The station Staatschild was floating beyond the resolvable range of the cameras, though a huge sphere was quite visible. The station took the name from the blue planet in the distance. The station originally served as a waypoint between space and the planet for cargo cruisers and heavy-lift ships. The planet was a massive factory warehouse for the Quorum and Zwielicht alike. Fertile oceans were dotted with fisheries. Floating docks the size of cities processed and stored commodities. The planet was covered with water, excepting the equator, which consisted of soil, frozen due to the planet's steep orbital inclination. Population centers were located along the equator, attending to the heavy launch systems. The massive floating half-tubes were visible from planetary orbit. Launch vehicles rode along the tubes, gaining velocity through a variety of mechanical, electrical, and chemical accelerators. Once sufficient velocity had been reached, the load would be ejected at a tangent to the planet's surface.

Atmosphere and gravity would slow the load, eventually, onto a closing course with the Staatschild station. The station rarely received the cargo directly. Transport ships would swarm about the heavy launch vehicles, and crews and massive robotic cranes would pluck the cargo out of the vacuum.

The station's primary purpose was to provide defensible commerce and supply. The nearby planet was critical because of the location to the central Quorum hub separating the various sector-states. Staatschild wasn't the only such place, of course: there were others, but as the Quorum and the sectors expanded, they struggled to find new planets that were suitable for such operations, and ultimately every resource extracted from the planets was consumed.

Other things happened on the Staatschild station, and these were of interest to Devon Sanders. The defenses of the station, powerful enough to withstand inchworm missile attacks, made the place suitable for clandestine manufacturing of generation-ship components.

***

Ina followed Devon into the transit system and relaxed against the wall as they hurtled, encased in a clear plastic capsule, through a claustrophobic corridor full of active machinery. He checked his reflection in the wall, straightening his blue jacket. His suit was crisp and tailored. Ina's hand brushed against his arm. He shot a questioning smile, and she apologized.

The station sustained one million residents, mostly businesspeople, soldiers, and employees of the supporting service industry. Traders would use the station as an outpost for negotiations regarding the planet that manufactured massive amounts of the one particular resource that Zwielicht used to pay taxes to the Quorum: flesh harvested from the ocean and sold as biomass.

The tube stopped at a transfer point and the pair disembarked. The walls of the station, like the corridors beyond, were angled. The walls were wide at the base, narrowing towards the top, and covered by a laminate made from gray canvas. Brilliant light fixtures were recessed into joints where the ceiling met the walls. Sanders mentioned that the architecture allowed plumbing and cabling to be easily accessible. The whole design had been one of the early, expensive approaches when everything was meant to be "modular". But once the station had been built, it was so over-engineered that the interior did not require any extensive modification. The defensive systems had been upgraded as technology advanced, of course, and the primary power plants had been replaced several times.

"I should have warned you. Well, this is my ex-wife. She should be professional, but things will get awkward. I think I can get her to come around. So if... when she gets rough, just hang in there. There's going to be a sticking point. Some prankster modeled the shape of your face after hers. She's a bit famous in the communities that surround artificial sapience."

"Why are we doing this here, then?"

Sanders shrugged and led Ina into the small restaurant. They paced through the aisle between the tables. The place was crowded and full of laughter. He recognized a woman at the end. Ina could not help but stare.

Fine wrinkles lined Elizabeth's eyes, and her skin was close to the shade of Devon's. She was thin and wore a white blouse with a ribbon tied in a bow around her neck. The resemblance was more than remarkable.

Devon pulled a chair from the table for Ina, and she sat. Elizabeth's eyes focused on Devon until Ina's hair fell into place. Her eyes shifted and her face flushed.

"Hello Beth. It's been too long."

"What kind of game is this?" Elizabeth accused. Ina was nearly her clone, though younger and opposite in complexion. She felt rather horrified, but handled the experience with a bit of grace.

Ina glanced sideways at Devon. "You haven't told her anything?"

"I didn't want to send this over the net. Beth, this is Ina. You're, ah, her mother, in a sense."

Beth took a deep swallow from a glass of pale wine. "I think I would have remembered a daughter."

A waiter came and took an order, two ales and a fruit tray. Elizabeth struggled for words.

"I should go."

"Please just give us a moment. This is important."

