Starbounders

by Adam Jay Epstein

  The passenger laughed.

  “Bottom tier,” she said in a deep voice.

  The elevator resumed its descent, not stopping again until it reached the eighty-fifth floor. This led to Tenretni’s second-level district. Now the moderately attired visitors departed. That left only Zachary, Ryic, Kaylee, and three others, whose filthy appearance made it obvious that none of them belonged to the privileged class.

  One, a hunched, wrinkled humanoid figure with stringy hair and fungus growing from her arms, stared at Zachary. Then without warning she grabbed Zachary’s hand with her bony fingers. Before he could pull free, she stuck out her long tongue and drew it along his palm, past his wrist and toward his elbow. She snapped it back into her mouth and let out a cackle.

  “Pay me and I’ll tell you your future,” she said. “At least what’s left of it.”

  The elevator reached the first floor and Zachary quickly exited.

  “Don’t you want to know the death and misery I tasted on you?” asked the crone, hobbling after him.

  “Take your crazy someplace else,” Kaylee said.

  Zachary was still wiping the spittle from his arm as his friends came up beside him. Looking around, they found themselves below so many roads and passageways that it was hard to believe they weren’t underground. The densely populated lower tier looked to Zachary like it had once been a place of great prosperity. Perhaps it was overpopulation or overcrowding that had led to its demise. Either way, its infrastructure was crumbling, and any investment in the future of Tenretni had been directed upward, not down here. Where above they had spotted automated hover-cars zipping around crystal pathways, on the bottom tier rickshaws were pulled by enormous slithering alien creatures who left trails of slime pooling in the roads.

  Zachary broke out coughing as his nostrils filled with an unpleasant odor. The air had a smoggy brownish hue, and Kaylee was trying to wave it away from her face. Ryic was the only one who seemed unfazed. All the pollution in Tenretni had seemed to settle down here on the ground, leaving the levels above pristine and clear. Zachary lifted his shirt up over his nose and took a breath, turning to a once-majestic building sitting at the center of a park whose grass had all dried up, overrun with weeds and dirt. His lensicon targeted the building and he blinked twice.

  NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE.

  Zachary turned to an old, run-down bank on the street corner. The same message appeared. Then his eyes spun to a floating car moving overhead. No information. A strange alien passed them by. Still nothing.

  “Looks like we won’t be getting much help from our lensicons,” Zachary said, feeling more than ever the direness of their search.

  The search for Discrape Towers was even harder because they were unable to read the native language. Finding the signage from Hartwell’s extracted memory seemed impossible.

  One of the rickshaws came around the corner, and the alien manning the reins pulled it to a stop alongside some pedestrians, who climbed aboard.

  “Maybe we can hitch ourselves a ride,” Kaylee said.

  They waited until another of the two-wheeled passenger carts rolled up, and Zachary ran out to stop it. The creature slowed.

  “Can you take us to Discrape Towers?” Zachary asked the alien driver.

  The driver shrugged, not understanding. Zachary reached out to show him the piece of paper. The alien looked at the drawing and shook his head as if he couldn’t read it either. Then he tapped the side of the spiked beast hauling the wagon. The beast turned, looked at the paper, and nodded. Clearly, the driver wasn’t the brains of this operation. He gestured for Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee to get in, and the three sat upon the torn satin cushions of the rickshaw. Burning sticks of incense were wedged precariously in the cracks of the wooden frame of the carriage, sending up smoke that filled the wagon with the smell of tangerines and roses, a welcome break from the stink outside.

  The beast pulled them forward, more swiftly than any seven-hundred-pound blob should have been able to travel. They passed alleys filled with trash and discovered where it all came from. Long tubes ejected it in sudden bursts from the tiers above. Stranger still was an orderly line of residents waiting for their turn to pick through the fresh scraps.

  While they were still moving, the driver extended an open palm toward Zachary and let it linger there.

  “Looks like he wants us to pay him,” Kaylee said.

  “Do you think he’ll accept my galactic bank account number?” Ryic asked.

  “Not likely,” Kaylee said.

