by Rachel Caine
Source: Bruqvisz Planetary Database, unlicensed copy
The goal of every resident of the Sliver is the same: pursuit of datamynt, amassing of fita. Mynt is traded for goods and services. Fita, much more valuable, can win patronage and items controlled only by Bacia Annont.
Beware, traveler: the Sliver is designed to rob you of datamynt as quickly as it is earned, ensuring you never win free of the station. Many are the bandits who arrive thinking to take what they wish. Few are those who leave with even a fraction of what they had on arrival.
Beware also of those who would trap the unwary to serve in crimes too dangerous to survive. Open no boxes. There are no free gifts.
CHAPTER FIVE
Binding Vows
I DIDN’T DIE, but the next twelve hours were hellish.
Chao-Xing responded better to the treatment, and she was on her feet in eight; Marko helped us both by getting food and water when we could keep it down. On our way out, the Jelly-doc gave us a scrolling list of What Not to Do, based on my reaction. One proscription was overexertion.
Fuck that. We’d already taken a loan from the lizards, and Yusuf would die if his meds were confiscated. We had to get the fita payment for Justineau ASAP. I wasn’t sure what the consequences of failure would be, but probably worse than I’d like. Never had so much hung on me winning a fight, and I felt like shit.
Maybe we should’ve fought in our skinsuits?
Too late for second-guessing.
Nadim was twitchy over our separation, and it wasn’t comfortable on my end, like a glass shard embedded beneath my skin. “Come back,” he told me when I was well enough to pay attention. “Take the Hopper and rest with me instead.”
“We can’t,” Marko said, which clued me that Nadim was addressing all of us. “Leaving would mean paying the docking fee again, and Yusuf’s meds drained our datamynt reserves. We can’t afford to go back to Nadim until we earn more. To be honest, right now, we can’t even afford the next docking payment to keep the Hopper where it is.”
I called up our virtual assistant and asked the light swirl, “What happens if we don’t pay our docking fee on time?”
“Your docked vessel is confiscated,” the swirl chirped, and somehow made that sound cheerful. “You will need to pay significant fines and penalties in addition to regular docking payments to retrieve. In one standard station month, ownership of the vessel is forfeited, and an auction is conducted to satisfy fines and penalties.”
Great. We were screwed, stranded, and in danger of losing our way back. But at least Yusuf was getting treatment. We saved him. That did make me feel better, but separation from Nadim hurt, and I damn well knew I’d see him again soon. Even so, I was ready to take it out on someone, so when I imagined how Starcurrent and Yusuf must feel, a sympathy and sorrow welled up in me. I’d treat both of them better from now on.
When we went looking for Bea at Blobby’s, she wasn’t there. The booth was shuttered, all the junk locked away behind glittering mesh that probably could withstand lasers and whatever high-energy weapons this place could bring to bear. Our H2s showed her on Tier Two. If something’s happened to her . . . I didn’t finish the thought, racing through the dirty, dimly lit hallway to where the H2 said she was.
I banged a fist on the door hard enough to raise an ache in my arm. “Bea? Starcurrent?” I yelled. “You in there?”
The door slid open, and there Bea was, Starcurrent behind her. Her smile was a little wobbly, but she stepped back into the room and spread her hands. “What do you think?”
Starcurrent flared tentacles, trying to be positive, I guessed, but the color flares of distress were a dead giveaway.
This looked like a Zone flop. There was no furniture apart from the metal ledges that could be used for sitting or sleeping, if you were small and slept on your side. As I explored, I found a table that pulled down from the wall and a bar hung perpendicular to the ceiling, like for species with interesting sleep habits. Well, I’d crashed in worse places.
“Not bad,” I lied.
Bea tried to smile, didn’t quite manage it. “This is all we could get for what we had to spend. Maybe we can buy some pillows? Brighten it up a bit?”
“It’s fine,” Chao-Xing said. “We can sleep on the floor.”
Starcurrent waved zis fronds. “Do not need much sleep. Will work instead and earn datamynt and fita. We need this.”
“Damn right we do,” I said. “In fact, I think the less time we spend here, the better. We’re awake, we’re earning. Right?”
