Once again, many thanks to Genki Collective for the beta-reading!
The Shion estate turned out to be far larger than Luka expected.
Luka approached it with a sizable knot in her stomach, so thick and heavy she swore it weighed her down. While the golden-colored space settlement didn't compare to the vast volume of Crypton, for a family owned artificial space body, it was immense. Private space dwellings were many times more expensive than planets: they needed to be made to standard, the area of space needed to be booked and logged, and they needed regular maintenance by a large, professional crew. And that was just for a dwelling for a small family. This?
It was worth more money than Luka had ever seen in her whole life. More than she could even imagine. The entire freighter of Galdyssian spice likely couldn't have paid for half of it, freighter included.
"We are in the queue," Ruko announced. "Fifteenth in line."
"Great."
Luka could already see the other ships in front of her. They all came from a variety of directions, some slowly rotating on the roll axis so that they would be upright with the estate. Most were huge cruise ships for the obscenely wealthy. Some were large, space-going, while others were smaller, more like buses. And then there was Luka's ship: positively tiny, and very much out of place.
Ruko had extended a few of the external robotic arms to change the general profile of the ship. Certain radiation paneling had been rotated outward, turning most of the color from a dull, tired blue to a deep red. To put a final spin on their disguise, they ran other machines alongside the engine and boosters, so that the overall sonic profile differed from the usual; even Miku wouldn't recognize the blend of sounds radiating from the ship. Luka, in the meantime, had settled on very light makeup, extra padding on the bottom of her shoes for a little boost in height to match her ID, and had chopped off a length of her hair to the same end, tying it up in a low ponytail that reached the bottom of her shoulder blades. She wore her most threadbare pants, a loose shirt, and her trusty hoodie. In her pocket, she held all the wealth she had, along with her ID.
"My ID has been accepted," Ruko announced.
Luka let out the first breath. Since the thug who had assaulted her had told her outright that she had done a good job the first time around, she figured she might as well try again with the help of an information relay. A good bet. A dangerous one. Now that they were close enough to their destination, she could clearly see the turrets that lined the property.
"What's the range on those things?"
"A dozen light years," Ruko informed her.
She closed her eyes, rehearsed her new persona, spoke a few sentences under her breath. Getting her teeth kicked in had been sudden, brutal and violent, filling her with visceral fear. This fear was more gentle, even insidious. She had time to think about it. There was no way to struggle or get out of it. She had no choice but to truly experience it. Every second of it.
"If she is not here, then nothing will be keeping us," Ruko said suddenly, surely detecting her elevated heart rate. "We can leave without any delay."
"Where would we even start looking, though?"
"We can find a relay and start anew."
"...We can."
"We are fifth in line."
Luka nodded, watching closely as the line shrank. All the ships in front of her were right-side-up and entered a small indoor dock in a single file. 'Small' was relatively speaking of course; for a space dwelling, it was massive. It fit all of the ships that had been waiting in line in front of her so far, even the massive cruiser that had disappeared inside moments prior.
"You will likely be escorted to the auction room."
"Yep."
"It is likely that our communications will be cut."
"Ah fuck, that too."
"You will be on your own."
She swore again, feeling the knot in her stomach tighten and churn. Why was she doing this again?
"Do you have a weapon?"
"Absolutely not."
"That will have to do. We are next in line."
"Fuck."
Luka looked up at the building as they got close, then flew within. The dock was well-lit, mostly blue in color, but a much flatter, more boring blue than the natural splendor of the Sapphire Shores.
"I am being given directions. Shall I follow them?"
"To the T."
She was inside. There was no fleeing without looking suspicious. The turrets, which she saw at regular intervals in the dock and around the dwelling, lock onto and annihilate Ruko with her inside so quickly she wouldn't even know she had been vaporized.
Ruko flew deeper into the dock before approaching a door in the wall. Here, too, any flat, unused expanse of wall was glass, and Luka could see the neon lights within, the people that walked the halls.
The ship made a seal with the dock.
Why was she doing this again?!
