Chapter Fifteen

Gage loaded the cargo onto his ship and when he backed the forklift out of his cargo bay, he turned to Iona and Leviticus who were making sure the security guards stayed down while Gage loaded his cargo.

“Get aboard!” he called to them.

‘“I freaking don’t want to get aboard your ship,” Leviticus screamed at Gage.

“Well, I guess you can stay here,” he said from the cargo doors as he watched Iona leap on board.

She was frozen.

Leviticus eyed the security guards on the floor. “I hate you so much!” he hollered before he fixed his collar, straightened his back, and joined Gage in the cargo bay of the Cannonball III.

“What are you doing here?” Gage asked Leviticus as he locked the cargo doors.

“You stink,” Leviticus replied.

“Yeah, and I’m going to stink for a while longer while I lock us up and get us into orbit. We’re on our way to Io.”

The redhead rolled his eyes. “That suits me fine, even if I hate you so much!”

Gage groaned. “You don’t need to tell me you hate me every two seconds. I get it. I hate you too. It’s natural. We all hate each other.”

“Except Benediction. He only thinks he’s over all that.”

Gage laughed. “Yeah, we’re the only people he doesn’t want to join his church.”

“True that,” Leviticus joined, putting his hand up for a fist bump before remembering how much he hated Gage and dropping his hand. “That way he can keep his unique look. I swear that was the only reason he joined that dumb church. It was a super dumb church before he joined it and took it over.”

“You’re not going to get an argument from me.” Gage left the control panel in the cargo bay and headed for the cockpit.

“Where’s your girl?” Leviticus wondered.

“If she’s a good girl, she’s in her seat preparing for liftoff. If she’s a bad girl, she’s completely naked in a shower tube.”

“Well, I hope she’s a bad girl,” Leviticus said as they entered the cockpit and saw Iona strapped down. “So, she’s a good girl!”

“Shut the hell up and get strapped down yourself,” Gage barked. He took his seat and started up the controls.

“Do you think they’ve messed with the ship?” Iona asked from a seat behind Gage.

“No. Getting me naked doesn’t usually involve ruining my whole life. At least, not since I became a free man.”

The jump through the atmosphere into outer space was easier on Europa than it had been on Callisto because of the lack of a sturdy atmosphere. The view of Europa from orbit always made Gage sad. To him, the moon looked like a marble woman who had been scarred by barbed wire that had been ripped across her skin. He always had a moment where he wanted to save her like she was something that could be saved.

As it was, it was always hard enough to save himself.

“Iona, this is my brother, Leviticus,” Gage said, as he turned himself around in the pilot’s chair.

“Yuck,” Leviticus said. “Please don’t call me your brother. It makes us sound way closer than we were. It’s not like we were grown in the same test tube.”

“Fine,” Gage stormed. “Since we’re apparently not keeping any secrets. Neither me, nor this person, are homegrown humans. We’re part of a genetic experiment and there are ten of us. Gage tightened his jaw as Iona looked between the two of them.

“Ah, I see,” she said softly. “That’s why you’re perfect. That’s why you’re at odds with your face and why you can’t show your face in public. There are a bunch of men out there who look exactly like you. And I mean, exactly like you.”

“How much time have you spent asleep?” Gage suddenly asked Leviticus.

“I haven’t.”

Gage looked at him with incredulity. “You’ve been awake the whole time? You look exactly the same as me.”

“Who said we were going to age normally?” Leviticus shot back. “We wouldn’t. We were made to be superior to the average human. I suppose it’s a lie that I’ve been awake the whole time. I haven’t. I slept on my way out here, so I slept for about two years, but that’s it.”

“None of you are going to die, are you?” Gage lamented.

“Well, that’s actually what I came to talk to you about,” Leviticus said, turning to the side and scratching his nose. “Heretic and Testament are dead.”

“And they were my favorite ones!” Gage frowned.

“Shut up. You hated them as much as the rest of us. You only like them now because they’re dead.”

“No,” Gage amended. “I actually did like Testament. He and I were once sold as a pair. I just never wanted to see him again because if I saw him I’d remember what he looked like after–”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Leviticus covered his ears with both hands and started screaming. “Don’t tell me! I hate comparisons of abuse. The only thing that’s fair is if we say we were all abused, we’re all messed up over it, and none of us will ever be normal because of it. But, what the hell Gage? You and I were once sold as a pair.”

“True. I also hate you a little less than the others.”

“Don’t say another word, I’ll break,” Leviticus said, his face looking as likely to break as a bronze statue. “I hate being here. I hate seeing you, but there are a couple of really bad things happening right now and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t tell you and that prick, Benediction, what was going on.”

“What? Does someone need an organ transplant?”

“Nah. It’s Apostate. He… uh… I’m pretty sure he was the one to kill Heretic and Testament,” Leviticus said through dry, smacking lips.

“Why would he do something like that? Despite his name, he always had the softest heart of the crew. Always crying in the background while the rest of us took our needles.”

“He went crazy. That’s the only explanation I can offer. You’re already in the middle of nowhere, so seeing you wasn’t my top priority in the Jovian region. I wasn’t going to bother you at all until I saw that video of you throwing Angel Wings into the air.” He looked at Iona meaningfully.

“You mean you saw a video of our show at The Crater and you recognized him from his chest?” Iona asked in a shocked hush.

