That evening, we made our way to a shopping plaza called The Hub.
AL assured us that anything we needed for the ball could be found at The Hub, as well as plenty of interesting things we wouldn’t be needing for the event. This proved to be a perfect diversion for the day, as many of us were curious about items and materials from this quadrant of the galaxy.
As Koraf had said, New Horizon City was known as the epicenter of regional trade, so we couldn’t imagine a better opportunity to find out what this part of the galaxy had to offer. I was particularly interested in acquiring a new blaster. Mine had seen better days, and I imagined The Hub would have quite a selection to peruse.
Despite everyone having their own agenda for the trip, we all agreed to meet up at a fine clothing shop with a slightly familiar name—Morilla's Fine Attire. Obviously, the Morilla family served both the high society aristocrats of New Horizon in addition to outfitting the working class. Tor, Par, and Celo’s clothing had been from a sister shop, Morilla’s Tactical Apparel and Gear. It seemed fitting when looking for something nice to wear to a ball in their honor.
We were finishing an early dinner at one of the street-side restaurants at The Hub before splitting up.
“It says here in the brochure there’s a guy who does cybernetic augmentations,” Cash said, scanning through a holofoil advertisement. “That’s probably where I’m headed. A few things could use a tune up thanks to Katra’s shitty aim.”
“Is it just me, or does it always sound like he’s complaining that she failed to kill him?” Vomero asked.
“It’s just sloppy, is all,” Cash grumbled.
I smiled indulgently at him and patted his arm placatingly.
“Don’t mind Cash,” I said to Vomero. “You know grumpy land is his happy place.”
Gramps cackled, ignoring a glare from Cash. He pushed himself to his feet, pressing his wrist to the table as he did so. A faint electronic sound indicated payment for his meal had been accepted. Thankfully, New Horizon City seemed to be one of the few places in this quadrant that used credits in the traditional way.
We still needed to transfer funds from our Pact World accounts into our new ones, but Koraf had sped up that process considerably for us as part of his promise to help expedite our travel. Thankfully, not a single person seemed to be doing business at The Hub using those damn credit cards.
“I’m going to wander around a bit before we have to meet at the dress shop,” Gramps said.
Ryuuk pushed himself to his feet, as well, and paid for his food by pressing a touchscreen keypad in the center of the table with his user code.
“I’ll join you,” he said to Gramps, and the two wandered off down the street.
The Hub was a large, open-air shopping district spanning approximately four city blocks. Many of the buildings were ten to twenty stories tall, each one housing dozens of shops, services, restaurants, and everything in between.
“There are at least seven stores specializing in rare, high-end tech,” Vomero said eagerly. “I plan to hit all of them, if anyone wants to join.”
“Sorry,” Cash said, “I’m headed to the augmenter, some place called The Body Shop. Also, your thing sounds boring as hell.”
“Suit yourself,” Vomero shrugged and waived goodbye as he walked away, still reading over the holofoil shopping guide in his hand.
“He didn’t even ask us,” I commented to Dick, who just shrugged.
He had been unusually quiet all trip. I was certain it had something to do with his trip to the communications center earlier in the day. Communication Centers were a common service larger cities offered for making long-distance calls. Dick had taken a transport to one shortly after returning from our meal with Koraf.
Cash stood and paid for his meal, responding to my comment as he did so.
“I think he just probably didn’t want to be the third wheel on your date,” Cash quipped, and gave a smarmy salute. “Have fun.”
“Very funny,” I muttered, then turned to Dick. “I’m headed to find a new weapon.”
“I’ll walk with you,” he said. “I don’t really have anything in mind I wanted to look for.”
After paying for our meals, we set out toward one of the armament shops on the holofoil directory. We walked in silence for a few minutes until I couldn’t help but prod.
“Did your communication go poorly?” I asked, never one to mince words.
Dick looked over at me apologetically as if just realizing he had been brooding.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s that obvious, huh? I’m not meaning to bum you out with my issues.”
“Well, it was pretty obvious when you didn’t take the opportunity to goad me over Cash’s date joke,” I said. “But, actually, I could tell something was up all day.”
“First of all, I didn’t comment because this is definitely not how I’d take you out on a date,” Dick said, a little bit of his cavalier attitude returning.
“Of course it’s not a date,” I added. “I don’t do dating.”
He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
“Oh really? You’ve never been on a date before?”
“I’m more of a love ‘em and leave ‘em type, you know? Dating is for people who are trying to start something serious.”
“Ohhh, I see, now,” he said, a genuinely rakish smile appearing on his face. “So, nobody’s ever truly piqued the interest of the untamable Skye Alnasi.”
