Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1

by Lalonde, Randolph

  Mirra pulled a tiny box from a small storage crate and handed it to her. “I think I found what I’m wearing,” she said, pulling the tank top into place over her consuit. The white skirt and tank top looked right overtop of the green suit, partially because it looked more painted on than worn. The new layer to the outfit offered enough modesty to suit Mirra, it seemed.

  Spin held the tiny box up in front of Mirra and clicked a button on the back. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal your hair colour.”

  “No problem, it’s the style of the week, now that I can change it whenever I want, anyway.”

  Spin held the device over her head and it released what seemed like an oil at first, but as she spread it through her hair, it disappeared. The warm brown she ended up with was exactly what she wanted.

  “That’s nice on you,” Della said, taking a few steps in her direction with four different outfits in her hands.

  “Thanks,” said. “Having trouble choosing?”

  “There’s so much here,” Della said with a hint of despair. “This isn’t even all the clothes; this is just what’s sellable now.”

  Mirra and Della helped her try things on for the next two hours. A process that was fun most of the time, a good distraction. As Della found a long, stretchy dress that would go well over a flesh coloured consuit that she took half an hour choosing, Mirra noticed that Spin had gone quiet.

  “Are you okay?” she asked her quietly as Della picked and pulled at the dress, making final adjustments to the fit.

  “I think I’m ready to move Larken,” said.

  “Okay,” Mirra said.

  Spin crossed the cargo bay and took an emergency stretcher down, then Mirra followed her to the cockpit. They gently moved him from there to the small medbay, where they laid him inside an emergency stasis capsule with wheels and closed it. She stood there, with her hands on the foot of the capsule for a long moment, feeling grief that she knew would have her wailing if she wasn’t medicated, wash over here.

  “Is it okay if I say something for him?” Mirra asked quietly.

  Spin nodded.

  “Hello, Larken,” she said. “I saw you and Spin last night, and you were beautiful together. I know she’ll remember you for the rest of her life, and all the good moments you shared together. She’s resting her heart now, because she has work to do, but I know she grieves.” A tear slipped from Mirra’s eye. “She loved you, and she’ll remember you. It’s good to be known by great people when you pass, and Aspen is a great woman. She set me free today, so I’ll watch her for you. I can’t take your place, no one can, but I promise to stay with her until I’m sure she doesn’t need me, then I’ll probably stay a lot longer. We wish you were here, but you’ve gone on ahead, so be at peace as you roam, and we’ll see you again some day.”

  “Thank you,” said, sighing through a wave of grief.

  Mirra moved to her side and put her arm around her. “I’ve seen people cry on that sort of medication before,” she wiped a tear from her own eye. “It’s okay, we understand.”

  “Dolls can’t cry,” she replied. “And call me Spin.”

  08

  Even though they’d done everything they could to help her, Spin was wary of her new friends. She waited until they went to sleep before thinking of where and how she’d rest. They didn’t seem to have any misgivings about closing their eyes for a while, taking two of the finest rooms.

  Spin decided to look around the cargo bay for survival equipment and she found a sleeping bag before long. The compromise was simple, even though it would definitely show that she still didn’t entirely trust her new friends. She would sleep on the floor at the back of the cockpit and lock the door.

  Someone, most likely Della, had cleaned the blood and swept up the metal shards from the rounds that killed Larken. You would never know that he died there, even the smell was gone. Spin laid her sleeping bag down on top of where Larken’s body was, locked the door, set her alarm, undressed and slipped inside.

  Even though her head was spinning as she went over and over the events of the previous day in her head, she found herself dozing off. “Too much happened today,” Spin whispered to herself before she finally drifted into a black sleep.

  Spin’s alarm woke her up by sending gentle, tickling impulses through the computer bonded to her forearm. It felt as though she’d slept for days, and she unlocked the cockpit door, then sat in the pilot’s seat.

  They were just about to come out of faster than light mode, and the end of the wormhole ahead read all clear. Spin got the navigational computer started on calculating the next jump then stretched and yawned.

  The door behind her opened and she yanked her hands back down to cover her chest when she realized that she may have approached her morning tasks in the wrong order. “Get dressed, then check the autopilot,” she said to herself.

  “What’s that?” Della asked as she brought a small cardboard tray and a steaming drink in.

  “Nothing, just a note to self,” Spin replied. “Can you pass me the suit?”

  Della smiled at Spin’s strategically placed arms. “I’ve seen everything already. I’d think you would be more comfortable in your own skin by now.”

  “I am, I think I just got used to being around spacers. They always wear a consuit underneath their clothes unless they’re on a planet or partying, so even when they don’t have anything on, they still have a full bodysuit.”

  “Wow, were you on a small ship?” Della asked, handing her the blue containment suit.

  She was dressed in just a few seconds, happy that the inside of the suit was self-cleaning. “I love these things. Wardrobe choices are simple, getting dressed takes a few seconds, and if you spend enough time in the right one, you forget it’s there.”

  “How long did it take you to get used to a consuit?”

  “I never did, not really, not with the crappy ones I could afford. This one’s different though, it’s worth about a year and a half’s pay.”

