Galactic Terror - Books 1 - 3: A Space Opera
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

GALACTIC TERROR - BOOKS 1 - 3

A SPACE OPERA

MICHAEL ROBERTSON

CONTENTS

Galactic Terror - Book one of Galactic Terror

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

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Galactic Retribution - Book two of Galactic Terror

Edited and Cover by …

Copyright

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

Galactic Force - Book three of Galactic Terror

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

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Galactic Liberation: Galactic Terror Book Four - Chapter One

About the Author

Also by Michael Robertson

GALACTIC TERROR - BOOK ONE OF GALACTIC TERROR

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 Terror: A Space Opera

Michael Robertson

© Michael Robertson 2022

Galactic Terror: 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

As Sparks approached the bar, her heart rate quickened, and despite filling her lungs with the cool spaceport air, it did little to dampen her apprehension. Were it just a game of droneball, she’d enter the place with a spring in her step and a sway to her gait. She could beat anyone, any day, any time. But, like with so many things in life, managing the egos of others provided the biggest challenge. Especially as she was about to play a game she couldn’t lose.

Every week the same; she began yet another bullshit hustle where she needed to make her opponent feel good about themselves while she deprived them of just enough credits to get her and Reyes through another few days. Reyes would do the same for her were the roles reversed. But she’d probably do it without the deceit.

Sweating beneath her thick black robe, Sparks faced the oncoming wind, turning the hood into a cooling funnel. One day she’d find a lighter replacement. Something more practical. But so far, none did the job as well. None hid the tiny human from inquisitive eyes. At least, that was what they believed her to be. She stood about three and a half feet tall. Tall for a Thrystian, but so few beings had heard of her species, so they made assumptions. Assumptions that often led to hostilities. Easier to remain inconspicuous to avoid the conversation altogether.

Her face hidden in shadow, she drew close to Mac’s bar, and a flutter ran through her chest. The door sensor triggered and opened with a whoosh!

While beings probably watched from the shadows, the clusters of creatures in the packed bar paid her little mind. Sticking in your nose, snout, hooter, or whatever other protrusion with which you chose to invade another’s privacy, rarely ended well. Especially in Acoolter, where its spaceport drove its economy. With such a high turnover of clients, it made almost every being a stranger in every establishment. None had any right knowing Sparks’ intentions, just as she had no right knowing theirs. But just in case her attire didn’t convey the message to leave her the fuck alone, she rested her hand on her blaster at her hip. An entirely acceptable response to unsolicited inquisition. This place had clear rules and clear consequences. Stick to the former and you’d avoid the latter.

The door closed behind her as she weaved through the busy room, collusions of creatures packed around small tables and wedged into shadowy booths. She kept her attention fixed on the droneball kiosk in the corner.

She held her breath as she passed through a thick cloud of raspberry-scented smoke loosed from the hinge-jawed mouth of a bulbous toad-like being. The last time she breathed in something similar, she’d spent three days in a multicoloured world, running away from demons that had crawled from deep within the bowels of her own imagination.

The long bar ran the length of the room on her left. Mac ignored her. Nosey bartenders didn’t last long in a place like this. Besides, she always made sure a part of her winnings ended up in his pocket. This place had supported her and Reyes for close to a year. A little kickback was the least she could do.

Passing beneath a flickering lightbulb, Sparks’ right eye twitched, and her brain speared with a sharp sting. The bulb didn’t have long left in this world. Not her responsibility. In a galaxy that cared little for sentient life, it needed a digital advocate about as much as it needed another crazy dictator invading a distant planet.

Several beings pressed their snouts to the droneball booth’s tinted window, their hands cupping their faces. Every one of them oblivious to Sparks’ approach. And why would they notice her? She might be the best droneball player in the galaxy, but the galaxy didn’t need to know that.

A four-foot-tall yellow-skinned creature stepped back from the booth and punched the air. As with most interactions, her lips moved with an alien dialect while Sparks’ language chip interpreted on the fly. “Yes!” She halted in the face of Sparks’ scrutiny. A head taller than her, she had a long snout, tusks, and a bulbous bottom lip that lay along her face like a giant space slug, warts and all. She looked her up and down.

Sparks smiled, the gesture hidden in the shadow cast by her hood. Hopefully, some of it made it to her tone. “Did your friend win?”

“What do you think?”

“How good are they?”

“He just won, didn’t he?”

“Apparently so.”

The yellow-skinned creature stepped back. Again, she looked Sparks up and down. This time she sneered, lifting one of her tusks higher than the other. “You really want to challenge him?”

The game booth’s door slid open, the machine’s automation tingling through Sparks’ senses. The action emitted a gentle whir of tiny servos. They had nothing on the earth-shuddering action of the ones used to drive Reyes’ towering mech, but they were the closest she’d heard to them in a long time. Reyes would beat the simulator and regain her confidence. And then Sparks could stand beside her twenty-metre-tall titan in battle once again. She could stop lowering herself to playing small-time games in dive bars for only enough reward to get them through another week. She’d had a year of this shit. Were she doing it for anyone else, she would have given up a long time ago.

“You deaf or something?” The yellow-skinned creature rested her hands on her hips and stepped closer. “I said, do you really want to chall—”

“I heard what you said, runt.”

She snorted, her indignation cut short by the defeated mandulu stepping from the booth with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed.

Sparks jumped aside to let him pass. With so many beings coming through the spaceport, she recognised maybe one in every twenty. She’d seen enough mandulus to last a lifetime. Still, she smiled. Seb would be happy to see one defeated. She’d tell him if she ever saw him and SA again.

The yellow-skinned being drew a breath. “Ar—”

“Yes!”

She snorted again. “B—”

“I do really want to challenge him.”

The victor stepped from the game booth. Just short of six feet tall, he had blue skin and small yellow eyes. Every time he blinked, his eyelids met in the middle as vertical slits. Hairless, but his bald head had tens of tiny fins running from his brow to the base of his neck. She’d seen others like him before. Bipedal, and if she were to guess, she’d assume he came from an aquatic planet. But she’d been mistaken for human so often, she’d do well to ignore her assumptions. His upper body a bulging bulk of swollen muscles. “I’m guessing every day’s biceps day?”

One side of his thin mouth twitched, and his tiny eyes narrowed. He remained fixed on Sparks while he slammed his fist against the button to open the small holding box. He removed two credit cards. His stake, and the one of his defeated opponent. He snapped his head in the booth’s direction. “You want a game?”

“Are you confident that what you can offer me will be good enough to be classed as a game?”

He fixed her with a dead stare. “Rather than concentrating on my self-belief, maybe you should work on reining in your own?”

“Maybe.”

“How much do you want to stake, little one?”

Say that again and she’d headbutt him in the stomach. “How much have you got there?”

The blue-skinned creature held up his two credit cards and winked. “One-fifty.”

Just about enough. Like most droneball games in a place like this, her winnings would get her through another week and rarely longer. One hundred credits to Reyes, forty to Faz Went and Blark Venn-Quarter, and ten to Mac. The other one hundred and fifty for another game next week. She’d be back to dance the same routine with a different schmuck in seven days’ time. But Reyes deserved it, and for however long it took her to get her head straight, Sparks would keep showing up. Reyes had earned all the time in the galaxy. She tossed a credit card loaded with one hundred and fifty credits at the blue-skinned creature. It spun through the air, struck him on his broad chest, and landed on the floor between his feet. “I can match that.”

The slightest ripple of doubt disturbed his fixed arrogance. He picked up Sparks’ credit card and held it with his close to the holding box. “O-okay.”

“O-okay, or okay? You changing your mind already, big guy?”

He dropped the credit cards into the box and slammed the small hatch shut. Only the victor could reopen it. His thin lips pulled back to reveal his gritted teeth. “You first.”

On her way past him into the small chamber, Sparks nodded. “That’s usually how it works.” She moved to the left side of the court and pulled back her hood. A neon line bisected the room. It divided the five-metre-by-five-metre-square booth in two. Cross the line into your opponent’s side and you lost a point. Aim your blaster at your opponent and you lost the game, as well as getting electrocuted half to death before you could pull the trigger. She widened her stance, the door closing behind them as her competitor took up his position.

Her blaster raised above her head, Sparks waited for her opponent to do the same. She’d go easy on him. When she’d first played droneball, she used to get to three points as quickly as possible, take the credits, and leave. But large egos and resounding losses proved a volatile mix. She walked away with less aggro if her opponents had felt like they’d at least played their part in the game. She gave them a narrative about how they’d been robbed in the final moments. And as far as fragile egos went, this blue-skinned fella wore his paper-thin sense of self-worth loud and proud on his overstretched sleeve. His blaster still at his side, she tutted and snapped up her shoulders in a sharp shrug. “You ready, or what?”

“Hang on.” The fin-headed creature twisted his left foot and then his right, as if grinding the soles of his shoes against the steel floor would somehow help him improve his aim. He paused halfway through raising his blaster. “And don’t worry, I’ll let you go for double or quits when you lose.”

The second he thrust his blaster at the sky, a strong wind ripped through the booth. The walls turned pitch black, and stars burst to life all around them. A drumbeat rolled through the room like distant thunder. As the hammering rhythm grew louder, the stars streaked towards them, accelerating with the increasing volume. The wind dragged Sparks’ robe, pulling her back a step. The beast beside her held firm.

A small spherical drone shot from their left. The size of a large orange and topped with a blinking red light, it hovered for a second, sent an electric bolt streaking towards Sparks from one of its many ports, and darted right to avoid her opponent’s first shot.

She could have nailed it instantly. The steel plate in her head read the drone’s next move and transmitted it directly to her brain. The accident that nearly killed her had left her with digital intuition. Machines spoke to her. From opening doors to blinking lightbulbs. Mechs. Surveillance drones … But his ego needed appeasing. She jumped aside, avoiding the drone’s next electric bolt. She shot high, and it went low.

“Not so confident now, eh?”

Sparks dodged another blue bolt. For effect, she blew out, her cheeks bulging.

He shot again. He missed again.

“Like you’re doing much better.” Sparks’ green blasts exploded against the far wall.

A loud mechanical duck quack blared through the booth. The wind stopped, and the thunderous drum solo faded. The smoking drone hit the floor with a clang! The bright white stars gave way to bright white numbers. A zero on Sparks’ side. A number one on his.

He rolled his shoulders and snapped his head from side to side. “I do believe I’ve taken the advantage.”

“It’s the first to three, you know?”

“You think I’m green?”

“No, you’re blue.”

He tutted and shook his head.

Sparks raised her blaster.

He did the same.

For a second time, the wind shoved Sparks back a step. The stars streaked past her, driven by the slamming drum solo. The drone shot from the left. She aimed where it intended to go next and pulled her trigger.

The loud duck-quack tone blared through the booth. The drone hit the floor. The wind halted. The stars vanished. Sparks read out the bright white numbers. “One-one.”

The blue-skinned creature raised his blaster. Sparks did the same.

Even with her glasses on, Sparks’ eyes burned from the windy assault. She dodged left and right, avoiding the electric bolts.

Quack!

The drone fell. The blue-skinned creature rolled his broad shoulders. His signature move. “I make that two-one to me.”

“You can read, then?” Sparks aimed at the sky.

He’d taken at least eight shots to hit the previous two drones. And of course she played a risky game, but she needed to win without gaining a reputation. Reyes wanted a quiet life.

Sparks missed the small sphere with her first three shots. Her blasts exploded against the back wall. She nailed the drone with her fourth.

Quack!

His face a contorted mess, he threw up his arm again. Sparks did the same.

Bzzt!

“Ow!” A bolt hit his right hand, turning it flaccid. He dropped his blaster.

The drone about to head diagonally up to the right. Sparks shot it from the sky.

Quack!

The drone hit the floor just as her opponent retrieved his weapon. His mouth fell wide, and a nerve beneath his right eye twitched. The booth’s door opened with a whoosh!

“Doub—”

“I’m not interested.” Sparks barged past him, pulled up her hood, and slammed her fist against the holding box button. The small hatch fell open. She reached in and retrieved the three credit cards.

A flash of white light burst through Sparks’ vision when her forehead slammed into the booth. Her legs failed her. By the time she’d clambered back to her feet, he’d already taken her credits and run.

Sparks aimed her blaster at his broad back.

“No!” Mac the bartender thrust a halting hand in her direction.

Her teeth clenched, Sparks turned her blaster on his tusked mate. The small yellow-skinned creature raised her hands. She’d done nothing wrong, and they both knew it. Blark Venn-Quarter didn’t believe in guilty by association. This tourist still had his full protection.

“Shit!” Sparks shook her head and took off after the thief, weaving through the tables and clusters of creatures. She’d given him a game. Made him feel like he had a chance. Yet he still did this to her. She’d given him every opportunity to save face, but now he’d stolen from her, she had every right to subject him to a very public execution.

CHAPTER 2

The door parted, and Sparks ran out into the busy spaceport at a jog. She wore her hood up, her distorted reflection staring back at her from the curved chrome body of a docked ship. She’d once again buried her face in shadow.

The fin-headed thief a few hundred metres ahead weaved through the scores of bodies in the densely packed spaceport.

Still morning. The busiest time of day. The weak sun hung in the sky like it had lost all enthusiasm for illuminating this world. It cast the entire port in a dusky light. As bright as it got on Acoolter.

Despite her thick robe, Sparks shivered. As bright as it got, and about as warm too. A flat and rocky planet with few wind blocks. The days were bearable, but the nights brought a cold that few beings could withstand.

Her blaster in her right hand, Sparks broke into a sprint, weaving through the dense press of bodies, the blue head of her target just too far away, even for someone who could shoot like her. She had every right to take him down. And she’d not miss, but if anyone got caught in the crossfire, Blark Venn-Quarter would be sure to make her punishment both public and severe. An economy built on tourism had to show the galaxy that visitors were both welcome and safe.

Sparks turned sideways between two ten-foot-tall grey creatures. She brushed too close to one of them, tearing a sharp sting along her right cheek. Their skin as rough and resilient as the ground on which they trod. The wide, hulking beasts carved their own path through the spaceport’s chaos.

Smaller flying creatures cut over their heads. One dive-bombed Sparks, and she fought the urge to pull her trigger and sear a hole through its ugly little wrinkled face. Emboldened by Acoolter’s welcoming reputation, the tourists acted with impunity and had little regard for anything but their own needs; locals be damned. Humming drones joined them above the crowd, many of them working surveillance for Blark Venn-Quarter.

Speeder lanes flanked either side of the main strip. At this time of day, they were always busy with a constant stream of traffic running supplies from one side of the port to the other. They needed to complete the day’s work before the cold afternoon slipped into frigid night. Sparks winced as a small green being ran across a speeder’s path.

Their guardian grabbed their arm and dragged them away at the last moment, the wind of the speeder’s momentum flapping the little one’s cape. Keeping a hold of them, they crouched down so they were at eye level with the distressed youngling and admonished them with the wagging of their one long finger.

As many steps sideways as forwards, Sparks remained on the fin-headed thief’s tail, and the fin-headed thief remained too far away to shoot.

The spaceport slightly flatter underfoot, but otherwise indiscernible from the barren grey rock that covered Acoolter and stretched away to the horizon. Surely, before they ran out of runway, the thief would duck into the sprawling mess of both commercial and residential buildings on their right. The higgledy-piggledy skyline broke up the otherwise sparse monotony of the planet’s landscape and offered a maze of alleys in which he might feel confident he could lose her.

Hotels, bars, gamer dens, and food stalls ran down the right side of the main strip. Travellers in search of something more had to delve deeper into the sprawl. Some trades were best kept in the shadows, if for no other reason than to protect the punters’ modesty.

Sparks dodged right and came to a skeleton-jarring halt as she slammed into the muscly back of a hairy quadruped. The beast, like something birthed from Greek legend, scowled at her and raised its clenched fists. She rolled away from the slamming blow, jumped to her feet, and regained sight of the thief.

Miles of open rock stretched between the runway and the distant lake on Sparks’ left. The larger vessels docked on that side, the rumbling engines of one shaking the ground and disturbing the lake’s tides. The Gargantua, a Snockert warship with enough firepower to destroy a planet, and enough soldiers to take over the running of one, slowly rose into the sky. Several miles long and shaped like a giant squid, its tendrils stretched away behind it. They ran three times the length of the vessel’s long body and provided both accommodation for the more expendable soldiers, and protection for the ship’s rear thrusters. Lights, guns, mines, and missiles dotted the swaying appendages like barnacles. They’d atomise any ship brave enough to get too close.

A warship as vast as they came, the Gargantua tested Acoolter’s hospitality with both the space required to land and the strain its crew put on the facilities. But they also brought with them a shitload of credits. The ship cast a deep shadow over the port and surrounding buildings as it slowly drifted away.

Another broad beast stopped to watch the ship’s departure, which Sparks dodged at the last moment. Her whip-crack tut fell on deaf ears, the beast watching the impressive vessel sail away with its wide mouth agape.

Back into a sprint, Sparks gasped for breath, and sweat burned her unblinking eyes. Where had he gone? Like every other being in the port, she’d been hypnotised by the Gargantua. She squinted. She bobbed and weaved to see through the bodies. Most beings were taller than her. They blocked her line of sight in every direction. She stamped her foot. “Shit!”

A flash of blue. A finned head about fifty metres away. She aimed her blaster at him. He might not be a machine, but she didn’t need an intuitive lock on this clown. She read his movement like a poorly thrown punch. One squeeze of her trigger and she’d drive his fractured skull and brain matter through the front of his face. But what if she missed? Even taking aim in such a packed space endangered the tourists.

Sparks holstered her blaster, raised her elbows out in front of her, and charged, slamming into the legs of two taller creatures. She left their abuse well behind and fished her small computer from her robe’s inside pocket. She gripped it with one hand while she ran, her fingers dancing across the touchpad keyboard. The thief still in her sights, she hit one final tap against the screen. She now had control of every tannoy on every ship in the port. Her voice amplified a hundredfold, the rumble of her words a match for the Gargantua’s boosters. “Give it up, you thieving rat.”

The spaceport’s collective attention turned Sparks’ way.

“We have rules here.” Sparks drew her blaster again, the busy main strip clearing to give her an unobstructed line of sight on her target. A free shot at his broad blue back. She squeezed the trigger. The neon green blast streaked past him on his left. A warning shot. She had the skills to end him now.

He ducked, covered his head with his left hand, and turned right into one of the many alleys leading deeper into the dark bowels of Acoolter’s more niche commercial sectors, away from Blark Venn-Quarter’s surveillance drones.

Quicker than the thief, the alley relatively clear, Sparks closed the distance between them to about thirty metres. Their combined steps echoed off the tall steel walls on either side.

He reached the crimson glow at the end and turned right.

Sparks followed him a few seconds later.

Booths lined either side of the street. Windows of varying shapes and sizes bordered by red light. They had a vast array of beings representing a vast array of genders. Some were over fifteen feet tall. Some smaller than Sparks. Tentacles with suckers pressed against some windows while gilled beings swam in tubs of amniotic fluid. All were there to be bought for the right price.

She’d given him his chance. Her aim steady, her chest tight, Sparks rested her finger on her trigger, but the thief turned into an alley leading to the machine sector. “Damn!” She slowed from a sprint to a jog. But she needed those credits. Reyes needed those credits. She sped up again.

A purple glow lit the next district. It had machines in every booth. Her skull buzzed like a beehive, and her breath caught in her throat as images of mechanical penetration flashed through her mind. Cutting and slashing. Agony and ecstasy. Anything went. She stumbled and pinched the top of her nose, a sudden headache stabbing her brain. She leaned against a wall for support. Her vision blurred through her watering eyes. But she saw well enough. He’d gone. “Shit!”

Her blaster back in her holster, Sparks gulped against the lump in her throat. She drew ragged breaths, dragged her computer from her robe’s inside pocket, and stumbled from the machine district down another alley, away from the privacy afforded the punters, the air alive again with surveillance. Her fingers slower than usual, she found her rhythm as she left the purple lights farther behind. A final tap on her screen. The keypad gave way to a grid of videos. Each one peered through the camera of a nearby surveillance drone.

A flash of blue. Sparks enlarged the footage. Her target ran towards the fighting pit. She had him!

The steel colosseum dominated the plaza. Empty of beings save for Sparks and the fin-headed clown. “Stop!” She levelled her blaster at him again.

The thief slowed and drew his weapon. His voice echoed off the high steel walls of the buildings around the plaza’s perimeter. “Looks like it’s just us two now. What, you think you have the advantage over me? A little rat like you? I was in that booth too, you know? I saw your shooting ain’t up to much.”

Her gun still raised, Sparks closed in on him. “Better than yours.”

“Or maybe that was luck.”

“Want to find out?”

“That’s why I’ve stopped.” He tapped his top pocket. “Only one of us is walking away from here with these credits.”

The surveillance drone Sparks had used to track him appeared over her right shoulder. The weak sunlight reflected off its polished lens. She kept her blaster aimed at the thief. “We played droneball. He lost. He then stole the winnings. I’m simply here to reclaim what’s mine.”

The drone flew off.

Sparks dropped to the hard rocky ground and rolled away as his wild shot sailed harmlessly wide. She jumped to her feet and returned fire. A single green blast, it exploded against his weapon, knocking it from his grip.

He froze.

Sparks’ finger twitched, but she restrained herself.

He ran again, showing his broad blue back. As glaring a target as she could ask for. But she lowered her blaster as he cut into another alley towards Acoolter’s residential towers. When there were other ways of stopping him, she didn’t need to add to the plague of death and war that ravaged the galaxy.

The alleys between the towering blocks were the darkest and tightest in all of Acoolter. A place for residents. A stranger could get lost in the gloomy rat runs. Sparks holstered her blaster again and retrieved her small computer.

In a long straight alley, she hacked into the residential sections’ maps. She followed the thief when he took a right turn. Her fingers worked as quickly as her steps. She entered her first command.

Shunk!

A thick steel wall shot across the alley. An instant dead end.

The thief turned left.

Shunk!

Sparks sent another wall across his path.

He turned right.

Shunk!

The thief slowed with heavy steps and halted in front of the next wall. He slammed his open palms against the steel barrier with a weak slap that mocked his attempt.

Sparks slowed to a walk and fought to regain her breath. She tugged on her robe’s neck, sweat itching around her collar. “Weaponless and trapped. Looks like you’ve lost again.”

The thief’s narrowed eyes widened. “Beaten by your trickery. Again.”

Sparks pulled back her hood and smiled. “You know, there was a time when multiple gangsters ran Acoolter. They all lived in the residential sector. They needed their own territories, so they set up boundaries by blocking off the alleys. Since Blark Venn-Quarter’s takeover, there’s been no need for territories. But I’m glad he kept the walls functional.” She raised her small computer. “If you have the skills, they can be used to your advantage.” She slipped her computer back into her heavy robe. “Now, you have a decision to make, and I urge you to take a moment to think on it. Give me the credits and fuck off—”

“Or what?”

“What happened to that moment?”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“Fine. Or I shoot you where you stand and take your life, as well as my credits. And all with Blark Venn-Quarter’s approval, may I add.”

His thin lips pulled even thinner. The thief shook his head, his small fins rigid on his otherwise bald scalp. He slipped his fingers into his pocket and removed the credit cards.

Sparks flicked her blaster at him. “Show me the credits on them.”

One side of his mouth lifted in a sneer-cum-smile. He stuffed the credit cards back into his pocket and removed three more cards from another pocket. This time, he pressed them, the trio of red digits adding up to three hundred credits. He spat on the ground between them, his phlegm blood-red. He placed the cards at his feet. “Will you let me go now?”

Keeping a hold of her blaster, Sparks entered the command into her computer.

Thunk!

The combined sliding of steel walls opened up the dead end behind them and the others she’d put into place.

The thief backed away, watching her the entire time. When he reached the first alley branching off their path, he threw a gesture she’d never seen before and vanished from sight.

CHAPTER 3

The tower blocks’ sheer steel walls shot up on either side of Sparks into the ever-darkening sky. The windowless barriers stood so tall, they appeared to be leaning over her. They cast deep shadows, and being a few degrees colder than Acoolter’s already frigid atmosphere, they leached her body heat.

Sparks stepped over the red globule of phlegm. A splat of rubbery crimson on the rocky ground. The only agency he’d had left, he delivered it with a venom he’d dragged from the soles of his feet.

Wincing a second before she picked up the credit cards did little to ease the effect. She still jolted from the rush of anger and sadness. She drew several deep breaths to regain her composure. Most cards were loaded with a condensed hit of all the emotion attached to previous transactions. Weighted with struggle, resentment, and greed. Wrongdoing and backstabbing. Did any other beings in the galaxy have her intuition? And if so, if they handled her credits, would they feel her deceit and shame? Her lies to Reyes. Her humiliation at what she had to do for such a small reward?

All this for a profit of one hundred and fifty credits. In her and Reyes’ pomp, they wouldn’t even open an eye for one hundred and fifty credits, let alone get out of bed. And now she chased fin-headed losers halfway across Acoolter just to scratch together enough to survive for another week. She had every right to shoot him. Maybe next time she’d take the easy option and blow his fucking face off. But at least she’d gotten the credits. She’d come here to get paid, and she’d succeeded.

Sparks’ back tensed at the first crack of a slow clap behind her. With every subsequent contact, her shoulders wound tighter into her neck. She rested her hand on her blaster and turned in the sound’s direction. Her hood now down, she squinted at the silhouette emerging from the shadows.

A tall and skinny creature, he stood just over six feet tall. Nearly twice Sparks’ height. He wore a dog-eared, brown leather cap that kept his face hidden in shadow. His broad shoulders filled his brown trench coat like a coat hanger. He’d cinched it at the waist with a matching cord to pull it tight against his skinny form. He clapped in time with his encroaching steps.

The creature’s entire frame rose with his laboured inhale. His hidden gills rattled like a bag of small stones sliding down a washboard. Sparks pulled her hand away from her blaster and smiled. “Faz Went.”

Just a few metres separated Sparks and her old friend, and despite the shadow cast from his cap’s peak, his smooth porcelain skin shone like a moon in the alley. A gaunt and angular moon. If he stood still for long enough, he could be easily mistaken for a marble statue.

Another chest-swelling inhale delivered another rattlesnake hiss. The alley’s acoustics turned Faz Went’s deep voice even deeper. “I watched you get paid.” He steepled his fingers and tilted his head to one side. “Impressive.”

“And entirely unnecessary. Why don’t they just pay up?”

“They probably thought they could get away with it. Look at you.”

Sparks rested her hands on her hips and jutted her chin up at him. “Thanks!”

“Everything’s a battle for a being of your stature on a planet like this. Am I wrong?”

Her lips tight, Sparks breathed through her nose.

“And not only were you impressive, but compassionate too.”

“You think I should have killed him?”

“Many would have.”

“I have my credits. I did the work to get them. What else could I gain from ending his life?”

“A reputation.”

“You know that’s the last thing I want.”

“It might make things easier for you.”

“We came here to disappear. This has to be one of the few places in the galaxy that know nothing of the Shadow Order. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“But you left them amicably.”

“We’re not cautious of the order. It’s the enemies we made while working for them. We took down a lot of regimes. Put a lot of beings’ noses out of joint. And for every being who wants to see us dead, we have ten who want to challenge us. To test themselves against the best. As you’ve already so eloquently surmised, someone of my stature would probably face more challenges than most. No one here knows who I am. I intend to keep it that way.”

Faz Went shrugged. “I suppose it makes your droneball hustle easier.”

“And it gives Reyes the time she needs.”

“How long have you been lying to her for?”

“Protecting her.”

“By lying.”

“How many times do we have to go over this?”

Faz Went folded his arms across his chest, slightly dulling his respiratory rattle.

“She needs time.”

“And how long have you given her so far?”

“A year and counting.”

“That’s a lot of time.”

“If she needs them, she can have all the years I have left. It’s the least I can do.”

“How romantic.” Faz Went stepped forward. He gripped his narrow chin in a pinch. With less than a metre between them, the alley’s weak light finally revealed his green eyes. Like with the fin-headed thief, his eyelids closed in from each side and met in the middle as a vertical slit. He lowered his voice. “Well, if you’re wanting to avoid a reputation, you did the right thing in putting the alleys back to how you found them.”

“Of course. What was it like before Blark Venn-Quarter? When there were multiple gangst—”

“Leaders.” Faz Went glanced from left to right as if the huge steel walls had ears.

“Leaders.” She nodded. “Thank you. What was it like when this place had multiple leaders?”

“Violent.”

“It’s violent now.”

“It really isn’t.” Faz Went’s shimmering rattle ran away from them in both directions. “Back in the day, there were too many leaders vying for control. They were so focused on outdoing one another that none could run this place effectively. Every day was a bloodbath of escalating violence. A continuous bid for power. Plenty of innocents died in the crossfire. There were no credits coming to Acoolter because the ships that were brave enough to land here were the visitors you didn’t want. The violence created fear, which created—”

“More violence?”

“Right.”

“A planet filled with armed and petrified beings is a recipe for disaster. Every nervous halfwit, emboldened by the weapon they carried, had an itchy trigger finger.”

“Sounds like hell. Did you lose many beings close to you? Friends?”

Faz Went’s cap’s peak dipped with his nod. “For sure.”

“Family?”

Another shimmering rattle of inhalation. “I lost my family a long time ago. Anyway”—Faz Went held out his hand—“I’m guessing it’s the usual?”

She handed over her credits. “Yep.” She stood aside to let him pass, pulled up her robe’s hood, and followed him along the dark alley.

Seven towering residential blocks overlooked Faz Went’s courtyard. Windows dominated the fronts of the buildings as if making up for their lack on the other three sides. Beings gathered around fires in empty steel barrels. The strong breeze cleared the thick black smoke, the air tinged with charred wood and burning plastics. Ships streaked overhead, following one of Acoolter’s busiest flight paths.

Greeta, about five feet tall, had a stocky frame covered in brown fur. She acknowledged them both with a nod, took one hundred and fifty credits, and leaned her head to one side. “The usual?”

Faz Went snorted a laugh. “Yep.”

Greeta revealed her sharp little teeth with a tight smile. She nodded at Sparks for a second time and ran away into one of the blocks. The most heavily guarded of the seven. The only guarded one of the seven. Blark Venn-Quarter’s block. You only entered his place with an invitation.

A pair of red eyes watched from the shadow of a nearby alley. Only about a foot tall, the small creature remained in the darkness.

Faz Went turned his long palms to the gloomy sky. “When will you tell Reyes where the credits are coming from?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Call it curiosity. I mean, we’re getting paid for easy work. Your current setup is entirely to my benefit. My question comes from a place of compassion not judgement. Everything I’ve seen from you over the years tells me you’re formidable.”

Sparks curtsied. “Why, thank you.”

“But you’re scratching around like a street urchin to get just enough credits to survive another week. All so you can continue to lie to the person you love most.”

“An accurate assessment of my life for the past year. What’s your point?”

“How long will this go on for?”

“I’ve already told you, I’ll give her all the time I can.” Sparks remained the focus of the red eyes in the shadows.

“You’re a unique client. You’ve paid me a small fortune to clean credits that only need cleaning to maintain your deceit. I never have to question my morals when I clean for you.”

“Is Blark Venn-Quarter concerned?”

“Of course not.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. For me, it’s worth every credit.”

Faz Went attempted to straighten his perpetually wonky hat.

“Can you make sure Mac gets his kickback?”

“He always does.” Faz Went’s chest rose, and he rattled. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Plenty. But I’ve told you more than I’ve told most. I’ve trusted you by telling you my history and why I need to live in this armpit of a place.” And what else could she say? How Reyes disappointed her every day she didn’t overcome her issues? Every day she failed on the simulator. How guilt ate away at her like acid on rice paper because she’d screwed up their final mission? How her failure had created Reyes’ issues? How, because of her injuries on their final mission, and how they’d fixed her up afterwards, she now had digital intuition that gave her an advantage over every other being she competed against in droneball? How that digital intuition meant the simulation punished her as much as Reyes punished herself? How they both lived their final mission’s failure every single day like they were trapped in a hellish time anomaly? “Reyes needs more time.”

“I like you, Sparks. I’m here for you.”

“Thank you.” Sparks leaned toward the red eyes and slapped her thighs with both hands. “Come here, boy.”

Hat, an almost perfect sphere of fur, shot from the alley. Mouth open wide, tongue hanging down, he tore through the busy courtyard and leaped straight into Sparks’ open arms. She turned her face away from his enthusiastic greeting lest his tongue flick her glasses from her face. Again!

Sparks wrapped an arm around him to keep him still. “Think of my credits as payment for looking after Hat. He means a lot to us. Thanks again, Faz Went. I’ll see you soon.”

“Sparks?”

“Yeah?”

“How much time can you really give Reyes? How long can you live this life? You have so much to offer. Your talents are wasted.”

The words caught in her throat. She’d change it all in a heartbeat, but she’d screwed up. She owed Reyes all the time in the world. The slight sting of tears itched her eyes.

Faz Went patted Hat. “See you soon, buddy.” And then to Sparks, “You’ll be showing a payment from Moses in your account in the next few hours.”

CHAPTER 4

Their small hut cut a solitary silhouette on Acoolter’s rocky plains. Two hundred metres away from the final residential building. Close enough to be in touch with the rest of the beings on the planet, but just far enough away for privacy. Sparks would live closer if she had a choice, but Reyes needed space for her mental and physical well-being. Fragile, broken, and worst of all in a place like this … human. They were hated across the galaxy, and it had been a long time since she’d had the combative spirit necessary to confront the daily abuse that came with being a member of her race.

Sparks lifted Hat, wrapped her right arm around him, and pulled him into her side as she stepped from the cover of the last building.

He let out a low grumble.

“You think I should put you down?” The strong wind hit her, and she stumbled several steps to the right. She shouted over the howling gales, “You think I’ve forgotten about that family of plump and juicy stoovas?”

Hat twisted and looked up at her. His mouth opened and his tongue lolled out.

“What was it, two hours of us chasing after you across the plains? Three? We all nearly froze to death. I can promise you, next time, I’m leaving you out there on your own.”

The roll of Hat’s half-growl vibrated against her ribcage.

“Okay, maybe you’re right. Reyes would go to look for you. And if she went, I’d have to go too. But, like me, she’d rather not die following you on a rodent hunt into a sub-zero oblivion.”

Sparks pressed her face to the frigid mask of their door’s retina scanner. The lock released with a thunk. She shoulder-barged the door wide and stumbled into the warmth of their small hallway, kicking the door shut behind her, blocking out the chilly Acoolter air. She hung her coat on her peg and her blaster beside it.

The second she lowered Hat, he charged towards the living room, his claws clicking against the hardwood floor. But he stopped at the doorway. Sparks’ heart sank, and she muttered beneath her breath, “Fuck it.”

Maybe she’d do it this time. Surely there would come a day when Reyes won. Hat leaned into her shins. Neither of them wanted to watch this, but he clearly sensed her quickened pulse, her tight chest, and her gnawing anxiety at what was to come.

The screen showed what Reyes saw through her headset. Flashes of blaster fire, swarms of splindlers. The seven-foot-long sand-coloured arachnids’ sharp fangs dripped poison. Reyes waded through them in her towering mech. Many exploded beneath her slamming steps, coating the tunnel’s walls with purple blood. But many more swarmed over the giant machine.

Sparks flinched with every death. Enemy or not, her digital intuition dialled her into the simulation. The suffering of the vile creatures, the panic in Reyes’ wild and erratic movements. Fallen rock blocked the mech’s passage. Her stupid idea to shut Reyes out. If only she’d done something different.

Reyes’ mech twisted at the waist. Armed with cannons and flamethrowers, she belched a constant stream of plasma and fire, turning the splindlers into a charred mulch before she returned her attention to the fallen rock. But she couldn’t unblock the path.

The mech on the screen and Reyes in their living room both sank at the same time. She gave up the fight, accepted she couldn’t enter the blocked passage, turned tail, and ran. Sparks twisted where she stood. A second later, her ship shot from the tunnel above the mech. Both entrances led into the heart of the splindlers’ hive. Both of them had had a way through until Sparks had closed off Reyes’ path.

An explosion burst from the bottom of Sparks’ ship as she left the cave. Despite leaning against their living room’s cold wall, heat spread over her back as she lived it all over again. Her digital intuition fuelled her PTSD and flooded her senses. Hat pressed harder against her legs. The only being in the galaxy who knew about her gift. Not like she could tell anyone. Could she really trust Faz Went? Enough to reveal why she always won at droneball? She couldn’t afford to jeopardise her only source of reliable income. And she couldn’t tell Reyes about the pain she endured every time she did another run on her simulation. Every time she tried to make up for Sparks’ mistake. Tried to deal with whatever demons Sparks’ failure had thrust upon her psyche.

Sparks’ stomach spun with her crashing ship, and she jolted every time her arrowhead fighter smashed against the obsidian rocky ground. It turned seventeen tumultuous somersaults before it slid to a halt. Reyes’ rapid-pulsed panic came at her through the simulator as the mech sprinted after the flaming vessel.

Dread gripped Sparks, wrapping its fingers around her throat. Reyes slid towards the wreckage on her knees and tore the small fighter apart with her giant mechanical hands. She lifted Sparks, her limp form lying like a dead ant in its massive steel palm.

Sparks breathed more easily when Reyes stepped away. The flames reached her ship’s fuel tank, and it exploded with a white-hot flash. If only she’d had a fraction of Reyes’ courage and resourcefulness when she’d lost Amelia to the fire back on Thryst. She could have done more to save her that day.

Tracing the bumpy scar down the right side of her head, Sparks pressed her fingertips to her scalp, cold from the steel plate on the other side. The surgery had saved her life and given her a new talent that came with its own baggage. But all of this had happened because of her mistake. She had to own it. The good and the bad. The best droneball player in the galaxy, but connected to the simulation whether she liked it or not. Destined to relive her failure repeatedly. For how long? Could she really do another year? Could Reyes?

Hat ran to Reyes and jumped into her lap. Her simulation goggles resting on her forehead, Reyes stroked the furball and drew stuttered breaths.

Could Sparks really tell her to give up the simulator? It did neither of them any good, but what right did she have? Also, they were one bad droneball game from not being able to pay the bills. Then what? If she’d not beaten the simulator, Reyes couldn’t even consider returning to their old line of work.

Two glistening tracks streaked Reyes’ cheeks. But she smiled when she saw Sparks.

“No luck?” Like she hadn’t just lived every second of the end of their final mission. Again.

Reyes lowered Hat to the hardwood floor, deflated with a sigh, and shook her head. “No.” She lost focus and shivered. She twirled her right finger through her hair. A fresh wave of tears ran rivers down her cheeks, and her mouth hung open.

“Reyes?”

She snapped out of it with a gasp. “Sorry.” She drew a wet sniff and rubbed her face with both hands. “Sorry.” She shook her head. “No. No luck.”

“Maybe next time, eh?”

Reyes blinked several times and stood up. “Yeah.” She nodded as if trying to convince herself. “Yeah, next time.” She glanced down at Hat. “Nice walk?”

“So-so.”

“Did you get anything?”

“No. I thought I’d wait until tomorrow when”—her voice warbled, threatening to expose her lie—“Moses’ credits come through.”

“And thank the heavens for them.” Reyes lost focus again. “I don’t know what I’d do if we had to earn her own credits right now. He might not be sending us much, but at least he appreciates what we did for him.”

He appreciated it so much he’d stopped paying them nearly as soon as they landed on Acoolter. Sparks forced a smile, her jaw tight. “I know what you mean.” The air scented with stew, she nodded towards the kitchen. “Lunch?”

Reyes closed the distance between them and leaned down so their foreheads touched. Sparks stared into her deep brown eyes. Bloodshot, but stark. Open. Honest. Could she read Sparks’ deceit?

“It’s your favourite. It’s been cooking all morning.” Reyes grinned. “Shall we eat?”

Sparks sat at the kitchen table while Reyes dished up. “You went for a run today?”

“Yeah. I saw a few stoovas while I was out.”

Hat’s head snapped up at the mention of Acoolter’s native rodents.

“Big?”

“About the size of Hat.”

The furball let out a low growl.

Sparks laughed. “He’d still take them, wouldn’t you, boy?”

Before plating Sparks’ and her own lunch, Reyes spooned two portions into foil containers. “Will you drop these at the food bank in the morning?”

“Of course.”

“I know we don’t have many credits—”

“You don’t have to explain. We have enough. And you’re right, if we have a meal every night and can make sure at least two other beings on Acoolter have the same, then that’s what we should do. The heavens know Blark Venn-Quarter cares little for his citizens, so someone has to. You’re a good woman.”

“Just sharing our luck. Not everyone has Moses paying their bills.” She raised her glass. “To Moses.”

The heaviest weight of every day, Sparks raised her small water-filled tumbler and smiled through clenched teeth. “To Moses.”

Sparks undid her napkin, which Reyes had folded into the shape of a swan. “You’ll get there one day, you know? You’ll beat that simulation.”

“Yeah.” Reyes sat down. “I know Moses’ credits might run out at some point. I need to be ready for that day.” She forced a smile. “We can become the most badass bounty hunters in the galaxy.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” And Sparks so wanted to believe it. To trust that her mistake wouldn’t traumatise them for the rest of their lives. That they wouldn’t be old and grey and still replaying their final mission. She wanted to believe it more than anything. But she also had to accept the reality. This might be it for them. She halted mid-chew. Reyes sat on the other side of the table, her attention on her lunch. She dragged some of the hair that had fallen from her ponytail, and tucked it behind her ear. Sparks reached across and rested her hand over the back of Reyes’. Even if nothing changed, there were a lot worse things than spending the rest of your life with the being you loved.

CHAPTER 5

What did it matter if she had to do this once a week? Once Sparks had won her game of droneball and extracted the credits from whichever cretin she beat, she got to spend another peaceful week with Reyes. As long as she timed Hat’s walks to make sure she’d left the house when Reyes did the simulation, little else in her life caused her stress. If she needed to do this forever, she could. And it afforded them a better existence than most.

Hood up, Sparks approached Mac’s bar. She and the door sensed one another, and the door opened. Steady. Dependable. It didn’t try to kill or shock her. It didn’t remind her of her past failings. It didn’t carry the weight of struggle and criminality that sat buried in every credit card, ready to pounce the second she touched it. She drew one final lungful of the spaceport’s cool air and stepped into the gloomy bar.

Head high, face hidden in shadow, Sparks pulled back her shoulders and strode across the dark room. The heady tang of a fruity liquor tickled her nostrils. She ruffled her nose, the sickly-sweet mango packing a sharp punch. The alcohol content high enough to put a mandulu on their back. Hopefully she didn’t play a mandulu today. Seb hated them with good reason. One of the most obnoxious races in the galaxy. But if they paid, she played. Once a week. Nothing more. Come here, play the game, win the credits, and leave. Whatever being she came up against, this would all be over soon. And hopefully without a struggle.

Mac cleaned glasses behind the bar. He sometimes acknowledged her with the slightest inclination of his head. Sometimes, like today, he acted like they were strangers. Better that way. Business. Pleasure. A complicated mix.

A cinnamon-tinged cloud of smoke swelled in front of her, thrust into the air by a many-orificed slunter. At least half of its visible openings belched the noxious emissions. Sparks tutted at the thing, held her breath, and wafted away the intoxicating cloud. But before she reached the other side, a large hand grabbed her wrist and dragged her through a curtained-off section into a small and dark room.

Sparks tripped, slipped from the creature’s grasp, and hit the floor, slamming down on her right hip.

Her attackers loomed over her as two hulking silhouettes in the darkness. Both close to seven feet tall. Both of them almost as wide. She slammed a kick into the closest one’s shins. A sharp sting ran up her own. Like kicking a wall.

The beast raised their foot above her.

She rolled beneath a flimsy table.

Its hard stamp flipped her like corn in a hot pan. She rolled out the other side, jumped to her feet, and slapped a hand against her hip. “Shit!” She’d dropped her blaster.

The table between her and the two brutes. Her weapon on the floor beneath it. Sparks kicked the cheap piece of furniture. It folded and clattered into the pair. An autumn leaf hitting a brick wall. She grabbed her blaster and took aim.

They raised their hands in the air.

“Huh?” The hairs on the back of Sparks’ neck stood on end. They appeared from both sides. Blinking red lights. Four drones. Two on her left and two on her right. She shot the one most ready to electrocute her before taking down the next three. Four shots. Four dead drones. No duck-quack tone. No points here.

“Bravo!” Something clapped in the darkness. “You certainly are a formidable shot!”

Sparks turned her gun on the smaller silhouette. The creature about the same height as her. He had a bulbous head. He closed in on her with a measured calm.

“Now, dear Sparks.”

“How do you know my name?”

“It’s my job to know. I must say, that was very impressive.”

She flicked her blaster in the small creature’s direction. “I’m not finished yet.”

The creature chuckled, the rumbling growl impossibly low considering the size of his narrow chest. “Oh, please do hear us out. We’ve gone to all this trouble to get your attention. We’ve even hired this side room for a few hours.”

“You could have just asked me in.”

“You would have come?”

“No.”

The creature stepped into the small shaft of light coming through from the bar. His enormous eyes dominated either side of his head. Covered in a membrane of grey mesh, they took up about seventy-five percent of his face. Bipedal, his four skinny arms hung at his sides. He hadn’t come here to fight. Good job. She’d end the scrawny shitbag in seconds.

Sparks stepped back as he stepped closer. Towards the curtain and the main part of Mac’s bar. She held a halting hand in his direction. “You’ve come close enough. And I don’t think I want to hear you out.”

“You do. Trust me.”

“Ha!” Sparks’ laugh died in the empty room as if the shadows feasted on her mirth. The two thugs who’d dragged her in had stepped back into the darkness. They’d served their purpose. For now.

“Okay, I get it.” The creature’s small mouth turned down at the edges. He pointed to a nearby chair. “I can see how that’s a stretch. How about you sit down?”

“I’ll stand.”

“Mac’s brought you to our attention.”

Sparks chewed on the inside of her mouth. The fucking snake.

“And we did a little digging. You obviously want to be forgotten.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We get it; you want to keep your head down. And we respect that. But we have an offer for you.”

“One I can’t refuse, right?”

He smiled.

Sparks folded her arms and shook her head. “I’m not interested.”

“It’s an invitation.”

“I decline.”

“To the most exclusive droneball tournament in the galaxy.”

“Are you stupid or something? You’ve just acknowledged my desire to keep a low profile, and then you offer to put me on the galactic stage. How many ways can I tell you to go fuck yourself?”

“If you win—”

“I would win.”

“You’ll be rich. You’ll have enough credits to never need to work again. We could even mark the payment from Moses if you liked?”

Sparks lost the air in her lungs, the silence in the room punctuated by the chatter from the neighbouring bar. “How do you know about Moses?”

“It’s my job to know.”

The dusty air tickled her nostrils.

“Do you really want to spend the rest of your life just getting by? Do you really want to continue competing against bums in dive bars?”

“I’m not coming back to this dive bar, that’s for sure.”

“Do you really want to keep lying to Reyes?”

Sparks’ legs wobbled. She caught the back of the chair he’d offered her and sat down. “How do you know about Reyes?”

“It’s my job to know.”

“And if I don’t win?”

“You just said you would.”

“But if I don’t. Then what? I’ll come out as skint as before and with the reputation I’ve spent over half a decade avoiding …”

“Someone with your skills can’t hide forever. Mac’s quite the talker, you know?”

Pains streaked up either side of her face from her clenched jaw. “He won’t be when I cut out his tongue.”

“Besides”—the small creature sat in the chair opposite, rested his two lower hands on his knees, and leaned forwards—“not only is this the best-paid prize pot of any droneball tournament in the galaxy, but it’s also run with the utmost discretion. We serve a niche audience who pay a small fortune to spectate. You’re not the only one who values their anonymity you know?”

“But the fact remains; if I lose, I’ve wasted my time.”

“From what I just witnessed, I’d say you’re among the best droneball players in the galaxy.”

“Because I took down four dumb drones?”

“Loaded with a complex attack algorithm.”

“Anyway, I am the best. I’ve already told you that.”

“Quite possibly. But, regardless of whether you win or lose, if you accept our invitation, you’ll get paid.”

“Go on.”

“Win, and you get the payout. Lose, and you get the payout.”

“What’s the catch?”

“If you lose, we want you and Reyes to do three jobs for us.”

“No chance. Reyes has enough to deal with.”

The small being leaned back in his chair. He folded both sets of arms.

“What kind of jobs?”

“Jobs like you did for the Shadow Order. Rescue jobs. Freeing innocent beings for huge rewards. Bounty hunting jobs. But why do you care? You won’t lose, right?”

“Where are the games being held?”

“Stargart.”

“Sounds like a shithole.”

“It is.”

“Not that it matters. I won’t be going there. Even if I wanted to, I can’t make that commitment on Reyes’ behalf.”

He leaned forward again, and Sparks balled her hands into fists. He held a small credit-card-shaped device in her direction. She took it, and her mind shot across the galaxy to a city in the middle of a desert. A domed force field covered thousands of buildings, all closely packed together. Much like Acoolter, they seemed to have a small concentration of civilisation on an otherwise inhospitable landscape. She snapped back into the room to catch the tail end of his words.

“… communicator. Use it to get in touch.”

She shook her head and shoved the device back at him.

He stopped it with his raised palm. “Think it over. If you want to throw it away, then do. But if you want to accept our offer, you can use this to contact us. And with Mac’s propensity for gossip, how much longer do you have left before you get a reputation here anyway? How much longer before you have to break the news to Reyes that she might have to go back to work much sooner than you’d both hoped?”

“How do y—”

“It’s my job to know.”

“Right.”

The small being stood up. “The games start in a week.” He vanished into the room’s shadows, his words filling the dark space. “I hope to see you then.” A door closed over to Sparks’ right. Click!

Sparks threw the curtain aside and stepped back out into the bar. Mac continued cleaning glasses. She should take each one and ram them into his stupid face. Make an example of him.

Her jaw tight, Sparks shook her head and made for the droneball booth. A being with dragonfly wings hovered by its door. “One hundred and fifty credits each?”

The creature shot up by half a metre, stopping like they’d slammed into an invisible force field. “You want to challenge the mighty Zwaldaldo?” He shifted right.

“I’ve not got time for bullshit. Do you want to play the fucking game or not?”

Zwaldaldo lowered again, pulled one hundred and fifty credits from their back pocket, and threw them into the holding box.

Sparks did the same, slammed the small door shut with a crack, and entered the booth.

“Good chat!”

On the left side of the line, Sparks pulled back her hood and drew her blaster.

Zwaldaldo joined her and took up the right side of the court. “Do y—”

“Shut up. Let’s play.”

A bright blue sky lit their surroundings. Rain fell from the ceiling, and the wind blew as hard as it had the last time she’d been in here. It threw Zwaldaldo into the back wall. Sparks planted her feet, swiped her hair from her face, and shot to the right.

The drone appeared, took the hit aimed at it, and dropped.

A duck quack blared through the room, and the blue sky gave way to the score. The tall white numbers read one-nil to Sparks.

Zwaldaldo picked themselves up and fixed on Sparks.

While the focus of their attention, Sparks shot the second drone.

Quack!

“Jeez! Give me a chance, will you?”

The screen read two-nil.

Back to blue skies. Wind and rain. Sparks shot the third drone.

Quack!

Zwaldaldo left the booth first. They hovered in front of the holding box, blocking Sparks’ access.

In one fluid movement, Sparks grabbed the front of Zwaldaldo’s shirt, pulled them close, and thrust her blaster so hard into the bottom of their soft chin it forced their blue reptilian tongue from their mouth. She spoke through clenched teeth. “I’ve had a shit day. You lost. Accept it and fuck off before I paint the side of this booth with your tiny brain.” Zwaldaldo flew away the second she let go.

A flash of desperation slammed through Sparks when she checked the credit card. One hundred and fifty as agreed. One hundred and fifty, and Zwaldaldo’s last hope. Their final roll of the dice. They’d needed that win. But what could she do? Thanks to Mac, she’d just lost her stream of income. Who’d play her at droneball now? And even if she found competitors over the next few weeks, if he’d talked once, he’d do it again.

Her hood still back, her blaster still drawn, Sparks strode across the bar, knocked into a table of drinks, and sent the glasses and their contents flying. The beings around the table shouted at her, but she kept walking.

“Hey!” Mac pointed at her from the other side of the bar.

“Fuck you, Mac!”

He lowered his thick arm.

Close to the exit, Sparks removed her small computer and holstered her gun. Her fingers alive on the screen, she strode through the parting door and waited for it to close behind her before she hit the final command that threw Mac’s bar into total darkness. The electrics permanently fried.

CHAPTER 6

Sparks burst from between the two tower blocks into Faz Went’s courtyard. She rolled her shoulders as if she could shrug off the psychological tight press that remained with her from the alleys she’d travelled to get there, and pulled her cloak tighter, defending against the strong wind cutting across the open space.

Many beings turned her way, their faces lit by the flames in the fire barrels. Many were familiar, but she’d only ever spoken to a few. And only then out of necessity. This wasn’t the kind of place you came to make friends.

Seven tower blocks overlooked the plaza. Many eyes watched from many windows. Acoolter’s weak sun reflected off the banks of glass, turning them into two-way mirrors. Everything got reported back to Blark Venn-Quarter. He had a liberal view of most deviant activity, but if credits passed between beings, you’d best make sure he got a cut of the action. And he didn’t do second chances. If you cheated the system and got caught, he’d order a swift and fatal punishment.

Five flaming barrels dotted the plaza. Each burned brighter than the dull sun and belched thick smoke into the gloomy air. They were still on the right side of lunchtime, but the light had started to fade early today. Sparks plunged her hands into her pockets and pulled her shoulders into her neck. She made a beeline for Faz Went.

Greeta saw her first and nudged Faz Went. He turned with a smile, which fell the second he laid eyes on her. His shoulders slumped, and he inhaled with a rattlesnake hiss. “What’s wrong?”

Sparks had chewed the inside of her cheek from Mac’s bar to the courtyard. She’d opened a slimy gash, which she probed with her tongue. Her voice echoed around the square. “What’s wrong?” Several more beings turned to watch. Drawing lungfuls of the cold Acoolter air, she got a little closer and threw her arm back in the direction she’d come from. “Mac.”

