Author's note: I really should have mentioned this before, but I completely forgot. Big thanks go to Feral Phoenix for doing the Beta work for me.

The Future is Now

Chapter 3

"Hey, do you understand me?"

"Too fucking right I understand you, bitch!" Kylier screamed, still clutching at her ear. "What the hell did you do?"

"She put a worm in your ear," Lethanial explained. "It's a symbiont from her homeworld that has the unusual – and useful – side effect of allowing its host to understand and make Zephyrian vocalizations. Since Zephyrian is the most common language in this sector, it seemed like a good idea to give you an implant."

"Why didn't you fucking ask?"

"Hey, we want to stick a worm in your brain so you understand the locals!" the woman said satirically. "Would you really have bought that?"

Kylier just glared. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Zadia, resident pilot," she said. "Basically the one who steers this crate."

Kylier scrutinized Zadia as she stood. Like Lethanial, Zadia appeared human on the surface, and a very attractive one at that – her leather-looking top made the most of generous assets, the neckline swooping just far enough to show a teasing glimpse of cleavage. A pendant – silver, with a bead of deep blue resin set on a ring of shapes that brought feet to mind – helped draw the eye to that area. Pants made of something like denim clung well to long, long legs. She stood with her hands on her hips, the cocky set of her features indicating she had little to hide. She seemed to notice Kylier's gaze lingering jealously on her bust and smirked.

"Don't panic, Gal. By the time you get used to the pressure you'll be ripped. Plenty of guys love a girl with a six-pack."

Kylier contemplated her question, opened her mouth, and then was struck by a thought. Unlike earlier, when she'd apparently spoken 'Zephyrian' without thinking, she put conscious thought into speaking Midgard.

"Is she usually like this?" she asked. Zadia raised an eyebrow when Lethanial laughed – it had worked, he was the only one who understood her.

"Yes. Most of the time. Don't ask," he added to Zadia. "You okay now?"

"If I had the strength, I'd give you a black eye for this." Kylier warned Zadia, for the moment too pissed off to bother being scared.

To her surprise, Zadia laughed aloud. "You're going to fit right in like that, Gal."

"She creeps me out." Kylier admitted to Lethanial five minutes later – the bridge was at the opposite end of the Novastar from where they were and they'd had to stop for Kylier to catch her breath.

"Huh?"

"Zadia. She creeps me out."

Lethanial chuckled. "I certainly hope not. You're fucked if she does, she's just perky."

Kylier swallowed. "And the others?"

"A psychotic, a nut, a lone wolf…"

"Ouch," Kylier muttered, cutting him off. She tried to stand, but couldn't quite muster the effort, instead taking the opportunity to have a closer look at Lethanial.

Her first analysis of him had been close to correct, but on closer inspection, more details came to light – he eyes weren't pure black, just a very dark green. The intelligence behind them, however, was unmistakeable. He was dressed in something plain, yet functional – undyed buttonless shirt and slacks that seemed to be made out of something like cotton, but with an incredibly tight weave.

Kylier took a deeper breath and braced her muscles for a second attempt. She pushed herself to her feet. "Okay. Let's go."

Lethanial led her further down the dead straight corridor – "This tunnel goes the length down the spine of the ship, on all four levels. Find this if you get lost…" – and finally through the door opposite where the corridor entered a T-intersection.

"Oh… my… gods…"

It was like being under a skin of glass looking into the night sky, except that cutting brilliantly across her view was a wide, undulating streak of orange, gold and green lights, twisting together and throwing off magnificent omnicoloured flares.

"Now that's pretty…" she said after staring for a while, completely forgetting where she was.

"It's called the Swan Ribbon Nebula, the biggest permanent ion storm in known space." Kylier barely registered that it wasn't Lethanial talking. "Most of it's safe but it can eat through a ship's hull closer to its source, so a colloquial term for being in a dangerous or unfortunate situation is being 'up the Swanny'."

"Why can't you see it from the ground?"

"The ionized light particles are dangerous, so they're filtered out by any sort of breathable atmosphere."

Kylier finally registered that another female was talking to her and looked down. Standing nearby was an exercise in contradictions – her height said she was in her late preteens, but clear signs of early-to-mid bodily development said she was around fourteen. Sky-blue hair fell in impossibly straight, smooth locks to well past her hips. She was wearing a satiny dress the colour of her hair that managed to be completely shoulderless and sleeveless while still covering from the base of her neck down to her calves, where flat-soled black boots were visible. He only other clothing was a pendant on a black cord, in a similar fashion to Zadia's, but a different design – a teardrop shape, with blue glass in a water-like pattern.

