Morning first came as a ray of sunlight through Nia's half-open eyelids. She resisted the urge to squint as she often did when she detected first light. More sleep would have been fine on any other day, but she couldn't forget that she was in a quasi-hostage situation with a stranger. When her eyes sprang open, a glance behind her confirmed the previous night had been no dream. Sure enough, Theo was sitting at the back of the boat, wide awake, with his gun held tight.

He paid little attention to her as he looked across the water, guiding the boat carefully to the shore.

Even though Theo was so puzzlingly erratic, Nia had seen his intellect flash in little ways. And though she hated to concede it, it made her feel a little safer to know there was a rational side to him, a counterbalance to his raging madness. But as her eyes ran over the rifle he held, she still wondered if or when he would let her go.

If necessary, she would have to use it to escape. Still, she feared the thought of accidentally killing someone else in the crossfire if she ever had to shoot it. Maybe she could scare Theo off with it. But he didn't seem like the type to buckle easily. Her frenetic mind ran to the sea goblin she had shot the other day, underwater, and the many different animals she'd killed for food.

But they were just animals, though.

Then again, she wondered if, in some unrecognizable way to human beings, every non-human-living thing counted its life as precious to itself as people do their own. If so, she was already a killer several times over. So maybe, killing him would be more of a step down than a leap.

"Relax, everything is going to be ok," Theo muttered, with a wry smile, as if he had read her mind. And, strangely, he had eyes that reinforced that impression—eyes so piercing they seemed to reflect the soul of whatever subject they looked onto.

"Your words mean little to me," Nia said.

He momentarily turned his head down before swinging it upward with a big grin followed by a lightning round of laughter.

"Alright," he said, tossing his hands up flimsily for effect.

Nia suppressed the knawing urge to snap at him. His penchant for turning everything into a reason for laughter unnerved her, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of more ammunition for his habit. So instead, she counted to ten under her breath in cycles, letting her anger wash over her and quietly fade.

She could tell he knew from the way he creased his lips, like a displeased old man. Disapproval curdled in those thin sandwiches of flesh, and it made her spitefully happy to think so.

But it mattered little; their joint solitude was about to end. They were finally pulling up to shore.

Nia had always loved beaches; they tingled with the magic of memory, from family outings to dates and dives.

Nature is almost synonymous with greenery, but it fields rarer colors in respectable quantities as well. At the beach, rich pink hues met blues along the shore, where water cascaded up and lapped against the coral sand. Without sparing a moment, she leaped from the boat onto the bank, took up a fistful of sand, and then watched the tiny crystals sparkle in her hand.

A beach was more than a place of recreation. It was a testament to the incredible creative power of nature, a place where water, wind, and gravity, over eons, had humbled the massive, jagged edges of continents into soft sand. Each grain was unique, stamped with the signature of its artist, mother nature.

Still, despite its obvious attractiveness, the beach was, oddly, sparsely occupied. Only a few people were mingling along the stretch of sand. Fewer still seemed interested in the two's literal appearance out of the blue. The few eyes that met theirs showed little alarm, which Theo tried to temper with his charming smile. Nia was focused on masking her fear.

But, again, people didn't seem to care.

Behind her, Theo left the boat in the shallow water. She noticed him emerging from it without his rifle and was relieved, in part, because that could make it easier for her to get away. But Nia was also more worried because the area was strange to her. It seemed she'd still have to stick with him for a little while more.

The only thing she knew about the world outside the major cities and her hometown was that much of it was ruled by roaming gangs and cartels, nearly all of which formed fleeting alliances and battled each other to expand their territories and markets. Except for the occasional raid or patrol, the government had long since abandoned its responsibilities in such places.

"Come on. Let's get off the beach and into town quickly," Theo said.

"Alright!" She snapped.

"Move faster then."

"Where are we?"

"Polk point."

"Never been here before."

"It's a well-known node in the global black market trade network, so it's less likely to have Xymoran cops patrolling. It's also why nobody is making a fuss about my gun because guns are a common sight here."

"Hmmm, so you thought bringing us here was a good idea?" Nia asked sarcastically.