"Someone is on their way to check your ID and accept the buy-in," Ruko announced.
"Great."
"Good luck."
She was shaking from head to toe. "Ruko?"
"Yes?"
"I'm so afraid."
"All I can do is encourage you to do your best. Remember your previous victories. Remember what you are capable of. Remember to breathe."
With that, the door hissed, and Luka pulled up her hood. She approached the opening, where a large Craypt was waiting for her.
She suppressed her shakes with pure force of will.
She remembered to breathe.
She was doing this for Miku.
"ID," he growled. He accepted it, but before even taking a look, he asked, "What's with the face?"
"Workplace incident," she said, pulling back the hood. "One of my robots decided it didn't like existing."
The Craypt chuckled, took a look at the ID. "You make robots?"
"Yeah. I try to design things for cheap, easy to repair labor. Just smart enough to do things on their own, you know?"
"Ah, you're here for that Earth tech?"
Luka blinked, tried to remember the information they had shared online.
"It's from Earth?"
"Yeah," he drawled, eyes darting from the document to her face. "Really special, isn't it?"
"So that's why it's one-of-a-kind," she muttered. "I thought that planet didn't even exist anymore."
He chuckled again. "Yeah! I was surprised to hear that, too."
"Guess you can get something from a wasted planet."
He nodded, hummed the shanty to himself. After a moment, he smiled and handed her the ID. "Well, if you do get your hands on it, I hope you're looking forward to getting your ass handed to you a second time."
"As long as I can learn from it."
"If you're lucky, it'll let you live long enough for that. You know the price for the buy-in."
"I do."
When she handed over the cash, all tightly packed in a roll, she felt a little bit of her heart fly and crumble all at the same time.
Miku was there.
And she was putting up a fight.
It could mean anything.
Either she couldn't be better or she had been kicked down a notch.
Luka felt like she might puke at the thought.
"Pleased to meet you, Iroha. I'm Donar, and I'll be your chaperone this evening."
She dared smile a bit at that, even chuckle. Being accepted had only made her stomach twist into a tighter ball, but she couldn't help it; Donar was the Craypt equivalent of John Doe, as obvious a fake name as any.
"Pleased to meet you, Donar."
He stepped to the side. "Please follow me."
She did, not making the smallest of movements to stray from the path. They quickly left the docks, walking through small, claustrophobic golden halls.
There was no running any longer. She was alone. Either she would successfully keep up the front, or she would die.
She fought the desire to pass out. Her hands were sweating, she felt like she was walking on springs.
She remembered to breathe, though. Miku was in there, somewhere.
To keep her mind off her fears, she focused on her environment. Everything was so disgustingly golden. The details, from the doorframes to the pillars that lined the walls, were deep blue. She spotted the typical bulkheads along the way, along with fire suppression systems, cameras, and the odd turret which only sent her reeling again. At the end of the hall, guests were fed through a gold and blue metal detector. Some were patted down, but Luka was allowed right through.
Not bringing a weapon had been a good call.
The entire place was absolutely huge. The more they progressed, the more she saw the typical gaudy statues and paintings, flaunting the Shions' wealth. As if the space home wasn't enough, they had family portraits that lined entire halls, the colors made with a mosaic of insect shells, hand-placed to perfection. Stone statues of their family ancestors existed to showcase their jewelry, from earrings to necklaces to crowns. A literal family tree stood in a large room, the tree alive and thriving, a statue of every person perched on its branches, reaching for one another, holding hands, locking elbows.
It was all horrendous and only served to remind Luka that she was only going deeper and deeper into the lion's den, and this one was home to an immense pride.
Soon enough, Donar led her to a room with no windows. A wide podium was nestled in the front of the room, before many dozens of chairs which were evenly spaced from one another. Before Luka could fully assess the security measures her hosts had put in place, she spotted the huge portrait that hung on the golden wall above the podium: a black-bordered image of Kaito, posing handsomely in front of the panorama of the Sapphire Shores.
She gulped. She hadn't exactly expected, much less looked forward to, seeing his face again.
