Muffled voices drew Auri out of a light sleep. She groaned, massaging the small of her back as she sat up. After being caught in the cargo room, Auri had been unceremoniously marched into a kitchen and locked in the pantry with Birdie. Around her were bins of dehydrated food, sacks of potatoes and rice, and haphazard towers of clean dishes and cookware.
Birdie uncurled from her position at Auri’s feet. The dog stretched, her tongue unfurling in a yawn. Auri found herself yawning too. Tears sprang up in her eye and she blinked them away.
The voices rose. One distinctively male and familiar. The pantry’s thick door rendered the words unintelligible, but the sharp tone hinted at an argument. Auri shifted to press her ear against the wood, the cuff on her wrist pulled taut where it was attached to a twenty-five-kilo tub of rice.
“You’re all to stay out of her way.” The deep voice got louder, as if the speaker were moving toward the door. “Now get out of here.”
The lock clicked as someone on the other side unhooked it. She scrambled backward as the pantry door slid open.
The man with the mesmerizing eyes stood before her in the same jacket, zipped up to his neck. He eyed her with one brow raised. Neither of them moved. He seemed to be waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he knelt in front of her to undo the bindings around her ankles as well as the cuff at her wrist. Birdie sat a silent observer, though the sides of her lips were up, baring her teeth. Judging by the man’s steady hands, he didn’t seem to mind the canine threat at his back.
Once freed, the man led Auri out of the pantry and into the kitchen. She rubbed her sore wrist against her side. The scent of breakfast lingered in the air: bacon, eggs, and ripe strawberries. Her stomach grumbled, but the man didn’t seem to notice. To her left, an enormous dining room table with seven chairs sat vacant.
He led her through the kitchen and down a long hallway lined with doors but not a crew member in sight. Birdie pranced alongside Auri, eager to be out of the pantry. Even still, the dog didn’t take her eyes off the man.
“Where are we going?” Auri asked, abandoning her silent bravado in favor of self-preservation.
He halted before the last door and turned to look at her. “Hear anything interesting?”
Her brows furrowed. “What?”
“When you were eavesdropping.” He leaned forward, almost conspiratorially. Birdie growled.
“You’re holding me captive.” Auri refused to step back. “Of course I eavesdropped. Where is the rest of your crew?”
“Far away from you.” He slid open the door, revealing a decent-sized bathroom.
She was overcome with the urge to rip off her uniform here in the hallway. The stench, dirt, and blood coating its fibers suddenly seemed too much. Birdie whined, making her personal needs known.
“There’s a change of clothes in there,” he said. “My doctor says you can’t get your head wound or your arm wet.” The man gestured into the bathroom. “A small tray is in there for your dog to relieve herself. Clean up after her. I’ll be back for you in an hour or so. Oh. And don’t. Leave.” He said the last two words slowly, annunciating the threat that lurked there. There was an edge of nerves in the tightness around his mouth. What was he hiding?
“Arigato.” Auri gave him a shallow bow. Considering she’d tried to escape last night, the last thing he needed to do was let her bathe. She’d been surprised she hadn’t been tossed out the airlock. “I…” She hesitated, searching for the best words. “I tried to leave last night because I don’t know what you want. If you’d just tell me why you’re helping me, maybe…” Maybe what? She didn’t know. She let the sentence dangle, waiting for his reaction.
He rubbed a finger under the glove on his hand. “If you’d tell me the truth about the files on your floppy, maybe we could come to an understanding.”
That was a secret she wasn’t willing to trade. Before she told anyone else about the subtle connections between the cases on her floppy, she wanted to have concrete facts. She respected the GIC and his officers too much for rumors to be spread about them throughout the galaxy. Besides, she barely knew this man.
When she didn’t respond, he turned and walked away. Auri stepped into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, engaging the lock one-handed.
Birdie wasn’t pleased about her waste requirements. Even when Auri commanded her to go, the dog hesitated, the whites of her eyes showing in a painfully pitiful expression. In the end, like a good DISC aid, Birdie obeyed.
