Clumps of tired people hovered in the massive garage, some tense, others resigned, hopeless. The three massive bays dwarfed the dozen or so people, all poured concrete and corrugated steel. Bulky machinery, painted in warning shades of yellow and smeared with grime and grease, hung overhead. In the corner, a large shape hunkered under a tarp. Despite the reflective walls and yawning, open spaces, the garage was silent. They held their breath, an unspoken prayer for a miracle.

One of the garage doors groaned, rattling open to a void of dark city. The people inside looked up one after another, a mess of weary eyes and concerned expressions suddenly tinged with hope.

A bullet-scarred white van blasted through the door and squealed to a halt. The garage door began to roll down even before the van was fully inside, and slammed shut as June threw the rear doors open.

“Alright, kiddos, we’re back!”

Kids fled the van. Parents shouted. Reunited, kids leaped into their parents’ arms. One of the nearest mothers turned toward the van, embracing the girl in the red shirt. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Ah, you’re welcome,” June said, smiling awkwardly.

The families streamed out one by one, vanishing back into the city night. When the last one filtered out, June sighed and turned to the one kid left in the van, sprawled across the back. “Tooly, you have a bed open?”

“Suppose I have to. You’re paying, though,” Tooly grumbled as she climbed out of the driver’s seat. She pushed back corkscrew-curly hair and tied it into an unruly bundle on the top of her head, then quirked a mocha eyebrow at June and planted her hands on her hips. “They hurt? You know I’m not much of a doctor.”

“Hurt, yeah, but right up your alley. He’s in harness.” She pulled the kid into her arms and climbed out of the van.

Tooly glanced over, then did a double take. Her eyes widened. “June, what the hell have you gotten us into now?”

--

Glossy pages slapped her awake. June blinked and sat upright on the bench, a dazed expression on her face and the imprint of cracked pleather on her cheek. “Huh?”

“You didn’t fall asleep on me, did you?” Tooly asked. She tapped a rolled-up magazine against her shoulder threateningly, one brow cocked.

“Mmm? No.” June wiped the drool off her chin and stood. “How’s the kid?”

“They’re fine. Well, I don’t know about fine, but they’re going to survive and walk and all that jazz. They got real torn up, whatever happened to ‘em. There’s a few places that won’t work as good as they used to, but overall… I’ve done my best.” She glanced over her shoulder and quirked a brow at June. “You going to tell me how they got like that?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

June shrugged. “You know. Stuff happened.”

She narrowed her eyes at June. “That stuff better not start happening to me.”

“It’s got nothing to do with you. This time, I’ll leave you out of it, promise,” June said earnestly.

Tooly snorted. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

With a toss of her head, Tooly led the way into the next room. Unlike the garage or the waiting room, this room glistened with sterile metal. Strange arms and tools hung from the ceiling, bristling with sharp blades and twisting drills. A huge light beamed down on a sectioned chair not unlike those in the dentist’s office, aside from the thick leather straps dangling from the arms and legs. There, swathed in a white sheet, laid the kid from earlier. Tooly had wiped the blood and stains off his face, and with the sheet pulled up to his chin, he looked like an ordinary kid taking a nap.

“This harness… I’ve never seen anything like it.” She mussed the kid’s hair idly. “There’s parts where I’m not sure if it’s biological or mechanical, and the silver bits—the purely mechanical parts—are light years beyond anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s gotta be imported. This planet can’t produce that kind of tech.”

“Is that why you were shocked when you saw him?” June asked.

Hazel eyes regarded her for a moment, and then Tooly scoffed. “Hell no. I couldn’t tell that at a glance, what kind of genius do you think I am? No. Listen. A kid in full harness? Do you know how many of those there are on this planet?”

“I don’t know. A hundred? A thousand?”

“Five. All well-documented medical emergencies. And actually, one just got upgraded to adult harness, so four. Kids aren’t put in full harness all willy-nilly. It’s illegal to put them in one outside of extreme cases, and even then, it can get sketchy—remember Nils vs. Laparde Tech?”

“No.”

Tooly rolled her eyes. “Right, I forgot, you’re a dumb jock. Doreen Nils was put in full harness as a child, and her family couldn’t afford to upgrade as she grew. Her brain grew too big for her new steel skull and, well, long story short, she died from complications, and her family posthumously sued the company for a couple million credits. Point is, this isn’t something that happens often, because it’s dangerous as hell. When it does, everyone knows about it, it’s documented up the ass and reported to a half dozen regulatory boards including, including, your absolute favorite people, the Asteri.”

“Great. So?”

Tooly turned to her computer and tapped a few keys. Four images appeared on the screen. A sweet five-year-old girl with a head full of blonde curls. A tough-looking teenager with a shaved head. An infant. A young boy with dusky skin and a big smile. “Do any of these look like your friend?”

“Uh… no.”

“Thus, what we have here is an undocumented harness. Worse, an undocumented harness on a minor, which escalates a misdemeanor to a federal crime. That kid is illegal as hell, June. They’re hot merchandise. If someone finds out about them, and they think I did that to them—”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Didn’t you say he’s made with off-planet future tech? What madman would think your rusty old shop could do that?” June scoffed.

Tooly grabbed her by the collar. June staggered forward a step, caught off-balance. “Ridiculous? June, are you stupid? If we get investigated, if anyone so much as glances too hard at our identification, we’re going away for a long time. We can’t have that kind of risk hanging around us.”

She put her hands up. “Look, I’m not too excited about having a kid around either, but I’m not going to abandon him on the streets.”

With a magnificent eye roll, Tooly let go. “Fine. Alright, whatever. Come here.”

She stomped over to the kid’s head and tipped his head slightly to the side. “What’s that? Huh?”

June leaned in. There was a mark behind the kid’s ear, a tattoo of some kind. She squinted, then snapped back, as if slapped. “Is that…”

Tooly nodded. “Yeah. That’s…” She sucked in a breath and shook her head. “…not great.”