by Clara Woods
Persia moved uncomfortably in her seat when she heard Lenah’s question. “No.”
“Just like that? No?”
Persia grunted. “Yeah. We don’t stand a chance. Did you see the gun on his arm? And we don’t know if he’s enhanced elsewhere. Stars, he might even hear this right now if he’s got any of those fancy hearing implants.”
“Is that why you keep turning around? To make sure he doesn’t come running down the corridor to sweep you away and throw you out of the airlock?” Lenah asked.
“That’s exactly why.”
“I didn’t think you were such a pessimist,” Lenah said.
“I’m being realistic. Odin’s Station is one of the grimmest places on this side of the galaxy, probably only topped by Oscuris itself. It’s nowhere to be out and about and try to trick a cyborg.” After a short pause, Persia asked, “Don’t you think he might get rid of us there, and find himself a more willing captain?”
Now it was Lenah’s turn to grumble. Persia was making a good point.
“I don’t see a way to avoid it,” Lenah said with a shrug, and looked over at Persia, who’d started to tap her fingers on the armrest again. After a few seconds, Persia took a deep breath, then turned around once more to make sure no one was coming through the closed hatch door.
“I might have a way,” she mumbled so low that Lenah barely heard her.
“What? You do?”
Instead of answering, Persia reached into her pocket and pulled out a semi-black lump. It was the size of her fist, egg-shaped, and looked completely smooth, apart from one dent the size of a finger.
Lenah raised an eyebrow at Persia.
“I know what you’re thinking, because that’s what I saw at first, too. Just a boring old stone.” Persia set it carefully on the console in front of her, as if not wanting to touch it too much. “But this stone is supposed to enable non-mages to create a warp bubble. We’d be able to get to Oscuris in a day or two.”
Lenah found herself staring at the stone, suddenly unable to look away, and the longer she looked, the more she saw. Swirls of all colors surrounded the dent, like the image of the galaxy she could see through the window of the cockpit. Something seemed to call out to her, asking her to touch the stone, hold it in her hand, and never let it go. The more she looked, the more she believed Persia’s claim.
“Lenah?”
She snapped out of her fog, realizing that she must have stared longer than she thought. Even now, it was hard to not look and reach out to touch it. Weird.
“Sorry.” Lenah shook her head. “I was…drawn to it.” Finally she was able to avert her gaze. “How did you get this?”
Persia squirmed in her seat. “You remember when I told you that I was on Astur to get a movie role, and that I got replaced for both the role and the bed by someone younger?”
Lenah nodded.
“Even though I had a contract, there was a sneaky formulation in the fine print. In short, they could replace me whenever they wanted to,” Persia spat.
“Didn’t you get a lawyer to look at it before signing?”
Persia snorted. “A lawyer? Only someone who grew up in a mansion, someone who’s been enjoying the privileges of the families, would ask that.” She shook her head. “Anyway, before dumping me for good, he made me perform at your father’s stupid party, as if firing me wasn’t enough. But I got my own revenge. I came back to his room and stole his warp stone before it could be added to the exhibition.”
Lenah pointed to the stone still lying on the console. “His warp stone? That?”
“It’s supposed to work like a mage, just without the actual mage.” Persia nodded, her voice sounding almost irreverent. Both of them looked back to the stone as Persia continued, “I once heard him brag about it to a friend, and figured it would be a nice way for some payback.”
“Does it work?” Lenah asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Persia answered. “But maybe it’s about time I tried it out.”
They looked at each other for a long moment, neither of them speaking.
“I think we should,” Lenah finally said. “At least the cyborg won’t be able to pull open any airlocks and throw us out from inside a warp bubble.”
The hulls of spaceships were made of carbon-nano tubes, and were the blocks warp mages hooked onto to suspend ships from their surroundings and transport them forward at fast speeds. But one little change in that hull, and the ship would be pulled out of the bubble; that could be fatal in a worst-case scenario. Opening a hatch definitely counted as a disturbance of the c-nano hull.