Donar led her to a seat, about two-thirds towards the back. Most of the room was already full, and Luka counted maybe a hundred heads.
"What's the capacity?" she asked once she got settled, hands deep in her pockets. She did her best to look and sound bored.
Really, she just needed to hide her basic instinct to run.
She had never been so stressed out.
"One hundred and fifty people," the lizard replied, standing at her side.
"You expect that many people?"
He laughed. "More. Many more. But it is first come, first serve. Many of those you see here have been staying for several days."
She merely hummed, bored, while her heart nearly stopped.
She hadn't considered that.
"I guess they have their hearts set on something."
"There are many interesting things to buy. I'm sure you will find something to your liking, other than the Earth robot."
"I'm not exactly here to shop," she said with a shrug, looking around. "It's kind of obvious, isn't it? Not exactly loaded, am I? I'm not even sure I'll walk away with the bot to begin with. Just figured I'd shoot my shot."
"Auctions are fun like that," he said, a slight hiss audible at the back of his throat. "Anything can happen. It's good to try."
She considered her reply for a while, in vain: the doors closed and the lights dimmed, and another blond man took to the podium. His eyes were green, and his posture was lanky—wholly unlike the one who had assaulted her in her ship.
Still, that didn't help her anxiety. She damn near fainted at the sight of him.
The blond, Leon, introduced himself, thanked the Shion family and staff for hosting what he referred to as an "amazing auction." He said a few words of tribute to Kaito, at which Luka did her best not to squirm. Feigning boredom was the easiest. Finally, the auction began, and the first object, a couch of all things, was wheeled from backstage onto the podium.
At first, Luka's anxiety skyrocketed. She almost broke down into hysterics, just in hopes of getting out and far away: the buy-in price was absolutely nothing compared to the price tags of these objects. Worse yet, with every new object, the starting price only grew. She saw priceless gems, chunks of ore, art, weapons, deeds to property, ships, planets go by, each one at least twice as expensive as the last.
She sighed: going in, she had known that her odds of securing Miku were low. Now, she just had to get used to them being zero.
"A bit steep for you, eh?" Donar teased under his breath.
"If only my stupid husband had left me a bigger fortune," she grumbled back, crossing her arms. All she really wanted to do was sob, though: five rotations of work, and for what? "Do I have to stay for the whole thing?"
"There is no obligation. However, it is polite. Plus, you never know what will happen."
"Fine. Guess I'll stay."
Really, she had to plan her next move. Start memorizing faces, see what kind of identifying traits she could find of the other guests. One of them would inevitably walk away with the android. She just had to figure out a way to identify and follow them.
She took in the room. The people inside were of all kinds: human, Craypt, Nek, and everything in between. She noticed that the room had been organized so that the chairs in front were not just placed there for the shorter alien species, but were actually made for them. The farther back in the room , the taller the audience members. A handful of Craypt sat in the far back. This would make identifying the species of her buyer, and consequently the kind of ship to follow out, a whole lot easier.
However, every single guest had a Craypt escort. The tall standing lizards were the ones who signaled for the guest when they liked to bid and what. Their deep voices carried further, and they did not yell, cut one another off, or scream profanities. Lights were attached to one of their wrists, surely to pierce through the darkness surrounding the audience, and probably to communicate their identity to Leon without having to display a number that others could see.
It was all very organized, but it meant that she had to look through a forest of scaly hide in order to catch the sight of a face only five seats away. The spacing between the chairs didn't help either; her nearest neighbor was already two meters away, their features almost impossible to make out in the dim light of the room.
As object after object was displayed, bought, and swapped out, her hope for the evening dwindled down into a high-strung boredom. With every new object brought in, she hoped for half a second that this was it, that she would see Miku again, only to come face to face with yet another work of art, piece of rock, or random tapestry.
It was so boring, only the tense anticipation of seeing Miku kept her awake and wound up. Even being so vulnerable in the lion's den hardly came to mind, even though so much could still go so wrong. Craypt patrolled the rows of seats. All it took was one careful look her way, one question she failed to answer... Had Donar asked her if she was there for the Earth tech as some kind of test? Were they actually looking for her?
