An eye emerged from the black metal door, red and tiny, then followed by more. Eve spiders. Messengers of the Osuna empire. If Cullen failed the test of entry, the greater threat would soon follow.

A shiver tickled down his back. He’d seen eve spiders devour prey; their process... was quick.

Beady red eyes and a mass of hairy black bodies quickly covered the door before him, close enough to jump. One climbed out from the bulging surface, larger than the rest, venom dripping from its fangs.

Cullen breathed. It’s not real.

The larger spider froze, then a blue light shined out from its eyes, scanning Cullen’s retinas for the bounty hunter ID that allowed him to be here.

The one his sidekick, Torek had forged.

The light faded, but the spots in his vision did not. He tightened his stomach to keep his posture, just like his father had taught. Playing into what was natural helped them on many of their undercover missions. On this one, they used licenses showing them both as Paladins of Morunth. Only half of that was a lie. The one Cullen hid could send him straight to the emperor to hang from a hook; or perhaps something less lethal... like the caves.

"Access granted." The voice drifted up through the floor, hoarse as a poisoned and dying wind. "Proceed with the prisoner to Gate D, Cell 47. Yours is ready to exchange."

A holotext formed a blue box of light before him as the door slid over stone to open.

Welcome to the Cipher. Do you accept your quest?

Cullen’s first step stopped cold. His attention locked on the words as though they had just broken the laws of existence and he wasn't privy to why. Their italicized style was unique from the block letters the Osuna used to translate for Space Tongue. As he studied them, a different nervousness replaced his concern of being outed; whatever was written before him felt strangely alive, like when he'd seen his first flying electric eel.

"Cul," Torek whispered.

Their prisoner grunted through her leather gag. Chains dangled and pulled tight as Torek yanked on the choker to keep their captive docile.

"It's open." Torek whispered. His dark eyes presented a second test of Cullen’s sanity.

“I know.” Cullen redirected his attention to the doorway, pushed away the concern he'd hallucinated a strange message about a quest and snapped his fingers. "Let's go."

Inside the artificially lit corridors of the Osuna warrior prison, the prizes within the locked doors remained as quiet as the hallways that kept them. Cullen had seen the insects and other small, elusive creatures the Osuna used to keep their people subservient. Had the chambers that kept the prisoners not included a dormant generation pod to ensure their health restoration between matches, he doubted any would make a peep to try and escape. The Osuna were plenty bored without needing an excuse to test a new pet creature on a disobedient slave.

"What was that?" Torek whispered as they passed under a sign pointing to Gate D.

Cullen shook him off. Not only did Cullen not want to have to explain what he may or may not have seen, but he also had the strangest sense that he couldn't. If every prisoner and battle-engineered creature were set loose after he and Torek, he could not speak the words Cipher or Quest. The very thought of speaking them twisted his insides like a threat spun by the finger of God.

"Let's just…" Cullen gestured forward and picked up his pace.

Torek let it go. They didn't have time, nor did they want to draw any more attention to the cameras than Cullen might have already by delaying his entry at the open gate.

They reached the cell with '47' carved in black metal over a single spider with more eyes than he dared count. He steeled his nerves to accept the scan as though nothing were wrong. They had been paid modestly for their prisoner, taking a reduction to accommodate requesting the one they wanted in return. That prisoner, Jolnes, who was recently promoted from the prison they planned to visit next, held far more value than his skill with melee weapons.

His memory of the caves under Setuk was the key they needed to pullspace in and retrieve their next bounty—the one Torek said they'd be paid handsomely for.

With the exchange completed, Cullen's heart beat heavily as they escorted a gagged and still drugged Jolnes back down the corridor toward the exit. The groggy flow to the late teen's walk concerned Cullen with how effectively they'd be able to pullspace using his memories. If his mind wasn't fresh by the time the Mericure Bubble formed, the pullspace could warp them into an unexpected grave. Cullen pulled a tiny pin out of his wristcom and stuck it into Jolnes's neck. The metal dissolved under the skin, sealing the red speck.

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Jolnes's green eyes woke with life. He glanced at Cullen and Torek with the fear of being woken from a night terror, then a rationalization fell over him and his shoulders eased.

Cullen turned from the prisoner and stood before the scanner. Three seconds later, he led them out and toward their ship.

The Talis sat in a space-sealed dock large enough to fit three battleships, but housing only four other small merchant vessels like his own. A black viewer shield wrapped the bow of the pullspace ship's cabin like glasses on a sitting bird. The short vessel had its wings docked flat and the wheels stowed underneath to rest belly to beach.

Torek helped Jolnes out of his gag-to-gurney harness as they strode out of the prison toward the stern entry into the Talis.

Inside the cargo bay at the center of the ship, Cullen helped Jolnes get seated in the neuronet chair installed into aft wall beside the ladder leading up to the cabin. He picked up the long tube that housed the cable and n-jack and raised it toward the base plate hidden behind Jolnes's right ear.

