Riston’s hands paused. Ze looked up. “This is one of their best techs?”
“Has to be.” The officer gestured to the machinery along one wall. “Only upper level engineers are allowed to handle the rotational control systems.”
Ze looked down, moving a little faster. “Which is how you knew I didn’t belong here?”
“No, the tech in your hood told me you didn’t belong here.”
Oh no. Ze had to get out of here before anyone else arrived. If the PCCS officer noticed the ID tech in zir jacket, station security would, too. Even if ze got away today, they’d triple-check every single ID scan on this level, looking for the one that didn’t have the right history. Once they started looking for Riston, they’d find zem. Zir ID simply wasn’t that good.
But the officer handing zem a roll of nano bandages was between zem and the door. Ze wouldn’t be able to leave without pushing past them, and if they grabbed zem with that prosthetic, ze wasn’t going anywhere without ripping one of zir own limbs off. So, ze kept working. Ze wrapped the burned arm and watched the bandages compress to stop potential blood loss, because these came from a basic emergency kit and that was just what they were programmed to do. The medics would have to fix the settings. If they got here in time. The engineer was starting to shiver with shock or pain or…something. Whatever it was, Riston doubted it was a good sign. Why hadn’t an emergency crew arrived yet?
Getting up and purposely not looking at the PCCS officer, Riston went to the wall panel. Immediately, ze saw the problem and manually sent the fire alert that a glitch in the system—maybe the same that had caused the fire—hadn’t allowed out before. Then, without a glance, ze shifted toward the door, trying to stay a full arm’s length away from the officer.
“Where are you going?” They didn’t move, but ze saw them watching zem.
“Away.” The door opened at zir approach, and Riston scanned the hall. Not empty, but no sign of security yet. Ze flicked the hood up to cover most of zir face. “Thanks for the help.”
“Wait!”
Riston ran.
Footsteps followed close behind zem, fast and heavy, boots thudding against the grating. Ze didn’t look back—couldn’t when ze had to watch zir path to avoid the few people ahead—but it sounded like the officer was catching up. Riston risked a quick glance back as ze turned a sharp corner.
An impossibly tight grip caught zir arm and held.
Ze stumbled, zir upper body jerking to a stop and zir legs continuing another two steps. Thrown off balance, ze veered hard to the right, one arm wheeling as though that’d be enough to keep zem from crashing. Zir back slammed into the wall, trapping zem between the cold, sloped metal wall and the PCCS officer crushing zem. As soon as ze had zir feet underneath zem, Riston tried to push off and bolt.
Tried. The prosthetic hand tightened so hard and fast it sent shocks of pain shooting down into zir hand and up to zir shoulder. Ze gasped and flinched.
The officer’s hand loosened, but they didn’t let go.
This is it. I’m dead. Ze waited for accusations or threats to start, bracing zirself for anything…except what they actually said.
“I’m Ensign Cira Antares, she.” She—Cira, apparently—waited expectantly.
All ze could think to say was, “Okay.”
One side of her mouth quirked up. “This is usually where you’d give me something to call you.”
Interesting. Not asking for zir name, just a moniker. Oddly, it made zem want to tell her the truth. “Riston. Ze.”
There was no logical reason for it, but something in her posture seemed to relax. “Is that your first name or last?”
“I don’t have a last name anymore.”
“Literally, according to what little I was able to find about you.” Although her expression was pleasant, there was a keenness to the expression around her brown eyes that unsettled zem nearly as much as her words.
“You looked me up? How? You have neural implants?” Ze looked again for implants, but there was still no glint of the tiny shifting mechanisms in her eyes.
“No.” A secretive smirk curved her full bottom lip. “But I’ve seen you before.”
“No one sees me.” Ze made sure of it. Staying hidden was what kept zem safe. Besides, ze definitely would’ve remembered meeting someone like Cira before.
“The first time was more than a cycle ago. I was waiting for a delivery for my captain, and you were in the passage off the upper-level dock.”