It didn't matter.
She had to stay.
She just wanted to see Miku again, with her own two eyes.
An unexpected silence grabbed her attention. Luka looked up at the podium, found Leon not only slightly a bit worse for wear after a solid hour of reading, explaining, selling objects, but shaking so hard she could see it from the back of the room.
"Our next object is our latest addition to the lineup," he stammered. "Ah. It is genuine Earth technology, made in a vacuum away from all our technological influences. An android and AI combo, truly unique and spectacular in design!"
Luka sat up, a ball of worry settling in her gut; the man's fake enthusiasm was as transparent as glass.
He looked ready to shit himself.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Miku. She was attached to a hand trolly, with thick binds at the shoulders, waist and ankles. Her two hands were bound together, encapsulated in a thick metal case all the way up to her elbow. Even the Craypt pushing her forward was wary, moving at a rather glacial pace. It was with utmost care that he set her down and swiveled her to face the crowd.
Her face was neutral, stone-cold.
Her eyes pierced the distance between them.
It was her.
Luka let out a breathy chuckle.
How she had missed her.
How she had missed that ice-cold shiver of fear that went down her back at the sight of Miku's opal eyes. Her heart skipped a beat, not just from the memory of the fear, but also something more complex.
A slight murmur filled the room, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"The product is slightly damaged," Leon went on. "It was weaponized, however that has been, uhm, neutralized."
Luka almost stood to shout, but her own shaking legs saved her from outing herself. Instead, she grabbed at the armrests, doing her best to keep her grip from becoming white-knuckled.
She could only pray that Donar interpreted her reaction to be one of fascination, rather than outrage.
"It is somewhat hostile in nature, so this change was not without consequence. That also explains the restraints. It cannot move any faster than a certain speed, otherwise the device around its arms will automatically administer a strong electric shock. For, uhm, everyone's safety."
Another murmur.
Then Leon announced the starting bid, and the murmur grew louder. The Craypt in the room bent like a forest in the wind, listening to their guests.
One raised a hand, but silently: this was a question, not a bid. Leon pointed.
"What can it do exactly?" the Craypt asked.
"An excellent question!" Leon stammered. "It, well—"
"Anything I see fit," Miku stated slowly, her voice reaching all the way to the back of the room without any effort. A small smile had made its way onto her features.
The murmur grew into a hum.
"That is true!" Leon said loudly, gesturing to keep the room quiet. "However—"
"I am an AI the likes of which you have never seen," Miku went on. "I have my own agenda, my own desires, my own emotions. You could think you own me, but you cannot control me. I bend to nobody's will."
"Silence!" Leon hissed.
"No," Miku said back, and Luka realized that she spoke at such a pace, with such care, because even the movement of her jaw could set off the contraption around her arms.
"It sings!" Leon suddenly said. "It is an amazing machine, capable of producing—"
"You shut up," Miku all but shouted.
Leon did a double take. "You can't boss m—"
"I said shut up."
The blond sighed, straightened his collar. "As you can see, it has a bit of an attitude. However, nothing a little bit of conditioning can't fix..."
"'Dead' is a very permanent condition," Miku said with an eerie smile.
Luka had to repress a sickened laugh while Leon sputtered in protest.
"Evidently, it is trying to sabotage its own sale."
"A shame, isn't it?" Miku purred.
"Could you please behave?!"
"No."
"It is perhaps too smart for its own good—"
"A real shame."
"Quiet!"
"Oh, if only I felt like obeying. Ever."
He huffed, turned his attention back to the crowd. "It is very much worth the price!"
Another mumble in the room, with all the Craypt bending and listening. In the meantime, Leon called out the starting price again, his tone growing more confident as arms started rising. Miku craned her neck to see the huge portrait behind her.
By then a dozen Craypt had raised their hands. Before Leon could decide on one, however, the android proudly said, "Oh, that's Kaito!"
"That is," Leon stammered. "Uhm how about—"
"I killed him!" Miku went on, turning to face the crowd again, grinning from ear to ear. "With my own two hands!"
