“Tell Mr. Benton I will meet him in the next half hour,” Geiger added. “And keep my schedule open for tomorrow, just in case.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.” He picked up the shards of the poodle. “Some superglue.”
CHAPTER TWO
Avalon Space Station, Downtown, Stim Café
The kava was laced with gold. It had to be. There was no other explanation why it cost so much. There wasn’t anything special in it, which the taste gave away. But like it or not, this was the cost of living there. She glanced wearily at her tablet. Money had always been an issue, but it was about to become a problem. Her account was already stretched, and without a real job she simply couldn’t afford to live on the space station anymore. This is what happens when you gentrify the universe.
She cradled the cup in both hands and sipped slowly.
Terrible. Just Terrible.
I could make better kava than this in my efficiency kitchen… Huh, there’s an idea. Jayne Austin, interplanetary kava-maker for hire.
The inspiration shattered when her gaze trailed over her budget again. By her calculations, once she left the academy accommodation and started paying rent, she would have precisely zero-point-five-two days before she completely ran out of cash.
At the academy, Jayne excelled at interrogation. She knew hacking, bugging, signal blocking, and 32 places on the human body that paralyze the central nervous system when karate-chopped. But she did not know anything about money.
Tap, tap, tap. Her fingers drummed a rhythm on the tablet. She had to adapt. For a second, she remembered something one of her home-planet teachers once said.
“You require only two things to live: marketing and accounting. You need to market yourself to earn money, and accounting ability to manage that money.”
Having trained only as a spy, she had mastered neither.
Jayne wiggled in her chair to get comfortable. She was a girl of action and needed to find a solution within her skill set. She rubbed her forehead with her palm. The kava wasn’t doing its job and she was getting a headache. Her gaze drifted to the window and the space station beyond. It was hard to imagine that only a few centuries back, this was merely a floating block of metal the size of a building. Having an entire city floating in space must have been a distant dream.
The city beyond the kava shop—far beyond, where the glamor and breathtaking panorama awed the senses—was magnificent. It reminded Jayne how small she was. It was a feeling she hated. It was a feeling she had spent her entire life trying to prove wrong.
The outlook from Jayne’s window seat was anything but appealing. A small, crooked alley wound to an unused and abandoned section of the city. Dumpsters lined its dark wall, looking lost and forlorn, each colored an identical dirty blue. They had the look of discarded things that knew they were doomed to be dumpsters forever and would never see the light and beauty. That was the scenery that made Jayne feel good: the beauty of the ugly truth.
She turned her attention back to her tablet and tapped away again, re-energized with a determination to find a place to live.
Too expensive… Too expensive… Too far away from everything… Too expensive… Ooh! There! A room for rent. Pretty cheap, in a good part of the station… Jayne was intrigued. She read on.
“Landlord will accept foot rubs in lieu of payment.”
She needed a new plan, one that meant leaving the space station for somewhere more affordable and less creepy.
Inevitably, her eyes were drawn to the alley. It was, ironically, her only diversion from the crushing reality staring her in the face. Despite the bright lights of the space station, the passage was fairly gloomy and deserted, but this time, her idle gaze encountered movement. A young man strolled into view. His upbeat, almost bouncy demeanor made her smile. His presence seemed to defy his depressing surroundings, and Jayne actually held her breath as she waited to see his destination.
She exhaled with something like relief when the young man bounced into the café and made a beeline for one of the tables. An air of joy surrounded his ramshackle frame which was the result of awkwardly long legs. A mop of hair atop his head seemed to mirror his general carefree mood. He covered the distance from the door to his chosen table in a few seconds and slid into the seat. A burly man smiled in greeting.
From this distance, Jayne could see the positive vibes emanating from the young man. A big, toothy grin seemed permanently plastered on his face
“You’re late,” his companion grumbled. “You’re always late.”
“Sorry. I was caught up with stuff, y’know?” Smiley Face replied, his infectious mood quickly equalizing the man’s gruff aura.
Burly harrumphed. “Not a problem, I guess. I wasn’t doing much, anyways,” he replied before lifting his cup. “Plus, the kava here ain’t so bad.”
Jayne raised an eyebrow and looked into her cup of kava. Did he get a different batch of kava?
“I was caught up getting settled in,” the youngster told him and pulled out a tablet. “Fortunately, the government makes things pretty straightforward. For better or for worse.”
“See? I told you joining the military was a good idea.”
Smiley raised his eyebrows and shrugged. Comme ci, comme ca he must’ve been thinking.
Him? In the military? Jayne studied him more closely, careful not to draw their attention with her gaze. What was he going to do, smile people to death?
“Well, it isn’t bad,” Smiley continued. “The rooms are pretty comfortable, although I’m a little worried about the others on my floor.”