Every one of us nodded. We all understood the urgency.
If we lost the Hopper, we lost home.
Before the others were even awake, Chao-Xing and I headed to the Pit. Time was ticking on us, and I stretched as we moved, conscious of how much expectation was riding on us. The need to cut and run—fuck all this responsibility—and go to Nadim chewed at me, a low-key impulse that I could control. For now.
“I wish there was another way,” Nadim whispered from my shoulder.
“Me too,” I admitted. “I miss you.”
The feeling was growing, minute by minute, and I wasn’t sure how I’d cope when my emotions hit critical mass. Somehow, I locked the yearning down and focused while wondering if it was hard on Chao-Xing in the same way. She had her game face on, not inviting me to ask personal questions.
Okay then, down to business.
Fight notices had been posted, and when we checked the info board, there we were. But it wasn’t quite what I expected. “We’re fighting separately?” I pulled up my VA. “Hey, swirl, why are we fighting alone?”
“Must prove qualifications first,” the virtual assistant said. “It is customary.”
“Do we earn for these individual fights?”
“Yes. If you win, payment counts toward your team and sponsors.”
“And if we lose?”
“You are charged appearance fees.” The VA obligingly showed us how much. My stomach clenched, and Chao-Xing gasped. “It’s advisable to win.”
“Yeah, no shit,” I muttered.
Our third match would be tag-team. Provided we got that far. We had to get that far. If not, we’d end up worse off than before.
From here, I couldn’t tell the audience from the gladiators, but once we stepped out of the main hall, lights directed us down the corridor to the actual . . . pit. There was no other word for it, a depression in the floor, where I waited to be called to fight. Beside me, Chao-Xing was calm and quiet, scanning the aliens around us for signs of weakness. Or so I suspected.
Nadim suddenly said, “Zara, I don’t like this. Come home now. Come back to me. Let’s find another way.”
“I know,” I told him. “But we don’t have a lot of choices right now. I have to do this. Not just for you. For all of us.”
A grim silence, then he said, “Understood. If you can bear it, I must as well.”
Six bouts later, they finally called me for my first match. The announcer rolled with the Suncross-style mangling of my name, but no worries: “Zeerakull” sounded pretty badass for a professional fighter. I strode into the center square, more of a polygon really, with metal mesh and force fields between us and our screaming audience, to face off against a giant Lumpyhead alien. He had to be over two meters tall, and I didn’t know enough about his physiology to estimate weight. Good reach. Speed? Likely below average.
I had to use that. Somehow.
“You are the challenger, Zeerakull. Weapon or barehand?”
Shit. Seemed unlikely they’d let me shoot him, and I didn’t have much experience with what else they had to offer in here. “Barehand,” I said.
The starting tone sounded. Lumpy let out a terrifying wail and flushed bright orange, head to toe. He charged me, and I slid aside. Basic gymnastics and fleeing-the-scene parkour let me rebound off the wall, whirling a kick that landed strong. Lumpy barely grunted while I felt the impact all the way up to my kneecap.
Damn. Maybe I bit off more
than I could chew.
A massive arm drew back, and I arched and twirled, gliding right under the strike. From behind, I could see a gap in the plating or scales or head bulbs, whatever you called them. The flesh was soft and pink, a small-ass target, but as I’d guessed, Lumpy was strong, not fast. While he was turning, lumbering like a confused buffalo, I knifed my second and third fingers and jabbed them into his soft spot. Sank into that squishy flesh up to knuckles, and Lumpy let out a screech that gave me chills. Goo oozed over my hand as he collapsed.
The crowd booed me. Dirty trick? Did I kill him?
“Zeerakull wins! A punch in the junk is not against the rules. There are no rules!”
Grimacing, I wiped my hand on my pants as I strode out of the polygon. Chao-Xing high-fived me as I checked the H2. Yep, datamynt and fita received, our first payout.
Maybe somewhere deep inside I was hoping to hear “nice job.” Instead C-X said, “Your technique is sloppy. If you hadn’t gotten lucky, he would’ve pulled your head off.”
“Untrue,” said a nearby Abyin Dommas. “These aren’t death matches. Beaten half to death, probably.”