“Huh?”

“Mac’s what’s wrong. He’s—”

A squadron of red fighter jets streaked overhead. Nine of them, they flew in a square formation. Each vessel had a long thin nose and two wings pointing back and away from their cockpits. They painted Y silhouettes against the fading light and drew twin purple jet trails across the gloomy sky. Each fighter carried a large mech clipped to their undersides. Sparks’ mouth hung open. “They look like they’re coming for war.” Like when she and Reyes had flown into their final mission, Sparks in the Arrowhead with Reyes hanging beneath in her twenty-metre-tall power suit.

“Nah.” Faz Went shook his head and rattled again. “They’re probably taking the mechs for a run out on the plains. All that unpopulated space makes for a great testing site.”

The last of the fighters vanished from view. Faz Went turned his long palms to the gloomy sky. “You were saying something about Mac?”

“Mac!” Sparks stamped her foot. “He’s only gone and—”

The skittering of claws against the rocky ground closed in on Sparks. Hat’s mouth stretched wide, his tongue lolled out, and his legs were a blur. She held out her arms. The small furball leaped without missing a step and slammed into her chest, sending her back a pace and smothering her with an explosion of his familiar fresh-damp reek. She locked her arm around him before he could lick her face, but it didn’t stop him trying. Pulling her head away from his furious enthusiasm, she smiled despite herself.

Faz Went nodded at Hat. “Hard to be cross with him around.”

She laughed, but it died in her throat, stolen from her by the heavy shadow spilling across the courtyard. A massive triangular cruiser flew past. Red like the fighters carrying the mech. On most planets, just the presence of this ship would be a declaration of war.

Faz Went shrugged. “Mac?”

“I can’t hide it from Reyes anymore.”

“What’s happened?”

“Mac talked about me to another being. They accosted me in his bar.”

“Accosted?”

“Two heavies and a little fucker”—she held her left hand at her head height to show the size of the being—“who looked like a cross between a fly and bourtraz.”

Faz Went smirked.

She stamped her foot. “You think it’s funny?”

“No. What did they want?”

“They offered for me to compete in their droneball tournament.”

“And they knew you played because of Mac?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah.”

“But they didn’t hurt you?”

“Like I said, he only had two thugs with him.”

Faz Went smirked again. “He’d need an army and then some, right? What was the offer?”

“If I win, I’ll get enough credits to never have to work again. For Reyes to never have to work again.”

“Then what’s the problem. You worried you won’t win?”

“No.”

Faz Went tilted his head to the side.

Sparks stroked Hat. “I mean, I don’t think so.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“They said they’d still pay me.”

“I’m struggling to see the issue.”

“They’ll still pay me, but if I don’t win, Reyes and I will have to do three missions for them.”

“Missions?”

“Similar to those we did for the Shadow Order.”

“Which Reyes won’t want to do?”

Sparks might not have spoken about the simulation, but Faz Went knew her well enough to get a sense of Reyes’ state. She shook her head. “She can’t do that work again. At least not at the moment.”

“And you can’t refuse the payment for the missions and walk away after the tournament?”

“No. If I commit, I’ll get paid, but I’m agreeing to their terms.”

Faz Went warmed his hands on the fire before tucking them beneath his armpits. “So what will you do?”

“Mac’s shown me I can’t be anonymous forever.”

“So you won’t be able to keep hustling for credits …”

“Not in his bar. And maybe not in the spaceport at all. It took a long time to find this place. How long before we find somewhere else where they don’t know the Shadow Order? We might have no other choice than to pick up missions again.”

“And you probably won’t get another chance to win a droneball tournament like this. Maybe you should take the offer?”

“And when I win, maybe it’ll be an atonement for screwing up our final mission.”

The back end of the cruiser vanished from sight, a collection of smaller ships following it like scavengers looking for scraps.

Sparks removed the credits she’d won in Mac’s bar. She winced as her stomach tightened when another flash of some other being’s desperation snapped through her like an electric shock.

The eyebrow-less porcelain skin above Faz Went’s right eye lifted.

“I’m okay.” Sparks shoved the card towards him. Just an old war wound giving me grief. There were few beings she trusted in this galaxy. And none she’d tell about her gift.

Faz Went handed off the credit card to Greeta. She ran towards Blark Venn-Quarter’s tower block. “We won’t charge you any commission this week.”

“Thank you.”

“And I’m guessing you don’t want me to send a kickback to Mac?”

“No, send him the credits.”

“Huh?”

“I fried his bar’s electrics when I left. That’s going to cost him a small fortune.”

“A Thrystian scorned …”

“He’s lucky he’s still alive.”

“I think you should enter the tournament.”

Sparks tensed. “You do?”

“It’s the opportunity you need. Both you and Reyes. This isn’t a life for someone like you. You’ve been scratching around to earn a living for too long.”

“If I go …” Sparks coughed to clear her throat, her words weakening before she’d even asked. “Will you come with me? Other than Reyes …” Her heart twisted. “The old Reyes, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have by my side. You can read the heartbeat of a place like no other being I know. I reckon I’ll be needing that on a strange planet. I’ll pay you from my winnings.”

“Winnings? Not earnings?”

“You’ve seen me play droneball. I won’t be doing their missions.”

Faz Went laughed.

“And you’ve cleaned credits for me every week without fail for years. I never lose.”

“You don’t need to pay me.”

“We all need to make a living, Faz.”

“And what about Reyes?”

“What’s the point of stressing her out? If all goes according to plan, I’ll be coming home with our retirement fund. I owe her that.”

“So you keep telling me.”

Sparks would talk to him about the mission one of these days. About how she’d blocked the tunnel leading into the hive and prevented Reyes from getting through. How she went it alone and nearly died. How were it not for Reyes, she would have died.

“Where are the games being held?”

“Stargart.”

Faz Went’s already tight lips pulled even tighter.

“Something I said?”

“I just wish you’d told me that before I agreed to go.”

“You want to change your mind?”

“No. It’s fine.”

Sparks rested her hand on the back of his forearm. “Thank you, Faz. You’re a good friend.”

CHAPTER 7

Sparks flew over Stargart’s desert plains, the outside heat putting a strain on the cockpit’s temperature control. Hat sat on her lap, and Faz Went rode shotgun, his knees bent up to his ears and his head stooped because of the low roof. The Arrowhead, her trusty ship, jet-black and repaired to as good as new after the crash on their final mission. Although, if she screwed up this time, she wouldn’t have Reyes and her mech to stop her from burning to a crisp. She twisted as Amelia’s final screams rang through her mind. The ship wobbled.

“You okay?” Faz Went rattled a subdued hiss because of his cramped posture.

“Yep.” Besides, she didn’t need Reyes this time. She’d have her feet on the ground in a droneball booth. She could win this tournament in her sleep. “I left her a letter.”

Faz Went twisted in Sparks’ direction. “A letter?”

They could have been passing over the same stretch of desert for all Sparks knew. Miles of golden sand beneath them. It stretched away on all sides, only broken by the small clusters of large rodents. “Reyes. I left her a letter.”

“You told her what you were doing?”

“No.” Sparks laughed. “Just that I’d be away for a few days. And that I’d taken Hat with me.”

The small furball bristled in her lap.

“I told her I had to help a friend.”

“Am I going to face the wrath of an angry Reyes?”

“She doesn’t know which friend, and for obvious reasons, I’ve never told her about you.”

“And you’re hoping the letter will make her feel calm about this whole situation?”

“No. I know it won’t. But at least it’ll explain my absence. Besides, she’s not been calm for a long time. And better furious than anxious, right? It’ll give her some agency over her discomfort.” Faz Went’s attention burned into the side of Sparks’ face, but she continued staring out of the window into sandy oblivion.

She gasped and pointed. “Finally!” The dome she’d seen in her mind’s eye when she’d touched the communicator in Mac’s bar. It covered an entire city, but stood as no more than a pimple on the barren landscape. Thousands of buildings all crammed in together, the place glowed as if in competition with the blinding sun. “You know, this place reminds me of Acoolter.”

“It’s nothing like Acoolter.”

“A solitary city on an otherwise abandoned planet …”

“Acoolter’s rocky plains are dangerous at night.”

“Just a bit.”

“But they have nothing on the death zone.”

“The what now?”

“It’s what they call the desert here. The only breathable air on this planet is beneath that dome. The second you step outside, you start dying because there’s not enough oxygen in the atmosphere.”

Sparks leaned too close to her window, the heat radiating from the glass screen like the front of an oven. She pointed at a cluster of small critters. They were about the same size as Hat. “They seem to do all right.”

“Stall rats. They breathe quickly and are super efficient at pulling the oxygen from the air and expelling all the crap before it reaches their lungs. They’re filled with close to pure oxygen. It’s so rich in their blood that eating their meat is an almost intoxicating experience. They’re a delicacy on Stargart. Anyway, the unbreathable air is only one of the many things that makes Stargart one of the most hostile planets I’ve ever visited. It’s hotter than hell, and you can’t see it from here, but half the desert is made up of quicksand. The stall rats are so light they don’t sink.”

“And you’re only telling me this now?”

“Would it have made a difference? It’s not like there are any other droneball tournaments.”

The city had what looked like a main commercial strip that ran the width of the dome. It had buildings sprawling away from it on both sides. It stretched longer than Acoolter’s spaceport and was lined with casinos, hotels, bars, nightclubs, brothels … A thousand ways to spend credits, and probably a thousand more when they got to the ground. The sprawl of buildings on either side ran all the way to the dome’s edge. Every building glowed and flashed like a teenage fighter pilot’s first ship. Tacky. Garish. Cheap. “This place is enough to give anyone a seizure.”

Faz Went watched the city through narrowed eyes. “You get used to it.”

Sparks lowered their altitude, following the navigation system to their landing spot. As they drew closer, the beings on the main street turned from blobs to individuals. Some signs on the larger buildings became legible. A casino called Balzaar’s Palace. Dwarfed by its neighbour, the largest one on the strip, its name emblazoned across its front: Oblivion. One of the many sets of doors for Tromp Flowers burst open, driven wide by a scuffle. Several heavies dressed in tuxedos laid into a being smaller than Sparks. They kicked him down their front stairs and beat him limp in the road before finishing him with a blaster shot to the face, his execution evidenced by a splatter of luminous yellow blood on the road. “Wow!”

The heavies went through the dead creature’s pockets and pulled out several credit cards. Faz Went sighed and rattled. “When will they learn? You don’t steal from casinos. Especially not ones here.”

The tuxedo-wearing bouncers returned to Tromp Flowers, the doors closing behind them, the dead being now surrounded by a pool of its own blood. “It looks like a wild place.”

“It is. Many factions vie for power in Stargart.”

“Like Acoolter in the old days?”

“Yep. Every gang imposes their own laws on their own properties. Sometimes they clash with one another, and things can get wild.”

“You think those running the tournament will keep us safe?”

“Who knows? But there’s one thing for certain; on Stargart there are always credits to be made.”

“And that’s why I’m here.” Sparks’ navigation continued leading her closer to the dome.

“Shit!” She threw the Arrowhead to the right.

Hat fell from her lap and hit the floor with a yelp.

The ship bursting from the other side missed her by centimetres.

Her fighter wobbled in the vessel’s wake.

She turned back towards the wild ship. “Watch where you’re going.”

“Sparks!”

Five identical ships chased the first.

Sparks turned left and right, avoiding the pursuing fighters.

Faz Went grabbed Hat and pulled him close.

All five behind her, Sparks’ cheeks bulged with her exhale. “What’s happening?”

“Just get inside the dome.”

They broke through the protective force field, the city even brighter on the inside. It dazzled Sparks, so she flicked on the ship’s autopilot and blinked until she’d regained her sight. “No wonder they didn’t see me.”

The dome acted as a two-way mirror. Exiting ships only saw their own reflection and the glow from the ground, doubling the glare of every one of the city’s millions of lights.

Leaving the flying to the ship, Sparks slapped her lap for Hat to jump up again and peered from the window. Like Acoolter’s spaceport, beings of every shape, size, and species walked the main strip. Some of them took straight lines like they had somewhere to be, while others stumbled along wobbly paths with seemingly little purpose other than to win their battle against their own balance.

“This place is a mess.” Faz Went tapped the glass beside him. “They spend all their time in those shitty casinos, hoping they might win enough credits to change their lives. That they’ll be the one being to beat the house and they’ll leave with their pockets full. But after a few days in this place, many of them have forgotten why they even came here and what day it is.”

“Because of the booze and drugs?”

“They’re bad, but it’s more because of the dome. That mirror makes it feel like it’s the middle of the day all the time. It confuses and disorientates the punters. Keeps them awake for longer and makes them empty their pockets quicker. They end up skint and driven mad by insomnia. Half of them end up running out into the desert just to get away from here.”

“Damn.”

“This is your last chance to change your mind.”

Sparks rubbed her stinging eyes with the tips of her long fingers and shook her head. “We’re here now. I need to see this through. Besides, I’ve been to more hostile places than this. I’ve come here to make credits, not to mix with the locals or get dragged into chasing losing bets.”

The fighter banked right towards the tallest hotel on the main strip. Mirrored liked the dome, its name ran down its side, each letter about twenty metres tall. “The Grandest. They obviously have a high opinion of themselves.”

“Go big or go home.”

“Do you think we should go home?”

“I’m here for whatever you decide, Sparks. You’re not intimidated by the place, and you came here for the opportunity. As far as I can tell, that opportunity hasn’t changed. You still think you’re good enough at droneball to compete?”

“I’ll do more than compete.” Sparks stroked Hat as her ship came in to land, hovering a few inches from the Grandest’s roof.

Soldiers dressed in white ran to the ship and surrounded it. Each one a different species, but all of them broad and, on first glance, fighting fit. They carried rifles in both hands and aimed the ends at the ground. Sparks squirmed in her seat. “What are they doing?”

“They’re bodyguards. They’ll escort us to where we need to go.”

“And we can trust them?”

“We don’t have a choice.”

The Arrowhead’s cockpit opened from the front. Hot dry air flooded in, and Sparks’ breath caught in her throat. “I thought you said it was hotter than hell outside the dome?”

“It is. This is as cool as they can get it inside.”

“This is cool?”

“Well, it’s not hell.”

“I’m yet to be convinced of that.”

Faz Went unfolded from his cramped seat and stepped from the cockpit onto the hot landing pad. Sparks followed him a second later, Hat beneath her right arm. She wouldn’t ever go outside the dome to find out, but if the wind blew in the desert, the force field shielded Stargart’s residents against it, the baked air as still as a liontaur waiting to pounce. Sparks tugged on her sweating collar and pushed her glasses back up her slick nose.

A three-eyed soldier with red skin and a fin running from their brow to the base of their neck reached for Hat, but Sparks slapped their hand away.

Several of their colleagues levelled their blasters on her. She pulled Hat closer. “You’re not taking him.”

The guard stepped back with their hands raised. They glanced over their shoulder at a being dressed in black, who nodded. The others lowered their weapons, and the three-eyed soldier dipped their head in deference. “I’m sorry for the confusion. Now, please allow us to dock your ship and take you to your accommodation. I’d imagine you’d like a rest after your journey.”

Eight soldiers formed a protective ring around Sparks, Faz Went, and Hat. They led them across the shiny landing pad towards a door that accessed the building. Ships landed and took off. Other soldiers tended to a busy stream of arrivals and departures.

The hairs stood up on Sparks’ arms and the back of her neck. The soldiers were busy, but hidden machines watched them. Many, many machines. Maybe they were a part of the security detail. And who wouldn’t use surveillance drones? But whatever they were being used for, they were watching their every move.

CHAPTER 8

For the past few hours, Sparks lay on her bed with her hands behind her head, her fingers linked. A soft duvet on a firm mattress. The pillows held their form, but had enough give to provide cushioned support. As far as beds and hotel rooms went, the Grandest lived up to its name. She followed the gold-leaf swirls and patterns on the ornamental ceiling. Her eyes raced along the flowing lines and frilled kicks. They skirted around the ceiling rose with a large golden chandelier hanging from its centre.

Hat next to her, Faz Went on his bed on the other side of the enormous room. Maybe Sparks should have got some shut-eye until they needed her, but how could she relax under the scrutiny of tens of hidden machines? The buzz of their collective presence thrummed through her skull. And she could do nothing about it. Would it help to tell Faz Went? Reveal to him and the machines that she had digital intuition? Hat pressed closer to her. The only being in the galaxy that knew her secret.

Faz Went picked through a basket of complimentary nuts.

Sparks flinched when a sharp sting hit the side of her face. She sat up with her hand on her right cheek. The nut lay on her duvet. “What was that for?”

Hat snaffled up Faz Went’s projectile.

A twinkle lit Faz Went’s green eyes. He raised his broad shoulders in a shrug. “I thought Hat would catch it.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Surely you’re getting bored too?”

Someone knocked on the door. “Maybe they heard you.”

Faz Went moved to answer it, but Sparks held a hand in his direction. “Wait!”

She jumped from her bed, grabbed her blaster from the small side table on which she’d left it, and shoved Faz Went aside. She pressed the blaster against the door at head height, pulled it open a crack, and lowered her aim. A guard, shorter than her and dressed in white with skin as pale as his uniform, he had a thick round snout that dominated his small face. He spoke with a nasally snort. “Time for registration, Miss Sparks.”

Had the surveillance drones seen they were getting restless and told him to knock at that point? Had they recorded Sparks’ paranoia when she answered the door? She holstered her blaster and raised her eyebrows at Faz Went. “I’ll register later, thanks.”

The guard wedged his little foot in the door’s gap.

“I can shatter your stubby little hoof with one slam.”

“I’d rather you didn’t. For both our sakes.” His hands behind his back, the guard straightened, the action driving a snort from his large snout. “I’m afraid you must register now.”

“Can I bring my friend?”

“Yes, but he’ll have to wait in the spectators’ area.”

“They.”

“Huh?”

“I’m bringing my pet too.”

He lowered his snout. “Very well. They will have to wait in the spectators’ area.”

Sparks led them from the room, Hat scuttling out behind her. Faz Went stepped into the lavish hallway last and closed the heavy door behind him with a click. The sound painted an illusion of privacy. How many guests fell for it?

The hallways had white walls, the white ceiling as ornate as the one in their bedroom. Every door had been crafted from solid natural wood. The thick dark blue carpet ate their steps.

The piggy little guard stopped at the elevator’s gold-plated doors and pressed the call button. They opened a second later with a ping!

They all entered, and the guard snorted while nodding at the gold-plated panel. “Press the button between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors. It’s got a fingerprint scanner, so it will only work for those competing in the games, and once you press it, it will take you straight to the game hall without stopping for anyone else.”

Faz Went leaned over the small snouty creature, his gills hissing with his inhale. “And that’s necessary?”

Backing into the wall, the guard looked from Faz Went’s porcelain face to his chest and back to his face. At least twice his height. “It is, Mr. Went. It’s better to make sure we don’t put the competitors in small spaces together. Some of them can get a little—”

“Aggressive.”

The guard snorted. “Right.”

Faz Went raised his brow at Sparks. She bit back her smile and pressed the fingerprint scanner. “You say there’s a spectators’ area?”

“There is.”

“How many beings are watching?”

“At registration? Anywhere from about three hundred to a thousand. Certainly at the beginning.”

“I thought this was a private event?”

“The spectators won’t be watching the games. We have a select few clients who pay handsomely for that exclusive privilege.”

“Which is where the prize credits come from?”

The guard snorted. “And the spectators won’t know who gets through and who doesn’t. Those who are eliminated are held securely and looked after until the end of the games. Them and their entourage. We treat them well, but they aren’t let out again until the winners have left Stargart. Only a select few will be able to track your progress from start to finish.”

“So they could track me down?”

“If they cared that much, which they don’t. These are some of the wealthiest beings in the galaxy. Their anonymity is much more important to them than becoming the hottest droneball player’s groupie.”

Sparks folded her arms across her chest, and Faz Went smirked at her. And what did it matter, even if they blew her cover at the end of this, she’d be telling Reyes what happened either way.

“There are some rules.” The guard snorted again. “You need to live up to your end of the deal and respect the anonymity of all the competitors. This is a private event. Any press is bad for them, which means it’s bad for us, which means it’s bad for you.”

“Of course. It’s the only reason I agreed to attend.”

“You must be on time for every event. The people paying to watch these games expect punctuality. Even a second late and you’ll be disqualified.”

“Sounds reasonable. And I won’t be doing anything else on this shithole of a planet.”

The guard bristled. “And the judges’ decision is final. It will be fair and considered, but it is most certainly not open for debate.”

Sparks bit back every one of her sceptical retorts. She ran her tongue along the healing cut on the inside of her cheek.

“Okay?”

Both Faz Went’s and Hat’s attention on her, Sparks nodded. “Okay. No arguing with the officials.”

“That will be a problem?”

“No more than usual.”

“I’m not sure that answers my question.”

“I’m not sure it does either.”

Ping!

The elevator’s doors opened onto a grand hall. The white noise of collective chatter flooded into the small space. The high-ceilinged registration area contained many species Sparks had seen before, and many more she hadn’t. Some flew above the crowd. Some crawled. Many walked. Bipedal. Quadrupedal … all the way up to millipedal and beyond.

The guard snorted. “Two hundred and fifty competitors. Amongst this lot is the winner who’ll walk away with it all.” The guard stepped into the hall and beckoned to Hat and Faz Went. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the spectators’ area.”

They left Sparks alone. Her mouth hanging open, she stepped into the hall. The elevator ran through the centre of the glass wall that made up the back of the room. Doors on either side of the elevator’s column gave access to spectators’ benches, which ran diagonally from the floor to the ceiling twenty metres above them. They had space for well over a thousand onlookers.

The loud room made Sparks’ ears ring, and her brain buzzed with her digital intuition. How many drones watched her now?

She tapped her blaster at her hip and walked through the crowd. A small snouty being made a beeline for her. The same species as the guard, she twisted away from it at the last minute. It’s hard shoulder-barge, intended for her, caught thin air, and she spun on the spot. The little beast squealed and threw her a wild hand gesture.

Many of the larger creatures paid Sparks no mind. Too small to be competition. And she’d take that all day long. Better to be underestimated …

Another being with a dark scowl headed her way. About four feet tall and slim. Hot pink, the bipedal insectoid had four arms. It tried to shove Sparks, but she moved aside and stuck out her leg.

The creature fell to its knees, bared its pointed little teeth, and hissed. The wings on its back rubbed together in a furious blur, the buzzing turning the room quiet. Every being watched the downed insectoid as it got to its feet, bowed its head, and scuttled away through the crowd.

A series of loud claps filled the silence. A human approached Sparks. Sneers of derision watched him pass. “Bravo!” His voice echoed in the room. “You seem like someone I could get on with. That little insect got exactly what they deserved. You don’t take any shit.” He looked over both shoulders. “And why would you? You’re in a room full of moralless reprobates.”

The surrounding creatures responded with a symphony of snarls, growls, hisses, snorts, and squeals. Some wheezed like punctured lungs while others hiccoughed a furious staccato.

Just over five feet tall, the human had tanned skin and brown cropped hair. He had a winning smile filled with pearly white teeth. The room’s attention still on him, he spoke for the benefit of every being there. “Pretty hostile in here, isn’t it?” He thrust his hand in Sparks’ direction. “Juan Ortega.”

Sparks’ left him hanging. She scanned the spectators’ area at the back of the room. There were too many beings for her to locate Faz Went and Hat.

Juan Ortega kept his hand out. “Not all us humans are bad, you know?”

She knew. Sparks raised her hand, but Juan Ortega lunged at her and shoved her to the floor. Crack! He slammed his palm into the face of the charging being. About six feet tall, it had a long, avian nose, shortened from where Juan Ortega drove it into its brain.

The being fell to the floor, its life leaving it with a series of spasming twitches.

About fifteen guards surrounded Juan Ortega. They closed in and fixed on him down the barrels of their blasters.

White blood spilled from the dead being’s nose. Juan Ortega, hands raised, nodded at it. “Check its hand. Look at what it was carrying.”

One guard lowered their weapon and dropped to the corpse. They unfolded the dead being’s right hand and retrieved a large hypodermic needle. Raising it aloft, they removed a small machine from their pocket and pressed the needle’s tip against it.

The machine’s sated thirst spread a superficial relief through Sparks. It was doing what it had been made for.

Juan Ortega kept his hands above his head. “I guarantee you there’s more than sugar water in that needle.”

“I still say you should kill him.” A female mandulu broke through the crowd. Only one of her horns had been snapped off. The other had grown across her face, leaving puckered scar tissue where her right eye used to be. The six-and-a-half-foot-tall beast pointed at Juan Ortega. “We should feel safe here.”

“We should feel safe here. I agree with my beautiful opponent.” He winked at her.

Sparks snorted a laugh and covered her mouth.

The mandulu fixed her with its one good eye.

Seb Zodo had taught Sparks many things. Principal among them being how every mandulu had a glass jaw. She pushed her spectacles up her nose and returned the giant’s fury. Come at her and she’d drop her like a sack of shit.

The mandulu turned back to Juan Ortega. “I say we kill you too. An eye for an eye.”

Sparks giggled again.

Juan came to life as the centre of attention. “Now, now, princess unicorn. I know you must feel intimidated by my presence.”

The mandulu snorted.

“But at least allow me the chance to humiliate you in a game of droneball rather than out here.”

The guard with the needle stood up. The red screen of his small device sent a shudder through Sparks. “It’s poison.”

Juan Ortega turned his palms to the high ceiling. “Of course it is.” He bowed at the mandulu. “And for making you feel safe.” He winked. “You’re welcome.”

The guard’s shout echoed in the room. “Now, everyone form organised lines in front of the five registration tables. Register and then leave. If we see any being so much as look at another competitor the wrong way, we’ll drop you where you stand.”

“Now, now.” The room turned back to Juan Ortega. “Don’t discriminate against those who can’t look at beings in the right way.”

The mandulu turned her back on him and stormed off, cutting a path through the crowd on her way to the registration table farthest away from them.

Sparks joined the line behind Juan Ortega. “What was that about? Why am I a target here?”

“You’re not special.”

“Thanks!”

“You’re small.”

“Thanks again.” She tutted. “I never knew that. Having had this body my entire life and all …”

“You should take comfort in that. The last thing you want in here is a reputation.”

“Not very good at taking your own advice?”

“I can back up the bravado. Anyway”—Juan Ortega swiped his hand through the air like batting away a fly—“there are competitors here with so little self-belief they’ll try to kill every being in the room rather than compete against them. Or at least thin the field a little. That way, they stand a better chance of winning the credits.”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“About as exhausting as being shit at droneball.”

“And why did you stick up for me?”

“I hate cheats. I intend to win this the right way.”

Sparks held her long hand towards him. “It’s Sparks, by the way. And thanks.”

“It’s my pleasure, Sparks. Nice to meet you, and I hope to see you in the final.”

“You can bank on it.”

Juan Ortega smiled. “Now let’s get registered and get the hell out of here. If you ask me, tomorrow’s games can’t come soon enough.”

CHAPTER 9

The lights from outside flooded into their room. Flickering, erratic, and multicoloured, they played out on every surface, the ornate ceiling a blank canvas on which they danced. The constantly shifting garish glow added to the buzz in Sparks’ head from the hidden surveillance drones. They were in the walls. In the ceiling. Outside the window. So well hidden they were invisible, but they were there … always watching. Maybe they spied on every competitor. They needed to protect their assets, and after the hostility in the registration hall, who could blame them for being a little paranoid? Maybe they could pre-empt another violent outburst? Make sure their assets made it to the games for which they received such high compensation. Yet, despite the constant activity, she smiled to herself. “Did you hear what Juan Ortega said to that mandulu?”

Faz Went grunted.

Sparks sat on the edge of her bed, Hat beside her. “What? I mean, sure, he’s a character, but he seemed on the level. Cocky as hell, but I like someone with spirit.”

“You could call it that.” Faz Went unzipped his travel bag and pulled out two rolls of black fabric.

“What would you call it, then?”

He stood up. “I dunno. Maybe I got a bad vibe from him because he’s human.”

“Reyes is human!”

“There are always exceptions to the rule.”

“But not in Juan Ortega’s case?”

Faz Went deflated with a sigh. His gills rattled, and his broad shoulders sagged. He scratched his porcelain skin and sighed for a second time. “I dunno, Sparks. Maybe he’s on the level like you say. I dunno. I’m exhausted. I think we should both get some sleep.”

“What time is it?”

“Night-time.” Faz Went walked to the first of the two large windows. He let out a roll of black fabric and pressed a small button on the sheet’s bottom corner. Thwip! It snapped rigid. Flat save for the lip formed at the hooked top. He lifted it from the bottom and hung it in front of the window. When he stepped back, the blind had blocked all the light.

He took a second roll of fabric to the other window. “On a long journey, you never know when it’s night or day, so the ship’s lights are programmed to give you the cycles you need. Dim at night so everyone can sleep, and bright during the day. In a place like this, you have to create your own night and day. They certainly have no interest in doing it for you.”

“Hence no curtains? Even somewhere as glamorous as this.”

Thwip!

Faz Went hooked the second blind over the top of the window. It turned the room pitch black. “Even somewhere as glamorous as this. Insomniacs spend credits quicker, go mad quicker, and leave quicker. Those with the mental and financial wherewithal to get themselves a ship out of here do that, but, like I’ve already said, many just walk out into the desert. Creditless and desperate. Anything to escape the madness.”

“Sounds like a ruthless business model.”

“A capitalist’s dream. Maximum efficiency.”

“Maximum profit. Beings’ lives be damned.” Sparks lay on her bed. The darkness amplified her digital intuition. She twitched and twisted, her brain buzzed louder than before, and her skin itched.

“Do what you can to get some sleep.” Faz Went rattled, his deep voice filling the room. “You’re going to need it.”

Easy for him to say. Sparks turned on her side but remained irritated by the machines watching her. Through the lightbulbs. Through the sockets. Through tiny little pinprick holes in the walls. She rolled onto her back again and rested her hand on her blaster at her hip. She focused on her breaths. She locked onto Faz Went’s hissing rattle. In and out. In and out. The lure of sleep tugged on her weary form. Let the cameras watch. Hopefully, if there were any issues in the night like they’d had in the registration hall, they’d prove their worth and sound an alarm.

* * *

Sparks woke with a gasp. She sat bolt upright, and Hat jumped beside her.

Tick-tick! Tick-tick!

Her blaster in her hand, Sparks pointed into the darkness.

Tick-tick! Tick-tick! Tick-tick-tick-tick!

The clacking of tiny legs. Small droids. Tens of the fuckers, crawling into the room. Crawling through her senses.

Thud!

Sparks fell off the bed and hit the floor. The thick carpet cushioned her fall.

A rattling snort on the other side of the room. “Sparks? What’s happening?”

Sparks sat up again and cupped her right ear. “Listen!”

Tick-tick-tick!

“Shit! Assassin droids.” Faz Went rattled with his quickened breaths.

“How do you know that?”

“What else would they be?”

Tick-tick-tick-tick.

One crossed the ceiling towards her. Sparks tuned into it, but what would she tell Faz Went? A fortunate shot? Blind luck? Digital intuition. No chance. She’d not even told Reyes. The droid stopped directly above her. She sent a green blast into the ceiling. It lit up the room with an explosion of light. A neon strobe that picked out the tens of small forms flooding across their room.

“What the hell?” Faz Went rattled again. “How many of them are there?”

Too many to track. “Shh!” Sparks pressed her finger to her lips. “I can hear where they are if you keep the noise down.” Better than telling him the truth. She sensed the creepy little fuckers. They crawled through her senses like they scuttled across their ceiling.

Another green blast in the darkness. Sparks nailed another droid. It hit the thick carpet with a muted thud!

She shot another.

Thud!

And another.

Thud!

Every shot a direct hit.

“That’s some next-level hearing you have there, Sparks. You sure you’ve not got echolocation skills?”

A cluster of droids scuttled across the room, homing in on his voice. “Where are you, Faz?”

“Here.”

“They’re getting close.”

Faz Went loosed several crimson blasts, which bathed the room in a blood-red glow and sent plaster raining down in chunks. He missed with every shot, the light sending long shadows stretching away from their spindly bodies.

Sparks hit the three droids closest to him. Three thuds against the thick carpet.

Faz Went shot again.

Sparks ducked the wild blast. “Jeez! Watch your aim.”

Four or five droids closed in on Sparks. She took off towards the closest curtain just as they dropped, landing where she’d been. She whacked her shin on a small table. A nauseating pain ran up the front of her leg, and she fell to the floor. Her glasses flew from her face. The droids skittered across the carpet towards her.

The small button on the rigid blind glowed Red. A blurred dot without her glasses. She dived at it and slammed into the blind head-first. Her ears ringing, her world swaying, she groped for the button and missed on her initial attempt.

The arachnids drew close.

She pressed it on her second try.

Thwip!

The curtain turned limp and fell away from the window, flooding the room with the strip’s garish glow. A hundred or more identical small black droids clung to the ceiling. A cross between a spider and a scorpion. Each one about the size of a tarantulsa. Each one equipped with a hypodermic needle stinger.

Faz Went turned the room red with his blasts. He shot the droids, their small black bodies raining down with more shattered plaster. His teeth bared, he shot again and again. “You bastards!”

The executed droids hit the thick carpet with the same muted thuds. Sparks’ head spun. The lights. The noise. The full extent of their predicament revealed. Her intuition went into overdrive.

Sparks shot the small ground army, blowing them back one after the other. They twisted and turned, dodged and shimmied. But she nailed every one. The best droneball player in the galaxy, even with her head in spiralling chaos, she’d take down ten times their number.

Hat whined, and Sparks whipped her blaster towards him. A droid dropped from the ceiling, stinger first. She shot it mid-fall and sent its heavy little body to the other side of the room.

Too many above Faz Went. Sparks shot them, one after the other. Her brain itched with the threat to her own life, but Faz Went needed her help more. She took down droid after droid, nailing them on the other side of the room. The skittering of tiny pinprick legs joined the warning buzz inside her skull. She shot three more above Faz Went’s head. The threat subdued for now, she turned to the ones close to her.

A chunk of ceiling came away and broke apart against the floor. Several droids skittered from the rubble. Sparks shot them all. One, two, three, four, five.

One left. It raced towards her. Sparks blasted it and paused, fighting for breath.

Faz Went rattled on the other side of the room. He kept his gun raised, aiming it in different directions in case there were more.

Sparks got to her feet and brushed off the plaster.

“Is that all of them?”

“Yeah.”

Faz Went’s eyes narrowed.

“I mean, I think so.” She made a show of looking around the room. “Can you see any more?”

“You don’t have your glasses on.”

Sparks dropped to her knees and patted the carpet until she found them.

“Wow, what would you have been like if you’d had them on?”

“I could hear them. I didn’t need to see.”

“That’s some shot you have on you.” Faz Went laughed. “Good job I’m staying with the best droneball player in the galaxy.”

Sparks winked. “You’d better believe it.” She lifted a droid by its leg. Clear liquid dripped from its needle stinger. “Any way of telling who sent these?”

Inspecting one himself, Faz Went’s lip lifted in a sneer. “I doubt it. And if that nonsense in the registration hall is anything to go by, it could be from any of those beings. Seems like you already have a lot of enemies.”

Crack!

The door flung open.

Sparks and Faz Went turned their blasters on the four guards. Three of them looked useful. Each one over six feet tall and carrying a plasma rifle. They were accompanied by the small pallid creature who’d taken them to registration that morning. He carried a blaster and snorted. “What’s going on? What have you done to the room?”

“What have we done to the room?” Faz Went strode towards the small being and grabbed it by its front. It squealed when he lifted it from the floor.

The three other guards aimed their rifles at Faz Went. Sparks kept her blaster levelled on them. The sweat from the fight had left her skin tacky and her eyes sore. She fought to regulate her breaths. To calm her pulse. Steady. Cold. Ready to take them down. Intuition or not, she could still land a single shot between each of their eyes.

Faz Went’s gills rattled like a bag of angry snakes. He shook the piggy little guard, his stubby legs swinging beneath him. “What were you doing outside? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting us?” He held one of the assassin droids so the tip of its stinger hung just centimetres from his snout. “Do you like the idea of being stuck by this?”

“No.” The guard grunted and did his best to pull away from the dripping threat. “I’m sorry, Mr. Went. I didn’t know.”

The three other guards kept their rifles raised. Sparks kept her blaster on them.

The piggy guard squealed when Faz Went dropped him. He held his fat little hands towards his colleagues. “Lower your weapons.” And then to Faz Went, “I’m sorry. We’ll find you another room.”

Sparks shook her head. “Don’t bother.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not worth it.”

“What isn’t?”

“This competition. We’re leaving. If you can’t keep me and my friends safe, I don’t want any part of it.”

The piggy guard raised his finger on his right hand. “You can’t do that.”

“I can do what the hell I like.”

“We made an agreement.”

“That agreement didn’t include me being a target for assassin droids.”

“No, it didn’t.” The pig tilted his head to the side. “But it didn’t protect you against that either. This is a competitive tournament. You saw that when you were in the registration hall.”

“You can’t keep us here. We’re going.”

The small guard sighed.

“What?”

“I didn’t want to do this.”

“What?”

“We have agents on Acoolter right now.”

Icy dread plummeted through Sparks’ stomach.

“They have a clear line of sight on your small house. They watched Reyes go out for a run earlier. She’s quite the athlete.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t make us.”

Sparks kicked over a small table and pointed her blaster at the piggy guard. “You fuckers.”

His voice calm, his chunky little hands raised. “Please, Miss Sparks, stay here, and we’ll try harder to protect you.”

Faz Went placed his hands on his hips. “The agreement’s to compete in the games, right?”

The piggy guard nodded. “And to remain on Stargart until the games are over.”

“There’s nothing that says we have to stay in your accommodation.”

“Correct.”

“Then we’ll stay here tonight and find our own place in the morning. We can’t trust you to look out for us.”

“Do as you please. We’ll watch the doors for as long as you’re here.”

“Forgive me for not feeling reassured by that.”

The piggy guard glanced from Faz Went to Sparks, grunted, bowed at the waist, and backed out of the room.

The door clicked shut, and Sparks deflated with a sigh. She picked a path through the fallen droids, swiped several of them and most of the chunks of plaster from her bed, and sat down. Hat jumped up beside her. She stroked his soft fur. “There, there.” The room bathed in a garish glow, her shin on fire from where she’d whacked it, and her eyes sore from sweat and fatigue. She shook her head and pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “So much for getting some rest tonight.”

“You sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“Even if I wanted to go to sleep now, I’m not sure I could. You think we can find somewhere to stay tomorrow?”

Faz Went dropped the assassin droid into his bag’s front pocket and zipped it shut. “Let me worry about that. You focus on winning your first droneball game. The sooner this is over and we’re off this planet, the better.”

CHAPTER 10

Sparks entered the elevator. The piggy little guard stood aside and dropped his attention to the floor. She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and pressed the fingerprint scanner button between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors.

Ping!

The guard squealed when she grabbed him by his lapels and launched him into the hallway. He could have jumped back in, but he remained still, his chubby little hands balled into fists. He glared at her over his large snout through tear-filled eyes while the doors closed between them.

The first time she’d smiled since the attack, Sparks leaned against the wall as the elevator dropped towards the registration hall.

The floor numbers lit up with her descent, tracking her progress. Floor number twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen. She kicked off from the wall and stepped closer to the doors. Her feet shoulder-width apart, her jaw tight, her back tense.

Ping!

The vast registration hall appeared even larger when occupied by so few beings. Thirty at the most, they stood in small groups, the buzz of their conversation drifting up towards the high ceiling and dissipating. A massive difference to yesterday’s tidal wave of white noise.

A countdown clock’s red digits dominated the opposite wall. Framed by a red box ten metres tall by twenty metres wide. They had three minutes and twenty-one seconds remaining.

Sparks stepped into the large room.

Ping!

The elevator doors closed. A headache drove a hard pulse through her temples, and her brain buzzed from her lack of sleep. The itch of surveillance came at her from every angle, but what did she expect? They’d been watching the entire time. And they still hadn’t been any help last night.

Bright white lights shone down, and the glare burned her stinging eyes. But better to have this stark consistency than the shifting multicoloured mania that had polluted her first sleepless night on this planet. Hopefully she’d have better luck tonight.

Sparks headed for the registration table in the centre of the hall. Every step sent a heel click whipping around the room, and what had been a low hum of conversation dropped to almost silence. Hardly surprising considering the scene she and Juan Ortega had created yesterday. She’d spent a year on Acoolter and had avoided getting a reputation. Within five minutes of being in this hall, she’d attained a notoriety she’d only be able to shed when she vanished with her winnings.

The one-eyed mandulu stood at the side of the room. The hot pink insectoid she’d shoved over watched on from a corner.

“Sparks!”

She jumped and halted mid-step. The focus of every being in the hall turned on her. Heat smothered her cheeks. She clamped her jaw.

“Sparks!” Juan Ortega waved. “Good to see you!” Although he walked towards her, he continued talking, his voice echoing in the cavernous space. “My god, you look like shit. I’m guessing the lights kept you awake?”

She waited for him to get closer. “Something like that.”

“Routine. That’s the secret to leaving this place with as many marbles with which you came.”

“I didn’t bring any marbles.”

Juan Ortega laughed and swiped his hand through the air. “Neither did I, old girl. Neither did I.”

Beings watched on from the spectators’ area. Far fewer than yesterday, they sat spread out along the benches with space to spare. It would have been a comfort to have Faz Went and Hat nearby, but they needed to find them some safe accommodation. They couldn’t spend another night in this place.

The room’s three remaining walls each had three doors. The other beings had formed in small groups in front of them.

“What room are you competing in?”

“Huh?”

Juan Ortega swept his arm out in front of him. “There’s a game behind each of these doors. Five beings in each game. Your guard should know what room you’re in.”

“I shoved my guard out of the elevator before I came down here.”

Juan Ortega pressed the back of his hand to his nose and snorted a laugh. “That bad, eh?”

“He’s an obnoxious little shit.”

“If that’s your criteria for falling out with other beings, you’re going to have a hard time here.”

“I’m not here to make friends.”

“That’s probably for the best. Come on.” He tugged her right arm. “Let’s find out where you’re going.”

The being on the other side of the registration desk looked like a massive pile of sulphurous rock. The small chair strained under their weight. They glistened in the bright light, their pastel yellow skin covered in a transparent viscous secretion like they were having an allergic reaction. The look on their broad face said don’t fucking ask! Either that or kill me now. Hard to tell, but both were perfectly understandable. They held a microphone in Sparks’ direction, and their deep voice rumbled like rocks rolling down a steel gangway. “Name?”

“Sparks.”

The small black box on the desk lit with a red number three.

“Hey!” Juan Ortega slapped her back, knocking her into the desk and drawing yet more contempt from the slimy geological catastrophe. “I’m in that room too!”

“May the best competitor win.” She offered Juan Ortega her hand, but he left her hanging.

“To be honest, I was kinda hoping we’d meet in the final. It’ll be a shame to part ways so soon. O’well.” Juan Ortega shook her hand. “Let’s queue up. We only have two minutes left.”

Behind Juan Ortega and at the back of the line, Sparks spent her energy by shifting from side to side. The clock on the wall counted down the final five seconds. At zero, a ping shot across the room. Many beings and guards dragged in air through clenched teeth.

“What’s happening?”

Juan Ortega nodded towards the elevator. The doors had opened by about fifteen centimetres. Too narrow for the large being to exit. They closed again, muting the creature’s thuds against the other side.

Those in the room applauded. The guards laughed and shook their heads.

A tall and skinny being with an elongated head, bulbous brow, and black eyes marched across the room, a tablet in their hands. “We all know the rules. You must be on time for every event!”

“Excuse me!” Sparks’ voice whipped around the large room.

The being with the tablet halted, turned towards her, and snapped their eggshell blue head to one side. The rest of the room fell silent.

“This doesn’t seem fair.” Sparks spun her raised finger to show the entire hall.

“You’re one of them, are you?”

“Hear me out. If there are beings paying good credits to watch these games, and I’m guessing they can’t be in more than one place at any one time …”

“Most of them can’t.”

“Well, I don’t mean to tell you how to conduct your business.”

“But you’re going to anyway …”

Juan Ortega flashed a brilliant white smile. “Listen to her. She might be about to offer something insightful.” He leaned closer to Sparks and spoke from the side of his mouth. “Don’t let me down.”

“Well …” Sparks cleared her throat, the attention of the room adding to the itch of surveillance. “Aren’t some of your clients going to be pretty pissed off if they’re all ready to watch the game behind … I dunno …” She stood on her tiptoes before pointing across the room. “Behind door number eight, for example. We have a full complement of competitors, but they only have two. Surely that’ll be a much less satisfying game to watch?”

The one-eyed mandulu stood with one other being by door number eight. “Rate yourself, don’t ya? Anyway, it’s just luck of the draw!”

“I understand where you’re coming from. You’ve certainly had the luck of the draw, and I’m sure you need all the help you can get, but don’t you think this should be a fair competition? Seems a bit rigged, if you ask me.”

“We didn’t ask you.”

The adjudicator raised a halting palm at the mandulu. “So you’re suggesting we even it out a bit?”

Juan Ortega clapped his hands and shot the adjudicator with finger guns. “That’s why you have the tablet and we’re standing in the queues. You don’t get to the top without being the sharpest tool in the box.”

“Two games will have two competitors,” Sparks said. “Some will have three, and ours is the only one with five. How come there are so many beings missing?”

“Because they didn’t sleep with one eye open.”

Sparks turned to Juan Ortega. “Dead?”

“Assassinated before they even had a chance to compete.”

The spider droids skittered through her mind. The one-eyed mandulu remained fixed on her.

Their finger pressed to their ear, the adjudicator nodded several times before they pulled their hand away. “You’re right. You.” They pointed at Sparks and then at the line of three beings behind door number four. “Join them.” The adjudicator crossed the room to another two doors with four beings each and moved one to door number eight and one to door number five.

The crack of the mandulu’s stamping foot whipped around the hall. She glared at Sparks from beneath her furrowed brow. “If you get through to the next round, I’m going to make sure you regret this, you little rat.”

Sparks winked at her. “Maybe you should focus on what you’re doing. I’d hate for you to take your eyes … your eye off the prize.”

Juan Ortega howled with laughter, bending over at the waist.

Thunk!

The nine doors slid open.

Three creatures between Sparks and her room. Between her and the next round. She stepped forwards with them. Her stomach tense, her jaw tight. The best droneball player in the galaxy? That had been easy to believe on Acoolter, but she’d never had to put it to the test. And she’d never played against more than one other competitor. She filled her lungs, her chest swelling as she slid her glasses up her nose and stepped through the door into the dark room. She had to win. For her and for Reyes.

CHAPTER 11

A new experience to play droneball against more than one other being, Sparks entered the booth last. She had just one option left. Unlike a two-player game, where the competitors shared a court, they’d divided this five-player version into lanes. About ten metres from the ground, they accessed each lane via a set of stairs.

The far-right track had been closed off because there were only four competitors today. Sparks climbed the stairs and entered her lane. One of the central two. She had one competitor on her left and two on her right.

The door closed behind her, shutting out the light from the registration hall and throwing her into total darkness. Sparks closed her eyes and focused on her feet. Pull everything down. Her quickening pulse. Her rising panic. She had this. No matter how good, the other competitors didn’t have her skills. Just focus on the game and ignore the ceremony put on for the wealthy spectators.

A spotlight shone on the competitor to Sparks’ far right. Transparent walls between each lane gave her a clear view. A manticolt, it had a single horn on the end of its thick snout. Neon blue skin covered its stocky frame. In a wrestling contest, it would wipe the floor with her, but how well did it shoot?

A deep voice flooded the room from multiple speakers. “In lane one, we have Waldonter the manticolt.” Calm. Still. Focused. Waldonter slowly rolled their shoulders and stared straight ahead.

The spotlight jumped a lane closer, illuminating the being on her right. The hunched creature stood about five feet tall. It had long arms apparently weighed down by its enormous fists. It had purple fur and a wide mouth filled with rows of tiny sharp teeth. It panted. It rocked from side to side. It turned towards Sparks, paused, and then launched itself at the transparent barrier between them. It hit the wall with a thud and fell back. Snapping and snarling, crouching on all fours, it went at the barrier again, slamming into it for a second time, harder than the first. Saliva, phlegm, and a viscous yellow secretion smeared the glass. Poison? Blood? Hard to tell and hopefully she’d never get close enough to find out. For its third attempt, it threw a gorilla’s attack against the barrier, beating at it with cannonball fists.

“Gritter, a member of the ever-furious Smalltaneous tribe.”

Sparks cowered in the spotlight’s glare. The berserker to her right continued assaulting the glass between them. Hammering and snarling. Snapping and twisting. She removed her glasses, rubbed her stinging eyes, and slid them back on again.

“Sparks the Thrystian.”

The spotlight moved to the being on Sparks’ left. Eight feet tall and so skinny he probably weighed less than her. Human in many ways, but with everything slightly exaggerated. His brow disproportionately large compared to his narrow chin, which vanished into his spaghetti neck. His inverted teardrop cranium stretched his wire-framed glasses’ arms to their limit. He wore a suit and tie and held a chrome blaster in his right hand. When he turned to Sparks, the air left her lungs. She’d come across more beings than she could ever recall, but she’d never been fixed with such callous detachment. Despite the blue glow in his bioluminescent eyes, this creature had no soul. At least not one she could detect. How could a being appear so familiar yet feel so alien?

“Jarlobb the Rhysmoggle.”

Yin and yang. Impassioned fury on her right and stone-cold detachment on her left. But she had this.

“Competitors … ready!”

Sparks drew her blaster.

“Three.”

She widened her stance and swayed from side to side.

“Two.”

She swallowed a dry gulp.

“One.”

The transparent walls turned opaque with footage of swirling water like they were at the bottom of an ocean. An ice-cold saltwater wave flooded Sparks’ lane. She fell and dropped her blaster, but kept a hold of her glasses. The water drained, dragging her weapon with it. She caught it just before she lost it for good.

The drones came from above. One for each lane. She had tabs on all four, but she could only see hers. Shoot too soon and she’d draw too much attention. Maybe even get accused of cheating. But wait too long …

Jarlobb dropped his drone.

Three remained.

Another wave flooded her booth. She gripped her blaster and pressed her glasses to her face. Three drones remained. Hers and the two on her right. She shot and missed.

Gritter nailed his.

Just her and the manticolt. Before she got soaked for a third time, she fired.

The ground vibrated with a duck quack.

The walls turned transparent again, and spotlights shone on the four competitors.

“Bye-bye, Waldonter.”

Thunk!

The panel at the back of his lane fell open.

Gritter the berserker launched itself at the glass wall again.

Whomp!

A padded bar shot towards Waldonter, slammed into his stomach, and threw him against the back wall. He hit the ground with a thud. His spotlight turned off, and they lost him to the darkness.

Soaked, Sparks shivered where she stood. Gritter continued to lose his shit, and Jarlobb remained statuesque, waiting for the next round.

Another underwater scene. Sparks clung to her weapon and pressed her glasses to her face. A powerful icy wave slammed against the left wall, leaped into the air, and crashed down on top of her. Her fingers tingled, and she lost feeling in the tips.

Jarlobb dropped his drone again.

“Oh shit.”

Sparks tensed, turned her back on the next wave, and shot blind.

Quack!

The walls turned transparent.

Three spotlights on three competitors.

The omnipotent voice chuckled. “Gritter’s in the shitter.”

Whomp!

The padded pole flung the sodden berserker into the back wall.

Two spotlights.

Jarlobb turned towards Sparks.

Her heart quickened again. Just being the focus of his attention made her want to crawl from her own skin.

His smile flooded her mind with the chaos of a thousand throat-tearing screams.

He vanished behind the underwater footage.

Sparks took up a fighter’s stance, braced against the icy wave, and tracked the drone dropping towards her. She shot the second it appeared. She hit hers just before her connection to Jarlobb’s drone died.

Two spotlights.

Clear glass walls.

Thunk!

Jarlobb’s back door opened. His smile faltered. No prizes for second place.

Whomp!

The padded pole slammed into his middle. He folded around it like a pipe cleaner. All limbs, Jarlobb crashed into the back wall like a bug hitting a speeder’s windscreen. His spotlight went out.

“Congratulations, Sparks the Thrystian. See you for round two.”

Thunk!

The front of Sparks’ booth fell open. She crossed the wet floor and descended the stairs leading away from her lane. A line of pale white lights marked her path out of there. She followed them, her legs aching, her steps heavy. The drying salt water pulled her skin taut.

Ping!

Elevator doors parted, and light flooded the dark corridor. The pale piggy guard she’d shoved out earlier stood waiting. The last time she’d left him, he’d been glaring at her from over his large snout. He stood with a similar pose, his balled fists on his hips. “So you didn’t need my help, then?”

“You sound disappointed.”

“Not at all. I took some well-earned time off.”

“Well-earned?”

He snorted at Sparks as she entered the elevator and fell against the back wall.

The guard pressed a button, and the doors closed. The elevator rose. “I’m guessing it went well?”

Sparks shrugged.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

They finished the brief trip in silence.

Ping!

The doors opened onto Sparks’ corridor, and the piggy guard stood aside to let her out. “Well done, Miss Sparks.”

“Thank you.” She already had enough enemies. The guard might be an irritant, but she had beings who wanted her dead. Probably more of them now she’d gotten through the first round.

“You’ll never see the other competitors again.”

Did the guard have psychic powers?

He smiled. “So you don’t have to worry. They’re held now until the games are done and the winner has left Stargart. When you register for tomorrow’s games, you’ll only see those who are through to the second round.”

Sparks left the elevator and headed back to her room.

Faz Went sat on his bed, stroking Hat. The room remained covered in plaster and dead assassin droids. “You did it?”

The itching buzz of surveillance drilled into her. Stronger in their room than anywhere else. “Of course. Did you find somewhere for us to stay?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” She turned full circle, plaster on the beds, droids on the thick carpet, a mess of light flooding in through the windows. The press of surveillance squeezed in on her like fingers against the sides of a pimple. “Then let’s get the hell out of here before I burst.”

