Mae had been pushing a cart loaded with metal ore towards the sorting facility when she dipped out of consciousness. When she came to, it was with a sense of relief that no one had noticed. She pushed herself up from the cart, which she’d slumped across.
Visions of monsters and death once more, but the details remained impossible to pin down. She looked back down the dock, but from this position, none of the Popes would have seen her slump over. She’d take that as a win. Daniella wasn’t someone she wanted knowing about these episodes of hers. Mae knew she’d never be able to explain them.
Instead, she hurriedly pushed the cart into the sorting station. She held up the ID William had given her to log the find, and left the ore in the capable sorting hands of the alchemist synthetic. This was her third load. William and Daniella were experts at this.
Mae stepped sideways into the office and spoke to Yeni, the young woman behind the salvage counter.
She wore ornately braided hair and the bored expression of someone much older.
The girl let out a strangled sigh. “So, I checked with my supervisor. The Eumenides can claim provisional salvage, with your fingerprint here.” She pushed a pad across the table. “Miss Mae… Henderson?”
She nodded. “What do I need to do to make it permanent?”
Yeni scrolled through the pad. “The salvage sum will get transferred to the Eumenides account once your UPP ID is reinstated. So, load the rest of your haul and bring it in for accounting.”
Mae smiled brightly. “Thank you so much!”
Yeni returned to scrolling through her personal wrist-pd and made no comment.
Mae’s smile faded as she walked back down the dock. It was nice to get the salvage enumerated, but how was she going to get a UPP ID with no idea of what her actual name was?
She took her time returning to the Eumenides, making sure that she wasn’t about to pass out. Upon reaching the vessel, she slapped on the smile again.
“They say they’re ready for the last of the salvage.” She pushed an empty cart up next to the cargo bay entrance. “Do you think it’s worth much?”
“We’ve got some good stuff here.” Daniella straightened and pressed one hand into her back. “At least enough to make up for not bringing in anything else.”
“Hon, the metals alone should put us nicely into profit.” William shot a smile at Mae. “Thank you for turning over the salvage rights. Eumenides is always sailing on the edge, and this really helps.”
“Well, we can’t be certain of the final price we’ll get. Guelph enumerations are not known for their straight shooting or quick payment. That could take a while.”
William shrugged. “Always does.”
Mae wondered if that meant Daniella wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t blame her for ruining their salvage. Lenny’s mom was a closed book most of the time. Mae stayed silent, lest she tip her back into annoyance.
Over William’s shoulder, she spotted Morgan and Lenny waving at her from next to the elevator. Their hurried gestures urged Mae to join them.
“Is it alright if I go see what they want?” she asked Daniella.
The older woman pursed her lips for a couple of seconds. “They’re staying back there in case I rope them into work.”
“Come on, hon,” William broke in, “they haven’t seen station for a long spell, and you and me can get the rest done right quick.”
Daniella let out a long sigh. “Wonderful how they always turn up when the work is all done. Off you go, Mae.”
She stripped off her work gloves and passed them back to Daniella with a smile. “Thank you.”
Mae hustled down the dock, only barely restraining herself from breaking into a run, glad to be free of the danger of collapsing in front of the elder Popes. She examined the brothers’ faces as she got closer. Their expressions didn’t suggest they’d enjoyed a good meal, as they’d said they were off to do.
Lenny’s brows were furrowed, and Morgan didn’t meet her eye. As she neared, Mae hissed under her breath, “What did you do?”
“Not here.” Morgan kept his voice so low that the ambient rumble of the dockyard almost masked the words entirely.
Morgan jerked his head, indicating that she should join them inside the elevator. Lenny jammed the highest button on the elevator.
“You should see the hydroponics level.” His eyes met hers and then rolled up towards the ceiling. Cameras. Mae hadn’t known her own name at first, but she still somehow understood surveillance.
The doors opened into a large warehouse filled with ranks of shelves and tubes, all green and growing. The smell was loamy but somehow comforting, the odor of living things.
