Double Life

by S. Usher Evans

  She heard him ask her a question, and momentarily stepped out of her thoughts.

  "What?" she snapped.

  "I asked if you could believe there were fifteen children under the age of ten in the house!" Vel said.

  Lyssa grimaced, then returned to the list of planets in the star system. Some of them were gaseous planets, others inhabitable because of proximity or distance to the star. She paused on some of the moons, as those could be inhabitable from time to time, but this system was fruitless.

  Vel was asking her a question again.

  "Dr. Peate, you're just so focused!" He laughed. "I wondered if you were planning on coming to Mother’s birthday this year."

  "Uh no," Lyssa said, finally speaking.

  "But why not?" Vel asked. "You haven’t been home in ages. I'm sure she would just love to see you!"

  "I think it would be better for all parties involved if I didn’t."

  "Dr. Peate, you're a treasure!" Vel laughed again, and Lyssa thought momentarily about leaving him on one of the gas giants.

  She tried to return her attention to the planets, but he was talking. Again.

  "So have you chosen a planet yet?" Vel asked. Out the corner of her eye, she saw him with pad and pencil in hand, leaning forward to capture her every word.

  "Looking," she mumbled, sliding lower in her chair.

  Suddenly, her sensors beeped, and Lyssa couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face. Leveman’s Vortex was a speck in the distance, but it was growing. She hadn't even considered using her greatest weapon...

  "Actually, we’re not going to excavate a planet," Lyssa said, nonchalantly.

  "We’re not?"

  "No," Lyssa said, motioning toward the rapidly approaching Vortex.

  "Oh my...are we going to study Leveman's Vortex?"

  "That's what Pymus asked you to do, isn't it?" Lyssa said, bringing up the application to track the angle of entry. As she spoke, she carefully guided herself into the green. "Learn all the secrets of the Vortex?"

  "Dr. Peate, we don't seem to be slowing down," Vel said, a hint of nervousness in his voice as the beeping from the sensors grew more frantic.

  "Why would we slow down?" Lyssa said, feeling the pressure increase. "We're going in!"

  "W-What?" Vel yelled, as the sensor warnings screeched. The stars were flying by so fast now that they became little white streamers, mixing in with the white debris from the outer arms of Leveman’s vortex until the screen was all white.

  "That's what Sostas was studying!" she said, looking back at him. "He found a way to get past the Vortex. We're going to meet him there!"

  The pressure inside the ship was increasing, but Lyssa remained standing even as it pressed at her. One eye was glued on her green sensor.

  "We are?" Vel's excitement was palpable. He didn’t seem to notice the increase in pressure. "I can’t believe it. I’m finally going to meet my father. I don’t even know what—"

  "Oh no," Lyssa said nervously, her eyes still on the green. "Oh, oh no."

  "What?"

  "I...I..." Lyssa turned around to look at him."The...the ship is off...I miscalculated the angle..."

  "W-what?"

  "There’s a formula," she stammered, her hands steady on the joystick. "The precise angle of entry—weight of the ship, proximity to other celestial bodies. I…I miscalculated it…"

  "What does that mean?"

  "I don’t think we’re going to make it," Lyssa said, turning back to look at him with the most panicked expression she could muster.

  "Then pray, dear sister, and let us hope our souls are light from a life well lived," Vel said, immediately dipping his head to prayer. "O great Divine Being, please guide our souls so that we may ascend to heaven. I have followed your lead and lived a good life. I have been kind and pious and—"

  The green turned to red and Lyssa quickly turned on her thrusters. The force of the engines pushed her down into her chair, and she landed in a heap, laughing, even as Vel continued to pray.

  She looked back at him, still chuckling as he slowly opened one eye and looked at her. The ship stopped shaking, and the stars were whirring by faster than before.

  "W-what just happened?" Vel asked, terror still in his voice. "Did...were you..."

  She threw him a look and turned the ship back on auto-pilot. "Using the gravitational pull from the Vortex to slingshot us to the planet," she said simply. "Uses less fuel that way."

