She heard a scream behind her and spun. A woman, ravening, eyes wide, spittle coating her chin. Mad, desperate eyes. Not crazy, but hungry and afraid. Hands curled into claws, reaching for Grace’s face. Grace dropped into a crouch, iaido making her motion fluid. One perfect strike. Her sword cleared the scabbard, as perfect a sayabiki as she could manage in the cramped bus giving her strike speed, her sword cutting out and up, finishing its motion exactly where she wanted it to. The seats of the bus to her left were sheared through by the blade, toppling to the floor.
Other than that, she cut nothing but air. The woman was gone, like she’d never been.
There was no one there.
There had been no one there.
Nate scrambled into the bus, taking in her sword still held high. His blaster was out, eyes scanning the bus. Seeing no one. “Heard something,” he said.
“Did a … woman go past you?” said Grace.
“A what?”
“Woman,” said Grace. “Crazy eyes. Hungry.”
“No,” said Nate. “There’s no one here.”
Sweat ran down her face. The bus was hot, too hot, and too dark. She sheathed her sword, walking to the front. Past Nate, past his concern, past his feelings of care/protect/anxious for her. She didn’t need his protection. She didn’t need him at all. “Let’s go,” she said. “It was nothing.”
If only that were true.
• • •
They were about half way to the admin center.
Grace blinked in the light, covering her eyes with a hand. Up ahead, there was a man. Normal looking kind of guy, a haircut that was in vogue on one planet or another, long on one side and shaved on the other. Loose shirt, loose pants, like you’d want if you lived on this planet, in this gravity, in this weather. She frowned. “You see that guy up ahead?”
“Holy shit,” said Kohl. “Some kind of unicorn.” His power armor clanked as he walked forward. “Hey, buddy. Yeah, you, asshole. The dickhead with the bad haircut. You know I’m talking to you.”
“Kohl,” said Nate, “why don’t you let me handle this?”
“Suit yourself,” said Kohl. “I’ve warmed him up for you.”
Nate was walking ahead of them, approaching the stranger. “Sir? Sir. Are you okay?”
The man watched them, then plastered on a smile. A smile like he wasn’t good at them, or didn’t like making them, or didn’t have much to smile about, or all of the above. “Welcome to Absalom.”
Grace picked up whatever from Kohl, and confusion from Nate as he spoke. “Uh, thanks. I guess? I mean, you’re the only person we’ve seen. Aside from Penn. Do you know Rear Admiral Penn?”
“Penn will be together with us soon,” said the man. “Are you lost?”
“Uh,” said Nate. He turned to face Kohl and Grace. “Okay, so I think this guy’s maybe a little confused. Being alone for a while? I don’t know.”
“He could be sick,” said Kohl. “Something in the water. Something in the air. Hell, we could be sick too.” He laughed. “That’d be a hell of a way to go. The fights I’ve seen? To be taken down by a bug? Nasty.”
“We’re not sick,” said Nate. He paused. “But maybe visors down, yeah?”
“Yeah,” said Grace. She was getting concern from Nate, and annoyance from Kohl, but their visors slid shut. Suit comms now. Private. Purposeful. “What’s the play, Cap?”
“We go meet that nice man,” said Nate, “and see what he knows.”
“He’s a barometer of crazy,” said Kohl. “Sounds like fun.”
Nate turned away from them, walking up to the man. “Sir? I’m Captain Nathan Chevell, of the free trader Tyche.”
“You have a ship?” said the man. Grace watched as he reached out to grab Nate’s arm. The movement looked fast and strong. And shaky, like the man was on some stims. Could explain the erratic speech. The man wasn’t exuding any emotions though, like he wasn’t concerned about a thing. So maybe not stims. Something different. Local food? Local flora? “You must take us on your ship. We must be together. Out there.” His eyes turned towards the sky.
“We’ll get right on that,” said Nate, shaking the man off. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Names,” said the man. “Names.”
“That’s right,” said Nate. “Sir, if you don’t mind me saying, your accent is a little strange. I can’t quite place it.”
“Humans,” said the man, “are so hard. So complicated. So many … parts.”
“I get where you’re coming from,” said Nate. “It’s why I don’t live on a planet. Let’s try a different angle. Do you know where everyone is?”
The man’s eyes drifted around for a bit, left, and right, and up, and then down to his feet. Then his face brightened, that smile/not-smile crossing his face again. “Yes.” He stepped away, then turned and beckoned. “Come. We can be together.”
• • •
“Five klick walk, he said,” said Kohl. “It’ll be fun, he said.”
“You’re the one with the rotary laser and a suit of power armor,” said Nate. “This is on you.”
They were following the man up the street, the man with no name, and no smile worth seeing. Grace kept a hand on her sword. This planet, this fucking planet, the whole thing was wrong. There was no one here. This man was leading them to other people, but Grace couldn’t feel them. Couldn’t feel anything, except the bright sparks of her crew mates.
She wanted off this world and back on the Tyche, and she wanted it now.
Ahead was some kind of hall or entertainment center. A hall, where kids might put on a show for their parents, or the community would gather to talk about the big issues you’d get on a frontier world, like why the fuck is Kimmy getting a tax break on her water filters. The man turned, beckoned again, then ducked into the gloom inside. Nate paused, looking back at Grace and Kohl. “Looks like we’re here.”
“No,” said Grace.
“What?”
“We’re not here here,” said Grace. “This is some shitty place where people gather in times of extreme over administration. They talk about their aquifers and solar collectors. This is not the administration center, where Penn is waiting, and by proxy, our completion bonus. For the second job.”
“About that,” said Nate. “I’m fairly certain Penn wants to kill us all. It’s not that I don’t trust the man—”
“It’s that you know exactly who he is,” said Kohl, nodding.
“What he is,” said Grace. “He is Republic, and the Republic never offer a good deal.”
“You know,” said Nate, looking thoughtful, “you’ll probably have a long and happy life as a member of my crew.”
“Hey now,” said Kohl. “Republic keeps us safe. Keeps degenerates from walking free.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” said Grace, putting steel in her voice, thinking of Hope. And then trying to not think of Hope, because she would not get attached. “You’re still here.”
“What?” said Kohl.
“I guess the question is,” said Nate, stepping in, “whether we go in, and see what’s up, or head to the admin center.”
“I say admin,” said Grace, feeling the shiver of wrongness travel up her spine again.
“I say we party with the locals, try whatever beer they’ve got going here, and then go admin,” said Kohl. “We can always kill Penn later.”