Before we departed our island paradise, there was one thing we needed to do. Standing over the vacant containment unit in the cargo bay, I eyed Vomero skeptically.
“You’re sure this will work?” I asked.
“Of course I’m not sure,” he said in exasperation. “There’s not exactly a guide book for this thing.”
He waived the Drowned Diadem in the air to emphasize his point. After our encounter with Acheron, we hoped to avoid a repeat by at least separating the Diadem from the orb. Everyone also agreed that having the crown in our possession as we explored a new city would be asking for trouble.
So, Vomero concocted the idea to put the Diadem inside the containment chamber. Although it wouldn’t have the orb inside it to power any life support systems, that wasn’t necessary for the crown. After running some tests, our resident technomancer determined that the containment unit itself was initially responsible for keeping the orb’s presence hidden.
“If this unit could conceal such a powerful entity, it should also be able to mask any energy signatures from the Diadem,” Vomero explained as he check some readings on the containment unit control panel. “More importantly, I’m almost certain it will curtail any unwanted interactions with the orb.”
“It does seem like the orb is what set it off in the first place,” I commented, taking the crown from his hands and turning it over in contemplation. “I wonder how the regent makes it work? Also, how were Owen or Katra able to use it?”
“We know next to nothing about this type of artifact,” Dick said. “It could be they kept the queen alive and forced her to do it until it was time to spring their trap. Or it could be that there’s a way to use it we just don’t know about.”
He and Cash were also in the cargo bay replacing the floor panels that had been ripped up to expose the life support system. There was no point in hiding the Diadem in the containment unit and just leaving it exposed for anyone to find.
“That thing incubating inside of you seemed to know how it worked,” Cash commented as he screwed a piece of sheet metal into place. “Being outsmarted by an egg kinda sucks.”
As if sensing that it was being insulted, the orb strobed angrily in Dick’s torso, the light visible through his white, lightweight shirt.
“Hey!” he scolded Cash. “Stop talking shit about my orb. It get’s all fluttery and feels strange as hell. Also, stop calling it an egg because I am NOT incubating it.”
Dick patted his stomach soothingly, and the orb settled down. As he went back to placing panels, he continued to grumble under his breath.
“Makes me sound like a goddamn chicken or something.”
“I heard that!” Ryuuk called from down the hallway. “And I’m highly offended.”
“Of course you are,” Dick muttered.
After placing the Diadem in the containment unit and sealing the floor back up, we tried to cover the area by placing crates strategically around the cargo bay. Then it was time to pack up our rudimentary camp and set off for our chosen Malunite city.
The clothing Par, Tor and Celo had worn to Veridi came from the same retailer, a place called Morilla Tactical Apparel and Gear. A quick search of the ship’s updated database revealed that there was no Malunite city named Morilla, which must mean it was the name of the apparel company.
After some light hacking into the Malunite Business Regulation Administration system, Vomero was able to identify the company and it’s primary location in New Horizon City. While we couldn’t be sure that it was the same city from which our Malunite trio had hailed, it was a solid starting point.
Traveling to New Horizon City wasn’t really about finding out where Tor, Par and Celo were from, though I was curious to know what kind of establishments Tor’s security pass could access. It was about finding a city with the resources to get us back to the Pact Worlds, one big enough that nobody would think twice about a group of strangers showing up out of nowhere and without much identification.
As we traveled, I sat alone in the co-pilot chair next to Dick. He had become unusually quiet since we set out toward our destination. I was sure he had a lot on his mind, thinking about his brother.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me about your story,” I said.
Dick glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Is this another one of those suspicious accusation things? Because I thought we were past that,” he said.
“No. Just something I wonder if you’ve considered for yourself.”
“Sexy and sleuthy,” he teased letting out a low whistle. I was starting to know him well enough to realize this was his way of keeping serious conversations light. “So what has you perplexed, Detective Alnasi?”
“You never said who sent you the lab reports,” I pointed out.
