by Kelly Gay
“No. But she’ll see me or she wouldn’t have let me get this far.”
He stood and powered up the scanner. Once it was ready, he gestured for her to step inside while the Jackal monitored the scan on a screen in front of him. The pulsating white light inside the scanner turned red. “Step back, please,” the man instructed. “Put your left arm on the table.”
Rion did as directed. The man grabbed her forearm tightly, holding it against the table, and selecting one of the many strange and sharp medical devices—scalpels for all species—on the table next to the scanner. He spoke to the Jackal in basic Sangheili, checking the screen before spraying her skin with analgesic spray and then slicing into her arm without preamble.
“You speak Covenant,” she said with a tight smile as he made a neat cut into her skin before reaching for a pair of tweezers, the ends of which he stuck into the wound.
“Very little.”
“Nor doesn’t usually employ humans.” He opened the tweezers inside the wound and grabbed hold of the silicone bug implanted just below her skin. She thought back to a moment during her time with Hahn when she might have felt a tiny sting, but in all the tension and drama, she couldn’t place exactly when the bug had been inserted or by whom.
“No, she doesn’t,” the young man answered. “But things started to get messy when she installed this scanner. Jackals aren’t great at being delicate, if you get my meaning. She got tired of all the blood and the customers complaining. . . .” He pulled a tiny gray device the size of a rice grain free and dropped it into a pan. “Looks like ONI tech,” he said, peering at it for a moment. “Seeing more and more of them these days. Advanced little buggers.”
He pressed a seal onto her wound.
“You’re pretty good at this,” she said, holding the seal tightly so it would bond to her skin.
“I work at the clinic in New Tyne,” he said with a shrug. “At least the complaints here have gone down.”
“Would you mind scanning me again?”
“Sure.”
By the time they were finished, and everyone was bug-free and sealed up, Rion finally felt a measure of relief.
The Jackal led them to Nor’s door. It slid open a fraction and Nor Fel stuck her head out. Her beady yellow eyes studied them intently over a long, toothy beak. “What you doing, lurking out here?” She spied Rion’s seal and snorted. “Come inside.” She noticed Ram at the back of the pack and gave a surprised squawk. “You two . . . working together.” She cackled at that as she moved aside to let them both in, then held up a clawed hand to Lessa and Niko. “Hatchlings, stay.”
Nor then proceeded to close the door in their faces. Her clawed feet tapped over the floor as she waddled around her desk and took a seat. Her bling was heavy on the rings today, flashing as she rested her leathery elbows on the desktop and then propped her lower beak on the teepee of her bejeweled claws. Her eyes were near slits as she regarded Rion. “Trouble follows you, Rion Forge. Ever since Eiro.”
“I need to borrow your sweeper and software for my ship.”
“Fine. Fine.” She tapped a claw on the table as she thought. “ONI coming around. Asking things.” The feathers that ran down the back of her head and neck stiffened. It was clear she despised them. “Sticking beaks in business not they own. Despicable. And Gek ‘Lhar. Ha! Wants you dead for what you gave him. All trouble Nor does not need.”
“Well, I’m not on anyone’s radar anymore. Gek is in uncharted space, if I had to guess, and ONI got what they wanted, so . . .” Rion rose to leave.
“Sit.” Nor waited until Rion complied. “Your warehouse outside of town—all gone. Came in with ship and lifted it up, away. Nothing left but foundation. But I save you something. I know things ahead of time. So I go and do you another favor. See now. It is you owes me three now.”
Rion’s brow lifted, and she couldn’t help but be intrigued. “That depends on what you saved.”
“That safe of yours—no cracking it.” Nor laughed. “But I go through your things . . . find this. . . .” She pulled a small datacore from her drawer and set it on the table. Nor’s smile was more of an openmouthed pant, but Rion was familiar with the sight of the Kig-Yar grin. “Why this pricey thing not in your safe?”
