Galactic Retribution: A Space Opera
Date: 2023-02-17 05:00:00+00:00
Description: Sparks and Reyes thought they had it all figured out. Three lucrative jobs and a hefty payout, until they discovered the dark truth behind their missions. Set up to fail and exploited for their skills, they must now decide between walking away with their credits, or taking a stand to right the wrongs of their past. In a race against time and the corrupt Ringdell Group, they must choose between the easy path and what is right. Can they undo the damage they’ve done, or will they be forever haunted by their choices? Sparks and Reyes thought they had it all figured out. Three lucrative jobs and a

GALACTIC RETRIBUTION

A SPACE OPERA

GALACTIC TERROR

BOOK TWO

MICHAEL ROBERTSON

CONTENTS

Edited and Cover by …

Copyright

Reader Group

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

About the Author

Also by Michael Robertson

EDITED AND COVER BY …

To contact Michael, please email:

subscribers@michaelrobertson.co.uk

Edited by:

Pauline Nolet - http://www.paulinenolet.com

Cover design by Ivan Zann - https://www.bookcoversart.com/

COPYRIGHT

Galactic Retribution: A Space Opera

Michael Robertson

© Michael Robertson 2023

Galactic Retribution: A Space Opera is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, situations, and all dialogue are entirely a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously and are not in any way representative of real people, places, or things.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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CHAPTER 1

For the first time in months, Sparks inhabited a space with no digital interference. No low-level background hum. No sharp intrusion demanding her attention. Not even from her mini computer, which she’d left in the Arrowhead at the bottom of the hill. The wind played with her loose strands of hair, and the fire warmed her front. The flames turned into an orange blur from where she let her eyes slip out of focus. The heat massaged her exhausted body, and she swayed before the bonfire. No, not a bonfire. A pyre. Corpse or not, they were here to say goodbye to Greeta. She grabbed Faz Went’s hand.

At her contact, the tall being’s shoulders snapped to his neck, and he loosed his rattlesnake hiss. He lowered his head and nodded several times before letting the tension slip from his wiry frame. The pyre’s glare highlighted the damp tracks of his tears on his porcelain cheeks. “She did nothing wrong.” He inhaled again, hissing with the release, his voice wavering. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have involved her in this.”

“Neither of us should.” Sparks squeezed his hand. “If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. She died because of my stupid fucking mission.”

“I just wish I’d never asked for her help.”

“But she was a friend, right? That’s what friends do. And I bet she gave it freely?”

“As always.”

“She would have volunteered had you not asked her.”

While nodding, Faz Went turned his back on the pyre and approached Reyes.

She stood to the side, cuddling Hat, the wind tousling his fur. “So what’s next? Back to Flanterian? Take back the palace. Undo some of our mess.”

Sparks swiped her hair from her face. “What if we intervene again and cause even more problems? What if we hand it over to the wrong beings?”

“The gloyners are indigenous to Flanterian, right?”

Faz Went wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve and nodded.

“So we do what we can to get it back in their control.”

“What if there are multiple factions and one has more right to the place than the others? How do we know? What if all the gloyners are dead?”

“Are you changing your mind, Sparks?”

“No. Of course not. But we need to think about these things before we leave. What’s the radius of that missile we stole from the Platinum Streak?”

His head bowed, his frame stooped, Faz Went swayed as if locked into the flames’ rhythm. He sniffed. “Twenty miles.”

Sparks pushed her glasses back up her nose. “It could be a very real possibility there aren’t any of them left. Then what?”

Reyes shrugged, squeezing Hat like a set of bagpipes, forcing out a grunt. “Then we hand it over to the authorities.”

“What authorities?”

“I don’t fucking know, Sparks. But we’ve done a bad thing. We could ask a lot of what-ifs, but that won’t change the fact. We have to fix what we’ve done. Faz Went”—she touched his forearm—“we understand if you don’t want to come with us. You’ve already lost too much.”

He cried a fresh wave of tears, but for the first time since they’d lit the fire, Faz Went stood straight and raised his chin. At over six and a half feet tall, he cut an imposing figure. The back of Sparks’ neck ached to look up at him. “I want to come. The Ringdell Group is the reason Greeta’s dead, and even if that weren’t the case, I’m going wherever you’re going.” He stooped again and cast a glance at Reyes from beneath his weathered cap’s peak. “If you’ll have me?”

“Of course!”

“And if I won’t be a hindrance.”

“You undervalue yourself.”

He sighed again. “I hope so.” He stared out over Glootah’s grassy plains. A verdant and hilly landscape, the meadows’ long grass swayed in the strong winds. “But if we’re going to Flanterian, we need weapons. A fuckload of weapons. And there’s something else I’ve not mentioned.”

Already on the edge with grief and exhaustion, Sparks’ stomach plummeted, but she held her tongue.

“Piltred.”

“Bless you.”

“You’ve not heard of Piltred?”

Sparks shrugged, and when Reyes didn’t respond, she shook her head for the pair of them. “No. But I’m sure there’s a cream you can get for it.”

“He.”

“Huh?”

“He. Not it. He’s a monstrosity of a being. He’s like a failed genetic experiment. He stands over ten feet tall and nearly as wide. He wears power armour. As intimidating as the steel monstrosity is, they say what’s beneath his suit is much worse. That an exposed Piltred is maddening to behold.”

“If we ever meet him, remind me to thank him for his courtesy.” Sparks rolled her eyes. “Does he close his mouth while he’s eating too?”

Reyes tutted at Sparks. “You’re telling us about Piltred for a reason, right?”

“He’s guarding the palace. One of the Ringdell Groups’ captains, he’s about as fierce as they come. If we’re set on going to Flanterian—”

“We are,” Reyes said.

“Then we’ll have to face him at some point.”

Sparks shot air from her nose. “I’m sure we’ve faced worse.”

“I’m not.”

“We’ve met the Crimson Countess, right, Reyes?”

Reyes’ eyes glazed. Her brow furrowed.

Rattling again, Faz Went shook his head. “I’ve heard of the Countess. She has nothing on Piltred. For one, she had a reason for being evil. As clichéd as it was.” He counted out the list with his fingers. “Power. Influence. Wealth.”

Placing Hat on the floor beside her, Reyes rubbed what must have been sweating palms against her trousers and then turned them towards the blue sky. “What motivates Piltred?”

“To use the word motivate is to suggest he has desires and dreams. That he wants to improve his lot, or at least get even with someone.” Faz Went’s entire frame shuddered with his next rattlesnake hiss. “Piltred doesn’t work like that. From what I understand, he has but one motivation—”

“To sit around playing video games and getting high?” Sparks smiled. The others didn’t.

Faz Went lowered his voice. “Chaos.”

Reyes’ frown deepened, like she might change her mind. But could they really walk away from this after how they’d left the palace?

“A manifestation of hate, rage, and unfocused fury. He wants to watch the galaxy burn.”

Sparks stepped closer to the flames to draw a bit more of their heat. “Okay, we definitely need weapons.”

“And lots of them,” Reyes said.

“Faz?”

He flicked his head up at Sparks.

“You know where we can get some, right?”

“We have a few options.”

“Go on.”

“We could go and see Blark Venn-Quarter’s arms dealer. They live on a nearby planet. I reckon we can get there fairly easily from Acoolter.”

“And Blark Venn-Quarter will be happy with that?”

“Not at all, no.”

“But the dealer will happily sell us weapons?”

“They might not take kindly to our unsolicited approach.”

Reyes stepped closer. “But announcing ourselves will alert Blark Venn-Quarter?”

“Right. And we have a human with us, which rarely receives the warmest of welcomes.” Faz Went held up an apologetic hand.

“None taken.”

Sparks smirked. “Do we have any other options?”

“We could return to Acoolter, scour the bars and see who’s selling? We might find a crew willing to shave a few weapons from the top of their supplies for some credits. And we might even be able to hitch a ride with them out of there.”

“It seems more under the radar.” Sparks raised her eyebrows at Reyes.

Reyes scratched her face, the light from the fire highlighting her angular cheekbones.

“Why don’t I like that look?”

“It’s just a suggestion.”

“Just say it, Reyes.”

“We could try to contact Moses?”

“What? No fucking chance. I want nothing to do with that fucker. And if I ever see him again, it will be to drive a knife into his heart.” Sparks clenched her jaw to give extra force to her mimed stab. “I’ll hold his glare while I’m doing it to be sure he sees every moment of my enjoyment as his light fades.”

The fire hissed and popped. Faz Went looked from Sparks to Reyes. “So, which one?”

Sparks scoffed. “I’m not sure there’s a choice. And if we’re going to go through with thi—”

“If?” Reyes said. “We’re not past that?”

“We have enough credits to make choices now. As new information comes to us, we need to consider it. The thought of facing Pitcher doesn’t fill me with glee.”

“Piltred,” Faz Went said.

“Rectum.”

“What? It sounds nothing like rectum.”

Sparks batted away the comment with a wave of her hand. “My point is, we could just fuck off and live a peaceful life somewhere. As long as we have these credits, that’s an option.” Reyes’ frown was as deep as before. “We could have that peaceful existence we craved.”

“When did you crave a peaceful existence? Don’t pretend you’ve enjoyed sitting on your hands on Acoolter for the past year.”

“Okay, it’s driven me mad. But with the credits we have, we can at least choose our next job.”

“Something I can manage, you mean?”

“Something we can both manage.”

“I’m ready, Sparks.”

“I know you are.”

“I don’t think you do. But I want you to stop trying to give me an out.”

“I’m not try—”

Reyes showed Sparks her palm. “Stop! Why do we get to pick after what we’ve done to the gloyners? What was it, Faz? A twenty-mile radius?”

“Twenty miles.”

“Even if I weren’t up to the mission.”

“I never said that!”

“Even if I weren’t, this isn’t a choice.”

Sparks held up her hands like Reyes’ words were a gun pointed at her face. “It was just a suggestion. And if I might make another one?”

“If it’s anything like the last, don’t bother.”

The wind filled the silence, stoking the pyre and throwing smoke their way.

“Okay, fine. It’s good to be back together, Reyes.” Sparks winked before she turned on her heel, passed the bonfire, and walked down the hill towards the Arrowhead. “Come on then. Let’s go to Acoolter.”

CHAPTER 2

A drone shot overhead every few seconds, each one sending a twinge through Sparks’ back. Machines worked on the docked ships. They were single-minded in their purpose, but their combined intention melded in her mind as a maddening buzz. Automated doors and windows opened and closed, reacting to the proximity of the beings they served. A vast freighter turned the port dark as it came in to land by the lake.

Twisting between two hulking beasts striding down the port, Sparks tapped her left breast pocket, her mini computer back with her, and smiled. “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but Acoolter—”

“Kind of feels like home?” Faz Went navigated the busy spaceport like Sparks, but his size and form gave him an aquatic grace. A balletic poise. His movements long and flowing, he twisted and turned, ducked and dived.

Reyes still wore her scowl from Glootah, so Sparks held her tongue. Ask her what’s up in this frame of mind and she’d tear her fucking head off. She clung to Hat. Much tighter and she’d wring the life from the poor thing.

“Uh …”

“What?”

Hat would let her know if it got too much. “Nothing.” Sparks followed Faz Went and avoided Reyes’ glare.

The bar sat in a premium location, and like all the other businesses on the front, they had no room to build higher. The squat building stood about three metres tall and ran thin and long like a tunnel. A corridor of intoxication and hostility. Although it had its doorstep on the spaceport’s main strip, it stretched back into the cheaper land towards the red- and purple-light districts and the residential tower blocks.

Sparks rested a hand on Reyes’ shoulder. “Do you want to wait out here?”

“What? Why?”

“You look stressed.”

“When did you become my fucking carer?”

Sparks lowered her head.

“Look, I didn’t get out in the spaceport much when we lived here. I’m just adjusting to the surroundings. And of course I’d rather come in with you than wait out here. I want to help. And it’s not about me needing you close by.”

“Huh? Where did that come from?”

“Come on, Sparks, I know what this is about.” Reyes rolled her eyes at Faz Went. “She thinks I can’t let her out of my sight because everyone I love who goes away from me dies.”

“You what?” Faz Went looked between Reyes and Sparks.

Sparks placated him with a hand on his arm. “She doesn’t mean that.”

Reyes snorted a mirthless laugh. “I kind of do. Anyway, I know it wasn’t the going-away part that got them killed. Life’s just shitty sometimes.” She pointed at the bar. “I want to come with you. So, are we going in?”

The door opened for Faz Went, and Sparks’ right eye twitched. She followed him in, Reyes and Hat behind her.

Many of the buildings facing out onto Acoolter’s spaceport had a similar layout. Thin, long, and dimly lit, they stretched away into a shadowy distance. Like in Mac’s place, the bar ran the length of the room down the left-hand side. Tables and chairs catered to collusions of beings. Some drank. Some smoked. Some played games, many of which she’d never seen before. The punters cast glances at one another.

Naturally, the bar’s collective attention followed the tall Faz Went, half his face hidden in the shadow cast by his cap’s peak. It accentuated the stark white of his porcelain chin and neck. He took a seat at the bar, Sparks scaling the stool next to him, Reyes sitting down with Hat.

The bartender wore a filthy apron, which he used to clean a glass. A squat and powerful frame, he stood about four feet tall, his side of the bar elevated to make him look taller. He had thick and hairy forearms, and his skin was covered in a waxy secretion, which left every glass he handled cloudy no matter how hard he polished. Two nostrils dominated his round head, and he had a tiny mouth, which birthed a bovine tongue so thick it tested his lips’ elasticity. He licked his entire face, taking extra probing care on his cloudy eyes. The accompanying squelch turned Sparks’ stomach.

He pointed at Hat, his voice so deep, Sparks rested a hand against her sternum to counter the vibration. “No pets.”

Reyes pointed at Sparks. “She’s not my pet.”

“No comedians either.”

Reyes winked at Sparks. “Sounds like a fun place.”

“What do you want?”

Sparks took over. “We’re hoping for some information.”

He whacked the bar so hard, several glasses jumped. Three fell onto their sides and leaked their garish fluids, smoke rising into the air when they met on the bar’s wooden top. He leaned over Sparks. “You think I’m a snitch?”

Faz Went’s rattle demanded the bartender’s attention. “What my friend means is we’re hoping that someone with your kind of connections might introduce us to some beings to help facilitate a mutually beneficial trade? Of which I’m sure you’ll receive a commission.”

Still resting on his fists, snorting slightly with his heavy respiration, the bartender scanned the room, many eyes on them. He spoke for his punters more than in response to Faz Went. “I ain’t telling you nothing I wouldn’t tell any other being in this place. You know what happens to snitches around here?”

Bile rose in the back of Sparks’ throat. Fuck Mac. “They get their lights shut off. And they should be grateful that’s all that happened to them.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The bartender frowned at Faz Went, who shook his head. “It’s a long story. Look, we have credits.”

“I should fucking think so. Nothing worth getting in this life is free.”

“Except the love of a good woman.” Reyes winked at the bartender.

He snorted. “I’m not so desperate I’d go with a human.”

“None taken.”

“Huh?”

“I’m taken.” She threw her arm around Sparks. “Just speaking from experience. It might help.”

“I don’t need help.”

Sparks raised her eyebrows, pursed her lips so she held onto her reply, and slid her glasses back up her nose.

Faz Went rattled again. “How about we tell you what we’re looking for, and you tell us if you can help?”

The bartender snorted again.

“We need weapons.”

His cheek bulged from the press of his thick tongue. He scanned the room. Many of the beings had lost interest in their conversation. “You trying to set me up? Blark Venn-Quarter wouldn’t be happy with me revealing that kind of information.”

“He wouldn’t be happy with me asking.”

He held out his hand, his wide palm covered in scars and glistening with the same secretion that coated the rest of his body. “Five hundred credits.”

“What?” Sparks leaned towards him, but pulled back when he licked out his other nostril, curling his tongue to act like a straw. “They say never get high on your own supply, you know?”

He slurped what sounded like a pint of snot. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking what you’ve been drinking? Five hundred credits?”

“Fine. Four.”

“Fuck you.”

“Sparks!” Faz Went spoke from the side of his mouth. “A little more diplomacy, yeah?”

“This ain’t foreplay; he’s trying to fuck us, Faz.” She pointed at the bartender. “I won’t let him get away with it.”

“Fine.” The bartender held up his thick hands. “One hundred. You can’t blame me for trying.”

“I fucking can. And next time I will.” Sparks handed over their credit card, which the bartender swiped and passed back.

“No!” Faz Went reached for Sparks but missed.

She leaped over the bar and struck the bartender just below his right eye. She rode him as he fell to the ground, sat on top of him, and landed three more blows in quick succession. Grabbing the front of his shirt, she pressed her blaster into his face so hard it forced his already swollen right eye shut. She sprayed him with spittle. “Put those credits back, you thieving shit.” The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, but she kept her focus on the bartender, her blaster’s barrel slipping on his greasy skin.

Faz Went leaned over the bar and grabbed a hold of the back of Sparks’ shirt, but she clung on. The bartender wriggled and squirmed beneath her. She tracked him with her blaster’s barrel.

“Okay, okay.” Stretched out on the sticky wooden floor, he raised his hands above his head.

Sparks let go, and Faz Went dragged her back, dropping her on the stool she’d just vacated. “Let me handle this.”

Chewing the inside of her mouth, Sparks gave the bartender her credit card. She checked he’d refunded the correct amount, leaned back, and folded her arms across her chest. “And I thought Mac was a fucking liability.”

“What did you say?”

Faz Went showed Sparks his hand and leaned closer to the bartender. “Now, that information?”

Another tingle streaked up Sparks’ back. She shoved Faz Went from his stool just as a tiny dart shot through the space where his head had been, and smashed a bottle of red liquor on a shelf.

Leaping over the bar again, she kicked the bartender in the face and scooped up a handful of small glasses. She loosed the first one at the closest drone dart, each one programmed to home in on a target. The glass shattered, the nearest table cowering beneath a spray of small and sharp pieces. The dart dropped with a tinkle.

Sparks nailed the next dart to screams from those in the bar. But better she showered them with small glass shards than blaster fire.

Reyes lined her up, collecting more glasses from the surrounding tables, many of them still full.

Every launched glass met a dart with a shattering splish! Eight down. Ten. Fifteen. Other than an aching right arm, she had the beating of the primitive defence system.

Splish! She dropped the final dart.

The bartender cowered next to her, covering his head with his hands. She kicked him so hard up the arse, he shunted forwards. She threw the remaining three glasses at him, each one exploding against the back of his head. When she reached for a bottle, Faz Went grabbed her wrist.

“Enough! You’ve made your point, Sparks. I’m sure he won’t try that again.”

The bartender rolled over onto his back and squinted as if dazzled by her rage. “I won’t. I promise.”

Sparks drew her blaster and took several calming breaths. “You have three seconds to tell us what we need to know.”

“Droneball booth. They’re from a ship called the Pisstake. They told me they have some weapons for sale. You might want to try them.”

“And you might want to learn how to do business. Now, you have some seriously pissed-off customers. If I were you, I’d make sure drinks were on the house tonight.”

“What?”

Sparks raised her foot over his head. “Do you want to rethink that?”

“Fine.” He grabbed the bar and pulled himself to his feet. “One free drink for every being in here. I’m sorry for the disruption.”

Hopping back over the bar, Sparks followed Faz Went towards the droneball booth at the back of the room, watched by every being in the place. Every being save for the ones they approached.

Reyes leaned close to Sparks. “I’ve missed that, you know.”

Sparks smirked. “I’ve missed it too. And he deserved it.”

“That he did.”

“But we don’t have to follow through with this if you don’t want to?”

“Didn’t I just say I’ve missed it?”

“I know. I jus—”

“Stop trying to give me an out, Sparks. It’s tedious. And you’re killing the moment.”

“I worry about you. I want to be sure you’re ready.”

“Your concern is condescending. We’re doing this. I’m doing this, whether you come with me or not. I can’t live the rest of my life knowing I did nothing to try to rectify our mistake on Flanterian.”

A collection of six beings gathered around the droneball booth. They huddled together, their backs to the room. Faz Went loosed a rattlesnake hiss, and they turned as one.

Sparks gasped and stepped back into Reyes. Being the focus of these beings’ attention sent a harder shudder through her than any machine ever could.

CHAPTER 3

A half-dozen beings of all the same species, each one about five feet tall and skinny like they’d had their essence drained. They stood statue still save for the writhing mass of muscly tentacles atop their heads. They twisted and swayed, entangling like fornicating squids.

“Fucking hell, who invited the gorgons?” Sparks took a step back at becoming the focus of their attention.

They moved on to Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went, assessing each of them with their frost-blue glare. Holes pitted their lichen green skin. Some ran so deep they offered a view of the layers beneath. They looked like a half-dozen corpses left to rot on the ocean floor. Buried in iron boots while eels made homes of their orifices.

Sparks pulled her neck into her shoulders like it would make her somehow less visible. Her and her fucking mouth. Why didn’t she keep it shut? But the room fell back into a low rumble of chatter, and she finally recovered the rhythm of her breath with the slight easing of the bar’s atmosphere.

She stepped forward and halted when all six focused on her again. “Please forgive our rude interruption, and the bartender might be on a windup, but he—”

“We’re looking for weapons.” Faz Went eased Sparks back so she once more stood beside Reyes and Hat. Let him do his thing.

“Droneball.” The creature’s voice existed somewhere between a belch and gravel sliding down a steel washboard.

“Yes.” Faz Went nodded. “This is a droneball booth. You play?”

“Do you play?”

“You want us to beat you so we can then trade with you?”

“Just play for fun.”

Sparks spoke from the side of her mouth. “Do they know the meaning of the word?”

Reyes shoved her.

The being who’d spoken scratched its cheek, its finger slipping through the hole into its mouth. “We should play droneball. As an icebreaker.”

“With ice this thick, aren’t we better off with a nuclear missile?”

“We can hear you, you know?”

Sparks raised an apologetic hand. “Sorry. Forgive me. I’m not very good at socialising.”

“But you play droneball?”

“Don’t fucking beat them,” Reyes said.

“I’m not sure I want to be in a booth with them.”

“We can still hear you.” The creature’s voice had dropped an octave. Thin fucking ice.

“Just do what needs to be done to get them onside; then we can get our weapons and get the fuck out of here.”

“Fine.” Sparks stepped forwards again. “I’ll play you.”

“Not me.”

The creature stood aside to reveal the tallest of them all. Only a few inches above the rest, they had a pronounced brow that cast a band of deep shadow across their eyes like a mask. The tentacles on their head stood taller and thicker than those of their compatriots’. They sneered at Sparks and turned to Reyes. “What about you? Do you play?”

“Me?” Reyes laughed. “Oh, heavens, no. Sparks is your gal.”

“I thought you didn’t want them beaten?”

The creature laughed. “Are you seriously suggesting I’ll lose to you?”

“Oh, I’m sure you won’t. I’m only being silly. Having a bit of banter, you know?”

“I ate the last person who had banter with me.”

Sparks gulped. “That I can believe.”

Reyes grabbed Sparks’ shoulder and dragged her back. She whispered in her ear, “Don’t beat them.”

“You just worry about you, yeah?”

“You’re a fine one to talk, with all you’ve done to persuade me to stay away from Flanterian.”

“It’s not that. I just want to explore all the options.”

“I’m not fragile, Sparks.”

Faz Went cleared his throat. “Is now the time, ladies?”

“I’m just saying Sparks should treat me how she used to. Before our final mission.”

“I am.”

“Oh, fuck off. At least have the courage to fucking admit it.” Reyes turned her back on her and marched across the bar.

Sparks cupped her mouth with her hands. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be waiting outside. Out of the way so I don’t get hurt.”

“I never said …”

The automatic door let in Acoolter’s morning light before closing behind Reyes and Hat as they left.

Faz Went’s cheeks bulged with his exhale. “Can we now please focus on the droneball game?”

“Fine.” Sparks’ courage abandoned her halfway through pointing at her opponent, but she’d committed to it now. “But I can’t promise I won’t annihilate you in there.”

The others’ tentacles thrashed and snapped.

“At droneball, I mean. I don’t intend you any harm.”

Her opponent opened the booth’s door and stood in the doorway. Their deep rumbling voice blurred Sparks’ vision as she passed. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Sparks took her place on the left side of the court and offered the creature her hand. “Good luck.”

They stared at the gesture through emotionless eyes and slammed their fist against the door’s button. A whoosh of automation shut them in total darkness.

“This is cozy!”

Sparks’ opponent growled.

“So, uh, you come here often?”

The rub of rough and dry skin with the occasional slap evidenced the beast’s tentacles’ perpetual motion. An arid scrape like an emery board against fingernails. Maybe some kind of exfoliating practice. Grating, grinding, twisting, writhing …

Thunk! The booth turned into a dark pink throbbing mess like they’d entered a living organism.

Already breathless, her heart beating like it wanted out, Sparks swallowed a dry gulp.

A pulse like a heartbeat on an ultrasound came at her from all angles, pushing against her eardrums. It turned her legs weak and made her head swim.

All the while, the writhing and twisting of the creature’s tentacles grew quicker and louder. Scraping. Grating. Rubbing. Sharpening? No, how could they be sharpening?

A stinging blow to Sparks’ abdomen dropped to her knees. She clung to her stomach. The drone looped around and came at her for a second time, but she rolled aside, now dialled into the machine’s programming. She’d never missed a drone’s arrival before.

The being beside her giggled. At least, what might have been a giggle. Deep. Reverberating. The scrape of its tentacles took over. Slashing. Sawing. Quickening. They morphed into a constant shushhhh that unsettled Sparks’ vision, and although she tracked the drone with her blaster, she couldn’t see it.

Another shock struck the back of her hand, but she clung onto her weapon.

While the drones flew, the creature turned Sparks’ way, and her vision cleared. Sensing the drone, she jumped aside to avoid another electric bolt.

Her opponent’s eyes spread so wide their eyeballs became levitating frost-blue spheres in deep black sockets. Its mouth stretched into a rictus grin, dragging some of the holes in its face wider. Its tentacles turned into a blur.

Sparks choked on the coppery flow of her own blood. More leaked from her ears, turning the sides of her face and neck damp. Driven purely on instinct, she pulled back at the last moment to avoid another electric blast.

Her opponent shot their drone. The duck-quack buzzer silenced the ultrasound heartbeat.

Sparks dropped to her knees. Her head spun, and blood dripped from her nose to the booth’s floor.

Wiping her face with the back of her sleeve, she got to her feet on unsteady legs as the pulse recommenced. The pulse and the dry hiss. The frantic friction. The rub of arid skin.

Once more, Sparks lost sight of everything but her opponent.

Her head spun.

The creature had been on the other side of the booth, but in an instant, it appeared next to her. Breathing on her. Slathering. Rubbing. Her brain pulsed like it might pop. She aimed her gun at her opponent.

“Yeargh!” Sparks shot the next drone.

The lights came on.

Her opponent stood on their side of the booth like they’d been there all along. Their head snapped to one side. Their tentacles stood on end, swayed, and reached towards her. Writhing fingers of accusation. Reyes had told her not to beat this creature, but much longer in this booth and the Sparks Reyes knew might never return. The numbers displayed the score on the far wall. One-all.

The lights dipped.

Pink pulsating walls.

A throbbing heartbeat.

The scratching of dry skin.

She lost her vision again.

Coughed on her own blood.

The beast darted towards her and stopped just a millimetre away. As cold as exposed rock, it breathed in her ear. Something dry rubbed against her face. A tentacle, it explored her contours like an arid tongue.

She spat blood and fired her blaster.

Duck-quack.

Relief.

Two-one.

Her opponent stood on the other side of the room. They hadn’t crossed the line. They couldn’t. Not unless they’d overridden the booth’s control. They stamped their feet. One and then the other. They wailed and twisted. Snapped and spasmed. Their tentacles thrashed as if expressing the muted beast’s fury. Their movement turned erratic. Stuttered. Glitched.

Pink walls.

The destabilising pulse.

The coppery flow of her blood.

The rush of the beast crossing the booth.

But Sparks shot, halting its progress.

A duck-quack tone.

Three-one.

She ran for the door, slapped the button, and fell out into the bar.

Faz Went grabbed her arms, pulled her to her feet, and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry, Faz. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

“For what? What’s happened?” He leaned over her and pointed into the booth at the emerging creature. “What have you done?”

“I fucked up, Faz. I won.”

Faz Went pulled Sparks behind him, and with every step her competitor took towards them, he took one back. Slow. Measured. Controlled.

The other five’s tentacles had fallen limp. Their frosty glares softened. The one who’d negotiated for them in the first place, the one with the hole in its cheek, nodded at Sparks. “Well done. No one’s beaten us at droneball before. It’ll be a pleasure to do business with you.” They beckoned her. “Come.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t about winning. We weren’t lying to you. Now come, let’s go to the Pisstake so we can get you what you need. If you have the credits, of course.”

Still fighting to get her breath back, Sparks nodded. Should they go? She’d seen the power of just one …

Faz Went said, “Of course we have the credits.”

Sparks shrugged and followed him from the bar. After all, they’d come for weapons, and no one said it would be easy.

CHAPTER 4

The Pisstake crew cut a path through the busy spaceport, Sparks and her friends walking in their wake like they were following death incarnate. Many beings ran out of the crew’s way, crashing into others, fights erupting in their desperation to flee, as if the six radiated chaos like a contagion.

They’d docked the Pisstake at the spaceport’s lakeside. But, at only a mile long, it looked like a fighter compared to its neighbour, a military gunship called the Imperialist from Zawa. The ten-mile-long behemoth transported a nation’s army and still had plenty of room for travellers. For those travellers who didn’t mind being surrounded by military on a working ship. Reyes would have loved it. It was what she came from. She’d not looked at Sparks since they’d left the bar with the Pisstake’s crew. “You okay?”

“Yep.” Staring straight ahead. Focused on the small freighter.

“Do you want to tal—”

“Nope.”

“Not eve—”

“Nope.”

“Good chat.”

Hat squirmed in Sparks’ arms. He’d jumped at her the second she’d left the bar, and had busied himself with licking her ear. His breath stank, but his attention brought a strange relief, her ears still sore from her droneball game. “Is it because Hat chose me?”

Reyes turned on Sparks. “Don’t be so fucking self-righteous. Hat didn’t choose you.”

The furball rose with Sparks’ shrug. “I’m just trying to work out what’s changed so drastically.”

“He didn’t choose any of us.”

“All right. I get it.”

“We’re a family, Sparks. We don’t choose favourites.”

“Then what’s goin—”

“Just drop it, yeah? The fact you’re even asking me’s insulting enough. This conversation’s over.”

Faz Went glared at Sparks. Whatever she and Reyes had going on in that moment, they needed to drop it. Time and place, Sparks. Time and place.

“So”—Sparks raised her voice over the strong wind, the morning light dimmer than most mornings—“have you been in Acoolter long?”

Their six hosts kept their narrow backs to Sparks, but their tentacles animated with agitated twitches and twists.

Although she opened her mouth again, Sparks closed it when Faz Went held his palm towards her. Let him deal with it. Time and place.

The Pisstake had larger entrances for vehicles, but the crew led them up a ramp into a circular tunnel designed for foot passengers. The inside walls were made from the same black steel as the exterior, but its design was much more organic. If that could be said of steel. The hallway was more like a tunnel dug from the earth than the result of precision engineering. The dark walls were curved, the steel layered in thin strands like webbing. The millions of fibres gave it a rough surface, and the dim green lighting hid much of the finer details. For all they knew, there could be hundreds of beings buried in the walls, much like how a spider secured a meal until they were ready to feast.

The space beneath Sparks’ right eye twitched with tiny spasms. They might or might not have had beings behind the strands, but they definitely hid the ship’s operational system there. Not that she could get a lock on the access points.

As they rounded the next bend, a mandulu and another being of similar stature pulled back. They bowed and withdrew into the shadows, aggressively avoiding their employers’ eyes. If the guards kept their heads down and minded their own, they might get through this. And who could blame them for being so well-drilled? Sharing a tight space with these fuckers for five minutes sucked the joy from Sparks. What must it be like to spend months, and even years, in their company?

Faz Went’s voice echoed inside the vessel. “Hi, how are you?”

The mandulu lowered their head further.

“What about you?”

The other guard gave him the same reaction.

Faz Went called to their hosts, “How far is it?”

The skin at the back of Sparks’ neck clenched. Something up ahead. Out of sight. A droid of some sort. Multiple droids. They had dark designs. They remained close enough to be silhouettes in the shadows, but too far for her to intuit their intentions.

The deep gravel rumble of their leader’s voice rolled through the tunnels. “Not very.”

When Reyes shot her a glare, Sparks closed her mouth. Not very fucking helpful, but Reyes had a point. Now was neither the time nor place for snark.

The six creatures led them on, taking left and right turns, every tunnel the same. Bathed in green, they were more like a sewer system than a ship’s corridors.

The tingle of more droids shimmered through Sparks, and her stomach clamped. More silhouettes, waiting in the shadows should they be required. A peripheral reminder of who controlled this ship. A reminder they didn’t fucking need.

Since they’d left the bar, the six had only stared ahead. But their tentacles had reached back in Sparks’ and her friend’s direction several times. Part of their perpetual motion or something more surveilling? Who knew what sense they had packed into those things?

They passed more beings guarding circular entrances. Every one as subservient as those before.

Sparks jumped at the loud crack of their host slamming their fist against a button. A circular door withdrew into the ceiling with a shunk, revealing a large cargo bay.

