"Do you know what I do to stowaways on my ship?"
Eruaqs didn't answer. He just stared at her, a flash of feverish hunger in those red eyes of his. He looked afraid and slightly guilty in the way that a dog does after being caught eating out of a bin.
"I throw them out of the airlock. Into space." she told him, "That's what I do to stowaways. Unless you can give me a good reason not to."
"I can work my passage!" protested Eruaqs.
"How? By wrecking my vending machines?"
"I'll... uh... wash the dishes!"
"Like I'd trust YOU with dishes! You're so shabby, I couldn't even sell you on the black market! Are you ANY use whatsoever? Haven't you even got any money to pay your passage?"
With her free hand, she grabbed him by the hair and forced him upright. Her flashing blue eyes examined him critically. She reached around to his scalp and pushed away his hair, revealing three slightly rusty cybernetic ports. He shrugged and took off his cloak, revealing several more down his spine and a large one on his chest. As though proud of his achievements, he flashed her a cheeky grin. She sighed and folded her arms.
"Those must be the worst maintained cyber jacks I've ever seen in my life. You stink of rust. I bet those don't even work. How have you not died of an infection yet?"
His face went red.
"Hey, 've you SEEN the price of repairs? Friggin' rip-off."
"Then why'd you get cybered up in the first place?"
"Wasn't my own... hey, what do you care? Leave me alone already!"
"YOU'RE ON MY SHIP!"
At that moment, the kitten fell off the plant it was climbing up, went thud on the floor and yowled in protest. The woman turned around and shot at Chisato. Holding her hands above her head, the reporter stepped out from behind the potted plant.
"Hi, I'm Chisato Madison." she said, smiling, "I'm a reporter for the Nede Chronicle."
The woman's expression turned from one of cold indifference to surprise.
"A reporter? Am I gonna be on the News?"
"You're not getting anything from me until you unhand my cameraman."
"That's your cameraman?" she pointed to the bedraggled Eruaqs on the floor, trying to scratch the back of his neck.
"Uh-huh. Don't you see the port for my USB camera? It's next to his third vertebra down. Where's my camera, Eruaqs?"
"I... uh... ate it."
"If I forgive you for trespassing, you'll do me a favour, right?"
"I suppose something could be arranged." replied Chisato.
"Your paper has a trade section for adverts, right?"
Chisato nodded.
"I want a big advert. It has to say 'Revorse Co., Interplanetary Trader's Guild of Fargett. Could you print my logo as well?"
Chisato hastily typed notes on her PDA. "There's only one problem with that, Mrs."
"Revorse. Commander Claris Revorse."
"Mrs. Revorse. Planet Expel is an underdeveloped planet. We don't have any interplanetary trade. You won't get any customers."
"If you're from an underdeveloped planet, how come you know so much about interplanetary trade?" she folded her arms, not taking her eye off Eruaqs.
"Can I use the loo now?" he asked. Commander Revorse sighed.
"This situation is obviously more complicated than either of us realises, Mrs. Madison. Let's go up to the conference room. We ought to be telling each other the entire truth."
She walked off and Chisato followed her down the corridor, leaving Eruaqs to dart off in the other direction, the kitten chasing him. They turned a corridor and walked down another corridor, spotlessly clean silver engraved with the Revorse trading logo. Ambient music played softly on speakers. It even had carpets.
"You do know its unlucky to bring cats on ships, right?" commented Revorse.
"Its bad news to take that cat anywhere," agreed Chisato, "But it follows me. I can't really do much about it."
Commander Revorse reached out a slender hand and keyed in a password for a lock on the door. It beeped and swished open, admitting them into a room with a polished oak table, comfortable leather seats, a computer and a large Revorse logo on the wall, along with a number of other dials and terminals. She sat at one of the seats, ordered coffee from a dispenser in the wall and bade Chisato sit opposite her. She then turned to the display on the wall. It showed stars - the region of space they were drifting through, endless and majestic, illuminated by a pulsing blue star.
"We both have questions." she said, "Who wants to begin?"
"How long have you been trading on Expel and with whom?"
"One question at a time please." she tapped her fingers on the desk, "I've been trading with Don Santiana for five years. Mostly ore and minerals. He's a good customer."
"Do you realise that what you are doing is entirely illegal?"
"Trading with thieves? Not the cleanest operation in the galaxy, but it pays well."
"Expel is listed as an underdeveloped planet. You're breaking interplanetary diplomacy laws."