  Vel's mouth dropped open. "That's...that sounds awfully dangerous."

  "Eh." She shrugged.

  "So we're not going to meet Father in Leveman's Vortex?" Vel asked, sounding disappointed.

  "Well, you can go meet him there if you want. I'm sure that's where he is," she scoffed.

  "Meaning he—"

  "Meaning he's dead," she snapped. She paused, then added, "Probably."

  Vel didn't respond. Lyssa waited for a few moments before turning back to look at him. He was staring at the ground, his face a mix of disappointment, embarrassment, and anger. She watched him take a deep breath and force his face back to a smile.

  "Well, Dr. Pymus did say you had a unique sense of humor."

  "I'm sure he did," she said, turning back to watching the stars go by, a little perturbed that she hadn't rattled him more.

  ***

  "So where should we start?" Vel asked, holding his pen and paper at the ready. They'd landed at the first excavation site on the planet—a thick, sticky jungle. Lyssa had hoped the bugs and the temperature would get to him as Leveman’s Vortex hadn't, but so far, he seemed as chipper and happy as the moment they'd left the Academy.

  Time for Plan B.

  "Well, the first thing we should start with is why you didn’t do an air quality analysis," Lyssa said, turning to look at him.

  "W-what?"

  "An air quality analysis," Lyssa said, melodramatically rolling her eyes. "As I sit here breathing poisonous air…"

  "Well, I would need a sensor for that," Vel said nervously. "I can’t tell the pollutant concentration without—"

  "If it wasn't breathable, we would be dead by now," Lyssa cut him off, shaking her head. "You sure have a lot to learn about the dangers of being a DSE."

  "Dr. Peate, you wouldn’t bring me to a planet where the air wasn't breathable."

  "What if this was a test?" Lyssa said, folding her arms across her chest. "Or I had forgotten to do the air quality calculation?"

  "You didn’t, though—"

  "Well," she said with a superior glance. "What if I had?"

  "Then we would both be dead?"

  "Damn straight we would be," Lyssa said, acting like she was walking back onto her ship. "You clearly are not ready for an internship. I’m going to—"

  "Dr. Peate, you're so funny." Vel didn't seem the least bit concerned for the air quality nor Lyssa's growl of frustration. "So what are we going to analyze first? I can vouch for the air…"

  Lyssa turned around, annoyed. "Start with the damned tree leaves."

  "Ah!" Vel said, pulling gloves and a plastic bag from his bag. "I do love carbon analysis."

  She grumbled as he systematically picked leaves from different trees, carefully writing key features about each tree before placing the leaves in the bags. Lyssa, who'd always used her father’s sensors to analyze plants on the spot, rolled her eyes and began trudging through the forest.

  "Are you going to pull some leaves?" Vel asked, curiously.

  "You’re the intern," Lyssa snapped, angrily pushing branches out of the way.

  "Of course." Vel laughed, taking three steps forward and selecting another leaf. "So how much data do you normally collect at an excavation site?"

  "Enough," she responded, annoyed that he was taking so long.

  "But what's enough for the Academy? Planets are huge. How do you know when you've gotten a representative sample?"

  "Planets are closed environments," Lyssa said. "So once you've got the basic chemical and biological composition of thi
ngs, you've got enough to sell it."

  "Oh." Vel stopped, staring at her. "But doesn’t the Academy require a minimum of four excavation sites in order to be certified for sale?"

  Lyssa sighed and kept walking, shoving leaves and branches out of her way.

  "It just…doesn’t seem very thorough."

  "Well, that's for the buyer to worry about," Lyssa said, looking up at the sky. "If I spent all my time getting every single detail about a planet, I'd be here for weeks."

  "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"

  She opened her mouth to say one thing, but then thought better of it and replied, "Yes."

  "But you only bring in three planets a quarter," Vel said, nonchalantly looking at a plant.

  "The required minimum to stay active in the Academy, yes," Lyssa said, knowing where this conversation was going.

  "So if you're only bringing in three planets a quarter, and you're not doing a full excavation... What are you doing?"

