895G shifted uncomfortably between the two smaller bandits stuffed in the back seat of the vehicle clearly meant for only two passengers. The larger bandit was sitting up front with no one sitting in the empty seat next to him and the Scout wondered why not even one of his partners sat with him since they weren’t exactly happy sitting in the tight space with him.

“Come on Brit, can’t I sit up front?” The bandit to 895G’s right piped up.

“If he gets to sit up front then why can’t I?” The one to the left retorted.

“This is exactly why no one gets to sit up front,” Brit spoke up from the wheel. “And I don’t trust our new companion to not jump out of the car if he sat up here, so you just have to deal with it ‘til we get to our ship.”

The two bandits in the back grumbled and cursed under their breaths but didn’t fight back.

“So why exactly are we having to make the long-ass trip to Onto?” Brit asked gruffly.

“The tracker we had installed in the Efficiency went online momentarily in Onto and it’s the only lead we’ve gotten in a week so I was ‘volunteered’ to go there.” 895G tried his best to sound as if he was annoyed by the imaginary partners he had to sell the story he was still in the process of weaving.

“So it might not even be there.”

“...Yes.”

“So you’re risking your week of life left in the hopes that the Efficiency is in Onto since it’ll take an entire week to get there.”

“Yes?”

“Ballsy. We might get along.”

The Scout nearly let out an air of relief but caught himself.

“So what do we call you?” The bandit to the right asked. “I’m Regal.”

“I’m Jeringy.” The one to the left chimed.

“Eigh--,” 895G opened his mouth and almost automatically stated his name when he suddenly remembered that his name gave away his affiliation with GreenHouse.

Naturally conceived children were always given names since it was tradition, but all those created in the cloning process was given a numerical and alphabetical mix of digits, and the only ones that used the cloning process to created humans was GreenHouse. He doubted that these three bandits would be keen to know that the person they had in their midst was involved with GreenHouse in any way.

“Eimose.” He said after clearing his throat.

“Alright Eimose, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that I hope we all get along and make the most of this last week you have left to live,” Regal said cheerfully. “Maybe we can all get matching tattoos or something.”

“If you get any more tattoos you’re going to get poisoning, you know that right?” Jeringy said jokingly, although there was truth behind the words.

“Hasn’t happened yet so I’m not stopping now. My artist says I’m the best canvas she’s got so you aren’t going to stop me from getting more.”

“I’m honestly surprised you haven’t run out of space on your skin. I don’t know where you’re putting the new ones and I’d rather not know.”

“Meghan knows me very…intimately,” Regal stated with a coy smile on his face, and Jeringy just rolled his eyes.

“Thank all the gods we’re finally here,” Brit mumbled and pulled the car off the road. “Always getting stuck with children…”

The three practically fell out of the vehicle when the door was opened and 895G--Eimose--was relieved to not be sandwiched between two grown men who acted like children. He looked around at his surroundings and saw that they were at a section of the Yunto docks he didn’t recognize. The air was heavy with smoke and he was glad he’d already put on his respirator otherwise he would be feeling it in his lungs. His eyes were watering and he could only squint at the others in order to not have tears stream down his face from the irritation.

“Our ship is right over there,” Brit said while giving Eimose a push.

They all walked towards the section of the docks with an exceptional amount of ships tethered to it. Regal and Jeringy walked much faster that Brit and Eimose and had boarded before Eimose could even see the hull of the ship that would be his home for the next week. When he did get in eyeshot, he could say that he wasn’t disappointed but he was far from being impressed.

It was a mid-sized passenger ship that had been crudely reinforced with steel and had two harpoon cannons on the deck. Written in black ink on the side of the hull was a cursive ‘Nostalgia’ along with an image of a generic extinct hawk silhouette.

“She’s not impressive but she’s what a lot of our crew call home, so be careful what you say about her or you might find that a week was generous.” Brit elaborated as they boarded.

Eimose made a mental note to not say anything about the ship in case he unintentionally said something negative about it, but in comparison with the raggedy boat he had pictured in his mind when Brit had said they had their own ship to travel all the way to Onto on, this was a dream. It actually looked like it could survive a storm or two on the high seas since it looked like it had already been through quite a few.

