“Not at all. This body is akin to an environmental suit. As for your assertion, it would be an apt description, but seeing the sickness has not spread to Far Reach, it is highly unlikely you are the carrier. The whole event might be a coincidence. Only Schiele protected you from exposure.”
Noah’s stomach let out a resounding roar. “How long have I been out?”
“Another four cycles, why?”
“I spent two cycles in the shaft, I don’t know how long in the med bay, then the transit from the refinery to Far Reach… I’m not sick. I’m starving to death.” Noah slung his legs over the side of the bed. “I need something in my stomach.”
“I often forget the other races need intake to keep their bodies performing…” She tossed him a liquid protein packet. Not the tastiest material in the world, but it would keep him alive.
Noah didn’t care. He feared the sound of his stomach would wake the neighbors. He tore the cap off the straw and sucked the contents down.
“So you know, the station is searching for you. They have not connected that we are together yet. That might keep you safe. I kept you off the register.”
Noah finished sucking the packet dry. “Damn.” He motioned with his hands for another one.
Kip tossed a second one to him.
“How are we paying for this?” he asked. “If they are searching for me, my accounts must be tapped.”
“For now, I have refrained from using either of our credits. I assume someone will connect our departure.”
Noah looked about the small room. “Then how are you paying for this no-tell motel?”
“I have posted a portion of your recording and asked for donations.”
Noah choked on the protein pack. “What? If you show the frames of the sick, the station will know it comes from me.”
“I decided to not release that portion of your memories yet. I will wait until you have a large following.”
“Kip… please, I’m still out of it. Can you explain what has happened since I was asleep?”
“It is rather simple, really. After you told me Earth had a mythical creature shaped like Schiele, I conducted some research and discovered most races have some winged creature mythology. I edited out any biorhythms that might be linked back to you. I released the portion of your experience that leads others to believe in the existence of… Schiele or the creatures you call angels. You have become a hit.”
Noah sucked on the tube while he listened. He must be starving, the words made no sense. “Can you tell me what is going on in simple terms?”
“Your experience is leading to a religious revolution. People are taking your experience as proof of a higher power.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” Noah needed time to think. The news and the protein weren’t sitting well on his stomach. He needed to brace himself against the wall to reach the toilet.
Kip continued, “Once you have enough followers, the station or the company will not be able to touch you, then we can release the truth about the sickness in the belt.”
Noah stared into the mirror. The face that looked back was a stranger to him. Certainly nothing like the messenger Kip tried to turn him into. “What if I want to say, ‘stuff it all,’ and just escape this place and head back into the dark?” Noah splashed water on his face in an effort to clear his thinking.
“It should be simple enough. No one should have a clue it was you who witnessed Schiele. The station and the company will still be looking for you. They have long arms.”
“Kip… how did you learn to become so talented with machines, with the hacking?” Noah dried his face.
“When your life is interlocked with a machine, it becomes second nature. All of the Skoonlin have an affinity with machines.”
“Can you make me disappear? Can we both escape this mess?”
Kip sat silent for the longest time. So long, in fact, Noah needed to leave the bathroom to see if she was still there. The machine body sat in the same place.
Noah whispered, “Kip, can you get us out of here?”
Her eyes turned and stared into his eyes. They reflected the pink light like a cat. “I can take care of most of the records, hard copies and individuals will still have knowledge of you. I can’t find every reference to your existence. Given time, I might be able to develop a worm that will seek your likeness out, even your name, and have it erased. I must admit I’d never thought about a project like this. It should be a challenge. It will take time.”
“Then do it. I don’t want to be the leader of some revelation, religious or otherwise. I want to escape with my skin and live out a simple life.”
“Where will we go? What will we do?”
“I know, out in the dark, there are places derelicts drift, abandoned stations float, and old mines have been played out. All we need is a cheap ship, and we can run from this madness. Lead a simple life.”
“As a hermit?”
“If that is what it takes, yes.”
“We will need to steal a ship.”
“Then we will.”
“It will take me a few days. Can you wait?”
“As long as we are not discovered here… I can wait. What do you think?”
“Time for me is not a finite resource, as it is for you. Running into the dark will give me time to research some items. As long as I have communications, I will be good.”
“Can we do it, then?” Noah asked.
The answer came back surprisingly simple. “Of course.”
<=OO=>
Sixteen cycles later, an unmanned craft entered Far Reach Station controlled space. Since the craft never docked, the customs and immigration gave it no notice. The Rankin rulers of the station had given it special clearance to stand off the core.
An airlock opened, and two figures—one in a pressure suit, one without—slipped off the station unnoticed. They boarded the ship, and it sped into the dark, no flight path registered and no active beacon. The ship was a ghost and disappeared into the vastness of space.
The copy of the brain scan showing the purple angel remained active. No matter how the station tried to remove the images, people would replace it. The information was out, no matter how the officials tried to discount the evidence as a hoax. True believers would not be discouraged.
