Juliet pushed her bowl away with a sigh and looked around the table at her friends' smiling, laughing faces. It was nice to be back, nice to be among people she cared about, and nice to listen to small talk and banter rather than worry about life-or-death situations. It couldn’t last long, however, not when she’d been involved in something so momentous that it was all over the news streams. When the current laughter about Aya slurping so forcefully that she got spicy broth in her eye died down, Alice said, rather innocuously, “Can you guys believe that stuff coming out about the dark matter research?”
Juliet froze, for some reason panic-stricken by the topic, as though she were guilty of something—she was, but who knew that? Bennet snorted and immediately relieved the tension, “Yeah, right! Just like they found alien ruins on Venus.”
“You think it’s BS?” Alice raised an eyebrow.
“If it were real, we wouldn’t be hearing about it. Those corps like their secrets.”
Still rubbing a napkin at her eye, Aya jabbed an elbow into Bennet’s ribs. “You haven’t been paying attention. The news is only out there because someone leaked.”
“That’s what they always say. We’ll get all wound up, everyone will talk about it nonstop for a couple of weeks, and then it will just sort of fade out of the news as the next big thing comes along. Remember how we were supposed to have conquered aging a few years ago?”
Juliet couldn’t help herself. “If they conquered aging, the rich execs would snatch up that tech, and the rest of us wouldn’t know about it.”
“Exactly!” Bennet pointed his chopsticks at her, nodding. “Same for this new business. If they figure out a way to ‘warp space’ with dark matter, us plebes won’t see anything from it—not in our lifetimes.”
“Bleh,” Alice said, also pushing her bowl away. “You guys are too negative. What do you think, babe?” She gave Shiro a nudge, and the man, deep in his noodles, looked up, narrowing his eyes in a scowl.
“I worry about the ship and our next job, not this stuff.”
“Shiro!” Aya cried, shaking a chopstick at him. “You’re no fun!”
“Hey, on that note, Lucky,” Alice said, shaking her head at her husband, “We’ve got business to discuss. I mean about those ships and bounties you sent our way. Can we sit down together tomorrow?”
“Yeah, of course.” She figured Alice didn’t want to talk money in front of everyone. Juliet was okay with that because she hadn’t really thought about it yet. How much was she going to kick in toward the gunship company? How big a cut was she willing to give Alice and Shiro for brokering everything? It would be best if they had that talk without the alcohol and peanut gallery consisting of Bennet and Aya. Partially because she was excited about it and partly to help Alice change the subject, she said, “Hey, by the way, I got my hands on some Cybergen ship tech—a sample of self-repair hull membrane with live nanites . . .”
“You what?” Bennet burst into a coughing fit as he tried to speak and swallow at the same time and ended up choking on a mouthful of noodles.
“From where?” Aya asked, Shiro’s reticence forgotten.
“Well,” Juliet paused and sipped her orange-flavored soda. She took her time, drinking several big gulps, and then, when she could see Aya’s eyes widen in frustrated anticipation, she sighed and said, “Man! Something about cold, crisp soda after eating hot soup, you know?”
“Come on, Lucky!”
Juliet laughed, winking at Bennet, who’d finally got over his fit and was grinning, enjoying Juliet’s teasing. “Okay, well, you all know I was caught up doing a job involving some pirates, right? I won’t get into details because I don’t want to think about it but also because it’s safer for everyone this way.” She held up a hand when Aya started to object. “No, no, I’m serious about this one. Trust me. Anyway, while I was there, I came upon this tech, and I, well, I absconded with it.” Juliet tapped her temple. “I’ve had Angel working on it, and she thinks we can probably have the polymer membrane fabricated for the gunship, and the nanites, if given the right input and nutrient blend, will propagate through it.”
“Wait, seriously?” At some point during her explanation, Bennet had decided she was just teasing Aya, but now his eyes were wide with interest. “You think we can retrofit the Takamoto control module and fabricator?”
“No retrofitting needed. Angel just has to update the firmware, and we need to load the nutrient cartridges.”