Still clinging to Hat, Sparks entered the room last. The cargo bay’s walls had the same curve as the hallways. Every right angle smoothed off with millions of black steel strands. Bathed in the same dark green glow as the tunnels, she had to squint to see to the other side of the room. Racks with locked doors. Whatever they were carrying needed to be protected.

“What are you looking for?”

The leader’s growling rumble filled the massive space. All six had prominent brows, none more so than the one Sparks had come up against in the droneball booth. They turned their heads towards them, but their eyes were hidden in shadow. “We’re—”

“Let me speak, Sparks.”

She stepped away from Faz Went and the scowling Reyes. Not her job. She did electrics. She did droneball. She didn’t do diplomacy.

Faz Went steepled his fingers. “What do you have for us?”

“And make sure it’s a fair price.”

Sparks jumped at Reyes’ outburst. She dragged her back, the six beings fixed on them. Hard to tell if one or all of them growled at that point. The leader’s tentacles struck in their direction like angry cobras. “Let Faz Went deal with it, yeah?”

“I just want to make sure they don’t rip us off.”

“You want to be careful, human.”

“None taken.”

Although, from the way Reyes stepped towards them—hand on her hip, chin jutted at the half dozen—she’d taken bucketfuls. To get there, they’d walked down seven or eight tunnels and had taken as many turns. If they needed to run, they were fucked. “Just let Faz deal with it, Reyes.”

“You know what’s best for me again, do you?”

“What’s gotten into you? Why are you behaving this way?”

“You’ve gotten into me. How can we do this if you’re always undermining me?”

“I’m not! This is Faz’s forte. As you reminded me just a minute ago. Let him deal with it. You’re smart enough to pick your moments better than this.”

“I can think and speak for myself, thanks!”

Sparks rolled her eyes.

Their six hosts fixed on Reyes and Sparks as if waiting for their argument to die. Their tentacles swayed and twisted, struck, bobbed, and weaved. But they still had nothing on the agitation she’d witnessed in the droneball booth. And long may it stay that way. The leader raised their hand and clicked once. Like its voice, the single tone filled the space.

Guards entered, each with several prisoners. They led them on chains, steel collars around their necks. One prisoner fell, but the guard carried on, dragging the emaciated and exhausted form across the rough floor.

Sparks threw up her arms. “What’s this about?”

“These used to be guards. This happens to those who disrespect us. Now, we want this deal to go well.”

Reyes tutted. “I bet you do!”

Sparks elbowed her. “Stop it!”

“I can handle myself, thanks.”

“I’m not sure you ca—”

“This happens when you disrespect us.” His voice damn near rattled the walls. “Take this friendly warning for what it is. We don’t want this deal to turn sour, but don’t for a second think we’re afraid to react to provocation.”

Her back taut, Sparks’ fingers twitched, ready to grab her blaster. The only agency she had in that moment. But Reyes finally held her tongue.

The leader waited a few more seconds before returning his attention to Faz Went. “What are your plans for these weapons?”

Faz Went paused, but neither Reyes nor Sparks spoke. The prisoners’ chains rattled as their guards led them the rest of the way across the room. The one who’d passed out slid along the floor behind them.

“And we know if you’re lying.”

“Flanterian.”

Their tentacles stirred at the mention of the planet.

Their leader leaned forwards. “The Ringdell Group? The starinium mine?”

Another pause, as if he assessed whether he could lie to them. Faz Went finally nodded. “Yes.”

“You’ve heard of Piltred, right?”

Faz Went glanced at Sparks and Reyes. “We have.”

“And you still want to go?”

“Want? No. We have to go.”

“Are you mad?”

“Quite possibly.”

Reyes’ agitation spilled over. Where she’d swayed from side to side, she now hopped from one foot to the next as if her feet were burning up. As if desperate to spend her fury. The tentacles went with her, moving in time as if they were feeding one another.

Sparks reached towards Reyes, but paused. She couldn’t do anything to change the situation.

“And you’ve heard the legends?”

Faz Went’s laugh fell as dead as the flaccid prisoner they’d led from the cargo bay. “Which ones?”

“Exactly. We’ve witnessed his work just once. It was enough to turn even our blood cold.”

Reyes shook her head and glared at the six.

“It was in the main town on a vibrant planet called Yilt. Waterfalls, lush grass, fruit growing in the trees. The very definition of prosperity.”

Even when the creature described beauty, its deep rolling tone made Sparks shudder.

“Until Piltred turned up.” Their tentacles snapped and swayed. “The Ringdell Group, the parasitic vermin they are, much like humans—”

“None taken.”

“They craved that prosperity and abundance for their own. A solid infrastructure they could commandeer, bleed dry, and abandon when they’d finished.”

Faz Went scoffed. “So they sent Piltred in?”

The leader of the six rumbled with his sigh. “I know, right?”

Sparks couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “What happened?”

For the first time, the leader’s harsh voice took on a softer edge. “You don’t know much about Piltred, do you?”

Sparks fought the urge to shake her head. Did she want to expose her naivety? But she didn’t know about him. Reyes didn’t either. “No.”

“He feasts on prosperity. They sent him down there to clear the way. But he landed on that planet like a nuclear weapon. He left the place uninhabitable. He killed everything that had attracted the Ringdell Group to Yilt in the first place. The indigenous beings, the wildlife … he burned the infrastructure to the ground, and he only stopped when the entire planet was in flames.”

“So we’re going to need some serious weaponry?”

“You’re going to need gods on your side.”

Sparks snorted, but the dead atmosphere consumed her mirth. She nodded at the racks. “Do you have gods in there?”

“This is all bullshit.”

“Reyes.” Faz Went stamped his foot. “This is a delicate situation. Wind your fucking neck in!”

“Oh, I bet it is. They lead us in here, probably through the twistiest, most disorientating route possible. They make sure we see they have a shitload of droids so we know the only way out is with their permission, and then they spin us some crap about Piltred, who, if they’re to be believed, is the most powerful being in the galaxy. Are you fucking green or what, Faz?”

“What?”

“They’re trying to rip you off.”

“It’s called negotiation. Everyone’s trying to rip off everyone. That’s how this fucked-up galaxy works.”

Reyes folded her arms and shook her head. “I’m not having it. I won’t be taken for a ride.” She pointed at the six, and their tentacles stirred up at the accusation. “I’m sick of being taken for a mug. Just because I’m human”—their tentacles shuddered in response. She rested her hand on her blaster—“doesn’t mean I should be made to pay for the sins of my species.”

“Reyes, what are you doing?” Faz Went rattled. “What’s she doing, Sparks?”

“Don’t ask her, Faz. Talk to me. Let me speak for myself.”

All the while, the snapping and twisting tentacles found a quicker rhythm. Turning. Dancing. They swayed from side to side. All locked into the same motion. All readying for the same attack.

“Now”—Reyes’ tightened her grip, ready to draw her weapon—“are you going to do us a fair deal or not?”

As one, their hosts’ eyes widened. Impossibly wide, their eyeballs protruding from the shadows. Cold blue orbs levitated in dark pits. The tentacles moved quicker, like in the droneball booth. Too much longer and they’d all be blind, bent over double, and coughing up blood.

Thunk!

A steel wall fell from the ceiling, cutting them off from the weapons store. No deal today.

Sparks shot the tentacles from the head of the being she’d faced in the droneball booth. Three, four, five shots into its strange hairdo. All six beings screamed and wailed. A collective suffering. A hive mind.

Faz Went threw up his arms. “What are you doing, Sparks?”

“The tentacles! Shoot them now!” Sparks’ vision blurred, and her knees weakened. She shot again, blasting a patch of tentacles from the top of another’s head. They flew away and landed on the black steel floor like severed fingers. The creature clapped their hands to their stumps and yelled.

The rub of dry skin shifted like sandpaper against wood. Turned into a continuous tone. Four of them still active.

Reyes blasted the next one. Their leader, they reeled away screaming.

Faz Went fired next.

Her vision and strength returning, Sparks shot the tentacles with her friends. They turned the creatures bald, each one crying and moaning. The creatures ran from the cargo bay, and a door slammed shut behind them.

“Next time”—Faz Went jabbed his finger at Reyes and then Sparks—“leave the fucking talking to me. Now, Sparks, any ideas on how to raise this wall so we can get the weapons we came for?” He glared at Reyes. “Please don’t say we’ve had a wasted trip.”

Her intuition buzzed, but like in the hallway, Sparks couldn’t pinpoint the wall’s controls. “I’m not sure.”

“How did they close them?”

“They didn’t. I’m guessing someone or something else did. But—argh!” A sharp pain speared Sparks’ brain. Blood. Saws. Stabbing. Cries. Begging for mercy.

“What?” Reyes reached out to her.

Sparks pointed back towards the door through which they’d entered. “Droids. A fuckload of droids. They’re coming our way, and they’re about as nasty as the little fuckers get.”

CHAPTER 5

Droids spilled into through the circular doorway they’d used to gain access to the dark and cavernous cargo bay. The machines varied in size and shape. Attachments hung from them like appendages. Knives. Saws. Needles. Lasers. The blood and flesh of their victims decorated their weapons like charms. Some chunks were glistening and fresh, while others glowed with pus and writhed with maggots.

Even when they’d been silhouettes in the distance, shadows vanishing around corners, Sparks had sensed their malicious intent. But now, as they swarmed into the room, her skin crawled, and her brain pulsed like it might burst. They thrust upon her a showreel of terror. An assault on her senses like some kind of psychotic confession that she couldn’t deny. The squelching of knives penetrating flesh. The slow grind of saws cutting through bone. The gentle pops of eyeballs being burst.

She jumped when Reyes put her hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

Squinting against her searing migraine, she fired blind and shot a droid from the sky. “No.” It crashed, losing its attachments when it slammed down on the black steel floor. She jumped aside, the vile thing skittering past. “Really fucking not. But my well-being isn’t our biggest priority right now.”

Reyes and Faz Went lit up the cargo bay with wild blasts. They missed more than they hit, but at least they were thinning their numbers.

“You need to switch them off, Sparks.”

She squinted, but it did little to ward off the images. Manacles clamped around necks … Electric shocks from cattle prods throwing twitching beings to the ground … “Anything more than that?”

“You’re asking me? What the fuck do I know about tech? Have you turned it on and off again?”

An arm torn away at the shoulder … “What?”

“Just do something, Sparks. Anything.”

Sparks shot three in a row. “I am!”

Reyes missed with her next four shots. “Something useful!”

“Like you, you mean?”

A droid with a mirrored visor across its front like it contained a mini pilot came at Sparks with a cylindrical probe. A razor-sharp spinning cheese grater. It violated her mind like it had violated far too many orifices. She wailed, but couldn’t drown out the blood-curdling screams ringing through her skull. Clumps of stinking, rotten flesh and hairs had dried around its edge. Flecks of bone decorated the congealed blood like a mosaic. Sparks shot it.

Standing back to back with Reyes and Faz Went, they formed a protective ring around Hat and attacked the droids, their falling forms playing a symphony of crashing steel.

“Do something, Sparks. There are too many of them.”

“You too? What do you propose I do, Faz?” She shot four more, and they crashed one after the other. She could do this for days, but could the other two?

Another wave flooded in. This lot were different. They brought with them a shared memory of the Pisstake landing to screams and cries. The droids spilled from the ship and killed the younglings in front of their parents. Grabbed them by ankles and slammed them into walls, cracking skulls. They removed fingers. They sliced eyeballs. They shackled the adults. They beat them down and led them back into the ship. They made an example of those with the loudest cries.

Sparks’ vision blurred with her tears, and cramps ran through her tight jaw. She yelled, nailing them as they entered. But for every two she dropped, one escaped, soared up into the shadowy space of the cargo bay’s high ceiling, and dive-bombed her, Reyes, and Faz Went.

Reyes pulled on Sparks’ shoulder and leaned close. “There must be something in the weapons store that can help sway this fight in our favour.”

Sparks pressed the heel of her hand against the side of her head, pushing back against her migraine. “If I had a way, I would have done it by now. The controls are shielded. I can feel them, but I’ve no idea where they are.”

The droid influx slowed, but torture still snapped through Sparks’ mind like lightning bolts, each one striking her core. A severed digit. A cheese-grater probe. A laser peeling away skin. But because there were fewer droids, small gaps punctuated each image. Like the micro pause between inhale and exhale.

She shot more, and the pauses grew longer. Small moments where she reclaimed her mind.

The next droid larger than most. A metre tall with a chainsaw hanging beneath it like a scorpion’s tail. Sparks nailed it. It fell and rolled towards her, stopping close to her feet. Its chainsaw turned, kicking up bright flashes against the black steel floor as it flipped and tossed the machine.

Sparks kicked it away. The contact sent something different through her mind. Something other than torture. A way out?

A smaller droid lay close by. It had scalpels for arms, and its lights were still on. Sparks gulped, her throat dry. Something she could carry. Something she had to carry for all their sakes. “Fuck it!”

“What?” Reyes said.

“Cover me.” Sparks ran to the smaller droid. It fizzed and flipped like popping corn in a heating pan. She stamped on its arms, removing its scalpels. Droids crashed down around her. But she paused. “Come on, Sparks! You might not want to know what’s going on in this little fucker’s mind, but you can do it!” She picked it up, the buzz of connection like static electricity. She tuned into its memories. They’d used it on younglings. Cutting them up with its scalpels, forcing their parents into a life of service aboard the Pisstake.

Fighting her own shaking hands, her burning desire to dash the small droid against the floor, Sparks gripped it tighter. Cries and wails from past atrocities. The laughter from the six tentacled cretins and more of their kind. No matter how strong a being’s will, they had the means to break them with their frenzied appendages. But something else existed in this droid’s programming like it had in the one she kicked. Like the torture, it spoke of the beings who’d programmed these machines. It revealed their desires and their secrets.

Sparks ran from Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went.

“What are you doing?” Reyes shot another droid as a fresh wave entered through the door at the far end of the cargo bay. The door through which the half dozen had escaped.

“Just cover me.”

The droid a digital divining rod, it led Sparks to a section of the spider-webbed wall over to her left. Close to the round doorway where she’d expect it to be, but lower. The fine filaments of black steel criss-crossed in a knitted nest. Apparently no different to the rest of the wall. But she closed her eyes, shut out the chaos, and reached out, resting her palm against the rough surface. She applied a little pressure. The panel popped with the slightest click!

Sparks pulled the square cover free. The skin on the back of her neck clenched. She spun around and shot several of the closest droids. A pack of fifty or more headed for Reyes and Faz Went while another wave rushed in after them. More than before. They had an abundance of the nasty fuckers, and they’d keep sending them until they won.

Dropping the scalpel droid, Sparks removed her mini computer.

Reyes screamed. She grabbed her arm, blood seeping from between her fingers.

“Shit!” Sparks returned to her computer and connected to the ship.

More droids swarmed into the cargo bay through the closest door. Her hand twitched. She should shoot them. Instead she typed, cutting through the layers of security with the precision of a scalpel through a youngling’s flesh.

“We need your help here, Sparks. We can’t keep them back.” Reyes still gripped her arm.

Peeling the final layer back, Sparks hit enter.

The clattering crash was almost deafening. A hundred or more heavy droids hit the ground at once. She covered her head with her hands and turned her back on the room. Chunks of steel peppered her body. Flying blades, hammers, cheese graters …

Her mind once again her own, Sparks dropped her head, her tears falling to the steel floor. She leaned against the wall to help her stand. She approached Reyes with wobbly steps, picking her path through the devastation. Two hundred or more fallen droids. No doubt many more throughout the ship. “You okay?”

Reyes clung to Hat, who licked the wound on her arm. “I’m alive.”

“Faz?”

“Same.” He pointed at the wall blocking their access to the weapons. “You think you can get us in there now?”

Sparks wiped her running nose and removed her glasses, cleaning them on her shirt. The wall blocking their access ran all the way to the tall ceiling. But the size of the barrier didn’t matter. Not if she found the controls. She nodded. “We came here for weapons, so we need to leave with weapons. I mean, it’s the least we can do, right?”

One side of Faz Went’s mouth lifted in a half-smile, and he released a rattlesnake hiss. “Damn right.”

CHAPTER 6

Droids littered the floor, some larger than ovens, others as small as toasters. Each deadly in their own malicious way. Designed to inflict pain. To enforce servitude. Sparks picked her way through them, their equipment almost as dysregulating as the memories they’d thrust upon her when active. Bloodstained blades. Electric shock prods, charred from overuse. Sanders thick with blood and sparkling with a crystalline glint from the added salt. She levelled her blaster on one. It had several vials filled with a bioluminescent liquid. She lowered her weapon. Its glow came purely from the fluid. The life had left it just like it had left the others. One of its glass cases had cracked, its poison burning a hole through the steel floor like water through sugar paper. One droid had finger grips still clinging to several severed digits, the bones poking from the bottom of each. A selection of spiked collars trailed from another like a tail. More saws, the teeth clogged with flesh and bone.

Crouching by the access panel she’d located through the droid, Reyes and Faz Went still by the wall blocking their route to the weapons store, Sparks held her computer close, searching the ships’ operating system.

She found the wall’s controls, her fingers alive on the backlit touchscreen. She hit enter. The wall shot upwards with the grating of steel on steel. A deep rumbling landslide growl. It halted with a thud that shook the entire room, flipping the scores of defunct droids.

Faz Went raised a long thumb in Sparks’ direction and set off after Reyes towards the locked racks.

Searching for the controls to give them access to the weapons, Sparks rode the ship’s system, her fingers tapping against the backlit touchscreen, the glow dazzling compared to her murky green surroundings.

A cerise blast exploded against the wall just above her head, pulling her from the ship’s network. “What the …?”

Eight guards at the other side of the dim room wheeled in a cannon that belonged on the outside of a ship.

Reyes and Faz Went shot back, the guards turning their weapon on them. Two blasters and a furball against a fucking plasma cannon. But something about the way the guards attacked … Half-hearted. Slow. They wanted this about as much as Sparks and her friends did. And who could blame them? The evidence of their coerced compliance littered the floor. But what did their reasons matter? They were still shooting to kill. In this life, when something pointed a weapon at you, you’d best make sure you shot first. And you’d best make sure you didn’t miss.

Sparks scored a headshot with a single blast, creating a halo of mist. The creature fell.

The snap of her intuition ignited with the activated and launched grenade. Like being in a droneball both, she shot it mid-flight and turned it into a fireball that lit up the room. Spectacular, but utterly impotent.

A high-pitched whine drilled into Sparks’ eardrums and stole her balance. She sat down before she fell. Reyes and Faz Went rested against the weapons racks for support.

Pushing off against the wall, Sparks stood on shaky legs. She shot another launched grenade. Another huge fireball, the heat pushing her back.

One hand working her mini computer, one clinging to her blaster, she fired off shots and plunged deeper into the Pisstake’s network.

A countdown dominated her screen. Thirty.

Twenty-nine.

Twenty-eight.

The high-pitched whine grew louder while a gentle vibration shook the room. The wall between them and the weapons racks was readying to drop.

“Shit.” Sparks cupped her mouth with her typing hand. “Reyes, Faz, get out of there, now. The wall! I can’t stop it.”

Twenty-four seconds.

“The door out of here’s also about to close. Come on, we need to leave.”

Faz Went stepped towards her on unsteady legs, the whine clearly affecting him too. But Reyes remained by the weapons racks. She ducked another cerise cannon blast that lit up like a flare when it collided with the wall behind them.

Faz Went ran back, grabbed Reyes’ arm and tugged.

“Twenty seconds.”

But Reyes held her ground and shook her head.

Sparks swayed with the whine and shot another grenade. Another ineffectual fireball, the heat almost welcome in this frigid space. She fell on her side, the high-pitched tone drilling through her. “Reyes, what the fuck are you doing?”

“We came here to get weapons.”

“But what good are weapons when we’re dead?”

Faz Went maintained his grip on Reyes, but she clung to Hat with one hand and a weapon rack with the other.

“Fifteen seconds, Reyes.”

“You can’t stop it?”

The whine blurred Sparks’ vision, and she tapped her mini computer’s screen so hard it hurt the tips of her fingers. “No! Twelve seconds.”

“We need weapons.”

“We need to be alive to use them! Ten seconds.”

Sparks shot another grenade and holstered her blaster. She scowled against the migraine-inducing whine and used both hands, her fingers gliding across the touchscreen. She threw the room into near total darkness, the only glow from the two green lights she’d left on by the hangar’s exit. The door through which they’d entered. The door through which they would hopefully leave.

“Turn the lights back on, Sparks.”

“We have to go!”

“Shit! You’d best be right about this.” Reyes’ voice grew louder as she got closer.

Eight seconds remained.

Seven.

Six.

Sparks turned on all the lights, the weak glow revealing the downed droids as shadowy lumps. Enough to help them navigate the obstacles.

“Four seconds.” Sparks ran for the door, stumbling because of the high-pitched whine. Faz Went and Reyes were just a few metres behind.

“Two seconds.” Out in a circular tunnelled hallway, Sparks jumped aside to let Faz Went and Reyes pass before she shot the closest guard. Two blasts. Two kneecaps obliterated.

The tall and skinny being fell forwards, landing across the exit. They raised their gun at Sparks.

Thoom!

The slamming door went through them like a cigar cutter and sprayed Sparks with its treacle-thick blood.

“Shit!” Faz Went rattled and rubbed his face with the back of his sleeve.

Reyes pointed at the closed door. “Well, that was a fucking waste of time. We have no weapons.”

Faz Went rattled, “Because you two didn’t leave me to the negotiations!”

“We’ll find some.” Sparks touched Faz Went’s back, but he pulled away from her. She threw her arms up at Reyes. “We have the credits. So what if we have to overpay? When did you think risking everything to get some weapons was a good idea?”

“We could have gotten them if you’d stopped the doors and wall closing.”

“What’s going on with you?”

Stepping forward, Faz Went separated them with his hands. “What’s done is done. Let’s look on the bright side, shall we?” He shrugged and stepped back a pace, out of punching range. He gestured towards the top half of the tall guard. “At least we’re going to get out of here alive.”

Thunk!

It came from somewhere far away.

Thunk!

Getting closer.

Reyes lifted one side of her head. “What’s that?”

Thunk!

“They’re closing the doors.” Sparks tutted. “Shit! They’re shutting off our exits.”

“Fuck it!” Faz Went’s gills came alive with a prolonged hiss.

Reyes ran her hand over the top of her head, pulling her hair from her face. “Can you find the controls, Sparks?”

“Not without a live droid to guide me to the access panel. Their shielding’s too good.”

“So we’re fucked?”

If Sparks had any other response, she would have given it. “Yep. Proper fucked.”

CHAPTER 7

Thunk!

Another door closed. Another escape route denied. Sparks turned one way and then the other. The poorly lit tunnels faded into a shadowy darkness that stretched into infinity. “They’re trapping us like fucking rats.”

Thunk!

Reyes threw up her arms. “And we have no more weapons than what we entered with.”

“And whose fault’s that?” Faz Went’s shirt shook with his rattle.

“Why do you keep on blaming me?”

“You and your attitude started a fight we didn’t need. They say humans only know war, but Sparks told me you were different.”

“None taken.”

“Well, maybe you should take it. You might learn something, you arrogant …”

Sparks stepped between them, easing them apart, the vibration of Faz Went’s gills against her palm. “This isn’t helping.”

Pinching the top of her nose as if warding off a headache, Reyes stared at the black floor. “Can you hack into their operating system?”

“If I could locate the closest access panel … This black steel seems to shield it. That’s why I used the droid.”

Thunk!

“Hear that?” Sparks cupped her ear.

“More closing doors.” Reyes shrugged. “So what?”

“No. Footsteps.”

Faz Went rattled as he pointed his blaster into the darkness. “Guards. Fuck.”

Thunk!

The ship rumbled, the vibration running through the soles of Sparks’ boots. She leaned against the finely webbed steel wall, the same shake running through the entire ship. “They’re getting ready to take off.”

Thunk!

The closing doors struck with the monotony of a countdown timer.

Thunk!

The bisected guard was evidence of their intention. When they closed, they stayed fucking closed.

“Come on. We need to do something, even if it’s just getting away from the guards.” Sparks ran down the tunnel, into the shadows and away from the footsteps.

Around the next bend, the door ahead slammed shut. Thunk!

“Shit!” But then a panel low down on their right glowed. At Sparks’ ankle height. The steel fibres and the Pisstake’s poor lighting had kept it hidden until that moment. But the active screen shone through the fibres. She pressed the covering panel and freed it with a click!

“You’ll regret the day you ever boarded the Pisstake.” Multiple speakers emitted the creature’s deep rumble. “No one crosses us and gets away with it. And we’re still trying to work out why it turned hostile. We were ready to do the trade.”

Faz Went shot Reyes a narrowed glare. She dropped her head like a scolded child.

Thunk!

The steps drew closer.

The ship rumbled and shook. Massive thrusters powering up with the force to lift tonnes of steel from Acoolter’s cold and rocky surface.

“We’re going to take you out into the void and space you. You’re lucky we’re not doing worse. The heavens know you deserve it. But we can heal from the damage you’ve done. There’s no chance any of you will recover from being turned inside out. The last thing you’ll see is your arsehole being dragged from your mouth with the rest of your insides. But you can take comfort in knowing you’ll be providing us with a moment’s entertainment.”

The footsteps were a few corridors away and closing in fast.

Thunk!

No time to hack into their operating system, Sparks raised her blaster, turned from the computer, and ran back to where their current tunnel met the one they’d vacated. A crossroads, a right-angle turn hid her from the approaching guards. Get them while they’re exposed. Snipe them from the cover of a bend. Reyes appeared behind her.

Sparks shot a silhouette, dropping a guard and scattering the other twelve. She ran across the tunnel and hid in the one opposite, several blasts streaking behind her. Reyes held her position, and Faz Went stayed by the tannoy.

Reyes gripped her blaster with a shaking hand. She clung to Hat, who licked the wound on her arm, but it made little difference to her unsteady aim. And with Faz Went holding back, their salvation relied solely on Sparks.

“There are too many of them.” Reyes’ face glistened with sweat.

“What’s turned you into a quitter?”

“Recognising when we’ve lost. Even if we defeat these guards, what then? We get taken off planet and spaced? We’re done, Sparks.” She lowered her blaster. “We’re fucking done.”

The guards’ next blast streaked between them, the light revealing Reyes’ wide-eyed panic.

“Faz! We could do with some help here.”

But Faz Went sat cross-legged on the floor, level with the tannoy. He reached in through the access panel. A click snapped through the hidden speakers. “You want this ship for yourself?” His rattle hissed through the ship.

Reyes looked back at Faz Went. “What’s he doing?”

“Who knows?”

“This is your chance.” He punched the air and rattled louder than before. “Use this moment to reclaim what you’ve lost. What they’ve stolen from you. The droids are down. Your shackles are off. Those in charge of the ship are running scared. Not from us, from you. With no machines with which to oppress, they have no control. They’re petrified you’ll come to the same conclusion.”

The guards in the hallway, a ragtag bunch of silhouettes, lowered their weapons. Sparks called back, “It’s working, Faz. Keep going.”

“We know what life you live on this ship. We’ve seen how your owners talk to you. What did they do to get you here? Who did they kill? They thought they could break you, but we all know you’ve been waiting for the right time. For that moment to take back your lives and your dignity. Alternatively, you could do nothing. Keep things as they are if you’re happy with how you’re being treated?”

Thunk!

A door close to them opened. The guards ran back from where they came, and Sparks bounced on the spot. “Keep it up, Faz.”

“Take your owners’ tentacles like they’ve taken your lives. Show them what it is to be powerless.”

Thunk!

Another door opened.

“Make the Pisstake your own.” Faz rattled. “Use it to build the lives you want. To return to the planets from which you were abducted.”

Thunk!

Shouts and yells filled the tunnels. Howls and shrieks. A ship inspired. Invigorated. A fire stoked.

Thunk!

Sparks and Reyes ran to Faz Went. Sparks shoved her mini computer close to the tannoy and hacked into the ship’s operating system. She flicked through their files, searching the Pisstake’s schematics. “How did you know?”

Faz Went frowned. “Know what?”

“That’d work.”

“It’s obvious.” He sniffed and rattled. “The air stinks of mutiny. You saw how scared they were of those running the ship.”

“That could have been a natural reaction to those horrible fuckers. They seem to create that response everywhere they go.”

“But when they brought out the prisoners in the cargo bay to show us what happened to those who stepped out of line, the guards were as shackled as their charges.”

“You saw that in their faces?”

“You didn’t?”

Thunk!

Another door opened. Another way out of there.

Sparks found a route off the ship and saved it to her computer. “No. I read droids, not living beings. But I saw what they’d done to many of them. Unedited memories in high fucking definition.”

“Oh, Sparks.” Faz Went grabbed her forearm. “I can’t even imagine. I’m so sorry.”

Sparks shrugged and held up her computer. “Let’s get out of here before we get caught in the crossfire.”

CHAPTER 8

The glare from Sparks’ backlit screen punched through the darkness, dazzling her, leaving her damn near blind in the Pisstake’s dingy corridors. But she’d have to cope. The very thing that took away her sight provided their only guidance off this shit show of a ship.

Overshooting the first left turn, she spun back and took it on her second try.

Faz Went rattled and panted, his face hidden beneath the shadow of his peak save for the very bottom of his chin, like the snowy peak of an inverted mountain. “You sure you know the way out?”

Sparks took them right, through a circular open doorway into a vast dorm that could comfortably sleep five hundred beings. Like all the other rooms and hallways on the Pisstake, the right angles where the walls met one another, the floor, and the ceiling were all curved with the steel webbing. And like everywhere else, Sparks’ intuition tingled with a generalised buzz. But she still couldn’t latch on to the specific location of any computer access points.

Pyramid-shaped bunk beds dominated the room. Their steel frames held about twenty layers of thin, soiled mattresses. The bottom bunk large enough for Sparks, Reyes, Faz Went, and Hat to sleep comfortably without disturbing one another. They ran all the way to small cots at the top—barely large enough for Hat—about fifteen metres from the deck. The ladders grew narrower the higher they went, denying even someone as small as Sparks a chance to reach the summit.

Reyes looked up as she ran. “I wonder how many beings have rolled over one too many times in their sleep?”

Sparks turned right into a dining room filled with twenty to thirty guards gathered around one of their tentacled oppressors. They pinned their tormentor to the room’s largest table. A khaki-green reptilian about four feet tall and as thin as a hosepipe reached back with an outstretched hand. One of the crowd handed them a las-knife, which they tossed aside, the steel weapon bouncing towards Sparks and coming to rest at her feet. Their gruff voice filled the cavernous room, the words buried by their throaty growl. Barking a wet cough, the second attempt came out only marginally clearer. “Too sharp.”

Another hand in the crowd brandished a butter knife, and the lizard giggled, its slight form bouncing with its mirth. It leaned over the tentacled being, who screamed like the creature’s shadow burned. But those screams had nothing on what followed when they sawed into their first tentacle with a tool that had no right cutting through thick muscle. A concentrated jet of blood shot away from the wound, and the reptile laughed harder than before.

Reyes gripped Sparks’ arm. “Come on.” She dragged her away from the carnage.

Stumbling for the first few steps, Sparks found her footing, overtook the others, and led them through to the kitchen. The thick reek of singed hair hung in the room like steam. Something screamed. Shrill and unhinged, it beat against the inside of the industrial oven. Their face pressed to the murky glass, they stared out through maddened eyes. The first of their tentacles popped, turning the oven’s already foggy window opaque with burned blood.

“Jeez!” Faz Went rattled and shook his head.

Out of the kitchen and down another hallway. The ship alive with howls and wails. Screams and cries. Filled with suffering that would haunt the Pisstake’s walkways for generations.

The next left led them into a conference room, its centre dominated by a large table. Packed with more guards than the other two combined, the fifty or so creatures blocked their route and turned their way as one. A ragtag bunch from a foot tall to fifteen, they’d fill the pyramidal bunks five times over.

“We should go.” Faz Went’s peak moved from left to right, scanning the room as he stepped back a pace. “We should go now.”

Sparks held up her mini computer. “But this is our way out. We follow another route and we might not exit this ship before it takes off.”

The shortest of all the beings at just under twelve inches placed their hands on their hips and looked Sparks up and down. “Who are you?”

Faz Went, as out of breath as the rest of them, rattled with his exhale. “We shoul—”

“Wait.” A mandulu swept the smaller creature aside, the force of their shove driving them into the wall with a whack. She pointed at Faz Went. “It’s him. The one from the tannoy, right?”

Still fighting to catch his breath, rattling with his respiration, Faz Went nodded.

She pressed her thick hands together as if in prayer. “Thank you.”

Faz Went accepted the gesture with a slight bow.

A path opened up for them.

He led the way, stopping at the other side of the room.

They’d stapled another one of their tentacled oppressors to the wall. Their arms and feet pinned, they’d stretched them out in the shape of a cross. A flying being carrying a rivet gun hovered by their head.

Thunk!

Sparks twisted away with a wince as the high pressure of the pneumatic gun secured the creature’s next tentacle to the steel wall.

The being screamed like those before it. High-pitched. A boiling lobster. It twisted, tearing the holes in its hands and feet wider. Blood ran from its toes and dropped into the darkness.

The route on Sparks’ computer pointed at a locked door.

Reyes hit the button with a crack! When it didn’t open, she threw up her shoulders. “What now?”

“I told you we should have gone another way,” Faz Went said.

The guards had been friendly enough to let them pass, but of the fifty or so gathered there, at least half of them watched on with murderous intent.

“Who are you?” Another mandulu stepped forwards, his bulbous chin swaying with his shaking head.

