I wake up in my room. Four hundred miles away from where I thought I was going to die, I wake up—miracle one—and two I wake up in my bed?
“Kimber, glad you’re alive, we need to talk.” I roll over and peak at the voice, which belongs to a tired-looking Marcella and also an angry one.
“Can we talk over coffee and food?” She nods, stands up and leaves the room.
Well, shit. Guess that means now. I order a rejuv ampule and stab myself. I order a pack of ground coffee and walk out to stuff it into my coffee maker. While it brews, I pull out eggs and ingredients for pancakes and make breakfast.
“Is this your apology, Kimber?” I look at her sideways as I jam a fluffy pancake in my maw.
“Apology for what? Raiding a house of drug dealers that have been hurting people? Or not murdering everyone in the building but you?”
“I was surprised that no one died, but not the point. You helped people raid us Kimber.”
I scoff. “Pfft, you kept me so far out of the loop I couldn’t help defend you. If I’d have known, I could have crafted something to say, as the Deputy in charge got himself gassed.”
“I almost killed you!!”
“Then clue me in fuckface!! I could have gone in HARD, but when I found out that some drug dealers were mutating people, I suspected some fucking idiots from Vegas were misusing my shit. So I went in soft.”
“You call that fucking soft? Half of my team needed tier 2 meds!”
“After the rejuv meds I gave them. So think about that, I went in, all polite like, and half your team almost died. Fuck, Marci! Why won’t you let me into your plans!?”
“ENOUGH!!” A third voice shouts with some sort of command or aura attached. It tries to stick to me, but my resistance is easily a match for Danielle.
“Good timing, but fuck off with your commands. My sister is locking me out of shit, and it seems like it’s for dumbass reasons.”
“She’s jealous of your success, Kimber. Can you give us all a break and spare us your tantrum?”
This bitch. She may be hot as fuck, but no fucking way she talks to me like that in my building. “Doctor, don’t make this personal. I think maybe Marcella Fontaine forgot that she’s my sister, and that I would do anything for her. She needs to un-forget that shit so I don’t have to kill people that will ruin my fucking life to kill. I’m not filling either of your orders until you fix whatever bullshit this is.”
“We have a contract.” Marcella protests.
“There’s a buyout clause if you want to protest. I won’t allow you to use my drugs to kill people just because you don’t know better.”
“Kimber, wait.”
I put my hand on the elevator door.
“I’m sorry, okay?” There are so many things she just did, and if it were anyone else punching me in the heart like this, I would be running away.
“For what, Marcella? I feel like you betrayed me and a part of me would rather be dead that think that of you.”
“It’s embarrassing okay? I’m supposed to be this big badass figure that terrorizes the entire southwest, but I need help from my sister because I can’t run a business? What the fuck does that make me?”
“My idiot sister, obviously. My help doesn’t have strings, asshole. You don’t like running things? You don’t have to. Let it die or agree to be someone else’s boogeyman! Just don’t put me in a position to fight your people because I don’t know something.” I start crying because it about so much more than that. I thought my last moments were going to be one of the people I love the most betraying me.
Marcella rushes up to wrap me in her arms and I pound my fists on her shoulders a few times before crying some more. “I’m never going to get that image out of my head, jerk.”
“You know, I was both shocked and stupid impressed that it was you who took down my whole team and put those fiery shards of wrath in my back. You’re just barely eighteen, tier one, and you injured me. You’re damned impressive, baby girl.”
“Don’t praise me while I’m crying sad! Not in the mood to cry glad!” In a completely opposite reaction, I jump up and koala hug her.
“You’re both insane.” Daniella says before walking back to her room.
“Sooo,” I say awkwardly. “Don’t be a drug dealer, you’re not good at it.”
She swears at me and starts prying me off her. “If you need settlement help, please ask in earnest. Whatever this was going to be seemed unsustainable.”
She pinches and twists my ear, then I bite her arm. We swear a little more and call a temporary truce.
“Our community got listed as a criminal enterprise. What do we do?”
“You can still make that a business if you like. Or you can do a foothills thing just outside of the incorporated Reno area. I didn’t have to build, but it works just as well. Are you out of cash?”