“Okay, let’s do it,” Persia said with a determined nod, but didn’t move.
“Go ahead.” Lenah was no mage, and didn’t know what exactly they did when they created the warp bubble around a ship, only that they trained for years. But she saw no way that someone like her or Persia could activate a stone and do the same.
“You’re supposed to warm it up to body temperature by placing your finger in the mark. Load it up by giving it some of your body’s heat, or something like that.” Persia picked up the stone and held it in both hands thoughtfully.
“That’s it? You just hold it, and then what?”
“We’ll see. I don’t know. I only overheard that one conversation.”
They sat in silence. Lenah was about to lose patience and call Persia out on her bad joke when the computer system activated.
The screen read ‘Please enter warp coordinates’.
“Bloody galaxy! It worked!” Persia almost knocked herself over bouncing up in her chair. Lenah stared at the screen, trying to come to grips with what she was witnessing. How did such a magical item exist, and no one knew about it? Why would someone put it in an exhibition instead of using it? Then again, this was too good to pass up. Excitement pulsed through her veins when she entered Oscuris’s coordinates.
“Arrival estimated in 19 hours, 12 minutes, and 34 seconds,” she read off the screen. A moment later, the ship was clad in a swirl of light on all sides, and Lenah was swept up by a wave of nausea. It was one of the side effects of traveling this way. Warp bubbles were a beautiful sight, but as the ship’s c-nano hull was hurtling them quickly through space and matter equally, the beginning sensation was always uncomfortable. As the ship jerked once, entering warp speed, quick footsteps approached from down the corridor. Doctor Lund opened the hatch, his eyes wide.
“How…” He shot a confused look first at Lenah, then Persia, never finishing his question. Lenah noticed that Persia had dropped the stone back into her pocket, and was making no move to share her secret with the doctor.
One moment later, he was shoved away, and the cyborg stalked up to them. At least Lenah thought that was who she was looking at, because this wasn’t the man who’d vanished into the lavatory a few hours earlier. Now a completely different cyborg was standing in the hatch. He’d cut his hair and beard. What had come out was an undeniably good-looking man. A strong jaw and a straight nose were paired with even-looking lips and healthy-looking tanned skin.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt, either. Lenah’s gaze dropped, taking in his muscled torso. At least he looked all-human there. Maybe he wasn’t further enhanced. She only managed to break her stare when Persia abruptly got up and squeezed past the cyborg. Great. She’d left Lenah alone to deal with an angry cyborg with legitimate questions.
“Yes, everyone. We’ve entered a warp bubble and will be arriving at Oscuris in a little over 19 hours,” Lenah said, a cheerfulness in her voice. She tried to get up and walk after Persia, but the cyborg didn’t let her. He snatched her arm, sending a wave of shock through her.
“You. Stay. Everyone else, leave.” His voice didn’t sound friendly.
10 Bad Lies
The cyborg’s large form blocked the exit after everyone had shuffled out. Briefly, Lenah thought to be angry with them for not defending her – especially Persia, who’d left her to deal with her problem; but then he shut the hatch with a quiet clunk, and they
were alone. Her gut knotted painfully. This was so not good.
What if he momentarily forgot that he needed her to fly? She tried to lean back in the pilot’s seat to get some space, but wasn’t successful. The cockpit wasn’t large enough to get away from him. She averted her gaze from his angry face, but it landed back on his naked torso. Damn it. Not what she was trying to look at either. She jerked her head up again to his face. Apart from the same angry frown, he was a different man.
Instead of long dreads dangling halfway down his neck, he now had a military-length cut that looked really good on him. But while he might look more civilized, he was still scary as stars. Part of it was the metal arm and her fear that he would have other, non-visible enhanced parts. The rest was the simple fact that he was an imposing man. Lenah wasn’t tall, but she felt downright tiny next to him. Why hadn’t she thought to keep a weapon at hand, if just to be able to defend herself for even one second? She’d picked up a primitive-looking club in her cabin, but it was too big to be carried around, and the cyborg had confiscated all other weapons on board. Right now, she’d love to club herself for not trying harder to hide it under her clothes.