Rion knew exactly why. Because Niko had begged to study it before they put it on the market. Nor hadn’t had to dig very deep; Rion was pretty sure the core had been left front and center on Niko’s worktable. Any other time, she’d be livid at him for not storing it before they left, but Rion wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “What do you want for it?”
Nor touched a claw to the top of the core and pushed it across the desk, where it came to rest in front of Rion. “Saving my favors. . . . Take it.”
Whatever Nor had in store for her, Rion knew she’d pay the price later.
She agreed to owe another favor and left Nor’s with a datacore containing a salvaged dumb AI—a completely functioning mining facility superintendent.
It was worth a small fortune.
Outside the city, where the roads were still dirt and the neighbors few and far between, Rion sat on the tailgate of her truck with Ram and Lessa, parked on a rise overlooking the small commercial lot where her shipping container once sat. Niko stood on the side of the road, looking at the site with his fingers linked and resting on top of his head.
“Well,” Lessa said with a sigh, “Nor wasn’t kidding, was she?”
It had made a lovely warehouse once upon a time.
Nearly four hundred square meters of space gone. Rion hadn’t needed more room than that—the big salvage was always dumped at the clearinghouse, so there had been plenty of room for small-scale acquisitions, a workspace, and her office, which boasted a very pricey Bernard MK2, where she’d kept a copy of Little Bit’s projections for the Spirit of Fire.
But paying the best for one of the most uncrackable safes in the galaxy didn’t mean much when someone could simply fly over and lift her entire business up off the ground and steal away with whatever was inside.
Seeing the foundation solidified the enormity of what ONI had taken from her. Her search for her father might have just come to a permanent end.
Along with her job and livelihood.
Niko dropped his hands and kicked the small rocks on the side of the road, watching them bounce down the hill. “This is bullshit. They can’t just take everything.”
“They already did, Niko,” Rion said.
Lessa hopped off the tailgate and put a hand on her brother’s shoulder. As they stared at the vacant lot, Rion knew the reality was settling in for them as well. She wasn’t the only one with irreplaceable items stored inside the missing container.
Niko shrugged Lessa’s comforting hand away. “How can they get away with this? Who do they think they are?”
“They think they’re protecting humanity,” Lessa said, shoving her hands in her pockets.
Niko turned around. “How can you say that? They don’t care about humanity—they care who’s in charge. ONI did it because they can. This is all a big power trip. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass about us.”
“I’m not defending them,” she replied, frowning. “I just lost all my stuff too, you know.”
“Oh, what, you lost your knitting needles and your wool? Big deal.”
Lessa flinched. “No, I— Niko . . . we lost everything we took from Aleria.”
Niko shook his head. It was clear he didn’t want to fight with his sister, but his emotions were overwhelming him and he couldn’t seem to help it. “We didn’t have anything to take, Less! We left Aleria with a bag of shitty clothes. There was nothing of value from that life worth saving. Nothing at all.”
Her eyes went round and hurt. She blinked a few times, trying not to cry. “There was Mom’s stuff, her blanket and her—”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. You never knew her, Lessa. That stuff they gave you at the shelter—that could have belonged to anyone. You just believed what t
hey told you because you wanted it to be true. Why do you think we don’t even have a last name? Because no one knew who our parents were!”
They were standing toe to toe. Rion perched on the tailgate, ready to intervene if necessary. Lessa’s lips thinned and her round face was pale and utterly stricken. Suddenly she shoved Niko in the chest so hard that he ended up in the dirt on his rear end. As she stormed off down the road, he sat up and watched her go with a mixture of anger and regret and hurt, about to call her back. But the words didn’t come. So he gave up, lying back in the dirt and letting out a frustrated groan.
Ram remained quiet next to Rion for a moment, picking at his fingernails. “You want me to go get her?”
“No, let her cool off awhile.” Rion gave him a flat smile. “Bet you didn’t expect all this when you asked to crew with us. What is it they say? Be careful what you wish for?”
“Well, I was looking for a distraction. . . .” His dry humor crinkled the corners of his dark eyes. He had a lot of lines there, permanent evidence of his good nature.
