It's kind of funny. Now, shoulder to shoulder with Brent, I feel like I've got a partner again. Even though I'm suspended, and therefore nobody's partner, technically.

Captain Cartwright took my equipment, and I'm locked out of my eyebots and hunter-killers, but none of that would help against Communion anyway. The Sergeant and I head down the thoroughfare towards the skyhook, taking the time to hash out the important details. And we take matters in order of importance.

I shake my head. "I don't know what to do about Sparrow."

He nods as he pats the stun-baton on his belt. "I got your back, however you want to play that. But for now, all you got is Rabi's word about her, and she doesn’t strike me as a reliable source." He turns his head to meet my eye. "Have you tried talking to Sparrow?"

I snort as we skirt a few corporate officeworkers. "What? Ask, 'hey Sparrow, I know I'm a cop, but you can tell me; are you a terrorist?'"

Brent laughs at that, his heavy shoulders shaking. "Not the opening I'd pick, maybe."

I swallow hard and let a few heartbeats pass. "I mean... if she's been lying to me this whole time..."

The sergeant shrugs. "Well, you don't expect her to admit she's involved with some black-hat stuff, do you?"

I huff and run a hand through my hair. "Fine, but... what if she's been..."

"Using you?" He gives me another glance. "Better to know then. And if not, decide if it's something you can get past."

I scoff, pushing past a tall spacer. "I can't get past her being a terrorist! Not as a cop..."

"Who says you gotta be a cop?" Brent asks as if it's an absurd premise.

My mouth works for a moment as pass a group of wireheads gaming at a table. "What would I... I mean, if I wasn't..."

"Is that the most important thing, being a scouting officer?" He asks.

I let the silence play out for a moment. "Maybe not, but... I mean, I just met her. Do you know if she..."

He sighs. "Look, El Tee, I never worked directly with Sparrow as a CI, that was Officers Rusteater and Wintz. If you're asking if I know whether she's playing you? I don't, no," he admits.

I hang my head. "Me neither."

He shrugs again. "Could go either way. But this is the Dark District. We're out past Mars. A lotta folks out here have histories, and I don't hold it against them. I don't even care if it's true, per se. If Sparrow starts problems on my station, I'll arrest her. If not, I'm not digging for dirt on her. You gotta draw your own line, El Tee. I can't tell you where that is."

We walk in silence for a moment. "You know, you give good advice, Sarge."

He grins. "See? Now you're wondering why you kept me at arms-length this whole time, yeah?"

I chew my bottom lip. "I'm sorry, Brent. It's been... difficult..."

"After your last partner. I get it. I actually asked a few contacts on Luna about you, and got the skinny."

I gulp. "So, you knew?"

"I mean, not the specifics, and definitely not about this crazy Communion stuff. But I knew something nasty went down between you and your partner. I got that you needed some space, and some time," he offers with a nod.

I scratch my neck. "Well, what about Rusteater?"

"What about them?" Brent asks. "I mean, right now, the only thing you got on them is what Rabi told you, and I doubt she'll back your accusation up."

I furrow my brow. "But if they hacked the eyebot-"

"-then find some evidence and we'll take the black-hat prick down. Like cops, El Tee," he says with his characteristic grin.

I chuckle. It feels good. It feels right. I have someone backing me up. Thank you, Brent.

***

We get about half-way there when the Chimera pings me. Crap. I don't want to do this right now... I debate not answering at all.

"It's her," I say to Brent, pointing at my temple. He raises an eyebrow. No doubt who I'm talking about. But I can't put this off long, and time isn't going to make it easier. But I let the Sergeant tie into the call. I want a witness. Just in case.

I take a deep breath and answer the ping. "Sparrow... this isn't the best time," I say, licking my lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry Melody. But actually, It's really important. See, the thing I was trying to get clearance to tell you? Well, I was having trouble getting ahold of Officer Rusteater. They aren't answering pings, and they aren't in their quarters..."

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My belly clenches at those words. "Ah, they're off the station."

"They... what?" She asks, confused. "But no ships are scheduled to depart-"

"Captain Cartwright and Officer Rusteater took a shuttle to the lunar surface almost two hours ago. They won't be back until tomorrow, at least," I say, feeling dread creep up my spine.

Sparrow's voice goes high and shrill. "What? No! Melody, Rusteater is going to kill Ashton Cartwright!"

The whole void-spawned universe is flying apart.

Brent looks at me, tied into the call, but I hold up a finger. "I'm sorry... what? Sparrow, you can't hold out on me if there's a conspiracy to murder-"

"No, Melody, that's why I was asking for time. Rusteater is with the Gaian League."

My mouth goes dry. "And how do you know that?"

"Because I am too." Fuck. "It's a long, complicated mess, but the short version is that Rusteater was trying to keep Cartwright from going down on Europa because they're afraid of what he will find. If Rusteater went down with Cartwright, it's to silence him."

Brent's eyes are wide as saucers, and I see him pinging in some calls subvocally. I turn and focus on Sparrow. "And why is that?"

I can hear her pause. "It's not safe for me to say-"

"That's vacuum-sucking horseshit!" I shout, making a few other people on the thoroughfare turn to stare at me. Brent puts a hand on my shoulder. I lower my volume, but my voice is heated. "You can't hold this back if lives are at stake, whatever you think your cause is-"

"Melody! I was saying it's not safe for me to say through the exonet. I would really prefer you came by the Chimera. There's a lot to talk about, and it's better face-to-face."

I swallow hard. "We're on-mission right now."

A moment passes. "Aren't you suspended?"

