Guided by Starlight

by Matt Levin

  The other enforcer standing guard escorted him to another office suite, this time branching off from the main hangar. It was cramped inside, but there was a dusty desk and a large chair where Lena was sitting. A single fluorescent lantern sitting on the desk was all the lighting they had.

  Lena must’ve wanted to find somewhere to establish a physical power dynamic, Russ figured. It was dumb theatrics, but he at least appreciated the consistency in Lena’s messaging. Maybe it worked on some people. As he sat down in the chair facing her, she just stared at him in stony silence.

  “I have plenty of enforcers,” Lena said at last. “Losing those three assholes on the gunship doesn’t concern me. And it doesn’t really bother me that I can’t know for certain whether or not your story is true. What does concern me is profits. And I hear you have a proposal for that.”

  Russ tried to ignore the obvious threat: if she didn’t like what he was going to tell her, she’d leave him to die in the desert. Hopefully, with all his limbs attached. “I figure you looked me up,” Russ said. “Which means you probably have some sense why I’m here.”

  Even speaking made his head throb with dizziness. He wished for the strength just to make it through the rest of the negotiations.

  “You’re the defense adviser to the refugee leader,” Lena said. “And I figure you’re here about weapons. It’d be a long way to come just for the drugs.”

  Two for two, Russ thought. “I’ve heard the Syndicate is the best place to go if you want to buy weapons in bulk,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, there’s a catch,” Russ said. His heartbeat quickened as he prepared for his ask. Even his body knew it was going to sound stupid. “I was gonna see what you could do for free.”

  He had expected Lena to burst out into laughter when he practiced this negotiation countless times during the flight to Zoledo. That was before he had actually met the woman and learned her style. Fittingly, Lena’s face stayed motionless. Must be an absolute demon at poker, Russ thought.

  “Go on,” she said at last.

  Her credulity threw Russ off, which, he figured, might have been her game. “I’ve been looking over your organization’s history,” Russ said, trying to keep his words slow and deliberate, “I know you used to deal on the outer rim. Years ago, the Syndicate had operations across Enther, Calimor, Ikkren—”

  “—I know all of this,” Lena said, the hint of a threat in her voice. Get to the point or else, she was saying.

  “You’ve probably heard, but Calimor is under new management. The same spaceports the Syndicate used to route contraband through are gonna be open again soon. And you stand to make a killing in the outer rim. The Horde and the Junta would both love to get their hands on your latest merchandise if they’re intent on killing each other. It’s too good a pot for you not to have your hand in it. I’m offering you access to Calimor again.”

  “I appreciate you getting everything back up and running on Calimor. But nothing’s stopping me from sending in a band of mercenaries and taking every settlement on the planet,” Lena said.

  “That’s true,” Russ said. “But that would be messy. You’d win, but you’d lose people. And it would draw lots of attention, especially from the Union. Plus, you’d be putting yourself right in the middle of a crossfire between the Horde and the Junta.

  “Better to let our people stay in the line of fire, while you stay in the shadows. It’s easier for you to just let us be and do your thing unimpeded, using Calimor as a shipping depot for the entire outer rim. There’s just one small buy-in price.”

  “...weapons.”

  “Enough to defend a small colony. Given what you churn out, I doubt it would be a big loss. And if you’re worried about moving that kind of product without the Union getting wind of it, don’t worry. We have plenty of people in cryo who could operate shipping vessels. They wouldn’t register on a Union database as Syndicate.”

  Russ knew he was practically opening Calimor’s doors to the system’s black market. It would place his people’s colonization efforts, already barely hanging by a thread, in considerably more danger in the long run. He had a feeling he’d be dealing with security problems with the Syndicate down the line.

  But the long run was the operative phrase. When the stakes were survival, you did whatever it took. Even if it meant opening up the possibility for future danger. Once New Arcena was capable of defending itself, then Russ could think about securing it from Syndicate encroachment later.