Elizabeth sighed, then laughed, turning her head away. "Do I dare speculate what's happened? A clone? Surgery? What do you even want?"

The fruit tray came. Ina scooped a third of the preserved morsels onto a plate and then popped a salted plum into her mouth. The others ignored the food.

"Let's have a nice meal, Beth. Just get to know her. Then we'll explain everything we know. I knew you were involved as soon as I saw her face. I don't know how it happened."

Ina nudged Devon. He peered to his side and saw two uniformed police Benefactors approaching.

"Shit. So much for that nice meal. Beth, please, help Ina."

Devon stood and faced the Benefactors.

"Sir, please sit," said the first, a man wearing the rank of Cantor, and wearing the name Murdoc on his jacket. He moved to stand between Ina and Beth, while the other officer separated Devon from the synthetic woman.

"Miss Kurosawa? I need you to come with us."

Devon blinked. "What?"

"I haven't finished," Ina complained.

Murdoc laughed and placed his hand on the force transducer hanging from his belt.

Acid rose in Devon's throat. "I don't understand. Are you arresting her?"

The other guard put his hand on Ina's shoulder. Murdoc thumbed his communicator, and two more plain-clothed Benefactors entered the restaurant.

"Let's not make a scene, now. This is a polite establishment." Murdoc said.

Ina wiped her hands on a napkin. She struggled to slide the chair back without touching the Benefactors, then stood. She glared at Devon for a moment before allowing Murdoc to lead her away.

Devon swore and produced his communicator. He wrote a message to Ina, then another to Bronco.

Beth chuckled with nervous energy as the group left the restaurant. Devon rubbed his forehead with frustration and wiped his brow with his napkin.

"Oh, shit. Beth," he started, holding up a closed fist. "Fine. Maybe fifty megaseconds ago, I think you shipped out a core this big. That hardware got turned into her."

Beth started, shifting her chair back. "What are you saying? Is this a joke?"

"No joke."

"Why did they arrest her? You thought they were after you, didn't you?" Beth asked.

"I don't know. Damnit, I don't know what to say. This is my fault," Devon said.

"That's promising," Beth said.

Beth waved a credit chip over the table and stood. "Let's walk. Tell me everything."

Devon nodded and followed. "Black project in free space. A generation ship core showed up, we were asked to support a clone job, put as much as we could into some new kind of small form factor core. A core you made."

"Those cores were for science cruisers," Beth growled.

"So you don't know anything about the Eres?"

"Eres? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

Devon sniffed. "I'm going to find a toilet and puke for a while."

"Am I right to suspect your work was both illegal and unethical?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know what I was doing? The Eres core showed up on the station where I was assigned. Then she did. I put the core inside her, connected Eres, and things happened."

"Did you get her right on the first try?"

Devon sighed, sliding his hands into his pockets. "When we worked together, our best odds were what, fifty percent?"

"I would hope that you, of all people, would know better!"

"The station was destroyed in an attack, and a few megaseconds later, I tracked her down to a mercenary crew."

Beth's face darkened. "What do you mean, mercenary crew? What shit did you bring down here?"

They entered a transit tube and rode to a level with a garden maze. They walked and spoke in a whisper.

"I actually had to ask them for permission to come here. What did you have to do with Eres?"

Beth was tense, angry and afraid. She fumbled with her communicator. "We tried to inspect the core, find out what went wrong. The core wouldn't communicate, too damaged."

Devon stopped and glared. He wrung his hands and thought. "The mercenaries... I think she.. imprinted on one of them. A guy who looks a lot like me, if I had another thirty kilos. I let him know she's been arrested."

"Don't derail. Come on, we're going to visit command."

"No, just... go home and wait. I'll call you later. It's best to forget all about this."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Beth turned to Devon. "Mercenaries? She got involved in something? Are we talking rent-a-Benny, or are we talking chop shops?"

"They said she was helping with repairs. I don't know. They seem like good people."

"The only reason I'm trusting you is because the core went missing as soon as our funding expired."

"Mmhm. Afterwards, it got shipped me to me. Then the Ura stole it. Ina thinks they put it back in a ship, and it's out there."

"That's not possible. The core was fried."

"I know, but Ina's not possible, either. She says she's talked with it."

"We made several of the micro-cores. Is she the only one? Am I going to be visited by another ex-husband and another lookalike?"