CHAPTER 12

Regardless of the decor and layout, every bar Sparks had visited in places with highly transient populations were all the same. Be it Mac’s bar in Acoolter’s spaceport, the small squat building made from mostly steel with automated doors, or the bar they’d chosen that evening with its thatched roof and wooden frame. Wildly different in appearance—this one much less aggravating for her digital intuition—but they catered to the same paranoid cutthroats who’d shoot you first and ask questions later. Through years of practice, she’d mastered the art of patronising these places. She’d also come with Faz Went, who read the pulse of a setting like a medic checking their patient’s vitality.

Maybe if they’d had somewhere decent to stay, they would have remained there for the evening, but after a few hours in their new accommodation, the small and hot room had turned Sparks almost as restless as she’d been under the Grandest’s surveillance. They both needed to get out, and this shithole seemed as good a place as any.

Filled with clusters of beings from all over the galaxy, they each gathered around their own small tables. The bartender cleaned glasses, his right ear inclined, ready to react to the first signs of violence. Violence, or a nugget of information he could turn into a few credits if passed on to the right buyer. Sparks sneered and wiped her sweating brow. “Fuck Mac.” Hat twisted on her lap from where she’d disturbed his slumber.

Faz Went leaned closer. “Huh?”

“Mac. Were it not for him, I wouldn’t be in this mess.” This bar’s tender stood taller and slimmer than Mac. He had a long neck and skinny head. He wore a stained white apron that ran all the way to the wooden floor behind the bar. The punters had to deal with carpet on their side. It had squelched when they’d crossed it, tugging on Sparks’ boots like it had wanted to tear them from her feet.

Like in Mac’s bar, the groups exchanged paranoid glances. They sat with their shoulders hunched and clung to glasses filled with liquids of all viscosities and colours. The entire place sat tightly wound, ready to pop off at the slightest spark. A glass to the face. A blast through a forehead. Sparks ran her fingertips along her own weapon at her hip. Hat groaned again.

Faz Went snorted, rattled, straightened his back to peer over the table, and nodded at Hat. “At least one of us is getting some rest.”

The air turned sour, and Sparks screwed up her nose. “Every time I get used to the smell of this place, I get hit with a new stench.”

Faz Went looked around the packed bar. “And we don’t even know who to blame.”

“Would it make a difference?”

“No, I suppose not. Maybe this is perfume to some?”

Sparks cocked an eyebrow.

“Okay, some filthy cretin has passed wind. I was trying to put a positive spin on it.”

They’d sat at the first spare table they’d found. Fortunately, it put them about as far as they could be from the evening’s entertainment. The blue female lay on a small stage. She had arms, legs, and ten to fifteen tentacles, which danced like snakes. A line of customers armed with machetes, swords, las-blades, and one even clung to a primitive rusty saw, waited patiently for the chance to pay her to remove one. Some did it with a single swipe. The first-timers. Others savoured the process. They’d done this before. Her bioluminescent blood covered the stage. She writhed around in it and smiled like she enjoyed being mutilated. She smiled like someone who knew how to make more credits from her lust-intoxicated clientele. The whole thing turned knots in Sparks’ stomach.

“Don’t look, then.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve not got the best poker face, love.”

She relaxed her sneer. “I’d rather be here than in the Grandest.” There were still surveillance drones. No avoiding them inside Stargart’s mirrored dome. They flew over the main strip, some of them moving through the skies in shoals.

Faz Went raised his steaming mug to his lips. A herbal tea brewed from the toolta root from Quartsey. It’s strong cinnamon reek buried another waft of unidentified flatulence. “What use is all the luxury in the galaxy when you have to sleep with one eye open?”

“Huh?”

“The Grandest. You said you’d rather be here. I agree.”

Sparks picked at a loose piece of skin along her right index finger’s nail. “Why did you come here?”

Faz Went peered over his steaming mug at her. “Huh?”

“This planet. With me. Why did you come? It’s hardly the most enticing invitation.”

“You asked. And you’re my friend.”

Sparks jolted back in her seat. A friend she’d never taken the time to get to know. Rarely even asked how he was. “Where are you from?”

Faz Went placed his mug on the table between them.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“No, it’s fine. Have you heard of Wringter?”

“Sphincter?”

“Good one. I’ve never heard that before.”

Sparks fought back her smile. “Sorry.”

Faz Went rolled his eyes.

“It’s not called that anymore.” His tone dropped to a low rumble, and Hat twitched on Sparks’ lap. “It’s now Isparter.”

“Not heard of that place either.”

“Well, I came from Wringter, and we were …” He clicked his tongue. His gills hissed. “Kicked out. An intergalactic army turned up, claimed the land we’d lived on for generations belonged to the Isparts, reclaimed it for them, and kicked us off the planet.”

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” Faz Went focused on his steaming mug. “We fought.”

“Good. What happened?”

“We lost.”

“Oh.”

He lowered his head, the brim of his hat covering his face. “They called it a relocation. We called it mass genocide.”

“How many survived?”

“I’ve not seen another Wringt since.”

“Damn. I’m sorry. You had family?”

“Had.”

“Friends?”

Faz Went sighed.

“So you came to Acoolter with no one?”

“Like most beings do. And other than you, Greeta is my only friend.”

“And Hat.”

He shot air from his nose, and a half-smile twisted through his thin lips. “And Hat.”

Sparks covered the back of his porcelain hand with her own. “Better to have a few friends who truly love you than a bar full who’d slit your throat in a heartbeat.”

Faz Went glanced around the room before his emerald gaze rested on her. “Thank you.”

Something flared inside Sparks. An igniting engine. An exploding star. The pressure swelled through her brain. She groaned, closed her eyes, and clapped her hands to the sides of her head.

Whomp!

Even with her eyes closed, the magnesium glare dazzled her. But Faz Went, like most of the bar, sat momentarily blinded. The place erupted into a brawl. Glasses flew, thrown in any and every direction.

An assassin dressed from head to toe in black, save for the small rectangle through which they saw, headed straight for them.

Sparks placed Hat on the seat beside her and jumped to her feet. She levelled her blaster on the beast. It halted in its tracks. Its milky glare widened, and it turned tail and ran.

Crashing glasses. Cries of fear, rage, and pain. Sparks called over the chaos, “Faz, are you okay?”

He dug his fingertips into his eyes like he could claw back his sight. He fixed on her, blinking repeatedly. She held up three fingers. “How many?”

“Three.”

“Good. They were coming for us. You take Hat and get out of here. I’m going to find out who they are.” Sparks ran after the assassin, weaving through the bar brawl. She ducked glasses and jumped a being that fell across her path, a deep and glistening gash in its temple. A fireworks display of blaster fire lit the air. Every being battled the ones close to them. With so many other larger targets, it helped being small. For once.

Sparks weaved through the chaos, broke out into the busy street, and halted. The assassin had vanished into the crowd. She jumped onto a nearby barrel to better see. Beings moved in every direction. Some calm and measured, some erratic and wild.

Tens, if not hundreds of surveillance drones flew above them. They belonged to the different crews on this planet, each looking after their own interests. Departing ships hurtled towards the underside of the mirrored dome and vanished. Others shot in. How were there not more collisions? How often did a burning vessel wipe out half the main strip?

Her eyes still itched from the bright flash, and the chaotic glare of her surroundings made it worse. Casinos, bars, fighting pits, brothels. Machines everywhere. Her brain buzzed with her intuition. Her world spun.

The black-suited assassin turned right into an alley about twenty metres away. Sparks jumped from the barrel and gave chase.

Whomp!

She halted, turning back to the bar. The beings inside fought, they shouted, they screamed. Most of them were oblivious to the fire spreading across the entrance.

Sparks froze. Her legs trembled. Her heart beat on overdrive. “No.” She couldn’t do it. Faz Went would find a way out.

The flames grew, streaking up the doorway and climbing onto the thatched roof.

“No.”

Amelia screamed through her mind. The flaming beam between them. The computer still in her pocket. The only part of her friend she’d saved. She ran back towards the bar.

Dark black smoke belched into the air, and Sparks stumbled back from the flames’ heat. The beings in the bar were still more concerned with killing one another than saving themselves.

If she didn’t go now, she wouldn’t go at all, and she’d forever regret it. She held her breath and ran inside, through the madness, back to Faz Went and Hat. Her mini computer in her right hand, she pressed the button on the screen and fired an electric charge at the first creature in the way. Like a droneball drone, the charge had a high enough voltage to sting. A high enough voltage to clear a path.

The air alive with screams and cries, Sparks grabbed Faz Went’s long hands and tugged.

He shouted over the madness, “What’s up?”

“Fire!” She gulped against her dry throat and pointed back at the door. “The place is on fire. We need to get out of here. Now!”

Faz Went’s mouth fell open.

The snapping of breaking wood cut through the chaos, and the entranceway collapsed, filling the air with glowing embers.

“Fuck!” Sparks threw her arms up and spun on the spot. “What do we do? We don’t stand a chance.”

Faz Went caught her shoulders in a firm grip. “Calm down!”

“Calm down? We’re trapped, Faz! We’re going to die.”

“There must be a way out.”

Thick smoke filled the bar. Sparks’ eyes streamed, and her world blurred.

The punters ran in every direction. Aimless. Panicked.

Her lungs tight with smoke, Sparks gasped for air, threw her mini computer on the table, and sat down.

Faz Went leaned over her. “What are you doing?”

“Hacking into the surveillance drones.”

“Why?”

A final tap showed them the burning bar from above. Adrenaline coursed through her, urging her to bolt. She took control of the drone.

“There!” Faz Went pointed at the figure running away from the place. A tall being with a long neck and a small head. He wore a dirty white apron.

“The bartender!”

“Come on!” Faz Went lifted Hat and ran for the bar. He waited for Sparks and launched her over before following.

Lower than most, and beneath the worst of the smoke, she dropped to her hands and knees and crawled along the bar’s floor until she found it. A small brass ring in the wooden boards. The handle for a trapdoor. She lifted it to reveal a dark basement.

Faz Went nodded.

Sparks dropped into the gloom. The fall about three metres, she hit the hard sandy ground and fell to her knees. She shone her mini computer’s torch to reveal the tunnel out of there. She lit the ground to show Faz Went where to land.

The tunnel grew tighter the farther they ran. Hat streaked past her. He’d come back if they were heading for a dead end. Around the next bend, the end of the tunnel alive with the flashing, multicoloured lights of the main strip. Even she had to stoop because of the low roof. She slowed and waited for Faz Went.

On his front, he crawled towards their exit and safety.

Out of the tunnel first, Sparks pulled him out behind her. She barked a raking cough, her lungs sore from smoke inhalation. Her cheeks sodden, she removed her glasses, balled her hands into fists, and buried them into her stinging eyes.

Faz Went tapped Sparks’ shoulder.

She pulled her hands away. “What?”

He pointed at a nearby speeder. On it, with a smirk on her fat face, sat the one-eyed mandulu from the games.

Sparks drew her blaster, but the mandulu twisted her speeder’s throttle and vanished around the bend.

“She’s gone.” Faz Went pushed Sparks’ blaster down.

“I’m going to fucking kill her.”

“I know. But right now, the best thing we can do now is get back to our accommodation. Staying out here isn’t safe.”

CHAPTER 13

“I’m going to destroy her!” Sparks paced back and forth in their small first-floor room. “I’m going to blind her in her other eye.” Even hotter in their new accommodation ran hotter than the sweltering main strip. They had no air-conditioning, and the windows opened only a crack. And why would they open farther in a place with no breeze? They had space for two single beds and a thin walkway of carpet running along the width of the room. Faz Went and Hat sat on a bed surrounded by Faz Went’s mess. He seemed incapable of being tidy, and in a room so small, it became hard to ignore. She continued pacing from a small window on one side of the room to one on the other.

Each square pane stained with grime, Sparks stopped and pressed her face to the glass. A packed main strip. Beings trod the asphalt while surveillance drones patrolled overhead. “If I see her out there, I’m going after her. She’ll regret the day she tried to kill me.”

The other window gave Sparks a different angle of the same bullshit. Beings of every shape and size. Some walked, some ran, some flew, some fought. Others sat in doorways, tears leaking from inflamed, unblinking eyes. She removed her glasses and rubbed her own. The ghost of Christmas yet to come if she didn’t get some sleep soon.

Back at the first window, and level with many of the drones. Too hot in their cramped room. Too noisy and too bright. But at least she didn’t have to deal with the thrumming itch of being watched from every conceivable angle like in the Grandest.

Sparks crossed over to the other window, watched again by Faz Went and Hat. Small ships hurtled towards the underside of the mirrored dome and vanished. If only they could do the same. Get off this cursed planet. Get back to Reyes and find somewhere else to hide. Somewhere they couldn’t be found.

Back across the room, she paced like she could leave behind the stench of smoke clinging to her clothes. “You have to go.”

Faz Went sat up straight. “What now?”

“They tried to burn the bar because I was in it. I can’t have you getting burned alive because of me. You have to leave. You and Hat.”

“We’re not going anywhere.”

From one stained window to the next, Sparks shook her head with every step. “I won’t let that happen to anyone else ever again. It can’t happen. You have to go.” She spun on Faz Went, her throat already sore from smoke inhalation and made worse when she raised her voice. “You have to go! I won’t let you get burned to death.”

“Sparks, y—”

“Or get killed by assassin droids.”

“Spar—”

“Or anything else that’s going to happen to you just because you’re with me. I’m bad news. Things go wrong when I’m around. Ask Reyes. Ask Amelia.” She snorted an ironic laugh, removed her glasses, and rubbed her eyes again.

“Sparks!”

“No, Faz, you need to—”

He stood up, rising to his full height. He loomed over her and pointed at her bed. “Sit the fuck down, and shut the fuck up! You’re not the only one who hasn’t slept. You’re doing my fucking head in. Take a breath, yeah?”

Hands balled into fists, chin raised, she stepped up to him. “Do you know what happened the last time someone told me to shut up?”

His rattlesnake hiss filled the room like they shared their space with a hundred serpents.

Sparks stepped back.

“Now shut up, sit down, and stop trying to fight me.” He threw his hand toward one of the grimy windows. “Don’t you have enough battles out there?” He rested the heel of his large palm against her forehead and shoved her back. She fell on the bed, and her entire body went limp.

Faz Went turned his back on her, bent over his travel bag, and pulled out a clean shirt. He took his dirty one off. Each of his vertebrae was visible down his long spine. His perfectly smooth porcelain skin rode the undulations of the back of his ribcage. The rattlesnake hiss of his respiration louder and looser for his half-nakedness.

Sparks leaned toward to him. “Can I see?”

“No.” He twisted away. “It’s gross.”

“Turn around, Faz. Trust me.”

He paused, and his shoulders lifted to his neck.

Before she could speak again, he turned around. She gasped. Her brain itched at what stood before her. Not an itch like the irritant from surveillance drones. This itch tested her sanity. It threatened to irreversibly scramble her already frayed mind. Something didn’t compute. And would never compute.

Symmetrical gills ran down either side of Faz Went’s long and narrow ribcage. Eight in total, each of them about twenty centimetres long. They curved upwards with his form like hellish grins, and they moved with the metronomic rhythm of an internal organ, opening and closing with his respiration. Strings of skin lay vertically along them, dotted with thick calluses like beads on a frozen abacus. He inhaled, the suction tugging on Sparks’ loose strands of hair and the skin-strings shimmering with an angry rattle.

“Gross, isn’t it?”

Sparks gulped and shook her head. “No. But I’ve not seen anything like it before. Th-thank you for showing me.”

Tears stood in his green eyes. “I hate them.”

“They’re nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You’re the first being who hasn’t thrown up upon seeing them.” Faz Went drew another stuttered breath and rattled again.

Sparks nodded at Hat. “He doesn’t care either.”

Faz Went smiled at the small furball.

“I’m sorry I lost my head.” Sparks shrugged. “Past issues, you know?”

“We all have them.” Faz Went buttoned up his shirt and sat on his bed. Hat sidled up to him, leaning into his thigh. “What happened?”

“When I was on Thryst …” She took a breath. “When I was on Thryst, I lost a friend, Amelia, in a fire. The building collapsed, and I couldn’t get to her. She didn’t make it out. I’ve had issues with fire ever since. Also, I’m fed up of being a screwup.”

“What makes you think you are?”

“You might not have noticed, but things aren’t going so well. We’ll be lucky if we’re still alive by the time the tournament reaches its end. Also, my and Reyes’ final mission … It only became our final mission when I screwed up.”

“What actually happened with that?”

Sparks removed here mini computer from her inside pocket. “You want to see?”

“If you want to show me?”

She brought up the footage on the small screen. “Every day for the past year, Reyes has tried to beat a simulation of our final mission. She’s yet to do it, and she won’t rest until she does. This is the master recording on which that simulation is based.”

“This is actually what happened?”

“Yeah. You ready?”

“Are you?”

The lump in Sparks’ throat stole her words. She nodded and pressed play. It might have only been footage of the simulation and not the full sensory experience thrust upon her every time Reyes did another run, but it still triggered her digital intuition, and it still triggered her trauma. She slipped away from the small and dingy room into the tangible memories.

* * *

Reyes leaned forwards and rested her forehead against Sparks’. “Love you.”

Sparks grinned up at her. “Love you too. How about we take some time off after this? We only just made it through the last mission. Maybe we need some time to recharge?”

Pulling away, Reyes winked. “Or maybe we need to show those fuckers down there who’s boss?” She headed towards her towering mech, a titan in the ship’s hangar, and Sparks climbed the stepladders into the Arrowhead’s cockpit.

* * *

Reyes’ mech hit the obsidian rock like a bolt of lightning, and Sparks flew in over the top of her.

About a mile of black glossy desert between them and the cliff face, the cave system inside. Sparks flicked on her mic to keep the channel open. “Their hive’s in there. A quick in and out, retrieve the power orb, and get back to the ship in time for dinner.”

“Let’s hope it’s that ea—”

A unit of about twelve splindlers flew from the cave. The sandy-coloured seven-foot-long arachnids wore backpacks and carried guns in both hands, their six legs hanging beneath them.

Sparks shifted from side to side, lining up the creatures in her sights. “I can shoot them from here, but I think we should get in clos—”

Thadoom!

Reyes loosed a missile, her mech stumbling back two steps from the recoil. The missile tore through the flyers, dropping several of them to the black rocky ground before exploding against the cliff face in a ball of flames.

Thadoom!

She sent a second missile after the first.

“Reyes! Can we at least tal—”

A swarm of splindlers charged from the cave’s entrance. The army spread out across the obsidian plain.

Reyes’ mech took several slow steps before she broke into a run towards them, Sparks flying above her. “I suppose that’s one way to get their attention.”

Sparks loosed her plasma cannons. The thick green blasts made light work of those they hit, but barely made a dent in the army. Hundreds strong and more coming out all the time.

Without breaking stride, Reyes unleashed her flamethrowers. She cut through the masses, turning the foot soldiers into charred and crispy balls.

A different foe emerged from the cave. They started as silhouettes in the darkness until the light caught flashing glints of their bodies. Mechanical bipeds, each about five metres tall. “Walkers! We’ve got walkers!” Sparks took off towards the mini-mechs.

One splindler pilot in each walker. Sparks shot above their heads, hit the tops of the machines, and knocked them on their arses. She turned and headed back.

Fire beneath her from where Reyes ate through those on the ground. The mech’s wide stance set, she twisted at the waist, barbecuing hundreds of splindlers. Yet they still charged from the cave.

Sparks turned on her magnet and lifted Reyes.

“What are you doing?” Reyes continued to burn the splindlers around her.

“Our fight isn’t out here. The fliers and the mini-mechs are down; we need to get to their hive.”

Sparks’ ship swayed with the mech’s pendulous swing. She caught her right wing on the tunnel’s wall, a flash where steel brushed against rock.

The splindlers on the ground fired up at them, their blasts ineffective against Sparks’ and Reyes’ shields.

Reyes lit the tunnel with her flamethrowers. The close walls and low ceiling amplified the splindlers’ screams. Hundreds of boiling lobsters.

The ceiling dropped lower, and Sparks hunched in her cockpit like it would make a difference. Reyes’ mech’s feet were just a few metres from the ground. She kicked out at their arachnid enemies, nailing the ones she hadn’t already cremated, and forcing Sparks into a battle against the mech’s movement to prevent them from crashing.

They passed two massive caves, one on either side. Both were empty.

The ceiling got lower still. Sparks slowed. “What do we do now?”

Reyes twisted, throwing Sparks’ ship one way and the other. “We fight them. Like we should have done outside.”

“But we only need to get the energy orb. We don’t need to eradicate a species.”

“I’m not trying to eradicate them. Just neutralise them. Let me go, Sparks!”

Sparks slapped the button to disengage the magnet.

Crack!

Scores of splindlers burst beneath her feet. She jumped and stamped, painting the obsidian rock with their purple blood.

While Reyes squashed bugs, Sparks flew around the next bend and opened fire. More splindlers flooded from two tunnels. One on top of the other. They spilled out in a wave, rushing towards her and Reyes’ mech. A red glow lit up the back of the top tunnel. “Reyes!”

“What?”

Sparks shifted her ship left and right to get a better view, but there were too many of the creatures in the way. “I think I’ve found the power orb.”

“Think?”

“It’s glowing red, and they’re protecting it like their lives depend on it.”

“Wait for me.”

“No.”

“No?”

“The tunnels are too tight for your mech. I need you to keep my exit as clear as possible.”

“I’m coming, Sparks.”

Sparks flew into the top tunnel, over the heads of the exiting splindlers. Cramps gripped her hands from where she clung to the Arrowhead’s triggers and flew at full speed. The thick green blasts blew momentary holes in the splindlers’ ranks, but they refilled them like they were never there.

Out of the other side, Sparks lost her breath. The enormous cave had three times more splindlers than what they’d already seen. “Reyes, I’ve found their hive.”

“I’m coming. I can crawl through the bottom tunnel.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Wait out there.” Sparks spun one hundred and eighty degrees and shot the black rock between the upper and lower tunnels. The rock fell, blocking the bottom passage, stemming the flow of beasts heading towards Reyes. “I’ve closed off the bottom tunnel. It should slow them down.”

She spun around again, the cave walls and floor alive with writhing bodies. She hurtled towards the glowing orb, the beasts protecting it like it was their queen. Clamped onto her cannons’ triggers again, she shot the splindlers covering the stolen power source.

Sparks dived on the orb, opened the tray on the bottom of her fighter, and scooped it up. She surrounded her ship with an electric charge, and the splindlers clinging on fell away. “I’ve got it, Reyes!”

“What?”

“The orb. I’m coming back out again. Cover me.”

Sparks hurtled back along the same glossy black tunnel she’d used to access the hive. The splindlers on the ground continued to fire on her.

A flying squad intercepted her at the tunnel’s exit. They threw sticky grenades, and one stuck. “Oh shit. Reyes! Reyes! They’ve attached explosives to my ship! I’m getting out of here. Reyes?”

“I’m coming.”

Reyes had climbed into the blocked tunnel. The feet of her mech hung out like she’d gotten herself stuck. But Sparks didn’t have time to help her. Explode in here and neither of them would get out. She took off, streaking over the heads of the splindlers and back out towards the obsidian plain.

Free of the tunnels, the explosives detonated. Sparks’ ears rang, her seat heated up, and the Arrowhead became unresponsive, weightless, and hurtled towards the ground.

* * *

Sparks shoved her mini computer away. Hat had climbed onto her lap while she’d been lost in the footage, and she had her hand on his head. Not as immersive as when Reyes did the simulation, but the footage still sucked her in, shook her nerves, and rattled her core. A combination of her digital intuition and trauma almost as potent as the real thing. Their shitty room blurred through her tears. She removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes again. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. That was rough. No wonder it was your final mission.”

She leaned towards Faz Went and lifted her hair to reveal the thick scar down the right side of her head. “I cracked my skull and had to have a steel plate fitted.”

“And you said Reyes tries to beat this mission every day?”

“Every day.”

“Why didn’t she listen to you?”

“Huh?”

“At the beginning, when you said you’d take down the flyers. And then in the hive when you asked her to wait.”

“She was trying to help.”

“And did she?”

Sparks opened her mouth and then closed it again.

“She brought out the creatures at the beginning with her noise. And where did you want her to be at the end?”

“What are you getting at, Faz?”

“Where did the creatures with the explosives come from?”

“From somewhere behind us.”

“Where Reyes was when you left her. And where she should have been if she’d listened to you instead of crawling down that tunnel.”

“She just wanted to protect me.”

“By ignoring you?”

“She …” Sparks sank where she sat.

“You didn’t fail, Sparks.”

“Did we just watch the same footage?”

“Did you get the power orb?”

Again, Sparks opened her mouth, but said nothing.

“Did we get burned alive in the bar back there?”

“Well, n—”

“Did we get killed by assassin droids in the Grandest?”

“No.”

“And you completed that mission despite Reyes ignoring your directions.”

“She’s not a bad person.”

“From what I’ve heard, she’s wonderful. I’m just saying that maybe you blame yourself more than you should. I’m not saying you’re blameless. Trust works both ways. It’s something you have to give if you expect to receive it.”

“Wh—”

“Where does Reyes think you are right now?”

“Well …”

“Where does she think your weekly credits come from?”

“You kn—”

“Does she know the consequences if you lose this tournament?”

“I’m doing this for her.”

“But what are you getting out of it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if she’s safe at home doing the simulation, she’s much less likely to get burned to death in a fire.”

“How dare you?”

“I’m not attacking you, Sparks.”

“It damn well feels like it.”

“I’m backing you. Something Reyes didn’t do. But I’m also trying to show you it goes both ways. That Reyes taking control on that mission was the action of someone trying to protect the one she loves. And that maybe deciding for you, while well intentioned, didn’t yield the best results. Maybe she would have done better working with you. Maybe a better approach is to work together? Trust that she can deal with the truth. Be more open?”

“Less deceitful?”

Faz Went shrugged. “If you like.”

“I don’t like.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear it. What would it be like if you did the simulation tog—”

“No fucking way! I’m not going near that thing! That mission’s already taken more from me than it had any right to.” Hat flipped Sparks’ hand, prompting her to stroke him again. She drew a stuttered breath. “But with everything else, you’re right. Thank you for giving it to me straight.”

“It’s because I care.”

“Thank you.”

Sparks put Hat down on the bed beside her and returned to the window on the left side of the room. No one-eyed mandulu, but a group of beings walked through the crowd dressed like astronauts. They carried large cases. “What are they doing?”

Faz Went came to her side. “They’re going out to hunt stall rats.”

“That mirror on the inside of the dome makes it easy to forget about the death zone.”

“Yeah, and hopefully the next time you see it is when we’re leaving this cursed place with enough credits to keep you going for the rest of your life.”

Hat yipped on the bed and ran in circles. Sparks laughed, sat beside him, and let him jump back into her lap.

“He really loves you, you know?”

Sparks smiled while she stroked him. “Yeah.”

“Something I’ve always wondered?”

“Go on.”

“Why did you call him Hat?”

Sparks covered Hat’s ears and spoke in a whisper. “We found him in an awful state. Just a pile of fur beneath a bush. I only picked him up because I thought I’d found a new hat.”

Faz Went smirked, and Sparks pulled her hands away. Hat looked up at her, his tongue lolling from his mouth. She couldn’t help smiling too.

CHAPTER 14

Although the small porcine guard met her in the Grandest’s foyer, he dropped his head when she entered and addressed the carpet. “I’ll just wait here, then, shall I?”

Sparks strode past him, entered the elevator, and pressed the button with the fingerprint scanner between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors. The doors closed on his cowed form. She didn’t hate him. She’d have to care about him to hate him. But she’d not slept for two days, had two assassination attempts behind her, the attention from the elevator’s hidden drones made her skin itch, both inside and out, and with the second round of the droneball tournament just minutes away, her pulse pounding, were she to spend any more time with the small servant than necessary, she couldn’t guarantee that for him, it would end well.

She would have gladly shared the elevator with Faz Went and Hat, but they’d left her hours ago to find their new accommodation for tonight. She sniffed her armpit and pulled away from the strong onion funk. The smoky tinge quickened her pulse. She filled her lungs and wriggled her toes. It grounded the rising panic. She focused on the ceiling. “Please find somewhere with a shower or bath.”

The surveillance drones’ increased activity made her brain whine.

Ping!

The elevator opened onto the vast registration hall, and light flooded in. Sparks scowled against the glare. Just ten to fifteen competitors gathered before the entrances to three gaming booths. She recognised a few from registration and the first round of the games.

The countdown clock on the wall had three minutes and eighteen seconds remaining. Who she’d be playing didn’t matter. She’d beat anyone. She just needed to win and come back tomorrow.

“Sparks!”

Juan Ortega approached and flashed his winning smile. Did he have as much on the line as her? Or had he simply come for a bit of fun? Win or don’t, it didn’t matter. Maybe not everyone had as much riding on these games. “Hi, Juan.”

“You look like shit.”

Sparks removed her glasses and rubbed her sore eyes. Sore with smoke, sweat, and lack of sleep.

“Whoa!” He stepped back and pinched his nose. “You smell like shit, too.”

“Thanks! It’s been a rough few days. I’ve not slept.”

“Routine, routine—”

“Routine?” Sparks said.

Juan Ortega smiled again. “Sorry. Just don’t let it affect your droneball game.”

“If sleep had been an option over the past few days, I would have taken it.” Thankfully, she didn’t need to be at her best to win this tournament. “I just …”

Juan Ortega followed Sparks’ line of sight. “You two are still at each other’s throats, then?”

The one-eyed mandulu stepped from the front of the line queuing for room three. She winked at Sparks.

“Would you call that a blink or a wink?” Juan Ortega’s voice carried across the hall. It silenced every other conversation.

The mandulu pointed at the pair of them. “I hope I get one of you two today.”

Giving her a thumbs up, Juan Ortega then turned towards a booth’s door. “I’m in room number one.”

The mandulu worked her jaw, her one remaining horn grinding against the scar tissue where her eye should be. “I’m sick of seeing you both here.”

“So much that you’d set fire to a bar and risk killing every being inside to get rid of us?”

The mandulu frowned and looked around the room. “Does anyone know what she’s talking about?”

Juan Ortega leaned close. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry.” Sparks shook her head and reached for her blaster.

Pinning her hand to her hip, Juan Ortega nodded towards the registration table. “They won’t let you compete if you do that. Come on.”

Sparks let her hand fall loose and followed him.

The being on the other side of the registration table had three eyes in a neat little line on their round head. Squeezed so tightly together, they left the rest of their full-moon face as an expanse of blue skin. It had two trumpet-shaped ears that pointed at the ceiling. Sparks half expected streamers to burst from them if she gave the right answer. They had four arms, a long reptilian body, and when they spoke, their forked tongue slipped from between their thin lips. “Name?”

“Sparks.”

“Ssssssparkssss.”

“No,” Juan Ortega leaned on the table, raised his voice, and slowly enunciated, “Sparks.”

All three eyes fixed on him, and the being released a prolonged hiss. “Firssst you pick on her becausssse sssshe only hasss one eye, and now you’re starting on my lissssp?”

“Yes, I believe that’ssssss correct.”

The being behind the desk turned to Sparks. “Room three.”

Sparks’ heart sank.

Juan Ortega gripped Sparks’ shoulders and turned her so she looked him in the eyes. “Remember, keep your head. Beat her in the game, not in the hall. All right?”

Juan Ortega shook Sparks when she didn’t reply. “All right?”

“All right.”

Every being in the place watched her like a surveillance drone. Worse than surveillance drones. Machines didn’t judge, they simply performed a task. She walked with stilted movements, her breaths quickened by her hammering heart. Her throat dried. All the while, the mandulu focused on her with a narrowed eye. One good whack on her bulbous chin would drop her. She balled her right fist.

“Beat her in the game!” Juan’s voice cut through the silence. Keeping the limelight, he danced and sang on repeat, waving his arms. He became her own personal cheerleader. “Beat her in the game. Beat her in the game. Beat her in the game.”

Sparks smiled. Sure, he loved the attention and never shied away from showing off, but this time, he did it for her. His performance a distraction to make him the most interesting being in the room.

The mandulu nodded toward their booth. “I’m going to smoke you in there.”

Amelia screamed through Sparks’ mind. The flames from last night. Faz Went and Hat inside the burning bar. The reek of her own clothes. She drew her pistol and charged. She slammed the butt of her gun into the side of her head, catching her on her scarred eye with a thwack!

The mandulu hit the floor. The hall fell silent.

“What did I say?” Juan Ortega threw his arms wide.

Eight guards closed in on Sparks.

He pointed at the third door. “Beat her in there!”

Sparks clung to her gun and stood hunched over the downed mandulu.

The mandulu drew her blaster.

“Stop!”

One guard aimed their rifle at the downed beast. “Stop what you’re doing now!”

The other guards closed in. Two of them were smaller than Sparks. They carried the largest rifles. Three of them dwarfed the mandulu.

One of the two small guards covered in turquoise fur took over. “You two need to settle your differences in the game. Any more bullshit out here, and we’ll disqualify you both.”

“But she attacked me.”

“That toad set fire to the bar I was in last night.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play all innocent with me. You know what you did, you snake.”

The being at the registration desk hissed.

“We don’t care!” The small guard stepped between them. “You’re here to compete in the games and that’s it. What happens outside is none of our business.” She pressed her finger to her ear. She nodded several times and glanced at the countdown clock on the wall. It had reached zero. “Okay. Yep. Right.” They pointed at Sparks and then the mandulu. “Whatever’s going on with you two, sort it out before the final.”

“The final?” They said it as one.

“If you both make it.”

The mandulu rolled her eye. “Uh, how can we both make it?”

The adjudicator from the first game appeared on Sparks’ right. They nodded at the small furry guard. “Thank you.”

The guard backed away.

Wrapping their long hand around Sparks’ gun arm, they dragged her to the beings lined up in front of the second door. “You had five competitors for the third room, and seeing as the countdown timer has reached zero, and this room only has three, we need to even it out a little.”

Juan Ortega, in the line next to Sparks, laughed. “More like they want more drama for the final.”

“I can assure you it’s nothing like that!”

Another snort, Juan Ortega turned from the adjudicator and faced his door. “Riiiight.”

Sparks had been so focused on the mandulu since she’d arrived in the registration hall, she’d not paid much attention to the other competitors. And more specifically, the one directly in front of her waiting to compete in the second room. About seven feet long, the creature had eight limbs. It walked on six and had two arms. She stepped back when the black-eyed splindler turned on her and bared its long, poison-dripping fangs.

Whoosh!

The door to the second booth opened. Sparks gulped, closed her eyes, and let out a long sigh. Given a choice, she’d face the mandulu all day long over this nasty fucker. But the only choice she had available to her, she’d already made when she came here. And she’d used Reyes’ skills as collateral. They set the rules now, not her. She followed the other three competitors into the second booth.

CHAPTER 15

Sparks took the final lane available on the far left of the four. A spotlight shone on each competitor. The oppressive glare pressed down on her, forcing her neck into her shoulders.

The splindler occupied the lane directly to her right. Straight backed and statue still. It fixed on her, its black, lidless eyes perfect spheres in pitted sockets. Its scimitar fangs dripped venom. Did it recognise her from their final mission? From over a year ago? And with her in a fighter ship? Surely not. And Reyes in her mech. She had only left her vehicle to be dragged out of it and taken away for medical care. She’d seen the simulation enough times. She’d lived it enough times. There had been no splindlers nearby. The fucker was just trying to get in her head before the game began.

Sparks relaxed her glare and lost focus, turning her competitor into a blur. She’d learned that trick as a kid on Thryst. Give the appearance of staring without staring. Stare through them.

All the other spotlights turned off save for Sparks’. The commentator’s voice was that of the being at the registration table. “In lane one, we have Ssssparksss the Thryssstian.”

The spotlight jumped to the next lane.

“Sssamssson the Ssssssplindler.”

The very edges of Sparks’ mouth twitched, but she fought back her smile. Who had the being upset to be given this room to commentate on?

“Asssssssasssssisssissting—”

“What?” Sparks said.

“The Sssswilssster.”

She shook her head. “Fucking hell.”

“And finally, Fred the Hig.”

“Finally.” Sparks rolled her eyes and addressed the ceiling, “Someone’s having a laugh with you.” She smirked at the splindler, who remained stone cold.

The transparent walls turned opaque, burying the unsettling creature behind a black mirror. Behind a wall of onyx. Just like the rock on the planet Druant, where Sparks and Reyes had done their final mission.

The speakers released a throat-tearing scream that lifted every hair on Sparks’ body. The deep cry ran in braying waves. Distressed. Traumatised. A being singing like they were on a stage in hell. A drumbeat, much like the ones she’d heard on the two-player games in Acoolter, started quietly and galloped to catch up with his hellish tones. Electric guitars wailed.

A red dot about ten centimetres in diameter appeared on the screen at the end of Sparks’ lane. It pulsed in time with the music’s hammering rhythm, swelling with the crescendo. The drums beat faster. The voice screamed louder. Sparks’ ears rang, and her brain swelled, ready to burst.

The dot exploded, turning the end wall red. Blood sprayed Sparks, covering her from head to toe. She wiped it from her eyes and spat out its coppery taste.

The red wall gave way to footage of a samurai with a las-sword. Humanoid, they stood before a line of beings who were all kneeling, their hands bound behind their backs. The samurai’s sword glowed bright blue, and they went to work, every decapitation triggering a fresh wave of blood.

Sparks’ stomach locked tight. Bile rose in her throat. More blood got into her mouth. Her ears rang. An electric jolt stung her left arm. “Shit!” They’d released the drones. Only two remained. She grabbed her blaster, her hands slick, and loosed her shot.

Quack!

The drone fell.

The walls turned opaque.

The spotlights came on.

“Asssssssasssssisssissting—”

“We get it!” Sparks lifted her shirt and wiped her face.

Whomp!

The competitor two lanes away hit the back wall and fell into the darkness. The splindler fixed on her like it had never looked away. Blood dripped from every lump and bump on its angular face.

Black opaque walls.

Another scream.

Sparks rolled her shoulders and clung to her blaster.

The hammering drumbeat threw off her heart’s rhythm.

This time, the samurai had just one victim. A human tied to a chair. A woman. She had her back to Sparks.

Sparks’ grip on her blaster faltered, and she lowered it ever so slightly. “Rey—”

The samurai spun her around. She had needles in her eyes. Blood ran down her face in thick streaks like tar.

“Reyes?!”

They’d burned her cheeks, the skin streaked like she’d cried molten wax. They’d ripped out several of her teeth.

The male voice cackled, bellowed, and screamed.

Reyes had split lips and a bloody nose. Sparks trembled and nearly dropped her blaster. She stamped her foot, blood splashing up. “No! It’s not real.”

She dodged an electric bolt. Only two of the three drones remained.

A digital fallacy designed to distract. A fabrication and nothing more. If they’d actually done this to Reyes, her digital intuition would have paralysed her at seeing this footage. “This isn’t real!” She shot the drone. It hit the ground.

Quack!

Transparent walls.

Three spotlights.

The splindler stared straight at her.

“Goodbye, Fred!”

Whomp!

Fred the Hig hit the wall and vanished into the darkness.

The splindler pointed at Sparks and then drew its thumb across its throat. Its voice crackled like digital distortion. “You’re mine.”

“Like I was yours on Druant?”

Something flickered in its dark eyes. “What?”

“When we came in, wiped out a shitload of you nasty fuckers, and reclaimed the Groilgoes’ power source?”

The splindler charged, head-first, into the transparent wall between them. It slammed its palms against the glass. “You!”

“Yes, me. I won then, and I’m going to win now.”

“You!” The splindler hissed, reared up on its back two legs, and assaulted the wall. Its fury played a drumbeat to match the one backing the screaming male.

The walls turned black again.

The music played.

Blood sprayed Sparks.

Infants appeared on the screen. Younglings from many species. The samurai returned with a swaying gait and a giant sword.

Sparks closed her eyes. She flinched with every cold spray of blood and at the young ones’ screams. She centred herself. Shut everything out. The drones entered the game. She shot.

Quack!

She opened her eyes again. The footage had vanished, and the lights were on. The splindler and Sparks each in their own spotlight. The beast punched, kicked, and shot the barrier between them.

Whomp!

The padded pole swiped it away and threw it against the back wall.

Thunk!

The front of Sparks’ lane fell open. Her heart ached from where Reyes’ fictionalised suffering had left an imprint. She walked from her lane on weary legs, down the stairs at the end, and along the dark corridor. Just one more round and she could leave this cursed planet. Just one more round and Reyes could give up the damn simulation. The darkness brought the images back. Needles in her eyes. Her swollen and bloody face. Split lips. Broken nose. Missing teeth. “No, it’s not real. Just one more game.” Her echo questioned her assertion.

The elevator doors parted at the end of the tunnel, and light flooded out. The small piggy guard stepped aside to give her access.

In the elevator, Sparks tried to clean the blood from her glasses with her sodden shirt.

“Uh, well done.”

“Huh?”

The piggy guard peered at her from over his snout. “Well done.” He rose on his toes, adding an extra lift of enthusiasm. “On winning. Again. Finals tomorrow.”

One more round and then she could go home. And nothing had changed. Like she’d just won this round, she’d win the final with her eyes closed.

“Would you like this?” The guard offered her a dressing gown with the Grandest’s logo on the breast.

Ping!

The doors opened into the foyer, and Sparks pushed his gesture away. “No.” She lifted her chin, pulled her shoulders back, and strode out into the exclusive foyer, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. Several beings watched her pass, their mouths agape. Several covered their children’s eyes. Stinking, dripping in blood, and with just one game to go, she deserved to exit this place with her head held high. She’d earned it.

CHAPTER 16

The searing heat hit Sparks like a halting hand the second she exited the Grandest. They claimed they’d gotten the temperature as low as they could inside the dome, but the lie stood as stark as the difference between the Grandest’s cool foyer just a metre behind her and the oven in which she currently cooked. No doubt you’d have the same experience when you left many other hotels, casinos, and luxury establishments on the strip. Comfort came at a cost.

The blood from the droneball game coagulated in the heat. It turned her damp clothes hard and pulled her skin taut. She ruffled her nose, the crusty layer cracking with a slight sting. Crimson flakes fluttered to the baked ground. No natural wind inside the dome.

Many beings close to Sparks watched her descend the stairs and join them. How did someone like her emerge from somewhere like that? And by the looks of her, she clearly wouldn’t be getting back in again any time soon. One of them now. The rejected. The poor. The desperate. Did she carry anything valuable? A pink-skinned being with white eyes and a long snout took her in. She returned its curiosity while resting her hand on her blaster. It moved on.

A child pinched their nose. “Jeez, you stink!”

Sparks poked out her tongue, and the child ran away.

Now one of the cattle on the main strip, beaten by the heat and blinded by the lights and their reflections, she headed back to her shitty accommodation. Just another dirty, sweaty insomniac lost to the insanity of this place. Like every other being, she dragged her feet and bumped into others every few steps.

The sky as packed with surveillance drones as ever. What would one call a group of drones? A shoal? A gaggle? A flock? A school? An intrusion! She smiled, and more blood flaked away from her face. An intrusion of drones overhead.

Ships came and went, breaking through the mirrored ceiling from both sides. Several smaller vessels left from the landing pad atop the Grandest. A shining phallus taller and prouder than any other phallus on the strip. Mine’s bigger than yours.

One of the many sets of doors running along the front of Oblivion—the strip’s largest casino—burst open. Six beings spilled out and stumbled down the steps. Ten tuxedo-wearing guards pursued them. A collection of different species, the guards were united by their hulking statures. They caught one escapee and dragged them back up the casino’s steps. A piggy little creature like the guard who took Sparks to the games. It squealed and grunted. It twisted and kicked. They surrounded him. His snorting cries responded to their attack, first rising in pitch and then dying from where they’d kicked him limp. They doused him in fluid and set him on fire. The entire strip had halted to watch. Many, like Sparks, ruffled their nose at the tang of cooked bacon.

“Please!” A long insectoid dropped to their knees in front of two guards outside another flashing gambling den called the Cassi Noe. “It’s so hot out here. Please let me in.”

“You’re skint!” The taller of the two guards pressed the sole of their boot to the grovelling being’s forehead and shoved them away so they fell flat on their back. “Now fuck off and don’t come back. I won’t be so kind next time.”

A twitch snapped through Sparks. It ran from the base of her spine all the way to the top of her neck. Her head twisted to one side. The buzz of surveillance had been a low-level, all-pervading hum until that moment. But one drone had taken a particular interest in her. Its focus drilled into the top of her skull.

Sparks removed her small computer. She took control of the drone, typed in a series of commands, and slipped her computer back into her pocket as the drone shot away from her and exploded in a ball of flames against the Cassi Noe’s neon sign.

“What the fuck?” The larger of the two guards threw their arms up and glared at the busy street, searching for a guilty face in the crowd.

Sliding her glasses up her sweating nose, Sparks continued back towards her accommodation. Even on the packed street, where beings cared little for the personal space of those around them, she cut a path. She sniffed her sleeve and gagged. Smoke, salt water, body odour, and now covered in dried blood. She reeked like a rotting corpse.

Aimless beings gathered on the sides of the road. Skint and with nowhere to go, they hunched in doorways, lay on the pavements, and peered from alleys. They all wore the same expression. Washed out, their faces slack. Heavy bags hung beneath their vacant stares. The ghosts of Christmas yet to come. She needed to get the fuck out of here.

Something hit Sparks’ intuition like a blow to the stomach. The surveillance drone itch remained constant. It hadn’t come from them. The reek of cheap perfume wafted across from her right. Among the flashing chaos of every other establishment sat a single black door with scarlet writing. The bold letters read: Pork-pork-pork. The smell of the burning porcine creature remained in her nostrils, but this place had nothing to do with ham.

Like when she’d passed the brothels on Acoolter, Sparks lost her co-ordination and stumbled, the assault hitting her from all angles. Probing. Cutting. Slicing. Whipping. She held her stomach and quickened her pace, shoving aside the few beings in her path.

Clear of the sex den, Sparks’ heart settled, and her stomach relaxed. She slowed her pace and fell in step with the strip’s slow trudge.

A wild scream halted Sparks and everyone around her. A small female. A Thrystian! She’d not seen another Thrystian in years. They clapped their long hands to their face, their eyes wide, their mouth hanging open. She wailed again and again, her torment amplified when she ducked into a tight alley.

“Wait!” Sparks gave chase and shoved through the crowd.

Another being tutted and shoved her back.

Sparks electrocuted them with her small computer. She shocked several more beings as she closed in on her fellow Thrystian. “Wait!” She ran into the alley. “Wait!”

The Thrystian stopped screaming, and Sparks stopped in her tracks. She held out her long hand. “I’m Sparks. Are you okay?”

This Thrystian clearly hadn’t slept for days. Weeks even. The ghost of Christmas yet to come.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

The Thrystian clapped her hands to her face again and screamed louder than before. She turned and sprinted away.

Sparks gave chase, her strides matching that of her compatriot’s. The alley ended with the mirrored wall of the dome about fifty metres ahead.

“No, don’t …” The urgency left Sparks when her fellow Thrystian vanished through the mirror. She slowed with slamming steps and halted just a few metres from her own reflection, her purple eyes buried behind the smeared and dried blood tinting her glass’ lenses. No wonder the Thrystian had run. Sparks hadn’t been staring at a future version of herself, the Thrystian had. Dirty, ragged, covered in blood. The personification of insanity. If this is what she had to look forward to, why wouldn’t she end everything now?

Sparks stepped closer to the mirror. Flakes of dried blood danced on the end of her nose, while the rest of her face was streaked with a sweaty crimson mess. The heat outside radiated towards her. She leaned close. She could peer out into the death zone. Just one look. But she halted about a centimetre from the scolding mirror. What did she hope to find? Stargart’s desert provided only one solution.

* * *

Sparks’ shoulders ached from shoving her way back to her shitty hotel. Hopefully Faz Went had found them somewhere cleaner, cooler, and with a bath or shower. She traipsed up the concrete stairs to her first-floor room, each step draining what little energy she had left. The door handle hot, she pressed it down and fell against it, flinging it wide.

“Faz? Hat?” The room stood empty. Empty and tidy. The two beds had been made. The carpet cleaned. All her dirty clothes had been put away and a fresh set laid out on her bed. “What the …?” A note sat on top of her clothes.

Sparks’ eyes itched. She blinked several times to better read the letter.

Sparks, I’m really sorry, but we had to go. Big business to attend to on Acoolter. If there was any way we could have stayed, we would. I tidied the place and left some clean clothes out for you. I’m sure you’ll need them. I’ll see you when you get back.

* * *

Faz.

* * *

“What the fuck?” The letter shook in her hands. “No! You can’t leave me now. What the fuck, Faz?”

She kicked her bed. “How can you leave me here alone? Fuck you, you fucking fuck!” She kicked the bed again. She should go back to Acoolter and find him. The letter had a small PTO in the bottom right-hand corner.

Don’t follow me. You’re not allowed to leave the planet.

Sparks’ knees gave way. She fell onto her bed face first and screamed into her duvet with such force it tore at her throat. “Fuck!”

CHAPTER 17

Every time Sparks closed her eyes, images from the previous game flooded back. Reyes tied to a chair. Needles in her eyes. Tracks of thick blood running down her face. Her seared skin. Missing teeth. A broken nose. Swollen and cracked lips. Little point in trying to sleep. She sat up in bed and clung to her pillow. She should be holding Hat. How could Faz Went leave her? Sure, she’d told him to go after the fire, but he’d refused. So why leave her now?

They’d designed the games to mess with her mind. No doubt the other competitors were spending a night with their own demons. Personalised targeted trauma to heighten the entertainment for their high-powered clients. “Just a trick.” She shook her head, the cheap bed swaying and creaking with her movement. “Just a trick.”

And what could she do about it, anyway? Go back home? The second she left Stargart, they’d kill Reyes. Their order would travel much faster than the Arrowhead. Maybe she could strike a bargain? Promise she’d be back by morning. She just needed to get off the planet. Clear her head. But strike a bargain with whom? The piggy little guard? Even if he had any power, which he clearly didn’t, why would he help? Every time they’d interacted, she’d been a weapons-grade arsehole. And even if she persuaded him to speak to someone on her behalf, any being with any sense, and any power, wouldn’t give that little shit the time of day and would be sleeping right now. Routine. Routine. Routine. Those in charge no doubt valued their circadian rhythm almost as much as they valued the oxygenated air beneath the mirrored dome. They’d be locked away for the night in their temperature-controlled rooms with blackout blinds covering every window.

Over the past few hours, Sparks’ small room had seemed to shrink. The walls closed in, and the heat had turned the funk of sweat, rot, and body odour tangible like a greasy steam. Her bloody clothes from earlier lay in a pile in the corner. If it would make her cooler, she’d shed her own skin.

Light flooded in through the two small stained windows, the shifting colours dancing along the cracked ceiling. No matter how she sat or lay on her bed, a sharp spring poked her somewhere. Since she’d been in this room, she’d remained on top of the bedsheets. They both undoubtedly had soiled mattresses. Stained with the sweat and secretions of thousands of desperate and impoverished beings before them. Faz Went’s bed made beside her, and according to the countdown timer on her mini computer, she had eight hours until the third and final round of droneball. Eight long, hot, stinking hours.

On her feet, Sparks stretched, pointing her fingers towards the stained ceiling and the spiderweb of cracks covering its surface. One more could bring the entire thing crashing down on her. She screwed up her face. If anything, the sweaty, rotten funk had grown stronger. Her discarded clothes remained piled in the corner. Was the heat messing with her, or had they moved of their own accord? Either way, they had to be a danger to her health. Mental or otherwise. She lifted each garment in a pinch and posted them out through the small gap in her window.

She sat on the edge of her bed, her elbows on her knees, her head bowed. Faz Went’s immaculate bed opposite her. “So you make it now, you shit!” But what if he hadn’t? What if something had happened to him and Hat, and this was the cleanup job to make it appear inconspicuous? What if he hadn’t abandoned her? Her head spun. Her friend might have been who she’d thought he was. He might have had every intention of staying. And were that true, it would ease the sharp sting of betrayal, but what of his fate? His and Hat’s? What could she do about it anyway? She had to stay here until she’d finished the games. Whatever’d happened, she couldn’t put Reyes in danger. Hopefully, he had left of his own accord. She could forgive betrayal, but she couldn’t bring them back from the dead. Maybe he felt bad for leaving her, and this was his parting gift. A tidy bed in a shitty room. “A different room would have been nice!”

Eight hours until the next game. Eight hours in this small and hot room. Eight hours with nothing but the voices in her head guessing and second-guessing the actions of her friend. And were she to try to sleep, she faced the assaulting flashbacks from the day’s games. She laughed. Like she’d sleep in this heat, with this light, and the constant rolling churn of beings on the main strip, the drones triggering her intuition every other second. Maybe she’d be better out there. At least out there she could focus on the chaos outside her skull.

Sparks slipped on her boots and left her room. Out into the weird and garish insanity. Out into the night masquerading as day.

A bottle flew past Sparks and smashed on the wall beside her. She ducked the next one, both of them wild throws from a brawl about fifteen metres away. Two beings only a few inches taller than her, both of them covered in blood, wrestled in a ring of dirt.

On the main strip, Sparks slammed into more beings than before. Either she or they had grown clumsier. Or both. Scowls and dipped heads. Many searching for violence. Like her, they must have felt the need to rest. Something deep inside telling them the correct time of day while their senses fed them an alternative narrative. Their surroundings kept them wired. Held their body clocks hostage until they’d paid the ransom of every credit they owned.

A huge being kneed Sparks, spinning her like a top. They probably didn’t even notice as they waded through the crowd, their head bowed beneath the intrusion of drones. She rubbed her stinging right shoulder as the beast lumbered away. As much as she’d like to be a little taller, she’d take short over that creature’s stature any day. The monster carried the burden of always being the centre of attention.

Winged beings cut over the crowds’ heads and beneath the drones’ bellies. Vacant stares watched on from the sides of the roads. Although, amongst them sat the glares of opportunists. Pickpockets or worse, they hid themselves amongst the absent insomniacs. Dog eat dog out here. Sparks patted her side, her mini computer still in her pocket. She tapped her blaster at her hip. Still there.

