by J. N. Chaney
Jelly answered promptly. "There are two, but they are several weeks’ travel at our best speed. If the Union warship is even slightly faster than us, this could present a problem."
"Maintain an up-to-date course to each of the available slip tunnels, including the one the Union just came through. We might have to change course at a moment’s notice," I said, convinced we were finally on the right track. If the Union was showing up to stop us from going to the third station, there was a pretty good chance that was where we needed to be.
Elise looked unhappy but didn't argue. Tom didn't seem to have an opinion and was busily working through data and making notes. Path was on the observation deck meditating, and Henshaw was doing whatever he did by himself in his yacht.
My mind drifted. I had picked up two unreliable characters. They had a lot to offer, but I didn't trust them any more than I trusted anyone. For now, they’d better hope they didn't endanger Elise or Tom.
"I recommend you get some rest. There will be several hours of downtime as we begin our travel," X-37 said.
"Good call," I said, remembering the old soldier’s mantra about sleeping whenever possible. “But I’m pretty wound up. Might be awhile before I can shut down.”
"I can take the bridge," Tom offered, responding to what X-37 had said on the bridge comms.
"Then she's all yours," I said to Tom. The sight of the Union ship had my blood up. I was full of energy and wanted to exercise. I looked at Elise. "Are you up for a workout?"
"Why don't you just let your sword saint bonk you on the head some more?" she joked, then doubled down on her sarcasm. "Or have you forgiven him?"
"You don't know that much about Reapers," I said. "I don't hold needless vendettas because they take too much energy. Or I try not to.”
“Could have fooled me,” she shot back.
I crossed my arms, staring down at her ready for a discussion. “I’m a professional.”
“Clearly,” she said, not sounding like that was what she meant. “A professional at holding vendettas.”
“I just remember who needs to die and why. And then I make that happen. There’s a difference," I said as though I’d won the argument.
"Why can't I be a Reaper?" she asked, suddenly looking serious.
"I'm not even going to answer that. Even if the technology was available, I wouldn't let you do it," I said, just as serious. "Be something else. Be something better than that."
"I will," she asserted, standing ready for action, everything about her tone and her posture seeming like a challenge to my challenge.
"Let's get to the gym and warm up, then we can go over some firearms basics and hand-to-hand stuff. You need to be able to hold on to your weapon and still hit people with the other hand," I asserted.
For once, she didn’t have a snappy comeback and we strode to the gym in high spirits. I wasn't sure why, but I knew better than to take it for granted.
"You should try the mask again," she said, probably just making conversation.
"We'll see," I said.
When we were done with our training session, I sought Path but couldn't find him. Jelly eventually advised me that he had gone to his quarters to sleep.
"Any progress on the speed of the Union ship?" I asked.
"Unknown, but they are slowing for the first debris field,” remarked X. “It shouldn't take them as long to process the available data."
"Agreed. Will they catch us before we reach the third facility?" I asked.
"We have some time,” X-37 said.
"Great. I'm going to sleep and then grabbing some breakfast," I said.
"An excellent choice, Reaper Cain," X-37 said. "The rest of us will just continue to work."
I laughed and went to my room. It was small and plain, not a place I’d spent a lot of time when I wasn’t sleeping or grooming. Once the lights were off, I went right out, spiraling down into the land of dreams like an out-of-control void fighter.
Remembering the dark places my mind went during sleep was difficult, and for that, I was thankful. Choosing to focus on one memory or another could be controlled or at least managed. Dreams and nightmares, by contrast, always started the same.
I was always prowling the lowest level of Night City with my crew. We were like our own small gang, except the crimes we committed were laughable — underage drinking, loitering, and petty larceny if there was something we just had to have and couldn't pay for.
None of us ever said our comparatively upstanding moral code was to respect the hard-working people in our neighborhood. We were tough enough to steal from whomever we wanted, but I could never look at a shop owner in the eyes once I’d robbed him.
Not back then, before I became a Reaper.
The landscape changed as I slept more deeply, picking up traits from current events and mixing them into my old life. Then the buildings became cliffs, or nebulas, or black holes that sucked in light and souls in the way only a dream mind could see.
I separated from my friends, wandering alleys, and finishing off one last bottle of cheap brew. It was late, I was tired, and the only people still out were either up to no good or had no choice but to live on the street.
This was a sad place, but it was also warm. I'd been at peace—or close enough to it—during those rambling walkabouts, not ready to go home but without any place to be.
The dream changed and I tried to wake up. Sand blew in from beyond the city barriers, stinging my eyes and fingertips at first but then flowing like an unstoppable river. Vehicles and portable kiosks that had been stowed near the alleyways were swept away and destroyed.
Not long after that, it seemed as though the city had never been there and only part of me cared to remember it.
"They say you should never look back, but that's a lie," a familiar voice in my head whispered.
I could see the speaker, even though I knew this was impossible. X-37 appeared as a younger professional, perhaps in his late twenties. He wore a meticulously pressed civilian uniform with a wide vertical stripe.