"Are there more ex-husbands? Sorry, I don't think so. She's the only one we got working, at least."

"Part of me is fascinated by this, and the rest of me would like to see you imprisoned."

"Help me protect her. Can you tell me what you know about Eres?"

"You first."

Devon licked his lips. His mouth was dry. "Eres came after her. The Ura came after her, and they're still coming. They're after something nasty, and I want to get to it first. I think that's Ina's best chance. Your turn."

"Your something nasty... that's how they damaged the Eres."

"I know that. Some of Eres' data ended up in her memory store. We were able to pull it out. Not sure if it's a weapon or what."

"The crew of the ship thought it was some weaponized computer. But the Eres's core... actually... communicated with it. The computer thought it was another generation ship, just not one of ours. The crew was upset, though, and cut the core out of the ship's control systems. All those systems failed. The crew couldn't operate the ship and everyone died," Beth said.

"Did anything ever happen after the Eres core vanished?" Devon asked.

"I continued development for the new science cruiser line."

"And you never thought there was a relationship?"

"Why would I?"

"Come on, a cruiser's a kilometer long. Why do we need a five kilogram core? Who cares?"

Beth grumbled. "There are reasons, Devon, and if you paid attention, you'd know that line has been in production for hundreds of megaseconds. The ships are out there already. Initial development predates the Eres incident!"

They reached the end of the maze and found another transport tube.

"Are we going to command?"

"So I can confess and go to prison? I'd rather not. Besides, I think the lack of Quorum interest has more to do with incompetence than motivation."

"Incompetence, like how they found her, knew her name, and arrested her? You're the one who's incompetent, Devon, for all your brilliance. If you truly did this under orders, then you just might not go to jail. You want to protect her? That's what the laws have always been for. You need to come clean."

***

Murdoc escorted Ina to security. He indicated to the guards that Ina should be processed. She was scanned, searched for weapons, and asked a series of questions to which she had no response. She was escorted into a conference room. The door slid shut with solid authority and the guards took up relaxed positions in the far corners of the room.

A blonde-haired young woman sat in a chair at the head of a large table. She wore the same sort of uniform as Murdoc, something expensive and advanced. The woman gestured towards another chair and asked Ina to sit. Murdoc was dismissed politely; the guards remained. The officer's nametag stated MARSHE, and she wore the same rank as Murdoc on her shoulders.

"You are called Ina Kurosawa?"

Ina nodded.

"Excellent. You can call me Cantor Marshe. We need to have a conversation, but first, is there anything you need?"

"No."

"First, to be plain, you can't speak of what we discuss here. Specifically, we're tagged Cosmic Red. Do you know what this means?"

Ina glared at the woman. "You'll try and kill me if I ever speak about this meeting?"

Marshe glanced at a screen, then glared at Ina. "Are you really a generation ship?"

"Do I look like a generation ship?"

Marshe smiled politely. "No. Of course not. Why did you come here, to this station?"

"I believe you already know that."

"Humor me. I want to hear it from you."

Ina looked at Marshe. "I have no incentive to cooperate with you, and every reason to remain silent."

Marshe rolled her eyes. "Alright. We're talking incentive, so what do you want? We can offer indemnity... or?"

"If I stood up and attempted to walk out that door, leave this facility, what would you do?"

Marshe looked at the guards and said, "Miss Kurosawa, you aren't a prisoner. I've been told you are considered Quorum equipment, but the Standard Code does give an artificial consciousness all of the legal protections extended to any human. But as Quorum equipment, you fall under the Quorum Military Regulation's jurisdiction. That means, as far as any of us are concerned, you're just another soldier. Like me. And if I were to get up, and walk out of that door, out of this facility, against the orders of my superiors, I'd end up in a lot of trouble. If I walk out of here against orders with my side-arm strapped to my leg, I'd be shot before I reached the public areas. And according to this report, you're classified as a category four weapon system."

Ina grimaced, and Marshe shrugged helplessly. "It's simple. We want your cooperation to accomplish the mission you were constructed for."

A knock came at the door; it slid open and two men entered. Marshe stood from her seat, turned, and saluted sharply.

"Cantor. I see you've already started."

"Tribunes."

The first man approached Ina and offered a hand. Tribunes were senior leaders in the Quorum government, and for two to visit, this conversation was important. "Ma'am. I'm Tribune Jacob Rivers. This is my colleague, Tribune Derek Stitts."

