The sound of their steps echoed to the high ceiling, the cavernous building completely dark. Natalya could hear her heart pounding through her chest as she stepped over broken glass, sweeping her feet across the ground to avoid tripping on some unseen obstacle.

Jasper held his golden sword high, the blade glowing bright and revealing the room. Wires and cables, mainframes and wide metal platforms with piles of robotics and other assorted tech covered the walls and floor. The room had at one time been a grand entrance, gilded and painted walls surrounding a curling double staircase that led to an upper story of further luxury.

There was no moisture or plant growth in this chamber, only the sharp smell of ozone.

“Interesting decorations, Jasper,” Natalya said.

“This stuff wasn’t here before,” Jasper added as the copper doors rang in the thick air.

Co fired through the doors, her blasts pinging off the metal as the hoppers tried to break through.

“Hey! Quit that!” a chirping voice shouted from loudspeakers set in the ceiling.

“Co, ceasefire,” Natalya ordered.

Jasper readied his sword, searching for the source of the voice.

“Duck,” the voice giggled.

Natalya crouched. Jasper and Co didn’t.

“Duck,” the voice repeated.

“Co, get down!” Natalya insisted, the two of them finding cover behind the staircase.

“Duck!” the voice said a third time.

Jasper stayed on his feet as the doors burst open.

“Goose!” the voice shouted as the mainframes and metal discs lit the chamber in a rainbow of color. Sparks erupted out of the disc in the center of the room, and Jasper flew through the air, an invisible wave of energy shoving him toward the door. The energy blew the doors open and sent the hoppers tumbling backward.

Jasper crashed into a mainframe with an explosion of sparks.

With the doors open, hoppers leapt inside, only to fly to the ceiling as if they’d stepped inside a tornado. A moment later, the hoppers crashed to the floor and broke apart. Another wave of energy sent the doors banging closed.

“Of course, they’re not geese and you’re not ducks,” the voice said, this time not amplified. “I’ve tried sending a signal that attaches the DNA receptors of a duck onto various biological and non-biological elements, but it never turns them into a goose.”

A short, spectacled woman in a dirty lab coat appeared on the upper level, looking down at the group of intruders as she typed away on a console at the edge of the balcony. She adjusted her glasses, her long, auburn hair done up in a braid and twisting as she tilted her head to get a better look at Natalya and her companions.

“It makes them explode,” the short woman added with an awkward smile.

Natalya noticed that this mouse-faced woman was missing an eyebrow, which made her friendly smile all the more uncomfortable to look at.

“I’m gonna shoot her,” Co announced.

“No,” Natalya said, lowering the muzzle of Co’s gun. “Who are you? Did you do that?”

“Neat, huh? Watch this!” the spectacled woman said, and backed away from the balcony’s edge.

Natalya blinked, listening to the patter of feet as the woman made a running leap off the balcony. She fell toward one of the metal discs in the ground and stopped in mid-air, floating as if caught in an invisible net.

“I’m Sisi. Sisi Mend, pleasure to meet you,” Sisi said, hovering end over end, unable to make eye contact with anyone.

“Why can’t I shoot her?” Co asked.

“Because we’re looking for refugees, not bodies,” Natalya said.

“Your friend didn’t die in my gravity wells. Neat!” Sisi said, spotting Jasper as the Prophet emerged from inside a dented, sparking mainframe.

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“You okay, Jasper?” Natalya asked.

Jasper nodded, looking around the room to ensure there weren’t any more hoppers. He blinked in confusion when he saw the floating girl.

Sisi gasped with surprise and shouted, “You’re a Prophet!” before falling to the ground. Whatever tech she was using to power her violation of gravity switched off. She stumbled, got to her feet, and ran to Jasper.

“I’ve always wanted to test a Prophet weapon — a centrifugal force of near light speed would hypothetically extract an energy quotient equivalent to—” Sisi said.

The spectacled woman shut up when Jasper simply said, “No thank you.”

“Are there any others here?” Natalya asked. “Co, do a sweep. Look for refugees. Augustus, you doing okay out there?”

“Chimera gets all the attention, doesn’t he? Sometimes I think he’s too pretty for his own good, but we got rid of the suitors,” Augustus answered in Natalya’s communicator.

“Good. Stay orbital till we need you. If Qin’s got hoppers on Teal, he might have other things watching.”

“Can do.”

“I know you,” Sisi said to Natalya.

“Don’t care,” Natalya replied. “Are there others here?”

“How do you know Qin sent the hoppers?” Jasper asked.

“Black is Qin’s house color, and the color the Zhou uses now.”

“Qin wants to stop people from getting in here?”

“The robots kill people. Everyone said the atmosphere was deteriorating, but I knew better,” Sisi said, smiling and wagging her finger like she was scolding an ignorant child. “Even if the atmosphere was deteriorating, I’d simply amplify my gravitational—”

“So how did you get here?” Natalya asked.