First time? Riston’s mind snagged on those two words. They didn’t make sense. Had ze somehow missed her more than once? Ze tried to think back to the day she was talking about, but ze spent a lot of time in the maintenance passages of the station’s docks.
“I missed the beginning of the conversation—those passages echo, and it makes eavesdropping complicated.” She paused, almost like she was waiting for Riston’s reaction. When ze didn’t even blink, she kept talking. “I heard enough, though. You gave a huge chunk of credits to a kid whose mother was sick. Credits you’d been saving up to buy an ID that’d pass all the security inspections. Which would’ve gotten you a job and an actual life.”
Oh. Now ze remembered. “I— That was…” The words choked zem, and the itch to be anywhere else flared to life, but Cira was too close, and her cybernetic hand was still locked around zir arm.
“That was an incredibly selfless thing to do,” she finished for zem. Her upturned eyes softened, and her black ringlets danced as she tilted her head. “You caught my attention, so I got a picture of you and used it to search for your ID.”
Riston’s breath caught. “What’d you find?”
“Enough.” Cira scanned zir face, though Riston had no idea what she could be looking for. “I know you told me your real name and that you’re not originally from Datax, but not much more than that.”
It took an effort for Riston to keep from slumping in relief, although if the sensors in Cira’s hands were sensitive enough, she’d still feel the twitch in zir muscles that ze couldn’t fully suppress.
“The next time we docked here, a friend of mine looked for you. Ze watched you run interference between security and some refugee orphans who’d slipped off their transport ship.” She raised one gently sloped eyebrow. “A couple people ze talked to claimed you almost got caught. Twice.”
“Exaggerations.” But they weren’t. The second time, ze’d had to leave one of zir bags behind to squeeze into a gap barely wide enough for zir skinny body turned sideways. It cost zem a hundred stashed credits and the jacket ze’d been wearing the day ze escaped from Ladadhi—the jacket that had belonged to zir brother.
Footsteps echoed through the hall, the steps numerous and heavy enough to rattle the grated floor. An emergency team had finally arrived. Cira glanced up the hall, her expression shifting quickly until it settled on a resigned wince.
She isn’t supposed to be down here, either, Riston realized. Although regulations were looser when Pax ships were docked at a station, anyone serving on board a PCCS or on Pax Station was legally required to limit contact with anyone who wasn’t a Pax citizen. She might get her whole ship sanctioned if she was found here talking to zem.
Instinct took over. Riston used Cira’s grip on zir arm to tow her to the closest storage compartment. Unlike the restricted access panel, the security on this one took less than a second for zir program to crack. Ze hurried them both inside as soon as the opening appeared. The door slid shut behind them just before the emergency response team turned the corner.
“Adrienn’s gonna be so mad,” she muttered, her eyes on the door. Riston wanted to ask why. Ze didn’t. Cira glanced at zem, though, and seemed to see zir curiosity. “It was a risk coming down here to find you. Hacking into the security feeds before we leave to black out the whole time I was down here is an even bigger risk.” Then she smiled, relief brightening her eyes and warming her whole face. Ze found zirself leaning in like a piece of space junk falling into orbit around a powerful st
ar. “At least there’s a legitimate technical glitch I can blame this time.”
“Okay.” Ze didn’t understand what reality ze’d fallen sideways into, and zir heart was still pounding from too many close calls. Ze couldn’t think of anything else to say.
She released zir arm and stepped back, but only about a half a meter or so, close enough to grab zem again if ze tried to run. “Where’s your family, Riston?”
“Gone.” Dead and gone and burned to ash so small there hadn’t been remains to bury.
“Do you have anyone here?”
“I don’t have anyone anywhere.” Riston rubbed absently at the spot on zir forearm where ze’d definitely find bruises in the shape of her fingers later. “Definitely not here.”
For almost a minute, Cira studied zem. The inspection went on so long ze caught zirself scanning her irises for implants again, but there didn’t seem to be anything technological lurking in her eyes. She just…wasn’t looking away.
And then she asked, “Want to try your luck somewhere else?”
