May 30, 2361 AIA
The Gonondrina
As they came around the planet, the mass of it blocked out the sun. The ship was pitched into darkness. A concentrated web of orange lights dotted a large, irregular portion of the surface. Everything else was black except for the gray-brown rim where light spilled over.
Reyer stared out the viewport. “That’s it?” she asked. “The whole planet is that one city?”
“You’ve never been to a city planet?” Vas asked.
“No.”
Lynx offered, “City planets are non-terraformed planets which could have supported carbon-based life forms but didn’t develop any. They’re completely barren outside of the cities where humans have settled.”
“And all of them are controlled by our enemies,” Vas grumbled. He shot a look over his shoulder to where Alix was standing. “We could have gone to the water planet. That’s what Lynx picked. Nice gondola rides from tree house to tree house, beautiful sunsets over the bridges, relaxed people who probably aren’t trying to kidnap you. But instead we’re planning to break into a Supremacy owned wasteland that’s filled with nothing but metal buildings and dying fruit trees.”
“Vas—”
“I’m just saying!”
Reyer turned to Lynx. “Is he going to be complaining the entire time?”
“That’s a statistically safe assumption, Miss Reyer,” the bot said.
“What?” Vas was indignant.
Lynx said, “The captain usually displays a strange form of halo effect when confronted by the need to do something he finds distasteful. It seems to taint not only the experiences surrounding it but also the environment and other unrelated elements.”
“I do not.”
“That is the mental fallacy known as bias blind spot, sir.”
Vas held up his hand. “I’m simply trying to make it clear—I don’t like this. I don’t like any of this.”
“That is a rough rephrasing of what I said twenty-six point six seconds ago, Captain.”
Sometimes it was hard to remember Lynx couldn’t actually sound irritated.
Reyer put her hand on Vas’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter if we like it, as long as it’s important.”
He looked up at her. Her eyes were still fixed on the city below, but he watched her face for a while before he looked away.
“Ciro!” he called back to his brother. “Give me the bad news.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Ciro asked.
“Yes.”
“They’ve been warned to be on the lookout for a ship known as the Golondrina.”
Vas smirked. “It’s about time she had a name.”
“They don’t know what the ship looks like, but they have not only Miss Reyer’s picture, but yours as well. Two of them, in fact—your ID shot from before you joined the Rising, and an action shot which looks like it was taken a few days ago.”
“An action shot?” Alix asked.
“Yeah. The Supremacy wants to make sure that their peacekeepers recognize whoever is about to kill them. Ha! Look at his face—very courageous and determined, don’t you think, Miss Reyer?”
“Ciro, shut up.”
“I’m sorry, Captain, but I am not currently programmed to respond to that command.”
Lynx’s head swiveled around to scan the cabin for another robot. He found none.
Adan said, “So they know who we are, and they’re looking for us. Not surprising. What’s the rest of the bad news?”
“There’s only a few atmosphere weapons,” Ciro said, “but that’s because the city’s mostly covered by force fields.”
Vas swore. “So we’re forced to go to an authorized port.”
“That’s correct.”
Vas sighed through his nose. “All right, I’m ready for the good news now.”
Ciro smiled. “You have me with you.”
Adan looked up at Alix once more. “It’s not too late for that gondola ride.”
“Your case might have been helped if I knew what a gondola was, Captain,” she said.
“A gondola,” Lynx said, “is a long, thin, flat-bottomed boat primarily used as a means of transportation through the canals of Old Earth’s Italy. It’s propelled by means of a pole.”
“No motor?”
“No, Miss Reyer.”
“Sounds safe.”
“Oh, no,” Vas said. “We can’t have that.”
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Peacekeeper Staff Sergeant Eduard watched with a bored air as the runner’s ramp lowered. “Look alive,” he told the two peacekeepers beside him. It was as much to remind himself as them. The young man, whose uniform still had its creases, radiated keenness. The woman to Eduard’s right looked as bored as he felt.
A man came partway down the ramp to meet him. A woman stood at his shoulder.
“Good evening, sir,” the man said. “Is it evening?”
“Twenty-one hundred planet time, sir,” Eduard said. “Are you the pilot?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your ship?”
“Unnamed, but I’m the owner.” He smiled. “Can I call myself Captain? I’ll be Captain Amado de la Vega.” He handed Eduard his ID card.
“You can call yourself whatever you want, sir. It’s your ship.” Eduard tried to put on a friendly smile, but the weight of the monotony made it look strained. “But I hope you don’t expect me to obey your orders.”
The young peacekeeper stepped up to take de la Vega’s retinal scan as the staff sergeant checked his ID’s chip with his tablet.
“Is there a problem, peacekeeper?” de la Vega asked.
Eduard looked up.
“Um…” The boy turned to his boss.
The staff sergeant grumbled, “It’s gone offline for a moment, Harel. You and Temitope begin the inspection.”
“Sir?”
“Go on. I can do this.”
With some hesitation, the young man handed over the retinal scanner and followed his fellow peacekeeper up the ramp.
Eduard handed back de la Vega’s ID card. The scanner was back online by then, so he scanned the man’s eye himself. The pictures checked out. “Who’s the other gentleman? Isn’t he coming out?”
De la Vega jerked his head toward the figure who’d been waiting back on the ship. The young man seemed to be answering questions from Harel, but when he realized he was being talked about, he came out and joined them.
“This hopeless nerd is my little brother—” de la Vega said.
The young man came forward with a bright grin on his face. “Diego de la Vega.” When Eduard held out his hand, Diego de la Vega gave it a firm, vigorous shake. “Please to meet you, sir.”
“Likewise, I’m sure, but I need your ID, son.”