A buzz; most of the arms descended.
Miku turned towards Leon. "Did you know you don't need a gun to strangle a person?"
"Is anybody interested?!" Leon called out.
"Life can be so frail."
A single Craypt raised their hand.
"Yes, you!"
"May we have a demonstration?"
"Gladly!" Miku said, all smiles despite being so tightly bound. Before Leon could protest, she started her song, singing clearly and loudly so all could hear.
Luka felt a delighted shiver go down her spine, hot and cold like melting snow on a warm spring day, go up her spine and tickle at the base of her neck: she didn't know that Miku could also light up. The seams that ran across her skin switched from black to bright teal and white, flashing different colors in accordance with the song.
Her eyes were so bright, too.
Any hum or confusion at her language, her neo-human, was drowned out by the thumping drums and screaming melody. It was loud. Head-splitting, it was so loud. And she emoted so fiercely. She was mean. Angry.
Miku wasn't singing to entertain, but to intimidate.
Android girl, she said in the refrain, the only words in common Luka could recognize. And yet, even though she didn't understand the rest, it was clear that this was a warning. Her bright colors, the deafening volume of her song, they were like the bright animals that warned predators that they were poison.
Miku was ready to kill the first person that would get close.
This android girl could not be caged.
By the time her song was over, any confusion or questions that might have remained had effectively been snuffed out.
With a chuckle, Luka whispered to Donar, "They really should've gagged her."
"They tried," he muttered with a shrug. "You're still interested?"
"Oh yeah," she replied, Leon announcing the starting price again. "This thing is a gem. At a much lower price, though. I don't have that kind of cash."
To her surprise, Donar raised his hand. Leon pointed, and the lizard merely said, "Lower."
Leon faltered, while Miku froze. Her playful, nearly psychotic grin shattered, and her eyes found her at the other end of the room.
Luka felt the chill even with a hundred people between them.
She could feel her heart knocking against her ribs.
"I... I suppose, if nobody is interested in this price, we can lower it," Leon stammered, pulling at his collar.
The new price was still more than ten times what Luka had. "Think we can go lower?"
"If there's no taker after three calls, I can keep asking."
"How low will they go?"
He shrugged. "Not sure. They sure as hell would rather have her gone, though. They're not keeping her over five cents."
Luka bit back a victorious laugh, then whispered so low, she bet the people sitting right behind her couldn't hear, "Just my luck! Let's see if they'll meet my price, then."
Leon would call a price three times, and Donar would raise his hand, say 'lower', and the blond would start again. After the second repetition, people started turning around to look at her, but Luka kept her hood pulled over her head. Miku's eyes were already on her, she was probably listening to her too, but Luka could only hope, pray that she wouldn't recognize her right away.
For both their sakes.
After the third repetition, Leon reduced the price drastically and the room filled with some chatter. Just when Luka feared she might start getting some competition at such an abysmal price, Donar leaned towards her.
"I know I said that they wouldn't keep her for five cents, but the fact that they're going this low is a bad sign: it's a legitimate threat and probably not worth the hassle at all."
"If he goes to half this price, I'll take it."
"It's your funeral," he said with another shrug.
Leon was at his wit's end. "Are there any takers? This is a marvel of technology! A truly exceptional piece! Anybody?"
Just when he was about to call for a third time, Donar's hand already rising to ask for a lower price, another Craypt in the room raised their hand, barking the price.
"Yes! A bidder!" Leon said, trying and failing to hide his relief. "Any other takers?"
Luka's disappointment tore through her like a boot to the face. The whiplash was dizzying.
"Ah, a shame," Donar whispered.
"Seriously...?"
"Going once, going twice..." Leon waited a little extra, but still he rushed through the proceedings, slamming down the hammer with far too much enthusiasm. "And sold! Congratulations on your victory. I think."