“Luck?” Riston had run out of luck a long time ago. Honestly, ze considered it a miracle ze wasn’t dead yet. “I don’t have luck. Are you offering some?”
“In a way. I’m offering a ride, and at the end of it, I’ll leave you somewhere new. You’ll have a clean ID and a few credits to your name, enough for you to build a new life.” Her expression shifted, something in the same family as sympathy and pity glimmering in her eyes. “What you have here isn’t a life, Riston.”
Ze stepped back, unexpectedly stung. “I never said it was, but—”
“You’ve been risking everything to help others,” she cut zem off. “Over and over again. It’s time for someone to do the same for you. You’ve earned a chance to start on an even playing field for once and build something better for yourself.”
This couldn’t be real. Riston’s older brother had often said, “If it’s too good to be true, it’s a trap,” but he’d usually been talking about business deals, news feeds, and their parents’ offers of clemency. Still, Cira’s offer definitely qualified as too good to be true.
Pax ships were only allowed to carry passengers who were locked in cryostasis, and those pods were exorbitantly expensive even to rent. Forget buying one. The sixty-three credits Riston had were enough to feed zem for a couple of days, but ze was several thousand short of being able to step on board Cira’s ship. Sure, it had sounded as though she was just going to hand zem a cryopod and an ID chip and all the credits ze’d need to establish zirself somewhere new, but how often had something like that happened in the history of humanity? Even if her offer was legitimate, it must come with a massive debt to be collected at some later date. One ze likely wouldn’t ever be able to repay.
“Is there anything worth holding on to here?” Cira’s voice went soft. “Let me help you.”
Ze wanted to, wanted it so badly ze found zirself leaning into her again, sucked into her gravity, but taking the leap from yearning to accepting…
There was an old saying—ancient; Old Earth stuff if ze remembered right: better the devil you know. Riston knew how to scrounge and scrape on Datax. If Cira kept to her word and her ship dropped zem somewhere else, ze wouldn’t know the customs, the dangers, and maybe not even the language. Yes, life here may be ten different kinds of awful, but at least ze knew what to expect.
But what ze could expect was nothing. Ze’d never get a job on Datax because zir ID wasn’t good enough, and zir minor hacking skills weren’t enough to build zem a better one. Buying the ID or the hack was thousands of credits, which would take zem cycles to save up again, and ze had nothing of value to barter for the service, either.
So why in the name of every black hole in the universe was ze even thinking about turning away from a chance to escape?
“I know this is a big decision,” Cira said, unfailingly patient, “but once the emergency personnel make sure their tech is okay, they’ll start looking for the person who patched the engineer up. Whether you come with me or not, you really shouldn’t be on this level by then. I’m going to do what I can to wipe the system, but it’s not impossible that someone will remember seeing you. Things will turn ugly fast when they figure out you’re not in their system.”
And she was right. Which was why it was so reckless of zem to have gotten involved at all. But that smell. It seemed like ze was pathologically incapable of walking away from it.
Despite the danger, ze stood there searching her face. Ze didn’t find anything to convince zem to turn down her improbably good deal.
“If you’re serious, and as long as you know I got literally nothing to pay you back with, I’ll be more than glad to accept a ride, Ensign.” Ze held zir breath.
“We better get moving, then.” Smiling, Cira leaned in, her face alight. “Tell me, Riston. Have you ever seen Pax Novis before?”
PSSC Intersystem News Feed
Terra-Sol date 3814.119
It is day sixty-three of the mine worker strike on Tau Ceti’s Shadhima colony, and authorities have had no success in bringing corporate, government, military, and civilian sectors to any lasting compromise.
The week-long battle between Arae and Casseta resulted in the decimation of a Pavonis outpost on the moon Surka when an Arae battle cruiser crashed into the moon’s surface. While official reports have not yet been filed, it is believed all 673 residents of the research facility perished in the event. Pavonis Command has issued a statement condemning the incident and demanding restitution.