“That’s not what I said,” I replied with a laugh.
“Ahh, but it’s the truth,” he teased. “That’s okay. I enjoy a challenge. If there’s one thing I’m sure of in this world, it’s my ability to pique a woman’s...interest.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes at his antics, while simultaneously ignoring the unavoidable attraction that such conversations with him always elicited.
“So, are you going to tell me what news put you in a sour mood?” I asked, casually.
He was quiet for a long moment as we walked. Just when I thought he didn’t intend to respond, he spoke.
“My brother’s condition has deteriorated,” he said in a flat, purposefully emotionless tone. “They’ve had to put him under medical preservation.”
“I know it sounds bad,” I said, “but isn’t that actually a good thing? Stasis will stop the progression of the disease, give you more time to get back to him and figure out how the entity works.”
When the orb first absorbed into Dick’s body, it moved around in him like a concentrated ball of energy. Over the past few days, however, it had seemed to disperse and grow into a wave of light that moved under his skin, rather than the concentrated version. He also hadn’t been able to make it emerge anymore.
“I guess you’re right,” Dick said, “though the timer is still ticking, just slower. We had some family money I left in trust for him before coming on this mission. It’s enough for cryo-preservation, but not for complete stasis. Cryo will only delay the deterioration significantly, not halt it completely like Stasis would.”
There were numerous methods of putting people into medically inert states. Cryogenic freezing was one of the most affordable options because it wasn’t a complete state of medical and physical inactivity. It was an old method that was replaced by the more effective and much more costly Stasis procedure. Normally, Stasis was a procedure only available to the rich.
“Then the plan is still the plan,” I said. “Get you home as fast as possible and hope that thing in you comes through.”
He nodded, looking up at the sign of the business we had arrived at. Oro’s Arms.
“Odd name for a gun shop,” Dick commented. “Sounds more like one of those extreme fitness centers.”
“The brochure says this guy is highly recommended,” I said. “We might as well look since we’re here.”
Inside was a wide selection of weapons and armaments securely displayed behind energy shields. Most of what I could see were typical weapons, blasters, daggers, rifles, plasma guns, and energy weapons. I wasn’t looking to replace my current blaster with one of equal standard. Instead, I was hoping the technological focus of New Horizon City might produce something unique. That wasn’t the case judging by the weapons displayed in the store.
“See anything of interest?” a large, beefy man said, coming from a room in the back.
I was starting to see Dick’s point about this place doubling as a weightlifting facility. If this was Oro, his arms were indeed quite worthy of naming a weapons store after.
“Not really,” I said, honestly. I could see he wasn’t offended by my candid reply. “I’m wondering if you’ve got anything unique to look at. Most of what you’ve got on display is pretty standard, no offense.”
“None taken,” he said, amiably. “Those are mainly for the masses. You look like you know a 723 Auto-Blaster from a 261 Revolving Plasma.”
“Well enough to know only one of those is an actual gun,” I said, smiling knowingly. He laughed.
“Your boyfriend, however, looks like he could probably shoot himself in the eye on accident with a water gun.”
I turned to see where Dick was handling a small derringer. Noticing our attention on him, he looked up questioningly. When we said nothing, he just shrugged and pretended to aim down sights and practice fire several successive shots with the tiny weapon.
“He does know it’s only a single-shot derringer, right?” Oro asked.
“No,” I said, smiling ruefully. “I don’t think he does.”
Turning back to him and ignoring Dick, I added, “And he’s not my boyfriend.”
“That’s nice,” Oro said with subtle flirtation. “You’re new to town?”
“And we’re kind of in a hurry,” Dick said, appearing suddenly next to me. “So, do you got anything for the lady to look at or no?”
“Oh I got plenty,” Oro replied, winking at me. I laughed as he pushed a touchscreen pad nearby. A compartment on the counter opened up to reveal a weapon backlit by white LED lights.
“This comes from a craftsman in the Collimnus sector of our quadrant,” Oro said. “It has seven special cartridges that each shoot various types of rounds, smoke, electricity, minor explosives, etc. The cartridges can be recharged, but they’re custom so there’s no backups.”
“Too high maintenance for me,” I said, and he nodded. Replacing the gun in the case, he pushed another button on the touch screen and the case seemed to phase shift into another compartment containing a different gun.
“This, as far as I know of, is the only gun of its kind,” Oro said. “It’s got a built in AI system that offers tactical and practical support.”
“It’s a talking gun?” Dick said. “Strange.”
“You’re strange, buddy,” the gun said with no small amount of attitude. “You look like the back end of a Pilosintor. If you don’t know what that is, it’s really fucking ugly. Just like your face.”