“Oh, right.” The boy handed over his ID and submitted to the retinal scan.
Eduard glanced from the two pictures up to the grinning face in front of him. “Weren’t you planning on coming off ship?”
“Oh, no. I don’t like city planets—no offense. The height of the buildings makes me dizzy.”
“Besides, he has to stay back on board and work on the bot,” the older de la Vega said. The way he said it certainly made them sound like brothers.
“You have a bot?” Eduard walked the rest of the way up the ramp and glanced around the interior of the runner. Harel and Temitope were almost done with their inspection. Sitting on the middle bench was a robot. Its head was lowered, and there were no lights or movement.
“Right now we have an expensive pile of scrap metal,” the older brother said.
“He’s offline at the moment,” the younger de la Vega said.
Eduard glanced at the dark bot again. “You’re not taking him with you?”
“Can’t,” Amado said. “My brother’s gone and messed with his programming. That’s probably why he’s offline.”
“If you want, we could wipe it—” Eduard started to say.
“No!” The anguish in the young man’s voice was painful to hear. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to code him? I know he’s not working now, but I know I can get him up and running soon!”
“Even then, you won’t be able to bring him onto any of the central planets without the approved software,” Eduard said.
“This isn’t merely some standard family bot, sir. This is a real tool. I’m turning him into a mining bot. He’s going to change everything.”
“Oh, please.” Amado rolled his eyes. “You see all those computers back there, sir? Don’t get him started. He could go all day. Besides, we know the regulations. We travel a lot.”
“Have you been here before?”
“Yes. Many times.”
Eduard stared at him. “Huh. Maybe that’s why your face looks so familiar.”
There was a distinct moment of unease shared by all three travelers. The staff sergeant didn’t notice; he was looking at his two returning subordinates.
“We’re done with the inspection, sir,” Temitope said. “Nothing to report.”
“Excellent. I’ll be done here shortly.” As Eduard turned to the woman, he asked Amado, “How long were you planning on being here?”
“Well, that depends. This was only meant to be a stop off. I thought I might take her out to my favorite restaurant, maybe have her do some shopping—”
Eduard asked the woman, “Is this your first time on a city planet?”
“Yes,” she said in a tiny voice.
A shy one. “Don’t worry, it sounds like your friend knows his way around.” Eduard motioned with his scanner. “I’ll need your eye, Miss.”
As she was getting her retinal scanned, Amado said, “But, of course, we know there might be a delay or two.”
“Why?” Eduard asked.
“That’s my fault,” the woman said.
Amado de la Vega explained, “The main reason we’re here is because she needs a new ID.”
The staff sergeant paused. “You don’t have an ID?”
“No, sir,” she said. “I’m afraid I lost it.”
Before the peacekeeper could overcome his astonishment, Amado put a hand on his shoulder and leaned over to murmur in his ear. “I know this is a problem, but…well, she’s never had to deal with them before. She only got her first one a few months ago.”
Eduard pulled up the tablet. Bella Thorne had been born on a free-plane.
“You’re a refugee?” he asked.
The self-named captain also seemed to have appointed himself as her official spokesperson.
“She’s a refugee on my planet, she’s only a visitor here. You don’t get to keep her. She’s ours.” He smiled at her.
Miss Thorne looked down when she blushed. Amado winked at Eduard.
The staff sergeant was beginning to get the picture. A day out in a big city? She had probably never seen anything like it. He’d take her out to a nice restaurant while the annoying little brother was stuck back in the ship. Eduard didn’t want to stand in the way, but rules were rules.
“You’re right, Mr. de la Vega,” Eduard said. “There are going to be delays.”
“But there must be some kind of plan in place for when something like this happens! People probably lose their IDs all the time!”
“Not all the time, but yes, we do have contingencies in place. I thought you knew the regulations.”
Amado shrugged. “I’ve never lost my ID.”
The staff sergeant rubbed his eyes. “I can’t let her out of the port until we have a DNA confirmation. We’ll have to go over to the annex to get that since I don’t have the system here to do it.” He looked at Miss Thorne. “Because you’re a refugee, we’ll also need to contact your sponsoring agent to confirm you are who you say you are. This will take some time.”
Bella sighed. “I need a new ID. I guess I’ll have to do whatever that takes.”
Eduard motioned for her to follow. “Come with me, Miss Thorne. We have to scan you to make sure you aren’t carrying any weapons, then we’ll get you over to the annex. Hopefully this won’t take too long.”
Amado bounced up to her side and grabbed the back of her arm. “I can go with her, right? I mean, she’d be alone without me.”
Eduard said, “You won’t be allowed in certain secured rooms or buildings, but you can wait outside as we process her.” He told Harel to follow him while Temitope reported in for the group.
Amado de la Vega gave his brother one last look and a nod before he trailed after the staff sergeant. The young man walked back up the ramp and sat down across from the dark bot.
“Lynx,” he mumbled, “how deep are you?”
“I have gained access to all the files and programs included on the tablet.” The bot’s speakers were on their lowest setting. “I’m now working on final decryption and gaining access to the main servers via the wireless connection.”
Ciro grinned. “Lynx, when we get back to Home Base, remind me to double-check the security between our retinal scanners and their receivers—if we ever get back to Home Base. Whenever we have a Home Base.”
“Reminder set, sir. Would you like me to begin uploading Miss Reyer’s DNA sequence to the Supremacy database?”
“Pushing her retinal scan was one thing. Pushing her entire DNA code?” Ciro shook his head. “Just find the program that will release the clamps on our ship.”
“Now, sir?”
“Yes, now. When Adan sends us word, we’re going to need to get out of here fast.”