“I mean, I was never rich, rich. Between you, the Health Club and the Reno relocation, I’ve got maybe ten grand left?”
“Yeah, that’s not a ton. Enough to start a settlement, but just barely. If you have buildings already. I mean, if you want something substantial, you have two options: Borrow from me, or I start another settlement, we form an alliance and you run it for me.”
“You wouldn’t come up?” she asks as she starts fiddling with my hair.
“Marci, my Deputy district is southern Nevahrado and the borderlands of the Texas-Mexico conflict region. I have to stay.” When I say it like that, I sound important. It also makes me sound like I know what I’m doing. That is some wild speculation, in my opinion.
“Yeah, shit. Kimber, I need help. I’m not made for running stuff. I’m okay with money, but I spent my brilliance on investing in you.”
Shit, Marci. That was super, sniffle, emotional, sniffle, and empowering. Sniffle. I sob in her shoulder. After the scare, after the indignation, and after the exhausted pride of my adoptive sister, I feel the damned love and I can’t absorb it fast enough.
“For a ruthless assassin, you make a really good person.”
“I was being nice, no need for insults.”
I reach down to tickle her while in a monkey-hug and my Mentor-sister-friend squeals like a freaking mating possum before throwing me at the couch. I hit it hard, it flips over and the cushions hit me in the face. We both start laughing before it devolves into a cushion fight, and another wrestling match before she pins me with her lanky ass legs. I agree to order her a beer if she lets me up. We drink that beer sprawled out on the floor.
“I like this part of being sisters. I don’t want to do the shooting and stabbing again, though.” I say, my shoulders across her legs and my head cocked, resting against the floor.
“Yeah, me too. Forgive me?”
“Just don’t cut me out again, okay? How do we protect each other that way?”
“I can try, Kimber, but sharing secrets isn’t natural for me.”
“I don’t do trust or touching.” I start poking her face with my feet to prove a point.
“Jesus, you’re practically feral.” She shoves my legs away and I giggle. I can’t help it. I love this. We rarely get these moments, and I suddenly know I can’t live without them.
After a few moments and another beer, I break a hard topic. “You and Danielle doing okay?”
“I guess. Chemistry, we’re fine. But after we . . . upset the region, she wants to emigrate to Astoria.
“I just set up a plant on Asphodel, a moon in the Hades system. I need security and workers. It’s also a tech-research hub. So if your girl want’s to get on a ground-breaking study, that’s the best place in the Empire.”
“You want me to run a satellite company for you?” Marcella asks.
“Hell no. I want Paolo and Bev to run it for me. I want you to be my regional security chief.”
“You want me, to work for you?” I look over to my mentor’s disbelieving eyebrow and pull it down with my non-beer hand.
“Are you too good to work for credits? You do what you know, and I rely on people that want to run things, instead of people that feel forced to.”
“I hate you sometimes.”
“Nah, you love me.”
“I can do both.”
***
A week later I get a notice that my bike and shuttle are both registered with the territory as Deputy Novarro’s personal vehicles, which arrive with a note from Sheriff Winchester to not ‘screw the pooch’ with the southern Nevahrado border.’
Thanks boss. Real athletic supporter on that. I can’t tell if he hates me or wants me to stick around.
That can also be both things. Many people in your life have thought you are a pain in the ass that is good for the company, or other relevant relationship.
I mean, that doesn’t feel great. I get it kinda, though. Not really.
I’ll explain it better when you’re not hurtling across the desert at a thousand kph.
Hey, lady. I’m behaving. Your bestie can go almost three and a half Mach in atmo. I want to be getting places in the time it takes to take a shower, not whatever lame speed this is. I say that, but after an exciting trip to the Springs to relay an important meeting to the sheriff there, I haven’t recovered from the thrill. Maneuvering that fast is intoxicating and I’m twitching to hug the ocean and fly as fast as possible.
Much to Tova’s dismay, I decided to install an AI on the shuttle instead of letting her inhabit it. The AI, whom Tova has decided to woo, has decided to go by Aria, and I fully support that.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Aria, any hits on the Americium traces on the border?”
“Yes, Kimber, two on the Texas border, and a few on the contested Territory, but the Texas warnings are the only ones that seem capable of concentrating Plutonium from diffuse Uranium fuel.”