"It's an honor to be here," Jolnes said as Cullen looked for the flap of skin hiding the tiny plate under Jolnes's ear.

Cullen pealed the artificial skin back with his thumbnail, exposing the docking slit where he could insert the n-jack. He slid it in with a click and side stepped to the controls on the wall to trigger the eye sensor.

Jolnes stared at him as though Cullen were supposed to respond. As though something greater were happening than one more bounty to help pay for fixing his ship.

Torek's boots clacked on the rails of the ladder as he climbed up behind him for the cabin.

Cullen tapped the activation button. A cylindrical arm slid out of the wall and opened up into a T before the former prisoner's eyes.

"I know who you are," Jolnes said, gaze locked on Cullen, but not accusing. Not threatening. His were the eyes of an ally.

"Do you?" Cullen lifted his wrist com and slid a sensor on the faceplate to wake the pullspace generator. He imagined the hum of his precious engine warming in a compartment in the stern.

"Don't worry," Jolnes added, sure in his words. "I would die for your secret."

Cullen finished entering his password into is wristcom to unlock the memory retrieval system, then looked the young man in the eye. He knew bold promises well, and Jolnes appeared sincere, but his was as bold as promise as there was. Pictures of eve spiders crawling over the young man's face and the torture the Osuna would use to break him flashed into his thoughts. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked, choosing to refocus the conversation to them pullspacing onto Setuk safely.

Jolnes smiled. Still cocky. "Like I said, Captain Re, it's an honor."

Captain Re. Since his exile, Cullen hadn't told anyone but Torek his real last name. Catching the son of the Star General would be almost as valuable as the memories he kept of their homeworld. A fire of anger breathed into his lungs, promising relief only in the suffering of his co-pilot for sharing his secret.

"It's okay. You'll see. I'm good." Jolnes dared wink at him before pressing his smile to the face cradle.

"Ready up here!" Torek shouted. "Let's go."

"What exactly am I going to see?" Cullen asked.

"Your memories of home have waited long enough." Jolnes twisted a stare into Cullen's eyes that threatened to expose his greatest fear. "Today, you'll use them."

Jolnes looked ahead into the T sensor and the purple light indicating ready status. "Torek'll explain. I need to get started." He reached to the sensor and tapped it at its intersection. "Now, please."

Cullen exhaled. His lungs pumped fear and anger. Agitation and lack of being prepared. And concern at what the Cipher hallucination had been, and maybe that it wasn't. If it weren't some kind of lack of sleep, too-many-stimulants kind of mind blaze, then what was it? Jolnes's words spoke along the same unnerving frequency.

Jolnes gave a short nod at the T sensors, gently repeating his request.

Cullen tapped his wristcom, and purple beams lit into Jolnes's eyes, reflecting new colors in the green and orange of his irises.

In the cabin, Cullen sat in the pilot's chair while Torek played his fingers through the strands of yellow hololights tied to the dash controls as though they were strings on an instrument. Not wanting to interrupt the execution of their preflight control system, Cullen waited until Torek spiraled the last thread command into the program and patted the newly squared block of yellow light into the heart of the dash. A beacon on his wristcom signaled the pullspace generator as ready for flight.

Cullen lifted an inspecting glare at his only remaining friend in the universe.

Torek's smile broke with the levity of a spoiled joke. He shook his head. "Stupid Jolnes wasn't supposed to tell you yet."

"Tell me what?" Cullen asked, feeling the burn of the engine and knowing they had to ignite soon or shut it down. The heat sensor on the dash was halfway into orange. "Why does he know my last name, or about my memories?"

Torek checked the dash and the sensors, and buckled in. "You know, I was hoping to surprise you… but you're going home today."

Home. Vijil. His mind returned to seeing Dad after the pre-exile procedure was supposed to remove his memories. "How is…"

Torek smiled and held out a hand to stall his questions. "I'll show you." His gaze fell to Cullen's wristcom. "All you have to do is tap that button. Our bounty awaits with further clues to the mystery of Cullen Re's return."

Pixels on the dash's engine heat reading filled the far end of the bar in red, indicating seconds before having to shut it down and wasting precious fuel.

Do you accept your quest?

The block of glowing words appeared again, this time in the air between him and the dash. They followed his shifting to look Torek in the eye.

What quest?

The Cipher.

What's the Cipher?

Torek's face scrunched in concern. "Cul, we gotta go."

Home. He didn't know if he wanted to go. But he couldn't pass up whatever was happening. He took the first breath of hope in the ten years since his exile.

Yes, he thought, and tapped his wristcom.

Welcome to the path of light, Cullen, Level 1 Bounty Hunter. XP 0/110.

*Quest to unlock the Cipher – Activated.*

*Mission to rescue the ultras – Activated.*

*Task to pullspace to Setuk – Activated.*

Cullen buckled into his seat as the sizzling chill of pullspace seized his cheeks and surged through every nerve, pressing him into his chair.