"As I said, it's one of the places we can avoid cops. It's worth the risk. Just keep your head down, and we'll be fine."

They started moving up a road adjacent to the beach that ran through an elevated patch of land whose peak shut out most of the view of the town on the other side. But as they strolled up the road, the community slowly emerged into view. Once they climbed over the hump, any expectations of continued quiet, as they had on the beach, was shattered.

The town bustled like a little city. Both were dazzled by the hive of activity. People were moving from shop to shop, buying and selling. Performers studded the roadside, drawing curious looks and laughs.

"Where are we going?" Nia asked.

"Well, I'm hungry, so look out for a restaurant or bar."

"Are you kidding me? Food is what you're concerned about now?"

He ignored her.

It wasn't long before they found a spot. It was an ugly little establishment, cobbled together from scraps of metal and worn wood. It looked like a dilapidated barn. But at least the seats were of decent quality. Theo did not seem bothered by the dank surroundings, but disgust was plastered all over Nia's face.

The waiter gave them menus, which displayed a varied selection of beer. Luckily, the food menu was a little better.

It included delicacies such as roasted rat with caramelized onions. And according to the description, the rats there were local delicacies because they tended to be much larger than rats elsewhere.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You'll wonder why you ever thought the chicken was so special," a line in the menu read.

Theo ordered a beer, and Nia settled for some fried fish, which she spent half the time dissecting the bones out of despite it being listed as filleted.

"I have many questions," she whispered to Theo in the cacophonous joint.

"They'll have to wait," said Theo.

"They can't," she replied sternly.

"Geesh, ok, but keep your voice down."

"You didn't just stumble on me by accident in the ocean, did you? So how did you find me, and why were you looking for me?"

"Looks like you're startin' to figure things out. You're right. I didn't just stumble on you. I've been looking for you for years. As for why, I can't tell you everything yet, but someone made me swear to find and protect you a long time ago, and I've failed to until yesterday."

"Does that someone have a name?"

"Yep, somebody is the name," he nodded.

Nia frowned.

"So, how did you find me on the water?"

"I used a bird drone, which detected when you came up from your dive. And then we moved the ship in your direction."

"I knew one of those birds looked off."

"Oh, of course you did," he said with ample sarcasm.

Nia pulled back on her stool. She realized it made sense that it wasn't a happy coincidence that a ship appeared on the horizon not too long after she breached the surface.

"It's insane that you were watching me."

"The plans I have for you are far more important than your precious sense of privacy. Someday you'll be grateful I came for you. It's not like your life was so interesting before today," Theo scoffed. "If you only knew what's in store."

Nia kissed her teeth.

"I know you're thinking of running away back to your home. You shouldn't, not just because I'll shoot you. But because you're the biggest danger to your family right now. You’re a fugitive from the law. If you go back home right now, you might bring the law down on your home."

"We don't know if any of the cops in the raid that saw me lived to tell their superiors. There was a huge explosion after we left the boat, remember? My family is all I have, and they need me."

Theo shook his head.

A well of anger was filling inside Nia's chest. But she calmed herself; To reach her family, she would have to survive him first, and part of that meant letting him guide her through terrain he knew way better.

"So you have drones that look almost exactly like birds. Where'd you get those from?"

"Our allies on BIOS make advanced living, biologically based tech; some say it's the most advanced tech in the realm. They call their tech 'organics' as opposed to electronics."

"BIOS. Yeah, I've heard many rumors about them, but they all sounded ridiculous. I mean, how can anything living be a technology?" Nia laughed.

Theo frowned.

"Think about it. You have eyes. What are eyes?" He asked.

Nia shrugged, "squishy balls in our faces that we use to see."

"On other words, human eyes are cameras, but we don't usually think of them that way."

Nia's jaw gaped open.

“I guess that us true,” she replied.

"But it doesn't stop there," he said. "Think of all the other biological systems that are technologies. Our ears are microphones. Our joints are motors. Our skin can detect ranges of heat and cold, like a thermometer. Our brains are computers. The human body is a constellation of integrated technologies."