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“You know if you buy this gun, we could replace half our crewmates,” Dick said. “It's just as annoying and assholey as they are.”
Oro shrugged apologetically.
“He’s got a bit of a quirky attitude,” the shop owner explained.
“I’ll tell you what you can do with your attitude,” the gun said to Oro. “You can inject them into those oversized muscles like all the steroids you’re probably taking.”
“No thanks,” I said. “I’ve got enough of that in my crew without a talking gun.”
“Aww...come on baby! Don’t be that way. I’d love to live in your holster, if you know what I mean. I’d never call you names, unless you want me to. I can talk dirty if you’re into that kind of thi—”
Oro snapped the case shut and the talking gun disappeared. He eyed the tattoos on my arm for a minute.
“You’re Zodian?” he asked.
“I am,” I replied, not surprised he knew what a Zodian was. Our kind was prolific throughout certain parts of the galaxy.
“Try this, then,” he said, pushing another series of buttons. “It was actually crafted by a Zodian artisan. It uses a person’s inherent energy to control the intensity and frequency of its shots.”
The weapon was made of sleek white and blue metal. It was a tad larger than my current blaster but fit nicely in my hand. The weight was about the same as mine. Focusing my energy, the weapon powered up as my tattoos shimmered.
“That’s impressive,” I said. I could naturally feel myself adjusting the level of output from the weapon. It felt a lot like my Supernova incantation, variable based on how much energy I channeled into it.
“Its only limitation is you,” Oro said, “which I imagine won’t be much of a problem.”
He was flirting blatantly with me again, and I smiled appreciatively. He seemed like a genuinely nice and good-looking guy, and I felt flattered by the attention.
“Oh, there’s another feature I forgot to mention,” he said, instructing me. “Brace it with both hands around the hilt. Put both thumbs on the back and focus just a tiny amount of energy.”
As I followed his instruction, the most amazing thing I’d ever seen a gun do happened. The weapon split into two smaller versions of itself, one for each hand.
“Dual wield...” I said in awe. “Oh, hell yeah.”
* * *
“The guy’s got no game,” Dick grumbled ten minutes later as we made our way through The Hub.
“I thought he was very suave,” I said. Dick had been muttering about Oro’s “corny pick-up technique” since we left the shop.
“Of course, you think so, he practically gave you that gun.”
“I feel kind of bad taking such a huge discount from him,” I admitted. “I would have happily paid full price.”
“Mmmhmm. It’s called the Hot Honey discount, and it’s sooo old school. Wouldn’t a more flattering approach been to assume you’re a successful, self-sufficient woman who can afford to pay what the thing is worth?”
“I suppose that would be more progressive,” I pondered. “But a girl does like nice things.”
I twirled the gun in my hand contentedly, testing its weight.
“Maybe I should give it a name...” I said teasingly, then laughed out loud at the look of utter disdain that crossed his handsome face. “I’m kidding. Though, Gemini would be such a great name for it.”
“I can’t even...” his exasperated response trailed off as he stopped in front of a random shop.
RELIQUIAE the sign read. From the looks of it, the store dealt in oddities and curiosities. Dick was staring at something in the window with his head cocked curiously to the side.
“Huh...” he said.
“Do you want to go inside?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything, just walked to the sliding automatic door and went in.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
The store had an old, musty smell that someone was clearly trying to cover up by burning various herbs and incense. Wooden shelves housed an eclectic assortment of items all claiming to be connected to famous creatures and people who had long passed on.
HONORIUS’ SEPULCHER one label read.
The item looked like a shiny metal rod with crystals embedded in it. Honorius was a mythological king from a famous Pact World. According to legend, he once brought peace to his warring planet by cleaving off a third of it what would become a satellite moon. Science had long since determined it was in fact an asteroid impact that nearly split the planet in half long before civilization formed on the world.
DRAGON SCALE another label claimed.
Well, that one was just pure lies. Dragons were real entities in the cosmos but certainly not the kind anyone could easily descale. They existed as pure essences of reality, almost infinitely powerful, and, thankfully, rarer to encounter than just about anything else in the universe.
“I hope you’re not planning to waste your credits in here,” I said to Dick. He had made his way to a display near the front window and was examining a necklace, presumably what had caught his eye in the first place.
“Why do you say that?” he asked, absently.
“Because most of this stuff looks like junk, or at least fake,” I answered, waving at the “dragon scale” display.
He glanced at it, then shrugged.
“Obviously, not all of this stuff is what it claims to be, but this...” he trailed off.
“Okay, are you going to share what made you dash in here to spend your life’s fortune on?” I asked.