“We’re enemies of those who owned this ship as much as you are.” Faz Went showed them his long palms, imploring them to stay back. “We’re just trying to go home.”

“And why should we trust you?”

The female mandulu shoved the male aside. “Just let them through.” As many beings nodded with her as didn’t.

Sparks dropped into a crouch and ran her hands along the rough and cold steel wall. She paused a few feet beneath the button Reyes had attacked. She pressed, and an access panel popped loose. “And presto.”

Dividing her attention between Sparks and those about to lynch them, Reyes spoke from the side of her mouth. “How did you find that one?”

“The other two have been where I’d expect them to be, but lower. Not very imaginative, really.” Sparks brought up a keyboard on her screen and input a series of commands that ended with a thunk! The circular door lifted into the wall. She jumped up and charged through, Reyes and Faz Went following while the guards continued to argue over their fate.

Five tentacled fucks turned their way. They’d been facing a screen on the room’s far wall, filled with Blark Venn-Quarter’s furry round head. His golden eyes narrowed. “Faz Went?”

Tentacles hissed. Dry skin rubbed together.

Reyes shot the closest creature, exploding their thick appendages. She called back into the room they’d just left, “There are more in here.”

The male mandulu charged in, weak chin first. He ran for the slavers, but several others headed towards Sparks, Faz Went, Reyes, and Hat. They wanted answers.

Sparks bolted, and the others followed, all under the watchful glare of Blark Venn-Quarter.

Into a small storage room, Sparks dropped and punched the wall, revealing another maintenance panel. “Cover me.” She hacked into the door’s controls while Reyes and Faz Went fired on the charging guards.

Thunk!

The guillotine door closed, cutting off the carnage and muting the chaos.

All three of them gasped. Faz Went’s shirt flapped with his rattling breaths. The guards on the other side of the door attacked it with a series of blows, but it held. For the time being.

“What now?” Reyes shook her head. “How do we get off?”

“The route showed we needed to come here.” Still hacked into the Pisstake’s controls, Sparks slid her glasses up her sweating nose, typed in a command, and hit enter. A fierce wind filled the room as a floor panel pulled back.

Faz Went screamed and pressed his back to the wall. He clung onto his cap and leaned over the opening, Acoolter’s rocky plains a few hundred metres below. “What the fuck?”

Reyes searched the cupboards on the other side of the room.

The locked door shook under the weight of the guards’ attack.

Still pressed against the wall, Faz Went’s feet slipped on the floor as he tried to push himself even farther away. “I’m not jumping.”

The guards dented the door, giving it a pregnant bulge. Sparks pointed at it. “You want to go back there?”

“Guards can be reasoned with. Gravity can’t.”

“Aha!” Reyes pulled a small hang glider from a cupboard and threw it to Sparks. It had a horizontal bar about half a metre across with a red button on either side.

Sparks pressed a button. Thwip! The glider snapped open. It had a two-metre wingspan and was rigid enough to withstand the drop.

“No fucking chance.” Faz Went shook his head. “That’s like jumping out of here armed with an umbrella. Or a carrier bag.”

But the glider held its form. Sparks tilted it one way and the other, clinging onto it against the strong wind. The guards continued attacking the door.

Reyes threw a glider at him. “I’ve used these before. In the military. It’s good tech. We can trust it.”

Faz Went trembled where he stood.

“We have to make a choice, Faz,” Reyes said.

Sparks nodded at her. “What about your arm? Will you be able to hold on?”

The slash in Reyes’ shirt showed the open wound had closed, and a scab had formed.

“Huh?”

Reyes lifted Hat. “Ask him.”

Thud!

The guards deepened the dent.

Thud!

Spaces opened up around the door’s edge. A guard called through, “We don’t trust you. You’re as guilty as they are.”

Thwip!

Reyes opened her glider. “We stay here and we die.”

Faz Went pointed down. “We jump and we die.”

CHAPTER 9

“But at least if we jump, we’re going out on our own terms.” Reyes stuffed Hat inside her shirt and jumped through the floor. The air caught her glider with a thwip and ripped her away.

Sparks’ glasses’ arms had hooks that helped keep them on her face. She squeezed them, bending them tight enough to pinch the backs of her ears.

“You’re going after her?”

Thud! A hairy pink finger poked through.

“I don’t see a better option,” Sparks shouted over the wind. “You coming?”

Faz Went turned even paler than his usual porcelain complexion.

“We leave it too much longer and we’re not getting off this ship.” She lifted her glider. “At least, not with the aid of one of these.”

Thud!

The door buckled. Arms reached through the gaps around its edge.

Sparks had known Faz Went for a year now. Considered him a friend. Enough of a friend that she’d asked him to go to Stargart with her. Enough of a friend that he’d gone. He’d faced that for her. Could he face this? Friendships like his were hard to find. If she jumped, would he follow? She read machines, not people. “Help me out here, Faz. We need to go. Now. And you need to come with us.”

Thud!

Clang!

The door fell into the room, the guards riding the toppling lump of steel.

Sparks jumped, and her glider caught the air. The drag damn near tore her arms from their sockets as she shot after Reyes a few hundred metres ahead.

Thankfully, Faz Went followed, dropping out a second later, hanging from his glider with a pendulous sway.

The mile-long Pisstake already behind them, Sparks clamped her jaw against the frigid wind, grit and bugs hitting her glasses and stinging her cheeks. The flapping rush of air damn near deafening, she focused on Reyes and made the slight adjustments necessary to stay on her tail, slowly gaining on her and Hat.

The rocky plains below were a blur. One slip and she’d shatter every bone in her body. By the time she came to rest, she’d probably be no more than a limbless torso. A droid sheared of its appendages.

The gliders did the job Reyes promised they would, but Sparks’ cheeks had turned numb. Her hands had locked into frozen claws, and they were still a few miles away from the edges of Acoolter’s civilisation. They were going to come up well short and would probably end up chasing Hat around the desert after stoovas until all four of them froze to death. Exposure killed more beings on Acoolter than Blark Venn-Quarter ever could.

Faz Went streaked past Sparks on her left. His long body swung with every movement. Someone of his size should be too large for the small glider, but he shot past Reyes and Hat like he’d done this before. He led them towards the high-rise blocks at the edge of Acoolter’s built-up town. But they still had no chance of getting close.

Her ears numb. Her fingers. Her cheeks. Her nose ran like a tap. The rocky ground a blur and getting closer. Sparks squinted, flinching with every speck of grit against her glasses’ lenses.

Faz Went suddenly shot up. Twenty metres higher than the pair of them. It took a bit of his momentum, both Sparks and Reyes shooting beneath him, but it would carry him farther.

Reyes shot up a second later, and Sparks caught the tail end of her shout. “… button!”

One button had opened the wings. Sparks pressed the other. The glider jolted and dragged her higher. Her shoulders burned, and her frigid grip threatened to give, but she held on.

Their slower pace eased the wind’s cutting bite. Sparks’ hands remained numb, her ears and cheeks burned, and her nose ran, but she could do this for longer. She could hold on until they landed.

Faz Went led the way. He became their glider instructor, her and Reyes pressing the lift button when he did, mimicking his undulating flight path towards Acoolter’s cluster of residential and commercial buildings.

By the time they reached Blark Venn-Quarter’s block, they were going slow enough for Sparks to copy the other two’s landing. She hit the block’s roof at a slow jog and came to a halt, laying down her glider. They looked out over the rest of Acoolter. The narrow alleys leading to the fighting pit and red- and purple-light districts. The hotels and bars along the starport’s front. The massive ships docked by the lake. Several smaller freighters coming in to land along the flight path overhead. She rubbed her hands together, the friction generating a small amount of heat, and laughed. “I must say, Faz, I’m glad you came with us. Had you not shown us how to pilot these gliders, we’d be stranded on the plains by now.”

Reyes stroked Hat. “You should train the military with those skills.”

Faz Went smiled and straightened his back, standing his full six and a half feet tall. “I’ve never used one before, but I suppose when the choice is to drop a few hundred metres to the rocky plains, or learn how to fly …”

“You learn how to fly.” Reyes giggled while Hat licked her wound.

Sparks cleaned her glasses on her shirt. “Thank you, Faz. That was amazing. We owe you. And who knew Hat could do that?”

“Do what?”

Faz Went had been so consumed by fear on the Pisstake, he must have missed it. “Show him your arm, Reyes.”

A scabbed wound about ten centimetres long ran along Reyes’ arm where the deep gash had been. “It must be something in his saliva.”

Faz Went screwed up his face. “Doesn’t he lick his arse?”

“If it has this effect, I don’t care if he does.” Reyes turned her arm to admire Hat’s handiwork. “And who knows, it might be the thing that gives him his healing skills. But, Faz, while I appreciate you getting us to safety, why here?”

“We were in the air.”

Reyes leaned towards him. “I’m going to need a bit more than that.”

“When Blark Venn-Quarter saw us on the Pisstake, we were in the air. As long as we’re not on Acoolter, what happens is none of his business. He doesn’t care. Although, I think we should take a moment to rest and then talk to him to make sure there’s no bad blood between us.”

“I thought you just said it was none of his business?”

“Out of respect. A way to prevent any future strife.”

The Pisstake flew away in the distance, but it remained relatively low, soaring over Acoolter’s plains. Sparks patted Faz Went’s back. “Had you not read the impending mutiny, we’d still be on our way to being spaced by those fuckers.”

Nodding along, Reyes smiled at Faz Went, but her face dropped when he scowled at her.

“I still need to know, what was that about, Reyes?”

“What?”

“Why did you keep on winding them up?”

“That was necessary.”

“Huh?”

“You saw how they treated their prisoners. They didn’t deserve a fair trade. If my actions led to their eradication, I can live with that. If we can leave a situation better than when we arrived, then we’ve done a good thing. Right? Tell me I’m wrong?”

“Uh …”

“What, Sparks?”

“You were behaving strange before that. There’s something you’re not telling us.”

“Jeez!” Reyes threw up an arm, Hat beneath the other. “Just get off my fucking case, yeah? They weren’t going to give us the weapons. It was obvious they were planning on killing us.”

Faz Went shook his head. “Mutiny on that ship was obvious. Their intention to end us was not.”

“No, Faz, you’re wrong!”

“So you can read a room better than Faz Went now? We nearly died, Reyes!”

“Are you on his side or something?”

“I’d expect you to hold me accountable had I just behaved in the same way. We were lucky to leave the Pisstake with our lives.”

“We made a difference, Sparks. Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that why we’re going back to Flanterian?”

“We don’t have to if you don’t wa—”

Reyes gritted her teeth and pointed at Sparks. “Don’t you fucking dare!”

Faz Went stepped between them.

Reyes sprayed spittle as she spoke. “I’m not sure what you believe, but if I can leave a situation better than how I entered it, then I will. Even if that’s just a kind word, I will strive to make a difference. And that ship getting handed to the crew is making a difference. As far as I’m concerned, what’s better than getting armed to the teeth is leaving the Pisstake improved for us being there. We’ve …”

“Oh, shit!” Faz Went rattled as the Pisstake, now a few miles away, tilted a little.

Reyes’ mouth fell open. She shook her head. “It’s just correcting its course. Right?”

But it tilted farther, and Sparks leaned with it.

“It’s decided to fly at the ground, has it?”

“All right, Faz!”

The Pisstake’s nose dropped, and Sparks wrung her hands. Her toes curled like she could somehow affect the ship’s desperately slow but inevitable course.

“Oh, fuck!” Faz Went paced back and forth, the small stones on the flat roof crunching beneath his steps.

Kaboom!

The explosion shook the ground and blew out all the windows in the tower blocks around them.

Faz Went picked up his glider, and his breaths quickened. “We need to go. Now.”

Sparks’ mini computer buzzed in her pocket. The lit-up screen had an image divided into quarters, each one filled with a mugshot. Her, Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went. Her computer shook in her trembling hand. Her voice wavered as she read the text. “Wanted! Ten thousand credits each. Fifty thousand for all four. Double if they’re dead.”

CHAPTER 10

They were deep in enemy lines, and they needed to get the fuck out. Sparks chewed the inside of her mouth as if it could work away the ball of anxiety in her gut.

Leaning over her, her eyes wide and fixed on the screen, Reyes scoffed. “Double if we’re dead?”

“He doesn’t like getting his hands dirty.” Faz Went scanned their surroundings as if plotting their route out of there. His shirt flapped with both the strong wind and his rattling respiration.

Morning had given way to early afternoon, and Acoolter’s temperature had gone into freefall. Sparks’ jaw ached, clamped against the biting cold. “Fucking coward.”

“Now”—Faz Went pointed towards the spaceport’s main strip—“let’s get out of here while we still can. There has to be a ship down there on which we can hitch a ride.”

Pacing back and forth, Reyes’ steps crunched on the rooftop’s small stones. “But what are the chances of us making it?”

“Better than if we do nothing.” Faz Went ran across the block’s roof and jumped, pressed his glider’s button, and lifted with his escape.

“Ah, fuck it.” Reyes followed, Hat inside her top.

Several blasts from the ground narrowly missed her. So much for remaining hidden! They’d blown their fucking cover with their first action. Sparks shook her head, sprinted across the roof, and jumped after them.

A cluster of beings gathered in the plaza and aimed their blasters into the sky. Sparks pressed the button to lift higher just as a shot tore a hole in its left side, robbing her glider of its lift before it had happened.

“Shit!” Sparks pressed again, the flaps at the back responding to her request, but her damaged glider was unable to carry out their instructions.

Reyes and Faz Went had already cleared the next block and were safe from those on the ground. Reyes turned, but Sparks shouted over the howling winds, “I’ll come and find you. Keep going.”

Another blast—a purple beam of light—cut through the right side of her glider, and she fell faster. She twisted left and right as shots streaked past, one catching the back of her heel, searing a gouge through her boot’s rubber sole. A centimetre closer and it would have ripped into her foot.

Cutting around one of the smaller of the seven tower blocks surrounding the plaza, Sparks shot into a narrow alley only just wide enough to accommodate her glider’s wingspan.

A ninety-degree left up ahead, she pulled hard, shooting around it. She levelled out, the tips of her glider’s wings brushing the walls on either side.

The closer she got to the ground, the quicker she seemed to drop. Just two metres until touchdown. The alley turned a sharp right up ahead.

One metre from the ground. A couple from the bend. She let go of her glider and fell like a deactivated drone.

Hitting the ground hard, her legs buckled, throwing her to her knees against the hard rock, sending her into a roll.

On her back, the sky as grey as the steel walls around her, Sparks panted. Every part of her body throbbed from the fall. Her groan echoed in the tight alley, ran away from her, and met the footsteps of the mob on her tail. She rolled her eyes and balled her fists. “Can’t you just give me a fucking minute?”

Pressing her palm against the cold steel wall for support, Sparks got to her feet and ran, stumbling with her progress, the mob gaining on her. Fishing her mini computer from her inside pocket, she brought up a programme she’d used plenty of times before. She created a dead end behind her by changing the alley’s layout. Thunk!

Yells and shouts from behind. She’d closed them off for now, but no doubt the entire place knew her location.

Every time she rounded a bend, Sparks shut another section of the alley. She cut off her pursuers, but announced her progress to those ahead.

Thunk!

Thunk!

Thunk!

Out of the maze of narrow paths, Sparks carried her blaster in one hand and mini computer in the other. Ships filled the sky, but no gliders. Had Faz Went and Reyes already found a ride out of there? How long could they afford to wait? Would they leave without her? Write her off as dead?

Cheers and yells burst from the fighting pit on her right, the red- and purple-light districts on her left. She ran towards the fighting pit and stopped after two steps.

Thunk!

The fighting pit’s doors opened, the hinges cackling as if amused by her predicament.

Sparks turned around. The purple-light district, the closer of the two. She needed to vanish before hundreds more beings found the bounty that could make them rich. Especially if they brought her in dead.

Fifty metres from the purple-light district, Sparks’ right eye twitched shut. Electric rods of agony streaked through her brain as she lived the services rendered by previous patrons. Stabbing. Cutting. Sawing. Probing. Like with on the Pisstake, the machines fed her an unending flow of dirty secrets. It robbed her of her coordination and slowed her escape.

One of the fighting pit crowd shouted, “There’s one!”

Normally a place of privacy, but Blark Venn-Quarter had flooded the district with surveillance drones. Sparks ran around a bend and kept to the shadows, doing her best to blend in with the punters.

Smoke wafted across her path from a building on her right. Burned copper. Blood, fire, and steel. She could taste their torture like a nosebleed. She kicked open the door and entered.

The place was decked out like a fucking dentist’s waiting room, all the way down to the posters on teeth health adorning the walls. The burned blood and hot steel mixed with the strong reek of sweat, piss, and shit.

The torture bot swivelled her way. One of its long blades smoked, burning off the blood as part of its sanitation routine between clients. Sparks flinched from the memory of it being buried to the hilt up a fifteen-foot-tall brown creature’s arsehole. She twisted as she lived every slow second of the withdrawal. The beast’s braying wails echoed through her mind.

The torture bot had at least twenty arms with attachments. Scalpels. Meat grinders. Clamps of all shapes and sizes. Cuffs. Whips, some with razor blades on the ends. A blowtorch. Sparks gripped one side of her head and squinted against the intrusions. The bot’s voice was gruff with mechanical distortion. “Closed for business. Cleaning in progress.”

She gulped to help her get her words out. “That’s my thing.”

“Huh?”

“Dirty bots. I fucking love ’em.” She nodded at a thirty-centimetre-long baton flecked with fecal matter. She licked her lips while swallowing back her heave. “Mmmm.”

“Can’t. Closed.”

“Butterbeans.”

The machine’s red lights turned green. Faz Went had given her the trigger word a long time ago. She’d told him then she had no interest. How things change.

“Two hundred credits, please.”

A mob of beings charged past outside, shouting to one another. She missed most if it save for the tail end of the slowest creature. “Are you sure she went this way?”

Reyes had their main credit card, but Sparks had a backup. It had restrictions on the spending, but she could afford two hundred credits. She waved it in front of the machine.

A red cross dominated its large screen, and it released a duck-quack tone. “Denied.”

“What’s denied?”

“No credit. Denied.”

“You need to get your wiring checked.”

“No credit. Denied. No credit. Denied. No credit. De—”

Sparks shot the droid, her blast searing a hole in its front, killing it instantly. But the damage had already been done. Even machines had pimps. The second her card got rejected, an alarm would have gone off somewhere. She’d bet her life they were on their way.

Sparks ran into the back room. A dentist’s chair complete with restraints dominated the space. Black latex walls and floors, it had racks and harnesses of all shapes and sizes. Stairs in the room’s corner led up. She took them two at a time.

Out on the roof, the cool wind blasted away the reek of arse and sweat, and no doubt arse sweat. She ran to the edge of the roof and peered over as an army of mandulus charged into the building. Of course they were fucking mandulus. Not like they had anything better to do with their useless lives.

Every commercial building wanted to be close to the spaceport. Those that were farther back were damn near built on top of one another, desperate to be near the action. Narrow alleys between them, only a few metres wide. Narrow enough to jump. Sparks set off, running from rooftop to rooftop, heading for the front, and hopefully towards Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went.

A steady stream of ships in the sky. With the day growing late, more took off than came in to land. How long before one of them reported seeing her?

Sparks’ steps beat against the flat steel roofs of the smaller buildings as she made her way closer to the front. Get there, get into the crowd, and find the others.

Her arms pumping, she jumped another alley. Just one row of buildings between her and the main strip.

A cry came up from below. “One of them’s on the roofs.”

“Shit!” Sparks jumped across another alley and reached a front-row building.

Another voice responded to the first. “Cut them off. I’ll go up from behind.”

Every building had a doorway on the roof leading to a stairwell that gave access to the inside. Nothing she couldn’t hack. Sparks reached the next one, the rooftops all the same, and used her mini computer. The other rooftops still clear, the door opened with a click! She ducked inside and pulled it shut behind her.

The tight stairwell amplified her heavy breaths. Sparks descended and wiped her sweating brow with the back of her sleeve. She could hide out in here for a short time. Lie low while they searched for her. Just a few minutes to let the mob pass.

Light flooded the gloomy stairwell. It came from the bottom and hit her like a sex-bot’s memories. She winced and held up her hand to block the glare. Whoever owned this place had a torch like a fucking spotlight. “Don’t shoot. Please.”

“Sparks?” He lowered his torch.

Sparks blinked until she regained her sight. “Oh, fuck!”

Mac the bartender sneered. “It was a lot darker the last time you left here.”

CHAPTER 11

“Just let me go, Mac. I’ll be on my way like I was never here.”

Mac might have lowered his torch, but the glow remained strong enough to reveal the blaster in his hand. “Like the last time you left? I’m yet to reopen from your previous visit. You cost me a fortune.”

“Fuck you, Mac!” She fixed him with an accusatory finger. “You ratted me out. You’re lucky I only fried your electrics.”

“So I should be grateful now?”

“You shouldn’t be a fucking rat! If you knew a fraction of the grief you’ve caused me …” She edged a step closer. Her fingers twitched, the weight of her blaster resting against her hip.

“Throw your gun down.”

“Yeah, right. You think I’m green?”

“What?”

“That classic trick’s used by law enforcement across the galaxy. The second I go for my weapon, you shoot me.” She leaned closer to him. “I can see it in your eyes. I’m not sure if it’s fear or excitement, but there’s a fuckload of adrenaline running through you right now.”

Mac licked his thick lips.

“Tell me I’m wrong. And whether or not you want to shoot me, we all know adrenaline can lead to rash decisions.” She threw up her hands and lowered her voice in a poor imitation of his. “I didn’t mean to shoot. I didn’t want to hurt her. But now you have, you might as well claim the bounty.”

“That’s not it.”

“Bullshit. You’ve got form. You’ve already sold me out once.”

“Just throw down your weapon, Sparks.”

She stepped closer, and he stepped back. His gun shook as an extension of his trembling arm. “I don’t want to shoot you.”

“Oh, I think you do.”

“Take your weapon from your holster and throw it down. I don—”

A hammering thud beat against the other side of the bar’s locked door. “Open up!”

His gun in one hand, Mac dropped his torch and pulled a small microphone from his pocket. He held it close to his mouth and pressed the button. “We’re closed.”

“I don’t want booze.”

“Mac’s sells more than booze. We offer herbs, vapours, and the best damn service in the galaxy.”

Sparks scoffed.

“I’m not here for a fucking sales pitch either.”

“Then what do you want? Like I said, we’re closed!”

“Open the door, by order of Blark Venn-Quarter.”

“I’m sorry, but who are you, and what do you want?”

“Have you seen the news? Blark Venn-Quarter’s just put a fifty-thousand-credit bounty on four fugitives.”

“So?”

“If we suspect you’re harbouring the fugitive, we have a right to enter without a warrant.”

“And?”

“We think one of them’s in there.”

“You’re wrong. And we’re closed.”

“This door looks new.”

“What’s your point?”

“It would be a shame if we had to knock it down. One way or another, we’re coming in.”

Another being beat against the door on the roof, their high-pitched voice muffled because of the thick steel. “Let us in!”

“Okay, okay. Fine.” Mac held a shaking hand towards Sparks as if encouraging her to stay calm. “I’m coming. Tell whoever’s on the roof I’m cooperating. I could do with keeping my doors intact.”

Laying down his blaster, Mac grabbed the top of a steel barrel. In one move, Sparks could take the weapon and turn it on him. But then what? The roof and the front doors were being watched. They’d storm the place and kill her in seconds.

Mac lifted the barrel’s lid. It was filled with water; he reached in and pulled out several blasters, each one illegal tech from vetoed planets. Contraband that could land him in even more shit than harbouring a criminal. He grunted with the effort of lifting the last one, the cannon of a blaster needed two hands to operate and could shoot a ship as large as the Gargantua from the sky.

Sparks blew out and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Well, well, who knew?”

“This is Acoolter. We make credits how we can.”

“Like I hadn’t noticed.”

“Look, Sparks, you—”

Thud!

The door shook.

“Will you hang on?”

“You need to hurry. What are you doing in there?”

“Shitting! And unless you want me to answer the door with my trousers around my ankles and my arse hair clogged with chug nuts, then you’ll have to wait a minute.”

Sparks winced.

Mac’s cheeks turned puce. “It was the first thing that came to mind.”

“That was the first thing?”

“How long can you hold your breath?”

Thud!

“I’m not getting in there.”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“They’re coming in whether we like it or not. I’d rather it happened without me incurring further damage to my bar. How long can you hold your breath?”

The barrel was only just large enough for her. The cold water black because of the dimly lit bar. “Three minutes. Four at a push.”

“I’ll make sure we don’t push it, then.”

“I can trust you?”

Thud! Thud!

“My answer doesn’t matter. You have to decide. And quickly.”

She pointed at the barrel. “If I get in there, this could be an easy ten K for you. And it gets rid of someone who knows of your illegal contraband.”

“Twenty.”

“What?”

Thud!

“Twenty K. You’d be dead.”

“Shit!”

Thud!

“Time’s ticking. And I can’t make the choice for you. But the way I see it, you’re dead if you don’t get in there.”

Thud!

“Fuck it!” The water was so cold Sparks damn near hyperventilated. She remained standing, submerged to her waist, and took deep breaths to regulate herself.

Mac watched on with a furrowed brow. He gave her a thumbs up. “You okay? You need to hurry.”

Thud!

“I’m coming.”

“How long do you need to shit?”

“It’s coming out of me like a fucking fuel pipe. Rush and I’ll rip my arsehole in two.”

“You …”

Sparks dropped beneath the water level. Her blaster and computer could cope with being submerged. If only her lungs were as resistant.

Mac sealed her in, throwing her into complete darkness.

Her pulse throbbing through her ears, Sparks pressed against the underside of the lid. It held firm. He’d locked it. She focused on her toes. On the frigid water. On Reyes, Faz Went, and Hat. Anything to take her attention away from the rising panic. But at least it would be quick. In four minutes, this would all be over. One way or another.

CHAPTER 12

Her extremities had gone from tingling to numb. Her sinuses burned with the cold. Her pulse throbbed in her ears, each metronomic beat like a dagger to her brain. Her throat clicked with her need to inhale, her body snapping, fighting her will to breathe. Her head spun. She pushed the underside of the barrel’s lid, but it held fast. Surely it had been four minutes already? Why had she trusted him? Packed herself in this fucking barrel, all ready to be delivered as a corpse to Blark Venn-Quarter. What a fucking idiot!

Light above. Sparks jumped up, broke the water’s surface, rested on the barrel’s edge, and gasped.

Mac slapped his hand across her mouth. He hit her with such force her ears rang, her balance wavered, and blood from her freshly split lip filled her mouth.

She batted away his hand and snarled. “What the fuck? Half-drowning me not enough for you?”

His thick finger to his thick lips, Mac sprayed spit. “Shhhh!” He lowered his voice. “Fucking hell, Sparks. Are you trying to get us both killed?”

Still clinging to the steel barrel’s edge for support, Sparks recovered her breath.

Mac, scanning the empty bar like someone watched them, dropped the weapons back in, each one sinking to the bottom around her feet.

“You’re sure we’re alone?”

“Yes!”

Sparks jumped out, tripped on the barrel’s edge, and hit the stone floor like a dead fish. “Jeez! Are you trying to kill me or what?”

“I didn’t trip you just then.” Shaking his head, Mac replaced the barrel’s lid, lifted a dirty towel from the side, and threw it at her. His chin wobbled with his shaking head. “Thanks, Mac. Thanks for risking your life trying to help me. Thanks for covering for me. Thanks for humiliating yourself by pretending you’d been caught short because of their rude interruption. Thanks for pulling your trousers down in front of four of them and pretending to take a shit in the middle of the bar. Your lovely refurbished bar after some little turd blew the electrics.”

Sparks snorted and pressed the back of her hand to her nose. “You pretended to take a shit on the floor?”

He leaned over her and pointed to a spot behind the bar. “I was willing to take a crap right there just so they’d leave quicker. I must be mad. I should have let you drown. That was an easy twenty K.”

The towel stank of beer and sweat, but it helped drag some of the moisture from her sodden hair.

“We’re even now, okay? I shouldn’t have ratted you out about your droneball skills, and for that, I’m sorry. But I think I’ve made up for that now, right?”

The droneball tournament came flooding back. The three attempts on her life on Stargart. The assassin droids, the burning bar, the high-pitched whine of the stall rats and their hand-soap-flavoured blood. Breaking Cornelius Capernicus from prison. Stealing the missile from the Platinum Streak. Taking control of the Flanterian royal palace. The Pisstake, the torture droids …

“Right? This is us even? I don’t have to feel any more guilt? I don’t have to watch my back?”

“Fine. We’re even.”

“Good. Now you need to go.”

Sparks sat on a stool and rested her computer on the bar. She dried it with the stinking towel, the glow bright in the dimly lit room.

“What are you doing?” Mac threw an arm towards the door. “You need to leave. Now.”

“You think they won’t be watching the front door?”

Mac pulled open a hatch in the floor. “There are other ways out.”

“So why did you put me in the barrel?”

“We didn’t have time. The barrel was the quickest way to hide you.”

“And the most traumatic.”

“It was nothing to do with that.”

“Hmph!” Still sodden and shivering, her fingers numb and unresponsive, she hacked into the surveillance drones outside. She flicked from one shot to the next, scanning the crowd. The bar’s exit seemed clear, but while the onset of afternoon had thinned the numbers, the port was still too busy to be sure.

“Am I talking a language your chip doesn’t understand?”

“Keep your hair on. I’m nearly there.” She lifted a drone higher than any of the others to give her a broader view of the crowd. The detail of each being blurred, but she didn’t need high definition when a human walked through a packed spaceport. A crowd had gathered over to the left, closer to the freighters and the vast lake. “Shit!” She flew over.

“What?”

She tilted her screen towards him. “Reyes. They have her surrounded. Where does that hatch lead?”

“To the alley next to us. There’s a false flagstone you can lift to get out.”

Hat beneath her arm, snapping and snarling at the beings who came too close, Reyes had her blaster raised and turned one way and the other, holding back the mob. For now. The first attack from either her or her aggressors would trigger chaos. Sparks needed to reach them before that happened.

“Thanks, Mac.” Sparks slid backwards into the hatch. “We’re even. Maybe, when this stupid bounty is gone from our heads, we could sit down and drink together?”

Mac screwed up his face like he’d just bitten into a stall rat.

“Well, fuck you too. Laters, loser.” Sparks sent an electric shock into Mac’s shin and dropped into the darkness. She hit the floor sooner than expected and failed to bend her legs with her landing. A higher drop would have shattered her ankles.

Mac’s red face filled the gap above. Flipping him the bird, she laughed. “Now we’re even, fucker.”

“I hope I never see you again.” He slammed the hatch shut, and Sparks giggled while she turned on her computer’s torch. The tunnel’s ceiling just about high enough for her to remain upright, she followed it to the steel ladder rungs at the end. She climbed, whacking her head on the stone at the top.

The drone remained hovering above Reyes and Hat. The mob slowly closed in, an ever-tightening circle. Some of them edged close enough to grab her. Sparks pulled her drone up again. Five metres above the crowd, she fixed on the largest being close to Reyes and dive-bombed.

A second before Sparks slammed the drone into them, the beast looked up through their one large eye. She winced at the contact, and her screen turned black.

Sparks pressed the cold flagstone and shoved it aside with the grating of stone against stone. She climbed out into the alley to a riot, Reyes holding them back with blaster shots.

She took over another drone, this one spherical like a cannonball. It travelled faster than the first. She aimed for another of Reyes’ larger attackers. Yellow, horned, thick waxy skin. She scored another headshot with the crack of breaking bone. This one fell like the first.

Playing along, Reyes waved her arms like she controlled the drones. Sparks dropped a third, struck another in the head, and the mob scattered.

Invisible in the alley’s shadow, Sparks sent a meteor shower of machines into the crowd. One, made to look retro, had decorative propellors, one on each corner. They might not have aided the machine’s flight, but they were still razor sharp and spun so fast they’d turned into a blur. She sent it towards a being no taller than her but carrying a cannon. The hairy little biped aimed the weapon at Reyes, weaving one way and the other to get a clear line of sight. It screamed when the drone ripped its face to shreds.

The creatures weren’t fleeing fast enough. And how long before they returned with reinforcements? Could they really afford to turn their backs on forty K?

A mandulu took a succession of swipes at Reyes. She ducked them all, but the last one caught Hat, his yip ringing through the madness. Reyes fired and missed, the mandulu running away like the cowards they all were.

Bile in the back of her throat, her stomach in knots, Sparks took control of an arrowhead-shaped drone. She tracked the mandulu, dropped the arrowhead, levelled it out, flew it horizontally, and sped up. It hit the back of the creature’s skull like a hammer into a sponge cake. A spray of blood, bone, hair, and brain matter splattered away from the beast. Its legs went, and it hit the ground hard, tripping several escaping creatures, many of them screaming from the chaos.

Drone after drone. The crunch of steel against skulls. The crash of machine against rock. Screams, braying, whines, bleating. The mob thinned. “Not so fucking brave now, are you, you fucks?”

About twenty beings remained. Sparks and Reyes could take them down without aid. She pocketed her mini computer and rolled up her damp sleeves.

But just as Sparks stepped from the alley, a long hand wrapped around the bottom half of her face. It pinched her nose, cut off her breath, and dragged her back into the shadows.

CHAPTER 13

Sparks fought the hand cutting off her breath while they dragged her back, her heels scraping along the ground. A steady stream of ships exited the port. They had to get out before this tenuously balanced society released the horrors that had been bubbling beneath the surface, no matter how hard Blark Venn-Quarter fought to keep things stable. Many ships, even the largest, were ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. Another being’s war meant nothing to them unless they could profit or gain influence. Acoolter offered little prospect of either.