Leaning against the hatch, he crossed his arms over his chest, shooting her an impatient look. Should she try her abilities? If they didn’t work, she’d only manage to give herself a giant headache for this important conversation. Lenah wanted a clear head. She started to think of what she was going to say, but there really was only one reason for creating a warp bubble. There was a mage on board, which they clearly didn’t have.
Or did they?
“I guess I forgot to tell you before, but I might have some mage genes.”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. It was really getting old, how he always did that.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Finally, he spoke. “Care to explain why you didn’t bring this up before?”
“Not really.” She shrugged in an attempt to not panic. She wouldn’t give him that. “Look.” She took a deep theatrical breath. “You’re not exactly trustworthy-looking, and I didn’t want to give away too much.”
“Yet you chose to have us make a six-day detour on an already two-week-long trip? When instead you could have gotten rid of me in a couple of days?”
He uncrossed his arms, the muscles on his real arm tensing.
“Um,” Lenah said.
“You think you’re so fucking smart?” he said, leaning down toward her. “Or are you just a spoiled, stupid girl?” His face was now too close for her to be comfortable. At least he didn’t seem to expect an answer, because he continued on his own. “You gave up whatever privileges you might have had when you entered the dark world of being a criminal.”
“A criminal?” she huffed at him. How dare he. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you deny that you stole this ship?”
“Look, I — that was an emergency. Besides, this ship was most likely stolen anyway.”
He pinched his lips together. “You have no idea how reality works, do you?” He shook his head, leaning back against the hatch. “You can’t walk around stealing ships, even smuggler ships. Especially smuggler ships. Cargo, maybe, under special circumstances, but not ships.”
“Ah, cargo but not ships. Great honest people, you are.” Lenah waved around the small cabin to indicate his association with the smugglers.
He rolled his eyes while letting out a breath. “That’s not what I said. But there are rules and you, rich girl, don’t know them.”
He fixed her with a hard stare, as if trying to pull the lie out onto the surface. Lenah hated that he had a point. All of her knowledge about the criminal underworld was shaped by movies and news, and she had stolen this ship. Borrowed, at first, but she hadn’t brought it back.
He turned around and opened the hatch, but before leaving, he looked back down at her.
“Next time, I won’t let you get away with lying.” The hatch clanged shut behind him.
Lenah was now alone in the cockpit. The beauty of the swirling lights around her was lost under the weight of his last words. What did he plan to do with her? He needed a pilot, right? Then again, she didn’t need her whole body to fly, just one hand to steer.
11 Universe Science Order
Lenah followed the cyborg out of the cockpit, getting one last glance at him before he vanished into the cabin he’d claimed as his own. The middle of his back glittered with dark metal as he shut his door. It was an artificial spine.
Goosebumps erupted over her skin. So he did have other enhancements. Things kept getting more complicated.
She found the others huddled together in the common room. Persia talked urgently. When she saw Lenah in the doorway, she broke off abruptly. “Lenah! I thought I’d have to rescue you from our cyborg.”
“How were you going to do that?” Lenah raised an eyebrow at her, still not happy at how Persia had bailed out on her earlier. “By chatting here in the common room?”
Persia shook her head and lifted an oversized sweater she’d found on the ship to show a small laser pistol.
“How did you get that?” Deciding to forget her anger for the moment, Lenah stepped into the room and closed the hatch. Hopefully the cyborg didn’t hear them. Ear enhancements existed, but they were expensive and annoying to their wearers, as they could never turn off all the background noise.
“Found it wedged between the wall and the bunk in my cabin.” Persia shrugged. “The cyborg must have forgotten to check there. Thought I’d better go and get it before starting any attempt to rescue you.” She looked Lenah up and down. “But you look intact.”