Auri stripped out of her grimy clothes with reckless glee. The entire bathroom was tiled, with a handheld shower nozzle built into one wall. The tub next to it had a waterproof touchscreen for controls. Three sinks and a toilet comprised the rest of the space. She wondered if this bathroom belonged to the crew. And if so, where they were all hiding.
She bathed in the traditional way: showering first and then soaking in the tub. The shower was awkward as she had to keep her arm and forehead dry, but she groaned as her sore body sunk deep into the warm water of the bath. Her robotic arm dangled outside, safe from the dangers of mixing liquid and electricity.
Until Birdie tried to jump into the tub.
“No!” Auri cried through laughter, shoving the dog away. Though she would’ve loved to clean the blood-matted curls, poodle hair dried notoriously slow, and she didn’t have a drier. Not to mention she would need two usable hands.
Once Birdie grudgingly curled up on the floor by the tub, Auri slid into the water up to her nose. Crimson strands of hair floated on the water’s surface, eddying this way and that. The gladiolus pendant nestled in the hollow of her throat under the water. She blew a burst of bubbles, and they popped against her nose.
Medea was the farthest habitable planet from Krugel’s Curve, a notorious hotspot for criminals, gangs, and anyone interested in escaping the Fed’s watch. Hence the man’s suspicion at her destination, though she knew there had to be regular people, families, who lived there. Everyone couldn’t be a criminal. There were still military bases in the more remote areas. Once she got off the transport from Tanoki, she would get to one. And then?
She had only one day left before she was supposed to report to Captain Ishida for her next assignment, if there was one. There was no way she would make it back to Rokuton in time.
Indecision played tug-of-war in her heart. Seeing Uma District for herself hadn’t given her any clear answers. What should she do next? Keep investigating? Or fess up to disobeying orders and going AWOL?
The ship gave a rough jolt as if its forward trajectory had slowed, then stopped. Movement resumed again, making the bathwater slosh gently against Auri’s chin. There was a final jerk and the entire craft stilled. They must’ve landed on Tanoki.
Auri forced herself from the tub and into the clothes left out for her: a pair of cargo pants and a gray, high-necked tank with a cartoon cat face on it. The pants were a little small in the hips and the tank too big in the chest. Auri wondered if they belonged to the woman from earlier.
She looked down at the tank once she’d wriggled into it and grimaced. The webbing of scars along her shoulder stood out in sharp contrast against the gray top. She bit her lip, glancing at her dirtied uniform jacket. Blood stained one shoulder and sleeve. Dirt clung to the fabric, not to mention splotches of dried vomit and rank body odor.
Auri ran a finger over the ridge of one scar jutting across her skin. Putting on her jacket, as much as she longed to hide the scars, was idiotic. Not to mention disgusting. Besides, why should she care what that man thought of her? She gritted her teeth and looked away from her disfigured flesh.
A sling had been left for her robotic arm, which she made awkward use of. Since she lacked two hands to braid her hair, she combed it out as best she could. The curls dampened the back of her borrowed tank, making the material stick to her skin.
For a moment, she considered barricading herself in the bathroom and never coming out. The scent of lavender still hung in the air from her bathwater and shampoo. But another growl from her stomach nixed that idea. If the man was kind enough to let her bathe, maybe he would also give her breakfast. That thought was enough to slide her feet into a pair of slippers and unlock the door.
To her surprise, the man hadn’t returned. Instead, a girl leaned against the wall across the hall. She wore a traditional yukata with a sunflower pattern across the bright fabric. Like the man and woman, she also bore a black cuff over her barcode. After a moment of hazy recollection, Auri recognized her as the bald girl on Kaido.
Up close, the girl’s eyes looked similar to Auri’s: not quite right. They didn’t house light sensors like all robotic optics required, but hers were still… different. Less human somehow. Like everything the girl saw was processed in binary code and fed into a machine.