  "The DSE Academy stipulates a quota of three planets per quarter to maintain good standing." She didn’t have to answer to him the way she had to answer to Pymus. "Therefore, I only excavate three planets per quarter."

  "I see," Vel said, nodding. "So do you think we’ll find any sign of animal life?"

  "Animal life usually finds you."

  "They taught us in our Fauna Interactivity Class that usually native species are usually scared by the sound of the ship," Vel said, as if quoting a book. "It’s rare that you’ll run into them in the wild."

  "Yeah, they say that not to scare you." Lyssa smirked, pushing the brush away as they ventured further into the dense forest. "The reality is, over two hundred DSE die every year on planets."

  "That’s not right…"

  "Look it up. Between the animal life, the dangerous terrain, and simply being all alone on a planet, billions of miles away from anyone who could help you—"

  "Most DSEs," Vel corrected her, not sounding the least bit scared, "have staff and partners that go with them on planets."

  Lyssa turned to look at him. "Yes, but DSEs are often left on an excavation site all by themselves. And by the time their teams come to retrieve them…it’s too late."

  "Dr. Peate, I know what you’re trying to do."

  She snorted and turned away from him. "Uh-huh, and what's that?"

  "Mother does the same thing. She worries about us out in the field. But I believe firmly that the Great Creator has a plan and—"

  "What was that?" Lyssa gasped, eager to shut him up quickly.

  "What was what?"

  "That, did you hear that?" she said, looking around.

  "No, I—"

  "Leveman’s Vortex," she swore, peering into the darkness ahead of her. "I think we found the animal life."

  "What? I don’t see anything—"

  "Run, Vel!" she screamed, pushing Vel out of the way as she sprinted back the way they'd come.

  "Dr. Peate, wait!" Vel called behind her.

  She wasn’t waiting for him, stretching her legs out as far as they could. Without missing a beat, she tapped the screen of her mini-computer on her hip to begin tracking her pace and heart rate. Soon, the only sound was the rhythm of her inhale, the footfall, and exhale as she covered ground. It was some time later that she finally stopped, hitting the edge of a wide river, stopping short to catch her breath.

  Looking down at her mini-computer, she nodded in approval at her time—almost six miles in forty-five minutes.

  And then, just as she was feeling particularly proud of herself, she heard the telltale sounds of jogging behind her.

  "Dr. Peate!" Vel said, his cheeks red from running, but that stupid, vapid smile still on his face. "You are a funny one. That was quite a jog! I normally jog at home, so I don’t get a chance to do much trail running. You know there's a lovely…"

  And then, just when things couldn't possibly have gotten worse, she watched in horror as her mini-computer battery died.

  "Kill me now," she pleaded under her breath.

  ***

  Without her mini-computer to guide them, it was almost nightfall by the time they returned to the ship. Vel’s voice was starting to sound worn and scratchy, but he continued to talk on and on and on about absolutely nothing. Lyssa had stopped answering his questions, eager to get into a hot shower and crawl into bed to dream about anything but the sound of his voice.

  "All in all, a very productive day!" Vel said, neatly placing his bags of specimens on the silver counter. "So when are we going to start our carbon analysis? Are you of the school of thought that we should wait until returning to the Academy, or start the analysis while still on the—"

  Lyssa answered him by slamming her bedroom door shut. She pressed herself against the door and closed her eyes, taking a deep, cleansing breath. It was only for six months.

  Opening her eyes, she saw that half her bedroom had been taken over by his five suitcases, an Academy-provided air mattress and sleeping bag, and three stacks of thick books.

  She took another deep breath and walked over to her small bed, resisting the urge to put a hole in the air mattress. She flopped down and pulled out the cord to charge her mini-computer.

  She watched impatiently as it sprang back to life, wondering when she was going to—

  The mini-computer blinked with notifications of missed calls from several hours ago.

  From Dissident.

  "Shit…" she whispered.

  In an instant, she was on her feet. She burst from her room, focused on how much groveling she was going to have to do, when she saw Vel, standing in front of the small refrigerator and poking through anything that looked edible.