"Catleia, this is Kylier. Kylier, this is Catleia, out domestics worker."

"Domestics?" Kylier asked.

"Cook, clean, dust, throw books at people who snore too loudly when powernapping in the library… the usual."

Kylier couldn't help but chuckle a little – the little girl had suggested throwing books at people with such a straight face and polite tone she'd made it sound civilized.

"Alright, Kylier here's your first example of how big a society the Hegemony is." Lethanial said. "Catleia here is from a different planet than us – most of us are from Zephyryah, making us Zephyrian. Catleia here is an Ardanian, from – surprise, surprise – Ardania. She's got that the blame for being so short and only needing two hours of sleep a night."

Kylier nodded. The feeling of being crushed by too many unknowns was setting in again. Trying to anchor herself, she looked around.

The bridge of the Novastar looked enough like the bridges of ships Kylier was more used to, yet drastically different at the same time. The roof over their heads – perfectly clear, offering a view of deep space and the awesome Swan Ribbon, save for a large, thin black frame at the front – curved downwards towards the front aerodynamically, suggesting they were right against the out shell of the ship. The platform they were standing on was raised a few meters above the main floor, with a flat black panel set into the railing and stairs down on either side. On the floor, front and centre, was a larger blank panel in front of a seat, with smaller panels down the sides. In a mirror-image pattern on either side of the bridge were what looked like stations of some sort – blank panels, swivel chairs, and a vertical, freestanding piece of what looked like faintly blue-tinted glass. These were all stand-alone, save for the frontmost pair – they were close enough to the centre to share another blank panel in the middle.

One of the panels wasn't blank, however – the one in front of the right seat was lit up, showing an array of squarish shapes, each labelled in tiny script. The piece of glass was also opaque white, with rows of the same box-and-dot script she'd seen on Lethanial's book sliding upwards at a leisurely pace. Reclining on the chair, feet resting on the blank middle panel, was another mercenary.

His denim pants were similar to Zadia's, but looser and more comfortable-looking. His torso clothing consisted entirely of jacket, unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up, showing a lot of his musculature. For a mercenary, Kylier was surprised by how lean his was – he didn't look like someone who made a career out of fighting, though she reasoned it was possible he preferred to make his blows more precise than powerful. He too was wearing some kind of pendant, but Kylier couldn't make out to details at her distance.

"That's Trak, our shipboard tactical officer – gunman – and sniper." Catleia said, following Kylier's gaze. "Don't interrupt him – he likes reading, but thinks it looks unprofessional."

Kylier couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Professionalism amongst mercenaries?"

"It gets you jobs."

Kylier jumped a whirled around. Standing behind her was a lithe woman in her late twenties. Even to Kylier's virtually uncalibrated dress sense, this woman was taking no nonsense – black full-length skivvies under tan three-quarter pants and like-coloured vest, which buttoned all the way up to the neck – though Kylier couldn't help noticing she was pretty much flat as an ironing board. Resting just below the hollow of her throat was a pendant in the same vein as the others the mercenaries were wearing – hers with black glass, two tadpole-esque shapes forming a heart-like shape, with a dot above to form a kind of broad teardrop overall.

"Commander Lin of the Five-Three-Two-Two-Zero Independent Mercenaries, 'Red Wolves'," she said formally, offering a hand.

"Take it by the wrist. Firmly," Lethanial offered in Midgard. Kylier did as he suggested, putting most of her strength into the hold.

"Good grip," Lin said. "Your name?"

"Kylier." She said. She felt blood rush into her face during a moment of awkward silence, then took the conversation the only way she could figure. "What are those pendants you're all wearing?"

"Pendants… oh, datacores?" Lin chuckled. Kylier blush intensified. Lin composed herself.

"I'm not laughing at you, Flleyar Kylier. It's just been a while since I've seen something this cute."