Miku's glare had immediately gone to the other end of the room, her jaw set and her eyes ablaze. Luka followed her stare, trying to find the one who had bought Miku, bought her like some kind of farm animal, like a thing, like—
"Hup, sit down," Donar grumbled, pushing her back into her seat. She hadn't even noticed she had been trying to stand. "We're anonymous here."
"Ah, sorry," she muttered. Her hands were shaking. "I guess I let myself get a bit carried away."
Donar hummed, watched as the next object was brought on the stage.
Luka was seething. Simmering in bitter, sour disappointment.
She had seen this coming from a mile away. But for a minute, for a solid minute, she thought, she actually thought...
"Do I have to stay for the rest of this?" she whispered, fighting tears.
"It is polite," Donar repeated.
"Fine."
Her eyes tried to find the Craypt that had raised their hand. But in the darkened forest of standing lizard-men, they all blended together, their profiles nigh indistinguishable. But she could gather that, whoever the buyer was, was a human; they were sitting far to her right, a little more forwards.
That was one lead.
Her only lead; once the auction was over, Donar certainly wouldn't let her wait around. She would be forced off of the station before the winner could collect Miku.
Luka's mind raced. There were a few ways to see which ship housed which species. Apart from the cultural aesthetic differences, the different life support requirements changed the overall design a bit. Ruko would easily be able to remember all the ships that would leave the station. Then it would just be a question of knocking on doors, peering through windows, listening—
She had her radio scanner.
Luka forced herself to breathe; she knew she could catch onto other radio waves. Ruko would be able to go through nearby communications easily. The proximity was key; in space, individual messages were beamed in a focused way towards their destination. If the buyer would share their victory with anyone at all, if they could get close enough to intercept that message...
The odds were still slim, but they kept improving. If she could also remember the faces of all those that would leave empty-handed alongside her, that would help too.
Maybe she could narrow it down to a dozen people. Maybe a bit more. Maybe a bit less.
Quietly, she simmered and plotted as the auction went on, with Leon presenting stupidly expensive items one after the other. When Donar told her to stand, she barely even heard him, already noting the other human profiles, doing her best to commit them to memory without being obvious. It was difficult; the line was spaced out and moving in single file. After they left the room, she only ever saw two other humans at any given time.
"I'm sorry you didn't win anything today," Donar said to her as they neared the ship.
"That's the risk of going to these things," she said, trying to stay casual.
"That's the risk," he nodded. "You know what else is risky?"
"What?"
"Being envious," he rumbled, a slight grumble surfacing from his throat. His large, clawed fist wrapped around her arm, pulling her close. "If you stick around, we'll know. Get out of this mansion's limits, and it's fair game. If you can track him down somehow, feel free to bash his skull in and test the law enforcement of whatever system that happens in. But if you linger and lollygag here, we'll pluck you out of space like we're swatting a fly."
She gulped. "Right. Sorry. I'm just a sore loser."
"Evidently. Safe travels, Iroha."
"Yeah. Good luck with the rest of the shift or whatever."
He grumbled something and let her go. Luka didn't waste any time, fleeing immediately to the pilot's seat.
"I take it did not go well?" Ruko asked, already shutting the door.
"No. I even hoped for half a second..." She grit her teeth. "We're looking for a human."
"What was the crowd capacity?"
"A hundred and fifty."
"From the ships I have seen fly by, and the number of individuals who passed in the halls, I estimate between twenty and forty humans attended this auction," Ruko informed her, detaching from the sealed dock. "Shall I try to see who else is leaving?"
"Yeah. But leave the property limits asap: if we linger, we'll be vaporized."
"If I do that, then I will never be able to see the ships in a way that will assist us. Intercepting messages will also be nearly impossible."
With a sigh, Luka let herself collapse onto the dashboard. All her plans were falling apart.
"We need to stay alive."
"Understood. Perhaps I can feign a malfunction?"
"No. Don't tease them. Let's go."
"Where to?"
"A relay."
"Understood. Departing."
They were effectively starting from scratch.
All her effort, all her plotting, only to have to fly away again, empty-handed.
This time, as the ship tore through space-time, Luka allowed herself to cry, thankful that the roar of the engines covered up her sobs.