“Nutrients?” Alice sipped her drink and gestured to the table. “Are they alive? They need to eat?”
“Not exactly,” Juliet chuckled, “I think it’s a term that caught on back when people were calling nanites bugs. I mean, people still do, but we don’t feed them food, exactly. They require base materials to do their work, and the fabricator requires materials to pump out more nanites. That’s where the cartridges come in—they provide the molecular building blocks to generate more nanites and also those that get spread through the polymer membrane for ship repairs.”
“That’s awesome!” Aya slapped the table enthusiastically and then looked around the restaurant, cringing. “Sorry! Sorry . . .”
“Hey, don’t apologize,” Bennet said. “It’s more than awesome! I’ve never thought I’d work on a ship with self-repair tech. The Takamoto system on the gunship was wrecked decades ago. Aya and I spent days, like, thirty hours each, peeling and grinding away the old crusty remnants of the nanite membrane when we took the hull plating off.”
Juliet shrugged. “Well, I imagine if you never refill the cartridges and don’t maintain the control module, you know, changing out the filters and stuff, the nanites die, the membrane dries up, and, yeah, you’re left with just a mess.”
Shiro swallowed a bite of noodles and said, “Too bad we couldn’t install something like that on the Kowashi.”
Bennet laughed and shook his head. “You’re dreaming, boss. That old bird isn’t . . . well, let’s just say we’d basically have to rebuild the ship—not cost-effective.”
“That’s why I said too bad.” Shiro sighed, pushed his empty bowl back, and then stretched his neck. He looked around the table and nodded. “Good food. Glad you’re back, Lucky.”
“What are you doing? Leaving?” Alice shook her head at her husband.
“What? It’s almost nine, and I have an early start.”
“You what?” Juliet looked from Shiro to Alice to Aya, then back to Shiro. “You guys are going on a job?”
“No!” Aya answered. “Just Shiro. He’s meeting a contact about a salvage tip.”
“A tip? Something secret?” Juliet was intrigued.
“Hai. Maybe.” Shiro shrugged. “He’s a reliable contact, but he’s been wrong before. Might be good money, though.”
“We should go to the warehouse, Lucky,” Aya said; Shiro’s departure apparently already accepted and forgotten. “I have a bunch of things to show you.”
“I suppose I’ll head out with Shiro. I’m glad you’re back, Lucky. You know that, right?” Alice pushed her chair back and stood up, so Juliet did, too; she could tell the pilot wanted to hug her. She’d already been practically mugged by Aya when she and Bennet arrived at the noodle house—when she’d stopped by the hangar to change, he’d been waiting.
“Yeah, ‘course I do. You know I’m glad to be here.” She let the shorter woman wrap her arms around her, then hugged her back, gently stroking her feathery red hair. “I’m sorry about Nick.”
“Hush! We weren’t going to mention that, remember?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. We’ll have a drink for him sometime, all right? But this is about you, about us being glad you’re back. Don’t think about sad things.” While she spoke, everyone had gotten quiet. Bennet stuffed his hands into his pockets and exhaled noisily as he walked around the table, heading out of the restaurant. Aya fidgeted and moved toward the door, and Shiro followed her. “We made things awkward,” Alice laughed, pulling out of Juliet’s embrace. “Come see me on the Kowashi when you get up and about tomorrow, okay?”
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“Yeah, sure I will.” Juliet smiled; for some reason, their shared loss made her feel closer than ever to the pilot she’d once found almost too intimidating to speak to. They found the others waiting outside, and Alice walked over to Shiro, taking his hand and standing on her tiptoes to deliver a quick peck on his cheek. In that moment, Juliet envied them. Angel had been quiet for most of the dinner, but Juliet was used to her doing that, quietly hanging back, observing everything, and then talking to her about it later. So she was slightly surprised when she spoke up as Aya and Bennet said their goodbyes to Shiro and Alice.
“You seem to view Alice and Shiro longingly.”
“Huh? You can tell that?” Juliet, of course, subvocalized.