"You look like a country child on her first visit to a city fair," Lethanial said, again covering up in Midgard. He resumed his speech in Zephyrian. "The 'pendants' are called datacores – what looks like glass or resin is actually 'intelligent' micromatter capable of storing digital information. They're used as a form of ID, to store information from Lexicons or the world around you, and as a fashion statement. See, they're based off an ancient Zephyrian tradition of giving a child of twelve a silver-and-resin pendant with a design based on their personality, to commemorate their entry to teenage years. Since twelve is the required age to have a legal identity in the Hegemony (which is dominantly Zephyrian in more than eighty percent of controlled space) the personality-matching continues."

"In case it wasn't already glaringly obvious, Lethanial is what we call our 'technician' – master of electronics and walking Lexicon," Lin said. "To give what he said some sense, my datacore design is Heart's Glow, for sincerity and compassion."

Catleia held hers up. "Synergy – waters of harmony."

Lethanial fished under his neckline. "I don't wear mine out, because I'm usually neck deep in electronics, and they don't like to touch silver… got it." He pulled out an elongated arrowhead shape, with two narrow black lines flanking four black dots. "Quarterina – organization and harmony."

"I think I know what yours will be," Lin said, smiling at her. For the first time, Kylier sincerely wound down a little – the professional air was still there, but there was something matronly about Lin's smile that just seemed to hit the right note. "There are several designs that mean innocence or purity, but I have a felling you'll get Cyberutopia."

"Cyberutopia?" Kylier parroted.

"Cyberutopia – the future is now." Catleia provided.

"Speaking of datacores, how are we going to give her a NIC?" Lin asked. "A cranial parasite is one thing, but drilling a hole in her skull?"

Kylier started stuttering a complaint, which Lethanial waved down. "Relax. I've already given you a Neural Interface Chip."

"How?" Lin and Kylier asked together.

"Easy. I implanted the chip in her translation parasite. When the worm went in her ear, so did the chip."

"Yours went in your ear?" Catleia murmured, looking away. "Lucky."

"Huh?"

Lethanial was chuckling. "The worm in question will take any route it can to find your brain. When Catleia was getting one, the medic dropped it and it went up her nose. Catleia's never quite gotten over that."

Kylier nodded and went to take another step, but her legs buckled and she winded herself on the hard floor. Lin helped her up.

"Naptime, I think," she said. Kylier opened her mouth to protest, and Lin let go of her arm, dumping her on the floor again.

"Point taken," Kylier grumbled. This time Lethanial picked her up, weaving an arm over her shoulders to take most of her weight. He led her out of the bridge and down a flight of stairs.

"Aren't we going back to my room?" Kylier asked.

"That was actually a medical quarantine bay," Lethanial explained. "I'm taking you to a proper guest suite – you'll like it, it's better furnished than… oh, not now…"

Kylier looked up. Approaching them was a young woman, ringlets of turquoise hair framing an austere face. She was dressed in something resembling gothic Lolita – black, frilly dress, with long white stockings and three-inch heels. She stopped in front of them.

"If I had my way, you'd be dead by now," she said sharply, glaring at Kylier.

"Shut up and fuck off, Larissa." Lethanial snapped.

"Just so she knows I don't like her being here." Larissa walked off again, heels clacking down the hall.

"What a bitch," Kylier muttered. The clacking stopped, then loudened as Larissa came back and got in Kylier's face again.

"I am not a bitch, I am the bitch, and from you, it's Miss Bitch."

"Whatever you say, Miss Bitch."

The next thing Kylier knew, she was on the ground again and her ears were ringing. After a moment of distant, muffled yelling, Lethanial helped her up.

"Sorry," he said, his voice sound less like it was under water. "Be thankful it was only a slap. She's not even nice to people she likes."

"I know the type," Kylier promised, thinking of Rosary. The memories burned far more than the clout.

Gods… Even thinking of someone I didn't get along with hurts… How am I going to live like this?

She felt a pat on her back, and realized she was crying.

"Don't take it hard," Lethanial said softly. "Believe it or not, I know what it's like. We're here." He led her into a room and sat her down on the bed, which was indeed more comfortable than the last one. "You operate the door by touching that black panel, same for the window. I think you can see the Swanny from here. You can't turn off the gene-screen from here but that shouldn't be an issue, there're glasses beside the sink in the en suite if you want a drink, and you can call me by pressing that red button right there." He paused. "Unless you want me to stay?"

Kylier, nearly blacking out where she sat, shook her head.

"Okay. Alliemi teru – rest deep."

He left, shutting the door behind him. Kylier didn't recall her head hitting the pillow.