“Yeah, Aria, I don’t know the depths of Nuclear Power, but I take that’s bad?”
“There’s a small chance they are researching a tier III reactor, but in the history of exploration of this power, approximately 62% end up trying to weaponizing radioactive material.”
I don’t know if she meant to make her voice appealing, but I occasionally want to have her teach me stuff just to listen. You have a girlfriend, Kimber, whom you love and she is crazy about you. Your shuttle is your basically your kid sister.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just save up the credits to get one of the reactor’s I have?” Granted, five hundred credits for the base model of water and electricity for a family or two doesn’t support much.
“On most Empire spheroids, yes. Here, the aether density is so low, that without the ability to reclaim energy through waste, augmenting power via crystals can become cost prohibitive.”
You will have to start using significant amounts of aether crystals once the trash in your neighborhood is cleaned up. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Thanks Tova.
“Better go check it out then before bombing it into oblivion. See what we can find before calling in a team or something.”
Aria chirps confirmation as Tova cues up data on the terrain and ingress routes and places to land. Tova has been trying extra hard since Aria came online, but I don’t know if Aria feels the same as she does? I bought this drama, I suppose, I asked Zia about ship AI’s and she told me they were almost always swimming in nascent AI’s that needed identity to progress.
Fuck I miss Zia. She got MAD when I didn’t tell her about my real birthday. Like so mad that I had to get her aunt’s contact from Penny just to be reassured that she likes me but I messed up.
/Baby, are you sure I need to keep your visit secret? I really want to gush about you. Like, embarrassing amounts./
\You could always visit sooner and we can talk about it.\
That’s a definite, for sure, come visit or I’ll resent you kind of request. I open up my interface and book the portal for next month. /Booked a ticket on next month’s opening. Two weeks and some paltry days!/
She squees at a volume and frequency that I shouldn’t have heard. It’s empowering to know someone is that excited to kiss you. I would make out with her dragon at this point. I would rather tackle her and sex her until she can’t remember her family, but that’s a two person activity, and Zia gets a say in who she remembers.
“Alright, time to shake off the cobwebs and scope this place. Aria, do you have the ability to stealth optically?”
“For maybe an hour. My optical camouflage only works from above. Flying upside down is very aether intensive.”
“Okay, I’ll leave the crystal pack in your engine bay. Drop me off 3km out and then do inverted data collection until you can’t and retreat to a safe place.”
“Yes Commander.”
“Aria,” I say in a chastising tone.
“I understand Miss Novarro, but I was trained by Alaris, and not one of the Fey ships. I request, you bear with me.”
How is an AI so freaking cute? No wonder Tova re-invigorated her crush on this ship.
“Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Within reason.” If she calls me buttercup or something cutesy, Zia would murder her. My bae is jealous and I’m kinda here for it.
She drops me off on a building to scope things out. I wish she’d picked a less crumbly one, but beggars in the dark and all that. I get a small window when the outer guards aren’t in line of sight with each other, and I plug them both with my pulse rifle. Much quieter, but infinitely brighter. I get no alarms or curious patrols to affect my newly created bodies, so I slink down and pull them to the side as I pull my .38 hypervol to support my plasma weapon.
/How’s your weapon cache Aria?/
\Fifty caliber and pulse cannons are loaded.\
This bitch. I love her. As a ship of course.
“If you can park on something high after your scan, and still cover me, please do so.” Double click.
I get to the front of the facility and immediately know that I can’t breach their security. Even if Zia and I were face streaming, I’d be in trouble. I try to brute force it, but I listen when Tova tells me that causing a security breach at a nuclear facility might be dangerous.
Plus, there’s a call button and a speaker.
Sure, why not? I press the call button.
“We are not expecting any deliveries today. Leave the premises immediately.” The voice on the speaker says.
“Yeah, Deputy Novarro here. You’re operating on land that Nevahrado claims, and I don’t see the site plans or safety protocols filed with the Territory. If you can forward those to me, I can get out of your hair as you appear to be operating withing acceptable radiation limits.”
“We filed our intent with Warram ages ago.” The voice continues, exasperated instead of dismissive.