  “What? That’s insane,” Della replied, handing her a non-spill mug. “How big was the ship you served on?”

  Spin relaxed and sniffed at the drink, her nostrils filling with the comforting scent of coffee. She pushed the button on the side so the cup stirred in one helping of sweetener and took a sip. “It’s been months since I’ve had real coffee,” she said. “Anyway, yeah, it wasn’t a large ship, I guess. About the same size as this, but more of it was dedicated to cargo and work. There was a lot less room to relax, and some of the spots on the hull weren’t quite as trustworthy as others, so we kept our suits on, even used Hygiene Grubs to get clean sometimes.”

  “Oh, yuk, the ones that eat dead skin and dirt?”

  “Yup, just drop a couple down the front,” Spin said, pretending that she was dropping something on her collarbone, “Then two down the back and an hour or two later you pull a fat, happy grub out of your boot.”

  “Sorry, ew. I always thought spacers were cleaner than grounders,” Della said, popping a fold out tray on the outside of the pilot’s seat arm up.

  “Oh, you should smell the crew after we’ve been in FTL for a week or two on the Cool Angel. There are some things sponge baths and grubs can’t clean, and there was always rationing while we were in high speed transit.”

  “Rationing, smelly crewmates, and soft patches in the hull,” Della said. “I’d have never thought.”

  “It’s a living,” Spin said. “We always believed we were working our way up to bigger scores, and that we’d see improvements on the ship, and that helped, but the people you spend your time with are more important. It never got too bad as long as I liked who I was around, and I was free.”

  “We’re going to get some of those people now, right?”

  “In a few hours,” Spin said, finally deciding that it was time to trust her and Mirra with the details of her plan, to see if they could fit into it.

  “I can’t wait to meet them,” she said. “And I can’t wait for them to see you,
too. Unless you dressed the same way when you were with them.”

  Spin scoffed, “nope! When I begged to join their crew they found me programming ground tracking systems in Acosta Docks. I was pretty much in rags, crawling around access tunnels to get to upload the tracking software I made to all their nodes. The dock master wouldn’t pay me until it was done, because he didn’t believe the ground tracking system could work without an artificial intelligence so I was on scraps.”

  “Wow, how’d you get there?”

  “That’s where I landed after getting on an escape shuttle with a bunch of people in Purdue, a city close to the palace I grew up in. Everything I had was stolen the first night, so I arrived in Acosta with nothing. I was there for months, hoping no one would realize I was a doll and deliver me to the Countess. I learned that, when you’re dirty, no one looks at you twice, especially if everyone around you is filthy too.”

  “Good lesson,” Della said. “I’d still rather not have to use that one though.”

  “I don’t want to return to that either. Anyway, Sun saw me running across a landing platform, then watched me disappear into a crawlspace with a bunch of old computer equipment, so she kept her eye out and made sure she met me. It took her a few hours, but she found me and asked me what I was doing. I showed her, and she offered me a spot as her second, her Junior Lieutenant, since she just made Lieutenant and had money to pay one.”

  “So you didn’t have to beg,” Della said.

  “Oh, I had to beg the Captain,” Spin said, remembering the convincing and pleading. “I think he agreed because I wouldn’t stop, and Sun only encouraged me by blocking the door so he couldn’t leave.”

  “What did you do?” Della asked.

  “A lot of what you and Mirra have done for me over the last couple days, taking care of her, the few clothes she had, keeping our quarters tidy, making sure she had what she needed to do her job. When I wasn’t doing that I did programming, learned to shoot, taught her martial arts, set up banking and data security. A lot of things she didn’t really know how to do as well.”

  They emerged from faster than light travel, and the communications console blinked. It wasn’t something from the Countess’ people, the receiving number she set up in the computer wasn’t known to them, it could have only been one or two things. Her friends, or her money. Spin held her breath and checked the message.

  A stern looking woman with dark hair and a long, pointed blue hat appeared on the screen. “We have transferred the requested amount to your accounts and scrubbed the account number from our systems as an extra measure so you are not captured before you can hold up your end of the bargain. Please send the coordinates for the location of Dexter and Tilly Rinnel as soon as possible. Upon finding them in good condition, we will not pursue legal or direct action. If we find them in poor condition, or if you kidnap a member of our household again, you will suffer.” The message ended.

  Spin checked the account the money was meant to go in and found 154,000,045 United Core Authority credits. She immediately entered a programming script that sent it on it’s way through dozens of accounts that would convert it to strange, alien currencies, put it behind several walls of secrecy upheld by governments large and small, then land it in her real personal account. The number of credits was updated to 43, and she knew it was on its way. A final keystroke sent a message with the coordinates to the Rinnel family representatives. She activated a final macro and changed the contact numbers for the Fleet Feather again. Covering her tracks took work, but she was fairly confident that she’d get what she needed in the end, and no one would be able to successfully trace the messages or money.

  “Did I just see what I thought I saw?” Della asked.

  Spin activated the FTL system and the ship began slipping into the jump that would take them to her friends on Tullast. She smiled at Della and nodded.

