“Welcome to Gorono,” the Kapadian said and inclined his head in a fashion Vanaka had seen some of the locals use. “It is a shame you are going to get to know its uglier side.”

“So you are native?” Vanaka asked.

“I sure am. She is not.”

“I am a Wanderer,” Kiris said. “I work on a small civilian freighter. It’s resting here for a couple of weeks of maintenance, so I’m lending a hand.”

“The more the merrier, they say,” Vanaka said through a smile. But either her delivery was off, or the woman was a real sourpuss.

“At the risk of sounding self-important,” she then said, “have you heard of me?”

“A Wanderer gave me a second-hand account of the Baffo job,” Unta told her. “And your part in it.”

“I was recently told that I am just on the verge of making my reputation,” Vanaka replied. “As a Helper, of course. I am really trying not to get up myself.”

That got a small smile out of the Kapadian.

“Yes,” he said. “And your reputation, fresh though it is, is that you have a downright mysterious talent for getting information out of people without getting nasty.”

“Mysterious?” Vanaka repeated, and shrugged in what she hoped was a casual fashion. “I cannot be the only one connected to this network with a desire for privacy.”

“No,” Unta agreed, then turned his attention to Losan. “But there are two of you, and I feel I am being rude.”

“I’m her bodyguard,” Losan stated simply.

“Paid?” Unta asked.

“I’m her bodyguard,” Losan said again. “I came with her from home.”

“He did,” Vanaka said. “And I guarantee he is one hundred percent reliable. And that truly is not hyperbole on my part.”

“Fair enough,” Unta said.

“Is it safe to talk work?” Vanaka asked.

Kiris wordlessly pointed up, at the ventilation opening through which the blaring music could be heard.

“It’s safe,” Unta said, and his whole demeanour shifted into a more serious direction. Then it simply continued shifting, until he looked downright grim. He looked around, and up, before speaking again.

“There is no small amount of crime here. There are plenty of dark, unnoticed corners, and the kind of lowlifes who are willing to sink even lower than the mob outfits. And that’s how we get human trafficking. People get grabbed, mostly women and girls but there is a market for boys as well, and the local cops don’t put in much effort when a poor person disappears.”

A sour, humourless smile appeared on his face.

“Since you’re new here let me give you some advice: If you want the cops to help you with a problem, dress respectably and carry cash on you. And since you’re a pretty young woman, be wary of going somewhere private and quiet with one.”

“Hm,” Vanaka said, as a way to stall as she absorbed this. “I’m hearing a lot of contempt. You’ve had bad experiences with them?”

“I used to be one,” the man said. “I came to realise that my options were: go corrupt, go numb, or get out. And now I’m doing actual good.”

“Good,” Vanaka said. “And on the subject of good, how are we looking at doing it here?”

“We know there is an active op in the capital,” Unta told her. “Mostly young women getting snatched, with some young boys thrown in. For... fun, presumably.”

“Sex trafficking,” Kiris said more bluntly. “The hard labour kind of slavery is mostly limited to less developed worlds.”

“Another op was busted up in another city last year,” Unta continued. “Whoever is up to this shit now is being quite cagey. But we’ve managed to scrape together enough whispers on the streets to know that the abductees are being held in one location, and will be shipped off-planet once a quota has been met.”

“Aren’t offworld flights tightly controlled around here?” Vanaka asked.

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“Oh, sure,” Unta said dismissively. “But it doesn’t take a criminal genius to proof a cargo container against scans, or bribe some low-paid jerk up in space management. But anyway, we know they’ll be moving soon, and we are a bit short-staffed at the moment, and only have three proper Fighters.”

“That is a bit small if the plan is to take on an entire gang,” Vanaka remarked.

“Oh, sure.”

Unta gave each of them a fresh look.

“You really do have the look of a fighter,” he said to Losan. “What about you, Vanaka?”

“Mm. I’ve had some training,” she said. “And I’m... well, I dance for a living. That means I’m fast, strong and agile. But I have never considered myself some warrior.”

She hesitated, suddenly feeling awkward.