A gruff-looking man with a dense beard met them as they touched the deck.

“Tubrit! It’s been too long!” The man exclaimed as his weathered face broke out into a wide smile as he went to embrace Brit.

“Two years isn’t that long,” Brit said defensively but smiled as he hugged the older man back. “It’s good to see you, Lin.”

“Is this the fellow that’s taking you to the robot?” Lin said as he pulled away, staring down at Eimose with piercing green eyes.

“Or he loses his life,” Brit growled.

“Perfect,” Lin called over the bandit that had been mopping the deck. “Take this gentleman’s bag to cargo holding.”

The bandit nodded and reached for Eimose’s bag but he clutched it against his chest before the man could take it away from him. This wasn’t the response the bandits wanted and hands fell to weapons.

“Is there a problem?” Lin asked in a threatening tone.

“N-no. It’s just that I prefer having this on hand in case there’s an emergency.”

“Are you accusing my crew of thievery?”

“No! There’s just some really important things in here I don’t want out of my sight.”

“Just hand over the bag before Lin kicks you overboard, Eimose,” said Brit, exacerbated. “We’re not even undocked and you’re already stepping on everyone’s toes.”

Eimose hesitated before extending his arms out with the bag held loosely, wincing when the bandit assigned to bag duty yanked it from his grip roughly. Brit shook his head and rolled his eyes before turning from the troublemaker.

“When are we departing?” he asked Lin, who was still shooting daggers at Eimose.

“Always business with you. Two hours. The supply crew will be back shortly but I want to be sure we’re fully stocked food-wise and weapon-wise. Piranhas have been attacking more frequently and I’m not risking the lives of my crew for the bounty.”

“When was the last attack?” Brit asked in concern.

“Two weeks ago. Hit a Yunto supply vessel and a week before they hit one of my other ships. I lost eleven men and won’t let it happen again.”

Eimose shifted uncomfortably at the sudden shift in tone in the conversation and the fact that he didn’t know what a Piranha was, but he kept his mouth shut as he didn’t want any attention aimed his way anymore since apparently, he was prone to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

“What do you think our odds are running into them?” Brit questioned.

“Eighty-five percent. Our path crosses very closely to the area they were spotted last but it’s the safest and most efficient path to Onto.”

“Those odds are brutal. Use me and the two others if you need to.”

“I was planning to anyway. But I’m probably sending in this scrawny thing in first before I sacrifice you men.”

Eimose grimaced under Lin’s mention of him but it was quickly passed over as Regal and Jeringy came trodding towards them.

“You have to see our cabin!” Regal shouted with enthusiasm.

“They totally gave us the best one on the entire ship!” Jeringy said with mirrored excitement.

“I’ve already called the top bunk on my side,” Regal stated proudly.

“No, you didn’t.”

“I just did.”

“You asshole, I told you I wanted the top one! You always fart on purpose when you have the top bunk!”

Jeringy swung at Regal, but the tattooed one nimbly ducked and ran away. Brit grabbed Jeringy by his shoulder before he could run after him, holding him in place with his grip and the stern look on his face.

“Enough. For the love of the gods, act your age. You’re the older one, so act like it. He likes pushing your buttons because you let him. Calm down and show Eimose to the room. Don’t let him out of your sight.”

Brit released his hold and Jeringy rubbed at his sore shoulder, and although he still looked irritated from Regal’s behavior motioned for Eimose to follow him to the cabin. Eimose jumped at the opportunity to get away from the two older men and be around people his own age for once.

“So I heard your robot beat up Brit so bad Regal had to drag him away.”

“Huh?”

“Brit, Urie, Oui, and Regal were the ones that went to retrieve the Efficiency the first time. From what I hear, that robot is unbeatable! Regal was complaining about his pinky toe getting shot off in his fight with the robot. He said it was because he jumped in front of Brit and took the bullet for him, but how do you get shot in the foot protecting someone? Oui’s still in medic bay back at base for his leg since I guess he got nerve damage. How did the fight actually go?”

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“Uh, I wasn’t there to witness the fight. Sorry to disappoint.”

“It’s cool. Still pretty awesome you got to hang around a robot that kicked ass. Any cool stories?”