Blood in her mouth from where Mac had hit her earlier, Sparks bit down on the long hand just as the being behind her rattled. He pulled away, tucking his injured fingers beneath his armpit. He bent at the waist and stamped his foot. “Damn!”

“Faz! Shit. I’m so—”

A train of speeders hurtled past the end of the alley. Five, six, seven of them, each a blur.

Thadoom!

One of them broke the sound barrier.

Faz Went still clung to his injured hand and rattled again. “I was trying to stop you from stepping into that. By the time you’d sensed them, it would have been too late. I saw them coming.”

“I’m sorry. Again.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “But Reyes needs our help. Now.”

“I know. And if we hurry, we have a ride out of here.” He ran past her, out of the alley into the scattering chaos. Beings desperate to get back to their departing ships lest they get left on this shithole of a planet. A creature as tall as Faz Went and three times his width went for their blaster. He slammed his palm into their face. The beast fell limp with a crunch of shattering bone. A flurry of limbs, Faz Went nailed three more of his crew, each one dropping like the first.

Getting through to Reyes, Faz Went leaned into her so they stood back to back, dropping those close by. Reyes could hand-to-hand with anyone, and Faz Went fought as well as her, if not better. The pair of them nailed their nearby attackers, the crowd too dense for blasters. Not every being wanted a piece of them.

Sparks focused on the cowards, the creatures with weapons standing on the battle’s periphery. They took aim and waited for their opening. She lifted a drone shaped like a mallet head. It had a round lens at its front about ten centimetres in diameter. She dived into a small being of the same species as Blark Venn-Quarter. Short and hairy. A homicidal koala. The crack of the drone connecting with the bear sent a shockwave of gasps away from it. Both machine and bear dropped.

Another drone, another coward.

Crack!

Sparks hit its nose so hard, it erupted in a fountain of blood.

The other cowards bolted. Ships to catch. Lives to preserve.

Reyes and Faz Went a match for the crowd, they kept them at bay while Sparks closed in. Fair fights were bullshit. You fought to stay alive. Whatever it took. Still about ten to fifteen beings keen on the bounty, she ran around the edge of the circle and shot them while their backs were turned. She sent searing holes through their heads. The final three were so tall, she kneecapped them one after the other, executing them when they fell with point-blank shots to the face.

Sparks took a running jump at a being about to swing for Reyes. A quadruped with a muscly torso and thick arms, she hit its wide ribcage two-footed, connecting with a crack of snapping bones. It whinnied and reared up. She shot it in the chest, and it fell backwards with a whump!

Surrounded by bodies, their different-coloured blood ran downhill and pooled as a brown puddle. Any beings left in the port ran. More ships took off. She raised her eyebrows at the others before wincing from the buzz of her intuition. She kicked over a manticolt corpse and dragged a drone from beneath it. Its dented corner clung to a clump of the beasts’ flesh. No longer able to fly, but a red light blinked next to its lens. Recording … She held it up while talking to Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went. “We never meant for the Pisstake to crash. Blark Venn-Quarter should have given us the chance to explain.” This massacre’s on him. Just in case he’d missed it, all of his drones down, she gave him a sweeping view of the carnage.

Rattling with his respiration, Faz Went removed his hat and lifted his shirt to rub his face. Sparks flinched at the sight of his gills. He ignored her involuntary reaction. “You think Blark Venn-Quarter will see it that way?”

“Who gives a shit?” Sparks sneered into the lens. “He forced us to defend ourselves.” She shot a still wheezing snurtle, one of a hundred or more downed bodies, and the only one stupid enough to show it hadn’t yet died. “And these fuckers were coming for our heads. This is on him and them. Cause and effect. Acoolter has lost is reputation as somewhere safe all because he got too big for his tiny little booties.” She tossed the drone aside, the heavy metal body clattering against the stone floor.

Their vicinity clear of any immediate threat, Faz Went rattled, panted, and gasped. He pointed at a ship in the distance and then pointed at the drone Sparks had tossed aside.

She shot it like she’d shot the snurtle.

“That’s all of them?”

Her pulse pounding, her muscles aching, a tinnitus whine ringing through her skull, she closed her eyes and searched the port. Door sensors. Vending machines. Droids packing cargo and fixing ships. But no surveillance drones. She nodded.

“That ship’s our ride out of here. And it’s readying to leave.”

Reyes followed Faz Went, but Sparks pointed the other way. “What about the Arrowhead?”

Faz threw up his long arms. “Screw the Arrowhead.”

“Screw you, Faz.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean that, but we’ve not got time. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be left here. Also, it’s not practical. There are four of us. You’ve outgrown it. Now come on.”

But Reyes grabbed Sparks. Glistening with sweat, she fought to get her words out between breaths. Hat remained inside her shirt and stared up at her, panting. “You know it’s not the Arrowhead that makes you a great pilot, right? I agree with Faz; it’s not practical. And we need to leave now.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ll make it to the ship in time. Which ship are we on, Faz?”

“The Fragadocious.”

“The what the fuck now?”

“It’s taking off soon, Sparks. We need to move.”

Sparks leaned forwards and touched foreheads with Reyes. She grinned up at her. “I can’t leave the Arrowhead. It’s saved our arses too many times. But I promise I’ll be on the Fragadocious before takeoff.”

“I can’t change your mind, can I?”

Her smile broadened. “I’ll be on it. Trust me.”

“Damn, Sparks. You’d best be. Or I’ll fucking kill you!”

Sparks stretched up and kissed Reyes. “I’ll see you soon.” She turned her back and ran. Whatever happened, she couldn’t leave the Arrowhead. And whatever happened, she’d be with the others when the Fragadocious left Acoolter.

CHAPTER 14

Sticking to the shadows, Sparks used the shipping containers and freighters for cover as she closed in on the spot where she’d left the Arrowhead. Soaked and stinking of alcohol from where she’d tried to dry herself with Mac’s grimy towel, she quickened her pace to fight her plummeting body temperature. Acoolter’s afternoons were brutal at the best of times.

When she reached the Arrowhead, she’d whack on the heaters. Not only the best fighting ship in the galaxy, but she’d tweaked the settings so she had heated seats and heated flight sticks. How could she even consider leaving it behind?

Reyes and Faz Went closed in on the Fragadocious, a three-mile-long gunmetal grey freighter that had more points and angles than a cutlery drawer. The design a mixture of prisms, blades, and prongs. It looked like an enlarged version of something she’d find in the purple-light district.

More ships rose into the sky ahead of it, joining the queue fleeing Acoolter. How long would it be before the once safe spaceport returned to the hovel of its past? A place filled with nothing but vice and homicide. Just like many other similarly remote shitholes.

While Sparks’ pace staved off the worst of the cold, her fingers had turned numb and clumsy against her mini computer’s screen. Battling her limitations, she located the lone surveillance drone stimulating her intuition. She took it over and sent it shooting away. In ten seconds, it would malfunction and drop from the sky. With so many cameras destroyed, Blark Ven-Quarter would have no idea where they’d gone.

A bounce in her step, Sparks grinned as she twisted through three black steel containers and ducked beneath a white mini-freighter. After a dreary year of depression, droneball, and domestic incarceration, they were finally back. Doing what they did best. Of course, she would have opted for something other than a massacre, but those who’d died got what they deserved. They’d approached Reyes and Hat with murder on their minds. There had to be a winner, and the poor fools realised too late that they didn’t stand a chance.

A sharper twinge pulled on Sparks’ intuition. A needle through her right eye. Something more than a surveillance drone. She ducked back under the white freighter and used another container for cover. Three creatures gathered in an alley on the other side of the port between a bar and a hotel. Each had a long bovine nose and the black and white patches of dairy cows. One had a rocket launcher resting on their shoulder while the other two egged them on. They aimed it at Reyes and Faz Went. Did they really think that would help them claim the bounty? The rocket would turn them into fleshy chunks at best. They’d need to hand them to Blark Venn-Quarter in a bucket.

Weaving through six large crates, right up to the edge of the eerily quiet main strip, Sparks leaned from cover and fired. A fireball ignited in the alley, the tight path belching a thunderclap of an explosion.

It took just a few seconds for the wind to blow away the acrid smoke, the walls dripping with their aggressors’ flesh and blood. She sighed and shook her head. “You were the ones looking for beef.” She snorted a laugh. “Maybe someone can turn you into a stew.”

Sparks ran through the containers, back beneath the white freighter, and sprinted away on the other side, drawing closer to the Arrowhead. More ships took off behind her. It wouldn’t be long before the Fragadocious got their turn. But she could chase after it, attach the Arrowhead to its hull, and find a way in while they were airborne.

She passed a small freighter about eight hundred metres long. A short-haul vessel and nimble enough to outrun many customs’ battleships. Bleats and whines came from its containers. Each pained cry speared Sparks’ heart. No one gave a shit in Acoolter. Another one of Blark Venn-Quarter’s rules. If you paid your fees, you faced no scrutiny.

A line of windows afforded her a view inside the vessel. Into the hallway lit with a dull yellow glow.

The crew appeared. They’d seen her and tracked her run. About ten of them, they had dragonfly wings and bodies shaped like kidney beans. Transparent like jellyfish save for their black eyes and the white blood running through their network of veins. Each carried a blaster, and every one of them matched her pace.

Sending another surveillance drone shooting away from the main strip like a lit firework, Sparks locked into her intuition. So many ships and droids around her, her mind throbbed, but she found the doors dissecting the freighter’s poorly lit hallways. The next one about twenty metres ahead. She typed as she ran, quickened her pace, the creatures matching her, and slammed it shut at the very last moment.

The ship’s thick steel hull silenced the impact, but it had done the job, the final one hundred metres of hallway empty as she ran alongside it and left the small freighter behind.

Sparks took cover behind a hangar for ship repairs. The Arrowhead was where she’d left it, hidden in the port, among the larger freighters docked in the semi-permanent bays. But even they were readying to leave.

Another surveillance drone lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. She sent it away and ran for the Arrowhead. But she halted, frozen by her intuition. She hid behind the hangar, using it as cover as she ran back towards to the spaceport’s main strip.

An army of at least fifty soldiers marched through the centre of the spaceport. They brought with them a fleet of twenty mechs. Each one fifteen metres tall and completely automated. The army’s leader had the face of a fly and the body of a hairless grizzly bear. She had huge mammary glands that hung down and rested on her round stomach. She carried a cannon of a blaster in her massive hands and barked orders, a speaker drone flying along with her, broadcasting her message. “No more ships will take off until we find those responsible for this shit show.”

If those at the other side of the port heard the order, they clearly didn’t care. If anything, they left faster now than before.

Sparks leaned against the hangar, the cold steel icy against her soaked clothes.

“You!” The leader pointed at a ship to their right. “Stay grounded or face the consequences. You!” She pointed at the next one.

The strong winds from the lake slammed into Sparks, and she trembled while she typed. She took control of the army leader’s speaker and sent it the way of the rest of the drones.

“Hey!” she shouted, her voice growing distant as it hurtled towards the tower blocks and red-light district.

The ships at the other end of the port continued taking off. They all followed the same trajectory. The flight path out of there. Who cared where they ended up as long as they left Acoolter. The Arrowhead still a few hundred metres away, the Fragadocious set to leave soon. The army would see her if she ran for her fighter now. But if she didn’t hurry, they’d leave her behind. She’d only last so long against an entire planet hell-bent on her destruction.

Sparks ran the length of the hangar, away from the main strip. The Arrowhead, out in the open, cut a solitary figure. She bit her buckling bottom lip. Her eyes itched with the start of tears. She’d been to so many places in that thing. Won so many battles. But going for it now would be one fight too many.

She removed her glasses and rubbed her itching eyes. She replaced them and hacked into the Arrowhead’s controls.

Thump! The engines started. Butterflies danced in her stomach. A Pavlovian response to what usually meant another mission. But the daggers in her heart were new. Not today, Sparks.

Fighting her own reluctance, she ran back towards the main strip. The army were getting closer. She lifted the Arrowhead straight up, sending it fifty metres into the air.

“There they are!”

The army charged towards the lake, the hangar between them and Sparks. The droids chased after them, their enormous feet slamming against the rocky ground. Sparks ran back across on her side, matching the slamming steps. She reached the end as they broke free and descended on the Arrowhead. Each droid carried an elongated sphere about half a metre long. Perfect for throwing, the droids wound back their arms and launched them over the top of her ship.

Cables unspooled from the projectiles like tails. Each one landed nose first, punching into the rocky ground like rivets. The droids pulled on the cables. Winding in the slack, they dragged the Arrowhead back to the ground. A magnificent beast slain. Humiliated. Robbed of everything that made it great by weaker beings with inferiority complexes. Fuck them!

Reluctance weighed heavy on Sparks’ limbs. She should leave. Turn tail and run. But what if she could save her fighter? What if she could still get the ship out of there?

The army laid down a heavy attack against her floating ship. The leader fired her cannon.

Sparks twitched and winced like she felt every shot, but the ship’s shields soaked up their attack. The Arrowhead felt nothing. Yet.

The Fragadocious’ thrusters started behind her. Unless she had a way to beat the army single-handed, she had to leave. Her vision blurred with a fresh wave of tears. What could she do? Like Reyes had said, it was the pilot not the ship.

The Arrowhead twisted and twitched. Dropped lower as the droids dragged it down. Soon the shields would fail.

“Than—” Sparks cleared her throat, her chin trembling. “Thank you, old girl.” She saluted her vessel, turned her back on it, and ran.

CHAPTER 15

With the Arrowhead under full assault, Sparks sprinted back the way she came, her damp clothes restricting her movement. She kept her head low and weaved through the shipping containers and freighters. Stay out of trouble. Get to the Fragadocious.

Several crews packed up their ships. One mob piled the containers too high on the back of a truck, but at least the top crate had the good grace to moan a steel-screeching warning before it fell. The crew scattered as it hit the rocky ground and split open, spilling its ball-bearing contents like a packed piñata giving up its sweets. Every attempt the crew made at clearing up ended with them slipping on the small balls and hitting the ground.

Sparks darted right, giving the tiny spheres a wide berth, the Fragadocious thrumming and roaring as the prickly monstrosity prepared for takeoff.

She drew close to the small freighter with the transparent flying crew, the back door open, revealing the dimly lit corridor and a cluster of vexed creatures. One pointed at her, opened their mouth wide, their teeth as white as their veins, and loosed a rapid click that twisted through her, turning her spine.

The others joined in, the maddening clicking crawling over her brain. They flew straight for her.

Computer in hand, her fingers as numb as before, Acoolter getting colder by the second, she hacked into the cargo bay door, typed a quick command, and hit enter.

Whoosh!

The doors closed, but one of the beings slid an ammo box between them.

Thunk!

“Damnit!”

Sparks sped up, her cold and damp trousers chafing the insides of her thighs. Their clicking grew louder, turning heads as well as spines. They swarmed from the freighter and fired at her with purple blasts. But it wasn’t like she could afford the luxury of a stealthy retreat. If she didn’t reach the Fragadocious soon, she’d be stranded on this shithole of a planet as public enemy number one.

The same command she’d used for the internal door, Sparks locked onto the closest storage container. From inside came sobbing, whines, and the repeated thud from some maddened being running from one side to the other.

She unlocked the door. It fell with a groan and hit the rocky ground. Clang!

A gong. A battle about to commence. And one that didn’t involve her. Round one. Fight!

She kept the command on her computer’s screen, unlocking every container she passed.

Each crate released with a thunk! Each door hit the stone ground with a clang!

Quadrupeds escaped one container. From foals to adults, they were chained together, malnourished, and covered in their own waste. They dragged several along with them. They were either too weak to walk or dead. Sparks didn’t have time to care.

A swarm of bugs left another. A plague, they attacked the freighter, chewing through the steel wall in seconds before they swarmed the first of their flying oppressors, turning them into a misty cloud of white to be dispersed by the wind.

The Fragadocious shook and swayed as it rose into the air. A mess of spikes. A three-mile-long space mine. But if they wanted to be left alone, it certainly projected hostility. Like a pufferfish warning away a shark. With two ships lining up to depart before it, she had thirty seconds at best.

Ducking beneath the white freighter from before, Sparks cut through several more shipping containers, locked into her intuition, and counted down from three.

On one she jumped from cover, hooked onto a mandulu riding a speeder, dropped in behind them, and used her mini computer to send an electric shock into their right buttock. They yipped and lifted a leg. She used their imbalance to leverage them off. The heavy brute hit the ground, rolled for about ten metres, and slammed to a halt against a khaki green vessel.

Sparks dragged herself closer to the controls and opened the bike’s throttle. At full speed, she jumped up onto the seat, bent her knees, and surfed the speeder.

Closing in on the Fragadocious was like free-diving towards a pit filled with broken glass. She held her breath as the freighter lifted higher. At the last moment, she jumped, missing one of the sharp spikes by centimetres. She hit the freighter’s cargo bay door like a bug against a windscreen, clung on, and caught her breath while the ship rose. The speeder hurtled away from them, towards a now unoccupied spaceport and the plains beyond.

The same code she’d used for the freighter with the transparent dragonflies, she hit enter, but the cargo bay door stayed closed. “Shit.” She tried another code and got the same response.

The Fragadocious rose, and the spaceport grew smaller beneath them. Enraged hostages continued to swarm the slave trader’s ship. The Arrowhead held out against the army. But they dragged it lower. Just a matter of time. Unless the plague of bugs she’d loosed got them first. Either way, when they finally took control of her ship, she’d be long gone. Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went would be away safely. At this rate, her future looked less promising. The second the Fragadocious went into hyper-drive, she’d fall away from it like space junk.

Trying another code, Sparks hit enter. The red light by the door’s keypad glowed brighter. This time it released a single duck-quack tone. A dropped drone. One nil to the Fragadocious.

They passed over the bars and hotels along the spaceport’s front. Over the fighting pit and the red- and purple-light districts. Over the alleys she’d closed off and the high-rise blocks. Over the desert they’d glided across to get out of the Pisstake, families of stoovas running across the empty plains.

The wind picked up, turning Sparks’ limbs as numb as her fingers.

She tried another code.

Quack!

And another.

Quack!

Nil three. Game over, motherfucker.

Her fingertips had gone beyond numb. Her nose ran. Acoolter’s harsh climate swarmed her like a plague freed from a shipping container. It would turn her bones to ice.

She could move closer to the thrusters. Steal some of their heat. “Heat!”

Sparks changed her computer’s settings. From hacking to scanning. She pressed it against the Fragadocious’ gunmetal grey hull. It picked up two heat signatures. No, three. Two beings made up one blob. Hat and Reyes.

Her hands too sore to knock, she drew her blaster and slammed the handle against the door. The code she and Reyes used if she needed to alert her when she came home. One. One-two. One. One. One-two. One-two.

Sparks trembled as her the strength left her. Her weak fingers would soon become useless. She had a minute at best. She raised her blaster for a second time.

Whoosh!

The cargo bay door opened. Faz Went leaned out, pressing down on his cap to keep it on his head. “Sparks.”

“Oh, Faz.” A lump swelled in her throat. “Am I glad to see you.”

He reached out and guided her into the cargo bay. Hat jumped from Reyes’ arms and galloped towards her.

Reyes rubbed her swollen and bloodshot eyes. “You’re okay?”

Sparks nodded, her lips buckling. She pointed at Reyes with a shaking hand, her delivery as unsteady as the rest of her fragile form. “I told you I’d get here.”

Charging at her like Hat had, Reyes threw her arms around her. They rested their foreheads against one another’s. “Am I glad to see you.”

“Me too. The Arrowhead’s gone. They got to it before I could.”

“At least they didn’t get you. And it’s not the ship that makes the pilot.”

“Thank you, Reyes.” She pulled away and caught some clean clothes and a blanket from Faz Went. They’d cracked open several containers filled with food and garments. The denim blue shirt and trousers were an almost identical replacement to the ones she’d discarded. She also pulled on a bomber jacket, slipping her mini computer into the inside pocket. “So where are we heading?”

“To Blark Venn-Quarter’s arms dealer.”

“Is that wise?”

Faz rattled. “We still need weapons, right?”

“We do, but haven’t we somewhat burned our bridges with Blark Venn-Quarter?”

Faz Went batted away the comment with a wave of his long hand. “We have credits. And in this galaxy, credits talk.”

“Um …”

They both turned on Reyes, who winced and clasped her hands together. “About that …”

CHAPTER 16

Many of the Fragadocious’ hallways were dimly lit and sparsely populated. Sparks helped them avoid the droids, and Reyes scouted ahead for any living beings. They ducked into a few closets and rooms, but other than that, they had a clear run to the hangar, guided by Faz Went’s schematics, which he’d acquired before they’d left Acoolter.

The hangar was one of seven aboard the ship, and the closest to the cargo bay. They’d found a fighter suitable for their needs, and all four of them currently sat inside, the ship covered in a large sheet of moss-green wax cloth. They sat in near darkness, their only light coming from Sparks’ mini computer and the fighter’s nav system, which gave them a countdown to their destination. They were heading for Wilt, one of Tregoyne’s many moons and the home base for Pen, Blark Venn-Quarter’s arms dealer.

Not the Arrowhead. Not by a long shot. Nothing would be. And probably not even second best. But at least they had more room in the cockpit and plenty of space in the back for Hat to run small laps. As far as defences went, it had two turrets on either side, one in each wing, and cannons fitted to the front. It should be able to give a good account of itself in a dogfight.

Sparks flinched every few seconds with the passing of another droid or surveillance drone. They lit her spine with a line of gooseflesh that culminated in a clenching of the muscles at the base of her neck. Some sent her right eye twitching, but none paid the fighter beneath the wax cloth any mind. Like on the Falcro, the droids were driven by a single purpose, which they intended to fulfil, and as long as the drones didn’t see them, they had nothing to report. Her fingers alive on her mini computer’s screen, she hacked into the next passing surveillance drone. Faz Went rattled in her ear when he leaned over from the back, and Reyes watched her screen from the co-pilot’s seat. The drone showed them a poorly lit, sleepy hangar. Other than machines, the place remained empty.

Faz Went rattled again. “So what is it you need to tell us, Reyes?”

She gulped and shrank a little in her seat. “Our credits.”

Sparks tilted her head to one side.

“They’re gone.”

“Gone? As in …”

“Gone, Sparks. They’re fucking gone, okay?”

Faz Went stumbled back as if shoved by Reyes’ revelation.

“It pissed me off when you kept offering me a chance to back out.”

“That was for both of us, not just you.”

“Come on, Sparks.”

“I would have gladly gone with you. A back door should we want to take it.”

“But you wouldn’t have even considered offering a back door to the old Reyes.”

Faz Went returned to the cockpit. “All your credits?”

Sparks pulled her credit card from her pocket. “That’s why my card got declined on Acoolter.”

“When did you try to spend credits?”

The torture bot. The purple-light district. Blades. Restraints. “Never mind. So we have nothing left?”

“You were patronising me every time you offered me a way out.”

“So you got even by making us bankrupt? What the fuck, Reyes? What did we do those missions for if not the credits?”

“We shouldn’t have done them at all.”

“But we did. And at least we had something to show for it.”

Faz Went’s head dropped. “Had!”

“They’ve gone to a good place. They deserved those credits.”

“The food bank?”

“Of course. Now they’ll have enough credits to get all the beings they were helping off Acoolter. To flee the devastation we left behind.”

“That’s on Blark Venn-Quarter, not us.”

“Take some responsibility, Sparks.”

“No. The Pisstake wasn’t our fault.”

“I didn’t think I’d be taking her side—”

“Well, don’t then, Faz.”

“But we hardly helped things in Acoolter, did we?”

Sparks folded her arms, shook her head, and leaned back in her seat. “He put a bounty on our heads. That was an error. He reached too far with that one. He got everything he deserved.”

Reyes’ eyes pinched at the sides. “I’ve no concern for Blark Venn-Quarter, but let’s not pretend we didn’t just crash Acoolter’s economy. Our credits will do little for most of the beings who will have to relocate; however, I for one will sleep better knowing we at least helped the most vulnerable. Offered them some small protection and maybe a chance at a better life elsewhere.”

Raising a halting hand, Sparks lifted one side of her head to encourage the others to listen. The mechanical march of steel feet against a steel deck. Until now, only basic machines had passed them, but these assassin droids were driven by finely tuned servos and equipped with highly effective sensors. Sound. Sight. Heat. Infrared. If they got close enough, it would take them a microsecond to recognise a stowaway and even less time to neutralise them.

Giddy with adrenaline, her heart running away with her, Sparks kept her hand raised and tried to settle herself by regulating her breathing. She sat with the others, waiting for the machine to get close enough to sense them.

* * *

After a couple of minutes, the droids finally moved on. Sparks released a long sigh and lowered her hand. “When did you give away our credits?”

“When you were playing droneball.”

“But I’d stopped offering you a way out by then. We’d made the choice to get weapons. We’d decided against backing out.”

“I was still pissed off.”

“No.” Sparks wagged a finger at her.

“No?”

Faz Went looked from one to the other, his head swinging with their back and forth.

“Something doesn’t add up. I get you were annoyed—”

“I was fucking livid, Sparks.”

“And I understand that, even if I might think it’s a bit of an overreaction—”

“An overre—”

Sparks lifted her hand again to cut off Reyes. “But you’re not petty. No matter how pissed off, you wouldn’t have done that just to spite me. That’s not you.”

Tears swelled in Reyes’ deep brown eyes, and her tight jaw trembled. She held Sparks’ glare for a few more seconds before dropping her head. “No.”

“No?”

“You’re right. I didn’t do it to spite you.”

“So why …?”

“You clearly know me well enough to see I wanted an out. A back door. Something to fall back on. I mean, you offered it to me enough times.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. Why would you give away all our credits?”

Her voice weak, she looked at her lap, tears falling against her legs. “Because I don’t want to fall back anymore. I don’t want to put you through the past year again. I want to be brave like the old Reyes. I gave away those credits so I had no other choice. I was frightened that while we had them, I might quit. Is that what you wanted to hear, Sparks? That I’m scared.”

“No.” Sparks grabbed Reyes’ hands. “That’s not what I wanted to hear. But I’d be worried if you weren’t.”

CHAPTER 17

“… realise how much it still affected me until our final few missions when Sparks and I were separated. I lost my mind. It came from nowhere.”

Sparks leaned back in her seat, the frame groaning in protest. “I wouldn’t say nowhere.”

Looking from one to the other, Faz Went rattled and waited.

“Okay”—Reyes focused on her nails—“not nowhere, but my reaction caught even me unawares. My dad left me when we were on a mission and never returned. My mum left when I was a kid and never returned. It’s not an excuse. I have to deal with it now, but it’s made me a lot more tightly wound than I used to be. Sparks has helped me a lot. More than she knows.”

Faz Went frowned. “I’m sorry I got cross with you.”

“Don’t be. You had every right. I was being a dick, and you had no context for my actions because I kept it to myself. You should have been pissed off with me. Anyway”—she wiped away her tears and straightened in her seat—“that’s enough about me. What about you? Or, if you don’t want to talk about yourself, what about Greeta? I’m sad I never got to meet her.”

The ship’s nav system had been a constant. An ambient light in the gloomy cockpit. Reyes and Faz Went had been so engaged in conversation, maybe they’d lost track of it, but they were ten minutes away from needing to take action. Sparks had already hacked into the Fragadocious’ system. She could get them out of there. She’d be ready to fly when the time came.

Faz Went laughed. “I met her on a freighter called the Rambunctious. We were both running away from our pasts, but towards what, neither of us knew. Drifters. We were aimless. Were it not for that, we might never have been friends. And we nearly weren’t.”

Reyes smiled too, Faz’s warmth for Greeta infectious. “What happened?”

“A gang approached us. Seven or eight of them. It was hard to tell exactly how many. It was dark. We were all stowaways in the cargo bay. Why would they leave the lights on?”

Sparks removed her glasses and rubbed her sore eyes; the bright glow of the nav system in the dark cockpit made them itch.

“Probably like me and Greeta, those who attacked us looked like they were united by their journey. Each one a different species, I assumed they’d joined together for survival. Three or four came around some shipping containers from one side, three or four from the other. They carried las-swords and blasters. They wanted to shake us down.”

Sparks bristled, her body tensing. “And you let them?”

“I would have. I had nothing. But from the way Greeta reacted, I assumed she had something worth protecting. Something worth dying for. And, by association, something I might have to die for too. So there we were, a mob ready to cut us down and take what we had, and Greeta ready to take on the lot of them. It was like she was doing everything she could to get under their skins. She didn’t know when to shut up. I might have been able to negotiate with them had she kept quiet for even a minute. But she hit them with both barrels. A flurry of insults and digs. The way they looked, the way they spoke, the way they breathed. The way their mothers looked, spoke, and breathed.” He rattled and laughed. “She called one of their slimier members a walking allergy.”

Reyes screwed up her face. “That gross?”

“They’d have glistened in an unlit windowless room buried two miles beneath the surface. She called a swintool a hog, and a mandulu and useless cow.”

Sparks snorted. “That’s an insult to cows.”

“She didn’t stop until she’d offended every one of them.”

Leaning closer, Reyes said, “So what happened?”

“We had to fight them. All of them.”

“And you won?”

Both Sparks and Faz Went frowned at Reyes.

“Well, obviously you won. But what happened to them?”

“She spared their lives, if not the full use of their anatomies.”

Sparks’ seat groaned again with her movement. “So …”

“What?”

“What did she have that was so worth protecting?”

“Nothing.”

Both Reyes and Sparks said it in unison. “Nothing?”

“Nothing at all. She just didn’t appreciate the shakedown. And she couldn’t hold her tongue. If she had something on her mind, she said it. It was pathological.”

“Greeta?” Sparks shook her head. “Really? She always seemed so quiet. So amiable.”

“That’s because she likes—” He coughed to clear the lump in his throat. “That’s because she liked you. Had she not, you would have been the first to know about it. The number of times I had to defuse a situation because Greeta offended someone. I even went as far as getting her cards made she could hand to people, explaining she had a neurological condition.”

“She did?”

“If being an arsehole is a neurological condition … But if it kept us out of trouble, it had to be worth a try, right?”

“What did she do with the cards?”

“Burned them. Told me I was lucky she didn’t shove them up my arse, and that I was disrespecting beings with neurological conditions. From then on, she opened her insults by telling those she insulted she didn’t have a neurological condition, and them taking offence to her telling the truth wasn’t her problem.”

Sparks laughed again.

“But, for all the grief she brought our way, I like to think she taught me to be brave.”

“Sounds like she gave you no choice.” Sparks shrugged. “And you taught her how to read a room, right?”

Faz Went rattled with his mirth. “She could always read a room. That’s what made her insults so cutting. I was relieved when we settled on Acoolter and she calmed down. I always worried she’d get us both killed. Oh, and her hacking skills … They’re the reason I took her to Stargart. She had what you have, Sparks.”

“An attitude problem?” Reyes lifted her eyebrows, and Sparks flipped her the bird.

“She knew networks. She could hack into anything. But on a macro scale. Were she still with us, she’d be in this ship’s operating system and know everything about every being and machine on here. She’d tell you where they were heading, and could infiltrate the infrastructure of their destinations before we got there. She travelled through digital hyperspace like the networks were there to facilitate her. With how far and quickly she travelled, I wouldn’t mind betting she was the fastest being in the galaxy.”

“Wow!” Sparks’ cheeks bulged as she exhaled. “Sounds complex.”

“Yet you wouldn’t think it when you watched her work. To her it was second nature. She was so smart, I wonder if the provocation was just because she got easily bored when talking to organic beings.”

“We could sure do with her right now.” Sparks pointed at the nav system. They had ninety seconds before they needed to leave the Fragadocious.

“You’re in their systems though, right? We’ll get out this time?”

Sparks held up her mini computer. “Yep. I’m ready to open the hangar’s hatch.”

They had sixty seconds before they needed to act. Butterflies danced in Sparks’ stomach. “Right, you two need to get in position on the turrets. Hopefully, this won’t turn into a fight, but better to be prepared.”

Forty-five seconds.

Faz Went entered his turret and sat down.

Reyes did the same and strapped in. “What are we going to call it, by the way?”

Thirty-five seconds.

Sparks clung to her mini computer. “Call what?”

“This ship. It needs a name.”

Twenty-eight seconds.

The windowed dome over Faz Went’s head amplified his rattle. “Does it matter?”

Twenty-two seconds.

Sparks hovered over the ship’s starter button. “You know what, I’m with Reyes. I think it does.”

Eighteen seconds.

“The Greeta?” Reyes said.

Sparks smiled. “The Greeta. Any objections, Faz?”

“None at all.”

Twelve seconds.

“Here’s to many successful missions and years of service. Here’s to the Greeta. Ready for action in five … four … three …” Sparks patted the dashboard. “Come on, girl, you can do this.” She pressed the power button, the cockpit lighting up like Stargart’s main strip.

CHAPTER 18

The Greeta shed her wax-cloth cover as Sparks lifted her higher. The nav system pulsed with a jarring beep that grew more frequent the closer they got to their destination. They needed to leave the Fragadocious by the time it became a continuous tone. The maintenance droids paid them no mind. And why would they? They were here to do a job. The sudden activation of a fighter didn’t impede them.

But the drones converged on them like flies to shit. Each one a missile picking up on their coordinates, zeroing on them, feeding back to whichever creature watched on. Being the focus of their collective intrigue sent Sparks twisting and twitching in her creaking seat.