  “Well, then I hope this is sufficient,” Ryic said, pulling a cube of serendibite from his pocket and offering it to the driver. “Enough?” he asked, enunciating the word slowly.

  The alien looked at it and his eyes lit up big and wide. He let out an exclamation in his alien tongue and began weeping.

  “Oh, no, I’ve upset him,” Ryic said.

  “I’m pretty sure those are tears of joy,” Kaylee said. “I’m guessing that’s more money than he’s ever seen in his life.”

  They continued on, passing marble statues aged beyond recognition, reminders of the once-thriving city that previously existed on the ground level. The enormous blob slowed, coming to a stop before a hotel. It was the very building that Zachary had seen in Hartwell’s memory. There above the door were the same symbols he’d quickly transcribed on the paper.

  The driver ran around and opened the rickshaw’s rear doors. He lent an overeager hand to Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee, helping each of them down to the ground. Then he pulled off his overcoat and laid it over a pool of slime on the sidewalk so the three wouldn’t have to get their shoes dirty. They nodded appreciatively as they stepped across his jacket.

  “During the extraction, I saw something else,” Zachary said as they approached the entrance to the hotel. “Quee’s knuckles had neon tattoos on them. Small grids with colored squares. Keep an eye out.”

  They walked through a broken revolving door. The glass panes had been shattered, and all that remained was the rusty metal frame. Their entrance did not go unnoticed by the two dozen cyber hacks sitting on dirty couches inside. Heads turned, looking up from their palm and wrist tablets. Any one of them could have been Quee. And Zachary was wondering what the best strategy was for finding him. Perhaps an inconspicuous survey of all the hackers’ knuckles? Or delicate one-on-ones in which Quee’s name was only brought up after trust had been earned? Maybe they would quietly—

  “Are any of you here named Quee?” Ryic shouted to the room. “We’re looking for a cyber hack by the name of Quee.”

  A handful of the squatters immediately scattered, hopping out of windows and slipping through cracks in the wall. So much for Zachary’s plan.

  “We’re not here to get any of you in trouble,” Zachary called. “We’ve actually come to warn Quee about some danger he’s in.”

  A female lizard-like alien emerged from beneath a table where she’d set up a patchwork of computer screens. The creature was about the size of Zachary’s sister, Danielle, but covered in scales. She had long, bony fingers, three on each hand.

  “Quee’s not here,” the alien said. “But I can lead you to him.”

  “How do we know we can trust you?” Kaylee asked.

  “Who said anything about trusting me?” the alien replied. “This is bottom-tier Tenretni. If you’re looking for loyalty, try the eighty-fifth floor or higher.”

  The alien moved toward the entrance to a stairwell and glanced back before continuing on.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee decided to follow. What choice did they have? They headed downward, descending even lower into what appeared to be the basement of the old hotel. There they saw a hole in the wall that had a tangle of colored wires running out of it. It looked like dynamite had blasted through thick layers of concrete to form the opening. The creature crawled through, leading them into a tunnel. Inside, Zachary was struck by an impressive sea of giant rubber tubing that stretched for m
iles.

  “All of the power and information for the city above runs through here,” said the alien. “It took us years to tunnel in, but now we siphon power and information from the grid.”

  “If you don’t trust us, then why are you telling us this?” Zachary asked.

  “Because if you’re here for the reason you claim to be, you won’t be getting out of here alive,” the alien said.

  They continued through the underground corridor, occasionally passing more spots where the power cables had been tampered with. The alien stopped at a side door.

  “Quee resides through here,” the creature said. “Follow me.”

  They entered to find a room roughly the size of a school classroom. It had been converted into secret living quarters and a work station, filled with both home furnishings and computers, all of which looked like they had been scavenged from the trash heaps. A hooded figure sat in the far corner of the room with its back turned to them.

  “Quee, you have visitors,” the alien said.

  The figure turned to reveal a humanoid with large fish eyes on the sides of his head and a thick snout. As his gloved fingers typed on a flexible keyboard resting on his lap, a voice echoed out from a pair of speakers connected to it.