He held up the necklace. It looked like a simple leather cord strung through three large, pointed teeth.
“There’s a story from one of the old worlds about a species that went extinct,” he said. “If these teeth are real, then there’s DNA in them.”
Picking up the name plate in the window display, I turned it toward me and read the label. LYCAN FANGS.
“What are the odds that these are real, though?” I asked. “You’re probably going to turn into a version of someone’s favorite pooch.”
“It’s worth trying though, right?”
I shrugged, and we walked to the back of the store where a bell sign said “ring for service.”
“Low-tech,” I said. “Interesting.”
An ancient looking woman emerged from what looked like a bathroom. The smell that wafted out of the door after her was enough to curl paint. The hunched over human woman was as much an oddity as anything for sale in her shop. There were bald patches on her scalp and large gaps between what few yellowed teeth refused to vacate her mouth.
As Dick presented the Lycan teeth necklace to her for purchase, she started to babble.
“Very rare item, priceless!” she said, scurrying around as if looking for something. “Where is ledger? I find for price.”
She turned over several boxes stored behind the counter, weird items that had yet to be labeled for sale littered the floor in her wake.
“Potent magic in this item! Make your stick stiff for hours,” she said, gesturing crudely toward Dick’s groin.
I quickly turned around and pretended to examine something on a shelf as I snickered into my fist. The woman continued to babble about how valuable and potent the Lycan fangs were as she wandered into the backroom, still searching for her ledger.
“Don’t even say a word,” Dick said, as I turned back toward him with a deceptively innocent expression.
Reaching out, I flicked open the top three buttons of his shirt until his smooth chest muscles peaked through his button-down shirt. Then, I reached up and tousled his hair sexily.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, with equal parts irritation and reluctant amusement.
“Hey, if you really want those doggy teeth, it sounds like you’re going to need that Hot Honey discount, lover boy.”
He let out a groan of resignation, a sound that was perfectly punctuated by the loud belch the old woman let out from the back.
* * *
“Now this is an upgrade,” Cash said, admiring himself in the mirror.
Eduardo, the proprietor of Morilla’s Fine Attire nodded approvingly. We had converged on the shop at the agreed upon time to secure something to wear for the ball tomorrow.
Cash was wearing a midnight black, sleeveless duster coat that fluttered behind him almost like a cape. Underneath it, a form-fitting shirt of the same color clung to his muscles like a shadow, outlining the bulk of his arms while the stretch fabric offered ease of movement. It was tucked into a pair of perfectly tailored slacks. Eduardo took great pride in his establishment’s technological capability to tailor and modify garments on the spot to perfection.
The most striking feature of Cash’s ensemble, however, was the matching eyepatch he wore. The augmenter was adding features to his bionic eye, which meant it would have to remain with him for a couple days. Eduardo suggested the eye patch to cover up the vacant space in the mean time.
“You look like a pirate,” Vomero said, sticking his head out of his own dressing room to look at Cash’s ensemble. He clearly didn’t mean it as a compliment. Cash, of course, chose to purposefully misunderstand him.
“Hell yeah, I do,” he said, thanking Eduardo again. “A sexy ass pirate. Prepare to be ignored by all the ladies, fellas. Skye, look away, don’t want to make Dick jealous. Actually, you know what? Fuck him. Go ahead and take it all in.”
He spread his arms wide and did a turn. I let out a low, appreciative whistle.
“You know, I’m an Outlaw,” I said. “Careful, we’re kind of partial to pirates.”
Cash laughed. Dick purposefully ignored the exchange as he fiddled with his new necklace. It had taken quite a lot of flirting on his part just to get the old woman to haggle down to an affordable price.
“I think this will do just fine, Eduardo,” Vomero said, emerging from his dressing room wearing a smartly tailored tux in dark grey silk. The color complimented his complexion perfectly.
“That is Fordonian silk,” Eduardo said. “It will not wrinkle or stain. It is also very resistant to wear and tear—truly an investment piece.”
From the sound of it, I surmised that the price would also be quite an investment. I suspect Vomero was loaded, however. He had spent most of his life stealing from greedy corporations.
Gramps emerged from the dressing room, having tried on a chocolate brown suit he liked just as Ryuuk arrived from the front show room. It had taken him forever to pick out things to try on, but then again, he had the most outfits to purchase.
Ryuuk wasn’t just looking for something fancy for the ball, he was hoping for a whole new look. We had all agreed that a change of style would not only be good for his newfound sense of self but also make him less recognizable now that we knew the wanted poster was circulating around.