“That’s because I have no idea who sent them,” he answered. “Honestly, I never gave it a thought because I never had any intention of letting someone else have it.”
“Exactly my point. Whoever put you on to it would have known how motivated you’d be, and they, therefore, would have known you wouldn’t be handing it over to them if they showed up afterward and asked politely.”
“So, you think they planned to ask impolitely.”
“I think that no matter how this was supposed to go down, whoever it was knows exactly where you’ll be going once you finally have your hands on the entity.”
“They’ll use my brother as bait.”
“At the very least.”
“I can tell you think I’d be making a mistake, walking into a trap,” he said, looking over at me intently. “But what choice do I have?”
“I just...wanted you to go in with your eyes open and to...be careful.”
He grinned a cocky half smile.
“Oh, you know me. I’m always super careful...” He paused for a long time, seeming to contemplate his next words carefully before speaking them. “Though it would be nice to have a Sexy Ninja Outlaw in my corner.”
I looked over at him sharply. His expression was casually nonchalant, as if he hadn’t just asked me to go with him once we left this planet. He was deftly avoiding looking at me, however, seemingly focused on the viewscreen.
I sighed heavily.
“Dick, it’s not that—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he interrupted, keeping his tone light. “It was just a thought. I’m sure you’ve got your own matters to attend to once we get out of here.
An awkward silence descended between us. Part of me did want to help Dick, though another part of me wondered what that feeling implied.
“Look,” I said, finally. “I do want to help you. It’s just that you’re right. I was in the middle of something. To be fair, it wasn’t as time-sensitive as what you’re facing, but I just feel like the longer I let it go, the less likely I’ll be to follow through.”
“This is about what Owen mentioned? In the alley? Something about answers to questions you were seeking on Toran.”
I sighed again. I knew I didn’t owe him an explanation, but maybe he deserved one, anyway. Afterall, he’d opened up to everyone about his brother and the situation that led him onto this transport. Much of that had been because of me pressing him for answers. So, maybe he deserved some answers, too. Plus, it might actually help to get it off my chest.
“I had a crew once...” I said and saw him relax in his seat as he listened to my story.
I told him about living life as an Outlaw and starting a crew with some close friends. Trace, Cael and Saphera, it had been so long since I let myself even think their names, much less talk about them aloud. It had been much easier to think of them as “my crew”; it hurt less that way. The four of us were the core members of the crew, and we would add auxiliary specialists sometimes when the job required it. It was always people we trusted and had worked with extensively.
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As my story unfolded, how I had chafed under the burden of leadership and decided to break away on my own after a few years, Dick stayed sympathetically silent. It was as if he understood I hadn’t talked about this in a long time and probably wouldn’t keep going if he interrupted.
They looked at me as the leader because I had an uncanny intuition and a mind that always examined things below the surface level. It had kept us out of trouble many times and helped us extricate ourselves from trouble when it was unavoidable. After I left, they took on some pirating operation that got them in over their heads. When the International Trade Enforcement came down on them, the logical thing to do was run. But the ensuing chase ended with them crashing fatally into an asteroid.
“You blame yourself,” Dick said, finally speaking.
“For a long time, I did,” I admitted.
“But not now?”
“Now, it’s more like regret. I know that it’s not my fault, but I do wish that I could have been there for them.”
“For all you know, your presence might not have made any difference, and you’d have met the same end they did.”
“You’re saying I should get over myself?” I said with an ironic smile. “That it’s kind of self-centered to think my presence could have been the difference between life and death?”
“Well, when you put it that way...” he teased with a slight shrug. “What I’m saying is that you’ve got the chance to do something about it, a chance you wouldn’t have had if you’d died along with them. That’s what Owen was talking about right? You’ve been figuring something out, and Toran might hold the answers?”
I looked at him with startled appreciation. Sometimes, his insightfulness caught me off guard. Maybe it was because he spent so much time playing the sexed-up playboy.