"We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one," I said. "If I look back, I might as well quit now."
"There are some things you should remember, like your mother. She's still out there,” he said, gesturing to the ever-changing landscape around us. “I'm just a limited artificial intelligence, but even I can infer that she needs you."
"Well, where is she? Let's go," my dream self spat out, even more of a jerk than normal.
The extraordinarily helpful dream assistant disappeared as though he'd never been there. Because he hadn't. I wasn't even there. These were just random brain waves and my guilt from too many missions gone horribly wrong.
I woke up in the exact same position I had lain down in. Bracing myself for a flash of pain from my left arm and a wave of static from my eye, I realized neither of those things were happening.
"Progress," I said.
"Problem?" X-37 asked.
I climbed out of bed and started getting cleaned up. "Yeah. You're a shitty dream guide. Next time, why don’t you actually do something useful like show me some magic secrets or something."
"What exactly are you talking about, Reaper Cain?" X-37 asked.
"Nothing. Forget it," I said, looking at the time. "Did you wake me up?"
"I did," X-37 said. "There has been a development."
"Station three?" I asked, trying to remember the estimated time of arrival calculations we made before I'd racked out.
"No, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. "Elise and Path are in the training room."
I threw on my clothes and headed into the hallway, cursing under my breath. "What the actual fuck? Why didn't you wake me up before they killed each other?"
"They haven't killed each other," X-37 said.
"You know what I mean. We're still in the middle of a mission. I can't let them go at each other and have someone get hurt," I said.
Jelly either couldn't or wouldn't give me any updates, so I ran down the narrow
hallway until I reached the room we had converted to a sparring and exercise room. "Jelly, I've had just about enough of your shit. Open the door."
"Elise and Mr. Paavo requested that they not be interrupted," Jelly said.
"To hell with that!" I pounded my fist on the door. "Open up right now! I swear I'll kill both of you if you killed each other! We're still on a mission.”
"Please calm down, Captain. I'm opening the door now," Jelly promised.
The door slid sideways and I rushed in—stopping when I saw which way the action was going.
Elise drove Path backward with a flurry of slashing lunges. She had a wild look in her eyes, color filling her cheeks, and sweat dripping from her hair. When she spun to dodge one of his counterattacks, she sprayed me with droplets.
Path sidestepped her, parrying her latest attack and shoving her toward the wall.
Elise caught herself before the collision and turned, pushing off the wall with one foot to launch herself at the psychedelic sword saint.
I crossed my arms as she chased him round and round the room. Finally, they stopped. She leaned on her knees and panted, which I knew was a big deal, because I had tried to match strides with her on the treadmill and had never been able to do it. They'd been at this for a while.
"Feel better?" I asked.
"Sure," she said, probably meaning anything but what she said.
"Learn to compartmentalize it. Put it away. Save it until you need it. There will be a time and a place for a reckoning, and this isn't it. I don't trust Path, but I also understand his claim," I said. “He believes you need to learn to fight.”
The man in question approached, tucking his practice weapon behind him, locking eyes with me. "It's been a while since you and I crossed practice swords."
"Don't push your luck, mystic," I said. "We're getting close to the third station. It needs to be a hit-and-run mission. Grab whatever we can and get out before the Union gets here. Both of you get cleaned up and meet me on the bridge."
"Yes, Captain," Elise said haughtily, twisting the words so it sounded like I was doing her a favor rather than her obeying an order. Because, teenager.
“X, have we made any progress on what we recovered from the second station?” I asked once I was away from Elise and Path.
“We’re working on it, Reaper Cain,” X-37 promised.
23
I arrived at the bridge before the rest of the crew. Tom had taken some much-needed down time while he could. Jelly had been cruising along on her own, not requiring human assistance during the simplest part of the trip. She was in constant communication with X-37, who would’ve updated me if something needed doing.
The room lights were low, the bridge silent, and the viewscreen split to show the facility we were approaching beside the more distant view of the Union Ship. The captain was taking it all over the system, and his actions suggested he was very confident it could handle us before we escaped.
Which pissed me off, if I was being honest. Cocky bastard.
"What exactly is that ship doing?" I asked.
"The unknown ship is working the system on a three-dimensional grid, possibly checking what we checked, but also leaving markers and or relays," Jelly said.
I fired up one of my best cigars and went over checklists. Being a Reaper wasn’t all glamour and high-speed fights.
The administrative routine was a good time to gather myself and think about what needed to be done. The situation had become more complicated than I liked.
I’d been doing solo missions for years before getting thrown in prison. The bomb incident had bothered me afterward. Tom and Elise had both been at risk. Thoughts of what would have happened if I hadn’t accepted help from Tom were a constant reminder that I needed help. Reapers were trained to work solo more often than not, but it had always been stressed that there were some missions that required a team.
I still felt reluctant to endanger them needlessly. I knew the game better and had learned what to look for from watching Tom work. Nothing scared me more than watching Tom or Elise die. They were the closest thing to family I’d had for a long time.
