by T. M. Catron
“What does it do?”
“The sword is very ancient and supposedly imbued with powers not unlike what the Galaxy Wizards use.” Jane turned to Solaris. “What do you know about the Galaxy Wizards, Roote?”
Solaris shrugged. “More than some people, not as much as others.”
“A very wise answer,” she said, her eyes narrowing further.
“Thank you.” Solaris grinned. “I’m a wise guy.”
“I gathered that.” Despite her worry, Jane’s stoic facade broke for a moment as she studied Solaris. She looked both amused and worried.
“The sword is valuable,” she continued finally, “and would cause a lot of damage if put into the wrong hands. We have to find it.”
"How did you get it, Jane?" Solaris asked.
Jane walked to a wall terminal and entered a passcode. She pressed a few keys until the screen changed to show a solar system with five planets.
"The Five Sisters?" Rance asked.
"Yes," Jane answered, pointing to the planet furthest to the right. "I found the sword here. We don’t have time for me to tell you the story now, but trust me when I say it was more trouble than I thought it was worth. I nearly lost my life and my sanity to get it."
Rance frowned. She had trouble imagining Jane in a life-threatening situation, and the thought chilled her.
"Then why go after it?" Solaris asked.
Jane frowned. "I was intrigued. When I left the sword here, though, I believed it would be safe."
Without another word, she stormed out of the room. Rance and Solaris followed. They exchanged a glance, and Rance silently berated Solaris for giving away so much about himself. For some reason, she didn’t think Jane would think as highly of Solaris if she knew his real identity.
They hurried out of the vaults, running as if they were being chased. Jane spoke as they went. “Ever since I suspected what I had found, I felt watched.”
“Maybe you were paranoid,” Rance offered.
“And then my paranoia conjured real live Galaxy Wizards?” Jane asked.
“Two days ago, you told me you stopped recording your findings on your handset and other digital devices. Is that why?”
“No, I stopped doing that years ago. But I felt I had been watched for some time. It began after I found the sword. Like I told you yesterday, it made me more determined to find out what the sword was about.”
“That sounds like someone else I know,” Solaris said from behind them.
Rance ignored him—something else was bothering her. “Mother, what would be so terrible about giving the swords to the Galaxy Wizards? Aren’t they the good guys?”
“I’ve never been convinced. If they had honorable motives, why follow me in secret? Why stalk me like I was a mob boss?”
Rance didn’t know what to think of that. She glanced back at Solaris and thought that Jane wasn’t the only innocent person the Galaxy Wizards had hunted like a criminal.
Chapter Eight
By the time they reached the main door, Rance and Solaris were out of breath. Jane looked as if she had just stepped off a luxury transport, calm and composed.
They merged into the main crowds of the museum. Instead of leading them back to the front doors, Jane led them down more hallways, past more displays, offices, and meeting rooms. The whole situation looked so mundane, so boring, that Rance thought there must be some mistake. The myth wasn’t real, and the theft must have been a crime of opportunity by someone looking to make a quick sale on the black market.
When Jane entered a modern room full of holograms and large displays, three guards snapped to attention. The men wore light armor without helmets. They didn’t look like the typical security men, for instead of tattoos and bulging muscles, they had clean-shaven faces and slim bodies. Rance assumed the museum kept the thugs in another room. She didn’t doubt for a moment that they employed them somewhere.
“Dr. Cross, what can we do for you?” the first guard asked Jane. Rance did a double-take, unused to hearing her mother addressed as an archaeologist.
“I need security footage of any accesses from Vault 5113, beginning from six months ago,” Jane said.
“What are we looking for?”
“I’ll know it when I see it. Just retrieve it, please.”
While they worked, Rance studied the room. Directly behind Solaris, one of the screens displayed images of wanted people. One of them was Kaur, the most dangerous pirate in the galaxy. Rance shivered, thinking about his stone-cold angry face staring at her through a porthole. She would never forget it. Unfortunately, Kaur was unlikely to forget hers, either.
The next man they displayed was Solaris and his many faces. Thankfully, not his current face. Unity didn’t have that one, yet. Her CO was ranking with the pirate king. Rance turned away in disgust. Solaris was nothing like Pirate Kaur, and to conduct a manhunt for her friend as if he were a criminal made Rance’s blood boil.
“I’ve got something,” one of the security men said. “We have an unauthorized entry into the vault.”
“How did that happen?” Jane asked. “Only one other person besides me has permission to access it.”
“That’s right, the curator went down there.”
“What?” Jane asked, moving to his side.
The man called up a video with a time stamp and pointed.
“Huh,” he said, and rubbed his chin as if he had a beard. “Unless the curator has suddenly taken to wearing a black cloak down into the vaults, someone else has found a way to get in.”
On the screen, a figure walked down the hallway, cloaked and hooded so that they couldn’t see his face. Rance assumed he was a man because of the length of his stride and the way he carried himself, but she couldn’t be entirely sure the figure wasn’t a tall woman.
