On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (26 page)

They combusted almost instantly, with an incredibly intense heat, the flames feeding on whatever energy was in the pills. The fire soon spread over the entire pile, and the thousands of pills burnt away to a crisp in almost no time. All that remained after a minute or so was a small pile of smoking black ash, which the Aegis agent casually walked over to get to the door.

It turned to look back at the room, as if to check no pills had survived the blaze, and then walked out, another trace of the drug dealer’s organisation erased from existence.

****

Nero approached carefully. He hadn’t seen anyone since breaking into the Scraper, besides a couple of residents once he’d reached the floor near the top, but he expected Aegis around every corner. A strange noise made him freeze, but it turned out to be someone leaving their apartment behind him. She gave Nero a strange look, but continued on her way.

He carried on along the corridor, fearful of what he was going to find, but knowing he had to continue. Slowly, he neared the door he was searching for, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The number above the door illuminated as he walked up to it, and he reached out to open the door.

It slid open, and Nero cautiously walked in, the lights turning on automatically as he entered. He wished they hadn’t. Lying sprawled on the floor, in the centre of the room, was a body. A relatively small body, clothed in a fine dress. Wanting to turn away, to run out of the room, Nero slowly walked forward, approaching the body, and crouched down next to it.

“Ami...” he whispered, looking at her perfect form, collapsed on the floor, with a laser hole in the middle of her chest. She looked remarkably peaceful, lying there, except for her eyes. They were open, and staring sightlessly into the distance. Tenderly, Nero reached over and closed them, cursing himself for not being there to protect her.

He sat down the ground, and stayed there for an indeterminate length of time, not wanting to leave her. Not wanting to admit that it was his fault she was dead. He had lost everyone, everything, and he was only alive thanks to his augmentations. But what good were augs if he couldn’t use them to save anybody except for himself? Nothing about this was fair. He thought about Talyah, about all the good times he’d had with her. She had been one of his best friends for over a decade. And he thought about Onon, and all the others. He hoped they’d known that he had cared about them.

More time passed, but eventually, Nero stood back up, a decision made. Without another look at the body lying on the floor, he left the apartment, heading purposefully back to the lifts. Receiving strange looks from passersby, he entered a lift, and descended all the way to the ground floor. He left the Scraper through the window he’d smashed on the way in, and walked along the street outside, heading towards the outskirts of the city.

It was a long way to walk, but he didn’t feel like running. It was time to think, at any rate. After a while he emerged from the Scraper-dense area of the city, and continued through the slums and deserted areas that made up the vast outskirts of the city. He kept on going, the sun having risen fully in the sky whilst he walked.

By the time he neared his destination, the sun had already begun to go down, so far had he gone. The structure in front of him was almost falling down, but it did still have four walls, and a roof, of sorts, over the top. Nero paused, and then pushed his way through the door that was hanging off its hinges.

Inside, the building wasn’t nearly as abandoned as it looked from the outside. Sat in the centre of the shack was a large container, secured with a padlock. Nero walked to it, and placed his finger on the scanner. On reading the chip, the padlock flashed green and opened, allowing Nero to pull open the doors to the container.

Inside, a menacing presence in the darkness, was a small shuttle, black and wedge-shaped. It was small enough that there was only room for one person, and the transparent canopy over the cockpit sat open, waiting for that person to enter.

Nero stepped forward, and climbed onto the small shuttle. Before climbing into the pilot’s seat, he reached up and opened the roof of the container, the two halves opening up and outwards. He then squeezed himself down into the cockpit, and slid the canopy closed above him. He pressed the glowing green ‘activate’ button in front of him, and the ion engines turned on, filling the container with an eerie blue light.

The ship lifted off the ground, and the landing gear retracted. Increasing the power, the ship rose further, and emerged out of the container, pushing its way through the flimsy roof of the shack. The late afternoon sunlight made its way into the cockpit, and Nero squinted slightly as his eyes adjusted. Then he spun the ship around, and angled it upwards.

Increasing the thrust from the engines, the speed rapidly increased, producing a loud bang as the ship passed the speed of sound, and very quickly it rose through the planet’s atmosphere. Nero was pushed back into his seat as the inertial compensators struggled to compensate for the acceleration, but very shortly, the ship ceased accelerating as it left the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere.