  Looking at the crime boss’ face, he couldn’t tell whether she had already made up her mind and was toying with him, or whether there was genuine contemplation going on behind her stony visage. Given the fact that she was taking longer to respond than she had the entire meeting, he was inclined to guess the latter.

  “Okay,” she said at last. “You have a deal.”

  CHAPTER 26

  * * *

  Isadora was about to leave her office for some rest when her wrister chirped at her, a pop-up announcing an incoming message from Nadia Jibor. Nadia had sent periodic updates ever since she had departed the Preserver for Calimor. But Isadora missed seeing the younger woman’s face: her bright optimism that left her youthful features unmarked by age, the simplicity of her smile, and the raw conviction that shone through her eyes.

  Just as she was about to open Nadia’s message, her wrister informed her of a second message. This one sent by Russ Kama. Isadora realized how much she missed the gruffness of Russ’ voice, or how his pessimism somehow comforted her, making her feel that her inexperience wouldn’t inadvertently doom her people.

  She surprised herself with her sentimentality. The cold professionalism of life in Obrigan City must be getting to her.

  As she contemplated whether to listen to Nadia or Russ’ message first, she looked over to the side of her desk where the picture of Meredith stared back at her. As though the image of her daughter could somehow decide for her.

  Isadora dared to imagine a world where her daughter was waiting for her in her residence. Where she could pack up, turn off the light in her office, and retire to the rooms in the embassy reserved for her private affairs. Meredith would be there, probably staying up later than she should to finish her schoolwork, because that was the sort of person her daughter was.

  Isadora dared to imagine tucking Meredith in, over the girl’s protests that she was, in fact, too old for that kind of thing. And then she would let herself relax, clearing her mind of work responsibilities, all while enjoying the gentle snores of Meredith coming from an adjacent room.

  It had been almost five months.

  Five months, from her subjective sense of time, since Isadora had assured her daughter back on Earth that everything would be okay, that all they needed to do was board the cryo ship called the Preserver, that Isadora would be right there for Meredith when she woke up. Five months since Isadora was brought out of cryo and informed by the ship’s computer that they didn’t have the resources to bring Meredith out too.

  But the only way out was through. Isadora closed her eyes, letting the emotional pain of her distance from her frozen daughter wash over her. She let herself feel the pain, accept it. Then she opened her eyes and returned to her wrister. She might as well deal with the closest thing to family she had right now.

  Isadora decided to view Nadia’s message first. She pressed a button, and a holographic image of Nadia’s face popped up above Isadora’s wrister. She couldn’t help but curl her mouth into a soft grin.

  “Hi boss!” Nadia said, her voice exuberant and perky. “I just got back from a meeting with the Horde’s leader. And I have good news...I think?

  “Tori Hyrak offered to begin shipping Ikkren food to New Arcena. In return, she’s asking that we allow her people to use Calimor as a trade market with Union commercial vessels, and not impose any duties or fees.

  “The issue for them is that all of their imports run through Enther, and the Junta slaps tons of extra fees on inner-plan
et goods. So if we give them a neutral trading ground, they’re willing to bankroll us with food.

  “And actually, there’s more on top of that,” Nadia said with a grin. “Ikkren still has plenty of untapped potential in terms of arable land. Tori suggested that she may approve at least one large-scale settlement here. This could be a huge windfall. Especially on the heels of New Arcena.”

  Isadora’s heart skipped a beat. Projections for New Arcena kept having to be revised down, as she, Vincent, and Alexander Mettevin had continued to work on calculating the optimal number of people to bring out of cryo. Initially, they had thought they could hit ten thousand settlers in a few months. Now, it looked like that might be years away.

  But on a planet like Ikkren, with a breathable atmosphere and real potential for sustainable food production, they could fill any settlement with at least ten thousand settlers to start with. Every settler they brought out of cryo and every resource they produced only brought Isadora closer to justifying bringing Meredith out of cryo. And more settlements would reduce the massive vulnerability at the heart of the refugees’ colonization efforts: that millions were still in storage on the Preserver, drifting undefended in space.