Like the girl is a droid. The thought made Auri shiver. But there was no way she could be. Droids—humanoid robots—had been banned on Earth after their code malfunction, and even hundreds of years later, no one wanted to make those same mistakes. Sleep deprivation was messing with Auri’s head.
The girl pushed off the wall, her bare feet silent on the wood floor.
“Um, hello,” Auri said, splaying a hand across her shoulder to cover her scars. She glanced at Birdie to judge her canine partner’s reaction. The dog’s tail was low, but it twitched in a tentative wag.
The girl’s face remained expressionless, but she answered, “Hello, Onee-chan.”
The term made Auri’s forehead crinkle. Onee-chan meant big sister. “I’m not—”
“Marin!” The man hurried down the hall, black slippers swishing against the wood floor. “What are you doing?” He ignored Auri, wrapping an arm around the girl’s shoulders and towing her away. Auri caught his whispered words, “I said I didn’t want the Fed to see the crew. That includes you.”
After a hushed conversation, the man shooed Marin away. Marin glanced back at Auri before she walked off, turning left at the end of the hall and vanishing from sight.
The man returned to Auri’s side. He eyed her hand, still splayed across her shoulder.
“Do the clothes fit?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you.” She clenched her jaw and forced her hand back to her side. The scars seemed to burn on her skin as the man’s gaze flicked over them.
When his stoic expression didn’t change, the embarrassment whirling inside her stilled. As much as she claimed not to care what he, or his crew, thought of her scars, she’d expected a reaction. Disgust, surprise, pity. Curiosity, even. Not this uncaring stare. For an instant, she wondered why she spent so much time hiding her deformities back home.
Then her fingers fluttered back to her shoulder.
“This way.” He escorted her to the kitchen, where a solitary plate bursting with bacon, eggs, and fruit waited for her. She sat at the table, salivating at the beautiful sight. The man took a seat across from her.
“Itadakimasu,” she said and scooped up a pair of disposable chopsticks. Auri alternated between feeding Birdie and feeding herself. Her concerns over her scars disappeared under the onslaught of delicious flavor. Even the man’s multi-colored scrutiny didn’t suppress her appetite. She’d devoured half the plate’s contents before he finally spoke.
“While you were in the bath, we touched down on Tanoki.”
Auri choked down a chunk of eggs. “Is this where you threaten me?”
“No. You’re free to go after you eat. Oh, and here’s this.” He slid her floppy across the table.
Her eyes widened. She never expected to get it back. Afraid he might change his mind, she snagged the tech and secured it in a pocket of the borrowed cargo pants.
“Am I really free to go?” She sipped at her hot green tea with what she hoped appeared to be uncaring bravery. Not suspicious anxiety.
“You are.” He leaned back, stretching his arms overhead. “It might be hard for you to find your way without connecting to the grid, but you’re a DISC agent. You all are born with an infallible sense of direction, right?”
Auri lowered the round mug to the tabletop. When she mapped out her plan in the bath, she hadn’t factored in lack of directions. For every citizen, the grid was a constant companion. Remembering that she couldn’t connect to it made her organic skin icy. How would she locate a transport on Tanoki? How would she even reach a military base on Medea?
“Your friend from last night could escort you to the transports,” he offered with a shrug.
The woman’s face rose up in Auri’s memory: the danger in the curve of her muscles, the playful malice in her eyes. Friend was the last word Auri would use to describe her.
“She could even escort you to your family. For an extra fee.” He glanced at her, brows raised.
She frowned. Usually credits were transferred via the grid, but if the intended party was less than ten meters away, they could be transferred off-grid. She’d just never had a reason to do so.
“Right. Does my ‘friend’ have a name?” she asked. “Do you?” She was getting tired of thinking of him as the man. If she needed to rely on the woman to guide her around a criminal’s haven, Auri deserved to know her name.
He hesitated. “You can call her Katara.”