Eimose tried to make up a story on the spot but came up blank. He’d been so focused on escaping from the incredibly strong robot that he didn’t really have anything to base his stories on besides the fights he witnessed when he was on the opposing side.

“There was this one time the robot took out two dozen Combatants because some Patrollers were after us.” Eimose started, recalling from the ambush he had set up. “They caught us by surprise on the border of Tinyon. We were completely surrounded.”

“And it beat the shit out of them all!” Jeringy finished the story excitedly.

“To make a long story short, yes.”

“Why were you going to Tinyon?”

“Umm, I’m honestly not sure. I recently joined the gang and then there was a bit of a falling out and now we’re looking for the robot.” A robot that didn’t exist, he thought to himself bitterly.

“Maybe you guys were going to Onto? If you were taking a ship from Tinyon to Onto that would explain why the robot’s signal showed up there.”

Eimose was shocked at the sense that conclusion made despite him making up the fact about the robot’s signal appearing. It was Neiman’s idea to go to Onto and Eimose hadn’t questioned it at all since he’d been in such a rush to put GreenHouse behind him and start living a new life, so what exactly was waiting for him there? If Indo and Petri had in fact been planning to travel across the sea to Onto from Tinyon when they had first met, then there was a grand picture hidden somewhere that Eimose was stuck in.

“There’s probably a secret base or something there.” Jeringy pointed out with a devious smile. “Why did the robot leave anyways? I heard that it was faulty from Regal since it was a fighting machine rather than a regular old Efficiency but that’s what makes it so cool. I hope I get to meet it.”

Jeringy was visibly shaking in anticipation of meeting the robot and Eimose felt guilty for raising his hopes up. They reached the room and Jeringy unloaded even more questions on Eimose and he had to make up a lot more stories regarding the Efficiency to sate the younger man’s curiosity. Regal eventually joined them and joined in on the questions. Eimose ended up having to excuse himself from the conversation since he couldn’t keep up with the inquiries and needed to take a breath. When he left the room he quickly realized that he must have been in the room longer than he had thought since the vessel was already treading water and was traveling down the Gerengies river, the city of Yunto lost in the haze behind them.

“They wear you out?”

Eimose turned and saw Brit approaching him from the deck and went out to get a better bearing on his location.

“If you’re thinking of jumping I don’t think you’ll make it to shore. And we have your oh-so-important bag.”

“I’m not running away,” Eimose said sternly, and for the first time in a long time, he spoke the truth.

The two men leaned on the rails and gazed out ahead of them, a knowing silence passing between them.

“What was the ‘falling out’ you had with your companions?” Brit finally asked.

“The other two in my crew refused to tell me where our heading was so I left. I ran out of money so I went back to them hoping they’d take me back and they told me that if I found the robot they would.” Eimose said with a practiced tone. Jeringy and Regal had already asked every question under the sky so he was finally feeling confident in his answers.

“Because I learned recently from a reliable source that it was actually Indo and Petri that had the robot to begin with and they had taken a little Scout pet as a hostage, but then were ambushed and are presumed dead. How interesting to hear your side of the story. How do you know Indo and Petri?”

Eimose felt his blood run cold as Brit confronted his story with truth and he scrambled to come up with something fast enough so it would sound natural.

“They’ve been what? Where were they taken?”

Brit narrowed his eyes and looked at Eimose as the Scout tried his best to sound convincing.

“I’ve been searching for the Efficiency for a while now and have lost track of the time. I assumed they weren’t responding because they were out of range so I kept with the original plan of searching in Onto.”

“And here I thought you told me you’d met them a week ago.” Brit tested.

“I got a message from their comms a week ago telling me where to go and I just followed orders. But if they’re in trouble then I have to go help them. Do you know where they were taken?”

“I’m sure the Scout they had captive would know. Who knows, maybe you know them. It’s a small world.”

Brit’s eyes turned dark and Eimose was completely sure he knew his true identity. But if that was the case, then why wasn’t Brit acting on this new information? Or maybe there was already something else in play that Eimose wasn’t aware of that was prompting Brit to not kill him. Was the thread’s chance that Eimose might actually lead them to the robot the only thing keeping him alive? And how did Brit even get that information? Before anyone could do anything rash, a voice on the intercom system blared from every direction.

