The thin air was cold as they took their borrowed ground vehicle to their meeting with the buyer, and Tika was glad for the extra layers of her cloak.
The hard points of 3D printed armor that Laly had added might only be decorative, but she appreciated their protection as well.
Any bit of distance she could get from Arjay she’d take. The pornographic entertainment vids that she’d hijacked from the QueCorp guards had made it seem as if the experience of sex would be a simple release, just a moment of pleasure and nothing more. And she’d told him that life was nothing but moments.
Except it seemed that the spacetime distortions of a wormhole had an analog in her everyday life. Every moment with Rio seemed deeper and more meaningful than time without him, and yet also went too fast. And no matter how close she was to him, a part of her longed yearned to be closer even while another part of her sensed the danger of such wishing.
The bits of porn she’d watched hadn’t explained any of this.
They were silent on their way through the wakening city. It looked different in the cool blue light of day then the flickering vibrant lights of last night. And that, she decided, was the difference between porn sex and the morning after.
“I’m going to meet Eltan alone,” Arjay said abruptly. “The car will drive you around while I’ll take the sample and—”
“No.” She continued to stare straight ahead. The buildings were so tall, stretching up to the sky, and so many people bustling about. Her heartbeat skittered faster than their steps when she peered at the brightening sky, and her head whirled as if she was staring down into an abyss, fearing a fatal fall. But one thing she knew without doubt. “We stay together.”
Arjay scowled at her. “It’s too dangerous.”
Vertigo made her stomach churn. “What isn’t dangerous on this spinning Rim? Your slick, beautiful life before? The wishes of a hopeful colony that just wanted to terraform an abandoned mining moon? And yet we both ended up here anyway.”
The weight of his frown dragged at her like her old, ill-fitting clothes. “Tika—”
“You won’t fuck me again, I get it, but you can’t push me off this mission.”
He flinched on the controls so hard, the self-directing vehicle jerked to one side before straightening itself. “That’s not why I—”
“Also, River Jaguar,” she raged on, “you should know that even if every other place in the Salty Way was quiet and safe, I still wouldn’t leave here. Because even though I was asleep for a long time, I’m awake now, and I won’t stop fighting for what I believe: that Ydro-Down can be the world my mothers wanted. Not a dream or a paradise or a treasure trove for other people, but a real world. That’s why I’m here. This is my moment.”
For a moment, she felt as if her vibrating outburst was draining energy from the car, but then it eased to a stop at an open slot among the buildings. “You are here,” the vehicle announced.
She hustled out before Arjay could do something enraging like locking her in and sending the car away with her still in it. Refusing to glance his way, she started walking.
“Where are you going?”
The aggravation in his tone only made her steps faster. “To meet Eltan. Like I said I would.”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“I’m not. If we cut through the alley we passed, we can come around to the noodle place from the reverse.” She cast an angry glance over her shoulder. “I thought you wanted to not be seen.”
He glared back. “I know you’re clever with charting a course through the deeps, but these streets aren’t the same as the tunnels on Ydro-Down.”
“True. There are so many more individuals here, getting in the way.” She raised her chin to give him a meaningful stare as she pivoted deftly around an oncoming pedestrian.
He had to jog a step sideways to avoid a collision. “Only some people,” he countered, “people who think they can do whatever they want just because they want to. I remember it well from my old life.” He returned her eloquent glower.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “If only the galaxy were bigger so they wouldn’t have to be so close together.”
“Yeah, if only they had more qubition they could rip wormholes through the Salty Way.”
“Or aim it all in one direction to flip the arrow of time and go back to some long-ago utopia.”
He let out a scoffing breath. “That’s theoretical math, and there’s not enough qubition in all the universe to make it work.”
Her heart clenched in her chest. “But you’d do it. You’d burn a hole through the universe if you could go back to who you were. All the way back to the River Jaguar. Or would you be satisfied with going back just far enough that you’d never met me?”
He froze, forcing her to turn around. “I told you there wasn’t enough left of me to take,” he rasped, his words almost lost in the bustle of this unfamiliar city.
She braced herself against the jostling coming from inside her as well as out. “Just nothing that you’re willing to give. And I’m not willing to steal anymore.” When he sucked in a breath, she raised one hand to stop him. “I’m going first to check it out. I wasn’t on screen for Eltan to see, and my biometrics aren’t on record anywhere, so they won’t be watching for me. Wait for me here and I’ll ping you”—she lifted her wrist where she’d strapped a borrowed comm from Jaxim—“if everything looks all right.”