He disappeared into the dressing room Gramps had just vacated with an arm full of prospects. The old man, plopped down on a cushioned chair to read while he waited. On their adventure, Ryuuk and Gramps located a digital book downloader that was selling Vol. 2 of Total Recall: Jack Trader’s Compendium of Indigenous Species.
They had shown it to me, but I didn’t bother pointing out that it wasn’t really a completely second volume; it was more like a DLC.
“Huh, that’s odd,” Gramps said. “I was trying to look up stuff about Dick's Lycan species but it says we need to purchase access to that section. We bought the whole thing, right Ryuuk?”
The man in question emerged wearing a bright green robe that stopped at the knees. The robe was secured by a wide, cummerbund-like sash. I nearly spit out the cocktail Eduardo had been gracious enough to provide.
“Wha..? Uh yeah, should have been the whole thing,” Ryuuk answered Gramps, distracted by his image in the mirror. “I don’t know 'bout this un. The color is...okay...but I feel like my bits are just dangling and exposed.”
“Definite veto,” I said, as one of Eduardo’s assistants handed me a dress to try on. Dick was also given a garment to try, and we were ushered into dressing rooms.
I could hear the conversation continue in the lounge as I tried on my dress.
“I just don’t understand why it’s denying me access,” Gramps grumbled. “You think that digital book vendor was a scam?”
“Your book has microtransactions, Gramps,” Vomero said. “Leave it to Jack Trader to find the one way guaranteed to make the second book worse than the first one.”
“Can’t you fix it with your new gadget?” Gramps asked.
Vomero had shown us the data device he had scored at one of the rare tech shops. After about ten minutes explaining to us that the tiny device stored 90 Yottabytes of data on a disk small enough to wear around his finger, he gave up trying to impress upon us the significance of it. One feature that had been cool was that it was protected from outside disturbance, such as electro magnetic fluctuations, making it incorruptible from Vomero’s own technomancer abilities.
“For the last time,” Vomero said, “this is just a storage device. It can’t magically hack your pyramid scheme of a book.”
Having finished with my dress, I emerged from the dressing room to look in the 180-degree lounge mirror. The room seemed to grow oddly quiet as I admired the form-hugging cut of the long, ice blue gown. The fabric shimmered with iridescent colors in a way that, to me, seemed to mimic starlight.
Turning curiously to see what had disrupted the conversation, I saw everyone had stopped to stare at me. Even Gramps had paused in fussing over his book to admire my look.
“Damn, Skye,” Cash said in low tone. “Leave some sexy for the rest of us, huh?”
I smirked and gave a turn.
“This old thing?” I joked, but as I turned back to face them, I noticed Dick had also emerged from his dressing room.
He leaned back against the frame, arms crossed in his immaculate dark navy suit. The color made the stormy blue of his eyes even more pronounced as he watched me with heavy-lidded eyes. His expression left no doubt that he was also taking in the sight of me in the dress with deep appreciation.
I felt my breathing accelerate uncontrollably.
Easy Skye, I calmed myself inwardly. He’s just another incredibly sexy guy in a devastatingly good-looking suit staring at you with bedroom eyes. No big deal. Keep it together. Better yet, say something funny.
“You look, cool,” I blurted. “I mean, for you.”
I said, funny. Not stupid, my inner voice chastised in mortification.
He smiled knowingly at me, sensing how nervous his unadulterated appraisal was making me. He swiveled his head as he turned slowly, keeping as much eye contact as he could during the motion.
“What? You don’t like it?” he teased. “Pants not tight enough for you?”
His ribbing jolted me out of my embarrassed stupor. I grinned cheekily.
“The fits fine,” I said. “Eduardo knows his stuff. Could do with a bit more leather though.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
“Oh for fucks sake,” Cash groaned. “Would you two just bang one out and be done with it already?”
Luckily, Ryuuk, with his usual excellent timing, saved either of us from having to respond to that statement.
“This is the one, guys!” he declared with excitement. “This is the perfect look.”
He was dressed in a dark grey button up shirt with a black silk vest over top. The pants were loose trousers, also in black. Eduardo deposited a silky black cowboy hat onto his head to complete the ensemble.
“That’s exactly the same thing you were wearing,” Vomero said.
“You’re insane,” Ryuuk said. “This is totally different, but, you know, still me. Nobody’s going to recognize me like this.”
“How is this not the same outfit you wore in here?” Cash said. “It’s a vest and button up paired with trousers. Hell, you’ve even got boots and a hat.”
“Yeah, but mine were brown,” Ryuuk said, pleased that his statement was all the explanation needed.
“And?” Dick asked. “What’s your point?”
“This one is in black.”