“It was something I read in the accident report recently,” I confirmed. “It said the navigation system went out and they were flying blind, which led to them crashing into the asteroid.”
Most ships were like our transport, the viewscreen wasn’t an actual window that looked out into space. So, when the navigation system went down like it did with us when we were attacked by the fighter ship, it would leave a ship flying blind.
“Our ship, it couldn’t fly blind. Trace spent every spare credit he had customizing it. On paper, it was a standard 762 Raven Wing. But there was literally no part of it he left factory model. Cael was our pilot, and he had Trace install a traditional, reinforced carbonite composite glass window behind the viewscreen.”
Dick let out a low whistle of appreciation.
“I’ve seen a few fighter pilot ships with that kind of set-up,” he said. “It’s extremely durable, probably more so than just the straight hull without the shields up.”
“Exactly. If the navigation system went down, the screen would be transparent, and we’d use the window to navigate. Cael was an expert at it. He sometimes preferred navigating by sight.”
“So, you’re wondering if the report was falsified,” Dick guessed. “And if it was, why?”
“I thought I was just grasping at anything that would help me clear my conscience, but the fact that Owen’s mysterious backers could guess my reason for going to Toran makes me think there might really be something to it.”
“You’re right to hurry,” he said. “Even if it’s been a while since they died, the fact that Owen’s people guessed your intent means a cover-up could already be underway.”
He glanced at me, and we shared a long look. If nothing else, at least talking about it eased the earlier awkwardness.
“You’re a good friend to have, Skye Alnasi, even in death, apparently,” he added after a moment. “If you’re right and everything falls to shit when I get back to my brother, I'd hope someone like you would be there to come save me. Or avenge me.”
I laughed lightly, intentionally lightening his sudden solemn and serious mood.
“I’m sure I’d have to stand in line behind dozens of adoring women,” I joked.
He laughed softly.
“I’d probably let you cut in line, though.”
* * *
“Hopefully, it’s not like the last city,” said the old man. “All that oversight and being up in our business definitely put a damper on things.”
We were pulling up to a large, floating island. It hovered more than a mile above the ocean’s surface. Waterfalls streamed off the sides, seemingly supplied by an endless reservoir of water. Due to its massive size, the island cast a large shadow on the ocean’s surface.
Everyone had gathered in the control room to get our first look at one of Kalo-Mahoi's famous floating islands.
As Dick brought the transport above the island’s ground level, we could see that much of it was covered in temperate forests, which was different from the lower altitude tropical islands we had seen so far. On one side of the island, the south side, a large metropolis filled the skyline.
According to our information, this should be New Horizon City.
“The Malunite nations conduct themselves quite differently compared to the Syreni kingdom,” Vomero explained. Per usual, he had studied up on the nation during our trip. “For starters, they’re not really a single sovereign nation, rather a commonwealth of independent city-states. Each one selects their own leaders however they choose, and those leaders represent them in matters of commerce, finance, and interplanetary political and trade policies.”
“Do you enjoy being a walking data pad?” Cash asked sarcastically.
“That’s a lot more accurate than you know,” Vomero retorted. “I’m just a cybernetic augment away from being able to siphon information directly from the cloud into my brain.”
“Oh, yeah? Then what’s stopped you?” Cash asked.
“Not wanting to be compared to a tin can, mostly,” Vomero quipped.
“Ouch. That cuts deep,” Cash said sardonically, flipping him the middle finger.
Not wanting to make the same mistake twice by heading straight for the large city port, we scouted the outer reaches of the roughly 200-square-mile island. Finding a suitably vacant area of forest close to a major road, Dick brought the ship down among some dense undergrowth.
It took us about 30 minutes once we landed to camouflage the ship with a mixture of local vegetation and some interesting tweaks to the shield Vomero had cooked up just for this occasion. Afterwards, we packed up everything we might need. The transport was a fall back in case New Horizon City proved unhospitable and we needed to escape. Otherwise, the plan was for everyone to take what belongings they wanted and stay in the city.