For a second, he seemed ready to object but then he gave a curt nod. “No one knows you. As far as they’re concerned, you’re no one. So you’ll be fine. But if anything seems even slightly off—”
She didn’t wait to hear his orders. What would he say that she didn’t already know? She’d never been anyone of note in this galactic game, but she doubted that would save her as he seemed to think. All it meant was pain when he wished he could leave her behind.
She activated her obsQr, and though nothing happened externally—at least nothing that she could perceive with her human senses—she felt as if she were fading away. Technically, she was invisible to all but the most sensitively calibrated sensors. And to the human eye, of course.
But as Arjay had noted, she was nobody worth seeing.
The noodle counter had rolled up its entire front wall, opening the space wide, and was doing brisk business. She sauntered past then integrated herself into the milling line of individuals calling out their orders or waiting for their pickup. Considering they all had comms and could’ve ordered ahead, it seemed very inefficient to mob this one location. But people wanted what they wanted when they wanted it, and sometimes even a fortune in Q couldn’t get them there.
She pretended to study the protein options—mostly just variations on shape, color, and texture—while glancing at the other patrons. By one of the heater columns that held back the morning chill, Soo Eltan sat at an elevated table with a bowl and her data tablet in front of her. She looked like any of the other bustling patrons heading off to a day’s work that Tick couldn’t quite imagine.
But judging by the woman’s glossy hair and skin, that work didn’t involve scavenging, scrounging, scrapnapping, and just surviving.
Telling herself that she was only observing to make sure Eltan hadn’t brought guards or anything worse, Tick kept watching. In deference to the cool morning temperature, Eltan had added a thick, transparent coat to her ensemble that revealed the yellow robe underneath. The shine of the coat made her seem even more slickly shellacked, serene and untouchable, and Tick wrestled with a surge of pointless jealousy. Soo Eltan was clean, well-fed, and confidently beautiful. But Tick had two out of three of those now. Wasn’t that enough?
Maybe once it would’ve been. The charter that had signed over ownership of Ydro-Down to her mothers and the other colonists had included statements about water and mineral extraction, food production potential, cyclical atmospheric conditions, and more. But the charter said nothing of beauty or dreams.
Or love. Those weren’t just words; that was what people brought to their worlds, to the Salty Way. That was what Tika wanted.
Strange to think the rare mineral that had doomed Ydro-Down would also give it the chance to blossom. She might never have Eltan’s polish or Arjay’s love, but just as qubition opened pathways between the stars, she would make her own way toward her dreams.
Since passive scans and active observation did not show Eltan to be in contact with anyone else, Tika tapped out a message to Arjay, calling him in. And since her stomach was growling at the mingled scents of oil and protein, she made her way to the counter to place her own order.
She was still figuring out her dreams, but fried noodles would do for now.
Keeping one eye on the doorway, she didn’t react when Arjay appeared. He made his way directly to Eltan’s table. The Velexit rep smiled at him—slick and beautiful—and gestured at the seat across from her. She flicked her hand toward the order counter, but Arjay shook his head at whatever she said, and summoned one of the circulating servers instead. The top of the bin rolled back and dispensed a premade beverage.
Tika pursed her lips. Fresh food, freshly prepared, right there, and he chose a nutrient drink instead? Her dreams might be hazy for now, but at least she had dreams.
Eltan also seemed bemused, but then she shrugged and let out a chiming laugh that carried through the room. Grumbling to herself, Tika carried her bowl to a raised counter near the couple. Although Arjay’s comm was linked to hers and would transmit the conversation if she chose to activate it, she found herself wanting to be nearby.
“I reviewed the rest of your conditions with my superiors, and Velexit would be willing to meet the higher price you stipulated,” she was saying. “Assuming the qubition is the quality you claim.”
Arjay produced a small vial from his pocket. “A sample of the raw ore.”
From the bag slung at the back of her chair, she pulled a box slightly larger than her noodle bowl. She slid the vial into the assay scanner and sat back with another smile at Arjay. “I’ve no doubt this taste will pass the test. Ydro-Down isn’t the largest Q mine, but it’s known for its excellence.”