Lenny led the way between the shelves. “Don’t worry, we aren’t trespassing, because these aren’t for eating. The company lets managers have a plant in their offices, so they grow them here. The rest help create oxygen while scrubbing carbon dioxide from the station’s atmosphere.”
The misters sprang to life as they passed, throwing tiny beads of water onto their skin and hair. Morgan drew Lenny and Mae deeper among the racks and into an isolated corner. In there, the plants were much taller, with huge arrow-shaped leaves. The hiss of the watering system provided a deep white noise that Mae guessed was the reason the brothers had brought her here.
“Not many station ears up here, and the watering system will stay on for another ten minutes.” Lenny confirmed her suspicions. He glanced at his brother and then back at Mae. “You need to see this.”
Without saying a word, Morgan turned his personal wrist-pd around so she could get a good look at the contents. The face staring back at her wasn’t familiar, but she’d stared at something like it for days in the mirror on the Eumenides. Her finger traced the image, as if she could somehow download it into her brain and get some answers.
“Zula Hendricks?” Mae attempted to force the name into her mind. Her hands balled into fists, and her jaw clenched tight as she stared fixedly at the face.
Nothing. Some of those flashes that passed through her mind might have included this woman who looked so like her, but her memory remained a frustrating sieve.
She wanted to smash the nearby hydroponics tubes and scream. Neither of those acts were options. All she could do was ride the emotion to the end.
A strangled, gulping breath escaped Mae. “I don’t recognize her,” was all she offered. “Her face is like mine, but I don’t recognize her.” She slumped back against the wall amongst the thick leaves.
“Hey, it’s a start.” Lenny’s voice was kind, but she was as empty as the Long Dark itself. “We can keep working on it.”
Morgan shifted from foot to foot, unable to meet her gaze. “Look, we tried. I’m going back to the Eumenides. We got to pass station inspection before we can head out again.”
Lenny might have told her all this himself, but Mae grasped why his brother came with him. Morgan didn’t trust her. Lenny must have told him what happened on the dock earlier, and he wanted to make sure she wasn’t about to smash his little brother to bits. Mae didn’t blame him at all—it was the smart thing to do.
“Sure,” she said, under her breath.
After he left, she stared at her feet for a long time while Lenny remained quiet.
“So, you think I might be military like her?”
“It’s a possibility.”
“And with that, she might even be a close relative. Is that what you believe?”
“You look too alike for it to be coincidence.” Lenny didn’t say it, but he must be thinking the same. If they went to the medical bay, they could take her DNA and sort this whole mess out in a few minutes. Except everything inside Mae told her not to go there. A dreadful, illogical certainty that it would be the end of her kept her resolved to that.
Silence persisted for a long time. The drip of water on the plants was almost soothing, but when the cycle finished, she’d be no better off.
Lenny cleared his throat. “Maybe we can track her down?”
A feeling swelled inside Mae, and it was one completely alien and unattached to anything real. “And if she’s dead?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a voice—one confined to her head—spoke up. Zula Hendricks is very hard to kill.
Great, now she had disembodied voices rattling around in her mind. Her heart raced, but she didn’t need to share this recent development with Lenny.
“If she’s like you, she’s hard to kill.” Lenny gave her a crooked smile. “I’ve heard that Colonial Marines are tough hombres.”
Mae banged her palm against her head, as if it might shake something loose. He caught her hand, and the instinct to strike back thankfully didn’t rise.
“Come on, be kind to yourself. We’ll figure it out somehow.”
Instead of hitting him, Mae’s fingers tightened around his. She was lost in this world, not even aware of her own past. This young man didn’t have to help her, but he did because he was a gentle person. She didn’t need to understand much about the galaxy to understand that was rare.
She leaned in close and kissed him on the lips. Lenny froze as if she had, in fact, struck him. After a moment, he carefully guided her back. Now his cheeks were flushed, and he was unable to meet her eyes.
“Uh, that was nice, but you didn’t need to do that.”
