When Sadie woke the next morning, her brain was still frazzled and her body groaned in the aftermath of yesterday’s adrenaline rush. She expected as she climbed off the couch that the others would be feeling the same.
The demigods before her were having a casual morning. Ravi was in his pajamas, sitting behind a desk working on his computer and babbling some techno jargon about the monitoring systems. It sounded like he was compiling a report of what went wrong and where. If there had been any stress from yesterday, he didn’t show it. He looked like he’d gone for a ten kilometer run and was having his morning coffee after a shower.
Any normal human would’ve been dead after what Louis did yesterday. He still should’ve been in a hospital with his limbs in casts and struggling to breathe. Instead he was fresh as a daisy, cooking breakfast for the three of them. The soreness he presented appeared more like a rough massage, every twinge bringing a smile to his face. Louis did sound mildly congested at least, inhaling disgustingly to clear his throat.
“Good morning junior cadet,” said Ravi cheerfully. “Are you ready to pin on your wings and do you need more time in the simulator?”
“I no longer think flying is fun,” grumbled Sadie, rubbing her eyes.
“Ah come on.” Ravi spun in his chair to face her. “It must’ve been a little fun.”
“I still want to throw up.”
“But you didn’t,” said Louis, scrapping an egg substitute onto a plate of rice. “Eat. You’ll feel better.” Louis placed a plate for her on the counter and took a plate to Ravi. Sadie saw two pills much like the ones they’d given her after the night of drinking and gratefully took them.
“You’re much uglier than my last nanny,” joked Ravi.
“You couldn’t afford me,” laughed Louis. “I’ll leave you Sadie and a stipend.”
“Please don’t joke about that.” Sadie didn’t think he was serious anyways. There were worse fates, but living on Mirakus Station in a rebreather with a bunch of oggy was a depressing thought. She coughed suddenly as spices lit up her throat and she scrambled for her water glass. Louis must’ve added things to appeal to Ravi. Why did everything that man eat have to be on fire?
“Have any friends who want to come out here?” continued Louis.
“No,” she hacked after trying to eat another spoonful of fire.
Before he could make more jokes, Louis’s jacket collar began to chirp. He forgot all about teasing Sadie and went and pressed the collar. Maia began to speak in a tone so formal Sadie almost didn’t recognize her.
“Louis. The Station Master wishes to see you.”
“What for?”
“He would not relay his communication with a computer. Please proceed to the Seraphin.”
“I wonder what he needs you for,” thought Sadie aloud.
“Who knows.”
“It probably has something to do with how Sadie blew out half a hangar bay to save you.” Ravi barely managed to squeeze out the words through his food. “Everyone’s happy the station didn’t blow up, but somebody has to pay for that.”
“I can’t be mad at her for saving my life.” Louis poured the rest of his meal down his throat. “We’ll be back.”
“I’ll come with you.” Shoveling the rest of his food in his mouth, Ravi rose and collected his jacket. “The Station Master isn’t exactly a friend, but we respect each other.”
The walk back to the docking bay was terrible. Sadie’s rebreather was welcomed at all times, but it did not mix well with spicy food. Every exhale of fiery breath was recycled right back into her nose and throat. It was so bad she considered asking if they could stop at Mirakus Drop just to get a drink. But the two men were chatting amicably and she was once again relegated to the background.
Now that she wasn’t in shock by being on a space station or by the oggy, she was able to see more detail. For how big the station was, there seemed to be surprisingly few oggy. They worked in shifts so she only ever saw half the population, and half of those were sleeping in their quarters. The truth was there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the station. They worked most of the day and spent the rest of the day bitching about work. The workers came here because the pay was lucrative. She didn’t understand the payments or what anything was worth since the reservation used an allotment system for food and supplies, but it was exciting to listen to. Ravi had been here for years and must’ve been extremely wealthy.
Ravi’s work was a mystery to her still. He’d explained it many times in great technical detail and it went way over her head each time. He did something with computers, algorithms, and monitoring systems. His systems monitored everything from gas pressure to toxicity levels and alerted him if anything went wrong. Most of his job seemed to be automated because he had a lot of free time. When asked how he got paid so much to do so little, he’d responded.