  It didn’t seem like Nadia was privy to the growing pessimism about New Arcena’s potential. She still regarded their first settlement as a monumental triumph. And maybe from a symbolic standpoint, it still was. Isadora felt a pang of jealousy, wishing she could spend day after heady day exploring the Natonese frontier. Instead, her days were filled with the harsh realities of resource calculus.

  “Anyway, that’s where we’ll head next, with your approval. My crew can spend the next few weeks surveying the Ikkren backcountry, looking for settlement sites. I’ll let you know what we find. Whenever you decide whether to accept the Horde’s deal, let me know, and I’ll get back in touch with Tori.

  “And...I hope the capital’s treating you well. You can always talk to me if you ever need to vent. I know it can’t be easy. Talk to you later,” Nadia said, and the message cut out.

  Isadora couldn’t believe their luck, so much so that she was immediately skeptical of the Horde’s offer. They were offering Calimor everything they needed, and all for the price of not taxing trade that passed through her people’s ports. And with the potential for settling Ikkren on top.

  Isadora decided she wanted to get a second opinion on the issue, and forwarded Nadia’s message to Alexander Mettevin. Hopefully, he’d crunch the numbers and tell her how good of a deal the Horde was actually offering.

  And then she turned her attention to Russ’ message, which came with encryption. She inputted the code that only she and Russ knew for top-secret communications, and the message opened. A holographic image of Russ’ weathered face filled the void left by Nadia’s likeness.

  “Ma’am,” Russ said. “I have news to report from the Zoledo venture. I have met with the Syndicate boss and secured an arrangement. She has agreed to provide weapon shipments to New Arcena. Enough to ensure that our settlers with EDF experience have military-grade hardware to defend the colony.

  “We can acquire assault rifles and gun emplacements that could protect the colony from raiders or pirates. Or even repel a ground force, given our people’s better knowledge of the terrain.

  “The Syndicate is aware that we can’t pay for these weapons at the moment. I know you don’t want to know the full details, but the short story is that the deal they’re offering would allow them to set up shop on Calimor as well. There are still dozens of dead settlements spread across the planet, and I figure the Syndicate could probably have a handful of them. They need Calimor as a supply depot to ship their goods elsewhere in the outer rim, or to the mining colonies in the asteroid belt.

  “Obviously, they could do all this without us. But I’m promising that our people will turn a blind eye to any and all black market activities that go on under our noses. I understand that may be a hard sell, but I can’t think of anything else we can offer that could appease the Syndicate.

  “I don’t really like it, personally, and I’m worried it could create more problems for us in the long run. But I’m also aware that, without even a minimal ability to defend ourselves, our first settlement is in grave danger. As much as I don’t like working with the Syndicate, all the other options are worse.

  “As your primary defense adviser, I’m recommending that we accept the Syndicate’s terms. But, of course, the decision is yours, and I’ll defer to whatever you ultimately choose. Russ Kama, signing out.” The image of his face evaporated.

  Isadora leaned back in her chair and considered both the offers from the Horde and the Syndicate simultaneously. Both centered on leveraging her people’s Calimor settlement. Isadora realized that approving both deals would transform the planet in short order. Soon, Horde merchants would be doing business with traders from the core planets, while the shadowy tentacles of the black market would become entrenched in the planet and its commercial life.

  Isadora imagined a future where Calimor was a melting pot of people from every corner of the Natonus System, a nexus of economic activity ranging from legal to illicit. It would be a strange fate for a planet that had been dead for nearly a decade before the Preserver showed up.

  She also reflected on the fact that her gut reaction had been to distrust the Horde more than the literal black market. Isadora had so deeply internalized the suspicion with which Russ viewed everything that she also trusted him implicitly when he proposed the Syndicate deal. That also meant she had internalized Russ’ reservations about Nadia’s judgment, if not his dislike of their settlement project leader. She had an easier time believing that Nadia’s reading of the Horde was the product of naive idealism than that Russ was wrong about the Syndicate.