Now she’d ruined this, too. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand where that came from!”
“Shit, now I’m making you feel worse.” Lenny squeezed her hand. “I didn’t say I hated it, but I don’t want you to kiss me while you’re so lost. You don’t have an idea who you are yet. Maybe… yeah… later, we can revisit this thing.”
“At least I know how to be embarrassed. Haven’t forgotten how to do that.”
He chuckled. “It’s only human to want to make connections, and yeah, kissing is one way to do that. At the same time, I don’t want you to think I’m helping you for that reason.” He cocked his head. “Morgan’s that shallow—not me.”
They both laughed. “So, forget it?” Mae asked.
“Only for now.” He glanced up. “The watering timers are about to finish, so let’s get back to the ship. Mom will have dinner ready, and it saves spending money on shitty station food.”
They strolled back to the elevator, disturbing three or four couples who’d come up to the hydroponics level for more intimate moments. They all leaped back into the greenery and shouted at Mae and Lenny. By the time they reached the elevator, they were both giggling awkwardly.
“I told you,” he said, shaking his head, “the sound of the watering cycle covers a lot of things.”
They rode the elevator back down to the dock. The door slid open as they were still laughing, so they didn’t spot it immediately. Mae heard it first and spun around, pulling Lenny back against the wall of the elevator. Their laughter died immediately.
Armed synthetics stood in a row right at the base of the Eumenides’ cargo bay ramp. Visible over their heads were more guards, though it was impossible to tell if they were human or synths at this distance. Daniella’s voice punctuated the strangely quiet docking area.
“This cargo is legal salvage. Get the deck chief down here, now!”
A soft voice, low but menacing, returned a counterpoint to her argument. “We’re not here about that. We understand you are transporting an undocumented person on your ship.”
“What is that man saying to my mom?” Lenny lunged forward, but Mae automatically flung out her arm to hold him back in the dark interior of the elevator. Something must be wrong with his hearing.
“We’re a registered Guelph ship. You can’t just come in here.” That was Morgan. Like Lenny studied spaceships, he studied corporate laws. Whether he was in the right didn’t appear to matter. Shouts echoed down the dock. A tussle broke out. Punches were thrown, and the synthetic guards coalesced around the distant figures of the Popes.
Go. Go now. You can’t wait. You can’t help them.
The voice in her head was urgent. As Lenny surged forward to dash down the dock, Mae shoved him back into the elevator and jabbed the button to take them up. He struggled against her, but she trapped him in a headlock and spoke gently into his ear.
“They’ll be fine. They’re looking for me, but if you go down there, they’ll lock you up too. You’re an accomplice.”
He twisted fruitlessly, kicking at her ankles. He would have sworn too, but Mae’s grip around his throat choked them down.
As the doors closed and they ascended, the male voice in her head came back. They’ll be looking for you now. The boy must know places to hide.
That was true; he’d already shown he was familiar with the station’s air ducts. With no local knowledge of her own, Mae would get tracked down quickly. A heavy calmness settled over her, even though only minutes before she’d been worried about kissing Lenny. It was as if a switch flipped inside her.
The boy, as the voice called him, sagged in her arms. “Let me go.” When she hesitated, he repeated in a firmer tone: “I know you’re right, but let me go.”
Mae released him, and Lenny stepped away from her as the elevator rose. He stared at her sullenly.
They didn’t have time for his hurt feelings. “Who were those people? Were they the Extraktors? Were they the same ones who took Pelorus?”
“I don’t know.” His leg jiggled nervously. “But I sure as shit want to find out.”
Mae dared to set a hand on his shoulder. “Then we need to find a hiding place. Somewhere there aren’t any cameras. We have to figure out what’s going on, and then we’ll know how to help your family. Okay?”
Lenny stared at her blankly, as if seeing her—and the danger she embodied—for the first time. Mae guessed Morgan warned him about her. It remained to be seen how much his habit of ignoring his big brother’s advice would cost him.