It had taken a number of nerve-wracking days to get to this point, but Elvenheim, Mindeham and Case were finally on Wendolina's station, Track One. Case, who was very used to reading through legal forms by now, read through and signed his entrance forms quickly, and was led out into the station. "To get first dibs on the apartments," Case said to Mindeham, before he left.
Elvenheim and Mindeham took a lot longer to get through the documentation. The bits about their responsibilities to the station were lengthy but easy to understand, but the bit about the responsibilities of the station towards them was amusing and disturbing by turns.
"Oh, look," Mindeham said, highlighting a paragraph. "They promise not to eat us."
"That's always a good, friendly way to behave," Elvenheim remarked.
"Or use us for experiments without our permission."
"This is primarily a science-driven station," Elvenheim said. "The temptation must be high."
"The thing is," Mindeham said, and called over the official in charge of witnessing their signatures. "This is all very well, but there are no legal consequences if you or I break this contract, is there?"
"As of yet we have no policing force on station," the offical confirmed, "and we are, of course, outside the juristiction of any Earth organisation or government."
"So what is the point of this?"
"To ensure we both agree and understand our rights and responsibilities, and to freely state that we will abide by them," the official said. "It is very important in order to minimise disruption of our system."
"Statistically speaking?"
"There is some psychological backing to it, yes."
"All right then. You will trust me to not open an airlock and space us all, and I will trust you not to vivisect me." Mindeham signed the documents. Elvenheim followed.
"Welcome to Track One," the official said, and waved them out of the room.
***
Poll was very relieved to see that Navem was alive, and Trem, third coffee in hand, was unsurprised that Paradrei had managed to lose all their funds helping out a stranger.
"You have to watch out for him when he's feeling benevolent," Trem said darkly. "He was brought up very pious, and reverts back occasionally."
"I am right here, you know?" Paradrei said from his seat next to Trem.
"Oh, are you? I have tunnel vision at the moment."
"There's nothing wrong with being charitable occasionally," Paradrei said.
"No, but you need to focus. We're currently aiming our charity on Case's poor kidnapped people."
"I think rescuing them for our own gain isn't quite--"
"Enough bickering, more planning," Byque said, coming in through the door with Chis and a large bunch of maps. He spread one out, a plan of the kidnapper's hideout. "The scientists will likely be in this room at night, or this room in the day cycle, unless they've switched things around for them."
"I vote Paradrei distracts them from the front, and we sneak in through the back," Trem said.
"This happens every time," Paradrei complained. "Why do all your plans involve me dying horribly?"
"Because you have no fear of death," Trem explained.
"I do so have a fear of death!"
"What exactly was your job back on Earth, again?"
"Skydiving from low earth orbit is much safer than standing in front of a muderous gun-weilding villain," Paradrei said. "They calculated the odds of survival for me at the time, and I forget what they were, but they were quite reasonable!"
"Why don't we all sneak in through the back?" Navem suggested. "That way they won't be alerted to our presence if we're careful, and if they do notice us, we've got the numbers to fight back."
"That is a much more sensible plan," Byque said.
"I might have a better one," Poll said suddenly, leaning forward to take a closer look at the map. "What if we..."
***
Four people sat glumly on their bunks. The tear-resistant plastic of their blankets crackled as they moved. Their captors had taken away most of their clothes, not trusting them to not have hidden pockets in their normal work clothes. Instead, they all wore identical black tshirts and loose pants, with white coats their captors insisted they wear, perhaps for a joke, perhaps because they honestly thought they needed to wear them when doing their work. At least they kept them warm; their captors did not bother using anything but the station's default air conditioning.
"Do you think Case will find us in time?" one of them asked.
"In time for what?" another asked.
"In time before they get bored of us and start treating us as slaves rather than captives."
"I think they understand the importance of our work," another of the scientists said. The first one rolled her eyes.
"Sure, they understand the opportunities it holds," she said. "I don't think they understand the importance of us, which is the problem I'm most worried about."
"We've been helpful, we haven't sabotaged our work or anything," one of them said. "Surely that counts for something?"
"A criminal, due to the opportunities afforded to them, generally can only afford to think about short to medium term gains. Our work is long-term, keeping us around is long-term, allowing us to fine-tune our results is long-term. If Case doesn't rescue us soon, we are going to be dead, and our work with us."
The first consequence of non-rescue silenced them. Contemplating the second made them even gloomier.