  “What do you want with me?” the computerized voice asked.

  “An IPDL officer turned mercenary was hired to kill us,” Zachary said. “Once he was finished, you were next on his list. Any idea who might want you dead?”

  “I have my fair share of enemies,” the voice replied. “Before we continue, I’ll need to verify that what you’re saying is true.” Quee gestured to a monitor with electrodes attached to it. “Standard lie detector test.”

  “You don’t have to stick anything into my eyeballs, do you?” Zachary asked.

  “No,” Quee answered.

  “Then I’m fine with it.”

  Zachary walked over and took a seat next to the monitor. Quee removed his gloves to pull off the paper backings covering the adhesive side of the electrodes. Zachary’s eyes peered down at the alien’s knuckles and he was shocked to see that Quee didn’t have any tattoos on them.

  Zachary immediately jumped to his feet. He drew his sonic crossbow and took aim.

  “Who are you?” Zachary demanded. “I know you’re not Quee.”

  The fish-eyed humanoid snatched a photon gun from under the table and pointed it at Zachary. With his free hand, he typed into the keyboard.

  “What now?” the voice asked.

  The lizard-like alien who had led them here stepped forward.

  “I’m Quee,” she said.

  Zachary looked at her with a smirk. “I don’t think so. Try again.”

  “I’ll hook myself up to that machine if you don’t believe me.”

  “I saw an image of Quee’s hands,” Zachary said. “They were more human than yours. And the knuckles had neon tattoos on them.”

  Now it was Quee who was smirking. “Don’t you think I know where every surveillance camera on this planet is located? That’s why I never use my real hands when I’m hacking.” She walked over to an old mahogany dresser and slid open a drawer. It was filled with pairs of robotic hands, some humanoid, some alien. One of the humanoid pairs had the same tattoos that Zachary had spied in Hartwell’s memory. “All taken from discarded carapaces.”

  Zachary lowered the sonic crossbow. Quee signaled for the humanoid to do the same with the gun.

  “Every precaution has to be taken in my line of work,” Quee said. “Now what else can you tell me about this mercenary?”

  Zachary recounted every last detail he could remember about Hartwell. Quee listened closely before speaking again.

  “I took a job recently, one that paid extraordinarily well. Not your typical identity theft or data trolling. I was contracted to create a computer virus that would be able to activate the emergency defenses of any security system, even if no imminent threat was present. Typically cyber hacks are hired to deactivate security systems. It felt funny from the start, but I never ask questions. Professional courtesy.”

  “Why would Cerebella need a hacker to make a computer virus?” Ryic asked Kaylee and Zachary.

  Zachary was thinking the same thing. This changed their theory completely.

  “Who would be looking to do something like that?” Kaylee asked.

  “I don’t know,” Quee said. “But there might be a way to find out. It won’t be easy though. We’ll have to go to the galactic bank where my payment was wired. The only way I can hack into their mainframe is to hard-line it on-site. Most of my employers cover their tracks, but any track can be uncovered, assuming you have the right tools.”

  Quee held up a pair of five-fingered robotic hands.

  “These look like good ones,” she said.

  “Slight problem,” Zachary said. “Our ship was damaged on the way here. We’ll need to repair it before we leave.”

  “Lucky for you, I know a few people who might be able to help,” Quee said.

  Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee stood on the landing lot watching with Quee as a grease-stained alien welded a metal plate over the hole at the back of the buckler.

  “That doesn’t look very secure,” Ryic said. “Are you sure that’s going to hold?”

  “You said you needed to move fast,” Quee said. “And this was the best I could do on short notice.”

  A second, disreputable-looking alien had all three of his arms deep inside the ship’s influx tube, trying to wedge something out. After a moment, the creature removed the Clipsian scouting beacon. Quee walked over and took it in her hand, examining it.

  “I never had any toys of my own,” Quee said. “I had to play with things that I found. Junk tossed out from the floors above. This would have kept me entertained for hours.”

