in university research buildings and Quorum centers. These tattoos appeared to allow anyone access. The shirtless man quaffing a carbonated beverage and belching loudly did not appear to be a member of the governing class.
Theo reached out to trace over the lines, half expecting them to feel raised, but there was only the warm, smooth texture of Jun’s skin. “So, you don’t have access anymore?”
Jun had slowed their walk to focus on Theo’s fingers tracing over his tattoos, his expression wistful. “I can access with a pad or console; I just can’t link in anymore. I had my circuits burnt out and my connections erased. It was necessary, to keep a low profile.”
That sounded painful, especially the part about burning. Theo winced as he traced the lines up under Jun’s sleeve, thinking about the way they covered him from neck to knees. “Didn’t that hurt?”
Jun’s voice dropped to a near whisper, wrist twitching beneath Theo’s touch. “Most worthwhile things do.”
Then, without another word, Jun grabbed Theo’s hand and shoved it into the pocket of his coat, holding it in place as they walked.
Holding Theo’s hand.
In public.
He couldn’t suppress his gasp or the twitch of his fingers against Jun’s.
Jun didn’t respond beyond a single, slow caress of his thumb across Theo’s palm, nothing in his rigid posture giving away the tender gesture.
There it was again, a touch. The slightest brush against his palm, soft and unsure. Such an odd, stilted expression of affection and support, and yet. Like all the other tiny, stifled gestures Jun made, it went directly to Theo’s heart.
His heart was an idiot.
Axel stepped off into a shadowy alcove with a cheerful wave farewell. “Catch you later, lovebirds! Bring back some credits and try not to die. Or, if you do, send the credits first!”
Boom had already melted into the crowd, nowhere to be seen.
Jun didn’t acknowledge his pilot at all, his hooded face trained forward as he strode purposefully through the crowd with Theo by his side.
Chapter Twenty-Two
They cut through a long, winding alley bereft of people, between towering soot-black metal buildings glowing green from the crowded signs overhead. Along the thoroughfare at the other end of the alley, strange chrome vehicles covered in acid-bright lights zipped past with a high, whining drone of sound. It echoed down toward them, hollowly meshed together with the raucous voices of passersby.
Long, wet streaks dripped sluggishly down the walls to either side as they entered the narrow space, and Theo found his normally inquisitive nature completely uninterested in determining the source of the dampness.
It seemed a mystery best left unsolved.
So, he turned his curiosity to Jun, who had slowed his walk, hand still loosely cupped around Theo’s in his pocket. The casual gesture fanned the flames of something utterly inadvisable in Theo’s chest. Something that would only end up burning him, in the end. It would be worth it, though, to have had this with Jun for even a moment.
Theo peered up at him, trying to make out his face around both of their hoods. “May I ask what we are dropping?”
“No.”
“Very well, then. May I ask where we are going?”
“No.”
“In that case, may I ask who we are meeting?”
Jun stopped in his tracks and turned just enough that the green glow lit his elegant profile. “Theo. I’m begging you to stop asking questions.”
“No.”
Jun turned the rest of the way, and Theo’s arm followed with his hand still in Jun’s pocket.
Theo scoffed at Jun’s offended expression. “Oh, you don’t like it when I give you curt, negative answers to your requests? How odd. You seem to think I should be overjoyed with the very same treatment.”
It was endlessly entertaining to witness Jun relaxing his tough facade enough to roll his eyes petulantly. “Alright, alright. I get it. You can ask three questions, but they can’t be about the drop.” The tinge of affection in Jun’s voice was more than enough to propel Theo forward with his inquiries.
Theo restrained his urge to jump for joy, clutching Jun’s fingers instead. “The mind races with excitement. However shall I choose? Oh, I know! Pick a number between one and ten.”
“Four.”
“Where were you born?”
“Goryeo.”
“What? But that’s a Core planet! You were born in the Core?”
Jun’s brow raised regally, the light and shadow of the alley blocking his face out in harsh angled shapes. “Is that your second question?”
Theo bent his knees with a groan, catching his hood as it threatened to slide off in his pique. “No. Damn it all, Jun. You do make things difficult. Very well. If you were born into the Core, how did you end up out here, running dangerous missions such as this?�
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For a long, silent moment, Theo thought he wasn’t going to answer. The dim light reflecting off his irises made them appear deep pools of dark water into which Theo might very likely drown.