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PSSC Intersystem News Feed
Terra-Sol date 3814.143
The three-cycle drought continues to devastate the Draconis planet Vohtu, and leaders have cancelled all exports of perishables. Research teams are still hunting for both a cause and a solution to the drought. A Tau Ceti fleet ostensibly carrying one of these teams is currently en route, following a course that will take them straight to the farm moons of Vohtu. While research could be the mission’s true purpose, more than one Draconis leader is calling for their government to recall several military ships to stand as a defense line in case their neighboring system has a different target in mind.
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PSSC Intersystem News Feed
Terra-Sol date 3814.236
Riots and protests have sprung up in multiple systems. One PCCS lieutenant was assaulted and seriously injured when caught in one such event on Datax. The PCGC has raised the alert level for all Pax citizens. Captains are urged to look closely at the atmosphere of each port before disembarking. Crew should be prepared to improvise should captains restrict off-ship access to all but the minimum necessary personnel.
Chapter One
Riston
Terra-Sol date 3814.237
Riston hadn’t thought optimism was something ze’d been burdened with much of. Clearly, ze’d been wrong. Some part of zem had been convinced ze’d find the perfect gift in the markets of Ahngi-te, the largest city on Nea-gi, even though ze only had one hundred twenty credits to zir name and no way to earn, beg, borrow, or steal more. And ze needed a lot more.
For six thousand credits, ze could get a pair of twentieth-century Earth pistols in a display case. Ze leaned closer to the window and zir eyebrows rose. They came with an authenticity holo. Most didn’t anymore. Earth wasn’t talking to the rest of the systems these days, like a parent who’d decided to wash their hands of their unmanageable children.
For twenty-five hundred credits in the civilian defense shop next to the antique dealer, there was the new StunSheath. It covered the arm from elbow to the middle of the palm, was flexible enough to not restrict movement, was able to integrate with other personal tech, and could deliver a shock so powerful it would, according to the manufacturer, singe the ends of your assailant’s hair. That part sounded like bullshit to Riston, but the rest? Definitely useful.
For eleven hundred credits, there was a brand new skinprinter that included a kit of inks in hundreds of colors, shades, and
types, and could even create holo-tats. All it needed was an uploaded design.
Cira would love any of those things, but unless Riston came up with a foolproof plan to steal them in the next, oh…five minutes, then ze would be walking away empty-handed.
Not like it mattered. It was an important anniversary, sure, but only to zem. Ze was delusional if ze thought Cira Antares would remember why tomorrow was more important than any other day they’d survived. Bringing her a present would probably only confuse her.
Sighing, ze stepped into an alcove between shops and looked out over Nea-gi. The system’s twin suns beamed cheerily through the latticed glass roof, but the clouds spread out below the floating city roiled like a dark, endless, stormy sea. They were char black and only lit by the lightning spreading like a neural network across the sky. Frequent electrical storms were one of the reasons no one lived permanently below the cloud cover on Nea-gi. Ahngi-te floated safely between the dangers of the clouds and the vacuum of space. All the lightning did was create a pretty show for those who had the time to peer down and watch it.
Knowing zir own time here was running out, ze slipped zir hands into zir pockets, rolled zir shoulders back, and forced zirself into the saunter of a young PCCS officer. Ze knew the stride because ze’d watched it hundreds of times. Lived on the same ship as plenty of those officers, too, though they didn’t know that.
Mentally shaking zirself out of that particular sinkhole, Riston turned zir attention to the market itself. Ahngi-te looked almost the same as it had on Riston’s last visit. The floors were made of a pale mottled-green recycled composite. The walls alternated between tall windows, giving shoppers views of their distant planet, and white trellised pillars covered with greenery that added spots of brilliant color to the otherwise pale city. Small ponds sat at the base of the pillars, and their tops supported the domed glass roof of the market’s main thoroughfare. Under the scents of food and perfume was the unmistakable smell of a hydroponics bay—recycled water and growing things. Everything else was gleaming white, all of it shined up and polished so brightly Riston was always wary of touching anything.
Pax Novis Page 2