When he reached Vault 5113, he turned to face it, waiting for the retinal scan. A second later, the vault opened. The camera switched views, then followed him in where he proceeded to unlock the box. Rance couldn’t see how he did it, exactly. One second, his hand was on the lid. The next, it was open, and the man pulled out the sword. It was a short, single-edged sword with a unique, forward-curving blade. Markings ran up both sides. Just before the man tucked it under his cloak, the sword flashed. Rance couldn’t tell if it had just caught the light or if something else had caused the blaze.
The security man whistled. “Wow,” he said.
The cloaked man walked out the room. The security guard changed views, and the hall camera picked up where the room camera left off.
The man was gone.
“What the—?” The guard changed camera views several more times. He skipped backward, then forward. Finally, he paused it with the man just as he pulled the sword from the box. He wore black gloves. The time stamp was the day before. “Where did he go?”
The air rippled with tension. A man didn’t just disappear. There had to be an explanation.
“Transfer all of this to the captain’s handset,” Jane said, nodding to Rance. Rance fished her handset out of her pocket and handed it to her mother.
“I’m not allowed to—” the guard began.
“I’ll clear it with the curator myself. Just do it. And begin looking. He may still be hiding in the museum. If he isn’t here, I want to know which door he used to get out.”
The man complied, and Rance wondered how her mother had gained such clout that she could waltz in and order security vids, and then waltz back out with those vids in hand. Then, Rance began to wonder who the curator was.
She didn’t get a chance to ask because Jane stalked out of the room with the newly downloaded video on Rance’s handset. She handed it back to Rance as they wound their way through the crowds that had swelled since they had walked into the vaults.
Large windows near the ceiling allowed natural light to filter down through the halls. The walls practically sparkled. Rance again wished that they had more time to explore but promised herself that she would come back someday when she had more
time.
“I know you can’t talk about the artifact here, Mother, but what will happen if we don’t find it?”
“I can only guess,” Jane said, her eyes darting around the hallways. “But the artifact is rumored to hold secrets of the universe.”
Rance stared at her mother, who was generally a sensible person. “Magic is a myth, too, Mother. I wouldn’t have thought you believed in it,” she said.
“As a rule, I don’t. But there’s something about those artifacts that even the Galaxy Wizards never quite understood.” She glanced at Solaris, who was oblivious to her staring as he looked around the room and over the heads of the visitors.
“There’s no point in looking around now,” Rance said to him. “He’s long gone.”
“Or he could be hiding in the museum, and we would never find him,” Solaris said. He frowned. “This place is perfect for moving around unseen.”
“Yesterday,” Jane muttered. “One day late.”
“Trouble at four o’clock,” Solaris warned. He remained casual. Although Rance wanted to turn and look, she imitated him. Similarly, Jane acted like she hadn’t heard Solaris’ warning.
“Is it the same person from Persephone?” Rance whispered.
“Yes. Both of them.”
A surge of fear rippled up Rance’s spine, causing goosebumps. The Galaxy Wizards had found them. Did they know who Solaris really was? Did they know Jane’s identity? Rance’s? She thought of this more than any physical danger. The Wizards wouldn’t hurt them, would they? Rance wanted to telepathically communicate with Solaris, to ask him all these questions. She had to settle for frustrated silence.
“They disappeared,” Solaris said.
“How do you know without turning around?” Rance whispered.
Solaris glanced at Jane, who was scowling as she walked. Rance had never seen such worry on her face.
“Anyone hungry?” Jane asked suddenly, nodding to a cafeteria. “I’m buying.”
This particular cafeteria was small and crowded, geared toward families with children. An anti-gravity chamber lined one side. Its transparent walls allowed parents to watch their children float around in the obstacle course inside that was set up to look like a mini space station.
Rance, Solaris, and Jane seated themselves in a corner, pretending to look at the menu scrolling across the table but watching the door instead.
“We’ll have the most trouble when we try to leave,” Solaris said. “Too many open streets between here and the Streaker.”
A server walked up to the table. Her skin was flawless, her eyes beautiful and friendly. Long brown hair framed her face. Only a small tattoo on the side of her neck gave away her real purpose. An android—perfectly programmed to make them feel comfortable and compliant.“Can I help you order?” she asked pleasantly.
“We’re fine, thanks,” Rance said. “We’re just deciding.”
“If you have the new Zeus 56Y implant, you can pay by placing your palm on the table when the handprint appears.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The server smiled and moved to another table.
“Zeus Corp has an implant for everything now,” Solaris said thoughtfully. “What does the new chip do?”
“I think it does everything but breathe for you,” Rance said. She loved new tech and had been following the company for several years.
“Isn’t your lens implant made by Zeus?”
“Yes. And if Abel hadn’t screwed it up, I might have the Ghost ear implant as well. I would never have to carry a comm with me again.”
Jane frowned. “Zeus can track anyone wearing their tech.”
Rance smiled at her mother. “Not if you’ve made certain modifications.”
“Do you think that stops them? Modifications only prevent someone outside of Zeus from tracking your data.”