"Its listed wrongly. And I believe the politically correct term is now 'developing'."
Chisato fiddled with her PDA awkwardly. The woman's azure eyes wouldn't leave hers. Finally, after seconds that felt like hours, she responded.
"I could make you public." she said, "But it would plunge Expelian society into chaos. In the aftermath of what happens to a suddenly awakened underdeveloped planet... it wouldn't be much of a place to set up trading operations."
"Then do it gradually. We Fargettians have long lifespans."
"You're asking me to facilitate a vital step in an entire planet's evolutionary development by myself." she replied, "Just so you can trade."
"You can't be land monkeys forever."
Chisato considered this a moment longer. It would be possible. If she had resources, time, money and staff. If only the Nede Chronicle still existed... but in that situation, she would have never ended up in this mess. She would be safe and happy on her own planet, taking pictures of Dias in the shower.
"I have questions for you now." said Commander Revorse, "How do you know about the UP3 if you're from an underdeveloped planet?"
"I'm... not local. A refugee. My planet was destroyed."
"Nede, huh?" Revorse smiled at her surprised reaction, "You mentioned Nede. I thought that was a bit funny."
"You know about us?"
"It was kind of hard not to notice. I was out flying when it happened. I was nearly blinded by the explosion. Blast knocked me off course." she said, "I'm surprised anyone survived that. I have one more thing to ask you."
"Go on." Chisato glared at her. She wasn't pleased at how insensitive this glorified pirate was being.
"As a reported, how good are you at handling... sensitive matters? Matters that shouldn't really be plastered over the front page?"
"I'm not lying, if that's what you mean."
"No, I don't expect you to lie, I just want you to be very careful about when and where you release..."
Just then, Chisato was hurled to the floor as a massive tremor rocked the ship, coupled with a loud bang. An alarm blared and a red light flashed on and off.
"We're under attack!" yelled Commander Revorse.
-----------------------------------------------------
The boy sat in the observation deck and pressed his face against the glass, watching the vast celestial ocean glittering all around him. He felt so small, so insignificant, drifting in the infinity of the galaxy. Those starry depths could just swallow him up, he could just drift forever, lost in timeless oblivion, and not a square inch of outer space would care. He shivered. Reaching into his smart-suit pocket, he changed the song playing on his MP3 player from 'New World' to 'Decisive Moment of Truth', a song that always raised his morale. During those long, lonely nights he played it to drive away the hidden horrors that plagued his sleep.
The monsters were real now. They had come for him. Now his home - his entire life - had been destroyed. He couldn't protect it. Even with his special abilities, he couldn't protect it. Tears welled up in his eyes again, tears of frustration and grief. He was nothing, now. Nobody, adrift in infinity.
"See that blue planet?"
He opened one eye and lifted his head from his knees. As usual, his guardian had entered without him hearing of seeing anything. She was a valkyrie, an angel of battle, victor of a thousand conquests and more. If she wanted to, she could kill him without him ever registering her presence. Or she could keep him alive even if a thousand assassins were sent after him. She leant against the rail with the deceptively lazy grace of a cat.
"The planet orbiting the big purple sun." she drew her halberd and pointed at the screen, "That's Roak. That's where we're going. Look how close it is. We'll be there soon."
"Shouldn't you be watching the ship?"
What little experience he had of autopilot systems had taught him that they ranged from completely useless to a dangerous liability.
She yawned and stretched her arms. A holographic terminal appeared at her fingertips, bleeping. She poked it and the ship's course changed by a fraction of a nano-degree. The boy blinked - he had never heard of such an advanced holographic interface before - but lost interest and turned the volume up. She gave him a look, shook her head and stared up at the stars herself.
Roak. Moore, to its natives. The birthplace, from which all the people of the Tria galaxy arose. It had been millennia. The little brat, in his childish impatience, thought he had spent a long time on that space station of his. She had lived in one room for two hundred years. Her last visit to Roak? Three and a half thousand years ago. Would anything have remained the same at all? Even mountains and rivers could move during that kind of timescale. Nobody - nobody except her own people - lived that long. Only one thing was certain: the person she wanted was on Roak. Their presence burned into her brain, a flaring emerald aura, an energy that made her hair prickle as though it would stand on end.
Gwestia. I'm coming to find you.
The little boy had fallen asleep, curled up in a ball on the floor. She carefully stepped out of the room and returned to the bridge. Like the ship's computers, she did not sleep but watched over the ship's course, monitored engines and life support systems, an immortal sentinel.
