in my bag last night, and I cried for an hour.
So I let myself feel it now. Let it wash over me for a moment that seems to last forever. I don’t want to deny how bad it hurts, because in some way that’d be denying all she meant to me. But then I breathe deep and push thoughts of Catherine “Zero” Brannock from my mind. Focusing on what I need to do.
Because that’s what Cat would want me to do.
Zila and I walk toward the Opha May, and the crowd gives us a wide berth. I bet it’s not often that agents of the Global Intelligence Agency travel this far out from the Core, but their reputation as People You Do Not Mess With ensures that even among this mob of aliens from across the ’Way, nobody messes with us. Burly Chellerian workers take one look at our uniforms and step aside. Packs of sour-faced toughs in union colors part like smoke. I swear even a loader drone scurries out of our way as we step up to the landing pad. I think about the faces of the people we found inside these uniforms, Auri’s dad and the rest, all of them totally corrupted by the Ra’haam. And part of me wonders just how far that corruption spreads.
I push the thought away for another day and look over the small group of men and bots at work on the ship in front of us. The crew is a mix of skin tones, but all of them are Terran. Which, of course, is why out of every vessel in the Emerald City dock registry, Ty picked this one.
“That’s the captain on the loading ramp,” Finian says over our uniglass link. “The shouty male with the fur-thing on his faceparts.”
“It’s called a mustache,” Tyler says.
“It’s called disgusting, Goldenboy.”
“It appears as if a skenk crawled onto his lip and expired,” Kal says.
“Right?” Finian agrees. “Human body hair, ugh.”
“Wait,” I hear Aurora say. “You mean Syldrathi don’t grow facial hair?”
“No, be’shmai.”
“… Do you grow it anywhere else?”
“Could we PLEASE,” Tyler says slowly. “Keep our minds. On this job?”
I hear a small chorus of apologies across comms, and I can’t help but smile. Dysfunctional as our little family is, at least it’s starting to feel like a family. I look around the bustling landing pad and do indeed spy a short, shouty man with what seems to be a dead caterpillar glued above his mouth. He’s dressed in a flight suit and magboots. He’s haggard, his face red from roaring at his crew, the bots helping with his cargo, and random passersby. He looks old enough to be my dad.
I mean, Dad died when we were eleven, but you know what I’m saying… .
“All right.” I nod to Zila. “Let’s work some magic.”
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC, SCARLETT,” Zila says.
“Watch and learn, my friend.”
We stride up to the Opha May’s captain, our shiny boots ringing on the deck. He doesn’t even glance up from his uniglass.
“Josef Gruber,” I say, using the name Fin hacked off the dockside servers.
“Who’s asking?” the short man replies, still not looking at me.
“By authority of the Terran Registration Act, Article 12, Section B, we are hereby commandeering your vessel.”
Now I’ve got his attention. And as he finally looks up into my face, I’m using all the years of training in the one class I didn’t sleep through to sum him up. I may not have had the best grades. I wasn’t the best shot or tactician or pilot. But Scarlett Isobel Jones is still damn good at what she does. And what she does is People.
He’s running on around four hours’ sleep. It’s been about six months since he was home, and he misses it. I can see one of his eyes is cybernetic, and from the blotching of veins on his nose, he likes a drink. Looking over his craggy face, his stance as he squares up to me, I can feel hostility. Disbelief. And a little bit of fear.
“You’re kidding me, right?” he growls.
“I assure you, Captain Gruber, we are deadly serious.”
He looks around the dock, incredulity fighting with anger.
“We’re sixty million light-years from Terra,” he spits, his lip caterpillar wobbling in fury. “What in the Maker’s name is the GIA doing out here?”
I lean in on his fear button. “As we explained, Captain, we are taking possession of your ship. You are a Terran citizen; your ship is subject to Terran law. Believe me