Then he blinked, and the illusion was gone.
“My parents were scientists. Brilliant, like you. They worked for the Quorum, but my mother discovered something. Something dangerous. We had to leave. I was six when we jumped the Verge. I grew up out here, an Outlier as much as any other, much to their bitter disappointment.”
Parental disappointment, a subject Theo knew well. He could probably teach classes on it, instruct others on disappointing their parents. Make good use of his years of firsthand knowledge.
It was the first thing they had in common that Theo could not celebrate.
He stroked over Jun’s hand in his pocket, softly and gently as he moved a little closer. “That must have been quite the discovery if it could cause a Quorum scientist to leave her prominent position for the dangers of the deep dark. I guess my final question would be—what was it?”
Jun scanned the empty alleyway in both directions, then tilted his head up to the rooftops, relaxing slightly at whatever he saw. Or didn’t see. “I’ve spent the past three years trying to find out. My father left encoded journals. I barely managed to translate some of them, but it was enough to know there isn’t much time left. There’s a date buried in the numbers. Two months from now. He used every language he could find to make the code, and I worked on cracking it until I hit a wall. One language was so obscure I could find nothing on it. I put out watchers in every data system and nothing reported back until—”
Theo gasped with realization, yanking his hand out of Jun’s pocket to poke him in the sternum with an excited finger. “Until my paper was published in the Journal of Linguistica Obscura.”
Jun closed his hand around Theo’s finger, squeezing lightly before he guided it away. “Yes, and you’ve made more progress in a week than I did in a year, Theo. You’re just—you’re amazing. I’m not like that. I didn’t inherit my parents’ intellect.”
Another subject Theo was very familiar with—faltering self-esteem. He couldn’t stand to see it in Jun. “Perhaps you didn’t inherit their interest in academics, but you have shown your worth many times over. The notes had been so clearly organized that it was simple for me to apply my knowledge to them. You set that up for me, which was no small task.”
Jun shook his head, mouth drawn in a tight line. “My parents were brilliant, brave, and honorable. We had nothing in common.”
The noise Theo made with his lips would have gotten him thrown out of his mother’s drawing room. “Poppycock. I’m sure you have much in common, such as stubbornness and a short fuse. A long second toe. And, as should be apparent to anyone who has spent any amount of time in your company, an abundance of bravery.”
He reached out to take both of Jun’s hands in his, rubbing over the knuckles with his thumbs. “It certainly took courage for them to do what they did, as much as it is taking for you to pursue their work now.”
In their absence, he did not say. Jun had never mentioned, and Theo had never asked, but he got the distinct impression Jun’s parents were no longer among the living. His heart ached for him.
Emotion crested in Jun’s face as he leaned down to Theo, and it splashed over into his voice when he spoke quietly and fervently. “I must continue their work because I’ve seen what will happen if I don’t.”
Guilt, dread, and just the barest shimmer of hope were all plainly there for Theo to take in. He squeezed Jun’s hands encouragingly. “What will happen?”
Jun’s mouth twisted into a frown, unhappy creases appearing to either side. “Verge decay. Twenty years ago, the decomposition reached the point where integrity was compromised and there was a shift. The entire barrier contracted inwards, cutting off the three outermost Verge settlements and scorching away their water sources.”
Theo gasped as a horrified shiver ran down his spine. “The Three Colonies disaster? I was just a child, but I remember the news flashes. So many Verge settlers died. It was terrible, but they fixed it—the programming error in the barrier that caused the disaster.”
Jun nodded solemnly, his grasp tightening around Theo’s hand just short of too much, and he spoke through gritted teeth, “The Quorum claims they fixed it, but it’s a lie. If they delay long enough, then the Verge will contract, once again cutting off the outermost Verge settlements. Then it will stabilize for another twenty years and become someone else’s problem. My parents objected and found their lives in danger.”
It was chilling to even contemplate. Theo had never given much thought to the Quorum beyond vague annoyance at the restrictions the governing body placed on Core citizens. “Do you mean to tell me they plan to sacrifice innocent lives for their own convenience?”
Jun’s face reflected Theo’s horror, with a veneer of anger bubbling over the top like lava. “They deem it an acceptable loss in order to maintain the protection of the Verge for the Core planets.”