  “They actually paid, and fast. It’ll take another couple days for the money to make it through all the places I sent it to, and that one-hundred-fifty-four million will look more like a hundred twenty-six when it gets there, but I’ll still give you guys your million each, and I’ll have more than enough clear money to do whatever I decide.”

  “Why will it cost so much?” Della asked.

  “Every bank I’m sending it through will take a fee, and a few of them take a big bite because they defend their transaction data from everyone. If I didn’t do it that way, the Rinnel company could just take it back, telling whatever banks I use that the cash was ill-gotten. I’ve done it before for the Countess and the Captain of the Cool Angel, it works.”

  “I didn’t realize you kidnapped Tilly and Dexter because you knew how, I thought it was just a spur of the moment thing,” Mirra said as she came up the steps.

  Spin got out of the pilot’s seat and sat down on her sleeping bag so she could pull her boots on. “The Cool Angel’s crew stole some things, kidnapped two people, and committed a few other big crimes while I was there. Before I came along they demanded to be paid in cash. After I showed them what I could do, that changed. I still didn’t teach them what I knew though, not even Sun.”

  “So you stayed important to them,” Mirra said, handing Spin the bun Della brought for her.

  “That’s what you do on a crooked mercenary crew,” Spin said. “I don’t know if I want to be a part of that anymore though, it always felt like desperate times, and even I was looking over my shoulder, and not just for the Countess’ people. Still, it’s easier to get away with things now that artificial intelligences don’t watch every little thing. Programs do, but they can be tricked.”

  “Speaking of watching,” Mirra said. “We wanted you to know, we understand why you played it safe last night.”

  “Thanks,” Spin replied, unsure of what to say. She inspected the warm bun Mirra handed her. “Once you get paid I won’t be as worried, because having the money will make you both accomplices.”

  “You’re too good at crime for where you came from,” Della said, stopping and turning to Spin apologetically. “I didn’t mean to remind you of the Countess and all that, sorry!”

  “Don’t worry, I know who bought me, where I was raised. I also know I’m as human as anyone, and that I got a better education than most, a lot of that had to do with learning how to rip people off legally, in the name of my masters. Handling finances, making deals, you know, legal stuff that’s a moral crime. I was brainwashed into thinking my place was chosen and Larken and I would be together forever with the Countess. I escaped the first time because I thought he was dead, all that programming started falling apart. I have to get used to people looking at me a certain way when they realize I’m a doll that comes from a rich house, I think the whole crew I’m going after will know now. By the way, what’s that? It smells good,” she said, looking at the bun.

  “It’s a baked wrap. Sanna Egg rolled in with vegetables and rice then baked, it’s really street food where we grew up, only we use much better ingredients, so not so much anymore.”

  She took a bite and enjoyed the explosion of rich flavours. It was mild, warm and tasted of fresh greens, light egg and sweet bun. Spin chewed for a while and said; “I want to hire both of you forever, but I don’t think I could afford you now that you’re free. At least stay and cook if I end up with a ship. This is amazing.”

  “I love cooking,” Mirra said. “Almost never got to though, they had chefs.”

  “You’re hired,” Spin said, looking at the wrapped bun.

  “I can help in the kitchen?” Della asked. “Maybe keep the ship clean?”

  “Yup,” Spin said, before taking a big bite. Chewing gave her a moment to think about what had to come next, and by the time she was finished she knew how to approach the topic. “I need your help though, and I have to warn you that it’s going to be dangerous. I think you can both handle it, but it could be very rough, so I don’t want you to feel obligated.”

  “Just tell us what you need,” Mirra said. Della nodded her ag
reement.

  Tullast had become an ugly place. The cities were still burning in some provinces. At some point in time someone came in ships and blasted the world with conventional and electromagnetic pulse bombs, they probably even dropped seekers – unintelligent machines that roved around looking for objects hardened against EMP.

  She’d seem one once, covered in drills and cutting tools, made to self destruct as a last resort. Spin could see how dangerous those might be to an artificial intelligence carrying robot who survived an electromagnetic pulse. They were cheaply made, but they could break such a robot apart in seconds and wipe its program out forever.

  Regardless of the methods, something had gone and wiped out enough technology in the cities so that the night side of Tullast was almost completely dark. A few massive fires and a couple tiny energy shield domes dotted the land.

  It made her nervous, but she flew as low as she could with the transponder and her running lights off. The engines were running at minimum power, even the shields were off just to reduce the ship’s energy profile. If they were detected, it would be because someone was looking at exactly the right place with a scanner.

  Della was shocked when Spin told her that she needed her to operate a gun turret. She didn’t protest more than once, and seemed relieved when Spin explained that her job was to create mayhem and to instil fear, not to actually hit anyone. Spin knew there was a chance that Della could hit one of the people she was there to rescue, so she specifically told the jittery young woman to avoid hitting anyone, just aim for the water around the ship.

  Mirra was far less surprised. Apparently she’d spent parts of her childhood in a simulation called ‘Interstellar Soldier’ for fun. Spin gave her the job of covering the port side, and when the friendly people on the ground were marked, she was to start shooting the slavers. Even if she missed most of the time – real shooting and simulations were two different things – the shooting should drive them under cover.