“Just as I can read your speech patterns with hardly any subvocalization on your part, I can tell from your posture, minute facial expressions, breathing patterns, and . . .”
“I get it; I’m an open book to you.”
“Yes.”
“Well . . .” Juliet’s conversation with Angel was cut short as a cab pulled up, and Shiro and Alice moved to get in. She called out, waving, “See you tomorrow!”
“Hai!” Shiro waved and slipped inside, and Alice followed him, smiling.
“They’re acting kinda touchy-feely, you know?” Bennet laughed as the cab pulled away. “If we were going back to the Kowashi, I think it’d be a headphones night . . .”
“Bennet!” Aya laughed, punching him in the arm. “I thought I was the only one close enough to their cabin to hear that!”
“You guys are terrible.” Juliet laughed and started walking up the sidewalk in the general direction of the hangar.
“As if, Lucky!” Aya darted after her. When she caught up, she wrapped an arm around Juliet’s waist, walking beside her. “You know you were thinking the same thing!” She was a little breathless, and Juliet found it endearing. She put an arm over Aya’s shoulders and pulled her close while they walked.
“I’m glad to be back.”
“Are you back for good?”
“Hmm?” The question surprised her, and as Bennet caught up and walked on her other side, she thought about it. “I don’t know! I always thought I’d do other jobs between gunship missions, but if we’re busy all the time . . . I don’t know.” She squeezed her as if to make up for her lack of certainty.
Aya’s fingers wriggled against her hip, and Juliet realized she was hooking them into the belt loop on her jeans. Walking side-by-side like that with someone wasn’t usually comfortable, but Aya had a way of matching the sway of her hips, and it felt good to feel someone wanted to be so close to her. She was trying to think of something more to say on the subject when Bennet bailed her out. “I figure the gunship’s still a couple of months from ready. Especially if we’re gonna be spraying on a new polymer membrane for these mystery nanites you found. It’ll take a while for a special order like that.”
“Did you tell her about the barrels?” Aya asked, poking her head around Juliet to look at Bennet.
“For the main gun? Yeah, he did.” Juliet inhaled deeply, enjoying the cool night air. “Are they installed? I didn’t notice; my eyes were grabbed by the lovely painted armor panels on the drying racks.”
“That’s my project!” Aya laughed. Juliet slowed, and Bennet matched her pace as they skirted around a pile of old pallets. The sidewalk was cluttered with refuse left out for sanitation crews to pick up the next morning, and traffic going to and from the industrial hangars was almost non-existent at night, so they walked onto the road, avoiding the mess.
“I told her that, too,” Bennet chuckled, shaking his head. “You sure know how to push her buttons, Lucky.”
“Speaking of pushing buttons, are you going to tell us what really happened with that girlfriend of yours?”
“You don’t know?” Aya answered before Bennet could do more than open his mouth and look horrified.
“Oh? There really is a story?” Juliet reached over and grabbed Bennet’s meaty shoulder, giving it a jostle. “You said she thought you worked too much . . .”
“He said, what?” Aya squealed. “Lucky! You’ll never believe . . .”
“Oh, come on, Aya! You said you felt sorry for me, and now you’re going to tease me like this? Couldn’t you let me have this one? Lucky doesn’t need to know . . .”
“Cat’s out of the bag, Mr. Lang,” Juliet laughed, “You think I can let this go now that I know there’s a story?” Still holding onto his shoulder, Juliet let him guide her around the corner onto Forty-first Street. They still had half a mile to walk before they got to the hangar. The street ahead was dark, only occasional large amber floodlamps up on the sides of the plasteel buildings providing illumination. Juliet paused, stopping the other two, and looked upward toward the dome, wondering if she could see any stars. All she saw was blackness dotted with the flickering lights of drones. “Well, the stars won’t be your witness. Let’s hear it.”
“Whatever. Let me tell her, then, okay, Aya? No interruptions!”
“Only if you leave something out,” Aya said, clearly struggling to hold herself back as they started walking again.
