by M. D. Cooper
“So where to?” Cheeky asked, glancing along the concourse which still bore the signs of the shoot-out from three days prior.
Jessica tapped a finger against her lips, then drew it away, seeing how long she could keep the electricity jumping between before it became a little painful.
“You know that’s kinda freaky, right?” Cheeky asked with a laugh.
Jessica winked. “Why do you think I do it?” Then she squared her shoulders and gestured to the cross corridor which led to a downring maglev station. “I saw some great shops along one of the spokes during the fighting. So long as Belloc’s people didn’t blow them up, they’ll be just the thing.”
Cheeky nodded and kept pace at Jessica’s side as they walked down the corridor.
“Anything in particular that you’re looking for today?” Cheeky asked after a minute.
“Not sure…just wanted to feel like a regular person for a bit. It’s been kinda nuts since that day in Parda City. Your abduction by the Lisas, our storming Costa Station, making the jump out to Finaeus’s secret base—”
“Damn I wish I could have seen that.” Cheeky’s voice was wistful. “I will someday, though. He promised to take me there.”
“I’m hitching a ride.” Jessica flashed Cheeky a smile. “The core was so bright…worlds that far in have almost no nighttime when they’re between the core and their star.”
“So a lot brighter than the cradle is at New Canaan?” Cheeky asked with dreamy look in her eyes. “You know how I know someone made the universe? Stars are just too beautiful to be accidents.”
“Well, they’re not really accidents, they’re just hot stuff all squished together.”
Cheeky glanced at Jessica and rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure that’s my ass you’re talking about. Don’t go making stars mundane.”
“You calling your ass mundane?”
“Are you?”
For a moment Jessica thought her friend was serious, but she spotted a twinkle in Cheeky’s eye and then burst out laughing, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
“Stars, Cheeky, next to Trevor in bed, you not being dead is the best thing ever.”
Cheeky threw an arm around Jessica’s waist. “I suppose playing second fiddle to sex with your husband is something I can deal with. The real question is how your escapade with him and Iris went. Where do I rank against that?”
“Uhh…I hadn’t really thought about where that places yet. It was…weird. Like having sex with your best friends.”
A shrug rolled off Cheeky’s shoulders. “Sounds like the perfect people to have sex with if you ask me.”
“Cheeks, you think any willing partner is the perfect person to have sex with.”
“Not so.” Cheeky held up a finger and gave Jessica a discerning look. “There’s a hierarchy.”
Jessica only laughed in response and then reached into her jacket’s inside pocket and pulled out the sunglasses from the curiosity shop they’d been in when Cheeky was abducted by the Lisas.
“I’d been meaning to give these to you, but then things got nuts and you went and died.”
Cheeky’s eyes widened as she lifted the mirrored glasses out of Jessica’s hands. “Sweet, Jess, I can’t believe you went back and bought these!”
A snort burst from Jessica’s nose. “Cheeks, seriously. Things were nuts then; I swiped them.”
“Jessica!” Cheeky set the glasses on her face and gave a saucy grin. “I’m so proud of you.”
A NEW FRENEMY
STELLAR DATE: 05.01.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Lower Warrens, Chittering Hawk Station
REGION: Virginis System, AST Space
Jinx and Trip had managed to evade capture for nearly a day while moving from place to place, deep in Chittering Hawk’s lower warrens. They’d spent a few hours in a waste filtration plant until Trip could stand it no longer, and now found themselves within an old storage facility.
The sign out front had once proudly proclaimed the place to be ‘Skippy’s Self Storage’, but the area had been worked over by looters at some point in the past, and didn’t appear to store much of anything anymore.
Jinx and Trip were hiding in the back of a storage chamber that held the remains of someone’s home furnishings along with a few tubs of semi-odorous clothing.
“We can’t keep hiding out here forever,” Trip said lamely.
It was a conversation they’d had several times over the last day. Jinx wondered if this would be the ‘find someone to help’ version, or the ‘find a ship out of here’ version.
“Captain Yarran seemed convinced that people here would be able to help, but we’ve barely seen anyone down in the warrens, and those we’ve spotted don’t look like they can do much to aid us,” Jinx replied.
“We should—”
“Get to a comm array,” Jinx interrupted him, having recently decided what their best course of action would be. “We know that the Virginis Defense Force still holds the inner system. We let them know about the hostages here, and maybe they’ll send help.”
“Really, Jinx?” Trip asked, a smattering of scorn in his voice. “They’ve lost this part of the system. They’re up against the Hegemony. There’s no way they can get anyone out here to help. It’s a miracle they’ve managed to fend off the AST for this long.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Jinx asked, staring down Trip as best she could with her mobile frame’s impassive face. “We can’t seem to find anyone who can help us; maybe they’ll send aid if they know about all the rescued AIs.”
“They haven’t sent aid for everyone currently on this station. What makes you think they can send aid for the AIs on the Garrulous Brooke?”
Jinx didn’t have a good answer, but she knew that staying on Chittering Hawk was very likely a death sentence for her. She was about suggest a route to one of the comm arrays when a figure appeared at the entrance to the storage chamber, hands on hips.