"All we can do is--" they were interrupted by a horrible noise coming from the far wall.
"What is that?" one of them yelled ineffectually, as they all put their hands to their ears. They felt a faint breeze, which they realised with horror came from air being sucked out of their room. An alarm sounded, and the door to their cell puffed up with emergency sealant, strange pink stuff that expanded to cover the door, protecting the rest of the station from a possible breach. The sealant hardened after a few seconds, and despite the shouting and thumping of people on the other side of the door, it kept the door shut. Despite their fears, the cell strangely stopped depressurising after that.
Strange whirring and grinding noises continued from the far wall, until eventually a large section fell in, revealing a makeshift docking hatch.
"Are you from Case?" one of the scientists asked.
"Sure," one of them said. The scientists looked at one another.
"Good enough for me," one said, and they headed as one to the ship on the far side of the hatch.
***
Case's scientists, or as their codenames had it Ica, Blue, Rab and Paw, were suitably happy to be rescued, but were not so happy to be asked to recreate their experiment for what they, rightly or not, suspected to be their new captors.
"How do we know that you even know Case?" Rab asked suspiciously. Between them, Trem, Byque, and Paradrei remembered enough of Case's old codes to convince them they had at least some kind of knowledge of their association.
"But that doesn't mean we trust you," Blue said. "And even if we did, we haven't got our device working yet."
"Yes you have," Byque said, frowning. "You just haven't worked out how to calibrate it without doing two days of measurements beforehand."
"How do you know that?!"
"Case asked me to keep an eye on you," Byque said, shrugging.
"If you know our device is operational, why did you leave it in the hands of criminals?"
"Because they have no idea how to work it," Byque said. "Otherwise presumably you'd be dead by now."
"You show a lot of concern about it, too," Paw said, a touch bitterly. Byque shrugged.
"Look, motives or not, we rescued you, and now we're asking you to help us track down Case's friend," Navem said quickly, intervening. "She really is in trouble. You can scan for reports if you want to validate our story."
"Even if we did want to help," Ica said, "How are we supposed to do it without our device? It's not as if you have the components we need."
"Oh, I have the components," Trem said.
"Really? You have a million in complex scientific equipment?"
"Second hand, but sure," Trem said.
The scientists were silent at this, talked to an impasse.
"Do we have a choice?" Paw asked.
"No," Chis said.
"Yes," Paradrei interjected quickly.
"Your choice is to be dumped back on that station because you are too stubborn to help a kidnap victim, or to come with us and be guaranteed the ability to be the first scientists to ask Elvenheim about the alien ship's technologies."
"That's not a choice; the gangsters would find us within minutes on the station," Rab protested.
"And the person you are refusing to help is probably being tourtured for information about human defence capabilities," Trem said, shrugging. "So I don't really care."
The scientists looked around at the stony faces of the group. Paradrei looked uncomfortable, but said nothing.
"Fine," Ica said at last. "We'll track this ship for you. But if you really are friends of Case, he'll have strong words for you when he returns."
***
Trem's headquarters seemed like a junkyard to the rest of the crew, but was a treasure trove to the scientists.
"We'll need a fifty-eight centimetre dye-enpe doped bromium chloride crystal wedge," Paw said.
"I think I've got a large one out the back, I'll cut it down to size for you," Trem said, programming his scuttle bots to retrieve it.
"And we need an ultra-low noise mid-infrared photodetector," Rab added.
"No worries, I'll go through the drawer," Trem said, wandering through his workshop and rifling through a drawer labelled 'MIR PDs'. "This one can be low-noise; I'll get a cooler for you."
This continued for about four hours. The others got bored and wandered off, Poll and Navem to write a report for headquarters; Paradrei to follow around Byque to half-annoy him, half catch up with his life; and Chis to an intriguing room they had passed labelled 'Misc. Weapons'. Trem called all them back eventually for dinner, which was prepared by a restored kitchen of robotic chefs.
"I swear I've tasted this before," Paradrei said over the soup.
"They've used one of the food strains I found a few hundred years ago. Scrapped for psychological reasons, not religious or nutritional concerns."
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"It isn't vat human is it?" Navem asked nervously.
"No, human tastes sweeter," Byque said, taking a spoonful of soup. Poll and Navem waited a moment for an explanation for that, but none was forthcoming.