“Thanks for the support.” I got a cheerful flash of tentacles in response.
A few matches later, C-X threw down. Her style was cleaner, and she took longer to drop her opponent, so she was sweaty as they cheered her out of the ring. I took some pride as our avatars skimmed up the rankings. Not a huge leap. But this . . . it was fun.
I just wished Nadim could be here, share the rush and the pride with me. The tag-team matches wouldn’t be starting for a while, so I got something to eat from a nearby vendor. Tasteless, texture like tofu, but the machine assured me it was “nutritionally adequate.” Fantastic slogan; I could see that catching on.
Reluctantly, Chao-Xing ate some too. Keeping our strength up mattered. We had to blaze this datamynt and fita bullshit and get back to our Leviathan. I paced; waiting to be called up was more exhausting than the moments in the cage. I caught C-X leaning against the wall, eyes closed. If it had been Bea, I’d have hugged her or patted her shoulder, but I wasn’t in that place with C-X.
Then they called us up.
“Zeerakull and JongShowJing, challenging!”
We were fighting three blue aliens. Should be fine. I went in with a touch of swagger. We chose weapons. And then something went upside my head; I hit the ground so hard that I could hardly hear or see.
“Zara! Zara, get up!”
Chao-Xing’s voice rang in my ears, weirdly flat, and I opened my eyes. Overhead, a black sky glittered with stars that glided past, time-lapse fast.
“Zara!”
The command in her voice made me forget the stars and roll over on my side. I felt something under my hands and picked it up. A stick. Why was I holding a stick? No, not a stick. A shock stick, long as my arm, balanced like a sword.
Right, I was tag-teaming with Chao-Xing. In the time I’d been out, she’d managed to drop one of the blue dudes. Two left. These enemies seemed to be both elastic and electrified, which sucked for me. I wished I could ask C-X how she’d done it while I was out, but the battle tips would have to wait until we won.
We had to win. Our way home hung on this fight, not to mention our only hope of repaying the lizards.
One shock treatment was enough to make me cautious. Since C-X had done well, dropping one and keeping the other at bay, I watched her and positioned my weapon as she did, defending successfully against two lightning-fast strikes. When she struck, so did I.
It wasn’t like I was up to strategy, but reactions? I was good. The blur came for me, hit the ground again in a roll, came up with the shock stick (sword?) held out in a firm grip. I lunged forward and sliced the weapon sideways, and caught my lanky blue opponent as he overextended those two-meter-long arms. He didn’t need a shock stick.
His touch had knocked me down and nearly, nearly out.
My hit was on target. I tapped my shock stick on his right side, just above his hip; he had short, stubby, insect-thin legs, and the upper half of his body towered over me by three meters, but I got him just about in the balance point. I felt the muted buzz as the stick fed current, and then Blue was down, folding up and slamming facedown onto the mat.
A glance over told me Chao-Xing was still standing too.
A roar went up from the stands—sound and light, because the bioluminescent species started flashing like mad. I raised both arms in triumph and turned in a circle. A score holo counted down, and our opponents didn’t even try to get up until the holo proclaimed that we’d won.
Sweet, sweet fita. Top level, a full seventeen units credited to our account. Aliens loved a good fight, especially my lizard homies. They’d won both fita and datamynt today from betting on C-X and me. From where they stood guzzling victory drinks, Suncross gave me four arms up, and I heard the roar he let out over the rest.
“Challengers win! Up-rank, team of JongShowJing and Zeerakull,” shouted the announcer. “Next game, four station hours. Bet early, bet often!”
Nanobots or not, I was gasping for breath; the atmo here on the Sliver was thin, and not at all friendly to humans. Jelly-doc’s admonishment sprang to mind, but screw that. C-X and I had gone to near mid-level in the alien fight club.
“If you’re finished basking in the applause, it’s time to go,” Chao-Xing said. She took my shock stick away—probably because I liked it too much—and returned it to the weapon rack. “I checked. Our fita is pushing us up the scale quickly. If we keep winning, we might get an invitation to the Peak.”