If Ari were here, he would don his most disdainful face and drip ice in his words. All Theo could do was hiss with rage. “There is nothing about this that is acceptable.”
Jun’s rage mirrored Theo’s, welling up in every line of his body, every twitch of his face, ticking like a time bomb in his clenched jaw. “No, there isn’t, and I have no choice. I have to finish what they started. And I have—” He glanced away, and the sickly green glow overhead caught the sheen in his eyes. “—so much to make up for. Bravery doesn’t enter into it.”
Standing so close, Theo couldn’t miss the bob of Jun’s throat or the raw, wet sound of it as he swallowed against nothing. Jun pulled his hands out of Theo’s grasp and stepped away, putting a good three feet between them.
Theo’s hands were cold. He pressed them against his chest as Jun strode away down the alley.
“Come on,” Jun said, casting his voice behind him. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Darkness had spread across the sky like a bruise by the time they exited the alley.
The glowing signage everywhere seemed brighter in contrast as the street was cut into pieces by bright light and deep shadow.
Peering into one of the shadowed sections, Theo recoiled and tugged on Jun’s coat. “Jun, look. What in the stars are they doing?”
Theo gawked at a cluster of people of indeterminate age taking turns shocking themselves with a rusty phaser, screaming and laughing. Tears flowed freely in technicolor streams down their faces, bright makeup washed away in smearing streaks.
Jun tugged Theo’s hood further up over his head, then crossed his arms over his chest with his right tucked in snug against his holster. “Just some stun-junkies and mist-mouths. Don’t stare. Keep your head down; act natural. We don’t want anyone to know you’re from the Core.”
Theo trudged along at his side, hands shoved in his pocket. He lent a mocking tone to his voice that usually got him pinched by his twin as he said, “Right, because then they might try to snatch me from under your nose, seeing as I am something of a hot commodity in the region. It would be terrible if someone were to try to kidnap me, Jun. Just awful. Could you imagine such a thing?”
Jun cut in over his sarcastic monologue with a short, quiet command. “Stop talking, eyes front. Let’s go.”
A lovely young lady smiled broadly at Theo from the other side of the walkway. Knotted lines of barbed-wire ink twisted down her neck, around her glowing circuitry tattoos. She licked metallic blue lips with a long tongue stained the same unnatural shade.
Theo lifted his hand in a respectful little wave, then yelped when Jun smacked it back down to his side with a particularly colorful curse.
“Don’t engage. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”
It hadn’t hurt even a little, but Theo still shook his hand out theatrically with a glare. “And what idea might that be?”
His theatrics
had absolutely no effect on Jun, who simply continued to scowl at their surroundings. “That you’re available.”
Wasn’t that an interesting thought?
A thought that required chasing all the way to the end. Theo bumped their shoulders as he hurried to keep up with Jun’s long stride. “Oh? Are you saying I’m unavailable? That I’ve been taken off the market? Why would you say that, I wonder?”
It was as if he hadn’t said anything. Jun didn’t even twitch in his direction beyond a slight deepening of the line between his brows. He stopped in front of a building that held no distinction Theo could determine from the others to either side. “We’re here. I need you to tell me everything they say to the best of your ability.”
The weight of responsibility settled unevenly across Theo’s shoulders, heavy and unfamiliar. He summoned up a nervous laugh as he contemplated the dark metal facade. “I’m amazed you would entrust me with something so crucial, having met me. Surely, you’ve realized by now what an unmitigated disaster I am.”
It was disconcerting to suddenly have Jun’s full attention when he had been chasing it fruitlessly for so long. Jun’s coat flared dramatically as he turned to face Theo. He kept quiet but firm, leaving no room for argument. “I have never met anyone more capable. You’re incredible, and I don’t say that lightly.”
A pleasant burst of warmth ran through Theo’s veins at the simply stated praise, knocking his breath out in the soundless shape of Jun’s name.
Jun watched his mouth for a moment before continuing, the beautiful lines of his face cast in stark relief by the shadow of his hood. “Stay close. If I have to pull out my weapon, you run. Understand?”
Adrenaline gathered in Theo’s fingertips like rain dripping down until he was buzzing with it, shaky with nerves even as he lifted his chin against them. “Yes, Captain.”