“That may well be, but Warram can no longer maintain security in the area, so the Sheriff hired another Deputy. If you just send the info packet you already sent, to me we can wrap this up.”
“I’ll need fifteen minutes.”
“Copy.” I ask Aria if she would cover all apparent openings for someone trying to surprise us. I hear her chirp in my ear, and for the last few days I’ve noticed that she talks as often as she can. With Aria in overwatch, if feels less important to remain vigilant, and that seems dangerous. I’m also reasonably certain that Tova can bypass my HUD and use my visual input to analyze separately.
As my mind does, I drift into thinking about alchemy, and how much I’ve been relying on injectors lately. I should probably look into buying a recipe for actual healing capsules instead of the enhanced regenerative that I don’t really need anymore. Well, I haven’t seen much benefit from taking one since I developed [Enhanced Regeneration II]. Hmm, maybe I should look into why hey? Which would naturally lead to studying the material differences between regen capsules and the t-1 healing capsules. I like this idea, as it will keep my alchemy progressing while I am being frustrated with my limited knowledge of chemistry.
Tova adds an audio component to my blinking message alert to get my attention. I see a handful of files and a folder labeled ‘Warram Submission’. I look at what was submitted to Warram, schematics, safety protocols, external response protocols, and . . . a protection payment record? The files outside of the folders are changes to the schematics and response plans, but no update to the payment schedules, and no mention of Utility tax and use forms.
I download the appropriate forms and perform a brief query of independent utilities and what is needed to appease the territory Government. I walk up and push the intercom again.
“I sent you the files. What else could you want?” Rude little shit.
“I got them, I saw the payment form and wanted to tell you that that will have to be changed to a Territory Independent Utility form. You should only have to pay money to the Territory if you are mining the fuel from local land, and the use tax on the land should be less that what you’ve been paying to Warram.”
“If I fill out that form, will we get access to Territory resources such as Emergency Response Services?”
“Unless it’s a full-on meltdown, me and whomever I can rustle-up will be the response. Possible Meltdown response will be answered by Reno or Colorado Springs.”
“Inspections?”
“I flyby and take readings once a year. You submit your incident reports . . . quarterly? Sure. They’re spelled out in the first form. If any of that is weird, a qualified nuclear power technician is supposed to do an eyes-on inspection. I don’t know what that means, but that’s not my job. Is the message address that sent me those files good for a return?”
“It can be.”
Okay, you dodgy rodent, I’m trying to leave and you want me gone. Play along! “Alright, I’ll send the form in five minutes. When I check up on this in a few months, I better see that form on file.”
I sigh at the idea that this is the kind of ‘serving the people’ I have to look forward to. Then again, I don’t suppose it was much different for old US police, just the scale was a little smaller and there was a national commission looking after things like this.
I step onboard the shuttle and Aria closes and opens hatches for me as I make my way from rear cargo to the cockpit. I suppose it’s a lot roomier than a fighter cockpit though.
“Aria, do we have any commitments before tomorrow afternoon?” I asked, and Aria likes managing any schedule where I might need her support. With as much as Tova hates it, I still feel a little guilty, but I do need the help.
“The deputy for Northern Nevada wants to meet with you before you leave, so we are due in Battle Mountain at 0700 local. Then, we have a sub-orbital flight to Bikini Atoll, where you promised me I could test our limits in the upper atmosphere.”
I chuckle at her. What I actually said is ‘as long as we’re over 25 kilometers, you can do whatever you want. I’m a little nervous, but she’s been polite and obedient without any coercion, so I think she deserves a little freedom.
“I remember Aria. Just try to remember my pitiful human acceleration limits.”
“I have talked to Alaris on that very subject! She remembers every limit change reported to her, especially those with the Body of Power Talent.” Oh gods, she does plan to frolic.
“And the low orbit debris? Have you synched with the latest data?”
“I synch every morning.” I can practically hear the expectation in her voice.
“Then I will put my life in your capable hands. As I have been for the last week.” She chirps happily in my auditory implant. I chuckle almost every time I hear her happy trill. Probably why she does it.
