The tower was divided into several sections, each one containing a reception that served multiple docks. Gaylen handled payment to a woman in a blue and brown corporate uniform, got a quick, well-rehearsed rundown on local rules and expectations, as well as dry and meaningless gratitude for his choice of docking. Finally, they wheeled out the cargo boxes, placed them on a storage platform, and got a digital signature for the delivery,

With all that out of the way, Gaylen, Kiris, Bers, Herdis and Ayna got together into one of the exterior elevators, and headed down. Jaquan, of course, was going over the engine after a two-week journey. Because that was how one survived space in the long run.

“I need to get on top of one of these buildings,” Ayna said with a hunger, as she stared out at the view available to them. It faced into the core, so there was nothing to see except towering buildings and the enormous shadows they cast over each other. “I know we’re here for a task and all, but we can spare an hour for a quick side-trip. There has got to be a viewing platform on top of at least one of these. And if not… well… Kiris can break us in.”

Herdis patted her white head.

“I’ll take you for a walk, if it’ll calm you down before bedtime.”

“Haw haw. Oh, come on, you lot!” Ayna insisted. “All this forest as far as the eye can see, and these giant viewing platforms everywhere! I can’t be the only one tempted.”

“We’ll see, Ayna,” Gaylen said. “We’ll see. There is…”

The elevator opened.

“... a lot to consider.”

They weren’t at the ground yet, but they were close to it. Before them was a raised walkway that served as a pedestrian street, winding around the tower and connecting to at least two others wrapped around closely neighbouring skyscrapers. Holographic ads were projected out of tall posts, some of them poking horizontally out of walls. They pointed them towards various services, and Gaylen even spotted one that flicked rapidly through offers of delivery jobs. Making a little extra money on the way back to Fredrak wouldn’t be a bad idea, but deciding on anything would have to wait until he knew just how long his stop here would be.

The local population weren’t a subtype unto themselves. Nor did they have a universal skin tone or some other ethnic marker. What they did have were tattoos underneath each eye, marking their ancestral tribe and apparently a couple of other details that Gaylen had never really looked into. The other city cores he’d visited had varied significantly in the ratio of native-to-outsider. This one, going by early impressions, was about evenly mixed.

Civilian drones were banned within the core, and the narrow streets and tall buildings made air-vehicles impractical. So traffic was mostly limited to foot, or tiny scooters, divided between walkways and covered bridges between buildings.

“We went in the wrong direction,” Ayna grumbled as they set out.

As expected, the crush of tall buildings cast a gloom that got deeper the further down one went. It was a familiar sight in the places Gaylen had tended to frequent in his outlaw life, although Baider-Bas made some effort to combat this with fixtures that sent out soft light. It just wasn’t enough. Enough gloom remained for Ayna to be comfortable in taking off her sunglasses.

It had always been the plan to get straight to business with this one, and so Gaylen let a digital map provided by Fredrak guide them to an escalator that led down to a lower set of walkways, then a set of regular stairs that brought them down to the actual ground.

“Eh,” Bers vocalised. “Sad.”

The ground matched Gaylen’s expectations as well. No sunlight, and heavy foot traffic, left it a dead place where absolutely nothing poked out from beneath the cracks in the pavement. This was where Baider-Bas stuffed its bottom-tier businesses and occupants alike, resulting in a slightly bad feel to the air as people cut corners in various ways..

It was far, far from the most miserable place Gaylen had visited, even leaving the Deep Streets out of the equation. But the edge to it all was very familiar.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What is it?” Herdis asked, walking next to him, and Gaylen realised he was smiling. Though it was a somewhat bitter thing.

“Oh… just an overall joke, I guess. How some things are the same all over, repeating through human nature.”

The group walked by what seemed to be a tiny repair shop, for small household objects. There was a sturdy lock on the front, and the sole window was covered by a sturdy metal mesh.

“Except for this one place I spent some time in once,” he added. “It had pretty bad air pollution, and solar radiation above truly safe levels. So the poor people lived high up, with the smoke and the rays, and the elites lived at the bottom.”

“There are always weird little exceptions like that,” Herdis commented.

“Yeah.”

Fredrak’s instructions, which were very much not part of his digital information, and he’d stressed that things should stay that way, were that the operation Mardus was part of had a small shipping company as a front; Axu Lanes. It was made to look like the sort of tiny go-between, rinky-dink outfit that popped up all over, like bubbles in a carbonated drink, and with a similar life expectancy. In short, the type of thing no one would give any attention to, and certainly not consider a rival.

Even so, finding the place destroyed wasn’t that big of a shock.

“Well, shit,” Ayna said.

Some of the smaller businesses and rattier homes were built into the bottom floors of the skyscrapers, but Axu Lanes had been set up in one of the little houses that took up whatever space was available. The structure still technically stood, but the window and door frames had been licked black by fire, and the interior was clearly a complete mess.

The locals, not quite desperate but not exactly well-off either, passed it by without a glance. Clearly the novelty of the sight had had time to wear off, and the smell wasn’t really detectable until Gaylen stepped up close.

Plant fibres were still a popular building material on planets like this, that had plenty of green and weren’t heavily industrialised. But this building had been made out of synthetic resin. So this sure wasn’t a case of a cooking accident. Someone had chucked in the kind of nasty incendiary that burned things that otherwise didn’t burn.

Someone really meant business.

“Excuse me,” Gaylen said to a passing woman. “What happened here?”

“I don’t know,” she told him, and didn’t sound interested either. “There was a fire a few days ago, that’s all.”

“Do you think there were fatalities?” he added, and did his best to sound like a mere curious onlooker.

“I think there were one or two. But I need to keep going.”

“Alright.”

As she rejoined the ongoing stream of people, Gaylen motioned for the crew to follow him. He walked behind the burnt single-storey, where they found the foundation of a skyscraper, and a bit of privacy.

Gaylen opened up his comm.

“Jaquan, we’ve hit a snag right away. The place has been torched and there may have been fatalities.”

“That snag did not take long,” the man said on the other end.

“No, it did not.”

He considered all this for a moment.

“It’s quite possible that the man we came here to see is dead. If true, then we will just pick up a shipment and return the way we came. But let’s be sure before we do. We’ll ask around. And let’s spread our efforts out. Jaquan, see what you can get out of asking the local officials. Just act concerned about danger, and whatnot.”

“Simple enough.”

“Kiris, you and I will check the immediate neighbours. You three…”

He pointed at Herdis, Bers and Ayna.

“Check a bit further out. Just use your imagination, and see what kind of options you come across. Herdis, I’m counting on you to be the adult.”

“I can do that.”

Ayna pouted, to a slightly exaggerated degree.

“Nobody mention the name we are looking for,” Gaylen added. “There is a possibility it’s dangerous. Let’s just play curious about arson for now. And put your earpieces in, and keep the channel open. We’ll let each other know if we find anything out. And keep your weapons within reach at all times.”

Gaylen had his fighting gloves. Kiris had her fighting cane. Herdis had a collapsible baton, Ayna had a self-defence stunner, and Bers had a knife. They all had knives as well, but his was the biggest.

“As a last resort,” Gaylen stressed. “Some corp-run areas run their own prisons. Others confiscate people’s ships, or force them into indentured servitude. I’m not interested in finding out which it is here.”

“Got it,” Herdis. “I’m not bloodthirsty.”

She turned and gave Bers a meaningful look.

“And I’m the boss for the moment.”

The big man grumbled.

“Gala fresd, vara.”

“Absolutely.”

Gaylen nodded.

“Let’s get started.”