She stopped in the Grandest’s shadow. The mirrored tower loomed over her. She’d walked without purpose and ended up here, sucked in like a fly drawn towards a bug zapper. Some kind of Stockholm syndrome? She stood with her jaw hanging loose. Now she’d reached it, what did she hope to achieve? See the piggy little guard? Ask for her old room back? They had showers. She wiped her brow. They had air conditioning. But they also had fucking assassin drones and surveillance unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

A mob of six beings came from Sparks’ right. She tried to avoid them, but they moved with her. They crashed into her, lifted her from the ground, and threw a thick fabric hood over her head.

Blinded by the hood, Sparks kicked out, catching air every time. “What are you doing? What do you want?”

The mob gathered pace, drawing cries and yells as they cut a path through the crowd. They had somewhere to be. Somewhere they needed Sparks to be.

The acoustics of their surroundings changed. Their thunderous steps bounced back at them. They left the madness of the main strip behind. Sparks twisted and kicked in a different direction. Her boot sank into flesh. One of them yelled and dropped her.

Sparks tore off her hood and jumped to her feet. In an alley off the main strip. Surrounded by six of the fuckers. Each the size of a mandulu. Each wore a mask. One lurched at her. She caught it with a blow to the chin, and it dropped like a sack of rocks. Definitely a mandulu. Seb would be proud.

Drawing her blaster, Sparks aimed it at her closest attacker. Another came from her right and knocked it from her hand. The others wrestled her to the ground.

Click!

A hooded mandulu slapped a handcuff around her wrist and stepped back.

Sparks lay in the alley, handcuffed to a riderless speeder. The mirrored wall of the dome about twenty metres away.

One of the mandulus pulled back his mask. Both his horns were worn to nubs. He flashed her a wonky grin and patted her on the head. “See ya.”

A countdown timer on the side of the bike showed she had eight seconds left.

Sparks’ blaster lay about a metre away.

Six seconds.

She reached out with her right foot.

The waving mandulu saw it too late.

She scooped it towards her.

Four seconds.

Caught the blaster with her free hand.

Two seconds.

She shot the mandulu in the back as it ran. It fell forwards. Dead.

The speeder took off, lifting her from the ground, dragging her through the mirrored wall into the death zone. Into the searing heat, even beneath a night sky.

Shooting away from Stargart’s dome, she gasped on the thin air. Her lungs tightened. She’d heard beings talk about their life slipping away from them, but in that moment, her life’s exit strategy had gone supersonic.

CHAPTER 18

Sparks’ pulse throbbed in her temples, stars flashed in her vision, and her right shoulder burned from where it bore the brunt of being tethered to the speeder. She clamped her mouth shut, fighting her instinct to breathe the thin air. It would only empty her lungs quicker.

Her body dragged out behind the speeder like a handlebar streamer, and Stargart’s mirrored dome grew ever more distant. Her blaster in her left hand, she battled the headwind, pressed the end of the barrel to the chain linking the two cuffs, and pulled the trigger.

The green blast shattered the links.

A moment of weightlessness.

She hit the sandy desert like a meteor. The impact slammed through her, jarring every bone in her body and driving away what little air she had left in her lungs. She turned over and over until she slid to a halt, the speeder vanishing into the horizon.

Pop!

The bike took out a stall rat on its wild journey into the night.

Alone in the darkness, breathless, and about a thousand metres from Stargart’s garish glow. A muted bubble of activity in the still night. Filled with beings, none of which could hear her scream.

Her body bucked with her need for air. Her vision blurred, her head spun, and the ground pulled on her feet, dragging her down.

Quicksand! Faz Went had mentioned quicksand. Fuck!

While she sank, ships came and went, entering and leaving Stargart, oblivious to her drowning alone in the darkness.

A stall rat ran over to her, its little whiskered nose twitching as it sniffed the air between them. It had round teddy bear ears that shifted and twisted like small radars. About the same size as Hat, thirty centimetres from nose to bottom, her death had become no more than a passing curiosity to the smug little bastard.

Pop!

The rodent close to her whimpered and lifted its head to stare across the barren desert. The speeder must have hit another one of its kind, popping it like a balloon.

Sunk to her knees in quicksand, Sparks shot a stall rat farther away.

Pop!

It exploded in a cloud of aquamarine mist and sandy-coloured fur.

The one close to her cowered. It looked between its obliterated mate and Sparks. Realisation hit its cute little face a moment too late.

She grabbed it and bit into its throat.

It loosed a high-pitched whine and sprayed her with blood. She hesitated before clamping her mouth over the hole and inhaling the creature’s highly oxygenated air.

She discarded the stall rat’s flat corpse and wiped its blood from her mouth. It tasted like hand soap. She pumped her legs, taking small steps to lift her higher.

Now just shin deep, her head spinning again, and watched by a crowd of stall rats, all of them too far away to be of any use, she gave up and sank again, the desert slowly claiming her.

Her ears rang, and her pulse throbbed through her entire body. She leaned towards the next closest stall rat and patted the sand in front of her. She caught her call before she loosed it. Precious air.

The stall rat lifted its head.

She patted the ground again. Forced a smile through clenched teeth.

The creature ran over.

Sparks grabbed it, bit into its throat, breathed its air, and discarded it before she pumped her legs again.

But how long could she keep it up? All night? And what then? Already unbearably warm, the daytime sun would burn her to a crisp. And what about the stall rats? They were clearly not used to being hunted, but they must have an instinct for survival that would eventually tell them to stay away from this crazy being surrounded by the flattened bodies of their comrades.

CHAPTER 19

Maybe Sparks had given the stall rats more credit than they deserved. They clearly had no survival instinct. The inquisitive creatures had come over to her in droves and queued up while she bit into the throats of one after the other. At least twenty dead bodies, and a hundred or more awaiting the same fate. Were her life not on the line, she might have pitied the stupid bastards. But she’d only moved about five metres closer to Stargart’s dome, and one hundred stall rats wouldn’t take her all the way back. Especially if she didn’t find a way out of the quicksand.

As one, every stall rat perked up, and their ears pinned back. They looked out across the desert.

Sparks bit into another, air escaping it with a now familiar high-pitched whine. She breathed in the oxygenated rush and closed her eyes against the spray of blood. It tasted of hand soap and burned like it too. Thank the heavens for her glasses.

A buzz niggled the back of her neck. It started as a distant whine before it thrummed through her entire being, drilling into her skull. The speeder! Whoever sent it out must be calling it back.

Slowly sinking again, Sparks dragged out her mini computer and fought her trembling hands as she typed and hit enter.

The stall rats heard it first. She grabbed one before they all scattered. She bit into its throat and wrapped her lips around the tear. But she’d ripped it too wide, and most of the air escaped. She inhaled more of the death zone’s atmosphere than she did stall rat oxygen. Breathless, her lungs as tight as before, and the others were now out of reach, scampering away across the desert. They were more scared of a speeder than her.

Her lungs twisted tighter as the speeder came into view. It headed straight for her. Sparks winced, ready to have her head removed like a golf ball from a tee. But it halted about half a metre away. Her programming had worked.

Her lips pressed tight, she fought the need to breathe and stowed her mini computer in her inside pocket and her blaster in its holster, which sank beneath the sand. She reached up to the speeder’s handlebars and twisted the throttle just enough to drag her free.

The environment claimed her trousers and boots. Barefooted and in just her underwear from the waist down, she threw her leg over the bike and plonked down in the saddle before turning away from the path the speeder had been on, and aiming at another part of the dome. If they wanted it back, they’d have to come and find it.

Hunched over the bike, her hair dragging behind her in the hot wind, she hurtled towards the dome. Another convulsion snapped through her, her lungs starved of oxygen. She kept her lips clamped shut, the specks of sand lighting up pinpricks on her face. Her body bucked again. Stars swam in her vision. Her view of the dome blurred.

About eight hundred metres from safety.

Sparks’ head grew heavy, and her throat ached.

The speeder rose and dropped with the desert’s subtle undulations. The constantly shifting quicksand environment.

Many of the stall rats in her path scattered. One or two popped, the lost air mocking her struggles.

Six hundred metres to go.

Sparks’ head slumped, slamming into the bike’s tank.

Five hundred metres.

Stargart turned into a blurred wash of colour.

Four hundred metres.

The strength left her body. She fell over the speeder’s tank.

Three hundred metres.

She blacked out.

CHAPTER 20

Bzzt!

Sparks woke with a start. The light hit her like a blow to the face. Her heart galloped, and she drew a deep breath, but drowsiness dragged her back under, and she passed out again.

Bzzt!

She came to for a second time. Her mini computer electrocuted the would-be thief, and the creep got the message. They ran, scuttling away down the tight alley and out onto the busy main strip.

Placing her hand against her throbbing forehead as if the action would somehow appease the headache gods, she sat up very, very slowly. A sharp twinge ran the length of her back, forcing a twist through her posture. She turned against it, trying to find something close to her form from before the crash. The speeder lay in bits around her. The abrupt end of her journey evidenced by a deep gouge in the wall to her right.

Her knees and hands stung with fresh grazes. Sand clogged her eyes and nostrils. The dried stall rat blood around her maw and down the front of her neck pulled her skin taut for the second time that day. And for the second time, the blood didn’t belong to her. Silver linings …

She pressed against the wall with the chunk missing and stood on wobbly legs. Her head spun and her stomach lurched. Her belch tasted of hand soap.

Minus trousers and boots, but she still had her mini computer, and her blaster rested against her naked hip. She removed her wonky glasses, cleaned them, and bent them back into shape before putting them on again. She stumbled with heavy steps out onto the main strip.

Every knock and shove slammed through her tender frame. She clamped her jaw against each stinging contact and tightened her grip on her blaster. Thankfully, she’d had the good sense to crash close to her accommodation, and thankfully, as more and more beings noticed her in her current state, she became someone to avoid. Covered in stall rat blood, grazes, and sand, she strode stinking and trouser-less through the crowd. Where the first few beings had collided with her, she now cut a path, those on the busy main strip avoiding her like whatever she had was catching. And maybe they were right.

Pausing at the bottom of the concrete stairs leading up to her accommodation, she dropped her head and took several deep breaths. Breaths she’d had to steal from others when out in the death zone. If she ever saw that mandulu fuck away from the registration hall, she’d show her what it felt like to suffocate. Or maybe she’d just shoot her in the face and be done with it.

Just under an hour until the final droneball game, Sparks ascended her stairs, one weak and unsteady step at a time. One hour until she could get off this shithole of a planet. One hour until she could finally tell Reyes the truth.

Sparks grabbed her door’s hot handle and froze. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Her pulse quickened. A warning. But what? Not the jarring intrusion of her digital intuition. Had the one-eyed mandulu come here? She could end her now. Anything went when they were away from the Grandest.

Her blaster raised, Sparks kicked the door wide, charged into the room, and froze. Her voice broke. “Reyes?”

That winning smile. Those deep brown eyes. Compassion. Kindness. She outshone the main strip. “Hi!”

Tears ran down Sparks’ sweaty, sandy cheeks.

Reyes came over and leaned down so they touched foreheads. “Fucking hell, you smell like a corpse.”

Sparks laughed and wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve. “It’s a long story. Oh my god, Reyes.” Another wave of tears surged through her. “I’ve missed you so much.” She stepped back, banishing the images from the last game. Of Reyes tied to the chair. Needles in her eyes. Broken nose. Missing teeth. She fought her buckling lips and smiled again. “Why are you here?”

“Your friend sent me.”

“You met Faz Went?”

“Well, no, but he got a message to me.”

“How?”

“Through my simulation.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how he got into it either. He told me where you were and for me to not tell anyone how I got the message.”

“Something’s not right.”

“He said he’s okay.” Reyes leaned past Sparks and peered at the open door. “Where’s Hat?”

“With Faz Went. Don’t worry, he’ll look after him. He’s been doing it for years.”

“What?”

“You need to sit down.”

Reyes slowly sat on the bed.

“I don’t really know where to start.”

“At the beginning?”

Sparks nodded several times. “Moses stopped paying us a long time ago.”

Reyes’ jaw fell open with a quiet clop!

“The credits dried up almost as soon as we landed on Acoolter.”

“Why? Have you spoken to him?”

“Nope. Nothing. The credits just stopped.”

“Then—”

“Where have the credits been coming from?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m a shit-hot shot.”

“I know that. But where have the cr—”

“I’ve been hustling for credits in droneball booths for the past year. Faz Went has helped me make it look the funds were coming from Moses.”

“What? Why?”

“I wanted to give you time. You needed to do that simulation.”

Reyes’ eyes glazed. “But I would have stopped had I known.”

“I know. But you needed to beat it. And I enjoyed the games.” And with her newly inherited digital intuition, she was made to compete. But she’d tell Reyes about that when she’d won the tournament, and when she finally put that damn simulation behind her.

“So … uh, what are you doing here?”

“My droneball skills attracted attention. They offered me a life-changing amount of credits to compete here.”

“Why?”

“They’ve brought together the best droneball players in the galaxy and invited a select few high-paying clients to watch. I’m sure they’re gambling extreme amounts on the outcome. Small planets … Generational wealth …”

“And that’s it? You’ve come to compete, and if you win, you get a life-changing amount of credits?”

Nearly choked by the lie, Sparks nodded. She forced out her words. “That’s it.”

“So all you have to do is win?”

“Which I will. You look disappointed.”

“I just …” Reyes stared at the floor. When she looked up again, her eyes were once more damp with tears. “Why didn’t you tell me about all this?”

“You weren’t ready to work again, which is what we needed to happen to get more credits. I thought I could win this tournament and tell you when I came home with the grand prize.”

“But we’re a team.”

Like when they did their final mission? Not much teamwork there! Reyes had done whatever she’d wanted, and Sparks had had to deal with the fallout. Faz Went flashed through her mind. The mistrust worked both ways. She’d hardly been straight-up with Reyes. “You’re right, we are a team. And that means sometimes we need to consider each other’s needs. You needed to beat that simulation.”

Reyes’ voice wavered, and she spoke to the dirty carpet. “I hate that you bore the burden of this for the past year. I would have gladly shared it with you.”

Holding Reyes’ hands in her own, Sparks waited for her to look up again. “I know. And had I needed you to, I would have asked. Anyway, I can win at droneball in my sleep.”

“You’re really that good?”

“I’m the best.” Sparks stood straight. “Never lost.”

“And you’re doing well in the games?”

“I’m in the final. It starts in about half an hour.”

“You think you’ll win?”

“You bet your life I will.” Because whether or not Reyes bet it, Sparks already had.

Reyes threw her arms wide in an exaggerated shrug. “Well, what are we waiting for, then? We need to get over there, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And Sparks?”

“Yeah?”

“No more secrets.”

“Yeah.” A twitch ran through her from an intrusion of drones outside. Sparks took Reyes’ hand and led her from the room. She kept her back to her to hide her cheeks, flushed with the guilt of her lie.

CHAPTER 21

Reyes hit another being with a double-palmed shove to their chest. They stumbled and fell on their arse, clearing a temporary space on the busy main strip.

“They were only about four and a half feet tall! That’s tantamount to bullying.” When Reyes didn’t respond, Sparks grabbed her forearm and pulled her towards her. “Honestly, I can look after myself.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t.” She shoved another being, catching their right side and spinning them. Their arms windmilled, caught another creature in the face, and a fight broke out. Reyes pulled Sparks away from the scrap. “But you’ve taken enough of a beating today, and we need you as agile as possible for the finals. Am I wrong?”

Sparks wiped her sweating brow.

“Am I?”

“No.”

Reyes’ next victim stood over eight feet tall. It had cerise skin, two small horns on the top of its head, and its cheeks, lined with raised veins, inflated and deflated with its respiration. It cut through the crowd, shoving aside any who got in its path. She hit it like she had all the others, a two-palmed shove to the chest. But she stumbled back instead of her target.

The beast’s cheeks inflated as it drew a blaster.

Reyes moved so fast, her foot became a blur, the kicked blaster spinning away from the creature’s hand into the crowd behind.

Before the situation escalated, Sparks dragged Reyes up the white marble stairs leading to the Grandest’s foyer.

Reyes slowed, her mouth hanging open. “Wow! The games are in here? I can see where it gets its name.”

A deep roar shook the ground, and Sparks halted.

Lungface’s cheeks swelled; he loosed another one and charged.

“Come on!” Sparks dragged Reyes into the posh hotel’s foyer.

Every being in the place looked at them. Many sneered and turned up their noses. Several grabbed servers and pointed. They could probably smell her from the other side of the room, and they most certainly wanted them removed from this rather exclusive establishment.

Sparks grinned at the scowling judgement. “A human and a Thrystian walked into a fancy hotel …”

“Sounds like a joke.”

“Let’s hope it’s got a good punchline. Come on.” Sparks made a beeline for the elevator.

Boom!

Lungface hit the foyer’s large front windows like a cow in a tornado. Several beings shrieked, and a cluster of six suited guards carrying plasma rifles ran out to deal with the disturbance.

Boom!

The monster slammed his fists against the glass for a second time.

The guards opened fire, dropping the creature before he could attack again.

The room’s attention returned to Reyes and Sparks.

“You’re sure we belong here?”

“Nope.” Sparks spoke so everyone in the foyer heard. “We absolutely don’t. But this is where we need to be right now. We’ll get away soon enough.”

Ping!

The piggy guard exited the elevator and waved in their direction. “Miss Sparks, how wonderful it is to see you this fine morning.” He drew the attention of many of the foyer’s onlookers. Sneers twisted tighter. Some huffed. Some tutted. One wrinkly being’s neck frilled and rattled, and for a moment, Sparks thought Faz Went had returned.

“Rough night?”

Still several metres between them, Sparks replied for the benefit of the room. “You have no idea. I spent half of it in the death zone.”

Silence.

Standing aside for Sparks and Reyes to enter the elevator, the guard remained in the foyer, clasped his hands together, and bowed at the pair. He addressed their feet. “Good luck today.”

Reyes looked from Sparks to the guard and back to Sparks again.

Ping!

The elevator’s doors closed, but Sparks caught them before they fully shut. The pig looked up at her. “You want to come with us?”

The guard hesitated as if searching for the cruelty behind her trick. “Uh … yes?”

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

The guard hopped with a squeal and entered the elevator. “Thank you, Miss Sparks.”

Sparks pressed the button between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors, and the doors closed. The elevator rose. “You know, I’ve never asked your name. What is it?”

“Marlon.”

“Cool name.”

“Thank you.”

The attention from scores of surveillance drones bored into Sparks. But she forced a smile at their guard.

Reyes rested a hand on her arm. “You okay?”

Apart from being watched by cameras from every conceivable angle? Sparks nodded and forced another grimace of a smile. “Yep.”

Reyes frowned at her.

Ping!

The elevator doors opened.

“Wow!” Reyes rubbed her eyes and stepped out into the brightly lit grand hall. “Who knew they’d be able to fit a room this big in between floors?”

Marlon raised a piggy finger. “Well, actually, Miss …”

“Reyes.”

“Miss Reyes.”

“Just Reyes.”

“Very good. Well, actually, Miss Just Reyes—”

Reyes cocked an eyebrow, and Sparks laughed.

“This is simply the sixteenth floor. We just changed the numbering in the elevator.”

Another cocked eyebrow. No shit?

Sparks laughed again and patted Marlon on his flabby little back. “I think she knows that.”

“Oh, right.” Marlon wrung his hands and bowed his head.

“Say, Marlon, can you please look after Just Reyes while I play the final round?”

“Of course, Miss Sparks.” He pulled on Reyes’ hand, leading her towards the spectators’ area. “These games are for only the most exclusive clients. I’m afraid you will have to wait here. You won’t get to see the games, but we will let you know as soon as they’re done, and whether Miss Sparks has won.”

“When Miss Sparks wins.” Sparks grinned.

Marlon nodded. “Now, Miss Just Reyes, let me take you to the spectators’ area.”

Slipping from Marlon’s grip, Reyes leaned down and pressed her forehead to Sparks’. She kept her voice low. Just for her. “Go and do what you do best.”

Sparks smiled. “It’s so good to have you here.”

“Smash it, yeah?”

“You know I will.”

Reyes stepped back and winked at her. “And the first thing we can do with the prize credits is find somewhere that has a shower.” She let Marlon lead her to the spectator’s area.

The countdown timer on the wall dropped to fifty-nine seconds. Sparks made her way to the registration table and the cluster of beings gathered there. No Juan Ortega. If Sparks were to bet on anyone making it to the final, other than herself, it would have been him.

A broad-shouldered being moved aside, and Sparks halted mid-step. Bile lifted onto the back of her tongue. She gulped back the bitter acid and balled her fists.

The smug mandulu threw her head back with a laugh, which fell the second she laid eye on Sparks.

“Beat her in the games. Beat her in the games. Beat her in the games.” Sparks had gotten this far. Kick off now and they wouldn’t let her compete in the final.

The mandulu looked Sparks up and down. “You look like shit.”

“Whoa! Stop! What are you doing?” Juan Ortega appeared from Sparks’ right just in time to push down on the end of her drawn blaster.

The mandulu scoffed and shook her head.

When Sparks tried to raise her blaster again, she met Juan Ortega’s resistance for a second time. “You think I don’t know you’ve been behind them all?”

“Behind what?” The mandulu threw her thick arms wide.

“Yeah, right.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The attempts on my life.”

“Have you lost the plot?”

“Don’t pretend it wasn’t you.”

“You flatter yourself, sweetheart.” The mandulu shook her head. “Why would I try to kill you? You really think you’re that much of a threat?”

Juan Ortega thrust a restraining arm across Sparks’ chest. He spoke so only she heard. “You need to calm down. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but now is not the time.”

Her teeth clenched, she breathed in through her nose.

“You’ve worked so hard. Don’t throw it all away for this cretin. We’ll be in the game in a few minutes. Beat her in there.”

Sparks turned towards the spectators’ area. The benches loaded with beings. Reyes, at the front, pressed her hands to the barrier between them.

The tension left Sparks’ taut frame.

“Oh, my days!” The mandulu scoffed. “You brought a human with you? Do you have no shame?”

Reyes’ head twitched with the slightest shake. Leave it. Beat her in the game.

CHAPTER 22

Sparks stood in her lane as the farthest left of the ten competitors. Separated by transparent walls, Juan Ortega occupied a lane in the middle, and they’d put the mandulu all the way at the other end. Probably for the best.

She snapped her neck from side to side, bounced on her toes, and stretched up to the ceiling. She should at least pretend she needed to warm up for this. Put on a show now, because there’d be no exhibition in the games. She was going to nail every drone the second it appeared.

The lane turned black. The walls opaque. “Huh?” No introductions? No ceremony?

A neon blue grid lined Sparks’ surroundings. All four walls. Simple. Minimalist. Like a computer game from the dark ages.

Blip!

A white dot about the size of a tennis ball appeared on the screen ahead. It ran from one side to the other and bounced back again with a monotone blip! every time it hit something.

It hit the next wall.

Blip!

Blip!

Gooseflesh lit up Sparks’ skin, and a surge of adrenaline gripped her stomach. The intuited rush came from the ceiling. Ten drones dropped as one.

She loosed her green blast, scored a direct hit, and bounced on the spot, the other nine busy drones making her brain itch.

The ball continued its hypnotic journey in front of her, gathering pace with every bounce.

Blip!

Blip!

Seven drones remained.

Five.

Her intuition gripped her skull, but as each drone fell, the pressure eased.

Two remained.

Quack!

First round done.

Thunk!

The back of a lane opened.

Whomp!

Nine competitors remained. Sparks turned right, waiting for opaque to turn transparent. She met her own reflection in the black mirror.

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

The ball bounced from one side to the other.

Blip!

Blip!

Another tingling rush.

Sparks shot her drone.

Eight remained.

Four.

Two.

Quack!

Thunk!

Whomp!

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

Sparks shot first. Again.

Seven drones remained. Alone in the darkness of her own lane.

Five.

Three.

A pause.

Blasts in the other lanes.

Two dropped at almost the same time.

Quack!

Thunk!

Whomp!

Seven competitors.

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

The white ball so quick it had turned into a blur.

The drones dropped.

Sparks first. Again. Of course. Even with her thrumming mind, she’d beat them all.

Quack!

Thunk!

Whomp!

Six competitors remained.

Still in the darkness of her lane. Still surrounded by a neon blue grid.

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

Sparks first. The others followed.

Quack!

Thunk!

Whomp!

Five competitors remained.

Sparks widened her stance. Held her blaster out in front of her.

The white ball vanished.

The lights came on.

The walls turned transparent again.

Four beings to her right.

A brown six-legged insectoid with pincers for hands. Juan Ortega. A small furry thing. Almost cute. Like a teddy bear if you took away its mouth. Although it had already made a good attempt at that. Teeth so sharp its lips were no more than scar tissue. Covered in deep gouges. Every mealtime a torture for the little fucker. And, finally, the mandulu on the far end. Of course.

Five left. Halfway there. Now to see them all off.

The lane turned black again.

Blue gridded lines.

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

Sparks shot first, but this time the lights came back on.

The other four were still competing.

The insectoid paused to look both ways.

Quack!

Paused too long.

Thunk!

Whomp!

The insectoid vanished.

Black.

Blue lines.

Blip-blip-blip!

The light came on.

The mandulu shot first.

Sparks missed a beat.

Juan Ortega killed his drone.

She shot the third one.

Quack!

Fuck! How did the mandulu beat her?

Thunk!

Whomp!

The angry little bear vanished.

Her heart in her throat. Her palms sweating. Sparks aimed her blaster. But the wall remained transparent. A commentator’s deep voice. She’d not heard this one before.

“Last three. Sparks the Thrystian. Juan Ortega the human. And Barbara the mandulu.”

Sparks peered down the line. “Barbara?”

“Just you focus on you, yeah? I won that last round, in case you didn’t notice.”

Opaque onyx walls.

Blue grids.

Blip-blip-blip!

The white ball moved so fast it left a trail like a shooting star.

Drones.

Lights.

Quack!

Fuck! Sparks shot second.

Thunk!

Juan Ortega saluted Sparks. “Well, that’s me done. It was nice getting to know you.”

“You too, Juan.”

Whomp!

“Wait!” The commentator’s voice halted the pole. It stopped about a metre away from hitting Juan Ortega for a home run. He stood, mid wince, bracing for the heavy blow. He looked up at the ceiling. Where else would the omnipotent voice be coming from?

“It’s come to our attention that we have a cheat. Someone who has an unfair advantage.”

Shit! Sparks shook her head. How had they found out?

“Barbara! You have an illegal blaster.”

“Barbara?”

“No!” The mandulu stamped her thick foot. “No, I don’t.”

“It’s programmed to the drones.”

“No!” Her voice rose in pitch, morphing into a nasal whine. “That’s not true.” She held her weapon aloft. “Check it. It’s not true.”

Thunk!

The back of her lane opened.

“It’s not true. I’ve been set up.”

Sparks tutted. “You cheating fuck!”

“Fuck you! I’ve been framed.”

“See ya later, Barb.”

Whomp!

The one-eyed mandulu vanished from her lane. No wonder she’d won those past few rounds.

“Thank you, Juan Ortega.”

“For what?”

“Being kind to me from day one.”

“Costs nothing.”

“Tell that to every other being on this planet.”

Juan Ortega turned her way, pressed his palms together, and bowed. “May the best player win.”

She intended to.

Black walls.

Blue grid.

Streaking white ball.

Blip-blip-blip!

Gooseflesh. Hairs on the back of her neck. The drones were on their way down. She aimed her blaster at where it would emerge.

Quack!

She fired.

The lights came on.

Her drone hit the floor a second after Juan Ortega’s.

“H … how?”

“Sorry.” Juan Ortega threw his shoulders up in a shrug. “Lucky shot, I guess.”

Thunk!

The back of the lane opened.

“No!” Sparks raised her hands like it could stop the pole. What would she tell Reyes?

Whomp!

CHAPTER 23

The lamp shattered against the wall about half a metre from Sparks’ head. “Je—” She ducked the next one. “Fucking hell, Reyes, calm down, will ya?”

Reyes launched a table with such force it turned to splinters on impact and left a deep gouge in the white plaster.

“Three missions, Sparks?” She kicked over a chair. “Three fucking missions?” She paced back and forth, shaking her head. “I can’t do it. I didn’t sign up for this. Do you know how long it’s been since our final mission?”

“I wa—”

“That was a rhetorical fucking question. Of course you know. You know more than anyone what it means for me to have to do something like that again. But you still rolled the dice on it?”

“You said you wanted to get back out, remember? That we could be the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. Your words, not mine.”

“Don’t!” Reyes’ pointed finger shook, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes widened. “Don’t you fucking dare.” She threw her arms out to the sides, and they slapped back against her thighs. “Who are we working for now?”

Sparks thrust her hands into her pockets.

“Well?”

“I dunno.”

“You don’t know?” Reyes stamped her foot, the thick carpet muting the sound. “You don’t know, but you were prepared to commit to us doing three missions for them?”

“I committed to play droneball in their tournament. I didn’t think I’d lose.”

“That’s because you’re a cocky little shit.”

That’s because she has digital intuition. How had Juan Ortega beaten her? What did he have going on? “At least this will liberate us from our stagnant existence.”

The rage left Reyes with her sagging frame and lowered voice. “Stagnant? That’s what our relationship’s become?” She screwed up her face like she tasted the word. “Stagnant?”

Sparks lifted her chin. “You know what? Yes. It has. Do you know how exhausting it is to watch someone who was once great turn into a fucking recluse?”

Reyes sat down on the soft bed.

“I love you.” Sparks stepped closer. “You know that. But where’s the Reyes who gets the job done? The Reyes who had no fear?” She half smiled. “The Reyes who gets mad and smashes shit up?”

Before she’d thrown the two lamps, Reyes had shattered a coffee table, broken the bathroom mirror, smashed all the glasses and complimentary drinks by the minibar, and had ripped one of the wardrobe doors from its hinges. She took in the carnage with tear-filled eyes, like she was searching for the funny side. She still hadn’t found it by the time she looked back at Sparks. “She fell in love.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

Someone knocked on the door.

Sparks paused for a second, but Reyes didn’t reply.

Marlon stood in the hallway. Sparks bit her tongue. They were finally getting on, and she didn’t need another enemy.

“Uh.” Marlon looked past her at the trashed room. “You’ll be doing your first mission in the morning. I suggest you get some rest.”

Like she could get some rest with so many drones watching their every move.

“We’ll have the windows tinted for you.”

“You can do that?”

“Only in exceptional circumstances.”

“You mean when the guests aren’t here to be exploited for credits?”

Reyes shouted from her bed, “What if we say no?”

Sparks stood aside to give Marlon and Reyes a clear line of sight to one another.

“What if we say no to your missions? Fuck you and find someone else. What will you do about that?”

“Please, Miss Just Reyes, hear us out first. You’ll be making a difference by doing these missions. Fighting against galactic terror. Helping the good guys.”

“Good, bad, it’s all a matter of perspective. Besides, I didn’t sign up to making a fucking difference.”

“And it pays well.”

“So does piloting a rocket into a dying star, but I don’t want to do that either. Like I said, I didn’t sign up for this.”

“But she did.”

Sparks pulled her neck into her shoulders.

“You can’t hold me accountable for her commitments.”

Marlon sighed. “We might as well do this now.”

Reyes sneered. “Do what now?”

Marlon whistled and stood aside.

The whirring of servos called through the corridor. The thump of heavy steps accompanied them. A two-and-a-half-metre-tall mech with Gatling guns for arms rounded the corner. Four guards followed.

Sparks bristled and rested her hand on her blaster.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Marlon said.

The hulking mech drew closer, and Sparks let her hand fall limp before stepping out of its way.

The four guards split into pairs. Two went to Reyes and two to Sparks. One guard held a plasma rifle and the other a metal collar.

After sharing a glance with Reyes, Sparks fought against her resistance and leaned forwards. They clipped the collar around her neck, and despite it being loose, it throttled her through her digital intuition.

Her lips tight, her eyes narrowed, Reyes also acquiesced.

The mech led the four guards from the room with the whining whir of servos. The thumping steps vanished down the corridor.

“Let me guess.” Sparks tugged on her collar like it might help her breathe more easily. She fought to maintain her composure lest she reveal her gift to Marlon and every other being watching them. “They can trigger these to explode?” Like she didn’t fucking feel it already! Her hands balled into fists at Marlon’s wincing apology. Her voice strained, she shook her head. “Motherfucker.”

“We need to be sure you’ll follow through on your commitment.”

“Her commitment!” Reyes pointed at Sparks.

“That may well be the case, Miss Just Reyes, but a commitment nonetheless. We have three missions that need to be done. All of them are for a good cause, so I suggest you focus on that rather than resisting that which cannot be resisted.” Marlon left the room and closed the door behind him.

Reyes’ attention bored deeper into Sparks than the drones’ surveillance. It gripped her harder than the collar’s stranglehold. But what did she want from her? An apology? If she’d trusted her on their final mission, they’d still be working now. They wouldn’t be in this situation, and she wouldn’t have had one of the shittiest years of her life putting up with that fucking simulation on a planet at the arse end of the galaxy. She’d screwed up. Of course she had, but if Reyes wanted an apology, she’d be waiting a long fucking time. “I’m going to have a shower.”

“Good, you smell like shit.”

Sparks shook her head, entered the bathroom, locked the door behind her, and tugged on her collar again. She pulled so hard it hurt the back of her neck. There were only two ways of getting it off. Detonation, or their new master’s key.

CHAPTER 24

Scores of maintenance droids worked on vessels in the Falcro’s mile-long hangar. They buzzed around them like flies, each dedicated to a specific task with the laser focus only a machine could maintain. They were utterly unperturbed by outside influence. Sparks twitched, every intention adding another level of chaos to her intuition. Somewhere, some machine would have the macro view of their collective efforts. But in amongst it, she drowned in the white noise of micro directions. However, even with the flurry of activity, these machines brought with them a calm. They were healers, their sole purpose to repair.

Despite the size of the space, they were in the smallest hangar of the three on the vast star freighter. The main one ran the entire length of the ship. Eight miles from end to end. Capable of flash-dropping enough vessels to swing the tide of many wars.

Sparks tugged at her itching collar and headed straight for the Arrowhead, Reyes beside her. Their boot heels clicked in unison against the grated gunmetal grey steel floor, the darkness beneath dropping into the oblivion of the ship’s inner workings. She moved with a spring in her step. She’d slept last night for the first time in days despite the boring interrogation of surveillance in the Grandest’s room—and now here in the hangar—and despite the fire-ant scarf that was the explosive ring around her neck. Exhaustion coupled with a coping strategy she’d had since childhood; whenever things got too emotionally stressful, she slept like the dead.

Having not looked at Sparks all morning, Reyes continued to stare straight ahead, focused on the mech they intended her to use.

Sparks could take the shouting. The launched furniture. Hell, she’d earned it. And then some. But the lack of eye contact from Reyes, like she revolted her … that cut the deepest.

The pair split, Sparks heading for the Arrowhead, the twinge of more recording lenses lighting her up. But what did she expect, that those employing them would rely on an explosive collar to keep them in check? Of course they had to protect their investment. They’d be following their every move.

Reyes went for the five-metre-tall chrome mech. Nothing on the one she’d used in the Shadow Order, but probably as well armed. It wore a strip of five missiles like a backpack and had plasma cannons protruding from its forearms. Size didn’t always count.

Back in her cockpit, Sparks drew a deep breath, filling her sinuses with the familiar smell of old leather from her well-worn seat. The last time she’d been in here, she’d had Faz Went beside her and Hat on her lap. Only a few days had passed, but that memory belonged to another life. She shook her head and pulled on her helmet.

Reyes climbed into her mech and drew it closed, sealing herself in. The lines where the door had been were invisible on the curved chrome body. She’d never enjoyed watching the woman she loved enclose herself in a walking steel sarcophagus. Now it damn near tore her heart out. They’d never gone into battle on such bad terms. But they had this. They were the most competent duo the galaxy had ever seen.

Footage played on Sparks’ HUD, the small screen coming across in front of her right eye. It showed an image of a small being with pastel orange skin. He had pixie ears, sharp little teeth, and a turned-up nose. No doubt Reyes would be watching the same footage. The mugshot got replaced by a full-body image. The white-eyed being stood about three feet tall. A female voice introduced him. “Cornelius Capernicus.”

“Nice name.”

Reyes’ only reply came in the form of sighs and grunts as she clearly adjusted her settings inside the alien mech.

“Good chat.”

She held up her thick steel arms as if testing the range of the mech’s movement. The hangar’s bright lights reflected off the mech’s curved surfaces.

The female voice continued their mission brief. “He was on Eranture to find a rare root for a vaccine he’s been working on for years. It’s the cure for a particularly nasty parasite on his home planet of Brue.”

Sparks flinched with every image. Infants, all the same species as Cornelius. The first one had a twisted and withered leg. One’s jaw hung loose, its mouth stretched impossibly wide like it had a latex face. Hardened skin covered one’s head with just two tiny holes in the encrusted helmet. A small eye peered from one, and the other a small gap through which it could breathe.

“Jeez.” It was the first thing Reyes had said since they’d woken that morning.

An official being, a female in a suit, stood at a wooden lectern and addressed the screen. “Cornelius was only trying to save our children. This parasite targets the young. He found the youkoi plant and sent it back to Brue, saving thousands of lives, but the Eranteans are a paranoid species. They’ve accused him of being a spy and have imprisoned him. No matter how we’ve tried, they’ve rejected our requests for communication. He’s saved the lives of so many children, so we have to get him back. Whatever it takes, we must save this great hero. Please help us. You’re our only hope.”

Sparks pressed a button in her cockpit, the glass roof coming over her head to seal her in with a gentle click.

A deep voice she didn’t recognise came through the speakers. “Ready?”

Sparks and Reyes raised their thumbs at the same time. Sparks from inside her small cockpit, Reyes with her massive chrome hand.

Green flashing lights raced along the hangar’s floor. They started wide and met at a point about two hundred metres away, streaking away from them to their destination. Reyes led. Servos whined. Her steps slammed down. They’d placed Sparks’ ship on a small buggy that responded to her controls. She rolled after the mech, the flashing green lights urging them on.

Gooseflesh prickled Sparks’ arms, and the slightest smile lifted the edges of her mouth. “I’ve missed this, you know?”

Reyes continued with slow and deliberate steps, the echo of her movement rippling away from them in every direction. Whir-thunk! Whir-thunk!

“And there’s no one I’d rather have beside me than you.”

Whir—Reyes paused mid-step, but kept her mech’s broad and glistening back to Sparks. The five missiles pointed up, their red tips in a line like an ornate fence. Thunk! She continued forwards. Whir-thunk! Whir-thunk!

At least their comms worked for when they needed them.

The green lights met at one of the hangar’s hatches. Reyes reached it first, and Sparks rolled up next to her. Motors whirred, and a section of the floor opened wide, revealing the lush planet miles below. A massive grey building sat surrounded by grassland. “Is there anything else on this planet other than a prison?”

“Yes.” The resonating voice made something on Sparks’ helmet rattle. “They have a city at the other pole. You want a countdown?”

Sparks’ right leg bounced, and she tapped her controls, spending the adrenaline coursing through her. “Yeah, why not?” Her throat dry, her stomach tight. The nerves would ease. But a year is a long time to be inactive.

“Three.”

“Two.”

Reyes took two heavy steps and swan-dived from the hatch.

“One.”

The buggy beneath Sparks’ ship lifted the back of her fighter, and she slid forwards on greased tracks, following Reyes out a second later.

Of course, Sparks would rather Reyes chose this mission of her own free will. And she’d rather not be the focus of her contempt, no matter how justified. But in that moment, dropping from the sky, hurtling towards their first mission in a year, she’d be hard pushed to say she had any regrets.

CHAPTER 25

It might have been a different mech, and they might have been doing a mission for a different organisation, but Sparks still bristled when Reyes hit the ground. The hairs on her body stood on end as if lifted by a shockwave rippling away from her landing. She flew over the top of her in the Arrowhead before looping back around. They were back. No fear. No hang-ups. Just getting missions done, side by side. Together they could take on the universe.

The vast meadow stretched away from them. Long swaying grass shimmered in the glow of the bright sun. The prison block, a huge grey steel building one thousand metres away, a blight on the verdant landscape. It stretched several hundred metres wide, but stood only one storey tall. “This should be easy.”

The deep voice from the ship came through, and her helmet rattled again. “The prison’s nicknamed the iceberg.”

“Because most of it’s underground?”

“No, because it’s cold, hostile, and floating in the middle of the ocean.”

“Wh—”

“Of course because most of it’s underground.”

“Oh, comedy.” Sparks tutted. “We get that as part of the missions, do we? Or will we be charged extra at the end?”

Reyes’ mech shook its head.

“The place is like a fallout bunker. It’s windowless, cold, and isolated.”

As always, Reyes took the lead, and Sparks flew behind and above her. Her cockpit’s transparent screen gave her a panoramic view of their vibrant surroundings. “That has to be the biggest punishment of the lot. What’s worse than spending your life in a cell? Spending your life in a windowless cell when your surroundings are so invigorating.”

Reyes transitioned from walking to a jog.

“Is your radio working, Reyes?”

“Yep!”

“Good chat. And you up there, in the Falcro.”

“We’re not aboard the Falcro.”

“Wherever you are. Why make us do this?”

“This mission?”

“All three of them.”

“The droneball tournament’s expensive to run. The expenses need to be covered. Everyone who entered had something of value they could offer if they failed. For you, it was yourself and Reyes.”

“But don’t tell me you’re not making a profit on us.”

“Of course we are. It’s a win-win. You get paid more than you’ve ever earned.”

“How do you know?”

“We know. Also, beings who deserve to get help get helped.”

“Like Cornelius.”

“Exactly.”

“And you profit too.”

“And we profit too. Now, you have ten minutes to complete this mission.”

“What?” Sparks looked up at the blue sky, but cloaking tech hid all eight miles of the Falcro.

“The second the Eranteans know of your presence, you have ten minutes before they mobilise their army and reach the prison. I’d advise you to be gone by then.”

Sparks accelerated to keep up with Reyes’ bounding flat-out sprint towards the seemingly dormant prison. The skin at the back of her neck clenched. “Reyes, let me take these security drones.”

“What security drones?”

She had a point. They’d not yet appeared. And what could she say? She’d sensed them? Another secret she’d kept from her. And not the time to share it on an open frequency. “There, look. Over to the right. I saw one peer out and rush back in.”

“I don’t see—”

An intrusion of security drones flooded from around the prison’s right side. About twenty in total. They were three hundred metres away. Sparks lined them up in her sights and squinted against the thrumming buzz in her brain.

Fwomp!

Fwomp!

Reyes shot two of her five missiles. They hit one after the other, exploding into two vast fireballs.

“What are you doing?” A countdown timer in Sparks’ HUD started at ten minutes.

“Do you really think we have time to fuck about? In and out, Sparks.”

“Or just another way for you to take control like before?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just, we could have gone in quieter.”

“We’re here because you fucked up, remember? You don’t get to tell me how we should complete this mission.”

Sparks pursed her lips. Her vision blurred with the thrum of approaching drones. More about to appear from her right, she shot as they emerged. Like droneball, but on a grander scale, she dropped them one after the other.

Six ships appeared with the drones. Their shields ate up Sparks’ initial attack, and they spun away from them, out across the meadow.

Reyes remained focused on the drones, dropping them with thick blue plasma cannon blasts.

Sparks peeled away and chased the fighters.

Nine minutes and fifteen seconds remained.

The enemy flew six identical discoids. They were chrome like Reyes’ mech. They each had a pair of cannons with a bar of a windscreen between them. They took a weaving flight path. Erratic. Unpredictable. Programmed to be random. Sparks smiled, aimed to the right of the lead fighter, locked into its programming, and pulled her triggers.

The ship exploded in a ball of fire and smoke. Sparks pulled up and to the left, avoiding the obliterated vessel’s sharp debris.

Five fighters remained. She aimed above the next one and fired. Her green blasts met its rise, sending it towards the ground in a flaming nosedive.

The next pair of fighters went as easily as the first two. A duo remained. Their programming shifted. They split from one another. One peeled left; the other pulled right.

Sparks went after the one on the right. She gripped her flight sticks with both hands, rested her fingers on her triggers, aimed to the left of the fighter directly in front of her and shot.

The fighter turned into her blasts. The pilot had no choice. The ship dropped, fire, smoke, and large chrome chunks trailing behind it. It got stripped back to a spinning white-hot husk. It bounced several times before coming to a halt at the end of a deep trench of its own making.

Turning so quickly her head spun, Sparks flipped her ship around and zeroed in on the final fighter. She followed its weaving pattern, locking into its programming. In the distance, Reyes loosed her blue plasma blasts, taking down what looked like the remaining security drones. A few bothersome flies.

The fighter about to turn right, Sparks aimed beside it. Three. Two. O …

Her intuited connection got severed. The ship pulled left. “Shit!” The pilot had shut down their ship’s programming. “Shit!”

Now truly unpredictable. Made even worse because of their lack of piloting skills. Sparks hung on the back of the fighter like she would in the old days, before her intuition. Her fingers on her cannon’s triggers, she fought to get a lock on the ship.

The ship pulled up. It turned a huge loop, swinging over Sparks’ head and coming back around behind her. A flashy rookie move. All style, no substance. The ship wobbled and twitched, and Sparks did just enough to avoid its scattershot attack. Yellow beams streaked past her.

Sparks decelerated to let the ship catch up. She zeroed in on the prison block and Reyes’ mech, all the security drones now down. She avoided the attacks by shifting one way and then the other. Left. Right. Left. Left. The yellow blasts sailed past, the pilot behind attacking where Sparks had been.

Just fifty metres from the prison block. “Reyes, incoming.” Sparks pulled on her flight sticks and shot straight up.

Reyes spun, locked her two cannons onto the pilot-controlled fighter. She sent two thick blasts straight into the ship’s nose. She turned it into another fireball that sailed over the mech’s head, slammed down into the meadow on the other side of the prison, and rolled away as another burning husk.

“Whoop!” Sparks completed her mimic of the loop used against her. “We’re back, baby!”

The glistening chrome mech bent at the waist and fired a missile from its back into the prison’s wall. It tore a ten-metre-wide hole in the steel.

Sparks landed and opened her cockpit at the same time as Reyes opened her mech. She left her helmet on her seat, jumped out, and tugged on her collar. If only she could discard the stinging buzz of contained power so easily. “You ready?”

“You just focus on staying alive, yeah?” Reyes held a tracker locked on to Cornelius Capernicus’ location and ran towards the hole in the prison’s wall. Like their explosive collars, it tracked their progress, but didn’t buzz with the familiar twinge of surveillance. It couldn’t hear them.

Sparks threw her arms up in the air. “Come on, Reyes. We need to work together on this.”

“We just worked together.” Her voice echoed inside the cold steel building. “That doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you. Now let’s collect our target and get away from here.”

CHAPTER 26

Sparks chased after Reyes, the timer on her tracker showing they had seven minutes and fifty-nine seconds remaining. They’d gone through the hole in the prison wall and ran down a spiral staircase leading them into the bowels of the hellish place. This was an institution where they put beings to be forgotten.

They’d been on so many missions together, they operated as if they were of the same mind, regardless of how well they were getting along. Their steps hit the grated steel stairs in unison.

Small rectangular lights studded the walls. They were barely bright enough to reveal their path. Sparks fished her mini computer from her inside pocket and turned on the torch. The small device lit the stairwell with a magnesium brilliance.

At the bottom, Reyes’ tracker showed they were just over one hundred metres beneath the surface. A labyrinthine network of gloomy grey steel tunnels ran away from them in every direction.

The tracker dictated their route. It took them through left and right turns, deeper into the disorientating complex. Hopefully, it would get them out again as easily. And what else could they do but trust it? No time to lay a ball of string here.

Sparks halted when she rounded the next bend. She turned off her torch, and her hissing whisper ran away from her. “Reyes!”

Reyes stopped, sweat glistening on her face.

“Listen.”

She squinted and lifted one side of her head. She shrugged. “What? Come on, Sparks, we only have seven minutes left.”

Eight of them closed in. They all marched to the same pre-programmed beat. A complex route. The most efficient way to patrol this place. They covered every inch, and they never got lost. Couldn’t get lost. “That.” Sparks cupped her ear. “You can’t hear it?”

“No.”

Of course she couldn’t. But why should Sparks tell her about her digital intuition to get her to trust her? She didn’t trust her when they were on their final mission. Didn’t trust her to lead the attack on the splindlers, and didn’t trust her to get the power orb on her own. It would be nice if she just listened to her for once. Sparks paused for a second longer until it came. Distant, like a dripping tap in another room.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

Reyes’ dubious scowl lifted. “Guards?”

“Sounds like it. We need to get out of their path.” Sparks beckoned Reyes after her. She ducked down another tunnel. “Come on. We can hide for a minute. Hopefully, they’ll go the other way.” They would go the other way, and she could tell her why, but it would be nice if Reyes simply trusted her.

Sparks paused around the next bend. Reyes hadn’t followed.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

They were heading straight for them. Sparks ran back. “Reyes, what are you doing?”

“The target’s this way.”

“I get that, but if we hide for a few seconds, they’ll go th—”

Reyes opened fire.

Sparks ran to her side. Even if she had told her about her intuition, she probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. Reyes always knew better.

The droids approached the bend at a run. Sparks shot where one would appear, scoring a direct hit on its face. Her attack bounced off the nearly two-metre-tall humanoid guard. Its blue eyes glowed bright against its matte black shell.

Two droids rolled around the bend and dropped into a crouch. Reyes’ and Sparks’ shots bounced off them.

Two more kneeled beside them. The remaining four stood in a line and shot over their heads. Locked into their combat programming, the matte black machines opened fire, loosing a torrent of yellow blasts. They had plasma cannons on their forearms. They were like mini versions of Reyes’ mech.

Reyes shot back before pulling away again.

“So, what now?” Sparks threw up her arms.

“What?”

“This is your plan. We didn’t have time to hide, but we have time for this battle, so what now? There’s eight of them down there.”

“You think I can’t see that?”

“So how do we beat them?”

The programming of the droids’ organised efficiency snapped through Sparks’ entire being, each movement precise and concise. Calculated. Risk-assessed. But something sat beneath the surface. It started as a high-pitched tinnitus whine that moved from her eardrums to her temples. It itched around her neck, her collar slightly warmer than before. “They’re trying to blow our fucking heads off.”

But Reyes had broken from cover to attack again.

Sparks leaned against the wall, closed her eyes, and clapped her hands to her ears, shutting out the external noise. She connected to the droids’ unwavering aggression. They would only stop when deactivated. Then she found it. Their backs. They were programmed to protect their backs.

“Reyes!”

“What, Sparks? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little busy right now.”

“You know what? Don’t worry.”

“Stop wasting my time, then.”

Sparks snatched the tracker from Reyes’ hand and ran.

“Where are you going?”

“Just keep them busy.”

The tracker displayed a map of their immediate surroundings. Sparks followed it, darting around several bends. The timer dropped past six minutes and thirty seconds, and the whine grew louder and higher in pitch. Take too long and they’d paint these gunmetal grey walls with her and Reyes’ brains.

Sparks halted at the next bend. She fought to slow her breaths. She peered around the corner. The eight droids were all focused on Reyes, loosing shots, the occasional green blast of return fire hitting the wall behind them.

The whine now a dentist’s drill to her temples. If her collar grew much hotter, it would turn her sweat to steam. Her brain to mist. She clung to her blaster. She opened and closed her mouth in a futile attempt to ease the pressure in her skull. She walked towards the droids on tiptoes. If even one of them turned her way, she’d be screwed.

Now just a few metres away, Sparks fired. Four shots into the four standing droids’ backs. She hit each one between the shoulder blades, cutting through their maintenance panels. As the four fell, she ran, ducking around a bend and out of the remaining fours’ line of fire.

Half the droids down, but Sparks’ brain still hummed like a saw cutting through stone. Her collar as hot as a fresh mug of black coffee.

Two droids faced her, and two faced Reyes. Sparks shot Reyes’ two in the back and pulled away again.

Just two droids remained. They’d split their attacks. She took down the one facing Reyes. Her voice echoed in the tunnels. “Reyes, shoot them between the shoulder blades.”

The droid ran. Its programming changed. Self-preservation. Get the fuck out of there.

Sparks gave chase. She used the tracker and took a different route to cut it off. Her collar grew hotter. The whine higher in pitch. The pressure in her head swelled. Sparks lost her co-ordination, her legs weak.

A map in her palm. The droid approached the cross junction from her right. Sparks slid, two-footed. The second the droid appeared, she connected with its ankles. Its yellow blast, aimed at where she’d been, streaked over and away from her down the tunnel.

Sparks rolled from the falling droid and jumped on its back. It bucked and nearly threw her off. As it tried to stand, she pressed the barrel of her blaster to the maintenance panel and pulled the trigger.

Crash!

The droid fell limp. Flat.

The heat drained from her collar.

Reyes, breathless, ran around the bend. “Where did you go? What were you playing at?”

“Your collar didn’t get hot?”

“Yeah. But …”

“They’d hacked into them, Reyes. It’s no good me fighting by your side when we have no fucking heads, now is it?” She handed back the tracker and got to her feet. “What I was doing was saving your arse. Now come on, Let’s find the little shit we’ve come to rescue.” The tracker’s timer showed they were down to five and a half minutes.

CHAPTER 27

Five and a half minutes to get to the main cell block, find Cornelius Capernicus, and get the hell out of there. Much longer and they’d risk running into an Erantean army waiting for them above ground. Sparks and Reyes ran side by side, their footsteps slapping against the steel floor. Gunmetal grey panels above, below, and on both sides. Their path lit by dim rectangular stud lights.

Sparks tugged on her collar. Her skin sweated beneath the metal band, and the fire-ant itch had returned, but at least the pressure didn’t build in it like a geyser about to send a crimson gush into the ceiling. “I wish I could get this fucking thing off.”

Reyes pointed at the sky. “I wish you hadn’t signed a deal that made us the pets of those fuckers up there.”

“They’re not on the Falcro.”

“Does where they are really change my point?”