“And you?”
“Malachi.”
“Malachi.” It was an old-fashioned name and tasted sharp on her tongue. “How much would it cost for Katara to escort me to the transport shuttle on Tanoki?” As much as she needed a guide on Medea, she didn’t need one of Malachi’s crew members obtaining proof of the “family” ruse.
They spent a few minutes haggling over the price. She agreed to pay him half now and half when she arrived safely at the transport. The cost was steep and drained more than half of her monetary reserves. But what else could she do?
Malachi sent her his account information and some of her suspicion lessened. The pirates hadn’t wanted her credits. Malachi accepting them was proof that he acted as a real Fed supply transporter, right? Maybe people on the rim covered their barcodes with cuffs to protect their personal information from strangers.
“What about my disc?” she asked once money changed accounts.
“It’s waiting for you in the cargo hold along with your shoes. You’ll get both when you leave.”
“Good.” Auri flexed the fingers of her hand, recommitting to practicing using the disc with it instead of her robotic arm. At this point, she would just be happy to hold the weapon again.
Malachi led Auri and Birdie out of the kitchen and into the upper balcony area of the cargo room. Katara stood in the center of it, Auri’s disc and its holster tucked under an arm. Auri shot a wry look at Malachi as they walked down the steps side by side.
“You already told her to take me?” she asked, covering her scarred shoulder with a hand as they got closer to Katara. “You didn’t know I’d say yes.”
Malachi didn’t reply, but she was surprised to see him smirk.
He crossed to Katara while Auri awkwardly shoved on her boots with one hand. He whispered something into Katara’s ear, which made her sigh in annoyance. The woman wore an outfit similar to Auri’s, except she had added a cropped jacket and fingerless gloves. Her hair was still styled in the same undercut and multiple braids.
Katara turned from Malachi to stare at Auri, her eyes a solemn mask. It reminded Auri of high clearance MPB officers. Some people called them Shadow Walkers due to the careful way they moved, as if they existed in a world of murderers and ghosts. Always on guard, always armed for attack.
Auri’s toes curled at the thought. But if she was going to have someone lead her through Tanoki, she figured Katara would be the best choice.
Not that she had a choice.
“I have a meeting for a job with a Fed supplier on Tanoki,” Malachi said, turning back to her and swapping slippers for shoes. “So I’ll walk to the docking gate with you. Then you two are on your own.” He gave Katara a pointed look that Auri assumed meant, Don’t eat her alive. The woman held the disc and harness out.
Auri hesitated. She longed to have her weapon back, but she didn’t want to move her hand. Malachi didn’t care about her scars, but this woman was beautiful and strong.
“You should wear them proudly,” Katara said.
“What?”
Katara just shook the disc in front of Auri like it was a dog treat.
That sparked her indignation. Auri took the disc and fumbled with the harness, attempting to adjust it one-handed.
“Here.” Malachi held it out for her so she could ease her arms in. He adjusted his grip so each time she moved his fingers wouldn’t brush her bare skin.
Once the holster and disc were settled, he stepped back.
“Wait.” Katara slipped off her jacket and held it out. “If she’s going to be wearing that weapon, she’ll need to cover it up. They won’t take kindly to bounty hunters on Tanoki or Medea.”
She was getting tired of being called a bounty hunter, the worst insult for a DISC agent. Not that she would refuse the jacket. It would hide her deformed skin.
“I don’t understand.” Auri shook her head. “Tanoki is part of the Federation. My presence should reassure the people.”
Malachi quirked his lips. “Are you sure you’ve been to Medea, Aurelia?”
“Yes.” She glared at him.
“Right.”
Again, he helped her slide the jacket on. Auri redid her sling. She hesitated, but then ripped off the velcro DISC patches fixed to both sides of Birdie’s working harness and slipped them into a jacket pocket.
Katara nodded her approval. Auri found herself strangely warmed by it, though what it meant for the next steps of her journey was anyone’s guess.