“Because nobody else knows how to do so much with so little.”
The docking bays were below in the center of the refinery so they took one of the service elevators down. She’d ridden these elevators a few times now and wasn’t sure why they made her uncomfortable. Maybe it was because they were enclosed and on the reservation lift you could see everything. Maybe it was because while it looked just as degraded, the station’s elevator was smooth and efficient. It never squeaked, slowed, or shook. She didn’t know whether to hold onto the walls, hide behind the men, or stand as close to the door as possible. Usually she froze in place until the anxiety inducing ride was over.
Below was less exposed to the pollution and an opportunity to see what the station should’ve looked like. Ceramic white tiles covered the walls and ceiling like lizard scales, specially prepared against heat and radiation. The floor was metal that should’ve been brilliant, but looked like it’d been cleaned so frequently that chemicals were consuming its shine. It was strange seeing the floor so clean. Usually the oggy left a boogery trail like slugs. The presence of a robot shaped like a fat dome mopping the floor was taking care of that. It distractingly followed them but slowed after a few meters. Maybe it was confused because the ground was still clean.
An oggy was standing in front of the Seraphin, appearing to admire the ship. He must’ve been the Station Master as he looked cleaner and oddly thinner. The jumpsuit he wore wasn’t stained and there were bits of plastic sticking out like he was vacuum sealed in. The Station Master turned as he heard them come in, waving cheerfully. They were out in the open bay when Sadie felt the urge to convulse. Her muscles begged to seize and her lungs tried to shutter. It was as if she was back in the freezing cold without protective gear. One moment she was standing and the next she was huddled over, trying to prevent imaginary shakes.
Sharp cracks sounded all around them. Louis moved with inhuman speed but still took several hits to his legs and torso. The gray rounds collapsed into discs that immediately began to arc electricity between each other. Louis twisted uncontrollably but somehow kept moving. He threw himself to the side, flying behind cover, all the while looking like he was trying a new interpretative dance in the air.
No shots came for Ravi who leapt backward, grabbing Sadie as he went as if she were a sack of potatoes. Then he shook as rounds meant for her struck his legs and sent them both sprawling. Even as electricity danced through his body, he crawled forward at amazing speed, putting himself behind some equipment. Sadie followed, rolling as she heard more cracks. Ravi was grabbing the discs with twisting fingers and ripping them free. They took whole sections of clothing and skin away before they were crushed.
“Merricup!” Ravi shouted, pulling a blaster from a concealed holster. “You bloody arsehole, what in the hell!”
“This doesn’t concern you Ravi. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Yeah well I love getting shot at by my boss.”
“There’s a bounty on your friends, a very large bounty. This has nothing to do with you, please stand aside.”
“What is the bounty for?” Now irritated at just about everyone in the room, Ravi fingered his blaster.
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“The Singularity put out a bounty for any human leaving the Malleus Glacies System.”
“The machines?” Ravi’s face went cold. Sadie saw the same darkness in those friendly eyes that Louis had sometimes. She looked for a different set of cover to scoot to. “You would take a machine bounty?”
“I could almost build a new station with that money. Please stay back.” Somewhere to their right was the sound of more cracking rifles, loud grunts, and what sounded like an oggy probably trying to dance on Louis’s head. Ravi was fine letting them try and hold onto that tiger’s tail.
“You would trade my friend to a machine? For money?”
“How much money would it take to convince you?”
“There is no amount of money to convince me to work with them. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
“We’ll accept that shame in luxury. Please don’t make us shoot you. You’ve been a wonderful employee and friend to all.”
Ravi snapped over the equipment and saw two oggy with rifles approaching their cover. With a quick trigger squeeze, a rapid burst of yellow laser fire lanced through the first oggy’s face. Skin bubbled and melted away, removing half of its gelatinous head in one go. The oggy sank to its knees as everything else in its skull cooked. His friend received the same treatment, falling a quarter second later. Before stepping out of sight, Ravi made sure to sear the Station Master’s knees. The Station Master hit the floor in a series of hysterical swears.