It took Trem and the scientists a day to set up the experiment, and another day to make sure it all worked. Paradrei taught Poll and Trem a card game that hadn't been played for a few centuries because it required an ancient deck type that wasn't used anymore. Trem found them a couple of decks in an old drawer for it. Poll really liked the pictures, but Navem was almost too scared to touch something that old. At the end of the third day, they finally said they were ready.
"To test," Rab made clear. "To field test."
"Thank you," Poll said sincerely. The scientists looked a bit embarrassed at that.
***
Elvenheim's ship was optimised for short jumps, so they took that one out to the site of the battle.
"We need six points of reference, ideally," Paw said. "And we need to stay still in comparison to the jump point while we do it."
The others looked at the slowly expanding debris field.
"I think we'll need a few more ships," Poll said.
"No problem," said Trem, warping them back.
In the end, Byque and Chis, Poll and Navem, and Paradrei came back in three small scavenger ships, ready to protect the ship from the debris field.
"I guess we'll be a proper adventuring team after this," Poll remarked, as she and Navem settled into their now-usual shipboard roles.
"Will they let me join an adventuring team after only one adventure?" Navem asked, suddenly shy.
"I'll make sure of it," Poll said firmly. Navem beamed.
It took more than a day in the end to do the measurements, because tiny flecks of rock and spaceship kept on getting through and hitting the spaceship, making it vibrate. In the end, however, the scientists said they had enough data to work with, and they all went back to Trem's place to figure out what they were going to do.
"Assuming our calculations are correct, the alien ship jumped out to a distance further than is possible for our ships," Rab said, "but that is not unlikely, as many other species have more efficient engine designs that they have not shared with us." The scientists seemed less upset now that they had a chance to test out their design.
"Do you have access to Case's shipyards?" Trem asked the scientists. "I know he has some pretty nicely designed extraction vessels."
The scientists looked at each other. "I don't think we do," Rab said cautiously. Trem shrugged.
"We'll take the prototype, then," he said, and wandered off to get it ready.
***
The first jump was so long-distance you could almost feel it, skimming the surface of the mathematics of warp so that time was almost time again, and space almost space.
"Sorry about that," Rab said. "The shorter distance the first jump was, the more errors we'd have in pinpointing our final destination."
"I hope that means the next one is shorter," Paradrei said, his face pale. One of his best friends had jumped too far for the inefficient engines of the time. Flatten the mathematical curve of warp out too far and time became time, space became space, and acceleration became acceleration, in this case tearing the ship and his friend apart.
"Much shorter," Rab assured him, as they waited for their engines to recharge and cool down. It was indeed shorter, though Poll in the copilot's seat had to take immediate evasive manoevres to avoid a spaceship when they arrived.
"Thanks," Trem muttered from the pilot's seat.
Ahead of them was a large space station, built in strange ways that at first didn't make sense to the human observers.
"That bit looks like Bardlenni architecture," Trem said at last, pointing out a little bit of the station in the middle. "I think it's a collaborative job."
"And we weren't invited?" Paradrei said, pretending to sound hurt.
"They probably think we would bring Preasi with us," Byque said.
"Should we dock?" Trem asked. "You scientists don't happen to be xenobiologists as well, do you?"
"Chemistry and physics, sorry," Rab said.
"Our training mentioned in the old days everyone in space had to take a training course just in case they met aliens," Poll said. "Wouldn't all you Immortals have taken it?"
"A thousand years ago, sure," Paradrei said.
"Plus, it was very boring," Byque confessed. "I really didn't pay attention."
"And most of it wasn't particularly helpful or accurate, anyway," Trem added. "In those days, we hadn't even met any aliens."
"Your training, eh?" Chis noted. They all looked at Poll and Navem. They stared back for a moment, then had a whispered conversation.
"You've got seniority," Navem whispered.
"Your theory scores were better," Poll whispered back.
"But--"
"Okay I'll be in charge then," Poll said out loud. "To complete his training, I'll delgate to Navem."
Navem took a deep breath, slowly, waiting for anyone to contradict Poll. Nobody did. He let out the breath.
"Okay, then," he said. "I guess--"
***
Static came through the radio, then a synthesised voice typically used in the Bardlenni translation of the human trade language.
"Is that human there?" the voice said suspiciously.
"Yes," Navem said.
"Why have you come here? How have you come here? Did you steal map?"
"What? No, one of our Immortals--Elvenheim--was kidnapped, and brought here. We're trying to find her."