Ina nodded and took Rivers' hand.

Rivers continued speaking. "I am obliged to apologize for the way this situation was handled. Some of our younger Benefactors were too excited when you were located on the station. This was not completely unexpected and these things happen. I understand that you were meeting with several Quorum officials."

"Thank you. May I leave now?"

Rivers waved. "Please wait a moment. I understand our Cantor Marshe has an offer for you, and I'm certain she would appreciate the opportunity to make it."

Ina nodded, unsure. Stitts had broken off, and was whispering with Marshe. He nodded back at Rivers.

"I will listen to what Cantor Marshe has to say."

"Thanks. We'll leave you alone. I understand we interrupted your dinner. I'll have some food in a moment."

Tribunes Rivers and Stitts left the room and brought the guards with them. Marshe felt considerably cowed.

"Cantor. I'm assuming since you've been left with me, that you're not among the rash Benefactors your superiors have spoken of."

"I apologize. I was in bed just a kilosecond ago, and I was ordered to come in, to ask someone I don't know to go on a mission I can't explain."

Marshe forced herself to regain her confidence and composure before returning to the briefing.

The Quorum intended to attempt "contact" again. Ina was asked to travel back through Gorman space with a military escort. The Quorum wanted a humanoid artificial consciousness so that they could better manage the consequences of a "contact" event given unpredictable outcomes. Nothing was simple. The Quorum didn't have a location for whatever entity lay out there in the void. The Quorum didn't know how to predict a location. There was only the slightest rumor of a clue sounding from some fake cultist-fabricated ruin. The Quorum wanted Ina's help every step of the way.

Layla's face flashed through Ina's mind for a moment. Ina struggled with the distraction.

"Cantor, have you ever heard of the Kingdom of the Dragon of Heaven?"

Marshe seemed confused. "No... how does that relate to this?"

"I'm not certain. I suspect a correlation based on experience, but have no evidence. I've done my own research. The cult is the primary outlier I can't resolve without more help."

A knock came at the door, and Marshe raised a hand. The door opened and a uniformed Benefactor entered. He placed a small platter of paper-wrapped sandwiches on the table and departed.

"Hmm. Well, I have some people working for me. You can talk to them if you'd like. But I need to ask something of you, first. At some point in the next few kiloseconds, you're going to walk out of here, knowing things that could get a lot of people killed. Your best discretion and continued silence will be necessary. Cosmic Red and all that."

"My best discretion. Of course."

Ina unwrapped one of the sandwiches and wondered why she felt so deliberately confrontational.

***

"... And this is Parasite."

Parasite bowed out of habit, then flinched as his eyes met Ina's.

Ina recognized something of her sister's design in him. His body was constructed of mechanical parts lacking much of the synthetic skin that should have covered his prosthetic frame. His voice was synthetic, not in the lifelike manner of Ina's, generated by an air bladder and reed pharynx, but with a microprocessor and an audio driver in his throat. There was an organic brain behind his eyes, though. Probably.

Clara and Parasite wore dark lab jackets made of a thick, flexible material that seemed out of place. Clara wore a net over her dark hair. The workspace was cluttered, filled with research notes, computers, terminals, and books. The rear section of the area contained a glass box and atmospheric control equipment. Inside the box were ancient, dusty, ragged tomes.

Unasked, Clara lifted Ina's hand from her side and shook. "Hey. Didn't know the Cantor was bringing visitors, or we would have cleaned up."

Ina introduced herself. A knowing grin spread across Parasite's face.

Marshe forced past the small talk and turned to Parasite. "Answer her questions, please. She's not cleared for everything, but we'll make this work."

"To the point, then," Clara said with a chuckle.

Ina asked, "Have you ever heard of the Kingdom of the Dragon of Heaven?" She'd run across that during her research on the Nirvana-2. The research that'd earned her a stateroom.

Clara pushed her glasses up her nose. "That's an old bit of lore. There was an ancient dragon - that word here was intended to elicit a sense of awe, and not to mean a literal fire-breathing lizard - that came to the land in search of artifacts. This dragon took the greatest treasures from the greatest rulers, away to its horde in the sky. The story is repeated across a few cults."