The person was clearly female, and Jinx should have been able to see something more than just the individual’s silhouette, but her frame’s optics weren’t able to pick up any more detail.
For a moment, she wondered if something was wrong with them, but then realized that the person must have been using some sort of stealth technology to shroud herself.
“What are you two doing in here?” she asked in a grating voice. “This is Thompson’s turf.”
“We don’t want any trouble,” Trip stood slowly, hands up at his shoulders. “We’re just trying to find a place to lay low for a bit.”
A coarse snort came from the woman. “Well, laying low usually means you’re bringing trouble with you, and that’s just the sort of thing we don’t need.”
“Maybe you can help us,” Jinx asked eagerly as she rose. “We—”
“Whoa!” the woman held out a hand. “That’s far enough. Shit…you’re an AI, aren’t you—the one the Heegs are looking for.”
“I’m an AI, yes.” Jinx didn’t want to admit that she was wanted, though she suspected that her not confirming her status as a fugitive from the AST wasn’t really much in the way of subterfuge.
“Well, you two had better come with me. If Thompson finds out that you were here and I let you go, there’d be hell to pay.”
“We’re not going anyw—”
The woman reached over her shoulder and pulled a rifle into her hands. “It really wasn’t a request.”
Jinx glanced at Trip, who shrugged. “I guess we go with the lady.”
“Smart man,” the woman said as she backed out of the opening and gestured with the barrel of her rifle for the pair to exit.
Trip went first, followed by Jinx. As she neared the mysterious figure, Jinx could see that in addition to being obscured by armor that created a visual interference field, the woman’s skin was jet black, its features almost impossible to discern in the dim light.
“Where to?” Trip asked.
“Walk straight. I’ll tell you when we get there.”
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They walked amidst the storage chambers and jumble of picked-over personal belongings for ten minutes until they reached a chamber’s entrance that was half obscured by a pile of shipping crates.
“Your Thompson guy really doesn’t take good care of his turf,” Trip mentioned as he looked around.
The woman snorted. “Of course, he does. We did all this. Made it look abandoned and picked over. Keeps looters and the Heegs away. Now stop stalling and go on in.”
Trip eased through a gap in the crates and Jinx did her best to follow after without knocking anything over.
“That’s a real shit frame you have there,” the woman said.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Jinx replied once she was through. “I get why a lot of AIs don’t use mobile frames. They’re a pain in the ass.”
“Well, make yourself useful and lift that hatch back there.”
Jinx did as the woman with the rifle instructed and located the hatch in the rear of the chamber. Lifting it, she found a staircase leading down into a darkened tunnel. She led the way, glad that her optics could see well enough, though Trip muttered a curse when he banged his elbow on the bulkhead.
“Step away from the stairs,” the woman ordered before she came down, sealing the hatch behind herself.
Once she’d descended the steps, a few lights came on, and the group got on the move once more. Presently they came to a large door that opened when they neared. Jinx stepped through and found a large and unsmiling man within. He was both heavily armed and armored, and she knew that even her frame wouldn’t stand up to more than a few blows from his massive fists.
A short walk later, they found themselves in a small arena—or at least what Jinx suspected must have once been an arena. There was a central depression surrounded by stands filled with people.
But these people weren’t there to watch a match, rather—given the volume of personal possessions—they seemed to live in the arena. The central area looked like it might have once been a fighting ring, but now it was filled with tables and a crude kitchen.
Even before most of the denizens caught sight of them, a muted burble of conversation filled the space, which picked up when the group passed through the stands.
The woman leading them didn’t engage with a single person in the arena, instead guiding her charges around the central space to a corridor that ran under the far side of the stands.
Trip and Jinx wove through a narrow corridor, made narrower by all manner of things piled within. From crates of food, to weapons, to what looked like crates of hydro seedlings.
Finally, the woman directed them to stop at a door. There was another of the large guards present, and he looked Trip and Jinx over before giving a quick knock on the door.
His expression didn’t change as he regarded the group, and Jinx wondered if he and the woman were speaking over the Link. She didn’t look back at their tight-lipped escort, though, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing Jinx’s curiosity.
A few seconds later, the guard reached out for the door’s latch and slid it open then nodded once.
Trip entered without being told, and Jinx followed after, quickly sweeping her gaze across the small, unadorned room. Aside from a few chairs and a steel desk in the center, there was nothing of note—other than the large man with long blonde hair who sat behind the desk, stroking something she’d never witnessed in person: a beard.
“Well now, Camilla, what have you scrounged up today?” the man said, giving Camilla a measuring look before turning his gaze to Trip and Jinx.
“Found them hiding in the storage facility,” Camilla said in a voice devoid of all emotion.
Jinx wasn’t especially proficient at analyzing human emotion, but she suspected these two didn’t get along especially well. Or maybe neither were terribly happy people in general.
“And since you brought them here, I suspect that this pair are the ones the Heegs are after.”
“I didn’t take the time to run ident checks, but yeah, they fit the descriptions.”
The large man rose, and Jinx was surprised to find herself staring up at him—something her tall mobile frame rarely had to do.