Rion watched Lessa marching farther away and let out a deep sigh. She hopped off the tailgate and walked over to stare down at Niko. He felt her gaze and removed his hands from his face. “If you’re going to lecture me, don’t bother.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Right. You always lecture me. Just leave me here. I’ve decided this is where I’m going to stay. Until I die.”
Oh boy. She kicked the sole of his boot. “Get up.” He scowled, and she kicked him again. “Get up. Go get your sister. We have work to do.”
Thirty minutes later, they were all sitting at a corner table in a busy bistro/bar in downtown New Tyne. The mood was somber. Niko and Lessa weren’t speaking to or looking at each other, and Ram wasn’t quite sure how to interact, so he stayed quiet. After the waiter left, Rion dug into her jacket pocket, pulled out the small core, and placed it on the table.
Now she had their interest.
“Here’s where things stand. ONI now has the location of the debris field. They’ve either apprehended Gek ‘Lhar by now or they’re fighting over the field as we speak. They have Little Bit.” She drew in a deep breath. “And they confiscated all his clips and projections on my father and the Spirit of Fire. They didn’t just take our warehouse here; they took them all, along with all of our bank accounts. We have zero leverage, and everything we’ve worked for is gone.”
Rion let that sink in for all of three seconds before diving in to the rest of her speech.
“So here’s what we’re going to do. Niko, you’re going to meet Nor’s people at the airfield and use her software and sweeper to clean the ship. Top to bottom. Once it’s clear, you’re going to do it again. Less, you’re going to contact Rouse at Tiny Birds and ask him to do a quick sale on this core. He likes you. You can get him to do it for beans. Use half the profit to load us up on fuel cells, and food and drink stores. I want Ace packed to capacity.” Lessa nodded and pulled the core toward her as Rion turned her attention to Ram.
“Ram . . .” she began, “I don’t know what’s in store for us or where we’ll end up . . . so if you want out, I’ll completely understand—”
He held up a hand. “I don’t jump ship when things get rough. I knew when I signed up that we’d be dodging ONI. Things went a little sideways, sure,” he said, with a smile at his understatement. “But I’m part of your crew now. I’m still in. And Gek is still out there. Whatever you need me to do.”
Rion gave him a grateful nod. “All right,” she said, clearing her throat. “You’ll take the other half of the core’s profits and secure us new star charts, since we scrubbed ours, and then you’re going to get Niko the tech he needs to decipher whatever the hell is on this. . . .”
She reached into her other pocket and laid the augmented glove on the table. “I didn’t take these off until we left the prowler.”
Niko sat straighter, eyes going wide. “Wait. You used it on ONI?”
“I did. And if there’s anything useful on this scanner, I promise you we’ll use it to take our lives back. We’re not out of the game yet.”
CHAPTER 11
* * *
Ace of Spades, orbiting Venezia, five days later
Niko slapped two separate files onto the lounge’s center table, directly in front of Rion as she sat eating her breakfast bowl of warm rice mixed with fresh Brillon eggs they’d picked up from the market in New Tyne. “Well, here it is,” he said. “Little Bit’s short contribution to what would have been an amazing partnership.” He let out a heavy sigh.
Ram peered around from his chair facing the viewscreen, antiquated reading glasses slipping down his nose, while Lessa stayed leaning on the meal counter, cradling her breakfast bowl in her hands and giving her brother a contrite look.
Niko slid into the chair next to Rion, completely invading her personal space. He touched a finger to the document in front of her. “Translated readout from Gek’s comm. And a whopper from the big ONI dude who grabbed you on Komoya.”
Rion glanced up at him, mouth full as she asked, “You read them?”
He gave her a frown as though she was crazy for asking. “Now, Gek’s last report is a real shocker,” he said with sarcasm. “He’s going to win the auction, lots of religious bullshit with some dude named Jul ‘Mdama, and then after he acquires the Harvester, he’s headed for the debris field to mine, blah, blah, blah, some precious weapon, blah, blah, blah. Same ol’ Covie song and dance. But this,” he said, tapping the next report, “this is some serious gold.”