The Peak, we’d learned over the last couple of days, was where Bacia Annont had offices, a spectacular jutting spire made of sleek, hard metal that had an opaline shine to it in starlight. Biotech? Even Nadim wasn’t sure.
“Do I have time to shower?” I asked.
She shook her head.
I’d just stink, then. It wasn’t like there were a lot of humans to be offended by my sweat, which glittered in beads on my skin; let C-X wrinkle her nose if she didn’t like it. She didn’t smell any better.
“Where are we headed, anyway?” I asked.
We slipped out the private exit reserved for fighters, new to me, but any VIP privilege was cool as hell. “I found a day job—enforcement at Pinky’s.”
It tickled me to hear Chao-Xing using the nickname for the bar that I’d mentioned in passing. “Perfect. Good fita?”
“Would I waste my time otherwise? Mynt’s not bad either.” C-X was already talking like a Sliver space crim regular.
Her job made sense too. There were no rules in the Sliver, but that didn’t mean bar owners let patrons get away with starting shit; here, as everywhere, bouncers were critical. Bouncers who could eject people politely, even more. From what I knew of her, C-X would have the touch. She was strong enough to handle most of these crims, and I’d seen that she could also be icily polite when she needed to be to soothe ruffled feathers.
“Any other perks?”
“Two free drinks a shift. You can have one.”
When we popped out onto Tier One from the arena, Nadim came through my shoulder unit. Just hearing his voice relaxed me. “Zara? Are you and Chao-Xing all right?”
Damn. I wished I could hug him. This sucks.
I didn’t mention my fresh injuries. He wasn’t complaining about the pain left from the battle with the Phage, either. “We won our fights, earned some fita and datamynt. Hope we’ll be good to repay the lizards soon, keep up on docking fees and Yusuf’s treatment.” I paused. “How’s he doing?”
“He doesn’t talk much,” Nadim said. I heard that sadness again, that streak of real and painful loneliness. “He seems better today. I’ve made sure that he is comfortable and tried to interest him in entertainments. I haven’t been very successful.”
“Try putting him to work, if he’s well enough. Sometimes we need to busy our hands to quiet our minds.”
“A thing I can’t imagine,” Nadim acknowledged. “Thank you, Zara. I wi
ll try that. When are you coming back?”
“Yeah, I don’t know yet. Soon, I hope. I’m getting on the express to Pinky’s. Will talk to you later.” That was a cowardly way out of the question, but I didn’t have a conclusive answer yet.
Another ride on the slipstream, and I lost Nadim again. Reception was spotty in certain parts of the Sliver, maybe on purpose. My stomach tightened. Maybe I wouldn’t linger; I didn’t have to stay here while she was working. Not like C-X asked me to, but it seemed safer for us to travel in pairs. I wrestled between opposing urges—watching Chao-Xing’s back against my desire for Nadim.
One drink, that’s fair. If C-X gives me the all clear, I’m out of here.
I sat down and whistled up a hovertray to place my order—another Fizzy Riffle, since I knew they were safe. The taste was still gross, and Chao-Xing seemed to have the bouncer thing down pat, so I was just about to get up when someone slipped into the seat next to me.
Not Suncross, or one of his crew. I said slipped into the seat, but this alien oozed; the creature was either Blobby or Blobby’s kin. I was guessing kin. Blobby’s booth had exploded in popularity since Bea started singing there.
“You often come here?” Blobby Two asked me.
I groaned. “Don’t even,” I said. “What do you want?”
“I have a job for you,” it said. “Only you. No others.”
“Fita?”
In response, the blob—this one, I realized, had more golden outer skin than Blobby, but I couldn’t see any other identifying features—extruded a limb, and something pushed out of the limb and plopped damply down on the table. Ugh. It was, I realized, some kind of case. As I watched, the slime sucked together into a thick, golden droplet, and then slid back into Blobby Two’s appendage.
“Open,” it said.
I nudged it with a fingertip. Nothing exploded. “What is it?”
“You see when you open.”
“I’m not the marrying kind,” I told it. “In case that’s what you were thinking.”
“Is job,” Blobby Two said, and the exasperation sounded just like every other person who’d met me. “Open!”