There was a pause on the other end.
"This was by Making Ones?"
"I don't know who they are," Navem said.
"Then who kidnapped them?"
"They're round with tendrils."
"Yes. Making Ones. I know the kidnapped people you mean. We--Bardlenni--took them back to humans. They are okay now. No reason to be here."
"Thank you for rescuing them," Navem said. "Do you know when this was?"
"Oh..." there was a pause while the Bardlenni converted their time into human-standard time. "Days ago."
The humans looked at each other.
"She's probably at your headquarters by now," Paradrei said to Navem and Poll.
"Typical of Elvenheim," Byque said, shaking his head. "Might not have bothered, eh?"
"We'll leave, then," Navem said.
"Wait! How did you know she was here? How did you find this place?"
"Don't answer," Trem said urgently. "Case would be mad if we let on we have this technology without using it on them first. Let alone Preasi--can you imagine Preasi's reaction?"
"So what do we do?" Navem asked.
"Just go!"
"Is that really a good idea?" Navem asked.
"Yes," Trem said firmly, turned them around, and put them back into warp.
Adventuring Headquarters told them that they would be able to find Elvenheim at Party Prime.
"And if you spent more than a day at a time in one place, we'd have got the message to you already," they said to Poll and Navem.
"All right, then," Paradrei said. "My house, then?"
***
Halfway through planning, a large case addressed to Rivaldi arrived at the station.
"What if it is revenge from the pirates?" Rivaldi asked, trembling at the thought.
"I'll stand by with a stunner," Lae suggested.
After some discussion, she swapped the stunner for an EMP, and they opened the case.
A massive iron table was inside. Slumped across it was the humanoid torso of an android.
"Hello?" Lae asked. The robot blinked, and sat up.
"Hello... Rivaldi?"
"No, this is Rivaldi," Lae said, waving at the hulking cyborg hiding behind her. "Who are you?"
"I'm Harold, the Bartender 7580. I have a note," the robot said, holding it out. Rivaldi took it in shaking hands.
"'This fine gentleman saved my life, with his strength, quick-thinking, and cocktails," Rivaldi read out. "Please find a place on the station where he will be comfortable.' Oh, he's not from the pirates at all!"
"Were you sent here by Paradrei, then?" Lae asked the robot.
"Er, I guess if your prayers are answered by me arriving, then sure," the robot said.
"What? Oh, no, we're not speaking religiously. I mean the real Paradrei."
"The real Paradrei?"
"Yeah. Shortish, black hair, brown eyes, a mole on his right cheek?" Lae said.
"Oh! Wait... so I met the actual party god? Me, a humble cocktail robot made a drink for the actual party god?!"
"Actually, Rivaldi and I were just trying to figure out the drinks for a party we are holding," Lae said. "Can you do non-alchoholic ones as well?"
"Of course!"
"Would you like to be hired for the party, then?"
"Of course!"
"Excellent!" Lae said, ticking an item off her list.
"Welcome to Party Prime, sir," Rivaldi said, shaking the robot's hand. "I will get the forklift to put you into position for the party."
"Party Prime? I am in Party Prime?" The robot sounded more awed at this than he had at the thought of serving cocktails to the party god. "Working at Party Prime has always been the thing I most dream about! Making cocktails for people who enjoy them! Being appreciated! Parties all the time!"
"Glad to have you on board, sir," Rivaldi said.
***
The children now cared for, Case didn't have much to do, so he borrowed one of the warp ships docked at Party Prime and went to download the messages left for him at various caches around human space. He had only been gone for a few days, but the messages had piled up enough that he found he had to fortify himself with one of Harold's cocktails before delving into the pile.
"Hmm, that looks--oh, no, that's just early reports of the Making Ones, isn't it. Elvenheim's kidnapped, Elvenheim's kidnapped--they were very insistent on letting me know, weren't they? Rivaldi, do you know who Poll and Navem are?"
"They are Elvenheim's adventurers who are currently out with Paradrei, sir," Rivaldi said, deftly avoiding Harold's bench, where Case was sitting, as he strung bunting around the room.
"That would be how they knew my old email address. Elvenheim's kidnapped, Elvenheim's kidnapped--even one from Aphelka, I'll have to answer that one when she returns for the party..."
"It was rather alarming to everyone at the time," Rivaldi said.