“Of course I did,” Leviticus replied with a sharp look behind his eyebrows. “Every rib, every muscle, every pore is the same on him as it is on me. I know my rack of lamb anywhere. Beautiful performance by the way. If I had any money at all, I’d bid on you, Iona.” He turned back to Gage. “Back to business, I’m out of cash, so I’m grateful for the ride to Io. Think I can get any money out of Benediction to help fund my mission?”

“I doubt it,” Gage grumbled.

“Can I get any money out of you?”

Gage cleared his throat. He had been waiting for this man and all the others to die. That dream seemed like it had been snatched from him. They were never going to die and if they did, dying at the hands of Apostate seemed too crazy to be a possibility.

“I can give you a lift to Io, and when you’ve finished your business there, I can probably run you back to Callisto or Ganymede. After that, I’m not too sure what my situation will be. However, you should be aware that I’m not shuttling Iona around under my normal pretexts. She’s my master and is in charge of all this.”

“She owns you!” Leviticus howled. “That is a terrific gig! Iona, buy me too. Gage and I make a great set. He can throw you up in the air and I can catch you. He can rub your feet while I rub your back and if you’re even a little bit naughty–”

Iona had turned pale.

“Shut up!” Gage interrupted. “You saw her walk the stairs at the Sleeping Beauty Inc. model show. She’s campaigning for a bidder herself.”

“Oh yeah,” Leviticus said as he leaned back in his chair. “That’s a real shame. I’ve never been owned by a woman like her.”

“It’s a first for me too,” Gage said, turning his head away. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll all go get cleaned up. I’ll give you one of my hatch rooms, Leviticus.”

“What’s a hatch room?”

“It’s a room that’s less fancy than hers and less functional than mine. It has a shower and a bed. All you need to do is have a shower. I’ll give you a quarter physical and ensure that you are well enough to be placed in cryostasis. I’ll put you to sleep and you can wake up on Io in about a month.”

“I don’t know if I trust you enough to let you put me in cryostasis,” Leviticus complained.

“If you didn’t trust me enough for that, you shouldn’t have gotten aboard.”

Leviticus hesitated.

“Come on, man,” Gage said after the moment dragged out. “I may be looking for a world where all the other versions of me are gone, but I was only hoping to outlive you. I certainly wouldn’t deliberately hurt you or leave you in cryostasis for all eternity.”

Leviticus squealed unpleasantly. “I hadn’t even thought of the idea of you leaving me in cryostasis!”

“You can set the timer yourself if you’re so damn concerned,” Gage offered, whacking the heel of his boot with his thumb impatiently.

“Fine. Show me the way,” Leviticus agreed, getting to his feet.

Iona got up too. “This ship has other rooms? Call me naive, but I thought it only had your room and my room, the two cargo bays, the cockpit, and the infirmary.”

Gage led her out of the cockpit. “Okay. So, there are six doors leading out of this portal. The cockpit, my room, the infirmary, your room, the hatch rooms, and the engine room. Cargo room A is downstairs and it’s for models. In case you were ever curious, Iona, I can trade which models are in the main guest room by shuffling cryochambers in cargo room A. If you’ve ever thought that you were never put in the storage room, let me put your mind to rest.”

“You’ve put me in the storage room for flights?” she said, scrunching up her nose uncomfortably.

“Nah. Just kidding. I put the other models in the cargo hold. You stay in the bedroom. You are my favorite.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “You’ve been in the cargo room during shuffling, but I never leave you in there. It’s bad to say, but the models in the cargo hold aren’t as safe as the one in the bedroom. And since no one is around here telling me how to do my job, you go in the bedroom. Cargo room B is for other supplies.”

“That’s really sweet.”

“He says that just in time to tell me which cryochamber I’ll get in cargo room A. He doesn’t want me thinking I’m getting better treatment than you,” Leviticus grumbled.

“If you want, there’s a spare cryochamber in my room I can let you use,” Gage informed him with a grim look. “I can’t offer it to models because I can’t shuffle that one with the ones in the cargo bay so I won’t be able to do an outer space transfer of your pod in an emergency. If you take it, you’ll be trapped in this ship the same way I am trapped in this ship. In it until it breaks open.”

“Yuck.” Leviticus stuck his tongue out. “You’re comfortable with that arrangement?”

“I am. I’ve been a deep space pilot for over forty years. I’ve had ships crumble. I’ve pointed models at Saturn and ejected them while I put myself to sleep and waited for rescue.”

“Why not toward Mars? There are more people that way.”

Gage shook his head. “They won’t make it through the asteroid belt. That is actually what I’ve spent most of my awake time doing, navigating the asteroid belt. Escape pods without pilots don’t make it through the asteroid belt very often. You need AI or you need a pilot.”

“We are really in the sticks,” Leviticus groaned as he flicked open the door to the hatch rooms and took the one closest to the doors.

“Come to the infirmary once you’re clean,” Gage called after him.

Iona grabbed his hand. “Can we talk?”

“Can we do that once I get Leviticus to sleep?” Gage asked, allowing her hand to settle in his. “I’m sure you want to get cleaned up.” He brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them.

Iona’s eyes went wide.

“What?”

She swallowed. “After everything my hands have been through, you went ahead and kissed one.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Not to worry. I’ll give myself a shot of antibiotics and I’ll be right as rain. Lock your door. Kay? I’ll let you know when I’m ready for you in the infirmary.”

He moved to walk away, but she held onto his hand. “Could you give me one of those shots too?” She grabbed his yellow and blue vest and pulled him toward her.

She kissed him without his permission, he was quite swept away.