Sparks shrugged. She might have saved them from the seemingly invincible guards, but, were it not for her, they wouldn’t have faced them in the first place.

Reyes’ tracker showed they were a few hundred metres from their target. A prison wing around the next right bend. Maybe the main wing. The screen showed five hundred cells lined the vast room’s perimeter. Each one numbered on their map. The red dot representation of Cornelius Capernicus occupied one of the many small chambers.

“Shouldn’t we maybe put a plan together?” Sparks slowed her pace.

“No. We don’t have time.” Reyes charged around the corner.

Sparks followed and halted a second later. “Shit!” While she could sense a machine from a mile away, she’d had no forewarning about the seven guards in the centre of the vast room. All the same species, they must have been Eranteans. The first time she’d seen their kind. The green-skinned beings stood about eight feet tall. They had cylindrical bodies, long limbs, and hair that stuck straight up and bent with their movement.

Reyes took aim.

The seven guards ran.

Reyes tracked them with her blaster, but the guards piled into a control booth made from reinforced glass. An alarm wailed through the prison. A thick steel panel fell across the corridor behind them, shutting off their retreat.

Sparks’ intuition jumped on her, twisting her back from coccyx to cranium. Her head snapped to the left.

“You okay?”

Her gun in her grip, Sparks aimed in their direction. She loosed a shot. Her green blast crossed the three-hundred-metre-long room and met the drone the second it appeared.

Between forty to sixty drones hurtled towards the cell block. Sparks kept her blaster raised, closed in on them, and dropped them one after the other. Their humming whine silenced, their existence ended with a clattering crash against the steel floor. All the while, Reyes’ focus burned into the side of her face. Slack-jawed while she worked.

* * *

They reached the other side of the room, a pile of about fifty drones scattered across the steel floor. Reyes showed Sparks her tracker. They were close to Cornelius Capernicus’ cell.

Sparks caught her as she set off and dragged her back. She shook her head and pointed at the mirror in the right corner of the room. It gave them a view around the bend, down the corridor the security drones had come from. One black-bodied machine hovered in the gloom, the corridor closed off behind it with a steel panel much like the one close to the guards’ booth. She ran around with her gun raised and shot the remaining drone. It hit the steel floor with a crash!

“That’s all of them?”

A low-level hum thrummed through Sparks’ being. Distant, the weak buzz like fatigue. She nodded. “For no—” Her shoulders snapped to her neck.

“What?”

At least Reyes finally wanted to listen. Sparks turned to the guards’ booth just as the door opened.

Whirring servos. Slamming steps. Two of the guards exited inside anti-riot mechs. They were like Reyes’ on the surface, but smaller. At three metres tall, the top of their heads were about ten centimetres from the ceiling. They raised their plasma cannons.

Reyes grabbed Sparks around the waist and dragged her away.

Two blue shots exploded against the cell doors. Servos whirred, and the mechs closed in.

They had three minutes and forty-two seconds left.

Sparks pulled out her mini computer. Reyes’ tracker showed them corridors, rooms, and where they’d find Cornelius Capernicus, but nothing more. She brought up a more detailed plan, grabbed Reyes’ hand, and dragged her into a small and dark storeroom.

Whir-thunk! Whir-thunk! The mechs drew close.

Reyes threw her arms wide. “You might as well have locked us in a cell and given them the keys.”

Shelves stacked with cleaning products, water, and prison uniforms lined the small room’s walls. Blue tracksuit bottoms and tops, Sparks threw a set at Reyes and grabbed a set for herself. “Stop complaining and put this on. I would tell you about my plan, but you won’t listen anyway, so what’s the point?”

“You blame me?”

“Just put on the fucking clothes.” Sparks found a XXXS tracksuit, and she still had to tie the waistband tight so the trousers didn’t drop.

Reyes stood red-faced, tight-lipped, and dressed from head to toe in blue.

Whirr-thunk! Whirr-thunk!

Her tongue poking from her mouth, Sparks pulled on her tracksuit top and completed the command on her mini computer. She hit enter.

A series of snapping thunks outside. Like five hundred giant toppling dominos.

Screams, roars, and tongue-rolling chaos flooded from the open cells.

For the first time since she’d found out what Sparks had signed them up for, Reyes smiled. “Oh, you didn’t.”

“Five hundred angry prisoners.”

Reyes turned a pirouette. “Five hundred and two.”

“Exactly. Hopefully, we’ll get lost in the crowd.”

Three minutes and ten seconds remained.

Sparks opened the storage room. The wave of chaos sent her stumbling back a pace.

“Fuck!” Reyes stood beside her.

The mechs were already down, the guards’ cockpits empty and smeared in blood. The remaining guards were back in their booth, scores of prisoners attacking the reinforced glass. Some hammered against it with closed fists. Some charged horns-first. One piloted a guard’s mech and attacked it with a plasma cannon. So far it held.

But only a small section of prisoners focused on the booth. The rest had gone to war with one another. The room glistened with spilled blood, and there were already about one hundred dead.

Reyes shot a mandulu in the face. It took several more steps before it fell at their feet, a sharp wedge of steel in its tight grip.

Sparks scratched her head. “I didn’t see this coming.”

Her gun still raised, Reyes watched the room with wide and unblinking eyes. “Who knows how long they’ve had some of them locked up down here? I’d imagine there’s a lot of simmering resentment. Old scores to be settled.”

Sparks kicked the dead mandulu. “And new ones to ignite.”

“Right.”

A nine-foot-tall hulking brute lost their head to Sparks’ right. The being attacking the guards’ booth in the anti-riot mech had turned it to brown mist. She wiped the fine spray from her face. “Shall we get him, then? You think they’ll let us through?”

Reyes lifted her blaster. “We’ll make them.”

The mech shot another brute. Another direct hit. This time to the chest.

“Just not that one, yeah?”

The anti-riot mech turned on a third victim, and Reyes snorted a humourless laugh. “We’ll try not to piss that one off.”

Two minutes and thirty seconds left. Reyes gestured towards Cornelius Capernicus’ cell with her blaster. “You ready?”

“No. You?”

“No.”

Sparks sighed and shook her head. “Let’s do this, then.”

CHAPTER 28

The tiny cell comprised a steel bed without a mattress and a matching steel toilet. A small orange-skinned creature sat on what little floor space he had available, his knees pulled to his chest and his head bowed. Every bit as pathetic as their brief on the Falcro had suggested. But he’d come to Eranture for plants, not war. What did Sparks expect? “Cornelius Capernicus?”

Snarls, growls, and yips filled the air. Five hundred fighting prisoners in the contained room. At least, what had started as five hundred fighting prisoners. Who knew how many would be left when they were done.

Cornelius squinted up at Sparks through milky-white eyes. He spoke with a high-pitched whine, his mouth filled with sharp little teeth. “Leave me alone. I just want to be left alone.”

Reyes stepped closer to him. “We’re here to get you out.”

“With blasters?”

Sparks’ snort snapped around the cell. “You’ve seen it out there, right? Would you rather we fought our way out with harsh words and wit?”

“No!” Cornelius Capernicus dragged in a wet sniff. “I won’t let you take me.”

Reyes grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him to his feet. He stood about three feet tall. “Come with us, you stupid bastard.”

Seconds had passed, and they were already down to about three hundred prisoners outside. Corpses littered the floor. Scores well and truly settled. The unruly mob had now fully turned their attention to the guards’ booth. They gathered around the large windows and attacked the unyielding, transparent barrier.

Still holding Cornelius Capernicus’ collar, Reyes picked a path through the dead bodies, her tracker offering a reminder of the impossible; they had two minutes and eight seconds to get the fuck out of there. To get past a wild army of murderous prisoners, find their way back through the labyrinthine corridors to the spiral staircase, and be gone before the Erantean army bore down on them with their full might and fury.

The floor slick with blood, Sparks followed Reyes, choosing the occasional corpse as surer footing than the greasy tiles. The mob remained focused on the guards’ booth. Until Reyes drew closer.

One prisoner at the back, small like Cornelius, had a round boulder-like head and a smug little twist to its sneering face. “What’s this I smell?” It dragged a snotty sniff through its button nose and looked Reyes up and down. “A human?”

Silence fell on the room.

The little boulder-head rolled its shoulders. “What are you doing down here? We don’t like humans.”

The others backed it with grunts and snarls of agreement.

Reyes rolled her eyes. “No one does.”

Sparks stepped forwards so she stood between Reyes and the small creature. “We’re getting you out of here if you let us through.”

Less than two minutes remained. Sparks tapped her foot like the action would somehow encourage them to part. But the prisoners stared straight at her. She pulled out her mini computer and opened the guards’ booth. Test their hatred. Did they despise humans more than their oppressors?

The prisoners closest to the booth charged in through the open door and dragged out the guards.

Sparks had a map of the prison on her mini computer. She entered a command and tapped enter.

Thunk!

The steel shutter the guards had used to block their path dropped into the floor. Sparks took off, Reyes with Cornelius Capernicus behind her. The prisoners joined them.

A sharp sting forced Sparks’ right eye shut. Droids were closing in and about to cut them off. She typed as she ran and blocked a corridor.

Thunk!

“But we need to go that way!” Reyes pointed at the closed tunnel.

“Not now we don’t.” Sparks closed off another tunnel.

Thunk!

“What are you doing? Do you even know where you’re going?”

Sparks halted, forcing Reyes and the three hundred prisoners to stop.

Reyes shoved her tracker at her. “We’re going the wrong way.”

Did she really need to persuade her to trust her right here? Right now? “Fuck this.”

“What?”

Sparks grabbed Reyes’ tracker. One minute and eight seconds remained. She dashed it against the steel floor, and just to be sure, she stamped on it, cracking the small screen.

The collective sound of respiration filled the tunnel. Some deep rumbling chests. Some heavy pants. Some snorting, wheezing whines. They all watched on. Waiting.

“Look, Reyes, I know you don’t trust me, but just fucking listen to me, okay?”

“But we won’t get out in time.”

“Probably not. But at least we’ll get out.”

“What ar—”

Sparks took off again, and Reyes led the following pack. Her, Cornelius Copernicus, and several hundred prisoners. No time to explain, and even though they weren’t being listened to by those who sent them on this mission, Reyes didn’t deserve to know. Why should she have to tell her about her digital intuition to get her to trust her? Sure, she’d already lied to her about where their credits came from, but … whatever. They didn’t have time for this bullshit.

Also, as the only one with a map, Sparks now had control. The first few corridors she’d closed to keep the droids at bay. Now she had her way, she’d decide how, when, and where they left this prison.

About every fifty metres, Sparks closed off another corridor. The timer ticked down in her mind.

Ninety seconds.

She closed off more routes.

Sixty seconds.

Their escaping stampede filled the tunnels like rolling thunder.

Forty-five seconds.

“Sparks, we’re running out of time.”

“Which is why you need to focus on running and stop moaning.”

Thirty seconds.

A route out of there nearby. Sparks closed off that option.

Fifteen seconds.

Sparks reached the bottom of a spiral staircase, grabbed Reyes, who maintained her grip on Cornelius Capernicus, and dragged them to one side, slamming both of them against the steel wall while the prisoners charged past them up the stairs.

Reyes’ face glistened with sweat. She divided her attention between Sparks and the passing prisoners. “Don’t you care about the time?”

“We weren’t going to make it.”

“So we just give up?”

The final few prisoners vanished up the stairs. Sparks pulled on Reyes’ arm. “Come on.” They followed the mob to the surface. The poorly lit stairwell even darker for the sheer weight of bodies crammed into the space. She turned on her mini computer’s torch.

Her legs on fire, her lungs tight, Sparks continued up the stairs. Round and round, much slower than their descent, but no less disorientating. They lost ground to the prisoners, the gap growing until the staircases’ corkscrew turn took them out of sight.

Sparks reached the top first and bent forwards at the waist, resting on her knees.

Reyes and Cornelius Capernicus were equally out of breath.

Crack!

Light flooded in. The prisoners had forced open a door.

Reyes looked from the door to Sparks. “So, what now?”

Leading them forwards, the fresh outside air cool against her sweating skin, Sparks reached the open door, tugged on her itching collar, and peered out. She stepped aside to let Reyes see. A meadow stretched away from them. The three hundred prisoners had already halved in number, the chrome discoid fighters of the Erantean army attacking them from above, mowing them down with blasts.

“Consider that a diversion. I just hope those who deserve freedom find it.” Sparks slipped from the door, checked the sky, and led Reyes and Cornelius Capernicus around the other side of the grey block to Reyes’ mech and her fighter.

“Why didn’t you say?”

“Because there were three hundred prisoners listening in. I get the impression one or two might have objected to my plan. Besides, you wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.”

“And you blame me?”

Sparks sighed, grabbed Cornelius Capernicus from Reyes, and dragged him over to her ship.

Strapped in, her helmet on, Cornelius Capernicus at her side, she turned on her radio. “We’ve acquired the target. Be ready for our return.”

The deep voice from the Falcro rumbled through her. “Well done, team. See you soon.”

CHAPTER 29

The steel table hard and cold beneath Sparks’ elbows. She leaned towards Reyes opposite her. “We did it! Just like the old days!”

Reyes focused on her plate.

Sparks bit off a chunk of sweetbread and swigged her ice-cold water. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been freshening up in my room.”

“Your room?”

“I need some space, Sparks.”

The words sent a twinge through Sparks’ stomach. I need some space. It’s not you, it’s me. I just need some time alone. A break. Her left hand flat against her abdomen, she swallowed against her now constricted throat and took another sip of water, her hand shaking when she put it back down again. “Oh.”

Reyes finally looked up, her brown eyes cold. Direct. “I didn’t choose to be here.” She tugged on her collar. “I didn’t choose any of this.”

“But it was good to work together on a mission, right? Like the old days.”

“Work together? Like you taking away my tracker and smashing it? Like you taking control and not consulting me.”

“You’re attacking me for taking control? You went in all guns blazing rather than trusting I could fly in and take down the security drones. Again.”

“What do you mean again?”

“You had to be the hero. Take control like our final …”

Reyes pulled back. Her eyes pinched at the sides.

“You know what?” Sparks lowered her voice, not that it would prevent the surrounding surveillance drones from hearing her. They might have been well hidden, but they were fucking everywhere. “Fuck you, Reyes.”

“You talk about us working together like you’ve earned my trust and like I’m going to suddenly enjoy it. You speak like you haven’t been lying to me for this past year.”

Sparks tutted.

“But the reality is, we have two more missions to do. So fuck you too, Sparks, and see you in the morning.” Reyes stood up, took her plate of food, and left the room.

Sparks deflated where she sat, Reyes leaving the canteen under the watchful eyes of strangers and hidden surveillance drones. So much for them being back. And by the end of these missions, would they even have anything left?

CHAPTER 30

Good job Sparks had arrived early. They’d given them a different ship for the second mission. Something better suited for the task. Something with a bit more space in the cockpit. They’d best take good care of the Arrowhead. She sat at the controls, familiarising herself with the layout. Most ships operated on similar principles unless they were the psi-linked vessels belonging to some of the high-frequency beings in the galaxy. The ship had flight sticks, plasma cannons, and enough power to enable them to accelerate out of a tight situation. What more did she need?

The entire vessel leaned to the right when Reyes climbed in and sat beside her. She shoved the wheeled steps away. They rolled for several metres, caught something on the hangar floor, and fell over with a clattering crash. The maintenance droids paid them little interest and continued following their very specific instructions.

Reyes looked around the inside of the ship, avoiding Sparks’ eye. She then stared straight ahead.

“They reckon it’s better suited for getting the missile out of there. Fitted with the necessary magnets and clamps.”

Reyes’ right cheek bulged from where she ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth.

“Good chat.” Sparks slipped on her helmet. Reyes did the same a second later.

The female voice spoke to them from their first mission brief. “Pilot, you need to tighten your suit at the back. You won’t be outside for long, but best to be safe, eh?”

Sparks turned her back to Reyes, who reached across and tightened the clip at the top of her spine. “It’s much harder to put on a space suit over your owner’s collar.”

The female voice spoke before Sparks could reply. “Good. Now, you’ve both seen the plan?”

Sparks nodded. “Yep.”

Reyes gave a thumbs up.

A screen appeared on Sparks’ HUD, covering her right eye. “You’re looking for this missile.” Blue with a red nose, the missile ran about two metres long. “As you saw in the plan, when detonated, this missile has the power to destroy all organic matter within a twenty-mile radius. The Platinum Streak is a freighter with a minimal amount of weapons, but buried deep in one of its cargo bays is this bad boy. We don’t know how many beings are accompanying it, and chances are they have one hundred times the number of droids with them.”

Sparks shuddered. Intuited chaos imminent. She ignored Reyes’ glare.

“But we need to get it off there before it reaches its destination.”

“Where is its destination?” Reyes said.

“There’s a war going on on Blintoor. The missile is heading for the Jerents. It will sway the fight in their favour.”

Sparks tightened the strap on the bottom of her helmet. “And we don’t want that?”

“We don’t want either side to get it. There’s no place in war for weapons like this. But there’s a political element too. Kwalkie has sent the missile. If they help the Jerents win, they’ll be in a prime position to be their main trading partner for all Blintoor’s resources and commerce. A group of neighbouring planets who can’t show they’re involved has paid us. Their arseholes are twitching at the thought of any Kwalkie influence so close to them.”

Reyes strapped into her seat. “Kwalkie’s that bad, eh?”

“Power-hungry lunatics. Like humans.”

Reyes flipped the bird at no one in particular. Or what she probably believed to be no one in particular. But just in this cockpit, Sparks got dragged in seventeen different directions by the surrounding lenses of surveillance.

“And we should expect some kind of resistance?” Sparks said. “But more machine than organic?”

“Exactly. Enlisting an army of sentient beings to transport something as impactful as this can quickly get very expensive. We expect there will be enough beings to guide the missile to its destination with the droids’ assistance. Also to offer some resistance should anyone try to steal it.”

“But they’re confident no one knows where it is?”

“Affirmative. Now, the Platinum Streak will pass by in about thirty seconds.”

Sparks slapped the button to close the cockpit. The transparent screen, sheathed within the ship’s body, appeared from behind them and slid over their heads. Like with her fighter, there were wheels attached to the ship’s base. She operated them with the flight sticks, driving them towards the hatch they’d used on their previous mission.

The vibration from the whirring hinges of the ship’s exit flap ran all the way to Sparks’ grip.

Reyes continued to focus ahead.

“Twenty seconds until arrival.”

At the edge of the open hatch, the wheeled base rose at the back, pointing their nose into the abyss.

“Fifteen seconds.”

“Plenty of time.” Sparks hit the release button, and they rolled out of the Falcro into darkness. “What the …?”

Reyes shrugged and shook her head.

“Ten seconds.”

The deep voice of the mission commander cut in. “Get to your location and stay there.”

“But we’re close enough.”

The female voice continued their countdown. “Seven seconds.”

“Close enough will get you killed.” A different helmet to the one she wore on the first mission, but it still rattled with the baritone voice. “It must be exact. Get to the coordinates now!”

Five seconds.

The coordinates on the ship’s screen, Sparks made the adjustments. Eight numbers, four of them red, four green.

“Two seconds.”

One number remained red.

“One second.”

She shifted them over and locked in the coordinates. The Falcro vanished. Sparks yelped when the Platinum Streak replaced it a second later, just metres from their location. A fifteen-mile-long freighter. The helix-shaped vessel comprised two snaking bodies that twisted around one another and were linked by thousands of bridges dotted with white lights.

Sparks activated the magnet on the base of their ship and attached to the Platinum Streak with a clunk!

The deep male voice came through again. “You have five minutes before it makes its next jump. Get in, get the missile back to your ship, and then get the hell away. You should see the maintenance hatch on your HUD?”

A blue gridded pattern on Sparks’ visor lay over the Platinum Streak’s external body and outlined the maintenance hatch. Just a few metres away. “Yep.”

Sparks opened the cockpit and hung out a leg. “You ready for this?”

Reyes nodded.

The soles of Sparks’ magnetised boots dragged her towards the Platinum Streak’s hull. She connected like her ship, but with a much weaker clunk.

At the maintenance hatch, Reyes reached for the door handle, but Sparks grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She held up her mini computer. “Let me close the airlock first. We need the ship to think we’re returning rather than entering. I did all the programming this morning.” She tapped enter, finalising the command. She gave Reyes a thumbs up.

In the airlock, Sparks shed her suit and stashed it in a locker for when they came back. Reyes used the locker on the other side of the room. She had a tracker like they’d used on the first mission. She held it up. “Try not to steal it from me and smash it again, will ya?”

Sparks rolled her eyes. “Just lead the way.”

The corridor led to one of the ship’s main walkways. Pressure built on Sparks as they drew close to the door. It pushed down on her head. She grabbed Reyes. “Wait.” Several taps and she took control of the surveillance camera fixed on the door. With Reyes looking over her shoulder, she turned the camera one way and then the other.

Reyes reached for the button to give them access. “Okay?”

“Hang on.” Sparks entered her next command, killing the camera, and Reyes opened the door, leading them through with no one to witness their arrival.

Digital intrusions from every angle. Machines performing maintenance tasks. Domestic tasks. Surveillance cameras. But none focused on them. And as long as they kept a low profile, hopefully they could keep it that way and get the fuck off this ship with minimal fuss.

Reyes tilted her tracker towards Sparks. They had four minutes before the Platinum Streak made its next jump.

With her digital intuition, Sparks could track a machine from a mile away. Guards, not so much. Fixed on her computer, she rounded the next bend, slammed into a team of four guards, and fell flat on her arse, her computer spilling from her grip. Thankfully, nothing broke.

The security team all belonged to the same species. Each stood close to ten feet tall, had stark white leathery skin, red eyes, and pointed shark-like noses. They leaned over Sparks. The one at the front rested their balled fists on their hips. “You need to watch where you’re going! You could get seriously hurt.”

“Ever so sorry.” Sparks tried to stand, but they shoved her with the sole of their boot, knocking her back down again.

“Not good enough. We should imprison you for insolence.”

Sparks muttered beneath her breath, “Power hungry much?”

One of the other guards reached past their leader and pointed a thick finger at Sparks’ collar. “What’s that?”

Reyes kicked off from the right wall and launched herself at the leader. She caught them clean on the chin, dropping them where they stood.

The other three drew their weapons.

Sparks rolled into them and spun. She might have been small, but she read the balance of each brute and swept their legs, dropping them one after the other.

Reyes screamed with each attack, kicking the guards in their heads, knocking them out cold. She stood over them, panting and with tears in her eyes.

“You okay?”

A single nod, Reyes showed Sparks her tracker. “We have three and a half minutes.”

Sparks jumped to her feet, but halted before setting off. It hit her like a bolt of lightning. An electric charge down her back. Droids everywhere. And now they were interested in them.

Several steps away, Reyes stopped and turned back. “What is it?”

“Our cover’s blown.”

“What? How can you possibly know?”

Did she really have time to explain about her intuition now? To beg Reyes to take what she said seriously? To justify her every decision? She hacked into the ships’ CCTV and brought up the view from multiple cameras. Each one showed droids and soldiers running down corridors. “Good enough for you?”

“With such time constraints, we were probably naïve thinking we could approach this with stealth. Come on then.” She beckoned for Sparks to follow her. “Let’s get this done.”

CHAPTER 31

Sparks shoved Reyes aside. Computer in hand, the drones closing in, she unlocked the cargo bay’s door.

A hangar in all but name, Sparks sealed the entrance behind them. Instead of being stacked with travellers’ belongings and maybe a few transport vehicles, the cavernous space had missiles in a rack along the right wall, and fighter ships in a separate room to their left.

Reyes held her tracker in the rack’s direction. The image matched the red-tipped blue missile from their brief. Small enough and light enough to carry unaided, she ran over, wrapped a headlock around its crimson nose, and lifted.

Sparks joined her. Together, they pulled it clear of the rack. She followed Reyes’ lead to a small wheeled trolley, but another pang snapped spasms through her back. The security droids were close. She lowered the missile a bit too quickly. It hit the trolley with a clang!

Reyes’ eyebrows damn near vanished into her hairline. “What the fuck? You heard the brief, right? A twenty-mile radius is this entire fucking ship!”

But Sparks had already drawn her blaster. She loosed a green shot and scored a direct hit, disabling the door’s controls a second before the first attack slammed against the other side, metal fists beating to be let in.

“You couldn’t use your computer for that?”

“Didn’t have time.”

“What …? How …?” Reyes threw her arms up, her hands slapping back against the tops of her thighs. “How are we supposed to get out now? Surely you could have done something else?”

Sparks flicked back to the views from the security cameras. This time she had sight of directly outside the cargo bay. She shoved her computer at Reyes. “That good enough for you, boss?”

“No need to be facetious.”

“It seems like there’s every need.”

“But my question remains; how do we get out? That’s our only exit, and in three minutes we’ll be light years away from the Falcro.”

“I have a plan.” Sparks pointed at the missile. “You stay here with that.”

“Where are you going?” Her words were higher in pitch, her breaths quick.

“Several of those ships have enough firepower to make our own exit. Just make sure you protect the missile and are ready.”

“For what?”

Sparks sprinted through to the next room. A small fighter among the fleet had magnetic missile clamps along its base.

Reyes followed.

“What are you doing? Stay with the missile.”

Reyes continued across the hangar with Sparks like she hadn’t heard her.

“Do you have that little faith in me?”

Reyes stared. Her lips tight.

A set of wheeled stepladders close by, Sparks stood on them with one foot and kicked off with the other. She climbed as they rolled and jumped into the cockpit just before they slammed into the side of the vessel, toppled over, and crashed onto their side.

While Reyes re-righted the ladders, hot embers from a blowtorch shot into the cargo bay. “Come on, Reyes!”

Reyes finally beside her, Sparks hit the power button. The ship’s four wings, two at the front and two at the back, split into eight. It lifted, hovering about a metre from the ground. Each wing had a plasma cannon at its very edge. Four pointed forwards, and four back.

The ship’s steering lock prevented Sparks’ movement. “Shit!” Her mini computer on her lap, she hacked into the controls. The glowing embers spilling through were now eating into the floor. The droids’ desperation to get in burned into her psyche like searing heat through steel.

Reyes stared down at her tracking device. “Come on, Sparks!”

“Helpful!”

“What do you want from me?”

“To stay by the missile like I asked. To not take valuable seconds away from our escape. To trust me. Failing that, how about you shut the fuck up?”

One minute and forty-eight seconds left on the timer. Sparks gained control of the ship, tugged on the flight sticks, and spun them towards the missile racks.

Swaying from side to side, feeling out the controls, Sparks guided them through to the other room just as the cargo bay door fell in with a clang! Had Reyes waited where she’d asked, they’d already have the missile attached to the ship. Instead, she held her ground and faced the open door. She hovered as a target between them and the missile. One wayward shot and they were all screwed. They had to eat up the attack and keep everything focused on their stolen ship.

Spherical chrome war droids flooded in and spread out. A plasma cannon emerged from the top of each. They all fixed on Sparks and Reyes’ ship and opened fire.

The ship’s shield ate the attack, but its power dropped with every shot.

Ninety percent power remained.

Eighty.

More droids flooded into the room.

Seventy percent.

First one alarm blared at them from the dashboard, and then another. Their shield strength dropped to sixty-five percent.

“What’s happening, Sparks?”

Sparks edged closer to the missile, crossing the room under the droids’ attack. “This isn’t going to work.”

“And we have one minute and thirty-two seconds left.”

Sparks shot back. The only evidence of the droids she attacked were the black scorch marks where they’d been. But for every one she took down, two replaced it.

Sparks spun the ship around to face the wall. She flipped Reyes’ seat so she looked out of the back at their attackers. “Hold them off while I get closer to the missile.”

The alarms grew louder, and the ship shook under the unrelenting attack. The warning tones increased in number and volume. The pulsing beeps faster. They had fifty percent of their shield remaining.

Reyes shot back, but shook her head. “There are too many. And we only have about ninety seconds left. Wait!”

“What?”

“There are fewer coming through.” Reyes shot several more.

She only thought that because she couldn’t yet see them. “You sure?”

“We’re winning. I’ll get out. Cover me while I clip the missile to the ship.”

Her spine twisted like an old tree. They had an army of droids waiting out of sight. Sparks shook her head. “It’s too late for that. There are too many of them.”

“No there aren’t.”

A fresh wave rolled in through the open door. “Besides,” Sparks said, “I need you on the cannons.”

Sparks slapped the red button to her right. The ship shook with the whir of its plasma cannon charging. She aimed at the cargo bay’s wall.

“What are you doing?”

“Making our own exit!”

“That’s what you meant earlier?”

Forty percent shield.

“Just focus on them.”

Directly over the red-tipped missile, she fired the cannon. The explosive glare blinded her, but she hit the button for the magnetic missile clip anyway.

The ship and everything else pulled towards the fresh hole. Sparks’ vision returned. She’d missed the missile on her first try.

Droids shot out into space. Some hung on like limpets, stuck to the floor with powerful magnets until Reyes shot them and they peeled away.

Sparks wrestled with the ship’s controls, the fighter twisting and shifting, getting sucked towards space. But she edged them over the red-tipped missile for a second time.

The missile racks bent and pulled away from the wall. The missiles followed the droids out into oblivion. Sparks slammed the missile clip button again. Her stomach flipped when the red-tipped missile rolled after them. But it caught on one of the bent racks like a fish on a hook, the pull lifting the missile and its wheeled rack from the steel floor.

“Sparks! Look out!”

A ship hurtled towards them from their left.

Sparks steered right, narrowly avoiding the collision. The ship lost a wing on the way out and was within centimetres of the red-tipped missile, which remained hooked. For now.

“We’ve got forty-five seconds left.” Reyes had her tracker balanced on her lap. She continued detaching the droids from the steel floor with cannon blasts.

“Forty seconds. What are you waiting for, Sparks?”

“The missile’s stuck. Look! I don’t know if I can get close enough.”

Reyes stopped shooting for a second. “Fuck!”

Their shield warning beeped louder. They were down to thirty percent.

Reyes resumed her attack.

Sparks cut across the cargo bay, the tips of her lower right wings scraping against the ground. She hovered close to the hooked missile, but not close enough. The wheeled trolley slid one way and then the other, lifting and slamming back down against the floor. But it remained anchored to the racks.

“Hold on.”

“What are you doing?”

Sparks slammed the ship into the ground, and the missile trolley jumped. The shield warning turned into a continuous tone.

Fifteen percent.

The missile remained hooked on the rack.

Crack! Sparks dropped against the floor for a second time. The missile trolley jumped again. Eight percent shield remained.

“Go big or go home, eh?” Sparks dropped again.

Their shield fell to one percent.

The missile trolley jumped again, this time unhooking from the rack. Trolley and missile hurtled towards the hole in the wall, both narrowly avoiding a collision on their way out.

Sparks took off after it. She hit the ship’s power button to shut it down and close the wings. Reyes screamed as they were sucked through the hole.

Outside, Sparks hit the power button again, opened the wings, and took off after the missile, chasing it through the bridges linking the two main sections of the Platinum Streak.

“Twenty-three seconds left, Sparks.”

She twisted and turned, taking a barrel-rolling path after the missile.

“We need to get that missile and get clear before this ship makes the jump.”

Sparks turned left and right. She dived after the missile.

“Fifteen seconds.”

Gaining on their target, Sparks dropped beneath another bridge.

“Twelve seconds.”

Just metres away. Every alarm in the cockpit wailed at her. Reyes added to the chaos. “Ten seconds.”

Sparks caught up with the missile. She flew over the top of it.

“Eight seconds.”

She slapped her hand against the button to activate the magnetic clip.

Thunk!

She reeled away.

“Five seconds.”

Sparks put the ship into a spin. With one percent shield, it would only take a scrap of debris to kill them and everything within a twenty-mile radius.

“Two seconds.”

They pulled clear of the Platinum Streak.

It vanished, leaving open space.

Empty.

Alone.

The fighter’s alarms rang.

Reyes panted.

Sparks laughed. “That was close. Whoa!”

The Falcro filled the space left by the Platinum Streak. Eight miles of gunmetal grey steel. Just ten metres between their fighter and the huge freighter.

Reyes leaned back in her seat, her head hitting the headrest. She let out a hard sigh. “So was that.”

CHAPTER 32

Sat again at the canteen’s steel table, Sparks thrummed with both fatigue and the constant invisible interrogation from being aboard the Falcro. Probably nothing personal. They probably subjected every being to the same scrutiny. But most other beings probably didn’t have to know about it every waking second.

She’d chosen a spot in the corner of the massive room. It covered her back and gave her a clear view of the open space. A sea of identical tables stretched away from her, all made from the same steel as the floor, walls, and domed ornate ceiling. Full, the canteen could host tens of thousands of beings, but at that moment there were fewer than five hundred. To track their curious glances and the inescapable digital probing made her head spin. Instead, she divided her attention between her meal and the entrance, checking for Reyes in between mouthfuls. If any being had a problem, she’d chosen a spot where she’d get a warning before it descended into violence.

Sliding her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, Sparks plunged her fresh granary roll into her bowl of synthetic beef stew. The steam left a cooling layer of condensation along the backs of her fingers.

Downtime between missions. Time to reflect, whether or not Sparks chose to. They’d cut it close on the Platinum Streak. A few seconds longer and the freighter’s jump would have ripped them to the other side of the galaxy. And even if their one percent shield had survived the journey, they’d probably be in a holding cell right now, waiting to be delivered to the vile Jerents along with the highly destructive missile. But surely the reward made the risk worthwhile? They’d done a good thing in removing that weapon from the war.

Although … good … bad … what did that even mean? The galaxy stretched too far, and the perspectives were too numerous to truly know. And how trustworthy were those now in possession of the missile? How well did she know the beings they were working for? They’d not yet given her a reason to doubt them. They’d been straight up from the beginning. They’d been true to their word, even if they had clamped fucking collars around their necks. She ran her fingers along the cold metal and scratched at her skin like it could temper the intuited itch. An insurance policy. They needed to protect their investment, and could she blame them for that? She’d been the one who’d gambled on winning the droneball tournament. Still, rather than handing it over, maybe it would have been better if they’d fired the missile into space.

The stew’s gravy was thick enough to be a paste. Exactly how she liked it. She dunked her bread again, fished out a thick chunk of synthetic beef, and bit down on the salty mouthful.

“Reyes!” Sparks’ voice cut through the room’s stillness. She stood up and waved.

Reyes’ cheeks flushed, and she dropped her focus to the ground. She quickened her pace, weaving through the many tables under the watchful gaze of every being she passed. She slid onto the bench opposite and slapped the steel surface. “Fucking hell, Sparks.”

“What?”

“It’s bad enough being human on this ship without you bringing that kind of attention to me.”

“Sorry.” The old Reyes would have shrugged it off. She wore her humanity with pride. One of the best examples of her species, she refused to bear the burden of their heinous history.

Turning one way and then the other, peering over both shoulders, Reyes dipped her head as if it would make her invisible in the open room and spoke with a hiss. “Bit late for that.” She recoiled when Sparks touched the back of her hand.

“What’s going on?”

“You were there.”

“But we got away. We did all right.”

“Just. Hardly a well-executed plan, though, was it?”

“Well, no. But that’s not the first time we’ve had to wing it.”

“But we can’t bank on that plan of action next time. We got lucky. What if we’d made a different choice?” Reyes rested her elbows on the table and clamped her hands so tightly together her fingers turned white. “What if we’d tried to leave the way we came in?” Her eyes widened, and she grew short of breath. “There were so many droids, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. What if they’d seen us the second we stepped into the main corridor? If you hadn’t searched for the cameras before we stepped out? What if they’d shot us one final time when we had just one percent shield remaining?”

Several beings glanced over from neighbouring tables.

Reyes leaned closer, her gaze flitting from one of Sparks’ eyes to the other. “We had one percent shield left!”

“Now that was close.”

“It was all close, Sparks. All of it.” She balled her hands into fists and raised them, pausing before she slammed them down on the table. “Don’t you see? We’re always one bad choice away from never getting home again.”

“Isn’t that the job?”

Her face puce, Reyes leaned back, folded her arms, and shook her head. “I don’t like it. I didn’t sign up for this.”

Sparks bit back her reply. How could she argue? Reyes didn’t sign up for any of it, and they had run the ship’s shields to the very limit. But she’d had the rest covered. She’d sensed the cameras and the droids. She’d read how many enemies were waiting for them and how long it would take them to get through the locked cargo bay door. But she couldn’t say that. Not while their conversations were being monitored. And she shouldn’t have to. Reyes should just trust her. She’d signed them up for three missions. The beings they were working for were yet to give them any reason to doubt they’d honour their side of the deal, but they’d not earned her complete trust. Not by a long shot. Until they were free of their collars and away from this damn freighter, they were still at their mercy. If they truly knew what Sparks could do, maybe they’d decide they could make a few more credits from her. If Reyes truly knew what Sparks could do, maybe she’d listen to her a bit more. But why did she have to justify herself to the one person in the galaxy who should take her at face value? She should trust her now, and she should have trusted her on their final mission when she went into the hive. After years of working together, Reyes treated her like a fucking rookie. “Some of that mission was down to luck.”

“Some of it?”

“What more do you want? We got through. We kicked arse. You need to remember that.”

“We kicked arse is hardly an actionable plan, Sparks. I need more agency than that. Something I can rely on when our backs are against the wall.”

“Maybe you should start relying on me. How does that sound?”

More beings looked their way.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sparks lowered her voice. “If you’d stayed by the missile like I’d asked, I could have brought the ship back, you could have attached it, and we could have been out of there before the droids even came through. Then all I would have had to do was blow a hole and fly out into space with a shield much stronger than one percent.”

“That was your plan? Sounds like guesswork to me.”

The itch of surveillance intensified. The drones were taking an extra interest. Was she about to tell them why she was so good at droneball?

“What if the droids had come through sooner, Sparks? Then I would have been in the middle of the cargo bay on my own.”

“That wouldn’t have happened. We had time.”

“You don’t know that.”

Sparks plunged her roll into her stew, the thick gravy slopping over the side onto the steel table. She bit off a sizeable chunk and chewed. She did fucking know that. She knew exactly when they’d come through.

Reyes pushed off against the table and stood up. “Good night, Sparks.”

“Still staying in a different room, then?”

“I think that’s for the best, don’t you?”

CHAPTER 33

They flew a similar ship to the one they’d left attached to the side of the Platinum Streak. Reyes beside her, Sparks squinted against Flanterian’s bright sun. “I didn’t want to take the Arrowhead. I didn’t want to risk it, seeing as we had to leave the ship on the last mission.”

Reyes’ helmet lifted in acknowledgement, but she remained fixed ahead. They’d not spoken since their meal in the canteen the previous evening.

The deep voice from the Falcro, the male baritone belonging to a creature they’d never met, cut through the silence. “I’ll stay with you for as long as you’re wearing your helmets. This is the final mission and will be the hardest of the lot. But once you’re done, your obligation to us is over, and you can retire knowing how much you’ve helped the galaxy.”

The derelict city came into view, and Sparks’ jaw fell. The skyline was made up of half-toppled tower blocks and apartment complexes. Jagged, broken, destroyed beyond repair. Bombed schools and hospitals sat among the ruins. Shattered statues in city parks. And in the centre of it all, beneath a blue domed force field—

“The Flanterian royal palace. A perfect square, each side one hundred and fifty metres long. It has eight hundred and one rooms. Ball rooms, games rooms, kitchens. Over four hundred bedrooms, not that they need them. Most of the staff are droids. It’s the epitome of decadence. But, most importantly, in the centre of the quadrangle courtyard is the shaft leading down to the starinium mine. They built the palace on a floating disc of rock hovering over the mine’s opening.”

“Floating?” Reyes said.

“We don’t know how? The disc is two hundred and fifty metres in diameter, and it somehow floats over the three-hundred-metre-wide mine.”

“Hovers?”

“Yeah. We assume starinium radiates some kind of energy that keeps it afloat.”

Reyes snorted and shook her head. “Weird. And those bridges are how we get across?”

“Twelve identical bridges. Based on Earth’s twelve-hour clock.”

“What’s the connection to Earth?”

“Dunno.” The deep voice tickled Sparks’ ear, and she snapped her head to one side like she could rub the itch through her helmet. “Maybe they just liked the symmetry.”

The blue force field dome, even from this distance, sent rippling waves across Sparks’ skin. It covered the palace and most of the floating disc upon which it had been built. “And that domed force field?”

“One of the toughest nuts to crack, and the reason the royal family have managed to hide like the cowards they are. So far, it’s proven impenetrable.”

Sparks couldn’t take her eyes from it. “And that’s what we’re here for?”

“Yep. We need you to put it out of action so we can send in a peace force to take the palace and overthrow the queen.”

A crimson warning flashed up on the ship’s screen. If they wanted to avoid detection, Sparks needed to take them in to land now. She lowered their altitude and eased off the thrusters to better navigate the broken skyline. She weaved through the ruined buildings with glassless windows. Half-collapsed walls opened up many of the higher floors to the elements. Shredded and collapsed roofs. “They really did a number on this place.”

“This used to be a great city built on the wealth made from mining starinium. They always had more than enough to go around, and the previous king made sure every gloyner lived to the highest standards. They were amongst the most well-educated, healthy, and happy beings in the galaxy.”

The place was now reduced to a ghost town. They’d driven away its soul. Every building empty. Rubble lined the streets. Sparks sighed. “So much gone in so little time.”

“Sad, isn’t it?”

The ship’s screen suggested a nearby rooftop upon which they could land. Structurally sound enough to hold their vessel’s weight and get them as close as they could be to the palace without blowing their cover.

The second they touched down, Reyes slapped the button to open the cockpit and climbed out.

The derelict tower block stood about three hundred metres tall. Something had sheered away the corner of the building, revealing a cross section of the top five or six floors. Protected against most of the elements in her suit, Sparks still stumbled in the strong wind. She took slow steps to the edge of the building. They had a line of sight to the palace and its thrumming blue force field. “So, what happened?”

“Huh?”

“When did the king decide he no longer wanted a prosperous nation?”

“He died.”

“Oh.”

“His daughter took his place. At first, she reigned much like her father, but being responsible for so much wealth poisoned her spirit. It started with her taking just a little bit more for herself. She skimmed a bit off the top. She’d earned it, right? Responsibility weighed heavily on her head; why shouldn’t she take a pay rise as compensation? But greed is a bottomless well, and before long, not only had she cut off the funds to the city, but she’d also increased mining. Reyes, I wouldn’t do that …”

Reyes paused, her hands clamped to the sides of her helmet. The buzz of Sparks’ intuition had remained from the Falcro, but if she ever needed a reminder of being under constant surveillance …

“There’s been a lot of death and war in this city. Who knows what diseases and chemicals are still in the air. Besides, you have jets fitted to the bottom of your boots. You don’t want to discard those too soon.”

Sparks slammed her fist against the side of their ship. The door to the small storage section fell open. She passed Reyes her weapons. A plasma rifle with a strap so they could throw it across their front, a pistol, and a belt with six grenades. She had the same for her herself, the belt a little smaller. Tapping her left ribcage confirmed she still had her mini computer. She threw Reyes the tracker. Just touching it increased the frequency of the high-pitched whine tearing through her. Something different about this one. Those they’d used on previous missions could follow their location. An essential part of a tracking device’s job. But this one listened too. They could hardly discard it now. And maybe those beings employing them had every right to monitor their progress. To make sure they were getting the job done, and to offer help if they needed it. “You ready?”

Reyes nodded.

Sparks ran to the edge of the tall building and jumped. Hurtling to the ground, she stretched her arms out to the sides for balance and clenched her fists. The boosters on the soles of her boots fired, slowing her drop until she gently touched down.

Reyes landed beside her. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to falling that fa—” She peered in through the first-floor window and froze.

Sparks turned her palms to the sky. “Uh, Reyes?”

Reyes peered back in through the window.

Too high for her, Sparks edged around to a hole in the wall. “Oh, shit!” A carpet of bodies, stacked three or four high. Flies buzzed around the putrid corpses and their distended bellies. Half of them looked like they were about to burst. Although taller and more muscly, the beings were humanoid in form.

The deep voice made Sparks jump. “The gloyners. These look like they’ve been dead a few weeks.”

Reyes leaned in through the window. “So this war happened recently?”

“Yes. Just a few weeks ago. The queen took too much from the people for years. Gave them less and less. This planet had more than enough for all to prosper, but she lost sight of that. Blinded by her own self-importance, she thought she deserved more. Believed she worked harder and deserved a larger slice of the pie. The gloyners, desperate and starving, had no other choice but to fight back. But with the resources the queen had—”

“They didn’t stand a fucking chance.” Reyes sighed and shook her head.

“Right.”

Sparks shrugged. “And we do?”

“We hope so.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“I’m not here to encourage you, Sparks.”

She flinched at the use of her name. The familiarity from a being she’d never met. A being who belonged to the organisation that had put her in a collar and had watched her for most of the time she’d been in their employ. Sparks grabbed Reyes’ arm and pulled her away. “Come on, let’s get to the palace.”

Rocks and rubble littered the tight paths and roads. The tall buildings leaned over them on either side like skeletal guardians protecting what had already been lost. Sparks’ footsteps crunched and popped. Glass, grit, mud, and the occasional squelch. The only other sound came from the haunting winds playing a wailing dirge through the derelict city. Guided by Reyes’ tracker, they lost sight of the palace at times, but not the blue glow from its force field.

Sparks rounded the next bend and slammed into Reyes’ back. Her stomach bucked when she peered around her. “What the …?”

The small park must have once been a place of tranquility. The grass now a muddy field, chewed up from battle. The centrepiece a massive ornate marble fountain. The circular feature had three tiers, each the size of a small pond. Where water used to be, it now overflowed with set concrete. It clung to the outside like porridge on an unwashed pan. Protruding from the concrete were tens of pairs of small legs. They’d buried children head first.

“It’s like this in every park in the city. The queen’s got an evil streak.”

Reyes coughed to clear her throat, her voice weak. “I’d say it’s more than a streak.”

Sparks’ helmet rattled with the deep voice of their guide. “She rounded up all the children she could find and buried them alive. Her droid army held them until the concrete set.”

Shaking her head, Reyes stumbled away, and Sparks followed. They both stared at her tracker. Anything to distract them from the small, skinny, and rotting legs.

Gloyner corpses littered the streets. More and more the closer they got to the palace. Sparks halted this time. It took Reyes a few seconds to see she’d stopped and come back to join her. They’d burned out some gloyners’ eyes, their mouths and nostrils charred and cracked. “I’m not sure I want to know.”

“They made them drink pirenze. It’s a highly unstable substance that spontaneously combusts with motion. If they could stay still long enough to pass it through their system, they were allowed to live. Many ended it rather than take on the impossible challenge. They chose to burn from the inside out.”

Sparks’ stomach churned. They moved on, passing heads on spikes and ever-larger piles of bodies. Many were scorched, but they’d hacked some to pieces. Some were filled with holes from laser shots. Flies hovered around them. Maggots crawled in their eye sockets. Even with her suit’s protection, she scrunched up her nose at the imagined stench.

“What the …?” Reyes snapped the butt of her plasma rifle into her shoulder and looked down the barrel at the approaching creature. About the size of a rhino, the thing looked like a cross between a dog and a lion. A thick, matted black mane, the quadruped’s dark skin bulged from where it had muscles on top of muscles. Its roar shook the ground and revealed a mouth filled with sharp teeth, its incisors each about thirty centimetres long.

“Hadounds. They fought alongside the gloyners. They died on the battlefield with them.”

Sparks raised her rifle. “Clearly not all of them.”

The creature charged. Each paw the size of Sparks’ head. Helmet and all. “Can we reason with it?”

“No.”

Reyes shot the beast between the eyes. Its front legs buckled, its chin hit the hard road, and it slid to a halt about twenty metres from them. Dead like everything else in this cursed city. “I think that’s it for now.” Reyes kept her rifle raised, scanning left and right before she moved on. “Come on, let’s go.”

Sparks walked at Reyes’ side along the wide road, the asphalt scarred with memories from a battle fought and lost.

Reyes slammed into Sparks, tackling her around the waist and dragging her into a building on their left. They landed on a carpet of bodies, plaster and brick raining down on them from where the plasma shots aimed at them missed.

Three gloyners, all armed, emerged from a building on the other side of the road and charged.

Sparks took shelter by ducking down beneath a shattered window. She twisted her feet to find solid footing on the squelching bodies. Reyes moved to the next window along. They popped up at the same time and fired into the asphalt, halting the trio’s advance.

“They’re angry.”

“We didn’t need a guide to tell us that.” Sparks shot the ground again.

The deep voice continued. “Kill them before they kill you.”

Reyes sent several more blasts into the road, forcing the gloyners to retreat to their original hiding place. “We had to kill the hadound. We don’t have to kill them. They’ve seen enough death and suffering. They’re just frightened.”

“So what will you do? Sit down with them and break bread?” The deep voice scoffed. “Good luck with that.”

“Will this give us an alternative route if we change our course?” Reyes’ tracker glowed in the darkness.

“Yeah.”

Reyes shrugged at Sparks.

Sparks gave her a thumbs up. “After you.”

Leading the way, Reyes ran across the room, over the putrid corpses. Sparks followed. Her feet sank and slipped. They glanced off bodies and plunged into them.

Several shots chased them, the plasma blasts entering the building through the windows and exploding against the walls and ceiling.

Reyes led them to the stairs.

“What are you doing?”

“Just follow me.”

More shots tracked their ascent. The exploding plasma flashed in the darkness.

At the first floor, Reyes charged around the bend and boosted up the next flight. Sparks followed and copied her by making fists. She shot up to the next floor, opened her hands, landed, turned, and did the same to reach the next level.

The gloyners’ steps grew more distant. They might have had a burning misplaced desire for revenge, but that could only get them so far against the boosters in Sparks’ and Reyes’ suits.

They passed the twelfth floor up to the roof. Reyes sprinted across it and jumped, boosting to the building opposite.

Sparks followed, the fall at least one hundred metres.

Reyes sprinted across the next partly collapsed rooftop and leaped off, heading for the ground.

Sparks followed her over, her boosters reducing the rate of her drop. They landed just metres from a bridge to Flanterian’s palace.

Each steel bridge about a metre wide and absent any safety rails. Crossing it to the hovering stone disc upon which they’d built the palace turned the backs of Sparks’ knees weak, but she pushed on, following Reyes. Dropping from the buildings had been bad enough, but at least she saw the ground that might kill her. The mine across which the bridge ran plummeted so deep it faded to black.

On the other side, Reyes moved over, waited for Sparks to pass, armed a grenade, and rolled it onto the bridge.

The grenade detonated just as the trio of gloyners emerged. The bridge between them fell into the bottomless pit, and their tall and muscular frames sagged. Sparks and Reyes watched them down the barrels of their rifles. It was enough to send them back into the ruined city.

The deep voice from the Falcro came through. “I’m impressed. I couldn’t see how you’d get away from them, but you did well. You’re right, this planet needs no more unnecessary deaths. Well done. Now for the hard part. Now you need to find a way into that palace.”

CHAPTER 34

The disturbance from the blue force field chewed through Sparks’ skull and into her brain like an angle grinder, and for the second time in as many minutes, her legs threatened to fail her. The dome covered the vast palace in its entirety. Eight hundred and one rooms and thousands of windows. Every one on that side of the palace blocked by a steel shutter. Probably the same for every opening around the entire building. She stumbled again.

Reyes rested a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

The helmet amplified her laboured breaths, and her head spun. She replied with a thumbs up.

When Reyes reached out to the force field, Sparks’ focus returned. She caught her arm.

“Ow!” The helmet framed Reyes’ nose, cheeks, and narrowed eyes.

Taking a small pebble from the ground, Sparks flicked it against the dome. It crackled on contact and turned to sand.

“Oh!”

“Yeah.”

Reyes stepped back and looked up. “So what do we do?”

The deep voice did little for Sparks’ balance. It rumbled through her helmet like a landslide. “You need to get inside that dome and follow the tracker to the palace’s power source. You should be able to shut down everything from there.”

The light from the tracker’s screen reflected off Reyes’ visor. “That’s all well and good, but how do you suggest we get through this dome?”

Several wobbly steps back, Sparks joined Reyes. She scanned the curved side of the massive force field.

Reyes flicked her head at the blue barrier. “You see something I don’t?”

The deep voice joined in. “You’re wasting time.”

Her jaw tight, Sparks gritted her teeth. “Will you shut up?” The angle-grinder whine eased ever so slightly when her attention passed over a certain point along the base of the dome. The scream ramped up again a moment later. She shifted her focus across, and it calmed again. Her vision blurred, and her intuition revealed a shimmering gap. It stood out against the more solid light of the rest of the dome. A space about twenty metres square, it vibrated at a different frequency and crawled around the force field’s base. A revolving door. A hidden entrance.

The deep baritone of their employer snapped through her again. “What are you waiting for?”

Sparks ripped off her helmet and launched it at the force field. Like the pebble, it turned to dust. She adjusted her glasses and tugged on her buzzing collar. “He was getting on my nerves.”

“Fair enough. But that does still leave us with the burning question; how do we get through?”

The twenty-metre-square gap slid around the outside of the dome towards them. It ran at ground level, ready to admit them when it got close. Sparks might have removed the voice in her ear and the camera looking over her shoulder, but they still had the tracker listening in, and Reyes still wore her helmet loaded with their surveillance equipment. They’d taken too much from her already; she wouldn’t give them her secrets.

Removing her mini computer from her inside pocket, Sparks brought up a screen of code. The programming for running a highly sophisticated toaster, but it looked the part. She blurred the text to make it unreadable to Reyes’ helmet cam and anyone looking through it, even if they paused and zoomed in, and flashed it at her.

“What’s that?”

“The code for this force field. There’s an opening in the dome, and it’s coming our way.”

“You’re sure?”

“Certain.”

“How long?”

“A minute. Maybe a little more.”

Reyes looked up the side of the dome again and then to the small pile of helmet dust. “What if you’re wrong?”

Sparks chewed on the inside of her cheek, lost focus, and tracked the patch of the dome closing in on them.

A cerise plasma blast exploded against the force field on their right. Sparks spun around, rifle raised.