“It’s not . . .” Bennet sighed and coughed, then said, “First of all, you need to know that I was only sleeping in your dream-rig. You get me? No matter what you’re about to hear, I was only sleeping.”
“Now, I’m getting nervous.” Juliet grinned, and despite only drinking soda at the noodle shop, she was feeling almost like she was buzzed. What was it? Endorphins from the spicy food? The closeness of her friends? She didn’t know, but she liked it.
“So, Lavonne came to surprise me for lunch one day, and I was sleeping in the dream-rig, just a nap, ‘cause I had a bad night’s sleep. She looked all over the hangar, calling my name, going in and out of the gunship, into the little office, even looking in crates. When she sent a few angry messages asking me why I said I’d be working when I wasn’t there, my PAI finally got a clue and woke me up, so I crawled out of the dream-rig, and she freaked out.”
Juliet narrowed her eyes and looked at Bennet, but he avoided her gaze. “What’s wrong with that? Why’d she have a meltdown?”
“I guess her ex-husband left her for a DR girl.”
“A, uh, what?” Juliet laughed. “Wait, like a woman who was also in a dream rig, or are we talking about a sim?”
“I guess she was a sim.” Bennet shrugged.
Aya giggled, and Juliet looked down at her. “How’d you know about this?”
“I was there! I was hiding ‘cause Lavonne didn’t like me.”
Juliet couldn’t stop the giggles. “You were hiding in the hangar while she was turning the place upside down, looking for Bennet?”
“Yes!” Aya continued to giggle. “You should have seen her face when Bennet crawled out of the dream-rig. It was like he gave birth to a demon.”
“Yeah. I guess I kinda dodged a bullet. After she cussed me out and told me how disgusting I was, she stormed out and blocked me—never heard from her after that.”
“She didn’t let you explain that you were just, um, ‘napping?’” Juliet laughed as she made air quotes while saying the word.
“Oh, dammit! I knew this was going to happen. Aya! I owe you for this.” They were still walking on the street and, as bright headlights appeared behind them, throwing long, stretched-out shadow copies of the three of them onto the roadway, they hurried up onto the sidewalk to let a windowless white van hum past. As it pulled away, they were plunged into darkness again, and Juliet, still holding onto Bennet’s shoulder, steered the three of them back onto the road. They’d only taken a few steps before a loud cough from off to the right, an alley between two hangars, echoed through the night.
“Let’s go faster,” Aya said, squeezing Juliet’s hip.
“Right.” Juliet stretched her legs and took two long strides before the scuff of boots on concrete alerted her.
“Juliet, I can hear four distinct movement patterns from the alley on your right.”
“Thanks, Angel,” Juliet said aloud, slowing her steps. She let go of Bennet’s shoulder and gently pushed Aya behind her. She turned toward the alley just in time to see four dark figures step out from behind a large stack of pallets. Angel upped the gain on her implants, turning her world slightly amber but revealing every detail about the men. One held a vibroblade, two had buzzing batons, and one had a short-barreled shotgun in his meaty fist. “Not exactly tools for working on spacecraft, gentlemen.”
Bennet finally caught on to what was happening and stepped to the right, squaring off with the four men. “Who are these jokers?”
“What?” Aya tried to push forward, but Juliet held her arm out, scooting sideways, keeping herself between the potential threat and her much smaller friend.
“Ain’t this a happy bunch o’ drones. Burning the midnight oil, eh? Which hangar’s yours?” As he spoke, Angel flashed a symbol on her AUI that was universal for a jammed signal—a lightning bolt with a dotted line through it.
“Fu . . .” Bennet started to say, scowling, but Juliet cut him off.
“I think you guys made a mistake. Turn around, and we can forget we saw you.” She let her right hand fall to her thigh, gently tapping her fingers against the polymer grip of her Texan.
“Uh-oh, Yam; she’s got a cowboy gun.” The knife-wielder said, leering from behind a thick visor. He stuck his long, silver-studded tongue between two fingers and made a slurping sound, chasing it with a high-pitched giggle.