Solaris turned to Jane with a worried look. “You think Zeus has been tracking the captain all this time but just can’t give the data to her father?”
Suddenly, Rance felt a bit nauseated. “Or won’t give the data to him.”
Jane’s face looked tight. “I’m not certain, but I got rid of my implant months ago, and as much other tech as I could live without.”
“You mentioned your notes not being safe anymore,” Rance said.
Jane nodded.
“Because of the people following us or because of Father?”
She scoffed. “Your father knows where I am. I’m not concerned about him.”
The android walked by the table again. Rance’s gaze followed her across the restaurant. On the opposite wall, a child pounded on the playroom glass with a gleeful smile on her face. Two long braids floated around her head in the weightless environment.
“Mother,” Rance said. “Why are they still following you if someone has already stolen the artifact?”
“I have two theories,” her mother said. “Either they stole it and think I know where the other one is, or they don’t know that it’s stolen and want me to hand it over.”
“How do we get out of this predicament?” Solaris asked. “We need to find out where that artifact went, but we can’t comb the museum or the streets when the Wizards are looking for us.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t come up with anything yet,” Rance said dryly. “You’re always full of bright ideas. Any ventilation shafts we can use this time?”
Jane quirked a questioning eyebrow. Rance ignored it.
Solaris smirked. “I’m still thinking. So far, nothing has come to mind that doesn’t involve creating a rather violent fight in the middle of these crowds. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”
More than anything, Rance wanted Solaris to disguise the three of them so they could leave the museum in safety. She locked eyes with him, and he seemed to understand her thoughts. He shook his head slightly. Jane caught the look, though, and glanced back to Rance.
Rance and Solaris had discussed the idea before they left the ship. Solaris couldn’t disguise them without Jane finding out about his abilities. He didn’t want to reveal himself and risk anyone linking him to the Galaxy Wizards, including her mother. Rance had agreed with him at the time. Now that they were being chased, though—
“We want to slip away and be gone before they realize they’ve lost us,” Jane said finally.
“Exactly,” Solaris said. “I see who Rance gets her intelligence from, Jane.”
“Your flattery is going too far, Roote.” Jane gave him a sharp look. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were purposefully trying to make me like you.”
Solaris shrugged. “Just calling it how I see it. And don’t you like me already?”
“The jury is still out.”
“Hang on,” Rance said, still watching the android. “I have an idea. We need to send them on a wild goose chase, correct?”
Solaris smiled. “A diversion? I thought you’d never suggest it, Captain.”
Rance nodded discreetly toward the android. “How about using that?”
Since the museum androids were too short to imitate either Rance or Solaris, the group had to settle for finding Jane’s lookalike. After a few minutes, they realized the restaurant one was the closest match. It was about Jane’s size, and the hair was a close shade of brown.
“How do we get it to go with us?” Rance asked as they stood outside the doors.
“Your plan is leaving much to be desired, Captain,” Solaris said.
“I’m still waiting for your idea, sunshine.”
Jane peered inside the cafeteria. “Do you two always banter back and forth like love-struck teenagers?”
“Only when danger is imminent,” Solaris said, his ears turning red.
“Or when it isn’t,” Rance added.
“We only need her to exchange clothes with me and then go on an errand for us,” Jane said, ignoring their answers.
“How will we get her to do that?” Rance asked.
Jane smiled and pulled her scar
f over her head. “I’ve been walking these halls for years. One of the perks is getting to boss people around.”
She entered the cafeteria. The other two leaned against the wall to wait. They kept their eyes on the crowds, searching faces for anyone familiar.
“I know someone else who likes to boss people,” Solaris whispered. “The vagrappe doesn’t float far from the branch.”
“Your clichés are not winning you any points for that date.”
“I thought it was off the table?”
“It is.”
“Then I can go back to teasing you mercilessly.”
“Go back to it?” Rance asked. “I hadn’t noticed a difference.”
“What policy were you going to tell me about?”
Rance took her eyes off the crowd to look at Solaris. “You want to talk about this now?”
“I’m curious. And we need to act casual.”
“Right.” Rance shrugged. Act casual, sure. She would only be discussing one of her most painful memories. Although now that Rance was fond of Solaris, that painful memory hadn’t surfaced much recently. “I’m afraid to date someone I work with.”
There. She’d said it.
"I’d guessed as much. Why?"
Rance breathed a sigh of relief. Now that she had admitted her feelings, a weight lifted off her chest. When Solaris didn’t reply, she continued, “Remember I told you about a CO that got killed, long before you joined the Streaker?”
“Yes.”
“Terryn and I—well, we had a thing for each other. I think it was more serious for me than it was for him, but I fell for him, hard.”
“I thought he had an accident.”
“He did. He was transporting a hover pallet of crates up the ramp of the Streaker. Terryn had overloaded it, and the top was unstable. It tipped over, pinning him beneath.” Rance paused for a strengthening breath. “The thing is, if I had been watching the pallet instead of him, I would have seen it fall. I could have warned him in time. Instead, I was focused on my feelings for him and not the danger. And he died.”