No one ever discovered who the witness was. Several people tried to lay claim to the title, but when they were found out to be liars, they were attacked. The true believers even murdered some of the frauds.
The station and company searched for Noah and Kip, but an aggressive worm attacked the internal storage, erasing every file that mentioned either. The attack was not a surgical application. Many unintended files were also damaged. The best and only solution to the virus was deletion of the infected files. While Noah was never a carrier of the bug that wiped out refining station CM-88B, his name became linked to one of the most destructive computer viruses ever discovered.
No matter how those in power searched for him, every time his name was used in notes on any networked storage medium, the virus would attack the files. Since Noah’s name could no longer be used, investigators started calling him by codenames. Over the years, several were tried, but one finally stuck: Morte.
Morte became a legend, a ghost that haunted the authorities of Far Reach Station, never to be found. However, the faithful believe he is still out there with the angels, bringing the faithful the luck they deserve in life.
Marbles
“Miss Nevaeh, can you please explain how you came to us in such a state?” The unknown male voice spoke from across the table, but it might have been a thousand miles away. Nevaeh didn’t care anymore. She was beyond caring.
In a daze, she inspected the dark skin on the back of her hands, turned them over, and studied the lighter palms. They looked normal to her. The chained silver handcuffs surrounding her frail wrists, that was the odd part. “I’m not sure what you mean?”
“It isn’t normal for anyone to walk around co
vered in blood, especially a fastidious Prod.” The male cleared his throat. “With the recent unrest on the station, we are trying to figure out the cause. It looks like you survived the onset.”
Unrest was a weak euphuism for the carnage, the rage, she witnessed. Too tired to raise her head and inspect her interrogator, she brushed his comment away with the back of her hand.
The man must be crazy. She didn’t have any blood on her hands. How could she be covered in blood? “Can you take the cuffs off?” Her voice sounded foreign to her, subservient, like a male. The tone turned the small woman’s stomach, but she didn’t have the energy to speak with more force.
“You’re not going anywhere until we find out what happened in those tunnels.” The inquisitor slammed his fists down on the synthetic table, most unmalelike. “Tell me what happened to those people. What started the riots?”
The sharp sound didn’t force a flinch from Nevaeh, but it did help her find the strength to lift her head. In a single glance, she thought, Figured, the creature sitting across from me isn’t a dark-skinned Prod.
By the single horn jutting from the creature’s forehead and sickly gray skin, she faced the weak mind of a Wujao male. An irritated creature, by the sound of it. They had a reputation for violence. The badge that hung on his uniform screamed police. Just another petty functionary with a badge.
The bone protrusions that made up the male’s face didn’t hold Nev’s attention for long. Rather, the huge mirror situated behind him grabbed her focus. Not the mirror, but the reflection that stared back at her. Her reflection caused her great concern for her well-being.
For the first time, she spotted the dried dark blood that streaked through her silver hair. Red stains covered her normally spotless ebony skin. Her clothes were tattered in a most unbecoming way. She looked like hell, or at least walked through some creature’s idea of hell.
Her focus returned to her hands. Just a moment ago, they looked normal. Now they were covered in blood, dried dark blood.
“What happened to me?” Nev asked.
“That is what we are trying to find out. Whose blood is that?”
A quick mental inventory revealed she suffered no discomfort from fresh wounds on her body. No searing pain of lacerations or abrasions, not even the throb of recent contusions. “I was about to ask you the same question.” In a vain attempt, she tried to wipe the blood from her hands. “Can I get something to drink?”
“No…” The male’s face went slack. Nev knew the look. He was talking with someone over the comms link embedded deep in his thick skull. It’s a miracle the signals can pass through all that bone…
Without warning, the huge male stood from the table, the chair screeching on the deck plates when he pushed back. That sound made her wince, like nails against a board.
“At least tell me… Where am I?” Nev asked before he left the room.
The creature paused at the door. “You are in the refining station CM-88B security… a holding cell. You will stay here until we discover what happened to start this chaos.” Without further explanation, he slipped through the sliding door.
She risked a quick glance. The hall outside was empty and quiet. Something was amiss, she was certain of it.
Holding cell? She knew the designation. A Rankin refining station not far from Far Reach Station. Miners brought in their ore and ice for processing to this little frozen moon. That explained the microgravity but not how she got here.
How did I get to this wayward outpost? The investigator’s words didn’t jibe with her recent memories.
She cocked her head to the side. Now that the blathering from the bureaucrat had thankfully come to an end, she heard the constant low murmur of voices.
The sound was barely loud enough to hear over the recycled air that flowed into the room, but the voices were unmistakable if incomprehensible. There must be a malfunction in her communication or translator implant. She was receiving signals from somewhere.
She studied the large mirror once more. It was painfully obvious it was a window. The shadows of those who observed her from the other side were easy to pick out.
The sound murmured on, reminiscent of a babbling brook. Like the constant flow of sewage through the station’s pipes, the sound was there, if indistinguishable.