  With the repairs complete, Zachary, Ryic, Kaylee, and Quee climbed aboard the ship. Quee was carrying two shoulder bags, stuffed full with her belongings.

  “Packing pretty heavy for such a quick trip,” Zachary said.

  “Oh, I’m not coming back,” she said. “Sure, somebody might want me dead, but living all alone, below the bottom of Tenretni . . . I feel like I’ve already been buried.”

  Zachary took another look at Quee; he hadn’t been expecting such a dramatic response, but she seemed sincere.

  Ryic paid the two Tenretni mechanics, and once the boarding ramp ascended, the doors closed shut. Kaylee started the ship, and oxygen began to circulate. Zachary cautiously lifted his hand to where the hole had been and was relieved to find that the sealant was holding fast.

  The four took their seats and fastened themselves in. As the buckler leaped into the sky, Zachary looked out the window and saw that Tenretni stood on the side of the desolate cracked planet Irafas. Unlike Earth, which was an oblate spheroid, Irafas looked like a broken eggshell, hollow on the inside with pieces of it missing. Giant mining shafts crisscrossed through its empty innards. It was a horrible, decaying place.

  No wonder Quee wanted to leave.

  «THIRTEEN»

  “That makes nineteen,” Ryic said. “Only one question left.”

  “It’s furry, gray, doesn’t live on the ground, and eats worms,” Zachary said, repeating the clues out loud. “I don’t know. Is it a koala bear?”

  “No,” Ryic said. “It’s a veildar gastropod!”

  Zachary and Kaylee both sighed in frustration. Even Sputnik let out a groan.

  “Ryic, you’re supposed to think of things that everyone has heard of,” Kaylee said.

  “Who hasn’t heard of veildar gastropods? They’re the scourge of a thousand planets.”

  “Yeah, well, not Earth,” Kaylee said.

  While the others played twenty questions, another road trip staple of the Night family, Quee had been preoccupied with the Clipsian scouting beacon, taking it apart piece by piece and examining each nook and cranny as she did. She had become fixated on a square object that she had removed from inside the beacon.

  “Thi
s must be the beacon’s internal navigation system,” Quee announced. “It has the entire manifest of where Nibiru’s armada has been and where it’s going.”

  “I don’t care where the Clipsians are headed as long as it’s not the same place as us,” Ryic said.

  “Then you should be sure to avoid Earth at all costs,” Quee said.

  Zachary and Kaylee both did a double take.

  “What?” Kaylee asked. “That doesn’t make any sense. It would be suicide for the Clipsians to attack Earth.”

  “Are you sure you’re reading that correctly?” Zachary asked.

  “The next location programmed into this beacon is your home planet,” Quee said. “You can see for yourselves. The estimated arrival time is 13-721-863-55.21 ABB.”

  They all looked at her blankly.

  “In Earth time, that’s approximately three hours from now,” Quee said.

  “The Clipsians won’t stand a chance against the IPDL,” Kaylee said.

  “Especially today,” Ryic said.

  “Why?” Zachary asked, having lost track of time. “What’s today?”

  “The Octocentennial, of course,” said Ryic. “Starbounders from all across the outerverse will be at Indigo 8. Nibiru literally picked the worst possible day to stage an attack.”

  Kaylee thought for a moment. “Which would be counter to every strategic decision Nibiru’s ever made as a general. What are we not thinking of?”

  “Ryic just said it himself.” Zachary’s mind was racing. “If every IPDL officer and Starbounder in the outerverse is collected on Earth, what if they can’t get off?”

  “I’m not following,” Ryic said.

  “All of the starships are docked in the hangar beneath the Ulam,” Zachary said. “If the officers can’t get to them, they won’t be able to launch into space.”

  Ryic still appeared confused. “What would be stopping them?”

  “Giant iron doors,” Kaylee said, catching on to Zachary’s logic.

  And she wasn’t the only one up to speed.

  “Say a cyber hack created a computer virus,” Quee said. “One that activated the emergency defenses of a security system. Cerebella could be used to lock people in as opposed to locking them out. Earth would be helpless.”