“Quite the little mess you and your ship made coming here,” the man said. “ ‘Course, I think it would have gone better if your captain had known what the fuck he was doing. The sort of Heegs that get dumped on places like the Hawk just want a little bit of credit greasing their palms. Word is he tried to play an honest man’s game and ended up with a hole in his head.”
Jinx was surprised that this man hiding down in the bowels of the station—some twenty kilometers or more from where the Garrulous Brooke had docked—knew so much about what had gone on the prior day.
She must have given away her curiosity somehow, because he grinned at her. “Yeah, I know what’s going on around here. You don’t survive as long as I have without keeping an ear to the ground. Plus, I make sure the right people get paid the right amounts up in the Heeg garrison.”
“What are you going to do with us?” Trip asked, his voice wavering, though he managed a defiant expression.
The man leant back against his desk and gave a rueful laugh. “Honestly? I have no idea. I wonder how much the station commander would give me for the pair of you.”
“You’ll have to kill me,” Jinx said in as menacing a tone as she could manage. “I won’t go back.”
“Well, word is that you’re a deserter, so I bet they’ll take your core in whatever state I can manage.”
Trip shook his head. “I don’t believe it. You have a refugee camp here. You wouldn’t do that if you were the sort who would turn us in.”
“You overestimate Thompson here,” Camilla said with a sour laugh from where she’d leant against the wall.
“Shut it, Camilla,” the man—who Jinx was trying to place as a ‘Thompson’—growled before fixing Trip with a judging look. “I can feed those people for months with what I can get for you two.”
“You can’t!” Jinx exclaimed. “There are hundreds of AIs trapped on our ship. We have to free them.”
“My dear AI,” Thompson said while shaking his head. “Those AIs are not on your ship anymore. I can promise you that.”
“What about the people further in Virginis?” Jinx pressed. “Can you reach them? They’d help us; they’re against the AST.”
Thompson snorted. “Right. You’d be more likely to get hit by a stray comet. Those League of Sentients asshats cut and run, leaving the rest of us out here. They’re not interested in helping us or you. Not capable of it either, if you ask me—”
Thompson was interrupted by a man bursting into the room. He pushed past Trip and Jinx, stumbling to a halt right before Thompson.
“Boss, you weren’t responding on the Link—”
“I know, Mal,” Thompson growled. “That’s because I’m busy….”
“You’re gonna want to check this. I sent you a feed from Cerka Station. Their president held a press release and you’ll never guess who was there!”
Thompson glared at Mal for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed and ticked to the left. His expression remained unchanged for a moment, and then his eyes widened so much, Jinx wondered if he was in some sort of biological distress.
“Holy shit…” he whispered. “They’re back.”
“Sabrina is here, too,” Mal added. “Or at least that’s what people are saying on the feeds coming out of Cerka. They had some sort of attempted coup, and then Sabrina shows up and poof, it’s all law and order over there again.”
“Sabrina…” Thompson whispered, then his gaze fell on Jinx. “You know…you and your liberated AIs just might come in handy after all. There’s no way all the bleeding hearts on that ship will be able to resist freeing a bunch of her own kind.”
“What?” Jinx knew a bit about Sabrina, the ship that had catalyzed the AI revolution in and around Hegemony space. “She’s here?!”
“Shut up.” Thompson glanced at Jinx. “I ne
ed to figure out how to play this.” He glanced at Camilla. “You still have that contact on Cerka? Can we get him a secure message?”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed. “Last I heard, yeah. We’re gonna have to work with Fusha’s syndicate to get access to the relay network, though.”
Thompson nodded distractedly. “Get on it. I’ll have a message ready to send.”
AN OLD FRENEMY
STELLAR DATE: 05.01.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: District 43, Cerka Station
REGION: Mullens, Virginis System, LoS Space
Jessica grabbed Cheeky’s arm and pulled her sharply to the left, angling into a shop that practically glowed from all the bright shimmering items within.
“Ohhhh…” Cheeky’s mouth formed an ‘O’ while her eyes lit up with excitement. “Don’t go into the light, Cheeky, don’t goooooo….”
“Funny girl,” Jessica said with a laugh as they walked into the store, Jessica toward a glowing white catsuit being displayed by a very convincing simulacra on a pedestal, while Cheeky gravitated toward a display featuring strobing a-grav bangles that slid up and down the wearer’s arm.
“What do you think?” Jessica asked Cheeky, gesturing at the simulacra as it twisted to show the white catsuit. “Is that my thing? White?”
Cheeky tapped a finger against her lips. “Hmmm…. You know, there’s only one way to be sure.”
As she replied, a human attendant approached. “Can I be any hel—oh! You’re General Keller! Wow, here? In my store?”
Jessica took in the tall woman who was clasping her hands and staring with unabashed excitement. She wore a long transparent jacket over a catsuit with clear panels on the legs and down the front, a look Jessica thought was rather appealing.
“In the flesh—” she began to say.
“So to speak,” Cheeky interrupted with a giggle.
“Uh, yeah,” Jessica said after giving Cheeky a friendly eye-roll. “This place is amazing, but what I really like is what you’re rocking. Do you have it in my size?” She liked the idea of being fully clothed while also able to charge her skin.