"Well, I was onto it," Case said, shrugging. "Blah, blah, blah... Oh, Byque, show some initiative, won't you? Let's see, are there further... oh, no. Ugh!"
"Another cocktail, sir?" Harold asked.
"I would love one, thank you," Case said. He browsed quickly through his emails as Harold shook him up one of the vodka-and-vermouth concotions that by way of cross-cultural feedback had become over the years his signature drink. "Hang on, Paradrei has kidnapped my scientists? What is--" Case stood up, just as Harold finished his drink. "Sorry, Harold, no time to lose. I've got to find Paradrei, and--"
"Another ship is approaching," Rivaldi quavered. "What if it is the pirates again?"
"I'll stay to make sure," Case assured him, grabbing his cocktail, "but then I have to leave to sort out this mess."
Rivaldi gathered his troops, and met the ship with Lae weilding an EMP, a few robots weilding alien systems they confidently asserted could 'bring down any type of human', and Case weilding his martini. Bouyed up by this fearsome force, Rivaldi prepared to repell boarders, but his fighting spirit was deflated a little when the first person off the ship was Paradrei.
"Home again, Rivaldi," he announced. "Case! Good to see you, man; I've got your scientists with me. The ship's auto-lawyer sided with them when they said I kidnapped them, I don't suppose you could convince them otherwise?"
"Not if you actually kidnapped them, no," Case said mildly.
"Oh, well, I don't have an extradition treaty with anyone, so I should be fine," Paradrei said. "Case, not that you're not welcome in my home at any time, but why are you here? Finally seen the light after blocking my emails? Missed my parties? Missed me?"
"We're all here for the party," Case said.
"What party? To welcome Elvenheim back? A good idea, I haven't had a party for--"
"To welcome Mindeham back," Case interrupted. Paradrei paused. He looked around.
"Rivaldi?"
"Yes, sir?"
"You were close, but you'll actually need the decorations from box A."
"Sir!" Rivaldi said, his eyes wide. "Are you sure?"
"Very sure," Paradrei said, a little dramatically. "I have prepared for this day."
Rivaldi and Paradrei hurried off.
"What's gotten into them?" Lae asked Case. Case shrugged.
"I guess I'd better meet with my scientists," he said. He drained his martini, handed the glass to one of the robots, and headed for the ship.
***
Case's scientists decided in the end not to press charges, despite Case offering to pay for their legal fees. Poll suspected it had something to do with technically being rescued at the same time as being kidnapped, and also being allowed to keep all the data they got from their attempt at tracking down Elvenheim. Case had gone off to talk to his scientists, Paradrei was off with Rivaldi getting the party decorated the way he wanted it to be, and Byque had found Aphelka and was collecting a hundred years' worth of gossip from World, so Poll and Navem hung around with Lae, a youngish post delivery woman who said she had been kidnapped by the same type of aliens as had kidnapped Elvenheim, and had been rescued by the alien that was also on the ship.
"You can't miss them," Lae said, having led them to Harold's bar to be out of the way. "They're a giant blue sphere."
"Not one of the sun devils?"
"The who?" Lae asked. Poll and Navem explained.
"Oh. The Making Ones. Nah, they've got a weird history with them, and come from the same planet, but they're not the same."
Lae asked about their adventures, and then their lives as part of Elvenheim's adventuring crew.
"I kind of wanted to see if I made the cut to join up as a kid, but the people in my station have a weird relationship with gods. Like to pray to them, don't like to meet with them. So I joined the Interstation Post to see human space, instead. Never thought I would see the gods, or any alien in my life, so I'm pretty thrilled, being kidnapped and everything aside."
"What's Mindeham like?" Poll asked curiously, as Aphelka and Byque entered the room to get a jug of lemon squash from Harold.
Lae considered this. "Far, far less insane than you'd expect from a human who had gone through what he did."
"We all are," Aphelka remarked. "Old age can do funny things to a person, but we're all still here. I've often thought it might be a side effect of the Light of Immortality."
"It messes with your brain?" Lae asked, looking a bit alarmed.
"Oh, probably," Byque said, waving a hand. "Where is Mindeham, anyway? Is he about?"
"No, he and Elvenheim have gone to invite everyone to the party," Lae said. "Though considering who's here already, they only have Xysphael and Wendolina left."
"Ah," Byque said. "They might have an issue with that."
"Why?" Aphelka asked.
"Well, about Wendolina..."