“Ah, don't worry about it. You’ll get used to them all right. You know, when I first got here, I couldn’t figure out how to work the hand dryers in the bathrooms. Turns out you…”
The man droned on, but Jayne stopped eavesdropping. The conversation had given her an idea. She’d heard people talk about it at the academy but had been too focused on staying top of her class to bother with it. But the government… She was sure she’d heard something about a program where they gave people a free place to stay if they were training or studying.
Well, if Smiley managed to squeeze in, why not me?
Revitalized, she scrolled the pages of the government intranet, careful to avoid showing any signs of overt excitement. Old habits died hard, and she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. The page was typical fare—an odd acronym she didn’t recognize or care about and the typical introductory paragraph.
Ah! Here it is. Let's see now… Check, check, check, not check, but I can bluff. Not check, but I doubt they’ll look through that. Check, and check!
“Apply. Apply. Where is that damn apply button?” she muttered, swiping furiously up and down the page.
“It’s right at the bottom, tucked away in the corner.”
The sudden voice startled her and she spilled the kava.
“I’m so sorry!” Smiley McGee darted across the café.
Jayne looked up to see him returning with a wad of napkins, a genuine grin undoing any frustration she felt about the accident.
He mopped up the kava. “I’m so clumsy. That’s the third drink I’ve spilled this week.”
“Oh, it’s totally okay. The kava wasn’t even very good.”
“Really? I like it.”
What the hell was wrong with my kava, then? Jayne thought.
Smiley stood up, the soaked napkins dripping from his hands. “I was just going to say, if the whole purpose of the page is to get you to apply for the GPMRC, the least they could do is make the button visible. I spent a good half-hour looking for it.”
“Oh! Yeah, for sure... Sorry, are you from the academy?” Jayne asked him.
“The academy? No, I wasn’t really interested. Plus, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t accept me anyway.”
She studied him blankly, taking in all the details as she’d been taught. In her snap estimation, he was everything one didn’t want when one worked as a spy. “I’ll take a rough g
uess and say you wouldn’t have made it past the registration desk.”
Silence greeted her and she wondered if she’d offended him. Or maybe he took it literally?
“Oh, no. I found the desk. But I didn’t put the effort into my application.”
Oh, boy, Jayne thought.
“Did you really join the military simply to get a place to crash?” she asked.
“Not so different from you joining the university for the same thing,” the boy countered as he glanced at her online form.
“I’m already in the military,” she parried defensively. “So that makes me—”
“The same as me, since I’m already in the university.” He shrugged.
Jayne opened her mouth to retort but realized she had nothing to say. He was right. According to the page, she had to be both in the military and a student at the university to qualify for benefits. She might have been a top-level spy, but she was also headed down the same path as he was.
She closed her mouth and frowned at the grinning idiot in front of her.
“Well, many thanks for your help,” she said. Her voice was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. “But I have a form to complete. So, if you don’t mind?”
“Oh, of course,” he replied. “Anyways, I have to get back to my frie…”
His voice trailed off as his eyes scanned the empty seat at his table. Burly was gone.
Low situational awareness too. Great.
“I retract my previous statement,” Jayne said. “You wouldn’t even make it to the registration building.”
“No, I found the building. It’s over by- Wait.” He smiled wider. “You were making a joke, weren’t you?”
You really know how to pick ‘em out, Jayne.
“Well, it was nice to meet you. Good luck cheating the system!” With another half-grin in her direction, he strutted confidently through the back door with the sopping wet napkins still in his hands.
Jayne watched him go. He was an idiot, but he was a good idiot. Probably a savant of some kind, she guessed. She turned her attention to the registration form. Page one of nineteen, the screen told her.
Jeez, couldn’t this be a little shorter?
+++
Avalon Space Station, Nova Aqueduct
She had sat near the source of the artificial river for a while before the notification popped up. For a minute, she didn’t notice it, too absorbed in the beauty of the scene. It might have been man-made, but that didn’t mar its appeal. Rather, it increased it, blending both the high-tech feel common to this area with the backdrop of flowing water. It was impressive enough that they had managed to create a flowing river in a space station, let alone make it look this natural.
Whoever had designed the concrete stream bed was either crazy or a genius. That much was evident in the haphazard style of the white watercourse that meandered without any particular sequence. Everything retained a natural, random pattern, which set the construction apart from all the other practical structures that defined the city. The robotic fish were a nice touch, too.
The formation Jayne sat on was right at the river’s edge, and she could see all the way down to the far end of the city. In the distance, the artificial bay created a perfect horizon that seemed to willfully drown the neighboring planet.
Still, despite the pleasant distraction, worry gnawed at her. She had received automated approval a good four hours ago but wasn’t entirely convinced about her acceptance. She now waited for another message to tell her what to do next and where to go.
In the meantime, she had packed her single bag of gear and taken herself off to enjoy some of the free perks the station had to offer. It only made sense, since she likely wouldn’t be there for much longer. The excursion gave her the chance to consider her new life. She imagined she might be something like a cross between James Bond and Lara Croft, two immortal characters who had survived the test of time in the historical archives.