“And... I simply have no desire to hurt anyone. I am just doing this because I want to help.”

“Sometimes those two must go hand-in-hand,” Kiris said, and Vanaka really wished the woman’s gaze would soften a bit. “You have stepped into a very ugly world, girl.”

“But it’s fine, really,” Unta said, throwing the golden woman a bit of a look. He then turned a rather odd smile Vanaka’s way. “We have a... let’s say a black card up our sleeve.”

Vanaka had never played corras, but understood the metaphor well enough.

“Indeed? Do tell.”

“I’m leaning towards liking you,” Unta said, still wearing that odd smile. “I’ll let you enjoy the surprise during the next meeting.”

Vanaka wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or intrigued, but reminded herself that her reputation was still in the making.

“So I am invited?”

Vanaka thought she caught a subtle little jab of Kiris’s foot against Unta’s, but it might have been a simple twitch.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes you are. Everyone on hand in the capital area will be meeting tomorrow night. Pillar 99, Apartment 6, at 21:40.”

“Ninety-nine, six, twenty-one forty,” Vanaka repeated.

“And just to be on the safe side, don’t invite anyone. No new faces, don’t carry anything that can be tracked, and don’t tell anyone where you’re going.”

“I know,” she told him.

“Like I said: to be on the safe side.”

“So is that all?”

“That is all,” he told her.

“Then good evening, both of you. And thank you for meeting with me.”

Losan nodded by way of farewell, and the two of them turned around and walked back the way they’d come.

“Do you want to stop somewhere along the way?” he asked her once they’d fully left the bar behind.

“No,” Vanaka said. “I’m tired.”

“I have noticed that you get that way.”

Vanaka reflected for a moment and realised that he was right.

“There’s just something about arriving on a new planet. It is exhilarating, but really drains me on the first day too.” She looked at him. “Don’t you feel it at all?”

He considered her question for a few steps.

“I suppose I am always simply focusing on the same things: our safety. You’re watching all the big things in every direction and marvelling.”

“I do marvel a lot,” Vanaka said, but at that point her appetite for conversation ran dry. They walked back to the hotel in silence and had dinner in the restaurant. After that she was simply glad to go back up to the room and shower.

She then sat down in one of the arm chairs and debated with herself whether to go to bed early or find some way to entertain herself. That train of thought ended upon noticing Erine’s silent observation of her.

“What is it?” Vanaka asked.

“Is something wrong?” the ansoti asked. “Well, allow me to rephrase that. What is wrong?”

Some denial made it halfway to the tip of Vanaka’s tongue, but stopped there.

“You always notice these things,” she said instead, and felt she detected just a hint of frustration in the observation.

“We have been doing this for a while,” the woman reminded her. She walked up to Vanaka’s chair and knelt down on the plain but comfortable carpet, before putting a hand on her arm. “And your parents did specifically ask both of us to look out for you.”

“So they did.”

Being a few years older than Vanaka, there had been a period when the woman had been more caretaker than companion.

“So what is it?” Erine asked.

Vanaka sighed.

“It is just... something they said. About the uglier side to all of this. I-I mean... obviously human trafficking is a nightmare, but I mean the actual work of busting up the trafficking rings. The violence, for when the law is inadequate.”

Losan had moved to her other side, silently observing. She looked at her hand and clenched it into a tight fist, exploring the sensation of bone and muscle straining and grinding.

“A Vylak’s strength really starts to develop in puberty,” she said, although Erine knew this perfectly well. “At one point my mother brought me a fake human arm, the kind used in medical school, and told me to take it. I did, but she didn’t let go of the other end. I broke the arm, which turned out to be the whole point. She told me it perfectly simulated the strength of a baseline human arm. It was my first real lesson on needing to be careful, not just in what I said around outsiders, but in... well, everything.”

She clenched a little tighter.

“I have never wanted to hurt anyone.”

“You are always very gentle, Vanaka,” Erine assured her.

“I really try to be.”

Vanaka unclenched, and Erine patted her arm.

“I just... I know...”

She groaned.

“Oh, nevermind. For now. I’m going to bed.”