  Another notification from her wrister interrupted her thoughts. Alexander Mettevin was responding to Nadia’s message. Isadora invited him up to her office and pressed a button on her terminal, unlocking the door.

  A minute later, her financial adviser appeared in the doorway. “Good evening, ma’am,” he said, his round face giving her a good-natured smile.

  “Thank you for agreeing to a meeting so late,” Isadora said. Although in her experience, Alexander seemed to keep later hours than either Gabby or Katrina.

  “Of course,” Alexander said, taking a seat on the other side of Isadora’s desk. “I just got finished doing projections on the proposed deal from the Horde.”

  Isadora leaned forward and crossed her arms on the top of her desk. “It almost seems too good to be true,” she said.

  Alexander chuckled. “Hardly. It’s a great deal for the Horde. And vaguely good for us, albeit more in the short term.”

  He pressed a few buttons on his wrister, which displayed a holographic projection. It was a graph, showing expected Horde profits over time based on the proposed deal with the refugees. The line showed a brief dip in the beginning, followed by a massive increase.

  “Providing, essentially, free food for New Arcena would dent their profits initially,” Alexander explained, pointing to the dip at the start of the graph, “but Ikkren has historically been the breadbasket of the outer rim. They’re good at producing foodstuffs, and a lot of it. Increasing production of their comparative advantage isn’t really a huge loss. And the prospect of duty-free imports would be huge for them.

  “The problem is that, right now, everything the Horde imports goes through Enther markets, and the Junta is bleeding them dry with transaction fees. Because the Junta essentially operates as a rentier state. It’s hard to estimate the exact point at which the Horde would turn a profit under the terms of their proposed deal, but based on an initial analysis I’d guess anywhere between three and six months. Almost certainly within a year. It’s insanely good for them.”

  Isadora arched her eyebrows. The Horde throwing in the possibility of establishing new settlements on Ikkren hardly seemed like a lucky break now. They were just sweetening the pot for what they really wanted.
/>   “Do you think it’s too good for them?” Isadora asked.

  Alexander scrunched his face, as he did during moments of contemplation. “It isn’t a zero-sum game, but it is quite good for them. Still, I’d recommend taking it. It’s a good deal for us in the short term.”

  “That was my initial instinct,” Isadora said.

  Alexander nodded, but maintained his scrunched expression. “At some point, we might want to try to move past making deals that are only good for us in the short term,” he said. “Take, for example, this embassy: it has been incredible for centralizing our work, and we even have food stipends provided by the Union. But we’ll have to pay back those loans eventually.

  “Or, for another example, this deal I’m working out with one of the bigger colonial supply firms in the city: Veltech. They seem willing to sell us their products at an insane markdown, but only if we commit to making them our sole supplier for the next decade. That’s an amazing deal for them. If we’re legally barred from shopping around, they can slowly raise their prices on us all while choking their competitors’ access to the market. But it’s good for us in the short term, so we have to take it.

  “And it’s the same thing with this Horde deal. We can use their imported food to transition New Arcena toward spice production, thereby turning a profit, but we’ll be losing out on a major source of income down the road if we can’t charge transaction fees for any Calimor trade involving the Horde.”

  The deal with the Syndicate was exactly the same, Isadora realized: no-cost weapons upfront, which was good for them, but at the cost of giving the black market free rein to set up shop on Calimor. She didn’t feel comfortable sharing the details of the Syndicate deal with Alexander, due to its sensitive nature, but she figured his conclusion would be the same.

  Isadora felt hemmed in by all sides. Nearly everyone in the system was trying to figure out how to use her people’s arrival to better themselves, whether it was the Horde, the Syndicate, Veltech Colonial Supply, or the Union. And all of them were cloaking their real intentions in the guise of altruism. The only way forward for Isadora’s people was through actions that benefited everyone else far more.