Louis was on the ground writhing, trying to free himself from the charged shots when he realized his unfortunate mistake. The shooters had placed themselves on either side of the bay to catch the humans in the crossfire. Now he was twitching next to an oggy who was bringing his rifle back around to hit him again. Louis drove a hard kick into the oggy’s shin, using a perfectly straight leg that came from years of practice or from ten seconds of being electrocuted. Fat tumors deflected his foot and protected the bone, but kept the oggy off balance. Louis kicked off the ground and threw himself into the oggy. It was so disjointed of an attack he failed to knock it over but taught it a different terrible lesson in physics. The charged shots in Louis’s body turned his body into an electrical conductor, and the charge was more than happy to share in a wrestling match. The oggy let out a garbled shriek like he’d just been plugged into a light socket. Louis gritted his teeth so hard he was bleeding, throwing awkward punches and kicks into the jerk who dared to shoot him.
The oggy’s partner decided the fight was too dangerous and that since he was firing non-lethal anyway, he might as well drop both of them. Louis shielded himself behind the oggy as he was plugged with charged shots, drawing more electricity to his body. He used the chance to fall to the floor and began to break the devices. Each one freed somehow lessened the pain and increased it as his raw nerves were allowed to relax. A shot missed his oggy barrier and clipped his shoulder, sending a new wave of chilling pain. This was getting aggravating. Taking the crumpled metal, he hurled it into the offending oggy’s face. It distracted him long enough for Louis to leap toward him. He should have crashed into him, but his shaking muscles threw him a meter to the side and he slid across the floor. Two more panicked hops and he found the right direction.
Trying to box an oggy was just as annoying as being shot by them. They weighed a metric tonne, barely felt pain, and their body felt like it was made of pudding. Louis hit its body hard enough to kill a raknath and all it did was flex and rupture small sacs. He’d rather walk through dead bugs again than think about why the oggy’s jumpsuit was getting soggy. Instead of killing it, each punch just kept the stupid thing from falling on top of him, which it was desperately trying to do. Louis finally kicked out its leg and let it fall backward. Knowing it would take a minute to get up, Louis picked up the rifle and emptied the magazine into its fat head. Charge shots were non-lethal, but most things don’t take well to repeated shots to the head. If it lived, it’d have brain damage for sure.
The irony was not lost on him when a charged shot took him in the forehead a moment later. Temporarily blind, deaf, and only vaguely aware that he was on the floor, Louis screamed incoherently. Something primal within him knew the disc on his forehead had to go, but he couldn’t find his hands. Mad as a rabid dog, Louis slammed his face into the floor. Uncontrolled, he nearly broke his chin and nose with the first few strikes. Then he felt the appropriate crunch as the metal disc cemented harder into his skull. He repeated the strikes until the energy stopped cackling in his brain. Rolling over, he spit blood on the floor. That sucked. It took his brain a moment to consider the shooter was probably still there, but the oggy in question was on the ground, the back of his head melted. He’d let Ravi deal with this until his brain came back online.
Sadie was waiting for the fighting to be over when the sound of plodding feet caught her attention. She turned just in time to see the cavalry coming and an oggy fire a shot just where her head had been. Squeaking in alarm, she rolled to the side, yanking her hand back and barely avoiding the next shot. Her crawls turned into stumbles as shots planted themselves all around her. At one point she somersaulted, a move she hadn’t performed since childhood, but it seemed reasonable. Cover was still far away when the shooting had stopped. The oggy was out of ammo and was clumsily trying to reload.
“You’re a terrible shot.” Ravi’s blaster echoed loudly in the docking bay, disintegrating the oggy’s face. Somewhere during her dodging, Sadie had lost her rebreather. It was hard to tell if it was the death all around her or if it was the smell of melting oggy brains. She threw up.
“Louis, report,” ordered Ravi as he finished clearing the room.
“Alive.”
“Rooms clear.” Ravi moved to his former boss and Louis met him, wiping blood from his face. He looked much worse than he felt, though the migraine brought on by the forced electroshock therapy was going to haunt him. The Station Master was holding onto his ruined legs, still cursing loudly.
“You shouldn’t have sold out.” Ravi popped the energy core out of the blaster. It was so hot it sizzled in the open air. He bent down and stuck it in his former boss’s mouth before he could retort. “We give the machines nothing, and never one of our own. Remember that.” He stepped aside, leaving the oggy gasping for air.