Parasite laughed and continued Clara's thought. "Right. So it's an obscure treasure myth. The books are new enough to be quackery, but old enough to be rare. It's not on the data nets. No one bothers with it, there's no point."

Ina frowned. "What do you know about the religion?"

Clara continued the idea. "Well, I suppose the followers collected artifacts to appease the dragon. They thought if they impressed the dragon, it would come down and take them to heaven. But it was a strange religion because we were already a spacefaring people by the time it grew to prominence. So a dragon that takes you into space didn't mean much, no one had ever seen it, and besides, if you wanted to go to space, well, you don't need dragons. By then, governments were practically bribing people to leave Earth. The books were copied by a few enthusiasts and archaeologists."

Parasite agreed. "Yeah. Like I said, no point."

"Is there any text we can look at?"

Parasite said, "I have a translation. There really was only one book - they called it the Book of Life. Very original title. They invented their own language to write it. Give me a moment and I'll pull it up."

Clara put her hand up to her face and tapped her fingers against her cheek in rhythm. "We looked into it pretty seriously for a while. Mostly because some goons stole an artifact from a Quorum facility. We never had a chance to look at the artifact. We didn't even know about it until after they stole the thing."

"Ok - here we go. It's mostly rituals. Really quite matter-of-fact. Anything specific you want to search for?"

Ina looked at Parasite. "I wouldn't know where to start. Can I have a copy that I can read on my own?"

Marshe asked, "Is there anything sensitive in this book?"

Parasite shook his head. "No. And actually, you can still find it in private data archives, just not on the public net. This was a treasure hunting staple a long time ago, so if she really wants it, she doesn't need to get it from us."

"Go ahead, then."

Parasite nodded and wrote the book to a memory chip. He passed the chip to Clara, who passed it to Ina. "Ina, will you be working with us in the future?"

"I don't know. I suppose my involvement depends on many things. I'll do my best to help."

Marshe and Ina left the workroom and then the facility. Marshe apologized to Ina once again, and assured her that her companions had not been inconvenienced.

----------------------------------------

Parasite gazed at Clara. "You know who that was?"

"Not really. Some VIP scumbag?"

"There's this story circulating about a dream. Hundreds of thousands of people had the same dream."

"Yeah. I remember reading about that on the classified net."

Parasite's fingers tapped on his communicator, then paged through several images. Satisfied, he showed Clara.

"It's the same dream for everyone. You get sacrificed by some cultists. That woman's one of them. One of the people who kills you. Some artists had the dream. They did the best they could."

Clara stared at the image and her mouth hung open. The face in the image was pale, scarred and cracked, but unmistakably the same.

"We totally need to go over that book. Every word," Clara said.

----------------------------------------

***

Ina sipped at the cup of tea, sitting in Beth's apartment. Devon Sanders had returned to the shuttle, having felt like quite the third wheel.

"I didn't call security, you know."

Ina said, "They just wanted to talk."

"May I ask?"

"The same thing I wanted to meet with you about. They've been tracking me since I arrived on the station."

"Quite a buzz, I'm sure. The research was done in free space, so no laws were technically broken, but you were still made at the direction of the Quorum government. This would certainly polarize other political entities, if it came to that. And it's probably going to come to that."

"I understand. The military seemed very concerned about this as well."

Beth poked at a cream cracker in front of her. "Ina, what do you plan to do?"

"We have a lead... a book. Not much more than what we had when we came here, but perhaps that's how this will work out."

"Did they ask you to go with them, well, to make contact?"

"You know about that? There was a suggestion. I am concerned they will coerce me. Did you get in any trouble?"

"Not at all. They were all excited over you. They left me alone. With clearance comes privilege, I suppose. I'm a loyal Quorum citizen."

Ina finished the tea.

Beth's mouth opened into a genuine smile. "Ina, I must apologize for the way I have been acting towards you. If you'd forgive me, I'd like to consider you a friend."

"That's..." Ina contorted her face to show her discomfort and difficulty in forming a response.

Beth sucked in a quick breath, having decided she was too direct.

Ina shook her head at the gesture. "I apologize. I'm struggling with my situation, Elizabeth. I do want your friendship. Thank you. I think the next several megaseconds of my life are going to be difficult, and the last few have already overwhelmed me."

Beth shook her head. "Ina... I'm not sure what help I could be, but I still trust Devon, even after everything. So, consider it."