"Yeah... you're right," Nia whispered.

"And that's just us humans. Other creatures have a variety of technologies we don't. Mosquitoes can see in infrared. Bats have echolocation. Some octopuses can camouflage with their surroundings. I could go on."

"Please don't," Nia asked.

Theo laughed.

"The point is, again, BIOS makes tech primarily based on biology, so they use genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and other related fields to create biological technologies. So the bird you saw was a real bird, but enhanced with surveillance and wireless communication features, it can track anything, including you. But it was a very old model they loaned us. They have much more advanced stuff now that you could not tell apart from anything in nature. It's a shame the bird was sleeping when the Xymorans came to attack our ship because we could have used some advance warning."

Nia cupped her cheeks in her hands and puffed out some air in frustration. That wasn't what she was expecting at all. It shook up her model of the realm. To her, tech was almost always electronic. But she was learning that there was a different kind of tech being made by humans in some faraway planetary group.

She knew there were many other planetary groups, which were typically solar systems with multiple inhabited planets, that banded together to form political and economic unions.

Still, Nia had imagined that humans everywhere pretty much lived the same way with only slight variations; why wouldn't they? Humans are all fundamentally the same, after all. She wondered what that must be like, for a society to have a completely different technological foundation. But she knew there was no way for her to get off Origin, and the thought killed the budding dream and vision.

She slipped from her daydream with a scowl.

"So, why did they give you an old version of their tech?"

"Because they worry about the Xymoran government getting a hold of their tech and reverse engineering it. Giving us old tech reduces the risk because even if the Xymoran government gets hold of old tech and figures out how to copy it, they'll still be way behind the more advanced stuff."

"Hmmm, makes sense," Nia muttered.

Her mind quickly slipped to thinking of her family. She really wanted to go back home, but she was trapped.

She had more than her fill of fear lately, and she was quietly choking on it. She kept tracing her fingers across her brow, unconsciously giving expression to fear and stress.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," said Theo, fixing his eyes on hers.

She noticed how even when his eyes were lit with rage, they always had a touch of sorrow. And at that moment, his eyes reflected the dewiness in hers. It was a strange feeling, looking into herself through someone else's eyes. He was unconsciously mimicking her out of empathy in a momentary lapse of control. And it made Nia recognize that he was more than the brash man he had been.

"Come on, it's best we keep moving," Theo said, shattering the moment.

"Yes, well, you still have to pay," said the waiter overhearing Theo's words.

"Of course—"

"That will be $850."

Theo began rummaging through his pockets for change. Nia mirrored him out of sheer embarrassment. She didn't want to owe him anything and tried hard not to gasp as she felt her fingers repeatedly clasping nothing but air in her pockets. She hoped Theo was having better luck.

Theo swung toward Nia and uttered a single word, "Run!"

They took off quickly through the exit and cut up the street. In the haze of acceleration, Theo and Nia constantly bumped into people and couldn't avoid knocking over some carts and stands. There were audible groans and gasps as they coursed through the town's streets. Nia thought he seemed to be leading them to leave the city from the same place where they had entered. Still, it soon became apparent that he was just running around the city aimlessly.

"What are you doing," she screamed at him. "We should be trying to get back to the boat and out of here."

Theo looked back at her and smiled.

"Did I say anything about leaving this town?"

As they approached the end of a road, they noticed several heavily armed men waiting there. Nia couldn't help but think it somehow connected to the bar incident. But there was no time to think about it. Theo dropped to the ground, placed his hands over his head, and yelled, "today, you get to take me alive, boys!"

Nia, puzzled, spun around and headed in the opposite direction. But she soon heard the sound of boots in hot pursuit. She was straining against the limits of her strength and stamina to maintain her stride. Their pursuers kept gaining, and before long, another group of men appeared in front of her.

Realizing she had nowhere else to run to, she threw her hands up and surrendered.

The men ran over quickly and grabbed them.

"The local domina wants to have a word with you two," one of the men screamed.

Those words triggered a ripple of chills throughout Nia's body.