“Guess our host needs a whole captain to land his ship on Oscuris.”
Persia pursed her lips. “I really wanted to help.”
“Maybe you did. And maybe you could have helped, if you had actually come back.” Lenah shook her head. “But whatever. I’ve had enough fights for the night.”
“Did you fight with the cyborg?” Uz looked up for the first time. With the amount of time she spent looking down, Lenah was getting the impression Uz didn’t want anyone to notice how her antennas were cut. Then there were the human clothes. Her kind’s normal outfit consisted of a black fitted bodysuit of Cassidian silk combined with robes of different colors, indicating the strength and specialty of their magical abilities. The latter probably didn’t apply to Uz anymore. After all, she hadn’t indicated that she was capable of warping them to Oscuris.
“Yes, we argued. Naturally, he wanted to know how we entered the warp bubble.” Lenah shot Persia another glare.
“What did you tell him?” Persia asked.
“That I’m a mage, but that I chose not to mention it to him before.”
“But you’re not.” Doctor Lund seemed strangely excited about that. “I always knew that warp bubbles weren’t magical. Like everything else in the universe, they have a scientific explanation.”
Uz made an exasperated expression. “No, she doesn’t feel like those human Warp Riders do. She’s different. I do sense magic on board, though. Strong and ancient magic.” She looked from Lenah to Persia.
Now Doctor Lund was the one looking exasperated. “How often do we need to go through this? It’s science, not magic.”
Lenah shook her head, not understanding what he meant. Magic was millennia old, a reality ever since humans had left their home world of Old Earth and met magical races like the Cassidians. Back then, the two races had been compatible to have children, which led to human-Cassidian offspring capable of magic. Throughout the years, the races had evolved away from each other, and these days, there were no mixed children anymore. Now magic was so rare in human blood that it was considered a great gift. Human mages were identified at birth and trained in the Guild’s university, most of them becoming Warp Riders. After years of studying, they’d start life aboard ships, directing them through warp bubbles. Mages were encouraged to have families, but their lifestyle didn’t make that easy. That was why the
mage farms were such a breakthrough in technology.
No wonder the cyborg hadn’t believed her lie. She wasn’t wearing a Guild ring. Admitting to having one of her father’s warp drives might have been the better route, despite running the risk of revealing her involvement with Starwide Research. Maybe the cyborg wouldn’t have questioned where she’d gotten it, and would have assumed it was stolen.
Oh well, it was officially too late for that.
“It’s magic, Lund.” Uz’s voice sounded tired, as if they’d had the same discussion before. She looked Lenah straight in the eye. “You’re different, but you’re not creating the bubble.”
Lenah shuddered at her words. Hopefully no one would start asking questions. It wasn’t like Lenah, without her abilities, was anything special. But if Uz could feel something about her, did that mean her ability would come back? Maybe she should find a quiet place to talk to Uz in the next few days.
“Nonsense. My mentor at USO wrote his dissertation on this. Warp science hasn’t been explained yet. But science without explanation is far from being magic.”
Uz sighed.
“USO? The Universe Science Order?” Persia blurted, an incredulous look on her face. “The freaks who deny the existence of magic?”
The doctor looked at her calmly. In fact, Persia’s opinion was pretty mainstream. If he really belonged to USO, he probably heard it all the time.
“We’re a non-governmental organization with the mission to find the scientific explanation for things not yet explained. Accepting the unknown as magic stops humanity from making scientific discoveries and hinders advancement. It’s like back on Old Earth. While other races were settling on new planets all over the galaxy, it took our race several millennia to even leave our world.”
Doctor Lund shook his head as if in indignation, seemingly unfazed by the skepticism apparent in the room.
Lenah was the only one nodding. Anything to take everyone’s attention away from her being different.
While Persia jumped into a debate with Doctor Lund, Lenah quietly murmured her good night and walked down toward her cabin. The dirty bunk suddenly seemed quite appealing.