Louis stepped past Ravi and stomped the energy core. There was an explosion of light as it ruptured in the oggy’s throat, spraying his head across the deck. “Traitorous low life.” He spit on the body. “We need to go. Security will be coming.”
“You both go. I’ll talk security down.”
“You just killed a lot of their friends,” pointed out Louis.
“Friends of machines. I know these people. Let me do my thing.”
“Fine.” Louis sounded like he preferred the option of killing everyone and blowing up the station, but he left Ravi and went to the Seraphin. Ravi sighed, walking over to help the puking Sadie to her feet.
“You should get aboard before he forgets about you.” The girl nodded and stumbled toward the ship, doing her best to hold her breath and not look down. Ravi tapped his collar.
“Security, this System Analyst One, priority alert.” Ravi’s monitoring systems could be a life or death situation, and he never called security, so when they heard his call sign, they answered immediately.
“Go ahead, System Analyst One.”
“Altercation in Hangar Bay 3. Six dead, including the Station Master. Requesting backup and cleanup crew.”
“Confirmed. A team is heading your way already. What was the altercation?”
“Station Master turned bounty hunter, tried to have my friends and I killed. We returned fire with small arms.” There was a long pause.
“System Analyst One, please wait for the security team.”
“Standing by.”
This was going to be an awkward conversation for everyone. Bounty hunters were a widely accepted position, but it meant taking the law into your own hands. A failed bounty hunter who ended up dead in the street was nobody’s problem. Proving the Station Master was on a bounty was a different story. Ravi had the security recording, but he was looking for something more concrete. Using the dead oggy’s finger, he opened the tablet. It didn’t specify Louis or Sadie by name. It didn’t even have pictures or a description. That was good. They could get away clean. He was still reading when the security team arrived. Nobody had their weapons raised, but they looked ready to drag Ravi away in chains.
“Ravi,” said the team leader.
“Makku.”
“You and your friends will need to come with us.”
“My friends are leaving for everyone’s safety.” As if on cue, the Seraphin lifted off the ground and was hovering back toward the docking bay door. Once it reached halfway, a shield dropped so it could open safely into space. The process was automated and not even security could override it once it started. Long ago they’d used this as a security feature to trap fleeing criminals, but it was quickly proven to be a terrible idea as gunships shot their way out from the inside. It only took a few destroyed stations before everyone agreed if the ship was in the process of leaving, it was better for everyone to let them go. “I have evidence of the bounty here.”
“What were their crimes?” asked Makku.
“None. The bounty is for any humans leaving the Malleus Glacies System.” Ravi approached and passed over the tablet. “It’s a Singularity bounty.”
Makku took the tablet apprehensively, looking it over. “Everyone has a right to put out a bounty without reason.”
“Is that what we’re doing now?” asked Ravi, stepping closer. “We serve the machines now?”
“I didn’t say that.” Makku was taller and substantially heavier than Ravi, but felt the need to take a step back.
“The machines are genocidal. They’re planet killers. They brought the Splice.” Ravi stepped even closer, looking hard into Makku’s eyes. “So I’ll ask again. Do we serve the machines now? Should we count oggy as a client species?” Makku frowned. The other oggy couldn’t decide if they wanted to kill Ravi or Makku. “Because if you are,” Ravi unholstered the blaster, keeping it low at his side, “then we’re going to have a problem.”
Without waiting for their responses, Ravi moved past them. “And if anyone cracks a joke about humans being slaves, feel free to join the Station Master on the floor.”
“I still have questions,” shouted Makku after him.
“And I’ll answer them when you decide what side you’re on.”
Ravi was barely around the corner when his collar chirped. “Still alive?” asked Louis.
“Yes. Everything is settled.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“Reminded them who their loyalties belonged to.”
“Ravi, can you get to a ship and meet me on the freighter?”
“I can, but I shouldn’t leave until people calm down.”
“You need to get off the station. Now.”
“Why?”
“The Singularity didn’t set the bounty.” Ravi paused. They could be in a lot of trouble if that was true. Then Louis had to say something that ruined his day, month, year, and probably the rest of his life. “It’s a Purvai. They’re back.”
Ravi was already running for a ship.