Rion wiped her mouth, pushed the bowl aside, and went to pull the document closer to read, but Niko couldn’t contain his excitement.
“That big dude who nabbed you is a Spartan,” he said in a delighted rush. “A real-life Spartan. I mean, it fits, right? I’m thinking the lady was too—which makes me feel a whole lot better about being carried across the canal. Anyway, you were right. Their ship is a prowler. The Taurokado. Only got this one image, but it’s a report about some distress call and orders to investigate after securing the debris field and looking around for your dad’s ship.” He tapped the file. “Apparently they think this signal might be related to some redacted-slash-coded incident in 2554.” He pointed to a particular sentence. “Look here, Proceed with extreme caution. High-value asset. Containment Protocol BKW-112. . . . Secure access to the site. Do not engage. . . . They even slipspaced a commsat to the area to block the distress call from reaching anyone else.”
Ram had removed his reading glasses, his attention fixed on Niko’s revelation. Lessa was listening intently as well.
Rion picked up the document. “So they’re protecting their asset from being found . . . that’s promising.”
“Right? And I’m thinking while they’re off saving everyone from Gek, and securing our debris field—bastards that they are—we’ll skip on over and do a little rescue-and-recover mission. There’s definitely something of value at this site.”
Lessa approached. “And then we make a trade for our stuff back.”
“Exactly,” said Niko.
“We could get in and out before they have a chance to point in our direction,” Ram said, joining them. “May I?”
Rion slid the reports his way.
He put his glasses back on. “The Ibycus system. That’s a two or three week hike, give or take.” He typed the system name into the integrated pad on the table. A holo appeared showing a single-star system with four small planetary bodies inside a large asteroid belt. “The planet where the signal is being broadcast is here,” he said, pointing at a small sand-colored world, closest to its star. “Geranos-a, it’s called. Uninhabited. Gravity weighs in at zero-point-six-seven-nine g’s, so we can manage that. Atmosphere’s too thin though.”
“There should be time, right?” Lessa asked. “What do you think? ONI has to get to the debris field, secure it, and then travel to Geranos-a. . . .”
The ONI prowler was a faster ship than Ace, but th
ey should have plenty of time. . . . Still, Rion didn’t want to rush things or make any knee-jerk decisions. Whatever was so valuable on Geranos-a might be more than they could handle. But then again, they wouldn’t know for certain unless they headed out to Ibycus and took a look.
“We didn’t start it,” Niko replied, taking her hesitation for a no-go.
“ONI doesn’t have to know how we got our hands on their salvage,” Lessa said. “Just that we came across it somewhere, somehow. We could be there and gone without them even knowing.”
Rion considered their words. They could salvage the site, rescue anyone stranded, leave long before the Taurokado arrived, wait a spell, and then auction whatever they’d salvaged at Nor’s. No doubt, if the asset on Geranos-a was as important as it seemed to be, ONI would come calling, and when they did, Rion’s price would be the return of all of their confiscated items. Plus interest for their troubles, if she could swing it.
“All right,” she said. “What’s to stop them from forcibly taking our salvage once we have it? They send a Spartan after us or after Nor, and no one will stand a chance.”
Silence filled the lounge.
“There’s a good chance they wouldn’t risk angering the Venezian militia,” Ram said, “and starting a war with the Outer Colonies.”
Nor’s clearinghouse worked because she operated within the thin confines of Venezian and UNSC salvage law. If ONI disregarded their own rules for all to see and stormed the clearinghouse, they’d infuriate a lot of very dangerous and well-armed groups who relied on Nor for their goods.
Rion wanted Little Bit’s projections. She wanted the video clips of her father. She wanted her credits back, and she wanted Lessa’s damn blanket.
Still, she hesitated.
Losing Cade had changed things. He was always going to be an enormous factor in her decisions from now on. All those stolen items, no matter how much they meant, weren’t worth losing another one of her crew.
Rion’s head came up, and she saw the understanding in their eyes. They knew what she was thinking without saying a word.