As the sky outside turned black, Nero turned in his seat, and took one final look at the planet he was leaving behind. Then he looked forward again, forcing himself to forget about the planet, and altered the ship’s course slightly as he engaged the ship’s spacetime distorters. He watched as the stars disappeared, and the small shuttle entered the strange world of the space-between-space.

CHAPTER TWELVE

ON THE RUN

A pale brown orb loomed out of the blackness in front of the ship, complete with areas glistening brightly in the light of the sun. Nero brought the speed of the ship down, relieved to finally be back in normal space again. The ship being as small as it was, it couldn’t get up to the sort of speeds normal shuttles could get up to, and he’d therefore spent a long time trapped in the confines of the single-seater cockpit.

He corrected the course slightly, and watched as the orange-brown planet got larger as he approached. When he was near the outer layers of the planet’s atmosphere, he saw a few other ships either arriving at or leaving the planet. That in itself was a strange sight for Nero, who was used to the relative quietness of Dimora, but equally strange was the surface of the planet itself. Now that he was closer, he could see that most of the planet was covered by water, with only a few small areas above the level of the water that were dry.

And these areas weren’t just dry, they were desert. Nero directed his ship to the largest patch of land that he could see, which was only large enough for one city, and found that the streets were essentially just strips of sandy, rocky ground. The buildings themselves were sandy in colour, made of some material Nero couldn’t recognise, and none were more than three levels high. It gave the city an oddly quaint air as Nero flew his ship over it.

On the far side of the city was the spaceport. Larger than any Nero had seen before, larger than any on Dimora, the city obviously did a thriving trade with other planets. He watched as five ships took off in quick succession, whilst another seven ships landed. Nero joined the stream of ships that were landing, and the shuttle’s AI computer interfaced with the port’s computer to find a free landing pad for him.

The small shuttle shuddered slightly as the thrust from the engines was reduced, and Nero maneuvered the ship down into the comically-oversized landing pad that he’d been assigned. He cut the ion engines once he had landed, and slid the canopy open.

“Welcome to Aellyn,” came the bored voice of an attendant as soon as Nero climbed out. “Please register your ship here,” he said, handing Nero a holodisplay with blank fields to fill in. Glancing at the man, who was dressed in dirty overalls and had grime all over his hands, he took the display and typed in some random details. “Enjoy your stay,” came the bored reply as the man walked away, leaving Nero to find his own way out of the spaceport.

As he made his way to the exit, he looked around at the spaceport, noticing how beautiful it was. The sandy structures that made up the buildings and walls were like nothing he had ever seen, almost looking like they grew organically out of the sandy ground.

Spotting a glowing red sign above the nearest building, which read ‘Welcome to Aellyn’, he made his way over and stepped inside. Away from all the ships taking off and landing, it was filled with people. Most were purposefully making their way through the place, heading out on some unknown errand, whilst others were stopped and talking with others. Perhaps negotiating a trade of some sort, Nero thought.

He made his way through, squeezing past a particularly large man, his belly hanging over his ill-fitting trousers. Nero shuddered and carried on, looking around the place as he went.

“Can I be of assistance, signore?” An attractive voice came from Nero’s right, near the exit of the spaceport. He looked over to see a young woman, dressed in similar overalls to the port worker he had seen, but they were clean on the woman, and fitted her much better.

“Er,” Nero started, and then recovered himself. “Yeah, maybe you could tell me where to find a bar? One where I might find some work, you know?”

The young woman smiled, and gave him a knowing look. “That sort of work, is it?” she asked. Apparently the rumours Nero had heard about this planet were correct. “There’s a place down the main street, called Mikkel’s. It’s hard to miss. You should find what you’re looking for there.”

“Thanks,” Nero replied, and turned to go.

“You know, I’ll be over there myself when I get off work in an hour. Maybe I’ll see you there?”

Nero turned back to look at the woman. She was attractive, very attractive, and normally he would have said yes in a heartbeat. But his thoughts drifted back to Ami. “Sure,” he replied, with a smile, not knowing whether he wanted her or not. Whether he wanted to forget about Ami or not.