“I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed,” Cash said, rubbing the back of his neck as if massaging a kink out.
“My bunk was pretty comfy, actually,” Matthew added. “But then again, I’m used to orphanages and sparse accommodations.”
“Ah, to be young again,” the old man said. “I’m with Cash here on the comfy bed.”
As we made our way toward the road we spotted as we flew in, everyone chimed in what they were most looking forward to.
“The Malunite cities are supposed to be much more technologically advanced than the Syreni ones,” Vomero said. “I’m really looking forward to high speed connections and access to cloud storage.”
“Nerd,” I couldn’t help but mumble, drawing snickers from the rest of the group.
“What are you looking forward to, Skye?” Dick asked.
“A long soak in a hot bath,” I said without hesitation.
It was one of my favorite indulgences and one that was rare when you spent your life living from ship to ship.
“You?” I asked.
“Now, it’s also hot bath,” Dick responded with a mischievous grin.
The group groaned collectively at his sexual innuendo, but Dick simply threw back his head and laughed.
When we arrived at the road, we started walking toward the direction of New Horizon City. The plan was to flag down a passerby and hope for a ride. Ryuuk and Matthew chose to go on to the city ahead of us via flying and teleport, respectively. Though they had wanted to stick with the group, we felt it would be easier to find a lift with fewer people. If we hadn’t arrived by a certain time, they’d try to secure transportation to come pick us up.
“You know,” Cash said, “It would probably be a lot easier to hitch a ride if one of us played up the sexy hitchhiker bit.”
All eyes turned to me, being the only female.
“Go ahead and suggest it,” I said, menacingly, “I dare you.”
The four men looked at each other for a moment. Thinking better of asking me to pimp myself out for a ride, three pairs of eyes instead turned toward Dick.
“Oh wow,” he said, sarcastically. “So, it’s inappropriate to ask Skye to use her sexuality to get us a ride, but it’s ok for me to do it? The double standard is real guys. No way, I’m not doing it. We’ll just have to walk.”
Ten minutes later, Dick was in his Centuri form out by the road in a white button down shirt and his signature tight leather pants. The shirt was tucked into his pants but left unbuttoned to give full view of his abs.
“This is just degrading,” he grumbled.
“It makes perfect sense,” I added, relishing the moment. “I’d only attract people who like women. You can use your sex mojo to charm anyone.”
“For the love of the gods, stop calling it that!” he growled.
“Sexy sauce?” Cash offered.
“Coitus Concoction,” Vomero added.
“Love liquid!” The old man shouted.
“I hate all of you,” Dick responded with a death glare.
We were still laughing when a vehicle pulled into sight. It was barreling down the road at a breakneck speed. If it had actual wheels instead of the classic hover technology, they would have screeched to a halt as the vehicle approached where Dick was standing.
“Well, well, well...” a deep, yet effeminate voice drawled.
The man inside the vehicle clearly had a preference for hot, hunky men himself. His colorful style and dramatic mannerism matched the flashy neon orange and pink color scheme of his roadster.
“Can I give you a...lift...stranger?”
Sighing resignedly, Dick suddenly smiled the sexiest grin I had ever seen on his face. The waft of his pheromones was nearly palpable even from where we stood well off the road. The man in the vehicle only had eyes for Dick and hadn’t seemed to notice us, yet.
“Well I was just going to walk into New Horizon City, but, honestly, these leather pants are starting to chafe,” he said in a voice dripping with innuendo.
The man looked him up and down, taking particular time around his pants area.
“Well, that would be a shame,” he responded. “I’d be my pleasure to ride you into town.”
“Lovely,” Dick said with a pleased smile. He leaned on the driver side door and lowered his voice just a tad. “One thing though.”
“Anything,” the man said.
“I’ll need to bring some friends.”