The lights brightened, and many that were off burst to life with a magnesium brilliance. Until that point, only droids and drones had occupied the two-mile-long and thin hangar. What need did they have for full light?

Holding the Greeta steadier than she held herself, Sparks leaned back, calling over her shoulder, “You ready?”

Rapid green blasts burst from Reyes’ turret on Sparks’ left. They streaked across the hangar and took down four droids. Each small explosion jolted through her, the crashing machines reduced to bouncing husks. Skimming stones over a steel lake, they sent up a splash of sparks with every contact.

Another wave of fire from Sparks’ right. Faz Went took twice as many shots to nail half as many drones.

Sparks flicked a switch on the dash, the Greeta’s shields activating with a gentle whomp! The nav system’s pulse quickened. She twisted in her seat like she could wriggle free of her discomfort. “Ignore the drones.”

“What?” Reyes said. “You don’t need us to take them down?”

“The worst they can do is watch. And what do they have to report other than what they already know? We’re here, and we’re leaving with one of their fighters. Focus on the entrances. Take down anything carrying a gun.”

As if on cue, eight spherical droids rolled in from a hallway on their right. They came to an abrupt halt. Magnetised, they stuck to the steel floor like limpets. Turrets punched from their tops, and they fired red blasts. Puny compared to the Greeta’s firepower. Faz Went attacked them while Sparks accelerated towards the exit, spurred on by the nav system’s warning.

Ten times as many shots missed as struck, but Faz Went finally blew away the last of the balls, and one of his wayward shots hit a red light above the door through which they’d entered. Thunk! The door slammed shut.

Were her mind not so busy, so violated by digital intrusions, she would have sensed it sooner. “Reyes, shoot the lights over the entrances.”

Thunk!

Thunk!

Thunk!

Reyes closed door after door. Fifty or more entrances to the hangar, but worth it, even if they blocked a fraction of their attackers.

“Shit!”

“What, Faz?”

“Look right.”

“Oh, fuck!” One of the larger hallways birthed a procession of rangields. Each about five metres tall, they had four arms and two thick legs supporting their bulky frames. Their biceps a metre wide, they had gold leathery skin covered in small pyramidal mounds. They walked with a slight stoop, staring at them through yellow eyes from beneath their protruding brows. Each one carried a cannon. All of them aimed at the Greeta.

Sparks turned a hard right to face them. Hat yipped, the sharp movement throwing him into the wall. “Sorry, Hat!”

Firing the Greeta’s plasma cannons, Sparks nailed the light above the door.

Thunk!

The thick steel barrier bisected the army, chopping three of them in half. Just four remained. They yelled, their deep roar shaking Sparks’ seat. Reyes and Faz Went fired. The rangields twitched and groaned, but they shrugged off the attack like the blasts were annoying flies.

Gripping the flight sticks, Sparks pressed the triggers, the tips of her thumbs turning white with her pressure. Her cannons cut a tunnel through the closest monster’s thick torso. The remaining three charged and fired.

The nav system’s beep grew louder. It demanded to be heard. Sparks continued shooting while she pulled the Greeta left and right, avoiding each heavy attack, their purple blasts narrowly missing. One cannon shot would scupper their plans.

She nailed the second as it charged, decapitating it. It ran for several more steps and fell across the path of another, tripping the lumbering brute.

While Reyes and Faz Went laid into the fallen rangield, keeping it down, Sparks pulled back, reversing away from their final aggressor. She shimmied left and right with the stuttered movement of a dragonfly, avoiding each attack just before it struck. Locked into a strange dance, the rangield mimicked her movements, avoiding her attack like she did its. Until she faked, went the other way, and caught its right leg, blowing it off beneath the knee. It fell and dropped its cannon.

Sparks slammed the flights sticks forwards, accelerating towards it. The nav system beeped like it spurred her on. If she wanted to get to her destination, she needed to get off the Fragadocious right fucking now. She flew over the top of the beast and fired, reducing its head to mush before she turned a hard left and boosted towards the hatch out of there. Hat hit the wall again. “Sorry, Hat!”

The nav system’s pulse as frantic as Sparks’ hammering heart. She reached the hatch and let go of the flight sticks. The Greeta hovered while Reyes and Faz Went continued closing their exits.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

A few droids made it through, their attacks utterly ineffective against the Greeta’s shields.

Both hands free, Sparks typed in the final command on her mini computer and hit enter.

“Fuck!” She hit it again.

“Shit!”

“What?” Reyes shouted over the wet throb of fired blasts.

“It’s not opening.”

“I thought you had it working?”

“So did I. I made sure I improved the code that failed me. But …”

“What?”

“That was to gain access to the Fragadocious.”

“The code to leave’s different?”

“Apparently so.”

“Shit!”

Sparks sat higher in her seat. “Look, there! There’s a manual winch to open the hatch. Keep shooting. Keep locking those doors and focus on anything organic. Chances are they’re more of a threat.”

“What are you going to do?”

“The shields should hold.”

The Reyes who’d spent the past year trying to beat an unbeatable simulation returned, her voice turning erratic and high-pitched. “What are you going to do?”

“What needs to be done.” Sparks undid her seatbelt, exited the Greeta’s cockpit, opened the hatch in the bottom, and dropped out, bending her legs as she landed on the hangar’s rough steel floor. Her blaster drawn, she nailed five droids one after the other. She dropped them like they were drones in a booth, and ran to the winch by the hatch out of there. All the while, the Greeta’s nav system reminded her just how little time they had left.

The winch stood as a small pillar about a metre tall. Sparks freed the handle and wound it as fast as she could. The nav system beeped. Leave it too long and they’d be too far away to make it worthwhile. But what could they do? Stay aboard the Fragadocious and beg forgiveness?

The hatch opened, revealing the membrane covering their exit. It shimmered like oil on a lake’s surface. It kept the hangar’s pressure and gravity stable. Winding with everything she had, bobbing like a nodding donkey, Sparks drew the hatch open about a quarter of the way before her entire body spasmed, snapping her taut. “Oh, fuck!” The assassin droids she’d sensed when hiding in the Greeta. A squad of about twelve. Humanoid in form and painted metallic red, they ran into the hangar and straight for her.

The tone from the Greeta’s nav system drew closer to continuous. One of the droids launched a throwing star. Sparks dived right, rolled, and shot it between the eyes. Her blast bounced off.

She shot another in the chest.

If anything, it charged faster. Enraged by her pathetic attempt.

She shot the legs of another, leaving a black mark on its red paint job. Each one launched throwing stars. She ducked and rolled, avoiding them while the assassins drew closer. While the nav system pulsed quicker.

The whomp of twelve activated las-swords played through the hangar.

No matter where Sparks shot them, if they didn’t deflect the blasts with their swords, they bounced off their shiny red armour, leaving little more than scorch marks. “We can’t beat them.”

Rolling away from several more throwing stars, Sparks removed her computer from her inside pocket and connected to the Greeta. “Reyes, Faz, be ready. I need you.”

Not one to run from a fight, but she had a simple choice: run or die. Sparks sprinted away from the droids, away from the hatch, and away from the Greeta. The droids gave chase. In this at least, she had them beat. Until they sheathed their swords and snapped their arms into the air, changing the bend of their elbows. They went from bipedal to quadrupedal, each one falling forwards onto their front legs.

Sparks bore right.

The droids closed in on her.

Reyes shot one from her turret. She scored a direct hit, blowing the droid to bits.

Gasping with her run, Sparks charged across the open hangar, the droids hunting her as a pack.

Reyes took down another, and Faz Went hit the next two.

Eight remained. The Greeta’s nav system beeped through her mini computer.

Reyes nailed three more. Faz Went another.

Sparks turned and ran back towards the Greeta, which hovered by the hatch and the manual winch. She gritted her teeth and held her nerve, Reyes and Faz Went now shooting straight at her, the droids in a line on her tail. She lifted her computer to her mouth and fought to get her words out. “Wait!”

The shots stopped.

She darted right, exposing the hunting pack.

Reyes and Faz Went fired, blowing two more to pieces in a hailstorm of steel.

“Wait.” Sparks darted left.

Reyes shot one more.

One remained. Sparks now had a clear read on its intention. The second it jumped, she dropped. Reyes shot it mid-flight, turning it to scrap metal in the air. It left the ground in one piece and showered her with a thousand.

Her eyes stinging with her own sweat, Sparks scrambled to her feet and reached the winch. Blowing hard, her body weak, she ripped up the handle and turned it, opening the hatch while Reyes and Faz Went continued closing the doors around the hangar’s perimeter.

Thunk!

Thunk!

Thunk!

The Greeta’s nav system urged her on. They were nearly out of time. The winch’s handle snapped, coming away in her hand. “Fuck!” She’d not opened the hatch wide enough. She tossed it aside and climbed back into the Greeta. “Reyes.”

“What?”

Sparks pulled on a space suit. “I need you to pilot for me.”

“Where are you going?”

She shouted over the nav’s tone. It had grown louder with its increased consistency. “To get the hangar open.”

“So why do I need to fly?”

“Because I need to do it from outside. And I need you to catch me when you leave.” She zipped up the front of her suit. “I have the hack to get in, not to get out.”

“Are you fucking mad?”

Sparks crossed to Reyes. They touched foreheads. She grinned up at her. “You know I am. I love you. Now be ready to fly out the second that hatch is fully open.”

CHAPTER 19

Sparks dropped through the Greeta’s hatch and landed in the hangar. More droids spewed in from the many open doorways. A violation of droids. While Faz Went did his best to fight them, he only dropped one for every three that entered.

In the Greeta’s cockpit, Reyes held the ship steady with micro adjustments. If Sparks did her bit, she’d be ready to fly them out of there.

Restricted by the suit and unable to fight back because she had her gun at her hip, Sparks ran as best she could, blasts striking all around her. While their attempts missed, the droids’ intention slammed into her with every shot fired, each attack threatening to throw her to her knees.

A cable tied around her waist, Sparks clipped the other end to the winch pole as she passed, ran to the partly open hatch, and jumped out as another blast streaked behind her.

Whomp!

She fell through the shimmering membrane and out into space.

Her suit hissed and pulled skintight. The final shot had torn an opening. Icy air rushed in. Sparks held her breath, pulled on the cable stretching back to the winch, and dragged herself to the Fragadocious until she connected with the magnetised thunk of the soles of her boots against the freighter’s hull.

Like being back in the barrel in Mac’s bar all over again, she pressed her lips tight against her need to breathe, pulled her arms inside her suit, and retrieved her mini computer.

“How you doing out there, Sparks?”

Wasted words. Wasted oxygen. Sparks fixed on her screen.

“Sparks?”

“Busy!” Her lungs tighter for expelling the oxygen.

“Too busy to talk?”

“Yep!” Her lungs tighter still. She’d held her breath for a few minutes in Mac’s bar. She had the same out here. But as the cold air surrounded her, it sent a numb tingle through her extremities, robbing her fingers of their dexterity. Her suit flattened against her body every time she shoved it away. It covered her computer’s screen, limiting her already restricted view. Her eyes throbbed like they were swelling inside her skull. She blinked against the surface layer of frost clouding her view.

“And now? Sparks? How are you doing? We need to get going soon. The tone’s continuous. That means we need to leave now, right? Sparks?”

The suit covered her computer again. “I’m fine. Wait.”

“You don’t sound it.”

The ice crystals left a sandpaper layer on Sparks’ eyeballs, and her vision deteriorated. Her suit continued to challenge her every action. Her pulse raced, daring her to draw a breath. To shut down her already starved lungs.

She had a connection to her computer. She could work blind, but she couldn’t operate with the suit’s vacuum sealing. Sparks unclipped her helmet, dragged it over her head, and pushed it away, the goldfish bowl floating into the void. She shoved her arms back into the suit’s sleeves. Her fingers clumsy with the cold, she found the front zip on her fifth or sixth attempt and dragged it down.

Like trying to undress from clingfilm, she pulled herself clear, the suit still attached to the Fragadocious by the boots’ soles. Blind and freezing, she spun like her helmet and locked onto her computer. The numbness crept up her wrists and then forearms. Guided by her intuition, but unable to get any feedback through her dead hands, she finally hit what she hoped to be enter.

Spinning as if in freefall, Sparks had about thirty seconds before she expired. Thirty seconds for Reyes and Faz Went to reach her. Hopefully she’d opened the hatch.

A net wrapped around Sparks and dragged her away. Curled in a ball, someone pulled her in, reeling her closer to the blurred bright lights of what had to be the Greeta.

Whomp!

Through the membrane covering the entrance. The nav system blared a continuous tone, and Reyes screamed, the words distorted through Sparks’ throbbing ears.

Faz Went rested a hand on the side of her face, warm against her frigid cheek. His voice came at her as if through a body of water. “What the hell, Sparks?” He grabbed her shoulders and sat her up. “You abandoned your suit!”

Hat slammed into her chest, knocking her over again. He licked her face, her hands, her feet. He shifted around her body, moving from one damaged part to the next, providing some relief, but not enough. Her fingers were about ready to snap. Her ankles had turned brittle, the cold cutting to the bone. Her head throbbed, her sinuses burned, her vision blurred. She fought to fill lungs that were suddenly two sizes too small.

Twisting and groaning, her circulation returned. Her fingers tingled. Her ankles loosened. The stabbing in her brain dropped to a sharp pulse. Definition returned to her surroundings. With every breath, her heart rate slowed a little more. The nav system stopped whining, and the shadow cast by the Fragadocious passed over them as it left them behind.

While Reyes piloted the Greeta, Hat focused on Sparks’ eyes, bringing back her sight. He licked her hands, returning the movement to her fingers first, and then the feeling.

Reyes glanced back as she flew, her brow locked, tears in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Sparks coughed and wheezed. “I’m getting there.”

“Why did you abandon your suit?” Faz Went handed over her glasses. “Why cut off your air like that?”

He didn’t need to know the truth. That if he’d been a better shot, she would have been safe. But he had many other skills. Maybe next time she’d take down the droids, and he could do the running. “My computer wouldn’t work from inside the suit. I had to get out to open the hatch. But we did it, right?”

“Right.” Faz Went rattled. “Now we need to convince an arms dealer to equip us with a small arsenal for zero credits. And to ignore her allegiance to Blark Venn-Quarter. And the chance at one hundred thousand credits if she kills us where we stand.”

Resting the back of her head against the wall behind her, Sparks grinned.

“What’s so funny?”

“I have a plan.”

“Uh-oh,” Reyes said.

“We called it the blind-man’s hoodlesnaff. We did it on Tollcostal about ten years ago, well before I’d joined the Shadow Order. If we pull it off, not only will we be leaving her planet with all the weapons we could want and more”—Sparks coughed and wheezed as she fought to get her breath—“but she’ll also thank us for the pleasure.”

CHAPTER 20

Wilt, a small bone-white rocky moon pockmarked with craters. Dark because Tregoyne, the red planet around which it orbited, sat between it and the sun. Pen’s vast hangar and home stood as two beacons of light in an otherwise inhospitable and dark landscape.

Sparks guided in the Greeta, landing beside the steel hangar with its pitched, corrugated tin roof.

The last out of the ship, Sparks landed on Wilt’s rocky surface. Like Acoolter, but the terrain lighter, almost white. And no bodies of water or indigenous life. At least, none she’d seen. This place no more than a dead stone tethered to Tregoyne by gravity. Uninhabited save for Pen’s buildings. She tucked her hands beneath her armpits, folded her arms, and hunched her shoulders against the biting cold. “I can’t think of anywhere worse to live.”

His eyes buried in the shadow from his cap’s peak, Faz Went scanned their surroundings. “I’d take this over Stargart. At least you’d get a good night’s sleep here.”

Despite the twinge of surveillance, Sparks crept closer to the hangar and peered in. Six identical fighters, three down each side. They were all bone white like the ground. Each had a pointed nose, a slit for a windscreen, and wide backs that stretched out into their whale-tail wings. “Arms dealing clearly pays well.”

“It does.”

Sparks jumped and spun around.

About five feet ten inches tall, she held herself with a board-straight back and a raised chin. If she felt the chill, she hid it well. Shock-white hair and eyes as pale as the rest of this place. She wore a white satin dress that left little to the imagination, but still covered much of her royal purple skin. She stood alone and completely at ease. This ragtag group posed her no threat.

Approaching them with balletic grace, pointing her toes ahead of her with her progress, she seemed to barely touch the ground over which she walked.

Faz Went pointed. “Pen?”

Sparks nudged Reyes. “As in Penfold?”

She halted mid-step. “As in Pentagram, you heathen.” Her eyes glowed like they were backlit, and her words were clipped like she resented giving them any more than the very basics required to communicate. “And who are you?”

Pulling Sparks back, Faz Went offered his hand. “We’ve come to talk business.”

She sneered at his gesture. “You think mine is any of yours?”

“I believe it is. If you’ll hear me out?”

“My time’s precious.”

“As is ours, but we hope this trip is an inconvenience that pays off.”

Pen encircled them. She paused by Reyes and scoffed.

“None taken.”

Peering down on Sparks like she had nits, she waited for just about long enough for Sparks to ball her fists and open her mouth to speak, and then cut her off. “Follow me.”

Pen led the way, Faz Went a step behind, while Sparks and Reyes held a little farther back with Hat. They approached the cold, minimalist structure Pen called home. All glass and steel and, in that moment, the primary light source on Wilt. Open plan and immaculate inside. She had nothing to hide here. Even the toilet in the centre of the house stood on full display. But who needed privacy when you lived on your own moon? Might as well enjoy the view while you took a shit.

“My name’s Faz Went.”

“Did I ask?”

“I’m trying to be polite.”

“By coming to my home unannounced? However, if nothing else, I must admit you’ve piqued my interest. It’s the reason you’re still alive. But the more you talk, the more you sharpen the spear of my impatience.”

Sparks mouthed to Reyes, Spear of impatience?

Reyes turned away to hide her smirk.

Faz Went slipped his hands into his sleeves and bowed his head. He followed her like a monk being called to prayer.

Sparks and Reyes took up the rear. Mouths shut. Heads bowed.

Every step closer to the house lit up Sparks’ intuition. The hairs on her arms lifted first. The skin clenched at the back of her neck. Her right eye twitched, and her entire body prickled with gooseflesh. Pen had sensors in many of the numerous steel girders that made up the building’s frame. Microphones and cameras. They were watching.

Pen showed them the table and chairs outside her house with a sweeping arm. “Sit.”

The three of them sat.

The way she moved and spoke. Authority and poise. Control. She could have persuaded them to do anything. “Drinks?”

Faz Went showed her his hand. “No, thank you. We understand your time is precious and don’t want to take more of it than is absolutely necessary. Allow me to cut to the chase if I may?”

The skin around her milky-white eyes tightened, revealing the slightest hint of crow’s feet. The only blemish on her otherwise immaculate face. “Cut away.”

“We’ve come here to buy weapons.”

“And this moon’s made of rock.”

“Huh?”

“That’s hardly a revelation, my dear. It’s not the what, it’s the why. Why should I sell you weapons?”

“Because we can pay.”

Only if Sparks could get into the house and find some privacy to do her thing.

“Being able to pay is the very minimum I’d expect. Especially for four beings who have a combined price of one hundred thousand credits on their heads. Can you pay enough to convince me to let you go, let alone let you go armed to the teeth? I mean, criminals like you … Destroying an entire economy. What incentive is there for me to choose you as business partners?”

While Faz negotiated, Sparks ran through the house’s tech. From one room to the next, she sensed the multiple microphones and cameras. Light switches. Heating. Then she found it. A switch to turn the windows opaque. She gasped, killing the conversation.

Pen snapped her head one way and then the other.

“Sorry.” Sparks snorted with her faked laugh. “I think aloud.”

“Please share your thoughts.”

Faz Went encouraged Sparks with a nod.

“Uh … well, first, you’ll only get fifty thousand credits if you hand us over to Blark Venn-Quarter.”

“One hundred thousand dead.”

“But you don’t want that kind of mess on your hands.”

“You know what I want?”

“I know what an immaculate house sprayed with blood looks like.”

“As do I.” Pen held Sparks’ glare. “I have droids who know how to clean. They can remove any stain.”

Biting down on the inside of her mouth, the sharp sting pulling her back into the moment. “So how about we pay you two hundred thousand credits on top of the weapons’ cost?”

Reyes and Faz Went shared a glance.

“Blark Venn-Quarter has an army that need weapons. That’s a lot of repeat business. What are you, a raid party I’ll never see again? And, ignoring the financial benefits, what about my allegiance to him?”

Faz Went rested his elbows on the table and leaned closer. “What is that allegiance worth now?”

“Huh?”

“Whether or not our fault, we can’t avoid the facts … Acoolter has fallen. Blark Venn-Quarter has no further need for weapons, and even if he did, he now has no credits with which to buy them. Well, maybe he does now, but soon he won’t. How long before all his revenue streams run dry?

“Besides”—Faz Went rocked back in his seat—“aren’t you a bit above doing Blark Venn-Quarter’s dirty work?”

The slightest flicker of a smile lifted one side of Pen’s mouth. She leaned closer, resting on her table. She steepled her fingers. “You make a valid point.”

“So you’ll sell us weapons?”

“At a premium.”

“Understandable. Considering …”

“But I have one more question. A question I ask all my clients.”

“Go on.”

“What are the weapons for?”

“Have you heard of the Ringdell Group?”

“Of course.”

“Have you heard of Flanterian?”

She laughed, leaned back, and shook her head. “Have you heard of Piltred?”

Sparks rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be so complacent, little one. Piltred’s a monster of a creature. Over ten feet tall. A walking nightmare in power armour. And while he cuts an imposing form in his war gear, what’s beneath is enough to lead any sane mind astray.”

Fighting back a yawn, Sparks inspected her nails. “So we’ve heard.”

“Do you know how he came to work for the Ringdell Group?”

“I’m guessing you’re about to tell us.”

“About ten years ago they dropped him on the icy planet of Rowled. Have you heard of it?”

“Nope.”

“I’m not surprised. It had little relevance in the galaxy before he visited. Now it’s no more than a stain on any map.”

“The Ringdell Group sent him there?”

“No, his creators. I think they felt guilty. They wanted to drop him somewhere he could spend the rest of his days and die alone of old age.”

“Wow. If that’s an act of compassion, I wonder what they do to beings they hate.”

“The thing is …” Pen’s eyes widened. “Rowled’s inhabitants got news of his arrival, and they weren’t happy about it. At all. They sent out a hunting party.”

“Let me guess, the hunting party never returned.”

“Oh, no, they returned all right. Piltred came into town with their bodies stacked high on a trailer. He located the family members of each and fed them their kin’s diced cadavers until they either choked on their flesh or drowned in their blood. Others attacked him and soon wished they hadn’t. Those who survived went into hiding. They retreated to underground shelters, and there they remained. An entire generation grew up with no comprehension of sunshine. But the memory of what he’d done dulled with time. The reality of this monster became a story told to scare children. They dreamed of a life on the surface, and supplies eventually ran low.” Pen leaned closer to Sparks and raised a finger. “It took for just one of them to open an exit. Piltred flooded into their subterranean home like a plague. He tore through the shelters one after the other, ripping every being limb from limb. He’d spent decades waiting. Watching. Ready for the moment they lowered their guard. He turned an entire species extinct in an afternoon.”

Faz Went reached across Sparks to cut off her reply. “Sounds like even more of a reason for us to turn up armed. You’ll sell us the weapons?”

“Sure. And I’ll also give you some advice for free.”

“Go on.”

“Don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“No matter how well armed, you won’t win against Piltred. Accept that now and abandon this foolhardy quest.”

Swelling with his inhale, Faz Went rattled. “Don’t isn’t an option.”

“In that case, I wish you luck. You’re going to need it.” Pen stood up and stepped away from the table. “You want your weapons? Then come with me.”

CHAPTER 21

They followed Pen, but Sparks hung back with Reyes and Hat. She remained locked into the tech inside the minimalist mansion. Sure, Pen had chosen a life of isolation, but her choice of abode spoke of the exhibitionist in her. A being who didn’t mind flaunting everything she had. And Sparks wouldn’t look away if given the chance to see the graceful creature in her full glory. But even Pen needed privacy. All four bathroom walls had a switch to turn them opaque. Like those used on the walls separating the droneball booths on Stargart. Now she needed to get in there so they could pay for their haul.

The hatch blended into the bleached-bone landscape until they drew close enough to make out the perfect square outline in the ground. It looked like a glitch in the matrix. Pen pointed her toe and applied light pressure. It popped open. She stood aside for Faz Went to enter first. He stepped down, and Sparks’ heart raced.

Reyes and Hat followed, but Sparks paused. Just for a moment. What were they descending into? Should they be trusting Pen? Should she be asking? Faz Went knew people, and he’d entered. She followed them in, descending the poorly lit spiral staircase.

The metronomic tock of their descent echoed in the deep well like a countdown. But to what? Weapons? Death? And what did it matter? With Pen behind them, blocking their exit, they were all in. No backing out now, so why worry?

It hit Sparks from her right. She drew a sharp breath through clenched teeth and halted. She gripped the handrail like she could crush her anxiety. A severed head bounced through her mind, hitting every stair on the way down. The body fell after it, playing a clumsy percussion until they both stopped at the bottom.

Reyes paused and looked back.

Pen rested a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

No. Of course not, but it wasn’t like she could say anything. She felt the tech, hidden in the gloom and so idle it radiated only the slightest frequency. Less than even a small microphone. Next-level tech, it loitered like a hungry snake in a rocky crevice. Close to invisible to her intuition. The power surge would come when it lunged through a thirty-centimetre-long slit, a gap designed to birth a razor-thin, horizontal guillotine. By then it would be too late.

Sparks gasped when Pen tightened her grip. “I said, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Sparks raised a hand and rode out the intrusion with deep breaths. “It’s been a long week, and these stairs are steep.”

A metre farther down, the next intrusion no less violent, but at least she arrived more prepared. She held strong against her weakening legs and gripped the railing to maintain her balance. The memory of a shutting hatch above and below. It turned this section of the stairs into a small chamber and flooded it with gas. And when it finished, it released the being inside as a lumpy, bloody, crimson broth that turned the stairs slick. The deep well reeked of metal, masking any scent the murder might have left. And Pen’s droids knew how to remove any stain. Any stain save for the digital memory of execution. But like the guillotine, the hatch’s coding lay so idle it barely existed.

As they progressed, Reyes glanced back again. She knew better than to ask.

Dizzy with their spiralling descent, Sparks swayed at the next intrusion. Plasma blasts as thin as microfibres birthed from pinholes in the cylindrical walls. The last being they’d sprung turned porous and sprayed blood like a stuck water balloon. “How often do you get attacked out here?” Sparks cleared her throat to settle her voice. “Robbed?”

Pen’s laugh filled the chute. “No one’s tried it yet. Is that about to change?”

“No, of course not. We’d be foolish to think you’d not protected yourself down here. Ready to shut down the second you sensed danger. That you don’t have some kind of security system protecting all these weapons. If nothing else, you have a responsibility. In the wrong hands—”

“Are they?”

“Are they what?”

“The wrong hands. Yours?”

Faz Went took over, calling up at them, “Of course not, just making small talk.”

“Thinly veiled threats and probing as to what defences I may or may not have seems very far from small talk.”

“Lot of weather we’re having lately,” Sparks said.

“What?”

“What do you do for work? Oh, how interesting. Do you enjoy it?”

“Y … you know what I do.”

“And that house, simply magnificent, darling.”

“What the fuck are you blathering on about?”

“Small talk. Is that better?”

“No talk is preferable.”

The next section of the stairwell like the one they’d already passed. When activated, it blocked off from above and below, creating a small chamber. Most recently, it had enclosed an amphibious being and flooded with water. It kept it until it drowned. A long and drawn-out process. It probably took weeks. A punishment befitting the crime? Or a measure of Pen’s sadism?

“I’m sorry.” Faz Went’s rattle bounced off the walls. “We’ll keep our mouths shut!”

He read beings; she read machines. And he’d not seen any cause for alarm. Also, of course Pen had defences, but while they were idle, they might as well not be there. And they wouldn’t get the jump on Sparks and the others. Their intention would make them visible. Their recoil before they struck. Hopefully.

At the bottom of the stairs, Sparks followed Reyes into the storage basement. At least half a mile long and two hundred metres wide. Lit bright white, it had racks of weapons and even some small solo vehicles. Kamikaze missiles. Suits like those they’d worn when the Ringdell Group had sent them into Flanterian.

The skin at the back of Sparks’ neck clenched. She drew her blaster and spun around.

Pen kicked it from her hand and levelled her own weapon on her. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Sparks flicked her head in its direction. “What’s that?”

Reyes and Faz Went aimed their blasters at Pen. They lowered them when a hovering trolley appeared from around the bend.

Faz Went’s eyes widened. Sparks needed to keep her head if they wanted to get out of here alive.

“Sorry.” Sparks pressed her hands together as if in prayer and bowed. “I’m a little jumpy.”

“Clearly.” Pen holstered her blaster and leaned her head to one side. “But how did you know it was coming? It’s silent.”

Reyes’ and Faz Went’s attention burned into the side of her face. They stood as tense as her, ready for this to spill into violence. Sparks smiled and shook her head. “To you it might be, but even from down here, I can hear a gnat on Stargart scratching its arse.”

CHAPTER 22

Of course Pen had defences down here, and she probably had cause to use them at some point, but that didn’t concern Sparks or the others. Until they were activated, they were none of their business. She’d do better to focus on how they planned to pay for the weapons with no credits.

She continued to hold back, but Pen now walked beside her. Glided beside her. A creature of poise and grace, she led the hovering trolley, Reyes and Faz Went inspecting the weapons as they passed them.

“It doesn’t bite, you know?”

“What doesn’t?”

“It’s just a trolley. A hovering trolley, but a trolley nonetheless. How else do you expect to get your purchases out of here?”

Purchases. About that … Sparks forced a smile.

They passed racks and racks of weapons designed for many species. Blasters, rifles, swords, chains, electro-whips, grenades, mines … They could probably take the lot and make use of them, but go too big and Pen would surely subject their payment to a scrutiny it wouldn’t be able to withstand. A quick transaction would give them the best chance of getting off this moon with both their purchases and their lives.

Reyes showed Sparks the weapons as she chose them. Three chrome plasma rifles that sparkled in their bright surroundings. Rapid fire. Much more practical than their blasters. A crate of twenty limpet grenades, magnetised so they’d cling to Piltred’s power armour. She grunted with the effort of lifting them; the trolley bobbed and almost touched the ground with their weight. Suits similar to those they’d used when they’d gone to Flanterian for the Ringdell Group. The smallest one had a fitted backpack so Sparks could carry Hat. And finally, a las-sword each. Reyes activated them with a press of a button, a thrumming glowing blade bursting from the silver handle. They were similar save for the colour. Reyes cycled through a few before she showed Sparks a fifth blade. Deep purple. Sparks grinned. “That one. It matches my eyes.”

Laying Sparks’ las-sword in the trolley with their haul, Reyes stood straight and rested her hands on her hips.

“That’s it?” Pen said.

Reyes nodded. “That’s it.”

“May I suggest one more item?”

“Of course.”

Pen clicked her fingers, the snap whipping through the massive underground space.

Although Sparks’ spine tingled, she pressed her lips tight and swayed from side to side, spending her nervous energy.

Two more droids appeared. They hovered like the trolley. Each one carried a missile. Black and white check like a chessboard. The missiles were about two metres long and thirty centimetres in diameter. They’d be easy enough to load onto the Greeta and drop from the air. But as they drew closer, Sparks trembled, sweat broke out on her brow, and her mouth dried.

Reyes glanced at Sparks. “No, thanks. We have no need for missiles.”

Sparks rested her hands on her knees and leaned forwards. Fireballs erupted in her mind. Ships fell from the skies.

Pen focused on Reyes, the decision-maker. “You might think that, but if you’re going up against Piltred, you want them. Trust me.”

Sparks fought back her laugh. Trust her? With what she’d just given them?

“I’m with Reyes.” Faz straightened his hat. “And while we appreciate the suggestion, we don’t want missiles.”

“You refuse my offer?”

“We’ve come here for the weapons we need, not the ones you want to sell us.”

“How dare you challenge my integrity? I pride myself on tailoring an inventory to my clients’ needs. I’d even be bold enough to assert I know what you need better than you do.”

Sparks blew hard, damn near hyperventilating. “We’ll take them.”

“What?” The three of them said it at once. And from the way Hat leaned from Reyes’ arms, he would have said it to if he’d had the ability.

Forcing herself to stand up straight, Sparks wiped her brow with the back of her sleeve. “We’ll take them!”

Pen closed her mouth. “Are you okay?”

His head tilted to one side, Faz Went said, “I was about to ask the same thing.”

“I’m fine. And we’re taking the missiles.”

Reyes and Faz Went shared a glance. Faz Went shrugged. Reyes said, “We’ll take them, then.”

“So.” Sparks stepped closer to the floating trolley loaded with their haul. Her right hand twitched. “How much do we owe you?”

Pen whistled, the droids shooting away, taking their missiles and the hovering trolley with them. “Let’s talk about that above ground. It makes me uneasy discussing payment surrounded by so many weapons.” She gestured for Sparks to lead the way. “After you.”

CHAPTER 23

The first into the spiral staircase, the first to pass the sections that could trap her like a bug in a jar and turn her to liquid. She passed the guillotine beheading blade and the laser-driven pinholes. But at least Sparks emerged onto the cold and barren Wilt first. Back on the pallid moon’s surface, cratered and sparse save for the minimalist exhibitionist home, the hangar, and the Greeta docked close by. Not the Arrowhead, not by a long shot, but more practical for their needs. And large enough to get them to Flanterian without having to hitch a lift. But first they needed to get the credits for Pen so they could leave Wilt alive.