With that, he left the bustling spaceport, and emerged onto what was presumably the main street in the city. It was very wide, covered with sand, and it was almost as busy as the spaceport had been. People - humans and a number of alien species - pushed hover-boards around, getting in the way of each other and frequently pausing to shout obscenities.

Nero weaved through the organised chaos and made his way down the street, on the lookout for Mikkel’s. He passed a number of bars that looked promising, with signs outside advertising all sorts of services inside the seedy premises. But he carried on. It wasn’t long before he noticed a particularly busy building on the left of the street, which, unlike most of the buildings surrounding it, had a second floor. At the top of the building, in large green letters, was the word ‘Mik el’s’. Apparently the second ‘k’ had fallen off.

He pushed his way past the crowd of people milling around outside, managing to knock a tiny alien over, who promptly launched a tirade of abuse at Nero, and ducked through the low doorway to enter the dingy confines of the bar.

A set of steps descended from the entrance, leading to a large, circular room with tables and chairs scattered almost at random across the floor. Nearly every chair was occupied, however, and the crowd at the bar itself was at least two people deep in most places. Nero glanced at the nearest table, and saw three people huddled over it, discussing something in hushed voices. They looked sharply at Nero when one of them noticed him looking.

Walking down the steps, he made his way over to the bar. A couple of bedraggled-looking men were deep in conversation, and Nero used the opportunity to squeeze through to the front of the crowd, and managed to attract the barman’s attention. The portly alien waddled over to Nero, apron straining to contain the bulk of the creature.

“What will it be?” the alien asked in a deep, gravelly voice. Its jowls shook as it spoke.

“Something strong,” Nero replied, neither knowing what he could order, nor caring. The barman turned his back on Nero and placed a glass under the dispenser. A thick stream of some dark liquid rushed out of the nozzle and filled the mug. When the barman gave the drink to Nero, a strong earthy smell wafted up from the mug. He took a sip with a certain amount of suspicion, but it turned out to be pretty good. It had a strangely tangy, rich taste. And it also had an impressive kick. He took a bigger sip.

The barman had already moved on to the next customer, and Nero turned away from the bar. Pushing back past the two bedraggled men, he spotted a vacant table part way across the room. Increasing his pace, he made it there just in front of an alien, who managed to pull such a sorry-looking face that Nero almost let it have the table. But then he realised how exhausted he was, and instead took it for himself.

For a time, he just sat at the table and watched life go by in the busy establishment. There was a constant stream of people entering and leaving the bar, many of whom didn’t even stop long enough for a drink. Many of them just looked around, spotted someone they knew, and headed over to sit at their table for a while. Sometimes, Nero saw a small parcel change hands, and sometimes they just talked. There always seemed to be a brusque air to the exchanges, however, and a feeling of enforced civility. As if they were conversations neither party particularly enjoyed.

Nero wondered what they were trying to negotiate.

A table a little distance away from him caught his attention in particular. Two people were sat at it, both human, a male and a female. Unlike most of the people in Mikkel’s, these two looked like they enjoyed the constant meetings they seemed to be having. Nero kept hearing laughter echo across from the table, and they always greeted their guests enthusiastically. Perhaps the most encouraging sign, however, were the guests who most often left with a smile on their face. Or if not a smile, at least they didn’t look hostile.

When a table nearer to the two humans freed up, Nero quietly moved closer to them, in the hope of hearing some of their discussions. He slipped into the vacant seat and placed his nearly-empty mug on the table.

“...tomorrow, or the day after at the latest,” the woman was saying.

“Wonderful, signora. That would be wonderful.” The alien sat opposite the pair had a strange accent, and was a species Nero had never encountered before. Its skin was a dull blue in colour, and its limbs were very strangely proportioned. When it stood up to leave, it towered above every other person in the room.

“Impressive reputation,” the man said, turning to face the woman once the alien had left.

“Yeah,” she replied, hesitation evident in her voice. “But something struck me as a bit odd about him. He seemed... I don’t know. He didn’t seem right.”

“I know what you mean,” the man replied. “Let’s see how the next one does. She’s apparently very skilled with hand-to-hand combat.”