“Grub time! You snooze you lose!” the voice called out and an onslaught of feet pattering resonated. Even Brit seemed to lose interest in Eimose as he rushed away from the deck and towards the main body of the vessel.

Eimose followed the remaining people rushing towards the dining hall and quickly learned why everyone had sprinted to get food. He was the last person to serve himself and all there was left was an odd-looking brown sludge, some chunks of mysterious pink meat, and some green things that reminded him of something he’d seen in a horror movie during the grace period in the commons at GreenHouse when he was younger. Looking around he saw that others had plates piled with potatoes, spinach, and identifiable foods. Grimacing at the sound the brown sludge made as it plopped on his plate Eimose sampled a bit of the limited choices he had before finding a seat across from Regal and Jeringy. From now on Eimose was going to avoid Brit like the gas plague since he clearly knew more than he let on.

Mindless chatter filled the dining room and Eimose was surprised to see how many people made up the crew. There were at least thirty people in total and he wondered why there was such a surplus of people since it only took ten people to run a mid-sized ship like the one they were on.

Everyone finished relatively quickly and even Eimose found the food enjoyable despite its appearance. He still had no idea what he was eating but it filled his stomach and that was more than he could ask for. Regal and Jeringy led him out after he had dropped his plate off and gave him a quick tour of the vessel since he’d still not gotten one. The cabins were on the second and first floors while all cargo and supplies were on the bottom floor. He was relieved to see his bag still intact sitting amongst the other’s bags.

The rest of the night was uneventful although there was a battle of wills between Regal and Jeringy about who really got the top bunk. The cabin had two sets of bunk beds which gave a generous amount of floor space, giving the impression that the room was larger than it really was. Brit refused to sleep on the top bunk, claiming he liked to be alert and like to roll out of bed at a moment’s notice and not have to worry about falling, leaving Eimose to take the top bunk. Not entirely enthusiastic about sharing a bunk bed with Brit, he offered his top bunk to Jeringy who gladly accepted, leaving Eimose to share the bed set with Regal. It turned out that Jeringy had been speaking the truth about Regal’s gaseous nature since after the third gag-inducing gas bomb drifting down onto Eimose, he had to put on his respirator if he hoped to make it through the night.

The boat suddenly jolted, knocking Eimose off his bed, Regal quickly following. Brit was already up and had his gun in hand and out the door by the time Eimose managed to push Regal off of his sore body and grabbed his own weapon. He heard shouting coming from the deck so he rushed to aid in any way he could.

It was dark red outside and the water around the boat was inky black, giving the entire set an ominous scene. Crew members were shouting at each other, but Eimose was still groggy and couldn’t catch a word of what they were saying.

“Look out!”

An arm shot out and pulled Eimose down just as an arrow skimmed the top of his scalp.

“You idiot!” Brit said angrily as he shot in the direction of the shot but hit nobody. “What are you doing out here!”

“If I’ve got a gun and a hand I can help.” He said defensively.

“You need common sense too. Get back to the cabin before you get yourself killed!”

Eimose rose to his feet, fully aware now, and raised his gun in readiness.

“First tell me what’s going on!”

“Piranhas!” Brit screamed as he shoved Eimose towards the cabin rooms. “You still don’t know everyone well enough to not shoot anyone by accident. Just hide in the room!”

Brit shot at someone around the corner and sprinted off to aid his helmsman, leaving Eimose standing aimlessly in front of the door that led to the cabin hallway. He knew Brit was right--he didn’t know the crew well enough to shoot anyone with confidence--but he didn’t want to just stand around and let others fight. Above all the yelling and gunshots Eimose heard a voice cry out for help from the cabins.

He quickly turned on his heels and rushed down the hallway. There was already someone standing in front of one of the rooms and Eimose struggled to pinpoint if he had seen their face in the dining hall or not. His question was answered when they raised their gun at him. On instinct, Eimose fired his gun and heard a satisfying thump as the body in front of him fell lifeless to the ground. A sickening feeling threatened to overwhelm him as the weight of killing a person fell on his conscience.