Reyes, blowing hard from the climb, emerged from the stairs next. She clung to Hat, whose tongue hung from his open mouth.

Faz Went’s hissing rattle announced his exit. He reached the surface and stretched like he’d just climbed out of a small box. One hand on the base of his back, his mouth stretched wide, he gasped and stumbled towards the table and chairs they’d sat at when they’d arrived. He dragged out a seat, but halted when Pen climbed out.

“There’s no need to get comfortable. Our business is done. This entire transaction has left me with a deep-rooted unease, so I think I’m about ready to get paid, and you’re about ready to fuck off.”

“B …” Sparks left it hanging. How could she ask to use the toilet now? Shit!

“Is this how you conduct business?” Faz Went remained standing. He had the stones to confront her, but the wisdom to not push her so far as to sit without her consent.

“I’m not looking to make new friends or even cultivate an ongoing business partnership. I expect, once you leave, to never see you again.”

“Faz?”

They all turned to Reyes.

“Faz! Are you okay?”

Clapping a hand to his abdomen, Faz rattled louder than before. He fell into the seat and removed his cap. Rocking forwards so he leaned over his knees, he shook his head. “You know, something’s not quite right. Some atmospheres don’t agree with me. They affect my gills.”

Pen sneered. “Gills?”

Sparks leaned towards her and spoke in a mock whisper so everyone heard. “What do you think the rattling is?”

“Even more of a reason for you to get back onto your ship. A better atmosphere. Pay me and fuck off.”

“The Greeta.”

“What?”

“My ship.” Sparks pointed at it, grinned, and rose onto her toes. “We call it the Greeta.”

“And that’s relevant how?”

“Ow!” Faz bent over double.

“Oh, Faz.” Reyes ran for him, knocking Pen aside. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but it hurts.”

“Take off your top.”

“What?”

“Do it, Faz. Now.”

“But what about Pen?”

“She can cope. You can’t worry about your dignity when you have concerns for your life. It sounds like you have a blockage.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You’d rather die?”

Sparks stepped closer to the house, into the surveillance of every camera in her vicinity. Hopefully they’d be gone by the time Pen worked out what they were doing.

Pen locked into Reyes and Faz Went’s conversation, her mouth open, her eyes wide. “Is there anything I can do?”

Leaning forwards, Faz Went stretched his arms above his head. “You’re right, Reyes. Take off my top, and sorry, Pen—”

“Don’t you dare apologise!” Reyes grabbed his sleeves. “You need urgent medical assistance. Pen wouldn’t want you to suffer.” She discarded his top on the bone-white ground.

Pen’s mouth stretched wide. Aghast. She stepped back, repelled by his gills. Four hellish and puckered grins down each side of his skinny body. Strands of calloused skin ran across them like bars. They shook and trembled with his respiration, birthing a furious hiss.

“I see it!” Reyes dropped into a crouch, her face just a few centimetres from his opening and closing gills. She closed an eye and peered in.

Sparks took another step towards the house.

Reyes pushed her fingers into Faz’s body with the damp squelch of someone interrogating a trifle.

Pen shrieked and turned away.

Sparks heaved. She leaned against Pen’s house and followed up with a violent series of gags.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“Not in my house you’re not.”

“Bathroom.”

“What?”

“Where’s your bathroom?”

“Inside. You can see it.”

The front door made from the same reenforced glass as the rest of the house, Sparks shoved it wide and charged in. She ran down the cold hallway, the surveillance chewing into her from all sides. Microphones and cameras embedded in steel tracked her every step.

In the bathroom, she dropped to her knees and threw her head into the toilet. She heaved again, as loud as she could manage. She was on full display until she reached back and pressed the opaque button, turning the walls black. Had she found it a little too easily? Shown too much familiarity?

A light came on above. A camera watched over her from behind.

Sparks gagged again, the echo of her braying heave booming through the toilet bowl.

She kept her back to the only camera in the room, pulling her mini computer from her inside pocket, covering it and its backlit glare with her form.

Close enough to the study. To Pen’s computer. She hacked into her systems and accounts. So confident in her surveillance and living alone, she’d not giving much consideration to her digital security.

Sparks heaved again and clung to the steel bowl, attaching a relay pod around the back. One final heave for effect, she finished with a series of gasps and pants before she stood on shaky legs and hit the opaque buttons to return the walls to their transparent state. She left the bathroom, her mini computer now hooked into Pen’s systems, her credit card loaded with Pen’s wealth.

CHAPTER 24

As Sparks exited Pen’s house, the transparent reenforced door closed behind her with a finality that seemed to mirror its owner’s sentiments. Get the fuck out and don’t come back.

Faz Went flapped his arms, leaned forwards, and wheezed. He used his cap to fan his face.

With Pen distracted, Sparks kept her back to the cameras and winked at Reyes. Job done.

Faz Went must have caught it because he toned down his performance.

Pen watched him for a few more seconds. “So everyone’s all right now?”

Resting on his knees, Faz Went stood up straight. “Yep. Sorry to have bothered you. And thank you, Reyes. I’ve never had that happen before. I would have choked were it not for you.”

“It’s all right. I’m sure you wo—”

“Can you lot save this bullshit for when you’ve paid up and fucked off? Flanterian’s far enough away to give you time on the journey for congratulations and mutual praise. I just want to be left alone.”

Sparks drew her credit card. The display showed more zeroes than could fit on the small screen. But they were faint. A cloned card if ever she’d seen one. Something between her and the relay in the bathroom blocked it. She tilted the card towards Reyes, whose eyes widened, but settled again when Pen turned her way.

Reyes grabbed Pen’s elegant hand with both of hers and shook it, turning Pen’s back on Sparks. “First, I would like to apologise for the chaos we’ve brought to you.”

“I just want you gone.”

She clung on to their host’s hand. “And to thank you again for your hospitality.”

Her back to the house, free from the cameras’ views, Sparks used her body again to shield her mini computer.

Pen tried to drag her hand away, but Reyes clung on. “A hospitality that’s expiring fast!”

Sparks ran through the house’s surveillance. The microphones weakened her signal. Each one created a force field of sorts. A digital sound booth, blocking out any external noises so they could manage their own sector with crystal clarity. If a gnat entered their section and scratched their arse, they’d not only register it, but tell you how many scratches and make a good guess at what the gnat’s finger smelled like afterwards.

It took Pen several tries to break free of Reyes’ grip. The second she did, Reyes clung to her shoulders. “You’re so humble. But please, just let us thank you.”

Sparks trembled with her haste, shutting down the microphones one after the other.

“You can thank me by leaving. Now!”

An arm around Pen’s shoulder, Reyes pulled her away. “Come on, we’ve not been that bad, have we?”

Pen stepped across her, grabbed her around the waist, and threw her to the ground.

All the while, Sparks typed, shutting down a path from her to the bathroom.

Reyes would have kicked Pen’s arse ten times out of ten. But she yielded and lay on her back while Pen pressed the sole of her boot to her throat.

Three more microphones remained.

“I feel like the circus has come to town with you three clowns.”

Reyes wheezed, “Four!”

Two microphones to go.

“What?”

“Four clowns. Don’t forget Hat.”

Baring her gritted teeth, Pen pressed harder. “Pay me now, and get the fuck off my moon.”

The final microphone down. Sparks held the credit card in front of Pen’s face. The numbers bright. Strong. Like they belonged on this card. “Here.” She held it in Pen’s direction. “Whatever you were going to charge us, double it.”

“Huh?”

“You’re right, we’ve caused chaos. Not that it makes up for the distress, but we want to leave a tip. Reyes is right, you’ve been a top host. Many would have run out of patience by now.”

“You think I’ve not run out of patience?” Taking the card, Pen swiped it across a reader on her wrist. A slight pip, the reader’s small screen glowed in acknowledgement of the transaction. She clicked her fingers.

Sparks twisted against the twinge in her spine. The hover trolley appeared a second later, loaded with their weapons and Pen’s recommended pair of missiles.

“It will follow you to your ship.”

“The Greeta.”

“I don’t care what it’s fucking called.” She sprayed spittle and balled her hands into tight fists. “Just go, take your weapons, and fuck the fuck off my moon.”

Pushing out her bottom lip, Sparks shrugged. “Just saying.”

“Well don’t! All right?”

Faz Went and Reyes led the way, Sparks and Hat taking up the rear. The hover trolley shepherded them. Escorted them off the moon.

Drawing her mini computer, Sparks entered a command and hit enter. She quickened her pace to catch up with Faz Went and Reyes. “I’ve shut down the microphone in the trolley so Pen won’t be able to hear what we’re saying.” She laughed. “That was close, eh?”

“I’m sorry, Faz.” Reyes lowered her head. “For using you in that way. I felt like we needed to do something quickly, but I regret using your gills.”

“None taken.”

Reyes smiled. “So where did those credits come from, Sparks?”

“They’re mirrored from Pen’s own account. And it didn’t trigger any alarms because we stole nothing. We just re-presented what she already has.”

“When will she find out?”

“When she sees her account balance hasn’t changed.”

“So we don’t have long?”

“I think it’s safe to assume the first thing she’ll do is double-check the transaction. I know I would. As a way to cleanse her palate of our bullshit.”

Leading the hovering trolley around the back of the Greeta and away from the house’s line of sight, Sparks hacked its programming while Reyes and Faz Went unloaded their haul.

“Not those!”

Reyes paused, her hand on one of the checkered missiles.

“Take everything else, but leave them.”

Killing the cameras would be instantly obvious, so Sparks killed the microphones in the hangar first, and then only the cameras they most needed blinded. She programmed the trolley to sever its connection to the house, and sent it into the hangar. “Right, let’s get out of here.”

As the last to enter the Greeta, Sparks closed the doors and secured the locks.

Reyes pointed in the hangar’s direction. “We don’t need those missiles?”

“Definitely not.” Sparks sat in the cockpit and flicked a series of switches, getting the Greeta ready for takeoff. “She gave us them for a reason.” The next button press boosted them, and they hovered about two metres from the ground. “They’re her insurance policy.” She pulled on the flight sticks and flew away, Pen’s house and hangar getting smaller behind them.

The shockwave from the explosion shook the Greeta, the hangar engulfed in a vast fireball. Faz Went smirked. “Guess she just found out about her credits.”

Reyes playfully jabbed Sparks’ arm. “And that we didn’t take her missiles with us.”

Laughing, Sparks fist-bumped Reyes and then Faz Went. She ruffled Hat’s fur. “Robbed of her weapons, half her surveillance equipment out of action, and all of her fancy fighters destroyed. And from the way she talked about Piltred and the Ringdell Group, I can’t see her tracking us down there when she finally gets something she can fly. I’d say that’s a win, wouldn’t you?”

“Uh …” Faz Went looked back through one of the Greeta’s rear windows.

A screen showed Sparks what he saw. The hangar, still burning and with the roof blown off, lifted by several metres and pulled back to reveal another hangar beneath. Six fighters identical to those already obliterated—bone white and with whale-tail backs—swarmed from the underground space in a line. Six state-of-the-art fighters and they had just one goal. To annihilate the Greeta and her crew.

CHAPTER 25

“This would be so much easier in the Arrowhead.”

“That doesn’t help, Sparks.” Reyes ran to one turret, Faz Went the other. “We need to deal with the problem at hand, not reminisce about an old ship we’ll never see again.”

“Fucking hell. Brutal much?”

“Get your head in the game, Sparks.”

“You don’t need to worry about my head.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Will you two stop bickering?”

Sparks loosened her grip on the flight sticks and rolled the tension from her shoulders. The rear-view screen showed her the six bone-white fighters on their tail. She reached out with her intuition and caught the twinge of automation inside their vessels. Action and reaction. Nothing more. She leaned back and shouted at the others, “They’re not using any pre-programmed attack sequence. Which would be fine were it just one of them, but it makes the six entirely unpredictable.”

“See that one?” Faz Went rattled. Six identical whale-tail fighters. Flying fish skeletons.

“They’re all the same, Faz.”

“But they’re not. One of them has a star on the nose.”

Sparks adjusted her rear-view camera and found the fighter with the red star. “The leader?”

“Maybe,” Faz Went said.

Reyes’ turret dome amplified her voice. “Then we need to cut the head off this snake. There’s a reason it’s at the back. We take down their leader, and we’ll stand a much better chance of getting the rest.”

“Hang on!” Sparks slapped the power button close to her right hand. Crack! The thrum of thrusters ceased, and the Greeta dropped into a nose-first freefall, hurtling towards Wilt’s pallid landscape.

They dropped like a rock, shooting past the other five before Sparks slapped the power button again and turned hard. Hat hit the inside wall. “Sorry, Hat.” She locked onto the starred ship’s tail. Followed its twitching and shimmying path as it tried to lose her. “I think you’re right, Reyes. Get this one and the rest will fold like they’re holding an unsuited two-seven.”

“What now?”

Sparks gritted her teeth as she pressed the triggers. Two cannon blasts burst from the Greeta’s front. Both struck the fighter’s whale-tail. A fireball engulfed the ship. It dropped, spun, and slammed against Wilt’s rocky surface.

“The star!” Faz Went said.

Sparks pulled up and away, leading the other five with her. “What about it?”

“It’s moved.”

“Moved?”

Blue blasts streaked past them.

“To another ship. I think it was a decoy.”

Reyes punched the wall beside her. “Fuck it! And we fell for it. We’ve been out of the game too long.”

Sparks turned one hundred and eighty degrees and headed straight for the five. Dazzled by their enemies’ blue plasma blasts, she eased off her triggers and threw the Greeta into a corkscrew turn. Hat bounced around in the back. “Sorry, Hat.”

Bursting out the other side, the Greeta unscathed. But the five were also unharmed. As one, they turned and gave chase.

Sparks chewed the inside of her mouth, their pursuers drawing closer on the rear-view screen. “Okay, maybe this won’t be as easy as we thought.”

The turret’s dome turned Faz Went’s rattle into a growl. “But at least we only have five left.”

Reyes snorted and continued firing. “Always look on the bright side, eh?”

CHAPTER 26

Sparks shifted from left to right. She turned and twisted, rose and dropped. The bone-white fighters’ shots got closer with every attempt.

The front of the nearest fighter glowed blue. It shone in her rear-view screen, lighting up the Greeta’s cockpit. They fired. She dropped hard, the blast sailing overhead. Hat hit the ceiling. “Sorry, Hat.”

Sparks pressed the heel of her right hand against the right side of her forehead and breathed in through gritted teeth.

“What?” Reyes turned around. “What is it?”

Squinting through the stabbing pains, Sparks pointed at the rear-view screens. “Those!”

At least forty magnetic bombs, fired at them from the five ships. They spread out in a wide net formation. Spherical, each one about fifteen centimetres in diameter. Each one loaded with enough explosives to turn the Greeta and them into shrapnel. They chased them. “If any of them stick to this ship, we’re fucked. Their magnets are too strong. Hacking into them won’t stop them following us and sticking. Hang on!”

Sparks dropped towards Wilt again, towards the burning hangar and Pen’s glowing minimalist mansion. The drop gave them a small lead. Close to Wilt’s surface, she levelled out and accelerated at full speed. She left the cockpit. “Reyes, you fly.”

“What?”

“I can read the mines. Do it now.”

Reyes shook her head at Sparks as they passed. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Keep us alive.”

“Helpful.”

Sparks jumped into Reyes’ turret, spun around, and fired on the missiles. Extreme droneball! Fuck this up and they were dead. She nailed them one after the other. Each exploded, but they were spaced far enough away from one another to not impact their neighbour. They’d have to do this the hard way.

Locked into their programming, Sparks held the triggers down and turned the mines into small fireballs.

A blue blast shot past the other side of Sparks’ turret. Too close. If she’d left Reyes in the turret, she might have taken down the ship, but they’d be wearing these mines like chicken pox.

Eight mines remained.

Six.

Four.

“Fuck!”

“What?” The Greeta twitched when Reyes turned back. “What?”

Thunk!

Thunk!

Two mines attached to their hull.

“Shit! Can you get them off, Sparks?”

“Not from inside the ship.”

CHAPTER 27

Still in the turret, her mini computer on her lap, Sparks hit the wrong key again because of Reyes’ swaying and dropping, her erratic flight a desperate attempt to avoid being shot. She finally hit enter. “I’ve delayed their detonation. We have a bit more time.”

Faz Went shrugged. “A bit?”

“Two minutes.”

Sparks exited the turret and ran to the space suits with their magnetic gloves and boots.

Shoving her aside, Faz Went selected his suit and got dressed. “I’m going out.”

“Are you mad?”

“You were just about to do it.”

Reyes turned a hard right. Sparks would have ridden it out had Hat not slammed into her, sending both of them into the far wall.

“Sorry, Hat,” Reyes said.

Sparks pushed herself to her feet as Hat scampered away. “Faz, I th—”

“Let me do it.” He slipped on his helmet, his voice amplified through the Greeta’s comms. “You’re the best pilot and our only chance of getting out of this alive. I just need to lever off the mines, right?” He slipped on his magnetic gloves. “How hard can that be?”

“At this speed? And in the next one hundred and ten seconds …”

“So stop wasting time arguing.”

The Greeta shook, the wet pulse of its shields eating a shot from a whale-tailed fighter.

“That was a big one.” Reyes threw a sharp left. “That took ten percent off our shields.”

“Let me go outside, Faz.”

“No!” Faz Went opened the hatch in the fighter’s floor, reached out with his magnetic gloves, attaching to them to the underside of the ship, and slipped out like a lizard.

“Reyes, get back on the turret.” Sparks ran to the cockpit and jumped into the pilot’s seat. “We need to give Faz every chance at success.”

CHAPTER 28

“Fucking hell, Sparks, I’m strapped in!” Reyes fired at their pursuers, blue blasts streaking past on either side. “If you go too easy, we’re all done for.”

“What would you have me do? Throw Faz off the ship?” The remaining five whale-tail fighters followed in a V formation and gained on them with every passing second.

“You and I both know his magnets should hold. Were you out there, you wouldn’t want me piloting this thing like a granny.”

Faz Went’s voice came at her through the speakers. “Reyes is right, you couldn’t throw me off this ship if you tried.”

Sparks accelerated. “Sorry, Faz.” She spun, avoiding the next wave of blasts. Hat hit another wall. “Sorry, Hat.”

Another sharp turn, Sparks circled back. Four fighters followed, but one missed the move. She took another sharp turn and latched onto their tail. She lined them up in her sights. She telegraphed the rookie move from a mile away. They dropped, and she shot above them.

The white whale-tail fighter lifted into her line of fire, exploded, and plummeted to the moon’s surface, the ship tearing apart on impact.

They broke through the fireball explosion. “You okay, Faz?”

“A little toasty, but it’s as cold as a mandulu’s heart out here, so it’s a nice change.”

Reyes’ laugh echoed in her domed turret.

Sparks smiled and shook her head. “Four fighters left. Seventy-five seconds ’til those mines blow.”

Sparks shimmied, turned, tilted, and dropped.

Another fireball explosion.

“Woohoo!” Reyes punched the air as the fighter fell.

“Three left, Faz. Sixty seconds.”

“Good work. Keep it up!”

Her view limited in front and behind, Sparks couldn’t see Faz Went. She had to trust him like he always trusted her. He could do this.

“I have one free!” Faz Went rattled. He grunted with the effort of his throw. The mine returned to the Greeta’s hull. Thunk! “Shit! How long left, Sparks?”

“Fifty seconds.”

“I can’t get the mines away from the ship.”

The three remaining fighters drew closer. An encroaching shadow. They brought another tingling with them. Sparks shivered. “Oh, fuck!”

“What?” Reyes leaned from her turret.

“They have more mines. Faz, get both mines in your hands.”

“Are you mad? I’ll die if they blow.”

“We’ll all die if they blow.” Sparks jolted with a sharp spasm. Another net of mines spread out behind them like an open grip ready to close.

Another fireball explosion. Two ships remained, one of them sporting the star of their leader. Two ships and about twenty-five mines.

Sparks turned a hard left, aiming for Pen’s house. Hat hit the wall. “Sorry, Hat.”

“I’ve got the mines. What are you doing, Sparks?”

“Saving our arses. Now hold on to them. Whatever happens, in the next fifteen seconds, this will all be over.”

CHAPTER 29

Sparks maintained their course, straight at Pen’s illuminated house. “Ten seconds. Hang on.”

Twenty mines and two ships on their tail.

She fired, the Greeta’s cannons shattering the glass house. Shards blasted away like confetti, reflecting the lights inside. Pen ran from her home towards her armoury.

“Ready to throw the mines, Faz?”

“Yep.”

Sparks flipped the Greeta, so they flew inverted. “Now!”

Faz threw the mines at the now exposed steel frame.

The thunk of Faz’s mines and the others played Pen’s house like a giant tuning fork as they all connected with the exposed metal.

The first two mines blew, setting off a domino effect, the others forced closer together because of their attraction to steel.

Explosion after explosion lit up Pen’s fancy house, sending the glass away in waves across the cratered moon.

Still inverted, the house beneath them, Sparks’ pulse throbbed in her ears. A wet kick-drum boom. The explosions dazzled her, and her head spun.

The detonating mines consumed the final two fighters.

Clear of Pen’s house, Sparks re-righted the Greeta and pulled up hard.

“Wooooo!” Reyes jumped from her turret and helped Faz Went back inside through the hatch in the floor. They hugged and danced, Hat running laps around them.

Faz removed his helmet and rattled. “Damn, Sparks. That’s why you were supposed to be in the pilot’s seat!”

The devastated house and hangar in her rear-view cameras, Sparks finally loosened her grip on her flight sticks and leaned back in the cushioned seat. She laughed. “We did it! We fucking did it!” She patted the control panel. “Well done, old girl.”

CHAPTER 30

“It’s going to take Pen a long time to get her house back in order.” Sparks laughed. “But I wonder if we have to watch our backs now.”

Reclining in her seat, Reyes put her feet up on the Greeta’s dashboard. They’d been travelling for hours, but the conversation kept circling back to the devastation they’d left behind them on Wilt. “That’s nothing new.”

“I suppose not.”

Leaning in between them from the back, Faz Went pointed out the windscreen. “And it’s not like she’ll be in a rush to get here. Look at the place.”

“Only a lunatic comes here right now.” Sparks’ laugh fell as dead as the planet they approached, leaving just the gentle thrum of the Greeta’s thrusters.

“Damn.” Faz Went leaned closer to the screen, knocking Sparks’ right shoulder.

“Is that what the missile did?”

“Uh-huh.”

The royal palace’s force field stood out from space like a pin on a map. A pupil surrounded by a forty-mile-wide iris of devastation. Anti-life. An almost perfect circular stain covering the entire city and beyond. Faz Went rattled. “The missile did its job.”

“Uh-huh.” The screen to Sparks’ right displayed their ETA. She filled her lungs and sat up straight, wriggling in her seat, shifting from one butt cheek to the other. Stage one of removing the fatigue in her bones from the long flight. “We’ll be touching down in five minutes.”

Reyes blew out hard and rubbed her face like she hoped she’d see something different when she pulled her hands away. She leaned closer to the windscreen and blinked repeatedly. “It suddenly seems very real.”

The Greeta’s thrusters hummed.

“So, you two met through the Shadow Order?” Faz Went, like Sparks and Reyes beside her, continued peering down on the destroyed city.

“Yeah,” Reyes said.

“You miss it?”

“The work?” Reyes screwed up her face and shook her head. “We can get that kind of work anywhere. Those we worked with?” She glanced at Sparks. “Sure. We miss Seb and SA. I’m undecided about Moses.”

Sparks clung tighter to the flight sticks. “I have a lot of questions for him.”

“Moses was your boss?”

“Yep,” Reyes said.

“And Seb and SA?”

“Seb Zodo”—Reyes threw her hands away from her as if emblazoning the legend across the sky—“the best hand-to-hand fighter in the galaxy. In an arena, I’d back him every time, no matter the odds. And the Silent Assassin. They found love. She found her voice. They retired.”

Faz Went’s rattle bordered on a purr. “The perfect love story.”

“Ha.” Sparks snorted. “There were a lot of bumps in the road.” She altered their course to stay on track. “Although, I find it hard to imagine those two settling down. If nothing else, I wonder if they miss the work.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t yo—” Reyes leaned even closer to the screen. They’d seen what the missile had done on a grand scale, but as they drew closer, they got the finer details. It had destroyed all vegetation, moss, plants, and grass. Had turned weeds and lawns to dead earth. “Those corpses …”

Sparks sighed. “They’re fresh.”

“Yep.”

Humanoid in form, but a few feet taller than the average person. Something had speared, trapped, and decapitated them. Sparks shuddered. Did she really need to ask who?

Faz Went rattled. “Did it look this bad the last time you were here?”

Still close to the screen, her brown eyes wide and unblinking. “Worse in some ways. There were a lot more corpses, which I assume got vaporised by the missile. It looks like the gloyners have been back since they fired it.”

“At least it suggests some of them are still alive.” Faz Went scratched his chin. “That’s why we’re here, right? To return to them that which has been stolen?”

Reyes’ cheeks bulged with her exhale. “It suggests some of them were alive.”

“The city’s filled with booby traps.” Sparks pointed them out. Spikes in pits, driven through the bodies of fallen gloyners. Blades poking from walls from where they’d been triggered and slashed into their victims. Severed heads. Steel ballast in mounds from where it had rained down and cracked skulls. She leaned back in her seat, shook her head, and blew out hard. “Four minutes until touchdown.”

The Greeta’s thrusters thrummed.

“What about you, Reyes?”

She turned to Faz Went. “What about me?”

“You talk a lot about abandonment issues …”

Sparks had already told him a lot about Reyes’ past.

“Is now the time, Faz?”

“You want to talk about how bleak it is down there instead?”

Reyes lifted an eyebrow. “You really want to know?”

“I asked.”

Reyes sighed. “Mum left when I was a kid. She never came back. She ended her life. Couldn’t cope.”

“That’s rough. Especially for a kid.”

“Yeah. It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with. It made … it makes me feel like I wasn’t ever good enough for her, you know?”

Sparks reached across and held Reyes’ hand, withdrawing and sitting straighter in her seat when they passed over a pit on one of the main streets. As wide as the road, the opening about three metres square. It funnelled down into what looked like an industrial wood-chipper, the blades coated in blood and flesh, the walls on all sides sprayed white with the gloyners’ spilled essence.

“Damn!”

They crossed a plaza covered in a steel frames like the racks used for holding sound equipment and lights. Tens of gloyners hung from it, cables wrapped around their necks, their innards slit and hanging out like ropes coated with their viscous milky blood.

“I understand it wasn’t personal what Mum did”—Reyes looked away from the massacre on the ground—“but that understanding hasn’t yet made it to my heart. And Dad, he died when he left me too. We were on a ship, our backs against the wall. It was the worst fucking bug hunt of our lives. Most of the crew had fallen. He got me to safety, and he stayed behind.”

“He had to,” Sparks said. “It was the only way you were going to survive.”

“Again”—she pointed at Sparks—“I can see the reasoning, but that’s why I get stressed when the people I love are away from me. But I’m working on it. And Sparks is helping me reframe my view of myself. I still get anxious when we’re apart, but it’s getting easier to cope with. And seeing things like this makes it all rather insignificant, you know?”

They passed one of the parks where they’d found the kids buried in concrete in the water fountains. They were gone. In their place lay a carpet of corpses. Gloyners and the rhino-sized hadounds. The creatures looked like a cross between a dog and a lion, but much larger than either. Their bodies still glistened with their spilled essence. The blood of the hadounds black, the gloyners’ white.

Reyes gasped, and Sparks jumped. “What? What is it?”

Her pointing finger shook when she gestured for Sparks to peer from the window. Ten feet tall and dressed in a steel power suit that spread across his broad back and shoulders. He ran down the street, arrived at a brick building, and punched through a wall. Reaching in, he grabbed a gloyner by their foot and dragged them from the ruins. They twisted and turned, caught like a fish on a hook. He grabbed their other foot and, with a sharp movement, ripped them in half, turning away from the spraying blood.

“Jeez.” Faz Went lowered his voice. “If anything, the stories didn’t do him justice. And they say what he looks like underneath is worse.”

“That’s if he’s not a droid designed to look real,” Reyes said. “I mean, he could be an artificial bein—”

“He’s not.” Sparks cried out when he looked up. The sound dragged from her body rather than something of her own making. He focused on her and flooded her mind. Violence. Sobbing. Screams. Chaos like the kind she’d get from machines. But this didn’t come from the recorded memory of another. This came from her nightmares. Like Piltred knew her worst fears and had the means to make them manifest. His eyes buried in his steel helmet, crimson streaking the metal cheeks from where he cried blood. For all the victims he’d slain and for those he’d yet to meet.

An alarm sounded in the cockpit. Sparks pulled hard on the flight sticks, lifting the Greeta as a missile streaked past them. Her brain cleared the higher she climbed. The farther she got from Piltred. “This is about as close as we can fly to the palace. There are more anti-aircraft missiles where that one came from. If we’re to return on foot, we need to land far enough away that Piltred thinks we’ve left. If we have any chance against that monster, I reckon we need surprise on our side.”

CHAPTER 31

Still reeling from her encounter with Piltred, Sparks lowered the Greeta, the ship swaying, her lack of control making their landing like they were touching down during a hurricane. The second they hit solid ground, she wiped her sweating palms on her trousers, fell back in her seat, and blew out hard.

Reyes shielded her eyes from the bright sun cutting into the cockpit. “You okay?”

“You didn’t feel that?”

“What?”

“What he did.”

She looked back at Faz Went. “I’m confused, Sparks.”

“He must have directed it at just me. As the pilot, he probably wanted to make us crash.”

“Wind it back a few steps.”

“Piltred. When he looked at me, it flooded my mind with chaos. Like some machines do, you know? Kind of like when I run through a machine sex district and have to witness the acts performed on beings. Or like when we were in the Pisstake and I saw what the droids had done to their prisoners. But”—she held up her long index finger—“unlike the machines, when they show me what they’ve done in their past—”

“Like a digital confession?”

“Yes, Faz. But this wasn’t about what had happened, it was more about what could happen. What he could do to me. To us.” She lost focus, the ruined city a blur. The large apartment block a bleary red-brick mass shielding their line of sight to the palace, and hopefully Piltred’s line of sight to them. “He knew all my fears and could use each one against me.”

Faz Went stepped back. “Sounds awful.”

Reaching across and squeezing her shoulder, Reyes kept her voice soft. “We’re away from him for now. Try to keep in mind why we’re here. We’re going to do what we can to get that palace back to the beings to whom it rightfully belongs.”

“Yeah.” Sparks sat up straight, removed her glasses, and rubbed her sore eyes, burying her knuckles deep into the itch. She followed Reyes and Faz Went off the Greeta. “And the sooner we do it, the sooner we can leave, right?”

“Damn straight.” Reyes jumped off ahead of her.

They stacked their weapons haul outside. The paint on the asphalt road was faded, its surfaced split and cracked, but immaculate. The entire city had undergone nuclear sanitation. The wind whistled through the abandoned buildings. Through the windows without panes. It brought with it a tinge of rot. The stink created by Piltred after the missile had done its work.

Reyes stepped into her grey flight suit from Pen. “We need to find a way to the palace without running into Piltred, and while avoiding as many traps as possible.” She pulled it up to her waist and dragged in one arm and then the other. “At least we have these. They should make things a little easier.”

Sparks dressed in hers, the smallest suit and the one with the backpack for Hat.

Pulling the zip up to her neck, Reyes stepped in front of Faz Went. “Have you used one before?”

He shook his head.

“They take a bit of taming, but the controls are quite intuitive.”

While she talked, Sparks scanned their surroundings. The buildings restricted their view. Piltred could be metres or miles away. Surely they’d know if he was close.

“To take off”—Reyes held her arms down and away from her body—“you just need to make fists.” She balled her hands and rose on her tiptoes. “Huh?” She tried again. Nothing.

Reyes whacked the power cell covering her heart and clenched her fists again.

“Shit.” Sparks hit her own power pack. “I should have picked up on this sooner.”

“What?”

“They’re dead, Reyes. No power. I should have sensed that when we got them from Pen.”

“So they’re useless?”

“They’re an extra layer of warmth if you want?”

“I do not want.” Reyes, Sparks, and then Faz Went removed and discarded their suits on the open asphalt. Little point in worrying about leaving evidence. Not with the Greeta parked right beside them.

Her plasma rifle hanging from her by its strap, Reyes clipped a las-sword to her belt and ran a line of limpet grenades around the back. She took ten, leaving five each for Sparks and Faz Went.

When all three of them had loaded up on weapons, Reyes led them away at a slow jog. She climbed through one of the many apartment block’s ground-floor windows, and Faz Went followed. She took Sparks’ hand and helped her in, gripping on longer than she needed, holding Sparks’ eye. Had she lost her head? Could she do this?

Sparks returned the slightest nod. Not perfect, but she’d be fine.

They took their time, their steps scuffing against the stairs in the abandoned stairwell. The wind played the building like a giant ocarina, masking their progress, but also hiding any other activity in the place. Although, something about the weight of the silence when it came between gusts and steps spoke of abandonment. Some buildings held their breath. Some lay dormant, as if hibernating. This apartment block had passed to the other side.

They reached the building’s roof. Reyes opened the door to the squeak of hinges, flooding the stairwell with Flanterian’s bright light. She scouted ahead, giving Faz Went and Sparks a thumbs up. They were clear. For now.

