- .... . / .- - - .- -.-. -.- / .. ... / --- -. / .... --- .-.. -.. .-.-.- / - . .-.. .. --- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -... . / -.-. --- -- .. -. --. / .- -... --- .- .-. -.. .-.-.- / ... .... . / - .... .. -. -.- ... / - .... . .-. . .----. ... / .- / .-- .- -.-- / - --- / -.-. --- -- -- ..- -. .. -.-. .- - . .-.-.- / .-- . .----. .-.. .-.. / -... . / -... .- -.-. -.- / ... .... --- .-. - .-.. -.-- .-.-.-
The attack is on hold. Telio will be coming aboard. She thinks there’s a way to communicate. We’ll be back shortly.
Timony sat back and sighed.
Okay, that was something.
“What did he mean?” Oneida asked. “When he said he was sorry.”
Timony leaned back in the chair. “Carriles is the ship’s pilot, and I guess he’s running the show now. Not sure how that happened.” She gazed around the room. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. His mom was a bigwig Martian senator. My parents were . . . not so important. We went to school together and we stayed friends. I got into the Bazaar, he got into the pilot academy. But he always frustrated me . . .”
Oneida sat in a chair across from Timony and locked eyes with her.
“Why?”
That was a big why. Timony got the sense that Oneida wanted to understand what had happened between them, the way a zoologist studies animal behavior. Curiosity with a dash of empathy.
“Carriles is one of those people who is just naturally talented at whatever he picks up. He could trip over a violin, and by the time he got to his feet, he would know how to play a concerto. He rode on his natural ability and his mom’s name and he just . . . floated. I had to break my ass in half just to keep up with him. I had to study harder. Work harder.”
Oneida offered a sheepish little grin.
“I have a friend like that,” Oneida said. “We love each other, but she resents me for the things I’ve achieved.”
“It’s not about resentment. I don’t begrudge him for how easy he has it. It just frustrates me that he doesn’t seem to get how easy it was for him. When I got into the Bazaar, I was competitive. I wanted to be the best. So I went looking for an edge. I got into Boost. It’s a drug . . .”
“I’m aware of Boost,” Oneida said. “I tried it once. It made me sleepy. Not designed for my physiology, I guess.”
“I guess not,” Timony said. “Anyway, I was getting my Boost from Carriles. He was dealing as a way to earn a little cash. And because he just thought he was untouchable, and wanted to prove it. And he was, until he got caught with a felony quantity. Anyone else would have been thrown in jail. Not only did he get a pass but he got to stay a pilot.”
Timony sighed, tried to center herself.
“Anyway, they traced his contacts and found he was dealing to me. And because I didn’t have boundless potential along with a famous mom, I got demoted, with probably no pathway to get back to where I used to be. He skated. I took the brunt of it.”
Oneida nodded slowly. “That sounds very hard.”
“It was. Even with his mom gone, his name still carried weight. But what made me the angriest is the fact that he could have, I don’t know . . . done something. Not just sat back and watched my life fall apart.”
“But you made your choice, too.”
Timony wanted to defend herself, and realized she couldn’t. “Yeah, I did.”
“There are limits to power,” Oneida said. “And there are consequences to actions. He apologized. Do you accept?”
Timony considered the swell of emotion in her chest, and finally said, “Yes.”
“Why?”
Timony laughed. “All humanity is standing on the edge of a cliff. And your people are ready to push us over the side.” She shrugged. “It seems petty, in light of that, doesn’t it? To hold a grudge?” She folded her hands in her lap. “If I’m going to die in the next hour, I don’t want to die feeling the way I’ve felt for the last year. I want to meet it with a little bit of serenity. I know he never meant to hurt me. I’m forgiving him as much as I’m forgiving myself.”
“Hmm,” Oneida said.
There was a lot in that Hmm, Timony thought. She wasn’t sure what, but she liked the way it sounded.
“So now what?” Oneida asked.
“We wait.”
Timony got up and moved over to the window looking out over the streets. When she looked out, she was hit by a sight she hadn’t even considered, but made total sense given the situation.
Bedlam. Absolute chaos.
People were running in the streets. Screaming—though Timony couldn’t hear them through the double-paned, bulletproof glass. The panic was palpable. Parents ushering their children inside. Mobs forming, stomping down the street. Small fires burning.
That’s why the Bazaar offices were empty.
They weren’t just looking for Timony. It was all hands on deck out there.
And this would only get worse. Timony watched as someone smashed the front window of a fancy jewelry store. Then saw a group of young men storm in to pick the place clean.
Right.
Everyone was just finding out what she’d already known. She tilted her head, to look up and toward the dome. The vast of space suddenly didn’t seem so vast.
Because there was something blocking the view.
Oneida appeared at Timony’s shoulder. She gazed out over the chaos in the streets and shook her head. “This is why we made the decision we did.”
Timony felt a surge of anger. “So every planet, every society that makes up the Mutual, they’re all perfect, huh?”
Oneida paused. “Well, no, I mean—”
“These people are scared,” Timony said. “For all they know, they’re about to die. To be perfectly frank, I’m not even sure I want to be a member of your fancy fucking club at this point, if you lack the ability to just consider what someone else might be feeling.”
Oneida drew a long breath. She looked out at the street and shook her head.
“Maybe you’re—”
Oneida was cut off by a sharp bang as the door was swung open. Six Bazaar security agents swarmed in, wearing black tactical gear, carrying stun sticks, the blue ends crackling with electricity. They filed into the room, forming a barricade between Timony, Oneida, and the door.
Sandwyn, wearing his own set of tactical gear, sans helmet, strode into the room with a blaster clutched in his right hand.
“Timony—I’m so disappointed in you.”
Timony’s stomach dropped. Their entrance into the Bazaar had been too easy up until now. She thought maybe she’d just gotten lucky, that everyone was out in the streets, so busy looking for her, or dealing with an alien invasion, that they’d skirted through unnoticed.
But Tobin must have alerted Sandywn.
“What did I tell you, Timony?” Sandwyn asked. “I told you to forget it.”