Tika slid a quick glance at Arjay when he stayed silent for a long moment.
His expression, which she’d thought she was coming to know, was frozen. “Since you know that, why the test?”
“Needed to be certain, yes?” Despite the noodle bowl in front of her, her smile looked strangely voracious when Tika peeked at the other woman.
But of course she’d want what was in front of her: Q and Rio, both powerful and dangerous elements in their own right.
“And now that we know what you have…” She leaned forward, her augmented eyes glinting. “Let me offer you another opportunity.”
Tika stiffened, the noodles churning in her stomach with a life of their own. She’d watched Eltan so carefully and hadn’t noticed any other opportunities.
Arjay just lifted one eyebrow and smirked. “Your initial presentation to Jaxim didn’t mention extra offers. Are you sweetening the deal?” His dark gaze swept her transparent coat. “I appreciate…clear choices.”
Her laugh chimed again. “That could be our celebration if you take this other proposal.” She reached across the table to touch Arjay’s hand, pushing her data tablet forward at the same time.
The noodles in her belly turning to stone, Tick stared at her own comm. It gave her a view of the tab screen Arjay was looking at.
Where the QueCorp emblem flashed.
Though he had to be as startled as she was, Arjay didn’t move. “Already rejected them,” he said, barely loud enough to be heard over the other patrons, even with the comm. “Seeing as how they were never very good about paying us. Or feeding us. Or considering us free humans.”
Eltan flicked his knuckles with one fingertip. “Technically, you were serving out a life sentence, I believe, so you weren’t owed any return for your labor.” When he didn’t answer, she chuckled. “I do my due diligence too, Citizen Adamsrinivasan.”
He sat back. “The authorities of AlpesPrimus have no jurisdiction here on Nintung. My record is irrelevant and the sentencing is void.” His smile this time was sharper. “Also, I have all the qubition.”
A faint chime from the assay scanner, announcing its completion, reinforced his claim. But neither one bothered to look at the results.
“Indeed,” Eltan drawled. “Which is why Ming Waller asked me to present his offer to you on his behalf. Obviously you have the upper hand—because you have the planetoid. He knows the defensive capabilities of Ydro-Down, and he admits he can’t take it back without an expensive fight. So he is ready and willing to negotiate.”
Arjay snorted out a derisive breath. “Everyone wants what we have. Qubition is valued across the galaxy. We don’t need to deal with QueCorp.”
“Yes, everyone wants what you have. But not everyone has what you want.” Eltan’s augmented eyes gleamed like mirrors, hiding something in the darkness behind the reflection.
With the opposing couple beside her doubled in the view through the comm on her wrist, the tension seemed to surround Tika, a deadly weight of rockslide threatening to crush her. She clenched her fingers around her eating utensil, keeping the comm tucked unobtrusively in the curve of her arm. As small as the screen was, the greed on Eltan’s face was obvious. The ugly, violent urge to jam the utensil into one of those silvery eyes made Tika’s hand spasm, and she had to force her fingers apart. As Arjay had said, this wasn’t Ydro-Down. Her worst impulses, honed in survival mode, wouldn’t save her here. But she desperately wanted to tap out a message to him to get up, to leave the double-crossing rep behind. They had two other good offers, either of which would be better than continuing forward with this when all her instincts screamed it was a trap.
But Arjay seemed oblivious or at least unconcerned. “Is Ming Waller going to offer backpay to every miner he enslaved? What will he offer to those who died in the deeps?” He tilted his head, the bristles of his dark hair catching the light of the rising sun that filtered between the buildings. “What reparations will he make for his great-grandfather’s murdering the Ydro-Down colonists five hundred turns ago?”
Eltan’s expression flattened. “That’s old history, long past. Nothing we need to consider now.”
“Except it’s not entirely in the past.” Arjay drummed his thumb on the table, a hollow noise that echoed the rush of blood in Tika’s ears.
The augmented stare flickered. “So it’s true. You have the colonists’ inheritor.” Eltan shook her head. “How remarkable.”
“She is.”
Tika’s nerves twisted like a bowl full of noodles going through a wormhole. Remarkable? Arjay meant her? What remark would he make about her? He seemed only to be laying her out as another bargaining chip.
What was Ming Waller ready to offer to get back what he’d lost?
And how would the River Jaguar answer?