Jayne hopped off her perch and opened her tablet. It felt cold in her hands and she could sense the anticipation building within her.
Moment of truth. Here we go.
With a light tap, she expanded the notification to full screen.
The document was filled end to end with text. No big green sign screamed ACCEPTED at her.
“Well, that’s anticlimactic,” she muttered. She skimmed the contents quickly, her eyes tracking from left to right. “Mmhm, go to the main city. Got it… Mmhm, sure. Okay, yeah. They pay for this, huh? Not too shabby. Not shabby at all.”
A quick round trip to the main city and she would be set. It didn’t sound like a bad deal and she really had no reason to hesitate.
Except…was it too easy? Well, yes, but this was the official government website. Plus, nothing looked out of order.
“Well, not everything in life should be hard, right?” she told herself as she forced her legs to move. After all, the decision had already been made. She had to go.
Jayne gathered her confidence. She was a superspy. No way would she fall for any tricks.
Yet here you are.
She shook her head to dislodge any lingering doubts. This was a great opportunity and one she would not miss. She turned resolutely and walked along, a brief flash of Smiley’s genuine-looking grin still lingering in her mind. “No way. That guy’s a nutty goofball,” she told herself.
It was purely a coincidence he was there to give her the idea and then help her.
Yeah. A coincidence…
CHAPTER THREE
Armaros, Theron Techcropolis, Central Space Port
She had heard stories of this place at the Academy but never imagined it would be this beautiful.
As the automatic doors of the shuttle slid open, Jayne stepped out, already entranced by the sight. Only one word would do the place justice.
“Massive,” she muttered under her breath.
Every building was a skyscraper locked in constant battle with its neighbors to reach higher. The ones that lacked in height compensated in structure. To her left, a symmetrical building shaped like a tree. To her right, two buildings seemed to hug one another while another building leaned over them, built at a diagonal angle.
Jayne hopped off the platform and whirled, taking in as much of the view as her eyes would allow. She felt like a child who had discovered that the world was made of candy. Everything and everyone looked modern, clean, and polished.
You’d almost think this was paradise.
Except it wasn’t. It all reminded Jayne of her aunt’s house—ordered and neat from the outside, but once you opened the cabinets all the garbage spilled out.
I hope I never have to open the cabinets in this place, she mused as she trekked through the spaceport. She didn’t know where she was going yet.
Jayne wandered to the edge and leaned over the high railing for a better view. Far below, she could barely make out the black outlines of the lower levels: the dark side of the brilliant techcropolis. The who’s who, of course, lived in the light and pretended ignorance. For a moment, she felt like an intruder— a grubby reminder of the smog and pollution that coated the sordid reality of life below that had no place in the resplendent glow of affluence and ease. Jayne liked that feeling, but she knew it’d make it hard to blend in.
She recalled a conversation she had overheard about a troop of soldiers ambushed while on patrol in the lower levels of the city. The attackers had been children, looking to steal weapons to sell on the black market. Jayne couldn’t recall the ending but knew it wasn’t a happily-ever-after. That tale of futility and desperation seemed such a small and vividly real step away. It would be so easy to slide into the cesspit of human struggle down there, and the truth of that had been her drive to succeed.
But it wasn’t all dark down there, she reminded herself firmly.
The pollution had diminished somewhat. Several years before, a giant shuttle company had started an initiative to reduce the filth and smog on the lower levels. The company had
attracted the attention of investors and patrons, and competitors scrambled to catch up. Now, most companies housed in the surrounding towers worked the same cause. The lower class noticed but reserved judgment. Like her, they knew better than to rely on the perceived altruism of profit-based campaigns.
Time would tell, she decided, reminded that the darkness remained and that she had to avoid it at all costs. She turned her attention back to her immediate priority to get to the university and enroll. To do that, she needed cash.
Things had been comfortably affordable on her home planet but here everything was three times as expensive. A simple stroll around the port showed her how woefully out of her league she truly was. It wasn’t just because it was a spaceport, either. The cost of living would be as high as the buildings.
Then perhaps I can get three times my money’s worth, she thought, glancing at her round-trip ticket. She was sure she could sell it for something. Except, once she sold it, she would be officially screwed if she needed to get home.
I won’t fail, she vowed resolutely.
You did get kicked out of the academy, the logical, left side of her brain argued.
Well, the phoenix must burn to emerge. She sighed at the uncomfortable image this wisdom conjured.
Jayne’s spy training kicked into gear as she wandered the vast station: her heightened senses took in every detail. The entrance and exit ports, the timetables for that day’s shuttles. She also noticed everyone carried themselves with an afforded beauty, and that there were no panhandlers, no rascally buskers earning change with their plasma guitar.
Finally, with the help of a directory that appeared on her tablet, she found a booth that might be of some help. Scrolling, digital text over the entry read “Currency Exchange, Small Goods Exchange, Credit Exchange, Ticket Exchange.”
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