Reyes did the same beside her. “Shit!”

Gloyners. Thirteen in total. If the bridge they’d blown up pointed at six o’clock, they were coming at them across the bridges for five and seven. Half a dozen closed in from five o’clock, and seven from seven. Both groups ran with a pair of hadounds.

“No.”

Sparks turned to Reyes. “Huh?”

“The mission brief is to drop the force field so the peace force can get in. Then to get away from here. Correct?”

She nodded from what must have been the deep voice in her helmet. “And there’s nothing about us having to kill beings who have already been slaughtered in their thousands?”

Again, she paused and nodded. “Right, consider it done.” She gripped her plasma rifle between her thighs, removed her helmet, and launched it at the force field. It turned to sand like everything else that touched the dome. “He was getting on my nerves.”

The butt of her gun pressed into her shoulder, Sparks focused on the six on their right. They crossed the bridge with their hadounds behind them.

Reyes faced the other bridge. “You’re sure there’s a doorway coming?”

“How about you trust me for once?”

“You keep saying that.”

“And I wish I didn’t have to.” Sparks loosed several shots at their attackers. Each one exploded against the ground in front of them in a shower of green.

“I’m just worried, Sparks.” Reyes sent a series of warning shots. “We’re about to make quite a leap of faith.”

The opening slid closer to them. Twenty seconds away at the most.

The final gloyner on each side crossed the bridge, clearing the way for the hadounds. The giant black beasts overtook and closed in. Both were about one hundred metres away. Their massive paws hammered a war-drum beat. Reyes aimed for her two. The opening would reach them in about ten seconds.

“Sparks, I need something from you here. Is the doorway coming?”

“I’ve already told you it is. What else can I say?”

Eight seconds until the opening reached them. The hadounds about seventy metres away.

“I do trust you.”

Six seconds. Fifty metres.

“I just don’t trust your c—”

“Computer? Fuck off, Reyes.”

Four seconds. Thirty metres.

Reyes pointed at the force field. “You saw what it just did to those helmets.”

Two seconds. Twenty metres.

“Sparks! Talk to me.” Reyes remained fixed on the hadounds. “I don’t want to shoot these beasts, bu—”

Sparks caught Reyes and dragged her through the opening.

The first hadound slammed into the force field and turned to black mist. The doorway moved away from them as the remaining three beasts halted on the other side. The gloyners sent a volley of shots their way. Every single one burst against the force field.

CHAPTER 35

Reyes jumped to her feet and dusted herself down. “You could have told me you were going to do that.”

The angle grinder in Sparks’ head had gone supersonic. She pushed off against the cold, rocky ground and stumbled to her feet. “Like you would have listened to me anyway.”

“I woul—”

“You stopped trusting me years ag—ah!” Sparks clapped her hand to her forehead and pushed against the swelling pressure.

“Are you okay?”

Reyes still clung to their tracker. Sparks grimaced and nodded. “Yep. I’m fine.”

“You don—”

“I’m fine, Reyes. Just leave it, yeah?”

The gloyners joined their pets on the other side of the force field. Just metres away, but they might as well have been on the other side of the planet. They lowered their weapons, clearly baffled by the blue dome. If they had a way through, they would have already gotten to the queen inside.

A coppery trickle of her own blood ran down the back of Sparks’ throat. She gulped. Her mind screamed, and her brain throbbed like it had grown too large for her skull. The pressure would be with her until they found the palace’s primary power source and shut it down. This feeling came from the force field.

Tracker in hand, Reyes showed Sparks the screen. “We need to get in.”

Steel shutters blocked every entry point. The humming in Sparks’ mind rose in pitch. The throb through her brain grew more pronounced. She pressed harder against her temple.

“So what does your computer say now?”

Sparks squinted and scanned the palace. Even with her brain about to burst, she found the anomalies along the wall. Small squares in the brickwork. They added to the buzz. The bricks covering those spots were a slightly different colour. She aimed at the square closest to them and shot. The faux brick—a small steel panel—buckled and fell to the ground with a clatter, revealing a small electrical box beneath. She shot the box.

Thunk!

The shutters covering the door and a spread of about twenty windows closest to it fell open. Sparks nodded at where she’d shot and raised her voice for those listening in through Reyes’ tracker. “The brickwork was a different colour.”

“Wow!” Reyes followed her at a jog. “There’s no way I would have noticed that.”

Inside, a massive corridor stretched away from them in both directions. Floored with white marble tiles, it ran the one-hundred-and-fifty-metre length of the palace. Lined on both sides with doorways made from dark grained wood and furnished with brass handles, it had an ornate plasterwork ceiling like in the Grandest.

Sparks leaned on the wall and sniffed against her running nose. She wiped it with her sleeve and clasped her hands behind her back, hiding the bloodstain from Reyes. A wet pulse in her ears, the pressure building through her head, a tinnitus wail joined the chaotic chorus. It grew louder and quieter, like it synced with the rhythm of her agonising pulse. No. Not that. It had picked up a silent alarm. Somewhere in the distance, droids were closing in on their position.

Reyes stood next to Sparks, tracker in hand.

Her vision blurred, her clumsiness fighting against her will, Sparks finally hacked into the palace’s security system. A much simpler network than that driving the force field. Her screen blinked red in time with the alarm. She showed it to Reyes and slurred her words. “Shilent alarm. We’ve been rumbled.”

“Are you all right?”

“We’ve not got time for that.” The droids were getting closer. An army of the fuckers coming from both ends of the corridor. She held her hand towards Reyes. “Give me the tracker.”

“Why?”

“We need to improvise a route.”

“And you can do that better than me? In your state.”

The droids drew closer. “Just give me the fucking tracker, Reyes.”

The device buzzed in her grip, but the map on the small screen showed her which room had an exit. She ran for the dark wooden door, but halted at the handle. “You feel that?”

“What?” Reyes looked both ways along the corridors. The mechanical steps grew louder.

The collar’s constant irritating itch ramped up, and Sparks touched it with the tips of her fingers.

Reyes’ jaw dropped when she did the same. “It’s getting hotter!”

“You need to unlock our collars.”

“How can I do that?”

Lifting the tracker closer to her mouth, Sparks repeated, “You need to unlock our collars. The security systems have triggered them. They’re going to blow.”

“Who are you talking to?”

Sparks tried again, the collar growing hotter still. “We don’t have long left. Unlock our collars now!”

Click!

The catch at the back of their collars fell open. Sparks removed hers and launched it down the corridor to the right. Reyes did the same to the left. They skimmed along the highly polished marble floors, spinning and turning like curling stones.

Sparks held up their tracking device. “I assumed they were listening to us through here.”

Her skin pale, sweat glistening on her brow, Reyes said, “And if they weren’t?”

Humanoid chrome droids appeared at both ends of the corridor. The same fuckers that had held the kids in the drying concrete. Each one stood about two and a half metres tall and had glowing white eyes. Piercing white eyes. Cold. Calculated. Programmed to destroy.

Thadoom!

The explosions over one hundred metres away blew the walls out from either side and collapsed the ceiling. The shockwave loosened the marble floor tiles all the way up to where they stood. Dust swirled in the air. Plasma blasts flew towards them from the wreckage beyond.

“Oh,” Reyes said.

Sparks fell against the heavy door to her left, shoving it wide. She led Reyes with a clumsy charge across the ballroom’s wooden floor. The silent alarm added to the insanity crawling through her skull. Her nosebleed overflowed and dampened her top lip. How had she ended up here? Running away from an army of droids with a rapidly fatiguing body and a partner who didn’t trust anything she said. Maybe she should have left the collar on.

CHAPTER 36

Crashing through another set of double doors with what little grace she had left in her flagging body driven by her wailing mind, Sparks left the cavernous ballroom behind her, Reyes on her tail. Where the soft wood ate their hurried steps, the hallway’s white marble tiles responded to their progress with the tight clack of every footfall.

The tracker led Sparks around a bend to the right. She took the turn too fast, and her balance momentarily abandoned her, sending her stumbling into a wall, her left upper arm enduring the impact. But she pushed on; she had to get this force field down before she collapsed.

The hallway opened up onto a double staircase. The wooden stairs started close at the bottom, swept away from one another, and came back together at the first floor like a two-dimensional helix.

Sparks took the left staircase, Reyes the right. She clenched her fists, her boosters carrying her to the next floor before she released her grip and hit the ground running, the tracker guiding them left.

This hallway a carbon copy of the ones they’d already passed through. White marble floors, heavy dark wooden doors running down either side, ornate plasterwork above, a ceiling rose every few metres, the regularity of the circular features making the already long hallway seem infinite.

But Sparks slowed to a walk and then halted.

“What’s up?” Reyes rested her hands on her knees and caught her breath. “We’re going the right way, aren’t we?”

“Droids.” Sparks nodded down the long corridor. “I can hear them.” She could sense them. Ants of irritation crawling over the already resonating pressure swelling through her skull.

Squinting, Reyes lifted an ear. “I don—”

Sparks ran into the room on their right. A library with an open space in the centre that led them back to the ground floor. She jumped through the gap, squeezed her fists to take the edge off the drop. Reyes followed.

They ran through the library into a grand dining hall. Much like the ballroom, it had a worn wooden floor that softened the beat of their progress. Sparks clenched and unclenched her fists, touching down about every ten metres before she boosted away again. Each time she hit the ground, she squinted through her headache to maintain her focus and keep her path straight.

Tall windows ran the length of the right wall. Like many other windows in this place, they were covered by steel shutters that denied them a view of the quadrangle courtyard and the mine shaft in its centre. A forty-metre-long wooden table dominated the space. Sparks passed it on its left side. She sniffed hard, her mouth filling with blood, and clenched her fists again.

Locked into the pattern of bounce and boost, Sparks’ left leg buckled on her next bounce, and she boosted towards the wall. Loosening her grip again, she touched down, boosted, and corrected her path.

Her vision a blur, Sparks misjudged the distance to the dining hall’s double doors, hit them sooner than expected, crumpled, and slammed into the wall on the other side of the corridor before falling to the hard marble tiles.

Reyes stopped beside her, her voice coming at Sparks as if through a body of water. “Sparks.” She shook her. “Wake up, Sparks.”

She pushed off against the marble tiles with her left hand, cold even through her suit’s gloves. “I’m okay. I’m all right.”

“You don’t look it.”

“That may be the case—” The hammering steps of hundreds of droids closed in on them. Echoes in the hallways and ants on her swollen brain. They charged around the corner. Chrome monstrosities with glowing white eyes. “—but I have to be. Come on.”

Half-boosting, half-running, Sparks followed the tracker’s path. They reached another set of double stairs. She took the left staircase again, and Reyes the right.

Halfway up, Sparks lost her balance, gripped too hard, leaned too far, and shot over the bannister. She clipped her foot, turned over like a tumbleweed, and once more crashed against the marble tiles back on the ground floor.

The droid army descended on her, preventing her from getting back to the stairs. Another alarm joined the chaos. Shrill and insane. But it didn’t wail through her overloaded intuition. The aural panic came as one repeated word. Reyes screamed over and over from the first floor. “Sparks!”

Sparks activated a grenade and rolled it towards her aggressors.

Thadoom!

The grenade’s fireball explosion sent the droids flying. But for the twenty she’d knocked down, one hundred filled the space, and she still had no way through. The other half climbed the stairs after Reyes.

Even with a floor between them. Even with the unrelenting throb of her digital intuition pulsing through Sparks’ mind. Even with the needles in her brain and behind her eyes. Even with her aching body, her bruised shoulders, the coppery taste of her own blood flooding her throat. Even with the hammering steps of the droid army on their tails, Reyes’ cry rang out. Clearest of them all. Wild. Panicked. “Sparks! Sparks! Sparks!” Pure distress from the person she loved more than any other being. The most dysregulating intrusion of the lot.

The chrome humanoids packed the hallway from one side to the other. As one, they raised their plasma-cannoned arms.

Sparks ran. Her balance off, her vision blurred and only getting worse, she leaned right and aimed herself at a door. Arming another grenade, she tossed it behind her as she hit the hard wooden barrier and shot through into a room. She collided with the back wall the second the grenade exploded.

Thadoom!

“Fuck!” The room had no exits.

“Sparks! Sparks! Sparks!”

The screams came from above. A maddening colony crawled on her brain. The droids, undeterred by losing another twenty of their army, drew close. Sparks sank several shots into the ornate plaster ceiling.

“Sparks! Sparks! Sparks!”

The agonising pulse bled from Sparks’ brain into her heart. She gasped for air and battled her own clumsiness, dropping her next grenade. She grabbed at it twice before she caught it on her third attempt, armed it, and squeezed her fists, closing her right hand around the explosive device. She slammed into the ceiling, but kept her fists clenched. Her boosters pinned her against yet another ornate plaster rose. She wedged the grenade into a fresh gouge from one of her shots.

Sparks unclenched and dropped to the cold marble. Winded from her fall, she scuttled to the corner of the room, curled into a ball, and pulled her arms over her head.

Thadoom!

A hailstorm of plaster and thick dust. Sparks, still fighting for breath from her fall, coughed and wheezed. The smoke cleared, revealing a hole to the floor above.

The door to Sparks’ room flew open as she leaned towards the ceiling hole and clenched her fists. She smashed through a few remaining wooden battens and blew away several marble tiles. Reyes’ cries were now much louder than before.

She tried to call back, but coughed up blood. On her second attempt, she blew a claret mist, but she got the words out. “I’m coming, Reyes. I’m coming.” If she didn’t shut down the force field soon, she’d die in this palace, haemorrhaging from every orifice.

Out in the hallway, behind the droid army on Reyes’ tail, and with two grenades left. Sparks armed them both, threw them, clenched her fists, and flew back the way she came. She landed about twenty metres away, planted her feet, and shot the droids’ backs.

A hundred or more, about half of them turned her way. The whites of their eyes glowed, they raised their cannons, and they charged. Towards her and towards the armed grenades.

Thadoom!

It scattered the droids and left about ten standing.

“Oi!”

Reyes appeared at the other end of the corridor and rolled four grenades one after the other. She shot the droids, Sparks ducking into the room on her left to avoid getting hit in the crossfire.

Thadoom!

Sparks re-emerged. Dust swirled in the air above a carpet of fallen machines. They lay like the gloyners’ corpses in the city’s ruined buildings. If only the machines felt even a fraction of what they’d inflicted on the poor beings.

Reyes boosted through the thick cloud, touched down on the other side of the dead machines, and ran at Sparks. Her face streaked with tears, she hit her hard, sending both of them stumbling as she wrapped her in a tight hug. She kissed her head. “I’m so pleased to see you. Please don’t go away again. Please.”

CHAPTER 37

Reyes squeezed Sparks so hard she gasped. The blood rushed to her already throbbing head and aggravated every ache from every collision she’d had since she’d stepped inside the force field. Her arms clamped to her sides, her pulse a wet kick-drum throb through her skull, she twisted, wriggled, and forced her words out with a panting wheeze. “Calm down.”

But Reyes held on.

Sparks sniffed blood back up her leaking nose. A constant stream ran down the back of her throat. “Reyes!”

If anything, Reyes squeezed harder.

Her mouth filled with blood, she’d spray it everywhere if she shouted again. Sparks squirmed, got one arm loose enough to reach her mini computer, and sent a shock through her suit. Reyes yipped and let go. Thankfully, the shot went towards Reyes and not her. Any further stimulation might make her head pop like a squeezed zit.

Dropping to her knees, blood dripping from her face, she held Reyes back with a halting hand. “I’m happy to see you too, but please don’t squeeze me like that again.”

“Damn!” Reyes touched Sparks’ back. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see how bad you are. What happened?”

Sparks spat more blood onto the white marble. “I crashed.” She spat again, the tracker still in her hand. “A lot.” The less they knew, the better. They might have gotten free of their collars, but they were far from being outside of these beings’ control.

Reyes, still crying, helped Sparks stand.

At least the crashing gave a reason for the bleeding. She’d explain it all, but not here and not now. The force field’s effect wound her tighter with every passing second. How long before it turned her internal organs to mush? She leaned against the wall for support and, even through her blurred vision, caught Reyes’ slumped form and bobbing shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Reyes shook her head. “And just so you know, I’m not angry with you about the choice you made to compete in the tournament.”

“It’s okay. We don’t need to talk about this no—”

“The way I’ve been.” Reyes sniffed.

The longer Sparks remained under the force field, the less chance she had of walking away. “Is now the time?”

“My behaviour isn’t about me not trusting you or wanting to punish you.”

“Uh …”

“I know that’s what I’ve been doing, I can see that. But it’s not about what you did. It’s me. It’s about our penultimate mission.”

“The penultimate one?” Sparks wiped her nose, adding a fresh streak of blood to her already stained sleeve. She frowned against the mental fog. “Which one was that?”

“The one before we went to Druant. The one where we got separated in those mines and you nearly died.”

“I’ve nearly died on plenty of missions.”

“But in this one, I lost sight of you. Like what just happened now. It’s what made me realise I’ve been trying to overcome my fear by taking control. By not letting you get away from me. That’s what I was doing on Druant.”

Sparks’ legs wobbled. She leaned against the wall and slumped to the floor.

“You wanted to take down the splindlers who came from the cave, and I shot them because I couldn’t let you go away from me. You wanted to get the power source, and I followed because I didn’t want you out of my sight. Bad things happen when I’m separated from those I love. They took my mum from me when I was a kid. I never saw her again. She died, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“But she took her own life.” Sparks gripped her brow with her right hand and squeezed, trying to control the throbbing ache. “What could you have done about that?”

“I have a list if you want to hear it? I add to it every day. I could write a book, A thousand ways I could have prevented Mum from leaving.”

“Oh, Reyes. She was unwell, and you were a child. There’s nothing you could have done.”

The light glistened off Reyes’ cheeks. “And Dad. On the Faradis. We separated in the middle of a mission …” She stared up at the ceiling and blinked repeatedly like she could banish her already spent tears. “The simulation wasn’t about me trying to do the mission right. It wasn’t about me not trusting you. It was about control. If I made sure I could do the entire mission on my own, it would negate the need for you to put yourself in danger. It would keep you by my side.”

“But that’s the very thing that put me in danger.”

Reyes’ shoulders slumped. She stared at the ground. “I’m just so scared, Sparks.” She looked up again. “I can’t lose another person I love. I won’t recover from it.”

Sparks slipped the tracker into her pocket, got to her feet again, and reached for Reyes’ hands. She saw double and missed. She gulped back more blood and found her grip on her second attempt. She swallowed against her heave. “You had no control over what happened with your mum and dad. And the more you try to control everything when we’re on a mission, the worse it gets.”

“I can see that now.” Reyes stared at the floor.

“And I get it. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Sparks gripped tighter, Reyes keeping her upright. “And that scares the life out of me. But isn’t that what love is? A gamble. The euphoric highs with an underlying risk you could lose it all. The trust you place in the uncontrollable. To truly love, you have to let go. You have to accept the fear, but don’t let it guide your actions. We’ve already lost twelve months to fear. Fill yourself with the joy of the moment—”

“This moment?” Reyes laughed and wiped her nose.

“Okay, maybe not this moment, but you get the idea. You need to let go. Accept there’s nothing you could have done about your dad and mum.”

For the first time since Sparks had met her, Reyes stared at her through the eyes of a child. Lost, vulnerable, and in need of guidance. “Was I not good enough for her?”

“You were a kid. Whatever you did, you wouldn’t have been able to fix her, and she couldn’t fix herself. I’m sure you were everything and more, but she was unwell. So unwell she couldn’t face living, even with you around. There’s nothing you could have done to change it, and all your questions regarding why will remain forever unanswered. And with your dad … he gave his life to save yours. They’d both want you to live without fear. To stand in the brilliance of the love they poured into you. No matter how imperfect.”

“But how could Mum love me and do that?”

“That’s a question only she could answer.”

“I’m not sure I can survive another fall.”

“Me either, but even if we jump early to try to lessen the impact, it’ll still fucking hurt when we hit the ground.”

Reyes’ chest rose with her stuttered inhale. She nodded several times and dragged in another wet sniff.

The palace’s silent alarm rang through Sparks’ throbbing skull. Her blurred vision got worse. She fought her own mental fatigue to regain her focus and pulled the tracker from her pocket. “We need to complete this mission. I need to get to their power supply and shut this building down.” She gulped back more blood and slurred her words. “I need you to let me play my part in this while you play yours.”

“What is my part?”

“Stay here and cover my back.” Sparks showed Reyes the tracker. “We’re close enough to the building’s power supply. I need you to buy me some time so I can shut everything down, the droids, the window shutters, that stupid fucking force field.”

“Droids? There’s more of them?”

The ants of irritation scuttled across Sparks’ brain. “A shitload more. I need you to make sure they don’t follow me so I can deactivate them. And then who knows how many guards the queen has around here? Just cover my back and keep them all busy. Go to war like the old and fearless Reyes, okay?”

“Okay.”

A lump in Sparks’ throat stole her words. For the first time in ages, Reyes hadn’t questioned her. How did she know there were more droids? How could she be sure she could shut down the power? What if it didn’t work? She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Trusting me.”

“I’ve always trusted you. It was my need for control that got in the way.” Reyes held Sparks’ face and pulled her close so they touched foreheads. More blood dripped from Sparks’ nose to the white marble tiles. “I’ll do whatever you need.”

“Make a lot of noise. Draw their attention long enough for me to get to the power supply so I can end this bullshit.”

Reyes kissed Sparks’ forehead, stepped away, and nestled her plasma rifle’s butt in her shoulder. She closed an eye, looked down the barrel, and shot a nearby window, the glass on the inside of the steel shutter. The rush of broken shards crashed and shattered against the hard floor. The piqued attention of distant droids lifted gooseflesh on the back of Sparks’ neck. “They’re coming.”

Shooting another window, Reyes smiled. “You never know, I might even enjoy this. Do your thing, you badass motherfucker.”

CHAPTER 38

Even with her throbbing head, bloody nose, and blurred vision, Sparks couldn’t help but smile when she left Reyes behind in the hallway. Howling with laughter, the badass marine they’d both lost on their final mission a year ago returned as she opened fire on the hallway’s windows, walls, and anything else she could destroy with a plasma rifle.

The tracker led Sparks into a room with a loft hatch. She clenched her fists, her right hand clamping around the tracker, and held them out above her head, punching her way through into the dusty loft space. Exposed beams ran down the underside of the slanted roof, the floor a series of beams with yellowing candyfloss insulation packed between them. Dusty, derelict, and abandoned, but most importantly … free of droids.

Sparks used the beams as stepping stones, her boosters carrying her about ten metres with each jump.

Kick. Boost. Kick. Boost.

But the gloomy loft space and her blurred vision challenged her accuracy.

Kick. Boost. Kick. Boost. Trip.

She fell forwards, boosted at the insulation, crashed through the ceiling like a falling comet, and slammed into the marble floor of the room below.

The attention of several droids turned her way as one.

Sparks’ ears rang, and her world swam around her. She sat up with her back to the wall. Her calming breaths did little against her throbbing headache, her bloody nose, and her blurred vision. She locked onto the machines. Most were still heading towards Reyes’ commotion. But if the few heading her way realised her intentions, the entire army would bear down on her. Regardless of the noise made by Reyes, she, as a threat to their existence, would become their number one target.

The droids close, Sparks launched from the corner of the room, slammed into the patch of wall above the door, and kept her boosters firing, pinning her in place while she turned around to face back into the room.

Crack!

The door flew open. Three chrome droids charged in. All three ran to the hole Sparks had made in the ceiling.

The door closed. Sparks dropped. Her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees.

The three droids turned, plasma cannons raised.

Sparks rolled away from their first attack, dropped her tracker, went to grab her swinging rifle and missed before clutching it on her second try. She shot the closest droid in the face. The green blast cut a tunnel from where their nose should be to the wall behind. The droid fell in a heap.

Rolling again, the droids’ shots tracking her across the room, chewing into the walls, kicking off chunks of plaster and wooden panels, Sparks let off another series of shots. She could blast the wings from a fly’s back, so nailing another dumb droid, even when she could barely see, proved no problem. She turned off the white glow in the second of the three’s eyes, and it fell like the first.

The final droid learned enough from the first two to change its tactics. Its shift in intention ran straight through Sparks’ intuition. It shot where it expected she’d go. But she changed direction and rolled forwards, straight at it. She closed the distance between them, and as the droid brought its cannon around to her, she shot up, sending a green blast through the bottom of its chin, out the top of its skull, and through the hole she’d made in the ceiling. She rolled aside to avoid the toppling machine.

Another ruined room. Plaster covered the floor, three droids lay defunct on the marble tiles, and the ceiling had a massive hole. Sparks let her plasma rifle fall loose on its strap so it hung across her front, retrieved her tracker, and boosted back towards the loft. She missed the hole, smashed through the ornate ceiling, hit the roof beams above, and dropped back towards the insulation. She boosted again before she dropped all the way to the first floor for a second time.

Half-running, half-boosting, and still off balance, Sparks made slower, but more successful progress, following her tracker to the building’s power source.

A large blue metal box. Sparks’ hands shook as she fished her mini computer from inside her suit. She blinked to manage her headache, the glare from the backlit screen too bright in the darkness. The pulse throbbing through her brain crushed her eyeballs. And even if she could see, she couldn’t type with her shaking hands. “Fuck this.”

Sparks aimed her rifle at the box. The green blasts tore through the protective case, chewing into the electrics inside.

The itching ants left her mind as she turned off every droid in the palace. The clattering thunk of thousands of shutters rang out like dominoes. Windows and doors now open and accessible. But the heavy pulse still clamped her brain. Blood still ran from her nose, over her lips, and down the back of her throat.

Sparks aimed her blaster at the underside of the roof and fired. She blew open a hole larger than she’d normally need, flew out, and landed on the tiles of the pitched roof. Several slipped free, skittered across the others, and dived over the side of the building. They hit the ground with the splash of ceramic against concrete. The buzz-saw whine louder than before, she clapped her hands to the sides of her head. Its shrill tone cut through her. And it would continue as long as the force field dome remained over the palace.

Overlooking the quadrangle courtyard for the first time. The gaping mineshaft in its centre, it birthed an ungodly energy. Somewhere inside the miles-deep well sat the force field’s power source. Sparks stumbled, the roof’s pitch threatening to throw her completely off-balance. Every step towards the shaft and the force field’s generator took more of her strength. But this was what they’d come here for. Disable the dome and they could take down the queen. To do that, she had to get inside the shaft.

CHAPTER 39

Locked in a battle against her own weakening body, Sparks reached the edge of the roof overlooking the courtyard, the large square plaza encircled by the palace. Nearly as many doors and windows ran around the inner walls as outer. And they were now shutterless, the steel covers having vanished back into their hidden sheaths. The blue dome, however, remained. An ever-present force, its raw power dragged from somewhere deep inside the mine shaft. Harnessed and fired at the sky, it squatted over them, turning them all into bugs scuttling beneath an upturned cup. The angle-grinder whine had gone industrial. The grating roar throbbed through her entire being, rattling every nerve. Would it be the last thing she ever heard?

Sparks’ tears burned her tired eyes. She wiped her face. Her gloves glistened with another fresh layer of blood. Haemorrhaging from her nose and eyes and on the edge of her balance, she leaned forward and dropped towards the courtyard, catching herself with clenched fists to activate her boosters.

The mineshaft’s entrance was a circular opening. A black hole leading to a black hole. A steel tube about two metres in diameter, it plummeted deep into the bowels of the mine. It plunged into the abyss. The force field’s source sat somewhere deep within the tube. A fierce electrical charge birthing a column made from the same azure blue as the shield it created. It took the mine’s power, amplified it, and projected it straight up to form the massive dome over the palace. Before peering into the shaft, Sparks wiped her dripping nose and resisted the urge to itch her burning eyes lest she blind herself with her own blood. She found a small pebble and flicked it at the blue column. It turned to sand.

The force field’s power drove a groan from Sparks, an involuntary release of the pressure building in her chest. She lost focus, tuning into the azure column. Hollow in the centre, it had a single, highly charged skin of almost impenetrable protection. The same as the shield over the palace. But like with the palace’s dome, she just needed to find the way through.

They sent droids into the mine to gather the starinium. They had to get in somehow. The blue column stretched about three hundred metres tall before it splayed out to form the dome’s roof. Sparks scanned the sides and paused on a spot about one hundred metres from the ground. Her vision still blurred, she halted on the rotating doorway. An entrance like the one they’d used to get through the force field. About two metres tall by two metres wide. It remained at the same height and slid around the column.

Sparks pocketed the tracker and clenched her fists. She veered right, gripped that hand tighter, and levelled out again. She hovered at the same height as the entrance and waited for it to come around to her. A slowly revolving door. She clenched and unclenched her hands to maintain her height. The blood from her nose and mouth trickled down her chest, soaking her shirt from the inside. She trembled where she hovered.

“Sparks!”

She turned and veered away.

Reyes stood where she’d left her. On the palace’s first floor, peering through one of the many shattered windows. The droids were down, but they were yet to meet the queen and her army.

Sparks turned back to the force field column.

“Sparks!”

What did she want her to do? Wave? She shook her head. Hopefully Reyes would get the hint. The two-metre-by-two-metre doorway drew closer. She had to do this for all the people the queen had wronged. For those kids in the park.

Sparks leaned forwards and closed her eyes, entering the shaft.

A screaming wail drilled into Sparks’ ears. A fresh surge of blood streamed from her nose and tear ducts, her vision reduced to a splotchy, crimson-tinted blur. She unclenched her fists and dropped. The rushing wind dragged on her suit.

Clamping her fists again, she caught her fall. She hovered at ground level.

The hollow steel column dropped away from her. A deep chute with apparently no end. But there had to be a mine down there somewhere, and hopefully the shield’s power source well before that. She twitched and shifted; jabbed, prodded, and goaded by the thrumming power of the surrounding force field. One overzealous movement would turn her to mist.

A silver ring ran around the inside of the chute about fifty metres farther down. The device that amplified the mine’s power to create the shield.

Sparks chugged on her own blood. Her vision grew increasingly bleary and her head so light it might prevent her descent. She unclenched her hands and plummeted.

“Three, two, one.” Sparks gripped again, her boosters halting her fall. The ring now directly in front of her. It had a rail running around the inside. When she grabbed it with one hand, her vision shook, and it amplified the already deafening whine. But she clung on with the other hand, turning off her boosters and slamming into the chute’s cold steel wall beneath the ringed device.

Sparks’ arm shook, her weak grip threatening to give out. She caught her dangling rifle and shot at the other side of the ring. The green blast ricocheted off it, changed trajectory, and shot straight up, ejected by the alien force field’s power.

Her pulse kicked inside her skull like a spooked haltorn beating against a stable door. Sparks fished her minicomputer from inside her suit, twisted so her back lay flat against the chute’s steel wall, and pulled her knees higher to turn the tops of her thighs into an improvised table.

The screen’s backlight became her saviour in the dark. Sparks removed her glasses, rested them on her computer, and scooped the congealed blood from her eyes. Glasses back on, she tapped in a series of commands, her usual keyboard fluency having abandoned her with many of her other faculties. Her trembling grip would be next.

Slow going, her shoulder on fire from where she hung from the ring, Sparks finally tapped enter, pressing through a splash of blood on the touchscreen, and slipped her computer back inside her suit.

Thunk!

The force field shut off.

The band of pressure on Sparks’ brain released.

The ring broke apart and dropped into the mine.

Sparks fell with it, slammed her head against the inside of the steel chute, and blacked out.

CHAPTER 40

Something slammed into Sparks’ stomach. It drove the air from her lungs and dragged her back to consciousness. Her vision still blurred, the surrounding steel walls flashing past. The wind in her hair, a throbbing headache in her temples. She reached up and clung onto the shoulders and arms gripping her tight, the rate of their fall slowing. “Reyes?”

“I’ve got you. You’ve done your bit; the peace force is coming in to take down the queen.”

They twitched and shifted with Reyes’ battle to keep them stable as she decreased the rate of their fall to a halt. Daylight shone down on them from the top of the mine shaft. “Now try to relax, and let me get us out of here. We’ve done it, Sparks. All three missions.”

Exhausted. Every atom of her being trembling with fatigue, Sparks fell limp in Reyes’ arms as they rose, back towards the light and towards freedom. A life without the constant need to earn credits. A life where what they did next would be entirely their own choice.

CHAPTER 41

Too hot beneath her thick black robe, but too cold without it, Sparks walked beside Reyes along Acoolter’s spaceport. A rare trip for Reyes, she usually avoided the busiest part of the planet, and with good reason. A chaotic mess of beings moved in every direction. Speeders ran down either side of the main strip, and surveillance drones hovered overhead, scanning the crowd, reporting back to Blark Venn-Quarter. Sparks just another being in the crowd, but many narrowed eyes lingered on Reyes. Despite the thousands of different wars being fought on thousands of different fronts at any one time. Despite beings from different planets backstabbing and cutting each other’s throats when they weren’t looking. Despite the robberies, scams, and attacks. Despite all the conflict in the galaxy, one thing united almost every other species: they all hated humans.

Ships, hotels, and bars lined one side of the miles-long spaceport. The other side ran all the way to the vast lake on their left. Even when surrounded by bodies, and even when she stood shorter than most, the wind still slammed into them, and Sparks walked with her head slightly lowered against its force. Small ships close by, Acoolter was also hosting several giant freighters, which had landed by the lake. “Some beings spend their lives on those things and never get off.”

Reyes followed Sparks’ line of sight. “Depressing, isn’t it? I don’t mind space travel, but for the rest of my life? No thanks.”

A being blocked their path. The only still body in a sea of motion. About five feet tall, the biped had thick porous brown skin like a sponge. They rested their four hands on their hips. “We don’t like hu—”

Reyes charged and shoved him in the chest. She hit him so hard, her palms connected with a crack! He yelped and fell on his arse.

Before he could sit up, Sparks stood over him and pressed the tip of her blaster into his face, squashing his cheek and forcing his left eye closed. “You were saying?”

The creature snorted, but kept his lips pursed.

Sparks and Reyes moved on. For the next twenty metres, most beings gave them a wider berth, and several droids tracked their progress. Seemingly satisfied the conflict had ended with little more than hurt pride, they zoomed away, and the crowd closed in again.

“It doesn’t help that you’re walking around this place like a tourist.”

Reyes closed her mouth. “I’ve not been here for a long time.”

“I know.”

“There are so many more hotels and bars.”

“Blark Venn-Quarter has done well to stabilise the place. He’s turned it into a destination. A port ships can land and be relatively confident they’ll be safe.”

“That’s about all any destination can hope for.”

“Exactly. And he guarantees any antisocial criminality will be dealt with in a swift and ruthless manner.” Sparks’ brain hummed with digital intrusions. Inevitable somewhere so busy, but nothing compared to how she’d felt when she’d spent a night in the Grandest. She let go of a hard sigh. “I never thought I’d—”

“Miss the place?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Especially as I know I don’t have to come here hustling for credits.” She nodded at Mac’s bar over to their right. The lights were back on. “I used to play most of my droneball games in there.”

“You want to go in and have a drink?”

“Fuck no.” She screwed up her face. “And I’m not sure I’d be welcome. The last time I walked out of there, I fried his electrics.”

“Why?”

“Mac was the one who sold me out to the people running the droneball games. It pissed me off at the time.”

“Why did you play droneball?”

“We needed the credits.”

“But why droneball?”

Sparks and Reyes had found their old rhythm. They’d reconnected on their missions and now moved through the busy spaceport in sync with one another. Like a dance, they navigated the crowd, dodging and sidestepping along their constantly shifting path. “I’ve still not told you everything.”

An alley on their right between two small dive bars, one of the many that led towards Faz Went’s courtyard, Sparks took Reyes’ hand and led her down it. The echo of her confession came back at her from the tight walls as if in accusation of her deceit. “As part of them fixing me up after my crash on Druant, they put a metal plate in my head.”

“I know. I was there.”

Sparks stopped at a quiet spot. Most tourists stuck to the main strip, and those in search of something a bit more niche followed the signs down some of the wider alleys. “Since then, I’ve kind of had a … digital intuition.”

“A what?”

“I’ve been able to read … and feel, the intentions, or rather the programming, of machines. To know what they’re doing and what they plan to do. If they’re trained to kill, I know their target and feel their chilling drive to accomplish the task. I can read what they’ll do next.”

“Which is why droneball came so easy to you?”

“Right. I always knew where the drone was and where it would go. I could shoot them before anyone else had even seen them. Almost anyone else. Juan Ortega had the beating of me, so maybe I’m not the only one.”

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

“My … gift … ailment … has been somewhat dysregulating for me. It can be helpful, but I can’t sever my connection to the machines. I just have to ride it out as best I can.”

“Have you been using it on our missions?”

“I’ve had no choice. It’s why I was in such a state on Flanterian. If I’d have spent too much longer beneath that force field dome, I think my brain might have liquified. And in the mine shaft, when I got too close to that power ring … that’s why I passed out. It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt. But it’s mostly an asset. On Eranture I sensed the security droids both outside and inside the prison. I knew when they were coming, and I sensed their weaknesses.”

“Good job you did. I thought we were done for in those hallways. And I’m guessing that’s why you led us out along a completely different route?”

“Yep. I knew we’d run into the security droids if we went back the way we came. Also, I sensed the droids on the Platinum Streak and knew how long it would take them to get into the cargo bay.”

“And that’s why you asked me to wait by the missile? Because we had the time?”

“Yep.”

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were being watched on those missions. They had trackers in our suits and in the ships. If they knew how I did so well in the droneball tournament, they might have reneged on our deal and not paid us. They might have considered it cheating. And while we wore their collars, we belonged to them. What if they changed the terms? Decided we needed to do a few more missions to make up for the deceit? Also, if I’m being honest, I didn’t tell you because I wanted you to trust me. I knew what needed to be done on the missions. I wanted you to take what I said at face value.”

“I always trusted you, Sparks. My battle was with myself and my need to control everything.”

“I—” A small being entered the alley. Sparks pulled her coat aside, rested her hand on her blaster, and waited for them to turn around and leave. “I can see that now.”

“So no one else knew about it either?”

“Just Hat. He always sensed when I was feeling distressed.”

“I miss Hat.”

“Me too.”

“But why didn’t you tell me before? You’ve been living with this for a year.”

“All machines affect me. Some more than others. The more emotion there is in a machine and the being engaging with it, the worse it affects me. Every time I pass the droid section in the red-light district, I’m always a bit sick in my mouth. I don’t want to know what some beings pay to have done to them, but I’m going to damn well feel it regardless.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It can be.”

The ground shook with the rumble of vast engines, and a thick shadow cast the alley into almost complete darkness. One of the massive freighters passed overhead, miles and miles of grey steel. All the while, Reyes’ attention bored into Sparks. As the tail end of the freighter finally passed, Reyes’ eyes widened. “Oh, shit. The simulator?”

“I could see you had to work through it. You had to complete it to exorcise your demons.”

Tears glazed Reyes’ brown eyes. “Oh, Sparks. I’ve been doing that simulator for a year now. How bad is it for you?”

“It’s fine.” Sparks focused on the rocky ground.

“Please stop lying to me.”

Filling her lungs, Sparks lifted her head. Her voice caught in her throat. “Every time you do it, it feels like I’m dying all over again.”

“Shit! When we get back, I’m going to destroy that machine.”

“You don’t need to.”

“I do. And I want to. I’m surprised to admit it, but those three missions did me good. Forced me out of my funk, you know?”

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to influence your decision. You need to stop when it’s the right time.”

“No, I need to stop if it’s causing you this much pain, regardless of whether or not it’s the right time. It just so happens that now is also the right time.”

“Okay.”

“And that’s it?”

Sparks nodded.

“So, no more secrets. You’ve been rightly upset about me not trusting you and the consequences of that, especially on our final mission. I can see that now. But you’ve not trusted me either. I understand you were worried about me, and you were trying to protect me, but please trust I can handle whatever needs to be handled. Treat me like an equal, okay?”

“Faz Went said something similar.”

“I thought you said no one else knew about your intuition?”

“No, he doesn’t. We spoke about our final mission. He said trust is a two-way thing. About how I needed to trust you if I wanted you to trust me. Even though he didn’t know what I was covering up, he knew I was covering up something.”

“He sounds like a good friend.”

“He is. He says it how he sees it, not what I want to hear. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Reyes leaned close, and they touched foreheads. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

* * *

Sparks led Reyes to Faz Went’s courtyard. They emerged from between two massive tower blocks, five more lining the open space’s perimeter. A steady stream of small freighters and fighter ships passed overhead. Some of them with a lowering altitude, coming in to land, some leaving Acoolter, their boosters flaring with their acceleration. Clusters of beings huddled around flaming barrels, the strong wind obliterating the thick black smoke, the air tinged with the reek of burning wood and plastic.

“Is everything okay?”

Sparks scowled and pulled her thick coat tighter against the chill. “They’re not here.”

“They?”

“Faz Went. Hat. Greeta. None of them.”

A muscly yellow-furred quadruped leaned over a nearby barrel. Their long nose rested just above the flames, and their eyes were closed. Sparks tapped their hindquarters and jumped aside just in time to avoid their reactionary kick. “Excuse me.”

They squinted at her through bleary pink eyes, their voice gruff. “What do you want?”

“Sorry to interrupt you.”

“What’s done is done.” They looked at Reyes, scowled, tutted, and returned their focus to Sparks. “Now, what do you want?”

“I’m looking for my friends.”

“And I’m supposed to know who they are?”

“No, sorry. Do you know Faz Went and Greeta?”

Clarity sharpened the being’s pink glare. “You should leave. Now.”

“What?” Sparks glanced at Reyes. “What is it?”

“Leave!”

Sparks rested her hand on her blaster. “Tell me what you know, and we will.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I believe I am.”

A glance across the courtyard, all the other beings minding their own business, the gruff quadruped lowered their voice. “Greeta’s dead.”

“Dead? How?”

They hissed through gritted teeth. “Keep your voice down.”

“How did she die?”

“She went somewhere to help Faz Went. She never came back.”

Sparks’ jaw fell loose. “Shit. And—”

“Leave. Me. Alone.”

“Bu—”

“Greeta’s dead. I don’t know how or why, and I don’t know you. My instincts tell me I should keep things that way. Now please go away.”

Reyes tugged Sparks’ arm, pulling her from the creature. “Come on. I think we should get out of here.”

CHAPTER 42

Her eyes burning with her tears, her cheeks burning from the blast of Acoolter’s strong winds, Sparks led the way home. She and Reyes didn’t speak the entire way, but the second they entered their house and closed the front door, she threw her arms in the air. “I knew something was up when he left a tidy bed.”

“Huh?”

Sparks went to their small front room. “When he left Stargart, he tidied his bed.”

Reyes’ mouth hung ajar.

“He’s a fucking slob. He never tidies his bed. Do you think he’s also dead? Like Greeta?”

A shake of her head, Reyes opened her mouth to reply, but she paused, and her shoulders sagged. “I don’t know, Sparks. I really don’t.”

“Do you think Greeta died coming to see him on Stargart?”

“I don’t know, Sparks.”

“Do you think Hat’s okay?”

“I really don—”

“Don’t know. I know.” Sparks swiped her hair back and held it in place on top of her head. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Dragging you into all this with my stupid decisions.” Pacing in circles, Sparks tapped her bottom lip with her index finger. “I have to go back to Stargart.”

“You what now?”

“I have to go back. It seems like the most logical place to start. I need to find the people who organised the tournament. I need to know what they know.”

“Okay. When are we going?”

“I’m going. You stay here. I’ve already dragged you into too much shit.”

“We’re in this together, Sparks. I’ll come with you.”

Sparks chewed on her bottom lip. “You’re sure?”

“Certain.”

“Thank you. Let’s do th …”

“What?” Reyes cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?”

Sparks pointed at the simulator. “You said that’s how he contacted you, right?”

“No, Sparks. That machine’s done for. I won’t put you through it again.”

“I’ve avoided that thing for a year because I wanted no part of it. I hate that machine because of what it’s done to you. What it’s done to us, but Faz Went said something to me while we were on Stargart. He asked if I’d ever done the simulation with you and why I hadn’t. I got super defensive. Why would I even engage with it? But I think there’s a truth I didn’t see in my response. I think we need to do it together.”

“Really?”

“Every time I’ve watched you fail, it’s hurt. But far worse than the intuited pain of reliving my accident over and over was the pain of knowing you’d do it again the next day. The pain of seeing you stuck in a never-ending cycle of trauma and desperation. But maybe I should have been helping you. How could you possibly beat it on your own? It might be as painful to participate in the simulation as it was to watch, but I doubt it’s any worse, and surely we stand a better chance together? I think that’s what Faz Went was trying to tell me. I never want to see our final mission again, but maybe we need to beat the simulation before we destroy it. And if Faz Went put a message in there for you after he left Stargart, maybe he’s left one in there for us? How about we try it? Just once. Work together. Trust each other, and get this fucking mission out of our lives once and for all. And if we’re still none the wiser as to Faz Went’s whereabouts, then we go to Stargart.”

CHAPTER 43

Sparks battled to hold on to the headset. It thrummed in her grip, daring her to discard it and walk away. Instead, she clamped it beneath her arm while Reyes leaned down, and they touched foreheads.

“Love you,” Reyes said.

Sparks smiled up at her. “Love you too.”

The same way they’d started every Shadow Order mission. Sparks filled her lungs and slipped on her helmet. It transported her to the Arrowhead’s cockpit, her and Reyes dropping from the sky.

Reyes’ mech hit the obsidian rock like a bolt of lightning, and Sparks flew in over the top of her, her skin alive with the tingling rush of adrenaline.

The black rock stretched away from them, the cliff face about a mile away, the cave system inside. Sparks opened and closed her grip on her flight sticks. “We’ve got this.”

Reyes’ vast mech gave a thumbs up.

“What’s up? Your radio out?”

“No. It just looks cooler.”

Sparks laughed as Reyes broke into a jog, her long striding steps slamming against the ground.

Splindlers flew from the cave. A squadron of about twelve, the sandy-coloured seven-foot-long arachnids wore backpacks and carried guns in their two arms, their six legs hanging beneath them.

“I’m going in.” Sparks momentarily paused, wincing at the expected resistance. But it never came. She boosted towards the creatures, and Reyes slowed her charge. The Arrowhead’s shields ate the splindlers’ plasma rifle blasts. Massively overpowered compared to their attackers, she made a show of it, barrel-rolling as she closed in on the woefully underdefended bugs.

Sparks levelled out, locked the flying splindlers in her sights, and took them down one after the other, her cannons atomising every one.

A light layer of purple splindler blood lay against her windshield like condensation. She slowed for Reyes to catch up, her flamethrowers raised.

They paused at the cave’s entrance, Reyes turning one way and then the other, her servos whirring. “Where are they?”

“It must have been your missiles that called them out.”

“Have I been that pigheaded?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been trying the same approach again and again for the past year.”

“The definition of insanity.”

“Thanks.”

Sparks maintained her ship’s position with subtle adjustments. “To be fair, I played the same role every time. In the replays, I never went forward to fight the splindlers, so there’s nothing else you could have done. Shall we go in?”

“Yeah. And quietly.”

“I agree. And in the absence of our angry friends, you can walk in this time.”

“It looks so weird in here.” Reyes’ voice, although coming to Sparks through her helmet, seemed to echo in the empty tunnel. Despite her mech’s servos and slamming steps bouncing off the obsidian walls, their path remained clear. “Do you think they can hear me?”

Sparks scanned the darkness, most of their surroundings bathed in deep shadow. The last time she’d come through here, Reyes had lit the place with her flamethrowers. “I’m sure they can. Maybe they think you’re one of theirs.”

Reyes scoffed and slowed down.

Sparks hovered over her. “What is it?”

“The caves are around this bend. They were always empty by the time I reached them.”

“You think the armies are in there?”

“Quite possibly.”

“Are your missiles ready?”

Reyes lifted her arms with another whir of servos. “Locked and loaded.”

Adrenaline clamped Sparks’ stomach. Despite the seemingly abandoned caves, there were thousands of the fuckers somewhere. “Okay. You take the lead.”

They proceeded at a slower pace, around the bend, the gentle whir of Reyes’ mech, her steps much softer for her caution. They paused again, just metres from the two cave entrances.

Light flooded from both sides. The flickering orange glow of flames. Splindler silhouettes passed in front of the fires.

Reyes aimed one of her missiles at the ceiling over the entrance to the first cave. “What do you reckon?”

“Do it.” Sparks tightened her grip on her flight sticks and continued to hold her position.

The missile’s flaming jet lit up the darkness as it hurled towards the top of the cave’s entrance with a whoosh before exploding against the ceiling. Thadoom!

Chunks of rock fell, blocking their exit.

Sparks opened fire on the second cave, nailing the first wave who came rushing out.

Whoosh!

Thadoom!

Reyes closed the second entrance. The crumbling ceiling turned the attacking splindlers to paste.

They were alone again in the caves. Reyes’ mech shook its head. “I feel like a fool. That was so much easier.”

“We’re not done yet.”

“But if I’d listened to you on our final mission.”

“And if I’d done this simulation with you a lot sooner … Come on, let’s get that power source. There’ll be more of them to fight in the hive.”

They moved on slightly quicker than before. Little point in stealth now.

“This is where your friend appeared last time.”

“Faz Went?”

“Yeah.”

“Shall we wait and see if he comes again?”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t have to wait last time. It was like me reaching this point triggered his message.”

“Okay. I’m going in. Watch my back and don’t follow me.” Sparks took the lead, but Reyes quickened her pace too. “You hear me, Reyes?”

She slowed to a halt. “Fine. I’ll cover you.”

Sparks flew around the next bend and opened fire. Splindlers flooded from the two tunnels like before. They spilled out in a wave, rushing towards her. The red glow of the power orb lit up the far end of the top tunnel. “I’m going in.”

Behind Sparks, Reyes set splindlers alight with her flamethrowers. She turned the vile bugs into street food.

Her grip locked on her triggers, Sparks shot the splindlers below as she hurtled towards their hive. Her thick green blasts blew temporary holes in the crowd, but the sheer number of splindlers filled any gaps she made. They were ready to die for the cause and then some.

Out of the other side of the tunnel, Sparks lost her breath. Most of the time, she’d watched this battle from Reyes’ perspective. The impact of the packed hive still hit her like a blow to the stomach. “I’m in, Reyes.”

“And I’m staying here.”

Sparks’ pulse quickened, and her palms turned slick on her flight sticks. She spun one hundred and eighty degrees and shot the black rock between the upper and lower tunnels. The rock fell, blocking the bottom passage, stemming the flow of beasts heading towards Reyes. “I’ve closed off the bottom tunnel.”

“Good work.”

“Just watch out for the flyers, okay?”

“Of course.”

Sparks spun around again, the cave walls and floor alive with writhing bodies. She hurtled towards the glowing orb. The splindlers protected it like they would their queen. Her teeth clenched, she shot the bugs covering the stolen power source, clearing her path as best she could. She dived on the orb, opened the tray on the bottom of her fighter, and scooped it up.

Some splindlers clung to the Arrowhead. They fell away when she flicked on her electrically charged force field. “I’ve got it, Reyes! I’m coming back out again. Cover me.”

Sparks hurtled along the same tunnel she’d used to access the hive. The splindlers on the ground shot at her. Fire lit up her exit, the orange glow shimmering off the glossy black rock. A splindler with a backpack, charred from where they’d been burned mid-flight, slammed into the ceiling and dropped back to the ground like a dead weight.

“Woot!” Sparks flew from the tunnel, Reyes pausing her roasting to let her pass. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Right behind you.”

Sparks flew through the tight tunnels free of splindlers, past the blocked caves, and out into the open rocky plains of Druant. She jumped in her seat at the loud explosion way behind them. The explosion that she’d previously brought with her. She placed a hand on the cold part of her head where they’d fitted the steel plate and turned to face the cave’s entrance as Reyes ran towards her.

“We did it, Sparks.” Reyes ran beneath Sparks’ fighter, and Sparks joined her, the pair of them turning their backs on the splindlers’ caves. “I feel like such a fool. I was always doing this mission from my perspective. I spent the entire time trying to prevent the crash by doing more rather than trusting you to do your thing. I was too focused on my own actions. I’m sorry.”

“Me too. I’ve been cross with you for not seeing my perspective, but how could you in the middle of that? I’m just glad we’re away from here.” The obsidian plain stretched to the horizon. “But no Fa—”

A ship materialised behind them and pulled up on Sparks’ right. The transparent cockpit revealed his tatty baseball cap. His porcelain skin. The furball on his lap. “Faz? Hat?”

Faz Went saluted at her. “If you’re seeing this, you’ve finally completed this mission. Well done, and I’m glad you’re here, Sparks.”

Tears burned Sparks’ eyes, and a lump swelled in her throat. “Smug git! I’ve missed you, you old bastard.”

But the recording reminded her it was just that. A one-way communication. “You need to go and see Blark Venn-Quarter.”

“What?” They said it in unison.

Again, Faz Went’s recording continued to deliver his message.

“It might be tricky to get face to face with him, but when you do, just say the word dandelion.”

“But—”

“I’ve programmed this message to corrupt the simulation. It sounds like you both need it gone from your life, and I don’t want this recording out there for anyone to find.” Faz Went saluted Sparks again and banked right, his ship growing distant before it vanished.

Their surroundings turned black.

Sparks removed her headset, her brow sweating. “Dandelion?”

“I know, right? And how the hell are we supposed to get access to Blark Venn-Quarter?” Reyes dropped her headset and stamped on it. Crack! It sent hundreds of shards of plastic scattering in every direction.

Her cheeks bulging with her exhale, her stomach tight, Sparks tossed her headset aside and picked up her robe. “This might be a suicide mission, but there’s no time like the present.”

“Now? Really?”

“Why wait?”

“Uh …”

“Will it get any less intimidating?”

Although Reyes opened her mouth, she paused and closed it again. “You’re right. I’m not sure I would have ever chosen to go and seen Blark Venn-Quarter, but we owe it to Faz Went to trust him, eh?”