Still giving me guff. "I'll stop by after. We can't contact the surface anyway, so we can't warn him." He might already be dead.

But Brent shakes my shoulder. "El Tee, we don't need both of us there in the meat. You can drop in with your avatar from the Chimera."

I'm both pissed and grateful, so I settle for giving him a middle finger as I put Sparrow on hold. He still smirks at me. "Look, there's a lot of ways this can go down, Sarge, but you'll be more vulnerable to Communion than I will," I say. Like Alex was.

"Yeah, but I also got a team of hunter-killers, Code Enforcement protocols, better tech in my head, and an avatar tricked out with some of the latest goodies." The Sergeant crosses his arms and shows some teeth in his grin. "Don't get me wrong, I’ll feel better having you watching my back, but I'm not defenseless, El Tee."

Well, I can't ask him to take Sparrow off my hands, unless I want him to arrest her. Division of labor. I roll my eyes and my shoulders. "Fine, but loan me a passkey for one of your eyebots, so I can keep an eye on things in meatspace too." I say. It's not like I could do much but survive if I were there with you, if Communion attacks. "Think you can handle the all-devouring alien abomination growing off our telescope solo?" I ask with a grin.

Brent gives me a nod as some of the data flows into my overlay in silver. "Think you can handle your ecoterrorist girlfriend solo?" He asks with a smirk.

I shake my head as I unmute the channel. "Alright, Sparrow, I'll hear the full story, but it better be as clear as void. I'm coming to the dock now," I say, perhaps a tad heated.

"Thank you. And Melody, I'm sorry-"

"Save it for face-to-face, we've got a lot to talk about." I say sharply, cutting the channel.

I take a long, deep breath. I feel Brent pat my shoulder. "Rockchaser, don't get eaten," I say, giving him a weak grin.

I chuckles at that. "Check in when you get there, El Tee, and good luck with the shuttle-rat."

I leave the astronomy to my partner. I've got a terrorist to interrogate.

***

As I arrive at the dock, I get a flag with the passcode for Brent's eyebot. I pull it's channel open, wincing as I get a view of his cross-shaped pupils, and his lips mouthing 'el tee' at me. Ugh, he needs to trim his nose hair.

I pull myself through the airlock, floating in the microgravity. I turn off the eyebot channel, shaking my head. I'm distracted enough without a camera in my head. My heart is pounding in my chest as I ping the Chimera, and the hatch cargo opens.

It's her. Sparrow. Short blue hair, tattoo crawling up and down her arms. Not the image one has in mind when you think 'terrorist'. It feels like there's lightyears between us.

She reaches up, rubbing one arm, dressed in overalls. "Hi Melody," she says, looking a bit pale.

I swallow and pull myself along the wall-rung, to the Chimera. "Sparrow. I'd say it's good to see you again so soon, but..."

She chews her cheek. "Yeah... we have a lot to discuss."

She turns and I follow, into the cargo bay. We climb the ladder in silence, through hatch to the shuttle. Climbing up, and letting it seal behind us. We face each other for a moment, but neither of us speaks. I turn and sit in the co-pilots seat, sighing. "So... Gaian League?"

She shakes her head. "Yeah, it's going to take a while to tell. But I'm hoping... you'll come with me."

I blink at that. "Come with you?"

She puffs her cheeks, blowing her breath out. "Melody, I can't let Rusteater go through with it. I had tried to convince him not to... but now, if I don't go down-"

I hold up a hand. "Sorry, you want to go down to the inhospitable, frozen, radiation-soaked surface of Europa?"

"I don't have to leave the ship!" Sparrow sits on the pilot's seat, pulling up the nav display. It begins showing me a route down the gravity well. "If I can get close enough to ping or signal Cartwright and warn him-"

"Woah!" I stop her, seeing the projected route in blue. It's skimming the moon's atmosphere, way too close and fast. Especially with Jupiter's magnetic field and the radiation belt. "Sparrow, that looks like a retiring shuttle racer’s suicide run. You can’t-"

But I get a ping at that moment. The timing today is fucking brilliant. I hold a finger up to Sparrow as I tap my temple. "Brent?"

"Yeah, El Tee, you there?" His voice sounds tight.

"Just arrived, find anything promising?" I ask, as Sparrow fidgets.

"Oh, I found something. You should drop in and see," he says softly.

I tilt my head. "What is it?"

"Oh, I think you'll want to see it yourself."

***

I ask Sparrow to give me some time. Maybe it's stupid, dropping in and leaving my body helpless in meatspace with a self-confessed ecoterrorist next to me. But I guess she's had plenty of chances to kill me.

I arrive almost instantly, of course. No need to walk my avatar there, I drop into a nearby virt. It's adjacent to a large data-processing unit nested inside the Astronomy Divisions mainframe. Brent's avatar is here, and he's locked down all the gates in and out with his CE Registry Key. He has to personally walk my avatar through the gate into the data-processing virt.

He's right though, I did need to see it myself. There was the missing entity, Lemming. I almost missed the tangle of code, frayed and dead. I was too distracted by the corpse of a supersapient AI that Lemming is merged with. I’m not sure what was more shocking; the sight of the flayed and flensed behemoth in front of me, or the fact that several pieces of its corpse seem to be devouring other pieces, ingesting and regurgitating the code in a grotesque, heaving, growing, evolving tumor. Looking harder, I see dozens, no, hundreds of AIs and EIs enmeshed within the writhing, tangled ribbons of living and dead code.

We found it. At least, the budding, nascent form. Communion.