“Help!”

He was brought out of his daze and he rushed towards the open room. His eyes fell on a female clutching her bleeding side and reached out to aid her but she raised her gun at him.

“Friend or foe!” She cried out, her voice still strong despite her wound.

“I’m with Brit so I hope you’re on whatever side he’s on or this might get awkward,” Eimose stated, his gun quickly rising to match her aggression.

She seemed to deflate as she dropped her gun and used her other hand to press against her wound. Eimose took the initiative and tucked his into his waistband and grabbed the bedsheets from one of the cots and used it to bind her side up.

“Where’s the first aid kit?”

She weakly pointed towards a cabinet near the door and he quickly found it. He gently removed the blanket while still keeping pressure on the gunshot and carefully peeled her shirt away from the wound.

“This is going to hurt,” he admitted.

“I’m female, I know pain.” She said through gritted teeth.

To her credit, she didn’t cry out when he poured the disinfectant on her wound or when he expertly used a set of tweezers to remove the bullet that was still lodged in her abdomen, although Eimose could tell she was fighting a scream.

“Don’t move, I’m going to get better help,” Eimose said as he stood up.

Her hand reached out and grasped his.

“Thank you. And go help other people, I’ll be fine. Name’s Henarie by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Eimose. I’m keeping you to your word that you’ll be fine. I come back and you’re dead I’m going to hold it against you.” He teased, gathering up the first aid supplies he had scattered in his rushed process.

“Gods forbid,” Henarie said sarcastically and shooed him away once he’d gotten all his materials gathered.

He left the room in a rush, hopping over the dead body he’d created, keeping his ears pricked up at the slightest noise. From inside the cabin rooms, the sounds were a bit more muffled, but he found two others who required aid to which he promptly applied quick fixes. Mustering up his guts, he found his way out on the deck when he found no one else in the cabins that needed help.

There were quite a few injured on deck and he lost count how many he gave rushed treatments to but it felt as if he were getting pulled in all directions. Even when he ran out of supplies someone had already had one on hand to give to him so he could continue.

“So you were secretly a doctor?”

Eimose blinked as Jeringy appeared in front of him, blood caked on his scalp and running down his face.

“I’m actually secretly a superhero,” Eimose said as he found the wound and wiped it clean.

“That’s good to know since I’ve always wanted to be a heroine in a superhero drama.” Jeringy joked, giving Eimose a wink. “Am I pulling off the damsel in distress?”

“Truly. I think I’ve already fallen for you. Alright, you’re all set.”

Eimose gave Jeringy a pat on the back when he finished bandaging the wound. They both jumped when the intercom system blared at them.

“The Piranhas have retreated. All those who need aid find that guy we just got today. You’ll find him if you look hard enough.”

Jeringy broke out laughing at Eimose’s face when he realized that he probably wasn’t going to get any sleep that night. As if on cue three more patients came from around the corner, surprisingly spry for a gunshot wound to the arm, an arrow to the calf, and a large cut to the chest. Eimose swore that he ended up treating everyone for minor and major injuries, surprised that there was no one else who was even attempting to apply first aid. After what seemed like hours of work, the line for aid was gone and Eimose slumped against the nearest steel wall.

“Thank you.”

Eimose was too tired to turn his head to see who it was but he could recognize the voice.

“Lin.” He said in acknowledgment.

“That’s Captain to you, boy. Don’t think you’ve gotten on my good side because we didn’t lose anyone today.”

“Apologies,” but Eimose was too tired to truly care. The idea of being scared of anything at this point seemed a distant past.

“I didn’t come to praise you.” The Captain began. “The Piranhas got what they wanted.”

“And what exactly did they want?”

“Our cargo.”

If the Piranhas, whatever they are, had aimed for the cargo, then why was he telling Eimose; he had nothing in the cargo--it took a moment for the news of what the Captain was really saying to settle.

Eimose jumped to his feet and sprinted through the hallways and down the stairs before the Captain could stop him. He burst through the cargo doors and found Brit and a handful of others already surveilling the damage. The majority of crates and larger items were still nestled safely in their nooks and crannies, but all the bags and lighter objects were gone.

Eimose’s bag was gone.