Sisi shrugged.

“That’s it? Just…” Natalya said, and imitated Sisi’s gesture.

“The details don’t matter,” Sisi said. “I was doing research, got kicked off, and found my way here since the Xia family wanted to keep me safe and said Qin wanted me for some reason and you were on Farbind weren’t you? I saw you on a poster there, right?”

“Stay focused, Sisi.”

“Frazier, right? Natalya Frazier! That was the name of the Duke, and you have her face too. A little older face, and you’re wearing more militaristic clothing, but that’s to be expected given circumstances.”

Jasper raised an eyebrow and frowned at Natalya. “You were the Duke of Farbind?” he asked.

“Hooray, we’re introducing each other,” Natalya said. “This is Jasper the renegade Prophet, Co DuPonte, the least interesting sociopath you’ll ever meet, and I’m the bitch who started a war, now can we please focus on the other survivors on this blasted planet?”

The only sound came from the humming mainframes and clicking power circuits as Natalya glared at those around her.

“If you’re a Duke, you’re not paying me enough,” Co said, returning from her sweep of the area.

“Noted,” Natalya replied. “Survivors?

“None that I can find. May be on the other levels.”

“There was a bunch of people here. But they all decided to run when the hoppers showed up,” Sisi said.

“Since I suddenly can’t afford Co’s services, I think we’ll need more than one refugee to make this a profitable trip,” Natalya noted.

“I’m not a refugee. I like it here. Lots of work to do. And since everyone says Teal’s atmosphere is going kaput it’s a great place to test my Prosper-forming theories in a radical environment.”

Natalya made an adjustment to her mental assessment of this woman. If Sisi had been on her own, with hoppers just outside her door, and worked on all this tech and had been at Farbind, she wasn’t just some girl. She was a woman of considerable capabilities. An irritating, chirpy-voiced woman of considerable capabilities, but no less respectable. And if Qin and the Xia family had been vying for her expertise, it was likely this was the target Ptolemy had in mind for this mission.

“Ptolemy,” Natalya said into her communicator.

“I thought his name was Jasper,” Sisi said.

“Shut up. Ptolemy, is the target a scientist?”

“Geophysical metaphysics and—”

“Whatever. Smart girl, we found her.”

“Excellent. Ask her about the Key Core,” Ptolemy said into Natalya’s communicator.

“The what?”

“The Key Core. Ask her if she has it.”

“Do you have the Key Core?” Natalya asked Sisi.

“Nope,” Sisi replied.

“She says she doesn’t have it.”

“Well, where is it?” Ptolemy asked.

“Cut the crud, Ptolemy, I’m guessing this job was about getting this girl, not refugees. Fine, but you tell me what this core thing is before I risk our crew any more than I have to.”

“I lost it at Teal Square just before we tried to evacuate,” Sisi explained.

“It’s vital, Natalya. That’s all you need to know. Get Miss Mend, get the core, and we can move forward,” Ptolemy said.

“I didn’t want to evacuate, mind you, but Xia’s people told me I had to,” Sisi rambled. “Then there were explosions and screaming and the safe they made me put the core into had a whole shuttle crash on it and that’s heavy and—”

“Teal Square,” Natalya told Ptolemy. “That’s where it is. Augustus, be ready to meet us there. I want air support if we get hoppers on our tail.”

“Shall I play a waltz for our dance?” Augustus asked over the communicator.

“More like a mambo.”

“In and out real quick. I like.”

“Co, Jasper, you ready to move?”

“Yes,” Jasper said, sword in hand.

Co nodded.

“Sisi, you’re sure there aren’t any more people here?” Natalya asked.

“They all thought they’d get radiation poisoning from my experiments,” Sisi answered. “Which is ridiculous because—”

“Sisi.”

“There’s a place. Tunnels that are too narrow for hoppers to get through.”

“How far?”

“Other side of the square. About a block.”

“Then get whatever you need from here. We’re getting you off-planet.”

“But I want to stay.”

Natalya sighed, putting her carbine across her shoulders as she studied Sisi again.

“What were you doing on Farbind?” Natalya asked.

“Researching,” Sisi answered.

“Researching what? It was obviously something that interested Xia, and I don’t remember Qin mentioning you,” Jasper said.

“Prosper-forming,” Sisi said, avoiding eye contact with Jasper and Natalya. “I didn’t know it would make so many people upset.”

“Well here’s the score, Sisi,” Natalya said. “You’ve got people after you, including us. I don’t really care why Ptolemy wants you on my ship, but I can tell you two things. First, I won’t let those hoppers or Qin hurt you, and will make sure Ptolemy doesn’t either. Second, I’m still technically Farbind’s Duke, and you’re still technically under my jurisdiction if you worked there. Was it a government facility?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then I’m ordering you to come with me.”