I woke up the next morning feeling better than I had in weeks. I had a plan, was clean and, thanks to Feros, able to work out the tension that had been building up all evening. It hadn’t been as good as I remembered, I guess because it was out in the open this time, but no complaints. I quickly pulled on my jumpsuit and snuck out, trying to keep the prodigal son from waking up and making it weird.

There was a high end replicator in the dining area and I ordered a black coffee and some sort of pancake like dessert. The silence was nice but thinking about the things I had done with his son the night before made me smile slightly when Ammet walked in.

‘Did you sleep well?’ His tone was suspiciously casual and he made himself some tea of unknown origin.

‘Uh yeah, great. Thanks for the hospitality.’ I shoveled the food into my mouth and waited for him to say something.

‘Look, Aia, I don’t care if you fuck Feros.’ Ammet turned to face me. ‘I’m old. I have 75 children whose names I’ve mostly forgotten. This one is an idiot whose mother was a prostitute from Hades Minor. My issue was with the timing. My business is the most important thing in my life and I cannot choose anyone or anything over that. The next time you think about engaging in a reckless act like this, do yourself a favor and consider the ramifications. This could have ended very differently.’

‘Ok, deal.’ If that was the extent of the lectures, I felt lucky indeed.

‘I’ve fueled your ship and had my men make a few minor repairs. Take that, and my advice and get going, please.’ He smiled at me and I promised that I would try to do better. We both knew I wouldn’t. I finished the coffee, blew him a kiss and headed out.

After leaving the station, I double checked to make sure he hadn’t helped himself to any additional payment and was relieved to see it all there. I had told Ammet about my search for Faye a while ago and assumed that was why he always helped me out. The old guy didn’t strike me as a sucker for a sad story, but he never failed to give me the best contracts and I figured sacrificing one bar of Oranium was worth it to keep our friendship going. I stared at my wrist and hit a few buttons on my implant to scroll to the name Ammet had given me the night before.

Manuk Kai

Pax System

The name sounded familiar, but it didn’t draw any immediate recollections. I figured that before I did anything else, I would need to find a place to hide the Oranium. Quickly glancing through my embarrassingly small list of contacts, I realized there wasn’t anyone I trusted. Although I was pretty sure Ammet wouldn’t fuck me over, in this line of work, you never knew so finding a safe place to hide my stash until this Manuk Kai dude was located was my number one priority.

‘Cloe!’ She was the only one I knew who had no reason to fuck me over, for her, the concept of money was confounding and I was always left to foot the bill since she didn’t have a credit account. She was the only one I could totally trust besides Rem and I didn’t want him anywhere near this.

‘Fuck, how do I find her?’ I had never needed to get in touch with Cloe before. She always just showed up whenever she felt like it, which was normally fine, but now the situation was urgent. I thought about all the times she had visited before and tried to figure out if they had anything in common. Nothing came to mind and I slammed my fist on the dashboard. Not knowing what else to do, I summoned a supply station, hoping it would be the one Rem worked on.

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I found him at the bar and smiled.

‘Wow, twice in one week. To what do I owe this pleasure?’ He pulled out my whisky, but I shook my head knowing that I needed to play this one straight.

‘Do you remember the girl I was sitting with last time?’

‘Yeah, Cloe. She was cute, but a little weird.’ He leaned in to kiss me lightly, then whispered in my ear. ‘We need to talk. Alone.’

I left the bar and rented a room in one of the hourly budget motels along the upper level. Mostly used by prostitutes, the tiny, confined spaces were also convenient places for discreet meetings and shady business transactions. I sent Rem a message with the room number and hoped he would hurry up so I wouldn’t have to pay for a second hour. I had been uneasy about leaving my ship in dock, but shrugged it off as my oldest friend came barging in.

‘Aia. I’m glad you came. We never get to talk anymore.’ He walked towards me and pulled me into an uncomfortable bear hug.

‘I’m glad to see you too, Rem.’ I was curious about what he needed to tell me. ‘What’s up?’

‘People have been asking about you.’ He sat in the chair on the other side of the room. ‘Bad people.’

‘People who work for Colleen?’ Finding Manuk Kai was now top priority. ‘I know.’

Rem was born off Earth and didn’t suffer from the same problems that plagued me. We both knew that he had loved me more than I could love him. He had been fine with it at first, but as time went by, he couldn’t handle being with someone who was incapable of feeling the same way. That was why we had split, and how he ended up tending bar on a space station while I hunted down and killed the dreck of the universe. Maybe once I found Faye, we could try again.

‘She will find you, Aia.’ He still worried about me and I appreciated his concern, but locating Manuk Kai was the important thing right now.

‘Yeah, she probably will.’ I paused. ‘So about Cloe. Did she tell you how you could contact her?’

‘She’s your friend. Don’t you know?’ Rem was incredulous.

‘I never needed to before. She always just sort of showed up.’

‘I can see why you two are friends.’ He turned on his communicator and scrolled around for a few seconds. ‘She set up an id here that she checks occasionally. You could try that.’

My wrist beeped and I sent a short message to the sequence. Hey, it’s Aia. Come find me. It’s urgent.

‘So what’s going on with you?’ Rem leaned over in the chair with his elbows on his knees.

‘I can’t tell you right now, Rem. I might be in a lot of trouble and I don’t want to drag you into it.’ I got up and walked towards the door. ‘I’ll tell you soon, I promise.’

‘Is it about Faye? I thought you had found her and everything was going to work out.’ He stood and approached me, taking my hand in his.

‘Not exactly. I hope to have this situation sorted out soon, then I can finally take care of that.’ I pulled myself back. ‘I..really need to go.’ I put my hand on his cheek and kissed him lightly.

‘I hope this works out, Aia. I never stopped loving you.’

‘I know. See you soon.’ I left him in the room and walked quickly to my ship, keeping an eye on my surroundings to make sure I wasn’t being followed. It was true that I didn’t want Rem involved. He had a life for himself and if something happened to me, he could move on but I wanted him to have that choice, not be drawn into my bullshit.

I was suddenly pulled away from my thoughts as my wrist began furiously beeping.

‘Fuck.’ I ran towards my ship and hid behind a pillar to get a look at whoever was messing with my ride. It was a fugly Antarite who didn’t look like he would be connected to Colleen. She mostly used humans like me, but I wouldn’t put it past her to hire this guy to scope out the station for me and report back.

‘Hi, can I help you?’ I had forgotten to grab my mobile translator and couldn’t understand what he said, so I just cold cocked him and hopped in, beyond ready to be on my way. The clamps slowly retracted and I was off.

‘Call Cloe.’ Muzak, muzak, muzak. She probably wouldn’t answer, but I really needed to get through.

‘Hi, uh, what do I do? Yes, this is Cloe. Talk to this machine and I will reply, in your future. Do it. Now!’ I rolled my eyes, and left another message to find me. Not knowing what to do now, I just sat there, hoping she would reply sooner rather than later.