“Just let us into your hangar, and we won’t kill ya,” the one with the shotgun said. “We’re robbing someone tonight, and you three just volunteered.”
“Hey, my connection’s blocked,” Aya said, and Juliet guessed she’d been trying to call the hangar-leasing company’s corpo-sec.
“Sure, sweetie,” the leering guy with the vibrating knife said, and Juliet decided she’d had enough. Just as she always did, Angel knew Juliet wanted to move fast. When she snatched her revolver out of its Zero-Friction lining, to her, it felt like she was moving smoothly but normally. To everyone else, her movement was too fast to track. One second, her hand was hanging by her side; the next, it was extended before her, her big-bore, silver-gray pistol clutched in her fist with a thin trail of smoke rising from the barrel. The thunder of the shot was almost as surprising as the sudden appearance of the gun.
From Juliet’s perspective, the thugs reacted in slow motion, their actions disjointed and out of order. The one she’d shot, the gun-toting, burly, curly-haired guy, dropped his gun as his thumb disappeared in a red mist. A fraction of a second later, his eyes opened wide, and his mouth rounded into an O of surprise. Another second later, his friends’ faces convulsed in surprise, and Juliet could see them all flinch in slow motion. Two jerked back, and one spastically lurched to the side, but they all slowly tracked their eyes to Juliet as their brains belatedly figured out she’d shot one of them.
As it became clear the four men wouldn’t charge her, Angel slowed her mental processing so Juliet could observe their reactions. The big guy grunted in agony and lifted his missing thumb to his mouth, and, almost comically, began to try to suck on the digit that no longer existed. The leering knife guy said, “What the fuck?”
“She’s wired!” one of the baton-wielders said, backing away another step. And the other baton-wielder made the unfortunate decision to drop his baton and start digging under his jacket, fumbling at a pistol grip. Juliet smoothly pressed the almost weightless trigger of the Texan, putting a heavy polymer slug into his elbow, turning a good portion of solid bone into powder. He screamed and collapsed, writhing as his arm flopped and blood pooled on the concrete.
“Where do you want it?” Juliet asked the knife guy, the only one still looking at her threateningly.
“What?”
“Your bullet.”
“Fucking crazy bitch!” He turned and ran, and thumbless was hot on his heels.
“Take your friend!” Bennet yelled at the last man standing, a wiry guy with a plasteel arm and a bullseye monocle implant. He paused, already turning to flee. “Help him up and then get outta here!” Bennet growled.
“Shouldn’t we call corpo-sec?” Aya asked, poking her head around Juliet’s side.
“Sure, go ahead.” Bennet shrugged. “They’ll be here in an hour.” The three of them watched as the last would-be robber bent to help his whimpering, bleeding friend onto his feet and then shuffled away down the alley. Juliet could hear, plain as day, thanks to Angel enhancing and isolating the sounds, an electric motor whir to life, and several doors opening and closing.
“They’re getting in a vehicle.”
Bennet snorted in derision. “Yeah, we won’t see them again. Holy shit, Lucky, I forgot how fast you are.”
“Don’t mess with Lucky!” Aya crowed, grabbing her arm and pulling her down the street toward the hangar. “Let’s get inside. I guess Bennet got us a hangar in a high-crime neighborhood.”
“It’s not high-crime! It’s the only place on Luna to rent a hangar like this!” Bennet groused, hurrying to keep up with the two women. Juliet allowed Aya to pull her along, surprised at how the two had taken the attempted mugging in stride. It just went to show how the world wasn’t an easy place, and whether she dealt with her many enemies or not, new ones were just around the corner, waiting for her or her friends to make the wrong move.
She frowned, finishing her thought aloud, “Like walking through a bad neighborhood in the middle of the night.”
“It’s not a bad neighborhood,” Bennet insisted. “No more than the rest of Luna, I guess.”
“Well,” Juliet sighed, once again grabbing hold of his muscular shoulder, “I guess, these days, unless you’re in a patrolled, gated neighborhood, they’re all kinda bad.”