  "Perhaps I can prepare dinner for us."

  "We need some firewood," she said, almost without thinking. "I have some pots and pans. I can make dinner over the fire."

  "That sounds lovely!" Vel said, his face lighting up. "I shall go fetch us some firewood."

  "And water too." She walked over to her cabinets and opened them, pulling out a flashlight and a small bucket. "Here, take these."

  "Yes ma’am!" Vel said, marching off the ship with glorious purpose.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As fast as she could, Razia scampered upstairs and flew to her console, trying desperately to connect her ship to the nearest communications satellite. She tapped her foot, watching the connection slowly come online. Once it was fully connected, she typed in Dissident’s number as fast as her fingers would go.

  "Come on, come on, come on," she breathed as the call went unanswered.

  She tried again, then a third time. Dissident wasn’t above screening her call, but she would be damned if she were kicked out simply because she didn't return his call in a timely fashion.

  Finally, on the fourth time, the call went through.

  "I was just giving you the same pleasure of being ignored," Dissident growled dangerously. His skin was looking particularly sallow today as he sneered down at her through the video call. "Where have you been?"

  "I’ve been…busy," Razia said, trying to keep her temper in check.

  "Oh, you’re busy?" Dissident said, feigning concern. "Well so am I. Pretending I don’t have a damned female in my web."

  She took a deep breath to keep her temper in check. "I’m sorry, Dissident."

  "You’re sorry?" he said, her tone setting him off. "You’re sorry? You know who’s sorry? I’m sorry I ever let you into my web! Tauron or no Tauron, you've been nothing but a thorn in my side for years—"

  The anger of the past week—from Pymus giving her the universe’s most annoying intern to having to turn in a drunken purse-stealer and even coming face to face with her stupid brother in the cafeteria—finally bubbled over.

  "Dissident, do you want to know why your web sucks?" she said, damning the consequences.

  "Excuse me?"

  "You’re a joke," she said, anger overpowering her fear of him. "You spend all this time focusing on Sage Teon—who, by the way, is a terrib
le pirate and an even worse bounty hunter—and you don’t even realize that you’ve got the next Tauron Ball right here—"

  "You think you’re half as good as Tauron was?"

  "I’m better."

  "Prove it. Find Evet Delmur."

  "Who?" She prided herself on knowing most, if not all, of the top pirates, and she'd never heard of this guy.

  "Are you a bounty hunter or not?" Dissident sneered. "Am I not paying for your access into the intraweb?"

  She gave him a dirty look then pulled up the bounty roster. As the first and only result came up, her heart leaped into her throat:

  "Is this a joke?" Razia breathed. He was, by far, the highest bounty Dissident had allowed her to hunt.

  "Find him," Dissident continued. "By the end of this week."

  Razia looked at her calendar. That only gave her three universal days.

  "And what if I do?" Razia asked.

  "If you can find him, I suppose we may discuss raising the caliber of the bounties I allow you to hunt."

  "That’s more like it!" A weight lifted off her chest. This was it, this was the break she'd been waiting for.

  "But if you don’t find him, you're out of my web."

  "Fine. I’m holding you to this, Dissident."

  "As am I."

  The call went dark, and Razia sat back, her mind running over what had just happened. Dissident had just given her a bounty actually worth something—ten thousand credits. She wouldn’t be off probation yet, but maybe if she was given a high enough bounty, one of the other runners would try to poach her.

  "Dr. Peate!"

  Lyssa nearly fell out of her chair as Vel came bursting into the bridge of her ship, a wide smile on his face and a bucket of water in his hand.

  "How long were you standing there?" Lyssa asked.

  "Just walked in! I ran the whole way to the river."

  Vel looked at her, finally, and turned his head to the side. "Your hair is down. You look absolutely beautiful—you should wear it like that more often…"

  Her nerves turned into confusion, and she waved him off. Well, if he didn't ask why she was talking about pirates and bounties… "What are you doing back so soon?"