Try as she might, her implants didn’t shut down. The voices grew louder the longer she sat alone. Forcing herself, she found the loudest of the voices, picked it out from the background hubbub, and concentrated.
Beads of sweat formed on her brow. The longer she focused, the clearer a single voice came through.
With all her effort, eventually, the other voices faded, and a single unrecognizable voice screamed, “You did it!”
Rather than argue with the unseen, unknown person, Nev asked, “Who are you?”
The voice asked, “The bigger question is who are you.”
Nev’s answer flowed in her thoughts. “I am Nevaeh Lorries. First Daughter of High Priestess Lorries on Prodian Prime.”
“You lie.”
“How dare you?” If Nev ever found the person behind the voice, she would take flesh for payment for their insolence.
“Why would any first daughter find themselves among the homeless dregs of a third-rate refinery station in the backwaters of the universe?”
This person had sass, but Nev needed to think of why and where she was. Her memories didn’t want to work, so she didn’t have a quick answer for the unknown person. “I don’t know.”
“You made it all up. You lie.”
Nev shouted into the empty room. “I did not!”
“I know you did.”
“Just ask Jayden…”
“Who is Jayden?”
Who is Jayden? The name slipped from her thoughts so quickly, but she couldn’t place a name with the face. “He knows who I am. We knew each other on my ship…”
The strange voice asked, “Your ship?”
<=OO=>
Nev sat at the crew table, a mug of warming tea cupped in her hands. No matter how high the heat was set station side, the cold of the docks sucked the warmth out of the ship. Her ship was the Mia-Sama, a light freighter she worked the outer worlds with.
“You going to sit there all day?” a pale young human male asked her.
Caught off guard, Nev blinked, trying to put a name to a face. She knew she should remember his name. The face looked so familiar.
He turned his back to her, busy preparing a warm beverage. “It’s your ship, you pay the docking fees, the workers… hell, all the bills. I guess you can sit back and lounge about all day long and enjoy yourself if you want.”
A realization came to her. “Jayden,” she murmured.
“Yes?” The pale man asked. He stopped making the cup and leaned his back against the counter. “Boss, you all right?” His brow knitted together.
“I think so, just a little lightheaded.” Nev set her cup down. She remembered what came next. “How are the Corkers coming with the offload?” Out of reflex, she reached for a braid of silver hair that tickled her neck.
Jaden laughed. “I never thought the little furry critters could work so damned fast. What made you think to ship into this hayseed of a world to begin with?”
“I was lucky. I needed a job, a steady income to keep the ship flying, and I stumbled on this run…” Nev broke eye contact with the human and examined her cup. “At least I thought I was lucky.” The pain of loss and heartache shot through her chest.
“What’s getting into you, boss?” Jayden closed the distance between the pair and sat next to Nev.
“Nothing… listen… don’t take anything from the Corkers. Just let them unload, then we will clear the station. Everything will go back to normal.” Nev felt her heart rate pick up when she thought of the future. She knew her words were wasted, but she needed to try all the same.
He reached out and squeezed her hand. “Sure thing, boss. Normal is always good.”
She looked deep into hi
s eyes one last time. “I love you,” she whispered. “Always remember that.”
Jayden bent down and kissed her. Finished, his lips cracked a wicked grin. “I know you do.”
Before she could say another word, he slipped from her grip and disappeared through the hatch to the cargo hold.
Alone, the strange voice cooed in her mind, “And that was it?”
“Yes, I was the master. It was my ship… a gift from my mother upon reaching adulthood.” Nev moved the mug to her lips but found the vessel had disappeared.
The unseen voice said, “You don’t know the cause?”
“No.” Off in the cargo hold, Nev heard a ruckus, the sound of a scuffle breaking out. Fine beads of sweat broke out on her upper lip.
“Surely, you have a guess as to what happened next.” The voice asked, “What was the cause of the violence?”
“Look… the Corkers are… were peaceful. They don’t even have weapons… They are only a meter tall… There was no reason for the dock workers to attack the ship… for them to attack Jayden. They couldn’t win. They had nothing to win.”
“Yet, they attacked…”
“Yes, like demons escaped from hell… all tiny flashing teeth and claws. They tore into the crew. They tore into Jayden…”
“And they died, your crew—”
“They all died, okay.” Nev tried to stand but found she couldn’t. She needed to escape her ship.
“Except for you.” The voice remained calm.
Screams and snarls shattered the tranquility of the galley.
“If I hadn’t sealed the door and activated the repel borders programming, I would have died as well.” Her temples throbbed. An unknown fear gripped Nev.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes…” Nev hesitated. Something was wrong. “I think so…” Her temples began to pound. “How the hell should I know!” The petite woman slammed her hands down on the white table in the galley.
“But you didn’t seal the door in time.”
Jayden fell through the door, covered in blood from hundreds of wounds, his red blood spattered the deck plates on impact.
Humble Beginnings Page 16