Sparks half-smiled. “We do.” She grabbed Reyes’ hand. “And together, there’s nothing in the galaxy that can stop us. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 44

Fifteen to twenty ships—all part of the same fleet—flew across the sky over Faz Went’s courtyard. They travelled from right to left, from off-world to coming in to land. Each one jet black, their only identifier the red dots on the undersides of their wings. They came in like an invasion. Sparks smiled at Reyes’ creased brow. “Don’t worry, this happens a lot.”

“That many from the same force? What if they invade?”

“What does Acoolter have that makes it worth the effort?”

Reyes shrugged. “Fair point.”

They headed for the tallest of the seven tower blocks. The cleanest. The grandest. At least one hundred metres wide and two hundred metres tall. About fifty storeys from the ground to Blark Venn-Quarter’s penthouse. Sparks pulled her cloak tight against the late morning chill and squinted, the weak sun reflecting off the hundreds of highly polished windows.

Reyes shielded her eyes. “That’s where he lives?”

“In the penthouse? Yeah. He has the entire floor to himself. Well, he has the entire block to himself.”

“All of it?”

“I’ve heard there’s guard accommodation on the first two floors, but only for those on shift. Somewhere to sleep, not somewhere to stay. They say misery likes company, but extreme violence and gross intolerance apparently crave solitude.”

They passed close to one of the six flaming barrels in the plaza. Four beings watched them while they warmed themselves. Sparks scrunched up her nose, wood smoke and burning plastic thickening the air. She waited until they were out of earshot. “But maybe he’s smart to live like this. He has a lot of power and influence; he’d be a fool to not be a little paranoid.”

“I suppose.”

Leaving behind the final burning barrel and its congregation, they stepped into the block’s shadow. Butterflies danced in Sparks’ stomach. Her time in the Shadow Order had left her cautious. Stepping into potentially hostile situations played an emotional showreel of some of their closest calls. Trapped in flooding tunnels … Infected by strange diseases … Taken down, mid-flight, by explosives … Sweat lifted around her collar, and she wiped her damp palms on her trousers.

Reyes caught her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “The second you stop feeling nervous …”

“Is the second you die.”

“Being alert is a good thing.” She let go.

“Yeah.” Sparks nodded. The tallest of the seven tower blocks, but they all shared a similar design. Two entrances in the bottom left and right of each block. Access to two identical stairwells that climbed from the ground all the way to the top floor. Each floor had an open-fronted walkway, the bottom half made up of a metre-tall wall to prevent any accidental falls. They stretched from one stairwell to the other as horizontal bars. In every other block, you could enter via either side, but Blark Venn-Quarter’s tower had a steel panel across the left entrance, only allowing them one way in. That is, if you could get past the mandulus with plasma rifles.

The pair of mandulus were large, even for mandulus. Close to ten feet tall, they stood with their bulbous chins jutted forward like they wore their weak spots as badges of pride. They sneered at Reyes, disgusted by her presence. Sparks’ butterflies left, driven aside by her skin-prickling adrenaline. “Is it me, or are there mandulus everywhere we go?”

Reyes snorted a humourless laugh. “They remind me of Seb.”

“Ha! Go for the chin!”

“Right.”

With the gap between them and the mandulus down to about ten metres, Sparks threw off her cloak with a flourish and released it to the strong wind. She closed the gap between herself and the guards with a zigzagging run, the mandulus’ blasts chewing into the concrete where she’d been. She reached the guard on the left, jumped, and drove an uppercut into its bulbous chin just like Seb had shown them.

Reyes dropped the other one a second later, the pair now slumped in the stairwell’s doorway.

Sparks stepped over them, leaving them on their backs, their weapons still slung across them.

Many of the concrete stairs were chipped, the air thick with damp. They walked up ten steps, turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and walked up another ten. “One floor down—”

Breathing harder because of their ascent, Reyes rolled her eyes. “Another five thousand to go.”

“Feels like it, doesn’t it?” Sparks’ voice ran ahead of her into the unseen and unknown. How many guards did Blark Venn-Quarter have on duty at any one time? And if they managed to get to him, how would he react to uninvited guests armed with a single word?

CHAPTER 45

At the tenth floor Sparks wiped her sweating brow. Panting from their climb, she stepped out onto the open walkway and rested on the protective wall. About every five metres, a steel bar ran vertically, connecting the top of the protective wall to the bottom of the one above, knobbly with rust. She shook the one closest to her. It held firm. They must have been used as fence posts from a time when they’d had the top half of the walkway enclosed behind chain-link or something similar. They were close to a quarter of the way up the block and about fifty metres from the ground.

Reyes came to her side and leaned on the rough wall. “Where have they all gone?”

Six flaming barrels and not a single being in need of warmth. “Damn.” Sparks held her breath and raised her ear towards the stairwell. “Hear that?”

Her eyes wide, her lips pursed, Reyes nodded.

Slow and cautious steps came to meet them. Only a floor or two above. Sparks tugged on Reyes’ sleeve, and they ran, darting back into the stairwell and heading down.

Out on the lower walkway, Sparks removed her mini computer and hacked the lock on one of the apartment’s doors. They entered and closed themselves in. The small apartment was immaculate and unoccupied. An example to tempt potential buyers into this exciting new development. Except, Blark Venn-Quarter didn’t want anyone here. They stood in the living room, the furniture all beige or chocolate brown, the walls plain white. “Could this place be any more neutral?”

A stampede passed the window, six or seven mandulus crossing from one stairwell to the other.

A minute or two later, Sparks opened the door, the hinges creaking as she pulled it wide and peered out. “Looks clear.” She led the way, back to the same stairwell and towards the penthouse.

About five floors up, the scuff of steps hit Sparks like her digital intuition. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she pointed for Reyes to follow her, leaving the stairs at the next floor.

Another digital lock, Sparks used her mini computer and got them into the next apartment. The same layout as the one they’d been in a few floors down, but this one had bolder colours and more expensive furnishing. The cost of living rose with the metres above sea level.

Again, mandulus ran past like comedy stooges. A train of ten to twelve of them.

When they were gone, Sparks led them out again and back into the stairwell.

They climbed another fifteen floors, halting at the hiss of radio static from below. Panicked mandulus shouted to one another. They needed to find the intruders or face Blark Venn-Quarter’s wrath. Sparks set off again, Reyes behind her.

Only a few floors away from the penthouse, Reyes halted this time and pointed up. Footsteps scuffed the concrete.

The next apartment they hid in had leather sofas, a massive screen, and a built-in coffee maker in the kitchen. The usual disturbance from appliances twinged through her, but a slight tinnitus whine also cut into Sparks like a mosquito in her ear. She caught the flying creature. When she opened her hand, the broken pieces of the squashed mechanical bug-tracker lay on her palm. She showed it to Reyes.

“Fuck!”

Sparks kicked the door wide and burst out onto the walkway. Steps echoed in the closest stairwell. They came from above and below. They ran to the other side, but Sparks slowed. More guards descended on their position.

Reyes drew her blaster, but Sparks showed her a halting hand. “We’ve not come here to kill, remember? Blark Venn-Quarter won’t be happy to see us as it is.”

Her lips tight, Reyes reholstered her weapon and turned her palms to the sky. “Then what?”

Sparks turned one way and then the other, waiting for the first guard to appear.

Leaning out of the walkway, Reyes looked up the side of the tower block. Sparks copied her. They were only five floors from the top.

Reyes gripped one of the vertical steel bars. So thick, she could just about wrap her hand around it. She tugged it, testing its strength.

Sparks shook her head and mouthed no way.

The steps drew closer. Reyes shrugged again. “Then what?”

The hiss of radio static joined the charge. Both sides were communicating with one another.

Reyes hopped on top of the protective wall and shimmied up the pole, reaching up and dragging herself over. She leaned back out and beckoned for Sparks to follow.

“Shit!” Sparks jumped up, both feet on top of the narrow wall. She nearly lost her stomach when she looked down. Over one hundred and fifty metres to the ground. The wind ten times stronger for their elevated position. The guards closed in, all alerted by the mechanical mosquito.

The pole rough with rust, Sparks scurried up it like Reyes had before her. She reached the top, and Reyes leaned over, gripped the back of her shirt, and pulled her the rest of the way.

They repeated the process up the next four floors, neither speaking, their surroundings alive with the cries of confused guards.

One floor to go, Sparks gestured towards the closest stairwell. “They’re all below us. Come on.”

An electric gate blocked their path on the top floor. It possessed Sparks with an annoying buzz. Locked, but no nefarious programming. “They’re clearly confident no one will get this far.” She removed her mini computer and, after several taps, freed the lock. Clunk! A gentle push, and the gate swung open with a cackle of its thick hinges.

Sparks locked the gate behind them, tapped a command into her computer, and ran across to the other side of the walkway. She input the same command. “Their key cards won’t work now.” She led Reyes to the single door in the centre of the walkway, all the other entrances bricked up. Only one way in and out of the penthouse suite.

A thick black steel door. Sparks’ right eye twitched from the fierce electrical charge. She caught Reyes’ wrist before she touched it.

“Hey!” A mandulu reached the locked gate on their right, gripped the bars, and shook it. Several more appeared on their left, rattling the gate before raising their blasters.

“You need to get us in, Sparks.”

“I know.” She nodded. “I know.”

With her mini computer in her hand, Sparks searched the door’s programming. All the while, the hum swelled through her skull. She lost control of her spasming right eye. Reyes shoved her down. Several shots flew over their heads, running from one set of guards to the other.

“Watch what you’re doing!” The guards on the receiving end shot back, aiming at their colleagues on the other side.

“We really need to get in there, Sparks.”

“I need more time.”

The first set of guards returned fire at the second set.

“Time’s the last thing we have.”

Click!

The door popped open.

“Well done.”

“I’m not sure I did anything.” Sparks blinked at her bright backlit screen. “I—”

Reyes grabbed the back of her shirt, shoulder-barged the door wide, and dragged her in, away from the crossfire of blue and yellow lasers.

Still holding her computer, Sparks got to her feet. Another thick steel door blocked their way. They stood in what looked like a small holding cell, the tiny room lit from the warring mandulus’ blasts.

The door through which they’d entered slammed shut on its own, throwing Sparks and Reyes into total darkness.

Reyes’ voice echoed off the hard walls. “Oh, fuck.”

CHAPTER 46

The darkness so complete, it seemed to leech the light from Sparks’ eyeballs. “I thought that door opened too easily.”

Clunk!

Reyes gasped. “What the …?”

A tingling rush ran from the base of Sparks’ spine to the top of her neck. She removed her mini computer, her hands shaking with her haste. The backlit screen punched through the darkness. She turned on the torch, its shine rippling on the brushed steel walls. The second door leading to the penthouse remained locked. She swept the torch to the right wall and froze.

Reyes gasped. “Oh, fuck!”

Sparks spun her torch to the left wall. The same as the right. At least ten black spikes on each side slid towards them like curious snakes with sharp, pointed heads. They hissed as they invaded their space.

“Sparks …” Reyes spun one way and then the other. “You need to do something.”

“Anything more specific than that?”

“Your computer shit!” The small room amplified her panic. The incessant steel against steel hiss of spiky death closed in on them. “Do some of your computer shit.”

Sparks’ right eye twitched. Once. Twice. It quickened to a rapid spasm, clamped shut, and burned like she had an infection. Her left eye stung, and her throat tightened. The words left her lungs, and she clamped a hand to her neck. “Tear gas.”

Reyes’ face turned puce. Damp tracks streaked her cheeks. Her eyes bulged.

Clamping her lips tight against her desire to breathe, Sparks’ entire body twisted, battling her will to hold on. The gas reduced her computer’s screen to a blurred glow. She removed her glasses and rubbed the itching burn. It went from sore to hellfire. Both eyes swelled shut.

Reyes pawed at Sparks with searching hands, slapping her forearm before she found her elbow and then torso. She shifted closer, both of them blind. The spikes closed in. The gas hissed its deadly soliloquy.

Locking into her intuition, Sparks buzzed as if every hair follicle searched for a way out. A weakness in the trap. It found the warmth of her computer screen. Something beyond the generated heat from the battery. A connection.

She dropped, sat cross-legged on the floor, and used her lap as a surface on which to rest her computer. She squinted against the blinding sting, pursed her lips tighter against her need to breathe, and rolled her eyes back in her head. Her mini computer’s screen appeared in her mind’s eye. Part memory, part intuition. She hit her keyboard with clumsy taps. They didn’t stand a chance. The room grew smaller. The spikes closed in.

Pushing rote behaviour aside, Sparks gave herself over to the guiding force of her intuition. She let the throbbing energy take control.

Thunk!

The spikes halted. A suction of air dragged Sparks’ hair across her face. The gas being drawn from the room.

Thunk!

A door opened. Light flooded in.

Sparks crawled out, breathing in thin gasps. “Reyes.” Snot ran from her nose, and thick saliva clung to her lips. She coughed, spraying the ground in front of her. “Reyes.” She gasped again and opened her mouth wide like a fish on land. “You okay?”

Reyes panted and wheezed. “Yeah. You?”

Falling limp against the hard floor, Sparks spat and heaved. She rested her hot face against the cold tiles, nodded, raised her thumb in Reyes’ direction, and fell limp.

CHAPTER 47

Her eyes on fire, her surroundings a blur. The light came from their right side, and Sparks gauged the size of the space from the acoustics of her and Reyes’ recovery. Hardly accurate, her method told her the room was fucking huge.

“Well, well …”

Sparks snapped taut. The deep voice came from the far end.

“That’s the first time someone’s got through there alive. To be honest, that’s the first time someone’s reached the front door alive.”

No amount of blinking would hasten the return of Sparks’ sight, but it helped relieve the itch. Her tight throat throttled her words. “It helps”—she dragged in more air—“when your guards are more interested”—breathe—“in fighting one another.”

He spoke with a playful edge. “You know, I kind of wish you’d killed a few of them. Would have done me a favour. It’s much easier than having to release them from my employ.”

“Dealing with unions and employment law, you mean?”

He snorted a humourless laugh. “I was thinking more about the grieving families.”

A shimmering ripple danced across the back of Sparks’ neck. “Fucking hell, not again.”

“What?” Reyes said.

Sparks got to her feet, her world still a blurred mess. She drew her blaster. “Drones.”

“What shall I do?”

“Come to me.” Sparks caught Reyes and pulled her close. “Keep a hand on my waist so I know where you are. I don’t want to catch you in the crossfire.”

The deep voice whined. “What about hitting me?”

“I don’t give a fuck about you, pal.” Sparks fired to her right. A fizz of electrics followed by the clang of a falling drone. One shot, one kill.

Amusement tinged his words. “Oh my, you are good.”

The next drone came from their left, two from her right, and five from behind. She dropped them one after the other.

Fizz!

Clang!

Sparks spun about-face, the drones now hovering black blobs from where her sight returned. She shot again and again and again.

Fizz!

Clang!

Back again, toward the deep voice. Six more.

Fizz!

Clang!

“That was close.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Sparks shot two more, one after the other. They both clattered against the hard tiles.

Dizzy from spinning so many times, Reyes keeping her hand on her waist, Sparks dropped drone after drone after drone. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. The deep voice giggled, delighted by her industry.

Sparks’ eyes watered, but her vision cleared. The drones went from hovering black blobs to something more defined. Gatling guns hung from their base. Each one had antenna ears.

Her sight almost fully returned. Sparks shot another drone. The second it hit the ground, a loud duck-quack buzzer shook the room.

Sixty to seventy defunct machines littered the floor. Sweat streaked Sparks’ face, and her throat had loosened. Reyes stood at her side. The creature with the deep voice sat on a black throne. About three feet tall and covered in brown fur, Blark Venn-Quarter had sharp little teeth, and he fixed on her, his gold eyes possessed with a laser-like focus. The shrewd little fucker looked like a homicidal koala. He steepled his stubby little fingers, grinned wider, and leaned back in his seat. “Impressive!”

The room stretched at least one hundred metres long and about ten metres wide. They’d tiled the entire floor in black marble. The suspended ceiling hid white bulbs that probably did a grand job of lighting the room when it got dark. For now, the sun’s weak glare flooded in through the glass wall on their right. Overlooking the spaceport, they had a clear line of sight to the jet-black fleet with the red dots on their wings. Taking off her glasses, Sparks cleaned them on her shirt.

“Why do you still wear glasses in this day and age?”

The floor littered with drones, Sparks shrugged. “I hate lasers.”

Reyes snorted a laugh, and Blark Venn-Quarter’s already maniacal smile stretched all the way to certifiable insanity. Drool trickled from the left side of his small mouth, dampening his fur.

Footsteps behind. Sparks spun and drew her blaster.

Six mandulus ran in, one after the other. They all carried plasma rifles.

Blark Venn-Quarter shooed them away. “Fuck off. You’re a fucking joke, the lot of you.”

The mandulus’ natural pride deflated from their swollen frames. They left in single file with their heads bowed.

Sparks waited until the one at the back closed the door. “Don’t be too hard on them. They didn’t stand a chance.”

Pointing at her with his right finger, Blark Venn-Quarter winked. “I like you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Sparks, the best droneball player in the galaxy. Fez Went’s friend, right? The one who pays a fortune to clean already clean credits so you can maintain a lie.”

The right side of Sparks’ face warmed from Reyes’ attention. Her shoulders slumped.

“If I’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead. I chose tear gas in the chamber. It could have been much worse. And remember, you’re yet to walk away from this encounter, so choose your words carefully.”

Reyes stepped forwards. “Dandelion.”

Blark Venn-Quarter straightened on his throne. “You couldn’t have just asked to see me instead of the dramatic entrance?”

Reyes cocked her head to one side. “That would have worked?”

After a slight pause, Blark Venn-Quarter shook his head. “No. I don’t suppose it would.” His throne too high for him, he jumped and landed flat-footed on the marble tiles. He crossed to a safe in the wall. The wheel lock ticked until he locked it in place with a thunk! He crossed the room to Reyes and handed her a small tracker, much like the ones they’d used on their missions. “I made a promise to Faz Went to give this to whomever came here and said that word. I hope he’s okay.”

Reyes slid the tracker into her back pocket. “As do we.” She pressed her hands together and bowed. “Thank you.”

Blark Venn-Quarter grinned. “No, thank you. I’ve not been that entertained in a long time.” He pointed at Sparks. “You should show the galaxy what you can do in a droneball arena.”

“Maybe.” Sparks followed Reyes back out the way they’d entered.

CHAPTER 48

Their ascent up the steep hill made Sparks’ legs ache. She’d left the Arrowhead on flatter ground, and now she and Reyes were following the tracker’s route on foot. Blark Venn-Quarter had arranged for them to leave Acoolter on a freighter at no cost to them and with no questions asked. When they were close enough to Glootah, they’d left the ship like dumped waste. Silent, and never to be seen again.

They were on one of Glootah’s many hills. The long grass swayed in the gentle wind and stretched away from them in every direction. Close to their destination, Sparks grabbed Reyes’ hand as they reached the plateau by the cave’s entrance.

Their only welcome, the echo of their scuffing feet over the loose stoney ground. The small space amplified Sparks’ voice. “He’s not here.”

“Then wh—”

Something moved to their right. Sparks and Reyes drew their blasters. The silhouette let out a quiet whine.

“Hat?”

He burst from the shadows, tongue lolling, and jumped, slamming into Sparks’ chest and knocking her back a step. While he licked her face, she held him tight and inhaled his musky funk. Freshly damp rather than the pond-water stink that clung to some creatures’ fur.

A rattlesnake hiss shimmered through the cave, and Reyes lifted her blaster again. But Sparks pushed it down, the shadows shifting, revealing the tall and slim silhouette of her friend. “Reyes, meet Faz Went.”

Faz Went stepped into the light. He gripped his cap’s peak in a pinch and nodded. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Likewise.”

He dashed a marble-sized orb against a pile of wood, and flames crawled over the small stack. Shadows danced across the rough walls as he pulled three logs from the darkness, dragging the smallest to Sparks.

Hat on her lap, Sparks sat hypnotised by the fire and reached her hands out to its warmth.

“First …” Faz rattled with his inhale, and Sparks caught Reyes flinching from the corner of her eye. “Congratulations on finally beating that simulation.”

“You knew we would.”

Faz smiled. “I did. And I think you needed to see how much better you are together.”

“Thanks for the lesson, teach.”

Faz Went’s crooked grin faltered. “There’s a lot I wish I could have told you sooner, but by the time I’d found out, they were on to me. I had to get off Stargart before they killed me.”

Reyes leaned closer to Faz Went, and closer to the fire’s glow. “They?”

Rattling with another deep sigh, Faz Went shook his head. His green eyes glazed, and he stared into the middle distance. “I only wish I could have done more for Greeta.”

The fire smoke caught in Sparks’ throat. She coughed to clear it. “You heard, then?”

“I assumed. She didn’t turn up when she was supposed to. Ever since I’ve known her, she’s always been on time.”

“I’m sorry, Faz.”

“Thank you.”

The fire popped and hissed. Sparks shifted her log to one side, out of the smoke’s path. “I knew something was up with that goodbye.”

“Goodbye?”

“When I came back to our shitty room on Stargart, there was a note saying you had to go. It was an emergency, and you were sorry. That was odd, but the bed had also been made.”

“What’s strange about that?”

Sparks made a point of taking in the animal bones, old fires, and multiple logs used as stools in the small and chaotic cave. To save tidying, he’d moved from one spot to the next. Before long he would have been sitting in front of fires halfway down the hill just so he could avoid his own mess. “You’re a slob.”

“Thanks!” Faz gently traced his jawline with his thumb and index finger. “But you’re right, I didn’t write the letter. The only message I sent you was through the simulation. I was hoping I’d see you sooner. I’m guessing you’ve already done their missions?”

“How do you know I didn’t win the droneball tournament?”

“You won the tournament?”

“Well, no, but you don’t know that.”

“The tournament was a ruse, Sparks. It was all staged as part of their elaborate plan to get you and Reyes working for them.”

Reyes leaned forward again. “What?”

“They had three jobs that needed doing, and you two were the perfect candidates.”

Still close to the fire, Reyes shook her head. “That’s a lot of effort to go to. They couldn’t have found someone else?”

“You did the jobs. You tell me.”

Twirling Hat’s fur through her fingers, Sparks reached across to Reyes and laid her hand against the base of her back. She took over. “Faz, you’re not making much sense.”

“Sorry.” The cave’s acoustics caught his respiratory rattle. “Let me rewind a little. First, I had my suspicions when we met Juan Ortega.”

“That early? And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Well, I didn’t know if my distrust came simply from him being human.” He raised an apologetic hand at Reyes.

She flashed a facetious smile. “None taken.”

“And you were smitten with him. By design.”

“By design?”

Reyes snapped her head to one side. “Smitten?”

“And then we nearly got killed in the Grandest by assassin droids. How did that happen? We were supposed to be in the care of those running the games. Surely they had the security to prevent them getting through?”

“Marlon was a different level of useless, though. He almost made it an art form.”

“True. Maybe they put him on guard for that reason. That was the first time they tried to kill us.”

“They?”

“The Ringdell Group.”

“The what now?”

“The organisation behind everything. The second assassination attempt—”

“They were all linked to the same group? They set up the arson attack? But I saw that mandulu fuck there.” Sparks’ gaze fell on the popping and flickering fire.

“That mandulu—”

“Mandulu fuck.”

“The one at the bar. They were blind in the wrong eye.”

“What?”

“The one in the registration hall was blind in the other eye.”

“What does that mean?”

Reyes reached back and grabbed Sparks’ hand. “Shapeshifters mirror their targets.”

“Damn. So everything’s …”

“On the wrong side.” Another rattling inhale, Faz Went wriggled on his log to get comfortable. “While you were competing in the tournament, I called in Greeta. She can hack most systems in the galaxy. She reads complex networks like she’s built them, no matter who created the tech.” He paused, rattled again, and lost focus, the fire reflecting in his green stare. “She could hack most systems in the galaxy.”

Reyes’ lips tightened, and her brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, Faz.”

“Yeah, me too. While she was with me on Stargart, she helped me find out the truth of what was happening. But we also blew our cover. They found out what we were doing, and we had to vanish.”

“What did she find out?”

“After the first assassination attempt, I took one of the defunct droids away with me. Greeta got it working again. We found out where they made them on Stargart. And because of their programming, the droids needed to be kept in massive crates and only released when they were close to their target. Let them out too soon and they become unfocused chaos.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Sparks said.

“We hacked into the surveillance drones—”

“Is that how you blew your cover?”

“Maybe. We were hasty because Greeta was anxious to get away from Stargart as soon as possible. Maybe that made us careless.”

“I’d say it almost certainly di—”

Reyes touched Sparks’ forearm. Little point in focusing on what they could have done better. “What did the footage show you?”

“The crates filled with assassin droids had to be transported. They were easy enough to follow. We tracked them leaving the warehouse. Followed them to the beings who came to collect them. One being got our attention when we kept losing sight of them. It took a minute to work out what was happening.”

“The shapeshifter?” Reyes said.

“Right. The same being, but it looked different every time it passed through cover. When we had their trail, we followed them back to what turned out to be one of the Ringdell Group’s bases. We broke in—”

“You broke in?! Just to be certain you’d blown your cover?”

Reyes tutted. “Sparks, let him talk.”

“Sorry.”

Faz Went rattled. “Like I said, Greeta wanted to be gone as soon as possible. In her mind, the risk was worth it.” He sighed. “It obviously wasn’t … Anyway, we broke in, and she went to work, accessing their systems. They had files on you two. They knew everything about you. From before the Shadow Order, to all the missions you did for them. They even knew for how long you’d been living in Acoolter. They had records of every droneball game Sparks had played, including how much you won each time.”

“More like how little I won.”

“The whole droneball tournament and all three assassination attempts were merely a test to see if you could do the jobs that needed to be done.”

“But what if the assassination attempts had been successful?”

Faz Went’s reply turned Sparks’ blood cold. “Then you weren’t right for the job.”

“So they rigged the tournament?”

“Juan Ortega, as well as many other aliases—”

“He was the shapeshifter?”

“Yep. They always meant for him to win. And when they nearly put you together and then separated you—”

“That was all to make it look more authentic?”

“Uh-huh. The mandulu was there to help you bond with him over a shared enemy, and even when they disqualified her for cheating, they did it because they wanted you to believe they operated with zero tolerance, which made you less likely to question Juan Ortega’s win. And they made him look like a male Reyes to help you trust him.”

“To be smitten with him.” Reyes folded her arms.

Tutting, Sparks shook her head and rapped her knuckles against her right temple. “How could I be so stupid?”

“It was a clever plan that meant you trusted him much sooner because of how he looked. And because he was male, they assumed there would be no sexual connection to get in the way.”

“See.” Sparks raised her eyebrows. “Not so smitten.” And then to Faz Went, “But how did he beat me?”

“They rigged his blaster to seek the drones.”

“Motherfucker.”

“So they took you on the mission straight away?”

“Yeah. They didn’t let us leave Stargart.”

“And the third assassination attempt …” Faz Went winced.

“Yeah, it was grim.”

“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but they caught us on our way out of their base. We barely got away from Stargart with our lives. After that, I did what I could. I got Reyes to you, but I didn’t want to tell her too much. I hoped you’d get back to Acoolter and get my message before you did their missions. I had to set it all up and come here. The longer I spent on Acoolter …” He dropped his attention the dirty ground. “I just wish Greeta came with me when I left. She said she had more loose ends to tie up.” His entire frame rose and fell with a hissing rattle.

“So …” The flickering light danced on Reyes’ features, animating her stoicism. “All of this was to get Sparks and myself out of retirement? Why didn’t they just ask?”

“Would you have said yes? Also, the missions weren’t what you thought they were. I’m sure you would have realised that if you’d had more time to scrutinise them. And, while on Stargart, they wanted to put Sparks through her paces to be sure they’d picked the right being. They needed someone with something extra for the final mission. Someone who could get into the Flanterian royal palace. It’s never been done before, you know?”

“How did they put me through my paces?”

“The assassination attempts. Didn’t you notice how they became less digital? They wanted to see how you reacted to each one. How you woke up before the assassin droids attacked, how you anticipated the blinding flash before the arson attack … And if you got taken by surprise on the last attempt when no machines were involved, how you dealt with that.”

The crunch of biting into a live stall rat snapped through Sparks, and she wiped her mouth like she still wore a mask of their hand-soap blood. She screwed up her face. “The third attempt was the one that nearly done me.”

“They thought you had a gift. Some kind of digital—”

“Intuition?”

“Yeah.”

Sparks cocked an eyebrow at Reyes. “So, those missions … If they weren’t what we thought they were …?”

“Cornelius Capernicus is a war criminal. A military mastermind being held in a high-security prison because of his countless atrocities. The droids guarding the place are some of the best in the galaxy. It took something exceptional to get past them. Something like digital intuition. Someone who could read their weak spots and exploit them. Add him to the missile you helped steal from the Platinum Streak, and then disable the shield over the Flanterian Royal palace so they fire it upon them, and they now have control of one of the most precious resources in the galaxy. Starinium’s worth a fortune.”

“This was all about wealth?”

“Wealth … power.” Faz Went shrugged and rattled. “That’s the Ringdell Group’s MO. They make profit however they can. War. Slavery. Gambling. Look at the droneball tournament … Its primary function might have been to get you and Reyes working for them, but they also ran bets on it, knowing full well who would win at the end. If they can turn a profit, they’ll do it. Nothing’s off-limits.”

“But what about the state of Flanterian?” Reyes shook when she spoke, her cheeks flushed. “What they did to all those gloyners? The children? The place was a mess. The royal family had to be punished for that.”

“Flanterian was a thriving society where everyone benefited from the wealth generated by starinium. Then the Ringdell Group attacked. They came up against the force field and couldn’t get through. They did all those things to get those in the palace to drop the shield. Instead, the Flanterian royal family offered shelter to the survivors and doubled down against the attack. They thought their force field was impenetrable. Which is why the Ringdell Group needed you, Sparks.”

Icy dread plummeted through her. “But we saw no beings in the palace.”

“They were hiding in a bunker.”

“And we wiped them out?”

“You didn’t. But you gave Cornelius Capernicus the missile to do it.”

“Fuck.” Reyes slumped where she sat. “So what now?”

Her eyes itching with unspent grief, Sparks stamped her foot. “We have to go back to Flanterian. To see if we can undo some of the damage.” She reached across to Reyes and held her hand. “Are you up for it?” A momentary pause that lasted a lifetime. Would Sparks have to do this on her own?

Reyes shrugged. “Yeah. I was getting bored with retirement, anyway. And what better reason to go back to work than to go head-to-head with those responsible for galactic terror?”

End of book one.

GALACTIC RETRIBUTION - BOOK TWO OF GALACTIC TERROR

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.

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 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 a 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 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.

GALACTIC FORCE - BOOK THREE OF GALACTIC TERROR

CHAPTER 1

Sweat drops fell from her face, and she lost track of them in the shadowy room before they broke against the tiled floor. She tugged on her collar like it might thin the humidity, or at least open her airwaves to help her breathe better. The tip of her swollen tongue poked through her lips as if it no longer belonged in her mouth. It hung too heavy for her to contain. She swallowed repeatedly, the saliva lining her throat as thick as overcooked porridge.

The floor tiles’ heat spread through her sweat-damp palms. Her fur soaked, her head spinning, she leaned over the bowl, and her weak arms shook under the strain of her body weight. She touched her tongue to the warm water. She lapped at it like a stray animal.

She hadn’t bathed in days. Every crevice itched, and her eyes burned. Perspiration and fatigue combined, turning the room’s single weak light glaringly bright. The illuminated panel was just two metres away.

Her throat ached, her fat, unresponsive tongue unable to perform well enough to quench her thirst. Her fingers twitched. But she’d learned that lesson. Only a fool would try to pick up the bowl again.

Days passed like months in this place. What little moisture she drew into her body, she sweated out again almost instantly.

The lit tile had the same dimensions as every other. Roughly thirty centimetres square and one in a line of ten running across the room from wall to wall in either direction. The room was three metres long and three metres wide. An industrial fucking oven. The ceiling mirrored the floor, but the walls were shorter. Only five tiles tall. Whenever she found the energy to stand, she had to do so with a stoop.

A bench-cum-bed in one corner. A bucket beside it. The only features in the otherwise empty space. They’d covered it with the same tiles as every other surface, making it as hard as the floor. Hardly inviting. She’d urinated in the bucket once. When they’d first locked her in. She’d not been able to go since. And maybe that was for the best. It had stirred up the already heady stench that hung so thick it clung to her sticky skin. It snaked up her nostrils and cauterised at the top of her nose. The previous prisoners’ legacy. She’d also voided her bowels once. No one had cleared away the mess. What had happened to the previous prisoners? Had they cooked them to death? Died of thirst? Starvation?

Despite the funk and heat knotting her stomach, and despite her tongue being as thick as a fist, she rested on the warm tiles, pressed her sweaty palms against the floor, leaned over the second dish, and ate.

The salty meat disintegrated and fused to her tongue like morning breath. It had the consistency of wet tissue. She sucked another meaty chunk from the snotty jelly used to bind it together. Like fishing for nutrition in a blood clot.

Two more gulps, but her throat fought her desire to swallow with both a heave and an inability to perform. She returned to the water bowl and laid her tongue in the warm liquid. She licked the bowl dry, her mouth still burning from the salt. For what good it did, she might as well have drunk her own sweat. Falling flat, she rested her cheek against a hot tile, the light a blur through her weary gaze.

Until now, something had kept her going. A survival instinct? Foolish hope? A romanticised dream she had agency over her pitiful existence? And maybe she did. They were playing a game with her, but games could be beaten. A duel between the creator and the player. A head-to-head. Wit and outwit. Because, surely, if she had no way out, they would have already killed her.

Standing on wobbly legs, she hunched to avoid the ceiling and rested against the wall as she worked her way around the room. Rough grout ran between the tiles. There had to be something she’d missed. A hairline crack buried in the shadows. Something she could search out with a fingernail.

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.”

She jumped, whacked her head on the ceiling, and clapped a hand over her crown. Her ears rang with the echo of the same hissing male voice. A similar phrase he’d uttered over and over. The same advice. The creator offering hope. A way out. Just touch the lit square. Simple.

She scratched the grout with her fingernail. Sandpaper rough, she traced every lump and bump.

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.” The hissing tone lifted with the next line. “This is a place where we send beings to be forgotten. You’re the only one who can get you out. Touch the square.”

The white light tormented her. Just three steps away in the room’s centre. Within reaching distance.

Just two steps away.

But she pushed on past it. She must have missed something on her other searches. A fault in the tiles. A hidden exit. She scraped her nail against the grout. Sweat burned her eyes.

She reached the tile beside the lit square. Just one step to the right and she’d be out of there. But she moved on, tracing the grout.

* * *

Halfway around the room, she fell against the wall and slid to her bench. The stinking bucket of excrement and frothy piss nearby. She gulped, her dry throat thorny. During her time here, she’d searched every centimetre of the wall, floor, and ceiling. Tracked every line of grout, desperate to slot a fingernail into an invisible crack.

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.”

“I know!” Her arid throat stole her voice’s power. She dropped her head, her sweat falling like tears. “I know.”

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.”

“I fucking know!”

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.”

The steel water bowl, now several tiles away, hissed, burning off what little moisture remained. The room grew hotter. Her fur hung heavy with sweat. Added grams to her burdened frame.

“The only way out of here is to touch that square.” The water bowl glowed red with the tile’s heat. “Fail to act, and we’ll cook you to a crisp.”

Her body heaved with empty sobs, her sweat having stolen her tears. She was either losing her vision, or a heat haze rose from the baked tiles. Pushing off against the bench, she stood on trembling legs.

She crossed the room with heavy steps. Breathing through her open mouth, she huffed in the hot air and stumbled towards the lit panel.

Four tiles from the light.

Three.

Slow and steady, like she could catch it by surprise.

One foot in front of the other. Step after step.

Two tiles.

She jumped at the light and landed on the dull tile with the slap of both feet touching down. A millimetre before she’d made contact, the light shifted to a wall panel on the other side of the room.

Her shoulders shook with her dry tears. Her head spun. Her legs failed her, and she crashed down to her knees against the hot floor before falling on her side, her vision slipping out of focus.

The hissing, rasping, monotonous tormentor repeated the phrase she’d heard more times than she could count. The last phrase she’d probably ever hear. “The only way out of here is to touch that square.”

CHAPTER 2

“You’re not getting out of here, you know?”

Sparks tutted and shoved the bound pilot with her foot so he rolled over onto his back. “Not exactly in a position to be telling me what I am and aren’t doing, are you?”

“You need my permission, you little snot troll.”

“Snot troll? Permission?”

Shalk spat in her direction, the small globule landing between them. “Compliance. You need my compliance at the very least. Without it, you’re going nowhere.”

“Neither are you.”

“I’m okay with that.”

They might have reached Stargart, but they were yet to exit his ship. Her ship now. Sparks wound her leg back. Could she kick him compliant? She pointed at the ship’s door. “You know what happens when I open that?”

“It gets warm.”

“More than warm. We’re in Stargart’s death zone. It’s like a fucking furnace. Almost unbearable heat and low oxygen. I give you a few minutes at best.”

“So you’ll leave me to die?”

“If I have to.” A ceiling spotlight reflected off Sparks’ mini computer screen. She tilted it to get a better read of the countdown. “We’ve made good time in getting here. We have thirty-one minutes before they hang Greeta. I won’t waste that arguing with you.” And she needed to get back to Reyes and Faz Went. Who knew what trouble they were in on Flanterian.

“Don’t, then.”

“You’re happy to die?”

“Who’s happy to die? Apart from you.”

“I’m not happy to die.”

“Have you looked in the mirror lately? You should be. You’ve got a face that’d curdle chudder milk.”

“Oh, shut up. My point is, I won’t let you delay me. Whether you come or not is your choice. But staying means death. You accept that?”

“I’ve endured worse.”

“You really are an obstinate prick, aren’t you?” But could she blame him? the Ringdell Group’s occupation had traumatised every being on his planet. Displaced his people. And she’d helped them get exactly what they wanted. She’d hate her too.

Hat licked the pilot’s face.

Shalk wound back his leg.

Over him in a flash, Sparks pressed her blaster’s barrel into his cheek, forcing an eye closed. “Don’t you fucking dare! I don’t care what you say and try to do to me, but he’s done nothing.”

“Keep the mutt away from me, then.”

“He’s not a dog.”

“I don’t care, you stupid testicle goblin.”

“Testicle goblin?”

“Just keep it away.” He kicked out at Sparks, and she jumped back.

She kept her gun trained on him. “I’ll let that slide once. But you do—”

He kicked out at her again. Were he not bound and lying on his side, she might have found the eight-foot-tall gloyner imposing. Were he able to physically manifest his intentions, she’d already be dead.

Sparks hunched close, but out of reach. She slid her glasses back up her nose and gesticulated with her blaster. “How about we start again?”

“I tie you up and fly back to Flanterian? Take you to receive the punishment you deserve for siding with the Ringdell Group? Or how about we go back even farther than that? To a time when I don’t even know who you are? When the royal palace belonged to its rightful owners and I was only a citizen of a prosperous and compassionate nation? You know what that is, do you? Compassion?”

The retort died on her tongue, and she dropped her head. “I honestly didn’t know what we were doing.”

“Storming a palace and lowering its defences? Seems pretty fucking clear to me.”

“We thought the palace had already fallen into the wrong hands. We saw the devastation—”

“Created by your owners?”

“The Ringdell Group don’t own us.”

“No?”

Sparks swelled with her inhale. “We thought we were doing the right thing.”

“Like now? Stealing my ship … Tying me up …”

“And what were you going to do to me and Hat?”

“Hat?”

She pointed her gun across the ship. “Him!”

“Only what you deserve.”

“Fucking hell.” Sparks stood up and paced around in the small fighter again. “We’re getting nowhere.”

“And you won’t. Not without my compliance.”

Sparks’ gun shook as an extension of her pointing arm. “I don’t need you for what I’ve come here to achieve. But I don’t want you to die.”

“I wish I could say the feeling’s mutual.”

“So you’d rather die here?”

“There’s an alternative?”

“Why aren’t you listening to me?”

Shalk’s marine blue eyes turned even more watery. “Because you don’t deserve to be heard. Not with what you’ve done to my people and my planet. Their blood is on your hands. You might have only turned up to lower the shield for the Ringdell Group, but as far as I’m concerned, you murdered all those gloyners and hadounds.”

Imagine if he found out she’d played a part in giving the Ringdell Group the missile that had obliterated everything. “I’m sorry.”

He snorted and spat in her direction again. “Like that makes a fucking difference. Like that brings back …” His words died in his throat.

Brings back what? What had he lost? What had so many like him lost? What would she lose if she didn’t get back to Reyes? “We’re wasting time here.”

“You’re wasting time by trying to change my mind.”

“I don’t care if you hate me.”

“Oh, it’s more than hate. I want to latch a tow cable around your ankle, throw you from the back of this ship, and break the speed of light while dragging you along the ground. I want to remove every digit, tak—”

“All right, I get it. Still, I don’t want to kill you. I’m here to help Greeta.” As quickly as possible so she could get back to Reyes. She tilted her mini computer. “I have twenty-nine minutes to make that happen. I want to take you with me. I want to get you back to Flanterian alive.”

“Oh, aren’t I one of the lucky few? I feel so privileged you’ve taken a shine to me. Fucking hell, love, god complex much?”

“I’ve not got time for this bullshit.”

“At least you’ve got time. There are too many gloyners and hadounds who don’t.”

“Let me spell it out for you.”

“You don’t need to. I get it.”

“I’m not sure you do.” Sparks rolled her eyes. “First, I need to get to Greeta before they hang her. Then we’ll get back to this ship—”

“We?”

“And I’ll get you back to Flanterian. I’ll leave you with your ship—”

“How fucking gracious of you!”

“And then I’ll go with the others and help get the Ringdell Group out of the palace so you can have it back.”

“Quite the philanthropist, eh? Get into a position of power at our expense, and then throw down crumbs from your mountain of influence and expect us to thank you. While you’re at it, will you reincarnate all those who have died?”

“You think it didn’t upset me seeing what they’ve done to your planet?”

“I’m sorry, are you asking for sympathy now?”

“Oh, fuck off. We’re getting nowhere.”

“Fast.”

Sparks whacked the button beside the ship’s door. It slid aside with a whoosh. Stargart’s fierce heat flooded in like she’d just opened an oven. She’d hooked up the lock on the guards’ bonds to her computer. She pressed the button to free them and jumped out into the baked desert. Stargart’s protective mirrored force-field dome was just ten metres away. Families of stall rats reflected on its surface. A hand-soap taste flooded her mouth, but no amount of swallowing could banish the memory.

A loud crunch in the sky above. The splash of a high-speed collision. The groan of twisting steel. An explosion of sparks from where two ships brushed past one another. The one leaving wobbled, and a large steel panel flew away from its body like a playing card in the wind. But it stayed in the air, turned around, and flew back in. Either seeking retribution or repair.

Hotter than hell in the death zone, especially wrapped in a hessian robe, Sparks closed in on her reflection and pulled up her hood. Too fucking hot for this place, but with the price Blark Venn-Quarter had put on her head, she had to keep her identity hidden.

She pressed her lips tight, and sweat stood out on her brow. She raised the ship’s starter button aloft, waving it at Shalk. He had a choice; he either remained in the ship and suffocated, or he followed her into Stargart. And then who knew what? She’d have to have eyes in the back of her head, but as much as it would be easier to end him now, he didn’t deserve to die. Not by her hand. Not after what she’d already done.

Sparks passed through Stargart’s dome and gasped on the hot but breathable air. She held up her hands to shield her eyes, but quickly dropped them. Impossible to protect herself from this place’s glare.

Hat crashed into her ankles. She spun around and got dazzled for a second time, the lights coming back at her from the dome’s inner reflective surface. She lifted the furball and slipped him inside her robe. He had a bounty on his head, too.

They stood in one of Stargart’s many alleys leading out to oblivion in the death zone. Deadbeats and dropouts sat in doorways. Thousand-yard stares buried deep in sallow eye sockets. They were just a few metres from what seemed like their only choice. The long walk. And maybe find Shalk’s dead body on his ship on their way.

Several spaced-out insomniacs snapped from their daze with a yell as Shalk’s imposing eight-foot frame broke through the dome. The tall biped scowled at them before he fixed on Sparks. “Don’t think I’m coming because I’ve changed my mind about you, you shitty little critter. I need to get back to Flanterian. And despite having no reason to give you my trust, I have no choice. But know, the second this is over, I will cut your throat and stick your head on a spike outside the palace where it belongs.”

Sparks turned her back on the angry pilot and led him towards the chaos of Stargart’s main strip. She couldn’t help smiling. She’d called his bluff and exposed his bravado for what it was. Hopefully, his threats to kill her were as shallow. And hopefully he’d keep up. She didn’t know where they were holding Greeta, but if she didn’t find her in the next twenty-eight minutes, the next time she saw her, she’d be hanging by a noose.

CHAPTER 3

Sparks dropped from the ship, naked and with a noose around her neck. Gravity ate up the rope’s slack as she hurtled towards the ground. Lacerations covered her body, blood streaking her pale skin. The whites of her eyes stood out from a mile away, and even with the rope across her throat, her screams went off like an alarm. “Reyes! Reyes! Reyes!”

Something gripped her right arm. Faz Went leaned close, pulling her back into the moment. “Reyes!”

She shook her head and blinked. His phlegmy rattle cut through the chaos. Called her to attention. Forced her into the present moment. A loose flap in his throat, spluttering and stuttering like a blowing exhaust. The heavy steps. Her itching mind. The horror he thrust upon her. She grabbed her plasma rifle with both hands as his shadow stretched across the end of the alley just a metre away.

Faz Went pointed in the other direction. They should get out there.

Piltred’s steps shook the ground. He drew close like a solar eclipse, shutting out light and hope. His massive helmeted head came into view first. Crimson tears ran down the outside of his scratched steel mask. He stared out at the world through bloodshot eyes buried in scar-tissue sockets. A face in which nothing should live, yet his rage burned brighter than Flanterian’s single sun. A genetic abomination. His roar filled the alley, threw Reyes to her knees, and once again hijacked her mind.

Sparks’ naked body hit the ground. The impact tore her lacerations open, and she split like a dropped melon.

“Reyes!” Faz Went snapped her out of it again and dragged her with his escape. They had a plan. They needed to stick to it. Put this city behind them once and for all. Leave Piltred alone in the ruins.

Although she ran on wobbly legs, squinting against the violent mental showreel, Reyes stayed on Faz’s tail. The alley was too narrow for the lumbering Piltred. He reached in behind her and slammed his large hand against the ground. He pulled back out and attacked the brickwork, smashing the corner off the building, widening his path. He dragged a wall down, a cloud of dust chasing them from their current alley and into the next.

Reyes followed Faz Went in picking a path through the gloyner and hadound corpses lining the next road. The fate of any who got too close to Piltred. Hopefully those who’d taken Sparks were more merciful. Hopefully they’d keep her alive.

Down another alley and out the other side. Faz leaped through a glassless window, and she followed, through the ruins of what had once been a ground-floor apartment. Toppled furniture. An open fridge, the inside immaculate because everything organic had been destroyed by the missile they’d supplied to the Ringdell Group. Her feet twisted and turned on the debris-strewn floor. Bricks, crockery, pans, a child’s toys … A life erased.

They leaped out of the window on the other side and crossed yet another corpse-ridden road. The cadavers tracked their progress through bloody, eyeless sockets.

They ducked into yet another alley. The narrow walkways provided the best defence against the unstoppable Piltred. His rattle rang out. Rumbled through the empty buildings like an idling engine. But they’d lost him for now. Faz glanced back and slowed to a walk.

Reyes fought to catch her breath as they closed in on the edge of the ruined city. “You still think this is a good plan?”

A respiratory ring of his own, his rattlesnake hiss, Faz Went removed his baseball cap and scratched his head before replacing it again. “It’s the only plan, right?”

Reyes shrugged.

“We need to get out of this city. And we need to find Sparks.” He reached the end of the alley, leaned out and peered both ways. Reyes poked her head out beside him. Another street lined with bodies. Who knew the camera’s locations? Sparks, that’s who. He broke from cover and ran with a stoop like that would somehow keep him hidden. And for some stupid reason, Reyes did the same.

In the next alley, Reyes’ shoulders and back tightened. A Pavlovian response to crossing an open road. But the lumbering brute didn’t yell this time. Halfway down the next alley, she relaxed a little. They were close to the city’s edge and close to breaking free. They’d follow the path of the ship that had taken Sparks. “How long do you think it will take to find her?”

“Less time than staying here and doing nothing.”

And he had a point. Besides, what else could they do? What other options were there? “Do you think she’s okay?”

“I wish I could answer that.” Faz Went crossed yet another street. One final alley between them and the city’s edge. He waited for Reyes to enter behind. “But what I can tell you is she’s in a better place than she would have been had Pilt—”

“I know.” The naked Sparks plummeted through her mind again. Broke apart on impact like diced meat. “I know. But what the fuck was she playing at? Running towards the palace on her own …”

“Trying to be a hero.”

“By acting like an idiot? She’s lucky she didn’t get us all killed.”

“Don’t speak too soon.”

At the end of the alley, Faz Went leaned out and pulled straight back in again. His pale skin turned paler still.

“What’s up?”

He shook his head.

Reyes leaned out into the open plain’s strong winds and shivered. The miles of barren and rocky ground stood in stark contrast to the jumbled, ruined mess that had once been Flanterian’s prosperous city. It exposed the line of surveillance drones that stretched away in both directions. They faced out across the plains. She pulled back in and leaned against the wall. “Shit! There’s no avoiding them.”

“And when Piltred comes running to their call, he’ll see us from miles away.”

“So what do we do?”

“I can read the lay of the land, but that’s it.”

“And what does the lay of the land tell you?”

“The same as it tells you.” He swayed from side to side.

“This is a non-starter … We cross the plains and we’re screwed. But if we stay in the city, eventually we’re screwed.” Reyes continued listing their problems, counting them with her fingers. “Our ship’s screwed, and if we go closer to the palace, where there are more surveillance cameras—”

“And more booby traps.”

“We’re double screwed.”

Faz Went shrugged.

“But if we do nothing, we won’t find Sparks, and we’ll run out of food and water eventually, so—”

“We’re screwed.”

“No matter which way you slice it.”

Faz Went bounced on his toes. They’d waited there too long. A rolling stone gathered no moss. Especially in a city where no moss existed within a twenty-mile radius, thanks to the missile. He shrugged. “But there are factors outside of our control that might work in our favour.”

“Like what?”

He tapped his chin. “What if Sparks comes back for us?”

“You saw her get taken away, right?”

“She might have gotten free. She’s a slippery little shitbag.”

Reyes smiled. “That she is!”

“And in the meantime …” Faz stepped back down the alley, back towards the city. Back towards the streets filled with corpses, Piltred roaming them like an underworld guardian. “We need to move on.” As if to highlight his point, Piltred’s roar rang out. “We need to at least try to find another way to leave. Or find somewhere safe to hide so we can come up with a better plan.” He shrugged and sank again, rattling as if deflating. “Unless you have a better option?”

Reyes shook her head. “We’re done for.” She smacked her temple with the heel of her palm. “Listen to me. What a pathetic fool.”

“We’re in a tight spot.”

“Dad used to say how useless those were who focused on the problem rather than the solution. We need to find a solution.”

“But somewhere other than this.”

Piltred roared again. “Yeah, somewhere other than this.”

“Let’s go, then.”

At the end of the alley, Faz Went leaned out and looked both ways. Piltred’s steps called through the city like a metronome. A countdown to what felt like an inevitable showdown. But they’d find a solution before that happened. She owed that to her dad’s memory.

Reyes followed Faz back across the road, but instead of picking yet another tight alley, he jumped through the window of an old shop. If they were to come up with a new plan, they needed time, which meant they needed somewhere to hide.

CHAPTER 4

Hidden in plain sight, Sparks marched through the crowd with her hood up, head down, and arms cradling Hat against her chest. Sweat rolled down her back in small streams and burned her tired eyes. Like every other being in the chaotic crowd, she barged her way through. She had somewhere to be. Shalk walked a step behind. Following in what little wake she made, but he mostly cut his own path. They had twenty-eight minutes to find Greeta. The footage suggested they had her somewhere on the main strip. They should have enough time. But did Reyes have enough back on Flanterian? How long could she and Faz Went avoid Piltred?

Sparks’ rifle hung from her by its strap, and she had a blaster at her hip. No need to hide weapons in a place like this. But if you drew one, you’d best have every intention of pulling the trigger. And you’d best not miss.

Shorter than most, Sparks tracked her progress by the towers looming over the busy road. Surveillance drones buzzed through the sky and bored into her temples. But they only invaded her intuition with their scanning curiosity. So far, nothing had piqued their interest. Ships came and went through the dome. With every exit and entrance, her mind’s eye played an explosive collision that ended with a burning husk spinning as it fell towards them.

The ground shook. She darted right at the last moment, the frintool’s pounding steps a sufficient warning to those with a limited view. Move or get trampled. Only one winner. Shalk remained on her tail.

The dome’s mirrored surface threw back every flashing light and every neon sign. Conflicting baselines rumbled, the dysregulating scatter of drum beats mashing in the air and quickening her already frantic pulse. Casinos called to punters. They offered riches most beings only encountered in dreams. And all the while, the dice roll of ships exiting and entering continued above. She dropped her head again, and while she sweated inside the hessian robe, at least the hood gave her blinkers. A way to turn down the chaos. If only she could do the same for her intuition.

The whir of servos followed by the crack of a slamming step. A mech strode down the strip. Gold, its shiny surface glistened like the inside of the dome. It carried only the most privileged of clients. Shuttled them from one establishment to the next while protecting them from the hoi polloi. Sparks lowered her head again. If Blark Venn-Quarter’s bounty remained, she needed to keep the lowest profile. But maybe with the fall of Acoolter, he’d decided to hold on to his credits. How would a dead Sparks, Reyes, Hat, and Faz Went help him rebuild an empire?

“What the hell is this place, you irritating stoova jockey?”

Sparks twisted between two zoonteels. Just being caught by one of their thick and calloused knees could knock the wind from her lungs, the hood from her head, and the life from Hat’s furry and hot little body. “Stoova jockey? Because I’m small. Funny!”