Small grey stones covered the flat open roof, crunching beneath their steps. Moss and mould should cling to them as evidence of the time they’d been out in the elements, but they were immaculate, having undergone the same nuclear cleanse as the rest of the city. Sparks pressed the back of her hand to her nose, the wind—and by extension the rotten reek—stronger. The buildings stretched away from them. Tall towers. Large apartment blocks. Municipal buildings. Schools. Hospitals. Parks. Sports arenas …

Dead bodies filled some roads from one side to the other. Those who’d attacked after they’d fired the missile. They lay stacked three to four deep. Discarded. Rotten. Bloated.

“You think it stinks up here?” Reyes said.

Sparks pulled her hand down. “It does.”

“True. But what do you think it’ll be like down there?” Reyes shielded her eyes. “How far to the palace?”

The blue force field dome, the cold heart at the centre of this dead city. Sparks held up her mini computer. “About two miles.”

“Thought so. Five stops should be enough. We need checkpoints where we can regroup. Landmarks. As much as I’d love to make a run for the palace in one, we need to take our time and reassess. We need to stay on top of what we’re running into.”

Scowling, Sparks scanned the ruins. Piltred could appear from behind any of those buildings at any point.

“How about there?” Faz Went clung to his cap’s peak against the wind. “What’s that, a town hall?”

The square building had pillars around its perimeter. A partly covered walkway encircled the place. It stood strong and proud.

“I don’t see a better option.” Reyes shrugged. “So we get there, and we plan the next point. Sound good?”

“None of it sounds good.”

“What I should have said, Sparks, is do you have a better plan?”

Of course she didn’t. The only twinge to her digital intuition came from the force field dome, and … She closed her eyes like it would banish the beast’s memory. “I can’t feel much with my intuition other than the palace and the cameras on a lot of the buildings.”

Her hand still shielding her narrowed eyes, Reyes scanned like she might see the surveillance. “How many cameras?”

“Hundreds. They would have tracked us had we continued coming in low.”

A loose strand of Reyes’ hair danced in the wind. She swiped it back, squinting hard. “Can we use them?”

“Yeah.” Sparks closed her eyes, the wind buffeting her ears. “They’re fixed, so I can only see what they’re trained on—”

“Which makes them easier to avoid?” Faz Went said.

“I’d say so. And at least we can get a look ahead at what’s coming. Also, I can shut them down, but that would blind us for no good reason.”

A perimeter wall ran around the edge of the building’s roof. Faz Went leaned over it and peered down on the streets below. Gloyner and hadound bodies filled some paths, while others were clear. “They’re the best routes.”

“Where all the corpses are?” Reyes threw a sideways glance at Sparks. Had Faz lost his mind?

“Look closer.”

Faces frozen with petrified screams. Severed limbs. Decapitated bodies. Some sliced open, some mashed like they’d been through a meat grinder. Sparks’ stomach turned, the tinge of rot on the wind growing stronger. “What am I looking for?”

“How they’ve all died.” Faz pointed, like she couldn’t see the bodies. “There are so many ways. That one there has no head. That one’s been torn open. That one’s feet and lower legs have been turned to mulch. That one has been stuck like a pincushion. Were I a betting being, I’d say the clear routes are clear for a reason. That they’ve moved the corpses to make those paths look less appealing, and—”

“Send us where they want us to go … Damn.” Reyes remained fixed on the corpses in the street. “So we follow the dead bodies?”

“I wish I had a different suggestion.”

“Okay.” Reyes opened the door leading back into the building. “Let’s get this palace back in the right hands so we can get the fuck off this shithole of a planet. Town hall first, and then we’ll plan our next move from there. Faz, will you lead?”

The tall being rattled as he straightened his back. He adjusted his cap, nodded at Reyes, and entered the building first.

CHAPTER 32

“Those who claim you get used to any stench lied.” Sparks slipped on a gloyner’s blood-soaked face. She threw her arms out for balance, and Reyes caught her before she fell on the others. Good luck scrambling around in that mess without vomiting. She nodded her thanks. Ahead of them, Hat, followed by Faz Went, picked a hopping path across the carnage. The more stable quadruped, and the lightest of them all, made simple work of it, Faz a little more cautious in case the bodies didn’t support his weight.

Buildings lined the road, and the bodies stretched from one side to the other. Four corpses deep, the carpet of fallen gloyners and hadounds kept them about half a metre above the cracked asphalt. With every cautious step, Sparks flinched. A dead eye stared up at her. A gash exposed the muscles and bone beneath. Intestines hung out; some had torn open and glistened with bile. Many groaned with the pressure of their steps, and one even wheezed like a set of bagpipes.

A sudden wet squelch. Reyes dropped, and Sparks’ stomach lifted. She heaved. Reyes’ foot had vanished into a gloyner’s gut. A splash back of white blood covered her shin. It putrefied the already rancid air. One hand covering her mouth, Sparks grabbed Reyes with the other and dragged her out.

Faz Went and Hat leaped from the bodies at the end of the street close to the town hall. Sparks continued ahead of Reyes, the stench they might have left behind now clinging to her. Coming along for the ride.

The glassless windows on either side revealed all the abandoned buildings had to offer. A school. A communal space for functions. Several houses. A cafeteria. They were all empty, but they spoke of a simpler life for the gloyners, when days had been dictated by timetables, and businesses had done what they could to stay afloat.

The howling wind continued to blow away the memories. Cleansed by the missile, banished by the gales. But still no Piltred. Not yet, at least. Surely just a matter of time.

Jumping from the final corpse, Sparks landed flatfooted on the asphalt. Reyes stepped off a moment after her, stamping like the lazy gesture would somehow remove the rotten funk.

Faz Went halted ahead of them and leaned to one side, looking at the road from a different angle. Sparks copied him. Naturally formed rips, tears, and splits lined the asphalt. But a small crooked section sat a millimetre above the rest. Almost imperceptible. He led them a different way.

How were they supposed to identify every trap? As horrific as crossing the bodies had been, at least they were obvious. What use did Sparks’ intuition have here? They’d made the traps from nothing to which she could latch onto, and they were so well hidden, even Faz Went would get caught out sooner or later.

Steel stairs zigzagged up one side of the town hall all the way to the roof. Sparks went up last, holding back a little so as not to be too close to Reyes’ rancid foot and trouser leg.

They reached the roof’s edge overlooking the plaza, the palace a blue dome in the distance. Still a long fucking way to go. The road they’d just walked had been awful, but it had nothing on the square. It looked like a scene vomited from hell. Bodies in pieces, laid out like each part had its precise place on the chaotic canvas. So much black and white blood, it turned the massacre’s memory monochrome.

Leaning on the wall around the town hall’s roof, Faz Went deflated with a rattling sigh. “We’re still sticking with the plan?”

Holding her bottom lip in a pinch, her eyes narrowed, Reyes clung on and lifted her shoulders. “I think you’re right. If there were traps beneath them, they would have been triggered by now.”

“And if they haven’t?” Faz Went said.

Sparks leaned forwards. “Wasn’t this your plan, Faz?”

“Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t question it.”

“If the bodies haven’t triggered the traps beneath,” Reyes said, “they will at least provide a shield between them and us.”

“A meat shield?” Faz Went rattled again.

“I’ll take any protection I can get. And that’s all they are. We’d do well to not overthink it. Now, how about we make that our next checkpoint?” She pointed at a steel water tank. It stood like a silo. At least fifty metres tall, it glistened with damp, the sun lighting it up like bile-coated intestines.

Her fingers alive on the screen, Sparks rode the cameras along their route, flicking from one to the next. “The surveillance is patchy, but I can’t see any problems.” Unless they ran into Piltred. But the sheer number of buildings made that meeting impossible to predict, and who knew the camera on which he might next appear? No point in running from imagined enemies, or spending all their time surveilling an abandoned city. If their path in and out of here didn’t cross his, then what did it matter?

“So we’re agreed?” Reyes said.

“In the absence of a better plan …” Faz Went shrugged, turned from the plaza, and headed back to the stairs. Reyes and Hat followed, Sparks at the rear again. She had such little use in the city right now. Holding back and keeping her mouth shut was where she belonged.

CHAPTER 33

Fifty metres from one side of the plaza to the other. Fifty metres of slick body parts. Hadounds and gloyners in equal measure. Each mound and lump greased with an oil slick of spilled blood. Black, white, grey where the two met. Somehow more stark for the lack of colour. The slippery path would have been tricky were they crossing a flat surface. Tricky for Sparks, Reyes, and Faz Went at least. Hat, of course, had no problem crossing to the other side, spinning around when he jumped from the final body part, his tongue hanging from his mouth as he watched Faz Went reach him first.

Reyes next. Sparks took up the rear.

Reyes pointed towards the water tower. Tall, damp, glistening. “Let’s get moving.”

“Wait.” Sparks turned her mini computer towards her.

“What am I looking at?”

Bodies lay across the road ahead, but nowhere near as many as they’d crossed to enter the city. They’d clearly put the most amount of effort into keeping people out. The cadavers were like a razor-wire fence. Just the sight would be enough to discourage most beings. Hopefully, there were also fewer traps the closer they ventured to the palace. “There might be fewer bodies, but the surveillance is stepping up. They have our route covered with cameras.”

While pushing her tongue against the inside of her mouth, Reyes divided her attention between Sparks’ screen and their surroundings. “So what do we do?”

Finally! At least Sparks could help. She hacked into the left of the two cameras.

“What are you doing?” Reyes leaned over her.

Sparks hit enter. The screen turned black. “Shutting down one camera.” She winked. “You’re we—”

A deep roar exploded from somewhere in the city.

Reyes gasped. “What have you done?”

“I just shut down a camer—”

“And you didn’t think we should have discussed it first?”

“I was trying to help.”

Another roar. Slamming steps.

Reyes stamped her foot. “Fuck!”

The back of Sparks’ mind itched. Sweat dampened her palms, and her throat dried. As if the encroaching roar and steps weren’t enough, she stated the obvious. “He’s getting closer.”

“What’s happening?” Faz Went removed his hat and rubbed his head like he could swipe away the mental violation. The rub turned into an irritated itch. Like a cat with fleas.

“That’s Piltred getting in your head. We need to get away from him.”

“No shit, Sparks.”

She pointed at the camera for Reyes’ benefit. “Away from that. That’s why he’s coming. We need to get away from surveillance. That’s our only chance.” Fire exploded through her mind. A falling beam. She groaned and squinted against her blurred vision. She typed, programmed a route, and hit enter. “This will get us to the water tower without being seen by cameras. Faz, I’ll direct you so you can run ahead and hopefully detect any traps.”

Faz wheezed with his quickened breaths. “You want us to find the traps at a full sprint?”

“We have any other choice?”

“Fuck! Okay.” Faz Went ran ahead of Sparks, Reyes, and Hat.

As they got farther from Piltred, Sparks’ vision cleared. “Go right! Just past the bakery with the pink sign.”

About ten metres ahead of them, Faz Went took it wide. The asphalt here as cracked and devastated as anywhere else. He’d avoided something, and they had no time to ask questions, so they copied his route.

Piltred’s next roar went off like a thunderclap, throwing Sparks off balance.

“No!” Reyes reached for her.

Too late. A click like she’d run across terracotta. A small section of faux asphalt broke away, revealing a pit. An utterly ineffective trap. Even for someone of her size.

But they’d not designed the trap for beings to fall into. They’d designed it to release others. A swarm of bugs burst into the sky. A geyser of black, packed so tightly together they erupted as an opaque ball of chaos. They gave chase.

Reyes ran backwards, her plasma rifle raised.

“No! Don’t shoot.”

“What?”

“Leave them. You won’t win.”

“How do you know?”

Piltred yelled again. The ground shook with his steps. Close. But how close? Reyes spun back around.

“Left, Faz. Next to the clothes shop.”

A simple route, around the clothes shop, the front window missing, a gloyner mannequin dressed in rags and surrounded by glistening shards of glass. The route took them away from the water tower on their right. The cloud of bugs followed.

“I saw them eat through steel on Acoolter.”

“Steel?”

“Yep. They tore into a freighter. Down that alley on the right, Faz.”

About a metre wide, the dark alley took them back towards the water tower. Straight at it. The chatter of flapping wings remained on their tail. Roars and footsteps descended on them.

Without missing a beat, Faz Went jumped and kicked from one wall to the next. He remained off the ground for about five metres before jumping free of the alley. Sparks copied him, clearing the slits in the wall at shin height. Slits that no doubt birthed scythes sharp enough to detach feet from bodies. Reyes followed.

Out of the alley, Reyes armed three limpet grenades one after the other and threw them back in.

The bugs descended on them, their hum intensified by the close walls.

“Left, Faz. By the sweet shop.” The only building where the inside still looked brand new. Brightly coloured sweets of all shapes and sizes. It would take more than an organic-matter-destroying missile to discolour the sugary treats. Nothing living to kill. Nothing to rot. They stood up better than even the city’s plastic signs.

The grenades exploded. Piltred added to the bassy blast with another reverberating roar.

An open path to the water tower. The glistening steel tank. Faz Went gave a section of the road a wide berth, which Reyes, Sparks, and Hat mimicked.

He reached the tower first, jumped, and caught onto the ladder running up the side. Sparks next, the rungs shaking with the vibrations of Piltred’s pursuit. Their line of sight to him and his to them blocked by the buildings. Long may that continue.

Faz Went threw himself over the tank’s lip and hit the water with a splash.

Sparks climbed over next, her stomach lurching with her fall, the water much farther down than she’d anticipated. She fell twenty metres and hit the surface so hard it winded her. What air she still had left in her lungs got dragged from her by the cold. Her body locked tight; her breaths grew increasingly shallow. She swam to one side to give Reyes the space to land beside her. Of course, she hit the water like a professional diver, even with Hat under one arm.

Her fingers and toes already numb, Sparks’ breaths ran away with her. Reyes pressed down on the air, urging her to slow down. “Deep breaths.” She modelled calm for Sparks to copy. “In and out. In and out.”

The water’s surface rocked from where they’d disturbed it. It rose up one side of the wall and dropped again with a wet clop of motion. It shifted them with its sway.

Kicking to stay afloat, her breaths coming back to her, Sparks worked her fingers, trying to flick away the numb ache. Ripples disturbed the water’s surface. Piltred drew closer, threatening to send her mind spiralling, but there was no itch of digital intuition. They’d called his suit power armour, but it had no power. Surely a burden rather than anything to carry such a heavy weight. Maybe the rumours about what lurked beneath were true. Maybe the creature was a horror to behold. So awful it made censorship necessary.

Hat growled, and Reyes shoved him to keep him quiet.

The steps halted.

Although he bared his teeth, even Hat got the hint. Shut. The fuck. Up!

Thoom!

A hand beat against the other side of the steel tank.

Reyes aimed her blaster at the wall. But what did she hope to achieve? Surely it would bounce around inside the closed container like a pinball?

Thoom!

He hit it again.

Faz Went had gone perfectly still, and Sparks did her best to copy him. The sloshing water eased. The four of them bobbed with the motion.

Thoom!

Sparks jumped with every attack.

Piltred roared again. The water’s surface came alive from the bass of his cry. Shimmered with his yell.

Reyes kept her rifle aimed in his rough direction. If she pulled the trigger, Sparks would go under. Surely the water would protect her from the ricochet?

But Piltred’s steps departed. Each one disturbed the water’s surface less as he got farther away. Reyes lowered her rifle.

The ripples died. Piltred’s screams and wails vanished into the distance. Sparks turned on the spot. Twenty metres of sheer walls around them. Her extremities were numb, but warmed as she trod water. She removed her mini computer.

“That thing won’t fry us?”

“Come on, Faz, give me some credit.”

“You just turned off a camera that triggered a trap.”

“Faz.” Reyes shook her head. “How’s that helping?”

Her lips tight, Sparks plunged her computer into the water and pulled it back out again to check the reading. “Like I thought.”

Still glaring at her, Faz Went threw up a hand. “What?”

She gulped a mouthful. “The water’s clean. With how long this has been sitting here, I thought it might be otherwise, but I’m guessing that missile really did kill everything. Including bacteria and mould.”

Faz Went’s eyes widened. “Good job it didn’t evaporate the water. I leaped without a second thought.”

Sparks took a mouthful. “The tower was glistening from the outside, so it was a good guess it still had water in here.”

Fixed on her still, Faz Went gulped. Hat and Reyes did the same.

Reyes trod water and turned on the spot. “So we’ve got away from Piltred for now. That’s something, at least. And we’ve made our next checkpoint.” She looked up at the sheer walls. “But how the fuck do we get out of here before we either drown or die of hypothermia?”

CHAPTER 34

The water tower’s thick steel walls muted much of what went on outside. Even the stomping march of a ten-foot-tall monster weighed down by armour. His steps now a memory not even the swaying water’s surface remembered.

Thrown into shadow by the tower’s high walls, Sparks opened and closed her hands as she trod water. It kept her fingers numb, but maybe that was the best she could hope for. Stop moving them and she might lose her digits entirely. “Surely he’s gone.”

Bubbles rose around Faz Went, his gills blowing out beneath the surface. “What about what Pen said?”

“About him waiting years to destroy a species?”

“We have to consider it.”

Her trembling jaw locked tight, Reyes spoke through clenched teeth. “We’re going to have to make our move sooner or later. And it ain’t getting any warmer in here, so I vote for sooner over hypothermia.” She aimed her rifle at the wall.

“No!” Sparks pushed her gun back beneath the surface. “What if that doesn’t work and the blasts bounce around in here like a pinball?”

“It’s quicker than freezing to death.”

“How about neither? It’s not a binary choice. There must be another way out.”

“A limpet grenade?” But before Sparks or Faz Went replied, Reyes tutted. “Of course not. Stupid idea.” She produced her las-sword, pressing the button on the handle. The thrumming blade cast everything in a red glow. Holding it while treading water, she paused for a few seconds as if waiting for a critique.

“If I had a better idea, I’d offer it.” Sparks pulled out her mini computer. She hacked into the closest cameras. “I should have thought of this sooner. Searching an entire city of hundreds of cameras is a fool’s errand. But Piltred has to be close by, right? That narrows the search. You two get us out of here while I try to find him.”

Reyes held her sword ahead of her and swam towards the tank’s wall. The red tip sank into the thick steel. Molten metal hit the cold water and hissed, kicking off steam on contact, the steel returning to its solid form, small pellets sinking to the bottom of the tank.

Faz Went used his sword to mirror Reyes’ actions, moving away from her at first, creating a horizontal slit before they both cut down into the water.

Clouds of steam filled the tank, the hiss of molten steel hitting the surface. Faz Went and Reyes dragged their las-swords into the water, which leaked through the narrow openings.

A ripple disturbed the tank’s surface. But Reyes and Faz Went didn’t notice. Maybe Sparks imagined it. Maybe sh—

Another ripple. The slight ring of a vibration played through the tank’s walls. “Oh, shit.”

Reyes halted, the water level dropping. “What?”

“Piltred’s coming back.” The ripples grew stronger. Sparks flicked from one camera to the next, catching him as he ran from shot. She locked onto his path. “He’s a few streets away. We need to hurry or hide.”

“With a big fucking gash in the tank’s side and water spilling everywhere?”

“Well, you’d best fucking hurry, then, Reyes!”

Plunging his sword back through the gap, Faz Went dragged it down, more steam kicking up as more molten steel dripped from the gash.

Her mini computer back in her pocket, Sparks drew a deep breath and dived. Steel pellets fell past her. She activated her las-sword and plunged it through the steel wall beneath the other two.

Dragging a horizontal line from right to left, she matched the one made by Reyes and Faz Went above. Gave them something to aim for. She broke the surface and gasped, the water level dropping faster than before.

Piltred roared, his steps drawing closer. The splash of water hit the asphalt outside.

Faz Went reached Sparks’ horizontal slit first, Reyes a second later. The steel panel fell away, blown out from the inside by the water pressure. Faz landed on top of it with a clang! The rushing water dragged Reyes out next. She hit him and knocked him from his feet. Sparks and Hat landed on top of them both.

The echo of Piltred’s steps bounced off the buildings’ walls as he closed in.

Faz Went spun one way and then the other. “We know where not to go.”

Reyes pointed at a line of two-storey buildings. Shops, bars, and restaurants. At least, what used to be shops, bars, and restaurants. “Get on the roofs. It’ll keep us away from the surveillance cameras and hopefully hidden from sight. If nothing else, it’s higher ground.”

The closest building another old sweet shop. Another glimpse at the city’s once prosperous past. Like the town hall, it had a fire escape made up of zigzagging steel stairs bolted to the side. Faz Went ascended, Reyes on his tail.

Hat beneath her right arm, Sparks took the stairs two at a time.

They were only five metres higher on the roof, but those five metres made a huge difference. Exposed to the elements, the sharp wind sliced into Sparks. She chased after Reyes and Faz Went, clearing the narrow alleys between buildings in single bounds.

Four buildings away, Sparks copied the others in dropping to her front just as Piltred wailed. Throat-tearing, soul-shredding frustration. They’d gotten away. Again.

His deep, rolling, phlegmy rattle entered an alley behind them. He coughed. Something caught in his throat. A genetic experimental mess, this freak had all kinds of ailments. Crying blood. A loose flap in his throat. And only the heavens knew what else beneath that armour.

The roof had a small lip around its edge that hid them from view. Drainage holes ran along it, each one a few centimetres in diameter. Crawling on her stomach with the others, the gravel sharp against her cold and sodden body, Sparks closed one eye and peered through.

Piltred strode from the alley onto a main road. A piece of asphalt cracked beneath his step and broke apart. Spikes punched up into his right foot, breaking through the top with a spray of claret. Other than lifting his leg higher to get free of the spikes, he showed no sign of being affected by the trap. He rattled with his heavy breaths like an exhaust with a hole, and snarled, his armoured jaw working, his wordless sounds an incoherent babble of frustration. Of a being trying to speak a language he’d long forgotten. Fresh crimson streaked the front of his mask from his bloody tears.

He clenched his fists at his sides, faced the sky, and yelled.

“What the fuck?” Faz Went rattled.

Sparks blinked like she’d imagined it. But the gloyner corpse closest to Piltred twitched again. Its arms snapped away from its body. Its feet twisted. It rolled over onto its back, made a bridge like a child doing gymnastics, and scuttled away sideways from the plaza like a crab.

Faz Went rattled again. “How’s it doing that? It doesn’t even have a fucking head.”

CHAPTER 35

A hadound reared up on its two back legs. Bloody holes where the front pair had been, they glistened with congealed black blood. Its muscles bulged, straining beneath the fierce beast’s weight. Its head turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and its eyes rolled into its skull. It walked backwards down an alley, cackling laughter as it went.

Piltred made slow progress along the road, his presence breathing life into the corpses and their liberated parts. Gloyner and hadound alike animated around him. Severed limbs twisted and flipped, desperate to return to their purpose like a riverbank fish striving to get back to water.

Eyes flashed open on bodiless heads. Jaws twitched and glitched like malfunctioning droids, stuttering open and closed. Teeth chattered like Sparks’ own threatened to, the cold from her damp clothes combining with the adrenaline flooding her body.

A gloyner and hadound sprinted towards one another, slammed together and fell to the asphalt. They rolled, locked into a wrestle-cum-embrace that bordered on erotic aggression. The gloyner wrapped their legs and arms around the hadound, her tongue stretching farther than it had any right. She licked the hadound’s black blood from a deep gash along its throat, slurping on its thick essence.

Shockwaves of animation pulsed away from Piltred’s steps, igniting a charnel orgy.

A legless gloyner hopped up onto his stumps, howled at the sky, tore off his clothes, and then peeled away his skin like another garment.

Splashes of gravel to Sparks’ right. Reyes kicked and twitched as if Piltred had also reanimated her. She twisted. She spasmed. She shook her head. “No.” She pushed away from the lip around the roof’s edge, the crunch of more gravel beneath her. Her hair fell across her face, and she slammed her fist against the roof. “No.”

Faz Went’s jaw fell loose. Sparks rested a hand on his back. She had this. She edged towards her.

Up on all fours, her back arched, her hair hanging down. Reyes shook her head again. “No.”

When she dragged her leg forwards and rested her foot on the roof to stand, Sparks jumped at her, knocking her back down. She mounted her and pressed her hand over Reyes’ mouth.

Sparks leaned over her and waited for her wild eyes to settle. She pressed her finger to her lips. “Shhh, darling. It’s not real.”

Her eyes wide, Reyes looked from one of Sparks’ to the other.

“He’s affecting our minds. It’s not real.”

Some of the tension left Reyes’ frame as her fight ebbed away.

“I get something similar when machines violate my thoughts. It’s what Piltred did to me when we flew in, and if we bump into him again, what he might do in the future. I think we’re all seeing the same thing because he doesn’t know where we are, so he can’t make the attack more personal. He knows we’re close, and he’s trying to flush us out.” Even Faz Went relaxed in her peripheral vision. “Now, can I pull my hand away?”

Her brow creased with her frown, the snorts of air pressing against the side of Sparks’ hand.

“Can I?”

Reyes finally nodded, and Sparks withdrew her hand. She lay next to her on the gravel and held her tight. “None of it’s real. He doesn’t know where we are. We’ll be okay. We just need to wait it out.”

Cries, cackles, and screams filled the street below. Groans of pleasure, pain, and suffering. Piltred rattled and coughed. He growled and roared.

Locked onto a trembling Reyes, Sparks rocked her. “It’s not real.”

Hat ran over and nestled between them, nuzzling his way in.

Faz Went dragged himself over and lay close by. Sparks held his hand.

The wailing torment grew quieter as Piltred’s heavy steps moved on. Nice try, but he wouldn’t flush them out so easily.

CHAPTER 36

Back on the ground and following Reyes, who followed Faz Went. They were taking Reyes’ plotted route to the hospital about five hundred metres away. Faz Went scanned ahead, the most likely of them all to spot a trap, but there were no guarantees. If they’d wanted guarantees, they wouldn’t have come here.

Reyes scratched her head like she could claw away her recent experience. She’d retreated into her mind and looked upon the world with an ever so slightly vacant glaze. “How do you cope with it?”

“The mental intrusions?”

“Yeah.”

“Not so well in the beginning. But they’re also not as bad as what we just felt. Piltred wanted to do us harm. One thing about machines, they have to be programmed to be sadistic, so by the time I’m experiencing their memories, they’re just that, a record of events, no matter how grim.”

The first thing Reyes had said to her since her episode on the roof. She’d conversed with Faz Went about the next part of their route to the palace, but Sparks had stepped back and left them to it. She didn’t speak this city’s language, and it didn’t speak hers. Best she kept her head down and her mouth shut. And if the surveillance cameras showed her something worth sharing, then that was what she’d do. Otherwise, she didn’t need to get involved. She’d acted alone for the past year. She’d made every decision. Now she had a chance to relieve herself of that burden. She smiled to see Reyes rediscovering her agency. The Reyes who felt the fear and did it anyway.

Faz Went halted, and Reyes stopped beside him. Sparks came to Reyes’ side, but Hat whimpered and stepped back.

The wind tugging on her loose strands of hair, Reyes scanned the park. The massacre park they’d flown over on their way in, the source of the ripest stench in their vicinity. Much like the plaza by the town hall, bodies lay everywhere. Parts of bodies. Ripped to pieces and scattered like someone had dropped them on a giant propeller from a great height. Another monochrome massacre, black and white blood glistening in Flanterian’s bright sun. Reyes scratched her face with long strokes. She kept the tip of her finger pressed to her chin. “We could try another way?”

“But this has worked for us so far.” Faz Went gulped. He ran the tip of his tongue across his thin lips. “And where would they hide traps under this lot?”

Reyes nodded. “You’re right.”

Sparks kept her mouth shut. If she had nothing positive to add … Her mini computer in her hand, she flicked from camera to camera. Still no Piltred. How could something so large so easily vanish?

Faz Went led the way again. A few more gaps between the corpses than they’d had in the plaza by the town hall. Patches of blood-soaked asphalt on which they could step. A slipping hazard, sure, but unlike a head or an arm, at least they had flat ground on which to tread. Yet, despite their easier path, Reyes walked like they were crossing a tightrope. She scanned the body parts like they could reanimate. Like Piltred could appear and raise hell.

Slow going, they passed around the left side of the three-tiered ten-metre-tall fountain. The missile had atomised the children’s limbs that had been a feature the last time they were here. But it now overflowed with gloyner and hadound parts. They hung over the sides like too many prawns on a fancy serving dish.

Reyes jumped clear at the other side of the plaza, her lifted shoulders sagging as she let some of her tension slide. Hat, his bottom tucked beneath him, skipped across a hadound torso, stepped in a gloyner’s eye, and joined her, leaning into her legs. Sparks caught up with them a second later.

Having waited for them, Faz Went pointed at a patch of asphalt. Even Sparks could have spotted this one. They were either getting easier to identify, or she’d honed her tracking skills. The trigger a slightly different colour to the rest of the road’s blacktop. Also elevated by a few millimetres. The slit where the two trapdoors met was buried by the painted white line, but not entirely hidden. A hairline crack.

Still heading for the hospital, Faz Went took them off the main road and away from the trap. He led them into a narrow side alley about a metre wide. The wind howled down the tight path, cutting into Sparks’ still soaked clothes.

They took a winding route to the hospital, the way much clearer of corpses. Close to the end of another tight alley, Faz Went pulled back in, threw his arm across Reyes, and dragged her against the wall. Sparks lifted Hat and did the same, leaning into the rough brickwork.

His steps shook the ground. His rattling snort vented his frustration. The wet clatter of his throat flap spluttered. If he ever slept, surely it got disturbed by sleep apnoea. They were already in shadow in the alley, but when he passed, his thick frame too wide to fit down the narrow path, he cast them in darkness like a solar eclipse. He walked with a slight stoop to his thick helmeted head. A gap in his armour revealed the livid purple scar tissue beneath. He swung his enormous arms like he needed their pendulous motion to propel his heavyset frame. Reyes’ feet scraped the ground, sliding from where she pushed against the wall as if enough pressure would help her phase through into the building behind. Sparks gripped her rifle. Like that would make a difference against him. All their limpet grenades probably wouldn’t leave a dent. Maybe he’d even been down here when they dropped the missile.

Were Piltred to look right, it would have been game over. Good luck getting away. He would have latched onto Reyes, the most vulnerable to his mental assault. But he simply passed, his attention fixed ahead, oblivious to their presence.

Angling her screen to give Reyes and Faz Went a clear view, they followed Piltred’s path. His steps went farther than they could hear, but they still tracked him past several more cameras before they set off again. Towards the next part of the route. Along the path they’d already travelled through Sparks’ mini computer. Towards the plaza with the hanging corpses.

The creaking ropes called to them with the promise of what they were about to witness, but Faz Went led them on. Surely this couldn’t be any worse than what they’d already seen. Surely?

* * *

A strong steel frame erected seemingly to display the indigenous people. A warning to any who even thought about approaching the palace. To any who believed they had a right to the Ringdell Group’s starinium. The wind sent the gloyner corpses into a lazy swing. Their innards, hanging out and glistening white, dripped to the plaza’s floor.

Even slower progress than through the park, Sparks followed Reyes, who followed Faz Went, and glanced at her screen. Wherever Piltred had gone, she’d lost him, but better to keep checking than take in their surroundings. Every protruding tongue could flicker to life. Open hands could close to fists. Downturned mouths could snap into rictus grins. Eyeballs could roll. Maybe it wasn’t just Reyes who still held onto Piltred’s intrusion. She returned to her screen. To the next camera and then the next.

Away from the plaza, they had just two more turns to get to the hospital Reyes had marked as their next checkpoint. Sparks clapped a hand to the top of Faz Went’s shoulder. “Good work. Both of you. I’m impressed with how you are together. The military mind plotting the best routes. The tracker making sure it’s safe. We’ll get to the palace in no time.”

Faz Went loosed a hard sigh, his gills rattling with the exhalation. “I hope so. I really do.”

CHAPTER 37

Sparks’ wet trousers rubbed, chafing the insides of her thighs, lighting them up with a raw buzz. But they’d made it. The hospital’s roof. She turned her computer’s screen towards Reyes and Faz Went, Hat resting at their feet. “Only fifteen hundred metres to the palace.”

Hugging his skinny frame, Faz Went buried his hands in his armpits. “It feels like a long way, but we only need to reach a couple more checkpoints.” He pointed across the ruined city. Many buildings had half their roofs missing. Tower blocks had corners sheared off, exposing the floor inside. “That stadium doesn’t look too clever.”

An open-air oval of a stadium. Twenty to thirty thousand seats around what must have once been a pitch of some sort. The missile had destroyed the grass like everything else, turning it to dust. Scorched earth. Bodies lay in it like they had in too many other spots in this hellish place.

Faz Went leaned forwards to peer past Sparks. “Reyes?”

The same posture she’d held when she’d looked over the rest of the city. Narrow-eyed focus. Straight-backed. Her hair dancing in the wind. Risk assessing each option like a machine.

Such power in the blue dome it seemed to throb in the distance. Like it had its own pulse. Its own life source. A force unlike anything Sparks had come across before. “I reckon when we get inside that dome, we can forget about Piltred for a while.”

“You think he can’t pass through? What if they drop it to let him in?”

“Would you want him in there with you?”

“No.” Faz Went shuddered and rattled. “I suppose you’re right.”

“And it’s just a guess, but I reckon whatever’s inside the dome is tame compared to Piltred.”

“I hope so.”

“We have two options.” Reyes pointed them out. “That tower block over there or that mall. The tower block takes us closer, but the mall avoids the massacre in the stadium and the wood-chipper in the street.”