Nero watched as the man got up and went over to the bar, bringing back another few mugs of pale, golden liquid. He sat down again, and then he and the woman huddled closer to talk, talking quietly enough that Nero couldn’t make out what they were saying over the general din of the bar. He contented himself with sitting back, and downed the last dregs of his drink. It sounded like these people were recruiting, though for what, he didn’t know.

Ten minutes later, a human woman walked up to the pair’s table, and Nero looked up, interested. She exchanged pleasantries with the pair, and then sat down, looking utterly confident in the seat. Nero was impressed already.

“So you know why you’re here?” the man started, addressing the other woman. “We’ve heard good things about you, and we’re looking to find someone new to join our team. Someone who has certain skills, if you know what I mean.” Nero’s ears pricked up.

“And I’ve heard of you,” the woman replied. “Reese Anjek and Trix Stefanik. You’ve built up quite the reputation in the old smuggling circle.” The pair exchanged looks, her bluntness obviously an annoyance, though she didn’t seem to care.

Nero quickly became bored as they went through some mundane questions with the woman, but it didn’t matter. He’d heard what he wanted to hear. It was exactly the sort of job he needed, something that wouldn’t draw much attention, and would take him away from this planet, where he was still at risk of being found by Aegis. He involuntarily glanced towards the door at the thought; it was surely only a matter of time before they tracked his shuttle.

The woman stood up from the table after a time, bringing Nero’s attention back to the present. She abruptly turned and walked out of the bar, her confident air now more of a cocky one. The pair, Reese and Trix, gave each other wry looks, obviously dismissing her out of hand. Nero couldn’t say he blamed them. She had rubbed him up the wrong way, and he wasn’t even speaking to her.

Another person came and went from the table, an older man this time, before Reese and Trix decided to leave. Nero, his head swimming slightly from the strong drink, stood up after them, and at a discrete distance, followed them out of the bar.

They emerged into the night, darkness having descended over the sandy city. Reese and Trix glanced about as they stepped out the door, and then headed off in the direction Nero had arrived from, towards the spaceport. He followed, the crowds allowing him to stay close to the pair of smugglers without being noticed.

Arriving at the spaceport, they pushed through the dense crowd of people in the entrance, and once inside, Nero watched as they boarded a medium-sized transport ship. It was maybe a hundred metres long, and was covered in the scorch marks that indicated heavy use. He smiled, knowing he’d found a crew he could work with.

But that was for the morning. For now, he wasn’t nearly drunk enough to forget his troubles, and so headed back out of the spaceport, and back along the street to Mikkel’s. He still hadn’t seen the attractive young woman from the spaceport, and after having had a drink, that thought had become a lot more important.

Weaving through the crowds, which if anything seemed even denser than when he’d arrived in the daylight, he re-entered the seedy-looking bar that was Mikkel’s. He managed to order himself another couple of drinks from the bar, and this time, didn’t get a table. Instead, he simply stood with his back to the bar, and watched the crowds of people.

He had downed a couple of drinks by the time he saw her, sat at a table across the room, chatting with an alien dressed in the same spaceport overalls. Shrugging to himself, he got a fresh round, and decided to head over there. He felt in need of the company.

****

Sunlight streaming in through the window woke him up in the morning. He groaned, and rolled over in the bed, feeling as if he’d only had a couple of hours sleep. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced at the time in his holodisplay, and realised it really had been just two hours. He let out a louder groan, and stared at the peeling paintwork on the ceiling.

A movement from the other side of the bed startled him, and he looked over to see the woman from last night lying there, covers rucked up around her. What was her name? He couldn’t remember. Everything after he’d gone over to join her table last night had become a bit hazy, with just the odd fleeting image making its way into his mind. The image of a dancing alien was one of them, which struck him as a bit strange.

Slowly easing out of the bed, he found his trousers, and his jacket, both carelessly strewn on the floor, and slipped them back on. Then he simply watched her for a moment, as she breathed in and out, her chest rising and falling. He contemplated waking her up, but then thought better of it, and slipped out of the room instead. He wanted to be off this planet as soon as he could, and for that, he needed the smugglers and their ship.