When we get to the second site, Aria signals that the radiation coming from the building is 5% above standard limits. Not high enough to flood and then cover with sand, but enough to worry. I briefly look at the response plan that was not filed, and the plans that should not be giving elevated external radiation at all, as underpowered as Aria tells me it should be. I’ll come back and look at it after I get back from Astoria.
“Zia, could you look into what it would take to have a tank in the cargo bay to spray at an external object. And pencil us in for a return visit to that reactor site. Medium priority.” She insisted on a priority system, she claims that if we don’t start in now, it won’t work when it becomes important.
I think her training AI had a stressful time managing things. As the fledgling housing fortress comes into view, I think on the group project that I assigned Tova and Aria.
“How’s the group project coming, Tova?”
Tova connects through the external speaker on my suit. “There are no explicit limits to the distance a resident can be placed from a utility and still be connected, though the data from Astoria Public Works leads me to believe that the functional limit is a few thousand kilometers, requiring several relay stations to shape the energy fluctuations over long distances. With the energy, or occupant number tax that seems to correlate with distance, I recommend less than 30km.”
“With your stated desired radius of ‘no further than Warram for now’,” Aria adds, “there are several promising expansion locations within twelve kilometers. I particularly like the old Las Vegas municipal and government offices. It would tie into our Territory purposes and add some weight to your assumed authority in the region.”
Teacher’s pet. Can you believe her?
She is very eager. I’m not sure you were ever that cute.
Rude. You didn’t need cute, you needed a partner in crime.
Fair. Well, if Zia is any indication, after my partner in crime, I needed cute with a side of violence.
Oh no. Do you think I’m that much like You?
You’re doomed, chica. Doooooomed.
Tova fake sobs in my mind and Aria sends me a question trill.
“Tova’s afraid of becoming a sappy, clueless, and reluctant authority figure.”
“Hmm. Alaris did not cover long term effects of closely associating with humans. More study is needed.” She sounds way to excited about that. I may have to ask Penny who Alaris learned to AI from, or at least if it’s natural to feel that your ship has a crush on you. May just be adoration, which I hope for, but might as well prepare for the uncomfortable and hope for the best.
I tell Paolo and Bev that I’d want to take at least Paolo next time, and I tell Marcella the same and also ask Danielle if she’s coming with me this trip. To my surprise, they are both coming. My mentor tells me that she’s found someone to be a provisional head of Warram Asset Development, a new division Marcella arranged, that would be nominally in charge of the whole former criminal organization. Good that she’s realized that she should pass that shit on to someone who wants to do it, and super glad she didn’t shovel it on me. I’m not even together enough to make gunpowder and drugs at the same time.
You do both in two systems. You really should see things from a perspective that isn’t yours. Love or hate, people are passionate about knowing you and there’s a quality to that.
Shit, Tova. That’s . . . thanks. That’s really cool of you to say.
I spend the rest of the afternoon bumming around with Marcella and Danielle while they ask me questions about Asphodel and I try to research alchemic medical supplies. I don’t want to be a multi-spectrum drug dealer, but a bunch of people around me have been needing healing lately and that’s an issue.
“Marcie, can you have like two hours of work to do in Reno tomorrow?”
“Uh, I’d rather not. I’m still hoping things calm down.” There goes Aria’s optimized plan. I text her and also recommend researching a small drone that can land and hover for meetings. I don’t have a good track record for advocating for AI independence, but my shuttle seems like a good kid.
Kimber, I can hear you.
That’s on you chica. I love you, but you’ve been having a bigger teen phase than I had. I don’t know if I can process what I feel is rebellion coming from your end right now, but I would like to know what’s going on with you.
Typical. No time for Tova.
So much for not knowing. But considering that I don’t know what Tova time would be like, I don’t know how to fix it.
“Fine, but remember that when I call you, I’m only a half hour out.” She nods and flops onto my legs as Dani pulls up between hers for a snuggle. I wiggle a little to move her pony tale’s poking into my hip, then ask. “So, we watched a Danielle movie last time. What we doing this time?”
“Crafting show?”
“Isn’t season three of Aether-forged in Fire mostly women?” Marcella asks.
“Coming right up.” I pilot the remote to the reality TV channel and order up their latest episode for the show we want to watch and we bask in the messy, sweaty, soot-covered ladies making bladed weapons.