Faz Went drew a wet sniff. They’d all be ill if they didn’t get out of this wind and into some dry clothes soon. “We’ve got this far assuming the best routes are the ones that look the most horrific. I say we continue operating on that assumption.”

Sparks hacked into the cameras overlooking the stadium. She offered Reyes her computer.

Taking it, Reyes might have hidden her trembling hand from Faz Went, but Sparks knew her too well. She was still finding her feet from being violated by Piltred in a way she’d never experienced. Who could blame her for being nervous? She pinched the screen and zoomed in. “They’re children.”

The first they’d seen of gloyner children and hadound pups. Like everywhere else, they’d shredded and scattered them.

Reyes moved from one image to the next, several cameras around the stadium’s perimeter, all of them trained on the pitch. Her tremble settled, and she handed back Sparks’ computer. “We’ll go through the stadium and past the wood-chipper.”

“You’re su—”

Reyes’ steeled glare cut her off. She could make her own fucking choices, thank you very much.

* * *

Faz Went led the way, Sparks next, dividing her attention between the surveillance cameras, of which there were many more the closer they got to the palace, and the thin path running alongside the wood-chipper pit. Blood streaked the steel walls, some of the thin lines evidence of clawing fingers trying to cling onto the sheer surface. Rotten chunks of flesh clung to the strong rotary blades at the bottom of the funnel. While a machine, and while automated, it lay dormant. As inanimate as a rock. No doubt when triggered, it burst to life and would chew through Sparks’ intuition like it chewed through flesh, but, for now, it lay dormant. Hopefully, it would remain that way.

Gasping, Sparks halted mid-step.

“What?” Reyes peered over her shoulder.

Swiping her finger across the screen, flicking from one camera to the next, Sparks tracked Piltred’s path. The beast strode with a long and swaying gait. His shoulders rounded. His head stooped. He dragged his enormous feet.

Reyes’ words warbled with her shortened breaths. “Where’s that?”

“Over there.” Sparks pointed to her right. “Far over there. Sorry, just the sight of him makes me nervous.”

Reyes squeezed her shoulder, and Faz Went led them off, clear of the wood-chipper and towards the stadium.

The colour had drained from Reyes’ skin. Hard to tell if Faz Went had turned any paler. Were that even possible. But the light had left his emerald eyes. And the stench, once again, rose a few notches. If infection had a smell, then this was it.

“I’m not going that way.” Sparks halted and shook her head. “We have to go around.”

“You’re right,” Faz said. “It’s too much. We’ve seen enough. And we can identify the traps on the outside.”

“It’s getting harder to pick a surveillance-free path.” Cameras crossed over one another, leaving fewer and fewer blind spots. But whether they passed through the stadium, they’d have to deal with the upped surveillance on the other side, anyway. “Faz, I want you out front, checking for traps, but let me direct you through the cameras.”

Nodding, Faz Went led them around the stadium.

“There!” Sparks pointed. The stadium cast a long shadow, the slightly off-colour patch of asphalt almost invisible in the gloom.

Leaning down and looking along the road, Faz straightened his back and nodded. “You’re right.” He led them around the trigger. No larger than a floor tile. What did it activate?

They passed the stadium, the tower—their destination—up ahead. The next trap stood out from a mile away. The trapdoors stretched the entire width of the road. From the butcher’s and baker’s on one side, to the supermarket on the other, a shutter across its front. Faz Went grabbed the steel grate, but Sparks caught the back of his shirt. “Don’t climb too high.” She showed him her screen. The camera up to their right, at the corner of the street, watched the supermarket and the top of the steel shutters.

A check from Sparks’ screen to the camera and back again, Faz Went kept low and moved off, over the top of the trap, and beneath the camera’s watchful eye.

* * *

Reyes jumped off the shutter last. She’d crossed it with Hat, the furball licking her face from inside her top. Maybe he felt the damage in her mind and believed he could lick it better. Maybe Sparks gave him too much credit.

The distance to the tower on her screen, Sparks held it up for the other two. “Only a couple of hundred metres and that’s another checkpoint down. We’re going to do this.” She flicked from camera to camera. So many now and so close together, their lines of surveillance created an almost impassable web of watchfulness. But at least they were static.

Squaring what she saw on her screen with their surroundings, Sparks studied her computer and tapped her chin. “Okay, I ha—Faz!”

Faz Went must have gotten bored waiting. He’d only stepped away from her by a few metres, but he’d stepped into one camera’s line of sight. He stared up at her from the screen in her hand. Right down the fucking camera’s lens.

The twinge came too late. Like much of the machinery in this city, they lay utterly dormant until they weren’t. The sky filled with surveillance drones. They rose as one, as if all attached to the same puppeteer’s string. Sparks shot three, one after the other.

Faz Went missed several times with his rifle’s pulsed fire before dropping the one closest to them. “You didn’t sense them?”

Sparks stamped her foot. “The drones weren’t on until a few seconds ago.” She shot another three drones. “I can sense a shut-down machine about as well as I can sense a rock playing hide-and-seek.” She dropped two more. “And the cameras don’t have triggers to activate anything; otherwise I would have read that.”

Reyes dropped the next drone. “Then who awakened them?”

Like she needed to ask. And even if she did, Piltred’s earthquake roar was more than happy to respond. Sparks shooed Reyes back the way they’d come. “Run! Now!”

CHAPTER 38

For every drone Reyes and Faz Went dropped, Sparks dropped five. She nailed them with her blaster, her rifle hanging across her front, swinging with their hasty retreat. One shot, one kill. Even with her back turned. Their attention bored into her, so she simply needed to follow the line back to them with a single blast. But there were too many, and more rose into the sky. Backed by Piltred’s tremulous roar and thunderous steps, they chased them from the city like hounds on a fox’s scent.

The drones’ collective attention grew heavier as more locked onto them. They rocked Sparks’ balance. The shooting might have been effortless, but with their focus boring into her, she ran like she had two left feet and legs of lead.

The shutter covering the supermarket’s front rattled and clanged when Faz Went jumped and latched on. He led the way across, Reyes behind him, Hat stuffed down her top. Sparks nailed three more drones and followed, still clinging to her blaster. She paused and shot two more, each one crashing against the asphalt with a clang! Faz and Reyes reached the other side, firing at the drones and mostly missing.

They pressed their backs to the wall and shuffled along the narrow path running down the side of the wood-chipper. Piltred’s steps shook the ground, the vibrations enough to disturb the small stones by their feet, sending a few of them tinkling down the steel sides greased with blood. They rested in the teeth at the bottom, not heavy enough to activate the churn.

Sparks shot another drone. Its crashing clang a slight relief. A minor easing of pressure before another replaced it, her brain itching with her intuition.

She halted on the other side of the wood-chipper. The vibration from Piltred’s steps played the steel panel sides with a didgeridoo hum. Faz Went and Reyes ran, but Sparks remained, dropping the drones. If she stood any chance of getting away, she needed to thin the pack. Calm the overwhelm to her intuition. But even if they escaped, what then? They come back? They hope to avoid the traps again? Hope to avoid Piltred and the intense surveillance from the fixed cameras? How would it end any differently? They’d always get stumped at this point. It was impassable.

Eight more drones down, but their brethren filled the sky like midges on a summer’s day. Reyes, Faz Went, and Hat had vanished around the bend. How long before they noticed they’d left her behind? Sparks shot three more and ducked into an alley.

Her blaster holstered, she opened her mini computer and hacked into the closest drone before it caught sight of her. She dive-bombed it into the wood-chipper, the thick steel teeth chewing it to pieces.

Taking control of the next drone, Sparks sent it after the first. It hit the sloped steel wall with a clang, followed by the gritty popping and cracking of twisting steel, computer components, and glass.

The next drone farther away, she flew it straight down into the cracked road. Her screen turned black on impact.

The next drone even farther back, she flew it into another, the pair of them shutting down with the collision.

The vibration from Piltred’s steps had grown fainter from where he’d gotten farther away. Like he’d changed course. Sparks took over a drone closer to him. She lifted it higher. Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went were still running. “Oh, shit!” The big fucker had their scent.

“Huh!” Sparks leaned closer to her screen. A rectangular blue outline. “Is that …? Damn!” The drone saw the traps, and specifically the one in Piltred’s path.

She sent the machine into a hard dive. She crashed into the road ahead of Piltred and flicked to the next closest drone. Double trapdoors, joined along the centre, snapped up on either side like a steel Venus flytrap. They came together with a thunderclap.

Piltred halted and screamed at the sky. Sparks dive-bombed him. Straight at his helmeted face. Traces of purple scar tissue between the gaps in his armour. His brushed steel cheeks streaked with claret tears. The drone shut off on contact.

Sparks took over another drone. Piltred screamed again. He rocked forwards like he might jump the trap. Sparks slammed her next drone into his head.

Another drone. It picked out a blue highlighted line on the wall close to the beast. Sparks zeroed in on it, switching drones a second before she hit the wall.

The first drone released a spring-loaded scythe that slammed into Piltred’s armour, the blade shattering on impact.

His fists balled, he jumped up and down, and despite the distance between them, the vibration ran through the ground. It probably shook the whole damn city.

Dive-bombing again. Slamming into him again. Sending another drone down on him again. Switching to another, Sparks repeated the process. The brute stumbled and yelled. He threw clumsy slashes through the air, trying to bat them away. He clearly still had a lock on Reyes and Faz Went. Still glanced towards them. Made as if to chase after them before being hit by another crashing drone.

They should get away this time, but what then? Start all over again? How long could they play cat and mouse in this city and survive? Especially against an indefatigable opponent who seemed to see what the cameras saw. What would happen if they snuck back through the city and reached the same point? If Reyes, Hat, or Faz Went got spotted on one of the many cameras again? Not that she blamed them. She’d struggle to pass through them alone with their line of sight clearly displayed on her computer’s screen, so how could she expect to guide anyone else through? She dive-bombed and switched, dive-bombed and switched. The drones showed her the traps better than Faz Went ever could. With one under her control, she’d stand the best chance of reaching the palace alone.

Piltred jumped the trap in the middle of the road, chasing after Faz Went, Reyes, and Hat.

Sparks lifted the next drone higher and took off after her team. She hacked into its speaker as she flew. “Reyes!”

Reyes halted and spun around. “Sparks?” She looked back the way they’d come.

“I stopped running a while ago.”

“Why?”

“To deal with the drones. Listen, no time. Piltred’s closing in on you.” Sparks leaned from the alley, attracting the attention of three drones and two cameras. They had her location now. “You need to find somewhere to hide. Avoid those cameras. I want to make sure I’m the only movement in the city.”

“What are you going to do?”

The rampaging Piltred was only two streets away from them. “I can get to the palace.”

“No!”

“We don’t have time to argue. I’ll get to the palace. I can avoid the fixed cameras. I’ll get the force field and anti-air missiles down so you can fly in in the Greeta.”

“Without going back down that damn mineshaft?”

“Yep. I’ll do it. And if you hide, Piltred will follow me. He’ll have no choice.”

“I don’t want him to follow you.” Reyes glanced to her right.

“Just go!” Sparks flew towards Piltred and met him head-on, slamming her drone into his face.

Another drone. She slammed into the back of his head.

Yet another. She struck the side of his helmet.

With the next, she hit the ground, the road crumbling away. A funnel like the wood-chipper, this one dropped into tens of small razor-sharp propellors.

Piltred halted at the trap’s edge, and Sparks hit him with another drone. She ran along the side of the wood-chipper pit, climbed across the supermarket’s front in full view of the camera, shot three more drones, and stepped out where Faz Went had been spotted.

She had another drone on Piltred. The brute spun her way and yelled. He ran towards her.

Slamming her drone into him again, Sparks took control of one close by. She flew it ahead of her, scanning her path for traps. The cameras were welcome to watch her get to the palace. What did it matter if she had the beating of both the traps and their hellish champion?

CHAPTER 39

Piltred’s steps and wails drew closer. The cameras guided him through the ruined city towards Sparks’ location. Faz Went and Reyes now only needed to get to the Greeta and they’d be safe. She ran around the next bend, darting between a lingerie shop and a delicatessen, both of them as bleached and blasted as the rest of the devastated city. She jumped and kicked off a wall, avoiding the low trap ready to remove her feet at the ankles.

Down a tight alley, she closed in on the stadium filled with gloyner children and hadound pups … Parts of gloyner children and hadound pups. But she didn’t need to pass through it to avoid the traps. Not now. Not with the new sight afforded to her by the drone.

A skittering behind. Sparks darted left around a statue, the twenty-metre-tall sculpture made from steel and shaped like a teardrop. Maybe the artist had known something the rest of Flanterian was yet to discover.

Her back against the statue’s plinth, Sparks clung to her blaster with one hand and used her mini computer to spin the drone around. She’d kept it high enough to see over several streets to the helmeted head of the monstrous Piltred. And to reveal the skittering furball barrelling towards her. “Hat? Hat!” She holstered her gun and stepped from cover.

Tongue lolling, Hat leaped and slammed into her chest, sending her back a couple of steps. Her clothes still soaked, it made it hard to tell which of them carried the richest reek of damp. She hugged him tight. “What are you doing here, you stupid thing?” She kissed his head. “You should be with Reyes and Faz. You should be safe.”

Piltred roared. Hat whined and lifted one side of his head higher.

“Fuck it! You’re right.” Sparks placed him on the ground. “Now follow me.” She showed him her screen like he’d understand. “I know a safe route, thanks to this drone.”

They passed between a large hall and a row of houses, which ran parallel to the stadium. The drone’s blue lines highlighted a hatch in the road. “Now, Hat, make su—”

But he ran ahead of her.

“Hat! Wait!”

Straight for the trap. A spike. A pit. Some kind of corrosive liquid. Who knew what? But he wouldn’t make it.

“Hat!”

He jumped and cleared the pit like he knew its location.

“Hat?” Sparks copied him and landed on the other side.

He yipped and spun on the spot.

“You know where the traps are?”

Another yip. Of course he did. If only someone would have listened to him sooner. He set off. Sparks followed.

The drone highlighted every trap, Hat clearing them all. If anything, he showed her a truer path. Sparks sent the drone back to watch Piltred. He gained on them with every passing second.

They ran with the stadium on their left. The cadavers and their parts writhed and twisted. Sparks shook her head. “Fool me once …” If Piltred had gotten into Hat’s mind, it clearly didn’t bother him, because he kept running. Kept avoiding the traps.

They reached the tower Reyes had marked as their next checkpoint. They were about one thousand metres from the palace.

Hat streaked around it, and Sparks followed. Piltred drew closer, passing the stadium they’d just left behind. Her mind tingled with his intrusion. How much closer did he need to be to deliver a paralysing dose of highly personalised trauma?

Following Hat, Sparks jumped through the downstairs window of an old restaurant, sprinted around the steel tables and chairs, and jumped out the other side.

She flicked her computer to a split screen. One side locked onto their destination while the other kept track of Piltred. They were nine hundred metres from the palace.

Several fenced-in walkways created a mazy queue for an old fairground ride. Hat leaped up, jumping from the top of one railing to the next, and Sparks followed, her stomach lurching as she tested both her balance and the structural integrity of every handrail.

They dodged through a playground. Sparks jumped a swing being lazily tossed by the wind. Seven hundred metres to go. “He’s getting too close, Hat. We have to hide.”

Maybe Hat understood. They cut down another street, headed for another tower block, the top sheared off, rebar poking from the shattered concrete. The tower burst into flames, and Sparks spun around. The monstrous Piltred ran along the same street as them. Head lowered. Arms swinging. Jaw working like he could taste them.

“We won’t beat him to the palace. We have to try something different.”

The howling wind gave way to the unhinged screams of burning beings. Gloyners and hadounds trapped in the tower’s rooms. Roasting like Amelia.

“Hat! Follow me.” Sparks ran into the tower block and into the burning stairwell. Her chest tight, her vision impaired because of Piltred’s smoke. Beings screamed her name from every floor. Hat ran ahead of her, clearly oblivious to Sparks’ nightmares.

Something slammed into the side of the building. It must have been real because Hat whimpered. He’d heard it too. As they climbed, the glassless windows looked out over the tops of the houses first, across the park, and then over the stadium. At the tenth floor, Sparks halted, rested her hands on her knees, and caught her breath. She poked her head out the window. “Shit!” Piltred scaled the side of the building. Five metres below at the most. He fixed on her through his bleeding eyes. Cried crimson for what would be her inevitable demise.

Hat yipped, and Sparks shooed him on. “Get going. Four more floors and we’re at the top. We have to reach it before him.”

Three more floors. The smoke thicker. The reek of seared pork. Singed hair. The screams so shrill they drilled into her ears and disrupted her balance.

Hat reached the roof, and Sparks stumbled up a second later. Still five hundred metres from the palace and now one hundred metres from the ground. She ran to the roof’s edge, much of it sheared away. She aimed her rifle down at Piltred and unloaded into his armoured face.

Blast after blast, he flinched with her assault, and the surrounding fire dulled. The screams settled. The stench dissipated. But Piltred continued climbing. Let her deaden his power. He’d still tear her fucking arms from her sockets.

Sparks activated and dropped all five of her limpet grenades one after the other. Each stuck to his armour with a thunk, and their red lights pulsed.

Pausing, Piltred ripped them free one at a time and tossed them away, the force of his throw stronger than their magnetic pull. He removed them in the order they’d stuck to him, each one blowing when they were far enough away. Clinging again to the tower with both hands, he withstood Sparks’ plasma rifle assault and slammed a burning Reyes into her mind’s eye. Trapped beneath a fiery beam. Her skin melting and bubbling, she reached out and cried for help.

Piltred resumed his climb. Two floors away. If they went down the stairs, he’d smash through the wall. If he got to the top, he’d send them the way of the limpet grenades.

They were just five hundred metres from the palace. “If only those fucking suits had worked!” Sparks raised her middle finger at the sky. “Fuck you, Pen, you shitbag.”

Hat leaned into her shins, while in her mind’s eye Reyes’ skin ran down her face like molten wax. She rapped her knuckles against the side of her head. “It’s not real.”

Piltred just one floor away.

Sparks used her mini computer to summon a drone. She picked up Hat and stuffed him inside her damp jacket.

A gauntleted hand grabbed the top of the tower. Purple scar tissue visible through the finger joints.

The drone drew close.

A second massive hand.

Sparks tucked her computer next to Hat just as Piltred’s head appeared. She sprinted away from him, her legs doubting her conviction and threatening to betray her. The burning Reyes wailed through her mind. Her eyeballs burst as two milky geysers.

Sparks jumped.

Piltred roared.

The jolt of her and Hat’s combined weight sent searing agony through Sparks’ shoulders. But she hung on, swinging beneath the drone as it shot away, carrying them over the ruined city’s buildings. Reyes’ tortured image faded with Piltred’s livid cries.

The brute stood stranded on the tower block and raised his thick fists to the sky.

Sparks laughed.

Hat licked her face.

“Fuck you, motherfucker. Woo!” The wind in her hair, they shot towards the palace, lowering as they drew closer. Piltred five hundred metres behind them, and when she got through the force field, he might as well be on a different planet.

She laughed again. “We did it, Hat! We fucking did it!”

CHAPTER 40

Piltred remained on the tower block’s fractured top. Again, he threw his fists at the sky. His roar carried across the city, loosed with such force it seemed to drive back the howling wind. Sparks laughed again, lowered Hat to the ground, and flipped him the bird. “Better luck next time, you fuck.”

Clinging to the side of the building again, Piltred slid down the tower, chunks of masonry bursting away with his rapid descent like corn sheared from a cob.

“Damn!” Sparks’ confidence left her as quickly as Piltred dropped. She ran across one of the remaining bridges towards the palace and its blue domed force field. Stay calm. She had time. Not even Piltred could reach her that quickly, but better to be smug when she was safe. And hopefully, no other being would be stupid enough to let him in after her.

Nausea clamped Sparks’ guts as she drew closer to the blue dome. Starinium could paralyse her if she spent too long inside. But there had to be a way to turn it and the anti-aircraft missiles off that didn’t involve dropping down the mine shaft to the power ring.

She ran with Hat beside her and scanned the dome’s side for the revolving entrance. She lifted her computer to her mouth. “Reyes? Faz?” They should be in the Greeta’s cockpit by now. “Are you there?”

She tried to contact the ship again. “Reyes? Faz?”

She took control of a nearby drone and sent it over the top of the city. She cut over Piltred on his rampaging path as he set off a trap and smashed through the corner of a small house, turning the building to rubble. He’d already halved the distance between them.

Her hands trembling with her haste, Sparks lifted the drone higher. Two beings. One wore a leather baseball cap, the other had brown hair. Reyes and Faz Went were yet to reach the Greeta, but they were close. They’d be ready when she dropped the force field.

The blurred revolving spot through which she could enter came around the dome from her left. She lifted Hat, holding him beneath her arm. “Reyes. Faz.”

They stopped, both of them squinting up at the drone. The thunk of a trap detonated nearby. The clatter of another levelled building. “I’m at the force field. Piltred’s closing in on me. I can contact you through the Greeta’s radio when I’m inside, so switch it on, okay? Then we’ll work out when to drop the dome so you can fly in. Sound good?”

Reyes gave her a thumbs up, and Sparks smiled. “See you on the other side, honey.”

Piltred broke free of the ruined city and ran for the same bridge Sparks had crossed.

Squeezing Hat tighter, she bolted towards the blurred entrance.

The sound sat somewhere between a crack and a thrum. It struck her like invisible lightning, launching her and Hat away from the entrance. They broke apart in the air, Sparks hitting the ground. A second later, Hat landed with the whine of his breath being forced from his lungs.

Her vision blurred, her body weak. The starinium’s force projected from the dome and bored into her. They’d altered its power. Weaponised it. Set it to attack her specifically. Blood filled her mouth. Ran from her nose. She reached to where she thought Hat had landed and touched only rock. She spat blood.

The ground shook from where Piltred had crossed the bridge.

Everything a blur. Even the hulking silhouette. His vibrating steps grew heavier.

Hat whimpered and snarled. He charged at Piltred.

Almost blind to her surroundings, but her mind’s eye had twenty-twenty. Piltred’s high-definition showreel of torment showed Reyes entering the Greeta and it exploding in a ball of flames. She banged against the inside of the windscreen, desperate to get out. She screamed as she burned.

Hat whimpered like someone had kicked him. Sparks located him through his whining and pulled him close. She ran her fingers through his fur. He trembled as Piltred closed in.

The beast’s monstrous silhouette grew larger, and the ground shook. Sparks hopped and flipped like corn in a pan as he got to within a few metres.

Something blocked out the sun.

Something above them.

A ship.

Someone dropped down like they were attached to a rope. Straight down, gravity aiding their fall.

A race between them and Piltred. Who’d reach Sparks and Hat first? Before she could find out, her world went dark.

CHAPTER 41

Sparks opened her eyes and snapped her head back. Hat, just centimetres from her, licked her cheek again. Her hands pinned to her sides, she screwed up her face and turned away. She lay on the cold steel floor of a ship she didn’t recognise. The boosters thrummed through the vessel, driving a buzz through her skull that made her right inner ear itch.

In restraints beside her, steel cables wrapping him like a meat joint, his fur sticking out in tufts, Hat panted, smothering her with his hot breath, his tongue lolling from his mouth. Restrained but unhurt. Thank the heavens.

Bound like Hat, but with looser bonds. They must have thought she’d be out for longer. Didn’t realise Hat had rejuvenating powers. He could probably bring someone back from the dead given enough time and motivation. She worked an arm free and rested it on his head. She smiled at him. He’d done well to get her conscious again. The coppery tang of blood lined the back of her throat, and her eyes burned, but at least they had a chance. And from what she could tell, they were away from Piltred.

“I have just her and the furball.”

Hat looked at the gloyner pilot and tilted his head.

Rage dripped from his every word. “I don’t know about the other two.”

Sparks’ heart kicked.

“Piltred destroyed their ship before they reached it. Shame they weren’t inside. But they’ve vanished. Hiding somewhere in the city like the snakes they are. Crawling around on their bellies, avoiding surveillance and the beast. I reckon we can use these two to flush them out.”

No chance. Sparks worked her other hand loose enough for her to lay her mini computer on its palm. She hacked into their restraints’ lock.

“And what about the other one? The one who ran from Acoolter before we could get her.”

Until that moment, he’d been talking to himself. But another voice replied. Deep. Also male. “We know where she is. And we think she’s still alive.”

The lock on Sparks’ bonds freed with a click. She froze for a second, but the pilot didn’t notice. She pulled the steel cables free and wrapped them around her hands. She’d garrotte the fucker for even thinking about attacking Reyes and Faz Went. For being dumb enough to think he’d gotten the best of her. She stood up and paused. They had Greeta’s image on one of the cockpit’s screens. She stood on a trapdoor on a platform on Stargart’s main strip. A cable, similar to the one in Sparks’ hands, around her neck, her hands tied behind her back.

“We shouldn’t bring her in too? We know where she is. I say we go and get her.” The pilot slammed his fist against the armrest, spiking Sparks’ pulse, her hands twitching, ready to lunge for him. “They all need to be punished for what they’ve done. And she might not have come to Flanterian, but she’s one of them. She’s guilty by association. We need to show the galaxy what happens when you cross us.”

“Us? Don’t pretend this isn’t personal, Shalk.”

“Oh, it is. I’ll take my pound of flesh from them all at some point. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.”

“No, but do we have time?” The shot of Greeta pulled back to show the countdown above her head. A little over three hours remained.

“That’s when she hangs?”

Sparks pulled the cable tight and stepped closer, ready to hook it over his head, push her foot against the back of his chair, and pull till his eyeballs burst.

“It is.” The deep voice sighed.

“How long does it take to get to Stargart?”

“Two and a half hours. If you’re quick. Leave her. They have more of an issue with her than we do. She knows their secrets. And they seem set on making an example of her.”

They! The Ringdell Group. Were it not for Sparks taking that offer in Mac’s bar, Greeta might have never heard of them. Now she had three hours until she hung from their noose. A being launched a rock at her. It struck her head and fell to the wooden platform. Blood wept from the gash, forcing her right eye closed. Three humiliating hours. She deserved so much more.

The screen showing Greeta turned off, transforming into a black mirror reflecting her twisted hatred and the pilot’s wide-eyed realisation. She lunged at the pilot.

He ducked and rolled aside. He leaped up and landed a hard uppercut, sending Sparks back. She dodged his second attack, his fist connecting with the wall with a clang! The cable still around her grip like knuckle dusters, she punched his kneecaps with both hands.

As the pilot fell, the ship tilted and aimed towards the ground.

Dodging the pilot’s next attack, Sparks slipped behind him, jumped onto a box, caught his neck with the cable, and sling-shotted him into the other side wall. He connected, temple-first, and dropped again. She kicked him in the head.

The ship dropped even quicker.

Sparks unwound the cable and launched it at the pilot. It came to life like vines, smothering him before pulling tight, forcing an exhaled bark from him. He fell on his side.

Jumping into the cockpit, Sparks pulled back on the flight sticks, aiming them at the sky.

The deep voice came through the radio. “Shalk? Shalk? Is everything okay?”

She switched them off and turned the ship around. Back towards the ruined city. Back towards Faz Went and Reyes. Back towards Piltred.

“Damn.” She dropped lower, closer to the Greeta. It lay as a twisted wreck. Even if she had deactivated the force field, they had no chance of getting to her in that thing. Piltred must have done it when they were sneaking through the city.

A warning tone sounded. They were flying too low. “Where are they?”

The ship’s alarm beeped louder. They were getting closer to triggering the anti-aircraft missiles. “How do you shut them off?”

The gloyner spat at her. “I’m not telling you, you fucking piece of shit.”

“Shalk, is it?” Sparks spun in her seat, grabbed her blaster from the floor and pointed it at him. “Tell me, or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.”

“Do it. I don’t care. Whatever happens, I’m not selling out my friends. Not to someone like you. No. Fucking. Way.”

“Someone like me?”

“You stole our mine and palace. You work for them.”

“We thought we were helping.”

“Ha!” He threw his head back.

“Now tell me how to avoid the anti-aircraft missiles. I don’t have long to get to Stargart, and I intend to pick up my friends first.”

“Fuck. You.”

“Argh!” Sparks jumped from her seat, kicked him in the stomach, and sat down again.

He spat milky blood and smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t shoot me. You can destroy a nation, but you don’t have the balls to look someone in the eye and pull the trigger.”

“Bravery has nothing to do with testicles, you mug.”

“Whatever. I think the more pressing question is, what will you do? Will you land and spend the next twenty minutes finding your friends. Will you risk letting, what’s her name …?”

“Greeta.”

“Will you risk letting Greeta die? Or will you leave your friends to fend for themselves and go save a being you should be able to reach in time if you leave now?” He grinned. “As far as dilemmas go, this one’s utterly delicious.”

Sparks punched the armrest. “Fuck!”

The missile warning beeped louder. The streets remained empty.

What would Faz Went say if she came in to help them when they might not even need help? That she let Greeta die so she could be with her lover?

But what about Reyes? Everyone she loves leaves her.

She had Faz Went. They were formidable together. They’d cope. Wouldn’t they? She had to trust them. And she couldn’t leave Greeta to die. If that Stargart footage was real, she had to do everything she could to help. She couldn’t undo what’d been done, but she could at least try to make a difference now.

The missile warning pulse beeped quicker and louder. Still no sign of Reyes and Faz Went.

“Fuck it!” Sparks pulled hard, lifting the ship and turning it away from the city.

The pilot rolled on the floor with his laughter. “Wow, you’re really going to leave your friends to fight for themselves? In a city full of traps and with Piltred running around? How long do you think they’ll last down there? There really is no honour among thieves. You’re stone cold.”

But what could she do? They might be lying about Greeta. A cruel trick to separate Sparks from Reyes and Faz Went. But what if they weren’t? And Reyes and Faz Went didn’t appear to be in imminent danger. They were strong as a pair. They could look after themselves.

At least, she hoped they could.

End of book two.

Thank you for reading Galactic Retribution.

Galactic Force: Book three of Galactic Terror is now available to pre-order. You can get the book HERE

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If you’ve enjoyed Galactic Terror, you might want to read the series where it all started for Sparks and Reyes. The Shadow Order. Books 1 - 8 (The Complete Series) are available now.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Like most children born in the seventies, Michael grew up with Star Wars in his life, along with other great stories like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, and as he grew older, the Alien franchise. An obsessive watcher of movies and consumer of stories, he found his mind wandering to stories of his own.

Those stories had to come out.

He hopes you enjoy reading his work as much as he does creating it.

Contact
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ALSO BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON

THE SHADOW ORDER:

The Shadow Order

The First Mission - Book Two of The Shadow Order

The Crimson War - Book Three of The Shadow Order

Eradication - Book Four of The Shadow Order

Fugitive - Book Five of The Shadow Order

Enigma - Book Six of The Shadow Order

Prophecy - Book Seven of The Shadow Order

The Faradis - Book Eight of The Shadow Order

The Complete Shadow Order Box Set - Books 1 - 8

* * *

GALACTIC TERROR:

Galactic Terror: A Space Opera

Galactic Retribution: Galactic Terror Book Two

Galactic Force: Galactic Terror Book Three

* * *

NEON HORIZON:

The Blind Spot - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book One.

Prime City - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book Two.

Bounty Hunter - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book Three.

Connection - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book Four.

Reunion - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book Five.

Eight Ways to Kill a Rat - A Cyberpunk Thriller - Neon Horizon Book Six.

Neon Horizon - Books 1 - 3 Box Set - A Cyberpunk Thriller.

* * *

THE ALPHA PLAGUE:

The Alpha Plague: A Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller

The Alpha Plague 2

The Alpha Plague 3

The Alpha Plague 4

The Alpha Plague 5

The Alpha Plague 6

The Alpha Plague 7

The Alpha Plague 8

The Complete Alpha Plague Box Set - Books 1 - 8

* * *

BEYOND THESE WALLS:

Protectors - Book one of Beyond These Walls

National Service - Book two of Beyond These Walls

Retribution - Book three of Beyond These Walls

Collapse - Book four of Beyond These Walls

After Edin - Book five of Beyond These Walls

Three Days - Book six of Beyond These Walls

The Asylum - Book seven of Beyond These Walls

Between Fury and Fear - Book eight of Beyond These Walls

Before the Dawn - Book nine of Beyond These Walls

The Wall - Book ten of Beyond These Walls

Divided - Book eleven of Beyond These Walls

Escape - Book twelve of Beyond These Walls

It Only Takes One - Book thirteen of Beyond These Walls

Trapped - Book fourteen of Beyond These Walls

This World of Corpses - Book fifteen of Beyond These Walls

Blackout - Book sixteen of Beyond These Walls

Beyond These Walls - Books 1 - 6 Box Set

Beyond These Walls - Books 7 - 9 Box Set

Beyond These Walls - Books 10 - 12 Box Set

Beyond These Walls - Books 13 - 15 Box Set

* * *

OFF-KILTER TALES:

The Girl in the Woods - A Ghost’s Story - Off-Kilter Tales Book One

Rat Run - A Post-Apocalyptic Tale - Off-Kilter Tales Book Two

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Masked - A Psychological Horror

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CRASH:

Crash - A Dark Post-Apocalyptic Tale

Crash II: Highrise Hell

Crash III: There’s No Place Like Home

Crash IV: Run Free

Crash V: The Final Showdown

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NEW REALITY:

New Reality: Truth

New Reality 2: Justice

New Reality 3: Fear

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Audiobooks:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY FULL AUDIOBOOK LIBRARY.