So this time was going to be different.
I expected my team to argue with me, including my not-quite-as-loyal-as-he-should-be limited artificial intelligence.
The door opened. Elise, Tom, and Path arrived almost at the same time. They waited for me to begin the briefing, probably suspecting what I would tell them. None of them were dumb and they all had good instincts. We spent a lot of time together on the ship and knew each other well.
“Jelly, are there any last-minute updates before we begin?” I asked.
“Yes, Captain. It seems the unidentified Union ship has completed its operations near the second facility and is headed this way. The speed of the small carrier is, how should I describe it in layman’s terms, alarming,” Jelly said.
“Keep us updated,” I said, then addressed Elise and Tom. “X-37 and Jelly have provided a mockup of what they think we will find on the third station. Their analysis suggests all three stations were built along the same blueprint. Since the second station was mostly intact, this should be less exploration and more room clearing,” I said.
Elise crossed her arms, already giving me a challenging look.
“The bomb incident was an unnecessary risk to the entire team,” I continued.
“Here we go,” Elise said scornfully.
Tom looked worried.
Path, well, he was Path. Henshaw was still in his cabin. I assumed he was lounging about as a drunkard but had no evidence this was actually the case. All I knew for sure was that the ocular engineer had been keeping to himself since our last encounter.
“I’m going alone. No matter what you think, there’s a good reason for this,” I said. “I need someone on the ship when things inevitably go wrong and the Union gets here ahead of schedule. I can’t count on Henshaw to safeguard both ships, even if he wasn’t a lying snake. The man has no tactical experience.”
Elise said nothing. Her gaze stabbed into me and she kept her teeth clenched. Self-control was nearly as foreign to her as it was to me.
“I don’t see why one of us can’t come with you,” Tom said. “Two sets of hands could be useful. Especially if you need to carry something or take apart more explosives. It would be logical to assume there will be at least one more device on this facility.”
“Agreed,” I said. “But the last one was straightforward and only served to hide a message. I think I can handle it. Stay here with Elise and Path, and outfit them for whatever they need to help me when I call for them.”
“Oh, you’re going to call for us? How magnanimous. You trust us to come save you?” Elise asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.
I finished the meeting and told them to get out. Nothing about what needed to be done had changed. I needed my space before going into hell.
“You’re quiet today, X,” I said as I headed for the shuttle.
“I’m just taking it all in. You may not know this, but it is extremely entertaining when you make bad decisions,” X-37 said.
“That sounds like something I would say,” I murmured, climbing into the shuttle and running through flight activation checks.
“It is, Reaper Cain. We’re kind of stuck together,” X-37 complained. “Your bad decisions affect both of us.”
Before long, the ship was ready. “What’s on your digital mind, X?”
“I’ve been in deep contemplation of the message we found on the second facility,” X-37 said. “There are very few data points, but my analysis suggests this trip to the third facility is unnecessary.”
“Maybe, but we’ll only have one chance. The Union will be here before we know it, and if there was something important here, then it will be beyond our reach at that point. Why would they build three stations if they only needed two?” I argued.
“Knowing the Union as I do, it’s equally likely they had three identical stations, any one of which
could have operated independently. We are risking our lives to check out a redundancy,” X-37 said. “The message you recovered advised you the answer was on the planet serving the station, not the station itself.”
“I thought the same thing, but I don’t know what to do when we get there,” I pointed out. “Someone is leaving us clues and we need to find all of them.”
“Then you must carefully consider what I’m about to say next,” X-37 said. “I believe you should bring the Reaper mask and the stealth armor with you. You took it when you were dealing with Henshaw but didn’t use it in the gladiatorial fight.”
I interrupted, “I thought I would need it to get back to the Jellybird, but that wasn’t how things played out. And I was even less confident I could use the mask then.”
“No need to explain, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. “But if what I suspect about the messages is true, the Reaper mask and the stealth armor will be part of the final solution. This is the end game.”
A chill went down my spine when he said the end. “Who do you think is sending me the messages and why do you think I should bring the mask with me when I can’t even use it?”
I knew the answer to this question, but it was good to keep my limited artificial intelligence honest. And maybe he would come up with something I’d missed. That was one of his main functions, in any case.
“I believe the messages are from your mother,” X-37 said, surprising me with his bluntness. “The images are female. The elaborate multistage revelation of clues suggests careful planning and total dedication to the process. Had this mysterious benefactor taken any shortcuts, the Union would’ve already found our destination. Arriving there with them already waiting would’ve been a bit awkward, even for you, Reaper Cain.”
I weighed each word X spoke. Hope and dread struggled for control of my emotions. Apparently, I hadn’t known my mother well. She’d always been like the sun to me when I was young, but now I was learning she had skills and resources beyond what I had suspected my father to possess. The long game she had apparently played boggled my mind. How had she recruited Byron Thane II to her purpose? How had she guided him toward me so that it would be delivered? Had she suspected I would kill him to take possession of the mask, and if this was the case, what type of person was she?