“Small. Insignificant …”

“You think this is bad? I’ve been to much worse places.” They passed a brothel on their right; the neon sign, almost as tall as the building, read Pegging Paradise. She flinched at the mental image of a screaming mandulu at the mercy of a particularly aggressive droid. Careful what you wish for. The bar next door had an equally garish neon sign shaped like a cocktail glass and lit aquamarine. The name directly beneath it, The Bavaiian Nightmare.

“Your point is?”

“There’s a way to survive.” She pressed her palm against her temple like she could quieten the digital chaos. “When I visit hostile planets, I keep my head down.” Especially when she might still have a massive bounty on her head.

“By keeping your head down, you mean taking over their entire planet with your mates?”

“When we were in the Shadow Order—”

“The what?”

“The greatest task force in the galaxy.”

“I’ve never heard of them.”

She moved left and right, slipping through a tight gap. “That’s because they didn’t want you to hear about them.”

He tutted and followed her weaving path.

“We went to some awful places. I remember this one time—”

“Did I ask for your life story, you silly little nowlet?”

“My point is, the best thing you can do is blend in. You can’t change how they run these places, and it’s futile to try. But act like a tourist and you’ll make yourself a target.”

“How am I acting like a tourist?”

“Close your mouth. Walk like you have somewhere to be. Shut the fuck up. Shall I go on?”

“And you just said you can’t change how places are run. You don’t think handing over the control of a planet’s resources to a powerful and malevolent group of beings with nefarious desires is changing how somewhere’s run?”

The Grandest up on her left. Tromp Flowers close by. She dropped her head again. Kept in the shadow of her hood. Kept her face hidden. Held Hat close, the pair of them getting hotter with every passing second. An interrogation of drones shot through the sky. “My point is, this place is wild. It bleeds you dry of every credit. The bright lights prevent you sleeping, driving you mad with insomnia and leaving you with little choice but to step out into the death zone just to bring the madness to an end. For many, having their lungs burst in a desert hotter than hell is preferable to another miserable second of this existence.” She jumped aside as a pair of flying creatures smashed into one another, dragged a surveillance drone into their squabble, and came crashing to the ground before Shalk’s feet.

Sparks stumbled from the shove in her back. She spun around and met Shalk’s accusatory finger, which ran almost as long as hers. “You can take your advice and shove it up your arse. I’m not green, you know? And I don’t need a lesson from the Ringdell Group’s sock puppet.”

She dragged her rough hessian sleeve across her sweating brow.

“Why are you wearing that stupid robe, anyway? Bit hot, ain’t it?” His voice grew louder, turning the heads of a pair of passing doots. “Do you think you’re some kind of mystic or something? Someone who’s come down from a mountain to mix with the riff-raff.”

Several more beings glanced their way. While the robe hid her from cursory glances, any intense scrutiny could blow her and Hat’s cover and reveal thousands of credits to any being who dared take it. She turned her back on him and moved off. “We have twenty-six minutes to find Greeta.”

“I mean, you’re clearly not trying to hide from anything. You stand out from a mile away dressed like that.”

If anything, Shalk had grown louder in his accusations. What next? He’d pull her hood away? Start using her name? Should she tell him about the bounty? But what if they’d removed it? And what would he do if he found out how much he could make from her corpse? Hers and Hat’s. The furball shuffled beneath her robe.

“So what is it, Sp—”

“Will you shut the fuck up, yeah?”

“You were a tour guide a minute ago, and now you want to walk in silence?”

A spindly being kneed Sparks’ shoulder, spinning her on the spot. Hat whimpered beneath her robe. “Let’s just get Greeta and get out of here.”

Pausing, Sparks turned around. Shalk had stopped about ten metres back and stood watching a kerfuffle outside a casino. A smaller establishment called Steak Pies. Its logo, lit in hot pink, had two pies perched on the tops of a pair of dice.

Several beefy security guards dragged a being about five and a half feet tall and as skinny as a ship’s starter wire down the stairs. They threw them to the ground. But the starter wire jumped back up again, swiped their long greasy hair from their face, and pressed their two pairs of hands together. “Please let me back in. Just give me one chance to win my credits back.”

“No credit here. No credit next door. No credit down the street. You’re done.”

“But I’m good for it.”

The crowd moved around the desperate being. They’d seen it all before. Sparks shifted left and right to avoid being trampled as she stood beside Shalk. Because of his height, many beings avoided him.

“We don’t care. You know the rules. No credit.”

“Please?”

Shalk winced and dragged in air through his clenched teeth as the guards attacked the pathetic creature.

“Come on.” Sparks tugged on his sleeve, but he twisted away. Too much longer and she’d leave him. She’d have to. They had twenty-four minutes to find Greeta. She had twenty-four minutes. Shalk didn’t give a shit. And how long would Reyes and Faz Went last with Piltred?

“There’s nothing we can do for them, Shalk.”

“But we can help your friend? Some beings are worth saving and others aren’t? Like a planet of gloyners. Who gives a shit about them, eh?”

“I’m not saying that.”

“I’m not sure I even care what you’re saying, you waste of space. You’re a windrill’s crusted snotball. A chug nut in the arse hair of a flying grabidon. Your words are irrelevant, and I don’t care if your friend dies. You deserve the pain.”

“You think I don’t know what it means to lose someone?”

“I’m saying, if you do, you deserve to feel it again.”

She’d promised to get him back to Flanterian, but how long could she wait? How long could Greeta wait? Reyes? She’d pick them over Shalk every time, but she’d made him a promise. And she’d destroyed his planet. And he didn’t even know about the missile. “There’s nothing we can d—”

“Drink it, motherfucker!” Four guards from Steak Pies grabbed the pathetic gambler. They held an arm each and forced him to his knees. A fifth wedged a funnel into his mouth while a sixth poured—

“Pirenze!” Shalk’s voice trembled. “Shit!” He stepped towards the guards, but Sparks grabbed him.

This time, Shalk let her drag him back. What could he do to help? He’d seen this before. It only ended one way. Sparks gulped back the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry.”

Veins stood out on his neck, and he sprayed her with spittle. “I don’t want your pity, you horrible little shit-stain.”

Despite the attention from those around them, she kept her head lowered.

“Do you know what it’s like to watch those you …” Shalk’s shoulders slumped, the glow from the burning being reflecting in his teary marine blue eyes. Working his jaw like he chewed gum, he stepped towards the casino and the laughing guard.

Sparks caught his sleeve for a second time. “What are you doing?”

“They need to pay for what they’ve done.”

“They’ll just do the same to you. It’s suicide. And it won’t change what happened on Flanterian.”

“Don’t you dare!” He pointed at her again. “You know nothing about my experience on Flanterian.”

“I’m just saying … trying to right the wrongs in Stargart is like being a firefighter in hell.” She held firm in the face of his fury. She clenched her jaw and lifted her chin. She’d take what he had to give. Whatever it took to get them moving again. They had twenty-two minutes to find Greeta.

Sparks turned, sidestepped a galloping quadruped, and led him away. He might be furious, but even he saw the sense in moving on.

Sweat burned Sparks’ eyes. She slipped her glasses back up her greasy nose. Her breaths grew heavier as she cooked beneath the robe, Hat’s body heat adding to her own. If Blark Venn-Quarter had dropped the bounty, she could lose the robe and let Hat walk by himself. But how would she know?

As if he read her thoughts, Shalk shoved her again. “You never answered me.” He drew in a wet sniff and dragged the back of his hand across his nose. “Why are you wearing that robe?”

Sparks ducked right, taking them towards Mimi Chichi’s, where they never say no. A bounty portal stood beside the hot pink doorframe. Better to know if she still had a price on her head. If for no other reason than to shut him up.

A group of six reptilian creatures in fedoras stood close to the booth like they were waiting for their next job. Their skin dark green like mould. They all stood as tall as Sparks and were far enough away for her to check the network privately, but close enough to pick up on any disturbance. She’d pretend to browse. If she found her bounty, she’d skip over it quickly and keep checking.

Sparks tapped the touchscreen, the glass sticky with sweat and dirt, the memory of desperate beings coursing through her. Many had considered this to earn credits, but it took more than a blaster and enthusiasm to earn a living as a hunter. The first image hit her hard, and she stumbled back.

Shalk leaned over her. “What the …”

The main bounty. Front-page status. Ahead of murderers, rapists, and dictators. The same square she’d seen on the roof of Blark Venn-Quarter’s apartment block. Divided into four images. Her, Reyes, Faz Went, and Hat.

“Forty thousand credits each?”

Sparks elbowed Shalk in the ribs. “Shut the fuck up!” And he hadn’t read the worst of it. Two hundred thousand credits for all four. Double if they were dead. Eyes burned into the back of her head. Eyes hidden by the shadows cast from fedoras’ peaks. She did her best to style it out. Checked behind. A casual glance. She was just another normal deadbeat trying to make a few credits.

The fedora-wearing reptiles watched on. Curiosity piqued.

“That’s a lot of credits.”

She’d made Shalk a promise. Asked him to trust her. But could she trust him? Would she give him up were the roles reversed? She remained by the portal and changed the screen. A mandulu called Shybeing. Covered in scars, he looked anything but. “Just wind your neck in, yeah? We picked up this bounty because me, Reyes, Faz Went, and Hat needed to arm ourselves so we could return to Flanterian and undo what had been done.”

“Don’t even!”

“What?”

“You expect me to be grateful?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t need to.”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

“You have forty K on each of your heads. How’s that for a fact?”

The bounty hunters in the fedoras stepped closer. One of them tapped Shalk on the shoulder. She struggled to get her words past the phlegm in her throat. “Excuse me, sir.” She sprayed moisture with every syllable. “Do you know anything about the number one bounty?”

Still hidden by her hood, Sparks clung to Hat and barged the bounty hunter aside. Adrenaline surged through her, daring her to run. She gripped her blaster’s handle. But if she drew it, she’d blow her cover, and they’d open fire. If Shalk ratted her out, they’d open fire. Hopefully, he’d protect her. See the error of his ways. Make up a lie.

The bounty hunters left Shalk by the portal. The half dozen followed Sparks as she ducked back into the busy crowd. He’d clearly not revealed her secret, but he’d also not allayed their suspicions. And with tens of thousands of credits on offer, it wasn’t like a half-arsed improvised story would convince them to leave her alone. The timer on her screen dropped to twenty minutes. If she lived that long, who’s to say she’d reach Greeta in time?

CHAPTER 5

They were lucky she didn’t have her hands around their throats right now. She’d cling on and never let go. She’d squeeze until their head popped like a pimple. Laugh as the light left their eyes. Yeah, right. Who was she kidding? In this state, she could do little more than hang her head, gravity pulling on her swollen tongue so the tip poked through her cracked lips. She panted, the hot air thickening with the rising temperature. Her pounding brain kicked the backs of her eyeballs. Her sweat-sodden clothes clung to her itching body. She tugged on her collar. She scratched her armpits and the backs of her knees. She rubbed her stinging eyes, but only made them worse. The nearby panel might have been the only light—always only one—but even its weak glow forced her to squint.

Wiping her brow with the back of her hand, she shook the sweat from her fur with a lazy flick. It landed several tiles away, hissed, and sent up a trail of steam. Like a smoke signal. Another futile cry for help. They’d sent her somewhere to be forgotten. Shout, cry, burn herself in protest … No one was coming. And no one gave a shit.

The heat encircled her and closed in. Leave it much longer and she’d be the one turning to steam on the hotplate. But would that be such a bad thing? She’d been in here too long already. Maybe an intense burst of pain would give her the end she craved. And what other options did she have? Chase a light she couldn’t ever reach? Slip and slide around the tiled room trying to attain the unattainable? The very fucking definition of stupidity.

She wiped her brow again. Flicked it away again. It landed with a hiss again. Another tile closer. Move or burn, motherfucker.

But could she hold her nerve? Did she have the discipline to fry herself? Could she really wait to be cooked in this oven of a room? There must be an exit. A way to win this twisted game. Because what were games if not contests to be overcome? The fire in her belly burned hotter than the floor tiles. She leaned towards the glowing panel. Just a few centimetres, but even the slight rocking in the heat’s general direction dropped the temperature by a few degrees. The air thinned. Her throat loosened. She filled her lungs. She shuffled a centimetre closer.

Slow and steady. Slick with sweat, she dragged her body across the floor like a snaug across a glass table on a dewy morning. She left a slimy trail.

Lifting her arm sent a kick-drum pulse through her temples. A thundering boom through her skull. Her brain boiled in her cranium. She lifted her hand over the glowing tile and let it fall with a weak slap!

The light had already shifted to the other side of the room.

Crack!

The opening hatch made her jump every time. Someone delivered two bowls through the space, shoving them in with a broom-shaped device. They slid them close to the newly lit panel. A reward for good behaviour. For playing by their rules. Water and food. If it could be called that. Some kind of mush that masqueraded as synthetic meat, but could as easily be toilet paper dragged straight from the shitty bucket in the corner and then set in a phlegmy salty jelly to mask the muddy taste.

“No!” The confined space amplified her desperate rasp. “I won’t do this anymore. Not by your rules. I’m not an animal.” She reached for the water bowl. She’d do this on her terms.

“Drink like the animal you are or get zapped.”

Zapped? Like they were talking to a child. Stripping her bare. Peeling back the layers. Infantilising her. Relearn everything. How to eat. How to drink. Suck on mummy’s teat and be fucking grateful, you cretin. “No!” She shook her head, sweat flying away. Her ears rang.

“Then tell us where it is, and we’ll let you out.”

And there it was. The other condition. The real reason for her incarceration. The only power she had in this situation. “Fuck you! I tell you where it is and you’ll kill me anyway.” She reached for the bowl—

“Drink like the animal you are!”

“No!” She sweated harder than before in the increasingly heating room. “I’m doing everything else.”

“You’re not telling us where it is.”

“Just let me drink. I’m thirsty.”

“Drink like the animal you are!”

“Fuck you!” The second she touched the bowl, electricity streaked across the room like lightning. It came from the same spot—a tile four in from the left wall as she faced the hard bed—and slammed into her, striking her hand, the electric shock running up her arm and kicking her in the shoulder. The lit panel jumped three squares to her right as she went the other way, tossed like tumbleweed.

She lay on her back, the low black ceiling above. The shock had jarred her entire skeleton. She worked her jaw to get it functioning again. Slurred her words. “Fuck you!”

Propping herself on a shaking arm, she threw the bird at the ceiling like she was cursing a god. Her own personal god. And this fucker loved to smite. Didn’t they all? Behave or face their wrath. “Fuck you!”

“Drink like the animal you are or get zapped!”

“Fuck you.” She fell flat. “Cook me. I don’t care.”

“Drink like the animal you are or get zapped!”

“I’m done.”

“Touch the square.”

Were they getting desperate? Trying a different approach? “No!”

“Fail to act, and we’ll cook you to a crisp.”

“Cook me. Electrocute me. I’ve told you, I’m done. I don’t care. I can’t touch the square. It’s impossible. I won’t tell you where it is, and I won’t drink like an animal.” She pulled at her collar again. She’d done it a thousand times in this room, and it had never worked. The room continued getting hotter. The air continued to thicken.

“Fail to act and we’ll cook you to a crisp.”

“Cook me, then. I quit. You win. But you’ll never find out where it is.”

Crack!

The hatch at the bottom of the door snapped open again. Steel cables snaked into the room, spilling in through the opening, slithering towards her as if they were sentient. They gripped her ankles and wrists. They latched on so tight her feet and hands tingled with the cut-off circulation. They snapped taut, spread her out in the shape of a star and held her about thirty centimetres from the ground. Another cable slithered in. A probe? For what? She held back her cry. It had a hypodermic needle for a head. It bit into the vein in the crook of her elbow. It stung on entry and turned her bloodstream cool as it pumped shit into her veins. She cried arid tears. Whatever the needle contained, it would sustain her. They lowered the room temperature. They weren’t going to cook her. Wouldn’t let her die of thirst or starvation. The game wasn’t over until they said it was over.

“The only way out of here is to touch that square or tell us where it is.”

“Just let me die!”

“This is a place where beings are sent to be forgotten.”

Her throat stung with her screech. “Let me die!”

“The only way out of here is to touch that square or tell us where it is.”

CHAPTER 6

There might have been six of them, but at least Sparks’ pursuers stood no taller than her. Where a hulking brute would cut a path through the busy crowd, follow her as the drone flies, this lot had to negotiate the same mazy route through the chaos.

She twisted left and right through a herd of giant quadrupeds. The six hunters divided as they weaved between the large brutes.

The skin beneath her right eye twitched as another intrusion of surveillance drones shot overhead. She stared at the ground, her thick robe’s hood providing enough cover to maintain her anonymity.

She held Hat close, both of them growing hotter with every passing second. The furball panted on the verge of hyperventilation.

They had twenty minutes until Greeta’s very public execution. Very public, yet Sparks still hadn’t found her location.

The six bounty hunters kept pace. She’d piqued their interest enough for them to follow, but Shalk must have kept his mouth shut. Any hint of certainty and she’d already be dead.

A trio of mandulus cut through the crowd. Bulbous chins raised, they shoved anyone smaller than them aside. One swiped a bat-like being from the sky just for fun. Arrogant pricks. Seb Zodo would drop them with three blows. Straight on the chin. Punish their cowardice by exposing their fragility.

A larger beast followed in their wake. Big enough to stand toe-to-toe with Reyes’ mech, the thing looked prehistoric. A three-tonne quadruped with thick trunks for legs. It had pale green wrinkled skin and white eyes. Every other being yielded to its progress.

Her head bowed, Sparks tightened the cord around her waist to hold Hat in place. With both hands free, she hacked into an approaching drone. Metallic green and fish-shaped, it had a single lens nose. She lifted it a little higher. The six fedora-wearing bounty hunters, about fifteen metres behind, remained on her tail.

Sparks dodged right, moving aside for the mandulus, avoiding the kick thrown at her. She tutted and aimed her mini computer at the back of the beast’s thigh. The shocker sparked blue, but she refrained and moved on.

Sending the green metallic drone away, Sparks slipped her computer back in her pocket and held Hat close again. She dodged around the right side of the three-tonne monstrosity. Its heavy steps promised to liquify any being who got too close. But its deep shadow offered her the cover she needed.

She ducked beneath its bulging belly, its personal space thick with the stench of sweat and urine. Out the other side, she spun one hundred and eighty degrees and followed the mandulus back towards the bounty hunters. She walked with a stoop and patted Hat, who squirmed and wriggled, slowly stewing beneath her thick robe. “We’re nearly there, boy.”

Tightening her robe’s cord again, Sparks hijacked another drone. The six fedoras split around the mandulus. Three went one way, three the other. Their heads weaved from side to side. Snakes ready to strike, they scanned the crowd for their target.

Sparks sent the drone away, activated her computer’s shocker, leaned close to the ankle of the mandulu that took a swipe at her, and nailed it with the fzzt of an electric shock.

“Yeaow!” The mandulu spun left, fists raised. “Who did that?”

Sparks dodged right, around the other side of the trio and across the path of a towering mech.

“Answer me!” The mandulu spun one way and the other. Those around it gave it a wide berth.

With the mech between her and the mandulus, Sparks blended back into the crowd. Sweat ran into her eyes, and Hat’s hot breath raised the temperature beneath the thick hessian. He twisted and squirmed again. She patted the small lump. “Nearly there, boy. We just need to get Greeta and get out of here. We won’t be long.” They had eighteen minutes. A lifetime beneath a hot robe. Nowhere near long enough when wearing a noose for a necktie.

Hacking into another drone, Sparks fixed on the six she’d evaded. They continued scanning the crowd. Twisting and turning like the enraged mandulu. “Idiots.” She left them behind, bringing the drone with her. With time running out, she needed a better view of the strip than the one nature gave her.

“Oh, fuck!”

Hat twisted again, turning up towards her. His nose poked through the neck, his hot breath pushing against the underside of her chin.

“There are more of them.” She spun the drone left and right, scanning the sides of the busy main strip. Fedora-wearing reptiles hung out in the shadows with the insomniacs, pushers, and pimps. Many of them held glowing devices. She sent the drone away and jumped into their communicators, bringing up a translated version of the text on their screens on her own.

We’ve lost her. Look for a brown hessian robe.

She appeared as a blurred image on their screens, taken only minutes before.

We think she has the mutt with her too.

The same height as us.

Trying to hide.

We’re almost certain it’s her.

Shalk clearly hadn’t ratted her out.

But we don’t want to cause a scene. Keep quiet. This is our bounty.

She brought up a list of the communicators on the network. Each had its own identifying number. About eighty to a hundred in total. They were all linked. All of them looking for her and Hat.

Hat twisted again. Poked his nose out a little farther. His fur damp with sweat, his nostrils twitching like he wanted to breathe the cooler air. She’d have to let him out soon.

Sparks hijacked another drone. More reptilian bounty hunters emerged from alleys. Exited casinos. Some stood on boxes; others climbed street lights. Anything to get them above the crowd. Anything to have a chance of seeing their target.

If she ran, they’d spot her. But with so many of them, surely it was just a matter of time, anyway. Greeta had sixteen minutes.

Snapping and twisting, Hat forced his head from her robe. “There, there, boy. We’re getting close.” But they weren’t. They were getting entirely fucking nowhere. One of the crowd. A part of the endless chaotic march. Endless and aimless.

The street lined with casinos and hotels. If only she could get inside one. The more exclusive establishments stood the tallest, but none more so than the Grandest, the entering ships having to alter their flight path to avoid the imposing structure’s top. Another wave of sweat surged from her. The air-conditioned Grandest. Did Marlon still work there? Would he let her in? Offer her sanctuary? She scoffed. Like he had the authority to do that! The little fucker probably still had to ask when he wanted to go pee-pee.

The smaller buildings housed the less exclusive casinos and brothels. Bars and gamer dens. But she had no chance of getting inside. Every one had security on the doors.

Many of the buildings stood alone. Detached structures with small alleys down either side. Shadowy passages where they dragged beings down to be forgotten. Where they sent many out into the death zone. But one block comprised two casinos, a brothel, and a nightclub in the same long building. A light glowed from a basement room of the casino on one end called Diced and Sliced.

Sparks jumped onto another drone. The bounty hunters continued scanning. They still hung out on the sides of the roads, more joining them all the time.

Sparks hacked into Diced and Sliced’s terminal. It listed the games available today, the minimum credits required for entry—eight hundred—and the drinks menu, each one with the optional extra of being diced, sliced, or both. Whatever the fuck that meant. She dropped a layer deeper and delved into their system.

A beast slammed into them, knocking Sparks on her arse. She clung to her computer, and Hat whimpered while she rolled aside to avoid being trampled. She brought up Diced and Sliced’s schematics. The basement ran into the brothel next door. Tickle Nipple had a deal with Diced and Sliced. They offered their punters a more discreet access to their wildest desires. Some didn’t want to announce their kinks to the world.

Back on her feet, Sparks made a beeline for Diced and Sliced. She patted Hat. “Nearly there, boy.”

The bounty hunters stood on boxes and hung from lampposts, searching the crowd.

One bounty hunter stood on a bin about twenty metres from Diced and Sliced’s entrance. Far enough away. She needed to make the most of the head start.

Mini computer in one hand, her arm across Hat, Sparks broke from the crowd and sprinted up the steps. She ran straight at Diced and Sliced’s two security guards. Broad shoulders and narrow hips, the triangle-shaped guards had bulging arms, hot pink skin, and yellow hair. They had brown-stained tusks sticking up from their bottom jaws over their top lips. They sneered at her approach.

Sparks cleared her throat. The bounty hunter remained twenty metres away and continued scanning the crowd. “Excuse me.”

“What?”

“Can I come in?”

The guard looked her up and down. “You have eight hundred credits?”

“And then some.” She laughed. The guard didn’t.

The hunter on the bin shielded their brow from the glare like the fedora didn’t. Remained fixed on the busy main street.

“Show us, then.”

Sparks thrust her mini computer at the guard, sending an electric shock into his crotch. Fzzt!

The guard screamed and dropped to his knees.

The hunter on her right turned her way.

Sparks ran into the casino, ducking the second guard’s wild punch.

Swirling lights, crashing tokens, and wailing slot machines lit up Sparks’ intuition like a fairground. She shot the cashier’s booth, and the multicoloured mess gave way to bright white brilliance. Every machine turned off, and shutters closed across every window with a definitive thunk!

More security ran for the exits. The shutters blocked them, but if she’d come to rob the place, there was no chance she’d get away. They were clearly instructed to protect the credits before the punters. They ran out quicker. The customers’ confused shouts turned into wild screams. Maybe they’d realised they were an acceptable loss.

Jumping a card table, Sparks kicked off from a slot machine and headed to the left side of the casino. Croupiers and waiting staff watched on, open-mouthed. Many knew the drill. Protect their takings at all costs. But many more ran. They didn’t need to die for the sake of their employer’s credits.

Sparks ran for the stairs leading to the basement. Still cradling Hat, she used her other hand to vault over a railing.

She stopped. “Shit!” She could handle the pair of guards, but a shutter like the ones on the ground floor blocked her access to the brothel. “Shit!”

A stampede of guards closed in. The one at the front called out, “Hand yourself over. Don’t make this any worse.”

She fired back, her shot hitting a nearby wall. “You think I’m stupid? Like you’re not going to send me out into the death zone. Give me a break.”

The pair of guards on the blocked door leading to Tickle Nipple charged.

She’d not come here for a massacre, but what choice did she have? She ran back up the stairs and jumped onto a card table. She snapped the butt of her rifle into her shoulder, but the guards opened fire first.

Jumping off and rolling aside, Hat whined as she crushed him again. Sparks finally let him go.

Slick with sweat, Hat ran off, weaving through the punters’ legs. He snarled and snapped, drawing the guards’ attention. He gave Sparks the moment she needed. She fired at a small metal spout on the ceiling. Left a scorch mark that birthed a cloud of smoke. The fire alarm sounded. Water rained down on the punters and guards alike.

Thunk! It came from downstairs. The shutter blocking Tickle Nipple’s doorway had fallen open.

Sparks followed Hat towards the basement. She ducked the pair of guards’ blasts and shoulder-barged the swinging door, breaking through into the dim corridor aglow with red lighting. The heady reek of cheap perfume restricted her breathing. She grabbed a plain silk robe from a coat stand, discarded her hessian one, and ran past the stairs leading up into the brothel.

Voices behind. More guards gave chase as she broke through into the next building and paused by the door’s controls. Panting, she hacked into the control panel. She overrode the fire safety procedures, locking the steel door. Thunk!

“Keep running.” Sparks shooed Hat on, sending him along the corridor towards the fourth and final building in the row.

Hat jumped at the swing door, hit it with a thud, and fell to the floor. Sparks slowed and shoved it. Locked. She knocked against it. Blocked. Bricked in on the other side.

She ran up the stairs leading into the third building. Another casino, the punters in chaos. But at least the exits were open, the customers flooding out. Although at least half headed for the cashier. No chance they were leaving their credits behind.

Sparks scooped up Hat, threw her silk robe around them both, and held him close, joining the crowd of exiting punters.

Back out onto the main strip, the street’s attention focused on Diced and Sliced three doors down. The hundred or so bounty hunters fought guards to enter.

Sparks moved at a quick march in the other direction. She passed the last building in the line, the one she couldn’t access from the basement. The bar’s name ran across the doorway. Schrödinger’s.

Head down, Sparks became another member of the crowd. She hacked another drone, lifted it higher, and turned back towards Diced and Sliced. The fedora-wearing reptilians remained engaged in combat with the pink-skinned guards. Would they reveal their reasons? Risk giving up their bounty? What did it matter? She no longer had her hessian robe, and she had fourteen minutes to find Greeta. Hopefully she’d get her and be away from this shithole of a planet in twenty at the most.

Lifting the drone higher, Sparks halted. A being shoved her in the back and barked, “Move!”

Peeling off the main strip, Sparks ducked into a nearby alley and sent the drone away from her towards the small stage outside a casino called the Winning Weiner. The being stood with a noose around her neck. “Greeta! We’ve found her, Hat. And she’s only four minutes away.”

Sparks took the surveillance drone back to the spot where she’d left Shalk. The road was too busy to find him. But a scuffle broke out on the right side. A twisting and writhing gloyner being dragged by beings as tall, but twice her width. They pulled her down an alley. Another one of Stargart’s many unfortunate victims.

A second gloyner followed them in. “Fucking hell, Shalk. Is now the time to play the hero?” She stamped her foot. Hat whined. “Shit.”

The pilot followed his kin into the alley. He’d not been happy about leaving the being fried with pirenze. There’s no way he’d leave one of his own to be subjected to the same treatment.

Two minutes to get to Shalk. Thirteen minutes until Greeta hanged. Go to Greeta and she’d have to give up on him. But could she get to Shalk in time and still make it back before they sentenced Faz Went’s friend? She’d made Shalk a promise, but he’d put her in shit with the bounty hunters. A weapons-grade liability, he wanted her dead. By following the gloyner, he’d shown he was too stupid to listen. Too stupid to live. He was a toxic thorn in her side, and who needed that? “Fuck him, right?”

Hat twisted beneath her robe.

“Right? We’re home free here. We can get to Greeta and back to Reyes. No matter how you try, there’s no helping some beings.”

Hat whimpered.

“I agree. Let’s do what we came here to do. Let’s get Greeta. Fuck Shalk. He’s on his own.” Setting the drone loose, Sparks ducked back into the crowd. They’d come here for a reason, and they only had twelve minutes left. They needed to save Greeta.

CHAPTER 7

Reyes had been sitting on the hard ground for so long her glutes had turned numb. But what else could she do? Perch on one of the tiny plastic chairs? They’d be even less comfortable. But they’d evaded Piltred. For now. Time to rest and think. Still the mind. Still the heart. Find a solution to their problem.

A cool breeze snaked in through the glassless window, toying with what remained of the shredded rainbow curtains. It further unpicked the torn pictures on the walls. The children’s drawings spoke of better days. Gloyners and hadounds holding hands beneath a bright sun. A busy street with smiling faces. Some even showed the palace and its force field. The source of everything that had once made Flanterian great. She loosed a sigh and shook her head. “We really fucked this place over, didn’t we?”

“Not on purpose.” Faz Went rattled. “The Ringdell Group would have found a way with or without us.” He rubbed his watering eyes. “This is like the place my parents used to take me when I was little. They always had about twenty other kids there on any one day. It was always nuts. I used to hate it when they dropped me off.” He laid down his cap and rubbed his eyes harder, rattling again with his sigh. “It seems like a different life. Like the memories no longer belong to me.”

Reyes held his hand.

He squeezed back. “I think Greeta’s been through similar on her home world. Violent occupation. Genocide …”

“She’s never spoken about it.”

“She rarely talks about her past. I don’t think she can let it in. But it’s in her eyes. In those moments where she’s daydreaming and staring off into the distance. She has the look of a being who sees horrors on the insides of her eyelids.”

“And you still have nightmares?”

“I see my planet being overrun every time I blink.”

“It used to be like that for me with my dad. Until I met Sparks.”

“She’s special.”

“She’s all right.”

Faz Went laughed and turned his long palms towards the ceiling. “So what do we do?”

“I’m still not sure, but running around the city’s not working.”

“Without Sparks’ computer, we don’t know where the cameras are.”

“And even if we did, and even if we smashed every one, they have surveillance drones.” Reyes rocked from side to side, trying to revive the feeling in her bottom. “We could run to the palace?”

Rattling again, Faz Went broke into a coughing fit. “What?”

“Hear me out. What if we did the same as Sparks? Get there and hope a ship comes in to airlift us out.”

“If we make it past the booby traps.”

“If we make it past the booby traps.”

“And what if hope isn’t enough to get us airlifted out of there?”

“That would be a problem.”

“And what if what they’re doing to Sparks is worse than running into Piltred?”

Reyes lifted an eyebrow.

“Okay, there are some things we can assume. But if they don’t turn up—”

“We end up trapped between the palace’s force-field dome and Piltred.”

“Either way, we get liquidised.”

“If we’re lucky.”

“So that’s out.”

“Reyes?” She jumped where she sat and spun around. It came from outside.

Scratching his head, Faz Went stared in the same direction and replaced his cap. “You heard that too?”

“Sparks?”

“My mum and dad.”

“Oh, fuck!” Reyes reached the window just as a spray of bricks and mortar flew across the street opposite.

Piltred’s roar shook the ground beneath her feet and vibrated through her sternum. Her settled heart raced again as he smashed down another wall, the building’s roof falling to the ground.

“We have to move.” Faz Went tugged on her arm, pulling her from the window. “He clearly doesn’t know we’re here, but if he’s levelling every building, it’s just a matter of time.”

The store cupboard at the room’s other end had metal shelves lined with paints and thick coloured paper. Its window was as free of glass as the others. Faz stepped outside, and Reyes followed. His finger to his thin lips, he hunched as he ran, scanning both ways while crossing the road.

The thunderous roar of another collapsing building paled compared to Piltred’s furious outburst. The monster challenged the heavens with his rage. Reyes lost her footing as Sparks’ lacerated body plummeted through her mind and hit the ground like wet cement. It broke apart on impact.

Faz Went’s touch pulled her back. “You okay?”

“Are you not seeing this?” She wiped her eyes.

“My mum and dad. He always shows me my mum and dad. But it’s not real. Don’t trust your head.”

“How do you not?”

“With difficulty. But it’s not real. No matter how it feels. Now let’s go.” Faz Went ducked down another alley.

Sometimes there are no solutions. She shot away from the Faradis in an escape pod. Sometimes you just have to accept when you’ve lost and give up.

“No!” Reyes broke free of the alley. “You’re not real, Dad. You’re dead.”

I love you, little girl, but you need to accept Piltred’s too strong.

“Dad wouldn’t say that! Nothing’s too strong. There’s always a way to win.”

Piltred’s wild and undulating scream came in rattling waves. The flap in his throat blew like an old exhaust.

Pausing at a corner where one road met another, the street they were about to head down packed with corpses, Faz Went shot the camera.

Heavy steps closed in on their location. Reyes’ entire body crawled with gooseflesh.

“No time to hide.” Faz sprinted over the carpet of bodies.

Neither of them had Hat’s agility. If only! Reyes followed, picking her path. But she slipped on a hadound’s face, her foot vanishing between it and a gloyner’s back. She reached out to cushion her fall and poked another corpse in the eye, plunging her finger to the knuckle in the moist pit. She wiped her hand on her back, pressed on the pulpy mush that made up the carpet of corpses, dragged out her foot, and chased after Faz, who’d reached the end of the street.

“I’m sorry.” He rattled with his breaths. “We need to be fast, and there are fewer chances of booby traps when the roads are littered with corpses.”

Piltred’s steps just a street away. Give up! You won’t make it.

Reyes slapped her face. Her dad wouldn’t say that. “He’s getting closer, Faz.”

Two paths stretched away from them in a V formation. The road running diagonally to the left had as many bodies as the one they’d left behind. The one to the right had none, but the backs of a pair of six- to seven-story buildings formed tall walls on either side. Windowless. No climbing out of there if they got into a tight spot.

Picking up a gloyner’s decapitated head, Faz gripped it by the hair, spun it like a slingshot, and launched it, sending it flying away from him in a large arc.

It hit the hard asphalt with a thunk! Reyes jumped in anticipation of a trap that didn’t trip.

“The dead bodies will slow us down too much.” Faz followed the rolling head, and Reyes kept pace. A few metres on, the ground shook. The asphalt broke apart, dropping into the road with a splash!

Green liquid leaped out and burned everything it touched. It chewed through the road and buildings on either side, hissing and birthing small smokey trails. The pit stretched the width of the road save for the thinnest of ledges along either side. It ran for about twenty metres. Faz half-turned like he might run back, but Piltred’s steps grew louder.

Reyes stood at the pit’s edge, her head spinning. Only a few metres from the corrosive green pool, the pit lined with a blue membrane that kept the liquid contained. She fired her blaster into the sludge.

“You think you can shoot it?”

“Anything’s worth a try once.”

Piltred strode into view behind them. The weak light caught the scratches on his steel armour. It reflected off his bleeding eyes.

Faz Went rattled. “Including trying to swim?”

CHAPTER 8

A metre-tall brick wall ran around the roof’s edge. Sparks lifted Hat, holding him beneath her arm. Out of her robe for now and still hidden from view.

The gang, a ragtag mob of five creatures, gathered around a chrome speeder pointed at the inside of the dome. They were work for hire. They got their hands dirty and received poor compensation for the pleasure. The largest of them stood slightly shorter than the emaciated gloyner they’d taken captive, but he had the girth of a nalk tree. His victim, as skinny as a rope, had clearly not eaten in days. The bags beneath her glazed stare suggested she’d not slept in longer.

Wasters and insomniacs lined the alley. Some hung out in doorways; others leaned against the wall. They all sat on the dirty floor, and whether intentional or not, they all did what was good for them; they minded their own business. If only Shalk shared their wisdom. He snuck into the tight alley, and Sparks sighed. Still ten metres away from the rough gang, but from the way he leaned forward, he had plans to rectify that, and soon.

“By all rights, I should leave him down there. He’s been a prick, and if he wants to spend his time saving every being who’s landed themselves in shit, then let him.” Hat jolted with her humourless laugh. “At least it’ll keep him busy.”

Hat twisted and looked up at her.

“I know, I know. He’s a prick, and because of him, we now have only eleven minutes to get to Greeta, but I made him a promise, right? He might have the morals of a toad, but that doesn’t mean we need to sink to his level. Hopefully Greeta can hold on a little longer.” She sighed. “Greeta and Reyes.”

Nuzzling against her side, Hat let out a low whine. He worried about them too.

Each of the five gang members carried a rifle. Four trained them on the gloyner while the fifth, the nalk tree, dragged the emaciated creature and threw her down close to the bike. She fell like a corpse.

Stepping closer, Shalk ducked into an empty doorway, a manticolt cowering away from him like his presence burned. Although, did he really think the shadowy recess hid his sand-coloured skin?

One of the gang, a small green goblin thing with glistening skin, clung to their rifle with both hands and cast a glance down the alley. Aware of Shalk or simply paranoid? They’d find out soon enough. Unless Shalk did the sensible thing and walked away. What else could they do for the defeated gloyner? Surely even he’d realise that.

The nalk tree snapped one end of a pair of handcuffs to the speeder’s handlebars. They clanged against the metal and locked with a definitive click! While the gloyner watched on through an apathetic gaze, Shalk poked his head from the doorway. He pulled back in when the small goblin glanced his way again.

Adrenaline lifted the hairs on Sparks’ arms. She wriggled her fingers and rocked from side to side.

Nalk tree lifted the gloyner’s limp arm and snapped the other end of the cuffs around her wrist. It locked in place with another click!

Sparks sagged and leaned on the wall for support when Shalk stepped from the shadows, armed only with his bare hands. One of which he thrust in the gang’s direction. “Halt!”

The goblin’s snorted laugh morphed into a tittering giggle. The others grunted, snorted, and shook their heads at one another. Nalk tree rested his large hands on his wide hips, his deep voice rolling through the tight alley. “What?”

His head high, his chest pulled back. Each of Shalk’s actions gave Sparks the exact opposite reaction. Cause and effect. His hubris about to lead to her humiliation. If she got involved … “I said stop!”

The goblin’s voice came out as a shrill titter. “Oh, we heard you.”

“Why say what, then?”

Nalk tree took over. “That was your one chance to change your mind.”

“I think you’re the one who needs to change their mind.”

Sparks shook her head. “Fucking hell, Shalk. Have you been anywhere but Flanterian in your life? Read the room. Wind your neck in.”

The gloyner attached to the bike waited patiently while the goblin led the other four in turning their weapons on Shalk. Nalk tree pressed the speeder’s starter and grinned. “In thirty seconds”—he pointed at his own reflection—“that speeder will burst through the dome and out into the death zone. We have no beef with you, and nothing to gain from your demise, so we’ll give you that time to change your mind.”

Weaponless, they’d shoot him down in the blink of an eye, but Shalk still held his ground. Standing with his feet shoulder-width apart, he clenched his fists. The goblin giggled again.

Ten minutes until Greeta hanged. Sparks should just leave. Let Shalk make up his own mind. Decide his own fate. The stupid fucker stepped forwards a pace.

The nalk tree’s deep voice joined the thrum of the speeder’s thrusters. “Twenty-five seconds.”

“Jeez!” Sparks lowered Hat to the roof. “Wait here.” She opened her mini computer, entered a command, and counted down in her mind. Three. Two.

On one, Sparks jumped onto the perimeter wall and launched herself from the building. The wind dragged her hood back as she fell. The drone arrived exactly on time, and she caught the bar running beneath its chassis. She dive-bombed the gang and punted the goblin through the mirrored dome.

Releasing the drone, she dropped as it slammed into the face of another member with the crunch of shattering bones. Mulched cartilage. Her rifle swung from its strap while she drew her blaster. The best fucking droneball player in the galaxy. She didn’t need rapid fire.

She dropped the two remaining gang members carrying blasters with two quick shots. She fired on the nalk tree, her blast smashing into the chrome speeder’s side. The gloyner seemed utterly oblivious to the surrounding war.

The nalk tree drew his gun. “I’m warning you. This wi—”

Sparks shot him in the face and then shot the handcuff’s chain, freeing the gloyner.

Shalk’s jaw fell. “Well, fuck me.”

“No thanks.”

“That was impressive.”

“You!” The goblin burst back through the mirrored dome, leading with a pointing finger. “The bount—”

A flare of blue burst from the speeder’s exhaust. It lurched forwards, slammed into the goblin, and dragged him back out into the death zone.

Sparks’ cheeks bulged as she blew out. She pulled her hood back up, adjusted her glasses, and scanned the wasters and insomniacs cluttering the alley like gargoyles. If they registered what the goblin had said, they didn’t care.

Offering his hand to the captured gloyner, Shalk grinned and helped her stand. “A-are you okay?”

The emaciated creature’s apathy made way for a gnarly sneer. “No, I’m not okay. All right?”

“Huh?” Shalk stepped back.

“What am I supposed to do now?” She went to scratch her cheek and missed. On her second attempt, she dragged her dirty fingernails down her gaunt face. Her hand shook, and her voice warbled. “I’ve not slept in over a week, and I have no credits left.”

“We can get you home.”

“Home?”

“Flanterian.”

“I’ve not been there in years. And from what I hear, there’s not much left to return to.”

Shalk threw a narrowed side-eye at Sparks. And he still didn’t know she’d supplied the Ringdell Group with the missile.

Throwing up his hands, Shalk let them fall against his thighs with a slap! “There must be somewhere you can go?”

“There is.” The rage slipped from her features like her tired face didn’t have the strength to hold on to her fury. She pointed at him with a still trembling hand. “And don’t try to stop me!” Her voice cracked. “I’m done. Allow me this one choice. It’s the only dignity I have left.”

The gloyner turned her back on them, but the inside of the mirrored dome revealed her slack features. The bags beneath her eyes. Her listless gaze. She stepped closer to her own reflection until she became one with it. Until, together, they left Stargart for good.

“Damn!”

Sparks reached out to Shalk, who tensed at her touch. “This place is brutal. It chews beings up and spits them out again.”

Shalk dropped his head and rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger. He loosed a long sigh, his marine-blue eyes glazed. One side of his mouth lifted in a smirk.

“What’s so funny?”

He nodded at her robe. At the embroidered logo covering her left breast. “The Tickle Nipple?”

“Fuck off!”

His mirth fell from his face. Very little to laugh about in that moment. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blow your cover with the bounty hunters.”

“S’okay.”

Skittering paws, nails against the concrete ground, Hat charged into the alley and jumped at Shalk, who caught him and held him close.

“I came back for you because you didn’t rat me out to the bounty hunters.”

Shalk dipped a single nod. “Thank you.”

“And I made you a promise to get you back to Flanterian. Now we need to hurry. I know where Greeta is, but we only have nine minutes to get there. Come on.”

CHAPTER 9

“So the plan is to get Greeta and get out of here.” Sparks jumped right, avoiding a chaotic gang who exchanged words like fired blasts.

Shalk jumped left.

They came back together on the other side, moving through the port, driven by the same purpose. At last. “We have eight minutes to get to her.”

The dazzling glare surrounding them forced Shalk into a permanent scowl as he scanned ahead. Taller than most beings, he had a clearer line of sight. “How long will it take to reach her?”

“At this pace?” They matched the crowd’s quick march. Go against the flow and you either got trampled or noticed. And if the strange little goblin had recognised her, then others would too. Act like everyone else, and her flimsy disguise might just work. Might. “Five minutes.”

Hat beneath his arm and covered by some of his shirt, Shalk nodded and continued scowling into the distance. He ducked a low-flying surveillance drone, the machine’s intention boring into Sparks as it sailed overhead. They were looking for a hessian robe, not the silky number she currently wore.

“This doesn’t mean I like you, by the way. We ain’t friends, and I still think you’re a little troll.”

“You think I want a friend? And if I did, you think I’d pick you? You’re a pain in my arse. A burden at best. I pity you.”

“I don’t want your pity.”

“You don’t have a say in the matter. And you need it.” Sparks ducked through the legs of a giant insectoid. An overblown praying mantis, its spindly brown feet ended with pointed toes like stiletto heels. Shalk met her on the other side. “And don’t forget, Shalk, I’ve seen how you approach five mercenaries equipped with nothing but a distinct lack of charm and wit.”

“Which is why I need a blaster.”

Her rifle swung away from her body and slapped back against her abdomen. The weight of her blaster clung to her hip. “You’ll have to settle for my pity. My blaster’s staying with me and the ship’s starter button.”

“You think I’d leave you here if I could?”

The skin at the back of her neck clenched from another approaching drone. She dropped her gaze. “No. I think you’d shoot me in the back, claim the bounty on me and Hat, and then leave me here!”

Hat poked his head from Shalk’s shirt and licked his neck. He smiled and shrugged. “You’re probably right. Not about Hat though. I like him. And I’d shoot you in the face, not in the back. It’d be much more fun.” He laughed and pretended to pull away from the furball’s attention. “Where did Hat come from, anyway?”

“He just turned up one day. Appeared from the desert on Acoolter. He was probably out there chasing stoovas and got lost. Always a sucker for a waif or stray, Reyes took him in.”

“She has a thing for sad little creatures, then?” Shalk patted the furball and covered him over again. “No offence, Hat.”

The beings around Sparks blocked her line of sight. In her mind’s eye, the bounty-hunting reptiles lined the road’s sides. They stood waiting for the first sight of her and Hat. Ready to pounce. It joined with the images of Reyes and Faz Went being hunted by Piltred on Flanterian. But until she knew the truth of either situation, she needed to carry on. Focus on the task at hand rather than react to the problems of her imagination.

Another intrusion of surveillance drones sailed overhead. Ships left and entered through the dome. If it came to it, maybe she could hack one and force them to crash. There would be few better diversions than a burning ship slamming into a crowd, even if it increased the bounty on her head. “I wanted to eat him.”

Hat whimpered, and Shalk pulled him closer.

Smirking, Sparks batted away the comment. “I’m joking. You’re too ugly to eat.”

Hat buried his head beneath Shalk’s shirt, showing Sparks his rear end.

“That’s an improvement.” They had six minutes to get to Greeta. Hopefully, they’d be there in less than four.

“I had to help that gloyner, you know?”

“Try to help them. And you didn’t.”

“I should have done more when I was on Flanterian. I hid while the Ringdell Group slaughtered everyone.”

Walking in step with Shalk, much like she did when she travelled anywhere with Faz Went, Sparks hid her face from another passing drone. “What else could you have done?”

“Fought.”

“And what happened to those who fought on Flanterian?”

“They …” He cleared his throat.

“You saw the worst of the invasion?”

“And did nothing.” He clenched his right fist and waved it in the air. A being coming towards them did a double take, trying to see if the gesture presented a threat. “I did nothing when they forced my friends to drink pirenze.”

“You saw that?”

He pressed the back of his fist to his nose and nodded. “I saw them bury the children in wet cement and did nothing.”

“Of those who were hiding, did any rush out to help?”

“Many.”

“Oh.” Another intrusion of drones. A gap opened up in the crowd. No bounty hunters on either side. “What happened to them?”

“The same as those who tried to fight.”

“And you would have died too.”

“Maybe.”

“No maybe about it.” Her laugh fell dead. “I just watched you confront that gang in the alley, remember?”

His face blank, Shalk lifted Hat with his shrug. “Maybe. I joined the rest of the cowards who ran to the palace and hid. That’s where we were when you lowered the force field.”

“I wish I hadn’t.”

“I know.”

“And the missile?” Sparks winced, but she had to get it off her chest. He had to know the truth.

“You had something to do with that?”

She kept her head down. Several more drones zipped by. They had four and a half minutes to get to Greeta. “We thought we were helping. We stole it for the Ringdell Group.”

“That didn’t kill anyone.”

Sparks halted, only to be shoved forward by a giant knee slamming into her back. She jogged to catch up with Shalk and rubbed her spine. “No one?”

“When the shield went down, we ran.”

They parted again for a trio of manticolts. A gap in the crowd opened to Sparks’ right. A cursory glance, nothing more, but the sides of the street remained clear of hunters. “Ran?”

“Fled. Got away from the missile’s radius. If anything, it did us a favour. It cleansed the city of the Ringdell Group’s previous horrors.” He knocked his head with his free hand. “Nothing will banish the memories, but at least we no longer had the evidence. The …” His neck bobbed with his gulp. “The kids were the hardest to witness.”

“We saw that.” Sparks squeezed his forearm. “I can’t imagine how it must have felt to be there.”

“But we went back in after they’d dropped the missile. Tried to reclaim the palace.”

“Which is where the other dead bodies came from?”

“Right.”

Three minutes to get to Greeta. They’d have to cut her down and run. Did Shalk have it in him to make it back to the ship? They’d have seconds before the bounty hunters closed in.

“We took the fight to Piltred. It didn’t go well. Before meeting him, I couldn’t comprehend a being so violent. So hateful. So sadistic.”

And Sparks had left Reyes and Faz Went alone with him in the city.

Shalk shook his head. “He took pleasure in our annihilation. He laughed, that deep grating chuckle of his, while he ripped us apart. He sang—”

“Sang?”

“You’ve not heard it?”

“Nope.”

“It’s awful. Like he’s channeling the mournful wails of every being he’s ever slayed. He strung us up. He—”

“Wait!” Sparks held her hand towards him. She pointed at the gallows ahead. Greeta with the rope around her neck. “We’re here.”

They kept pace with the crowd, and Shalk leaned closer to her, keeping his voice down. “What’s up?”

“Apart from seeing her hanging, you mean?”

“Your reaction … what is it?”

“Something’s wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“I don’t think that’s Greeta.”

“It doesn’t look like her?”

“It does. Exactly like her. But it doesn’t act like her. According to Faz Went, she’d be turning the air blue. But look at them. They seem—”

“Bored.”

And they did. Minutes away from being hanged, they looked like they were queuing for a loaf of bread. “Exactly.”

“So what do we do?”

Sparks veered left. Her heart kicked, and she dropped her head, letting her hood hang down as she passed a fedora-wearing reptile. She broke from the crowd and ducked into an alley.

The hunter, like most beings around, seemed more focused on the imminent hanging than anything else.

Still clinging to Hat, Shalk slipped into the shadows beside her.

“I think we should wait here.” Sparks rested her hand on her blaster. “I’ve got a clear line of sight on the rope should we need it.”

“And you can hit it?”

“I can shoot the back legs from a fly twenty miles away.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Yes, Shalk, I can hit it.” The large clock by the gallows counted down past ninety seconds.

Could she make the shot? Were she in a droneball booth, she would have taken it with her eyes closed and nailed the drone eleven times out of ten. And with the rope being almost stationary, it should be easier to shoot. But the droneball booth didn’t carry the same stakes. The life of Faz Went’s best friend hung in the balance. The being who’d paid the price for Sparks’ bad decision to come here. One of many who’d paid the price for her foolishness.

Whirring servos came from Sparks’ right. Her heart fluttered and then instantly sank. A Pavlovian response to an approaching mech. Reyes. No. The lumbering steel brute had nothing on Reyes’ mech. Its feet cracked against the concrete with each step. Until they didn’t.

“Shit!” Sparks moved left and right, but the brute blocked her line of sight. “I need a better angle.”

The countdown clock dropped past twenty seconds.

She had to climb the mech. She’d blow her cover when she shot the rope, anyway. Might as well blow it a few seconds earlier. Also, it’d get her closer to the shot. But what if it wasn’t Greeta? What if she climbed the mech too early and blew her cover for nothing? Fell for the trap. Took the bait.

Five seconds.

Sparks broke away. Shalk called after her, “What are you doing?”

“Stop!”

Sparks halted. The call came from the gallows. She tucked back in behind the mech. The clock had stopped on four seconds. A being dressed in a black robe and hood loosened the noose and freed Greeta-not-Greeta. The crowd booed and hissed. Some threw rocks.

Greeta-not-Greeta climbed down from the gallows. Descended the ladder to the ground and followed six hooded guards as they led them away from the packed street.

Sparks jumped when Shalk tapped her shoulder. “So we go back to Flanterian?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“She has to be somewhere on this planet.”

“Huh?”

“The shapeshifter couldn’t copy her without being in her presence.”

“So we’re here for longer?”

“You’re not the one with the massive bounty on your head. We have to find her, Shalk. I have to find her.” Even if that meant leaving Reyes and Faz Went on Flanterian for longer with Piltred.

CHAPTER 10

How much longer before they put her out of her misery? The steel cables tightened like they could read her thoughts. They kept her suspended in the middle of the room. They bit into her wrists and ankles. The needle wriggled in the crook of her arm, waves of nausea radiating through her body, banishing the cool nourishment that had flooded her veins.

While her body temperature had lowered, the floor tiles grew hotter. The rising heat pushed against her back, drawing yet more sweat from her skin, turning her already damp fur sodden. She’d not been in here long, but she’d also not seen a surer sign of her captor’s sadism. Flood her veins with the relief she sought. Remove the cloying thirst clogging her throat. The gnawing hunger sending her head into a spin. Sate her, and then drop her onto the burning tiles to cook alive like a bug on a hotplate.

The needle withdrew with a gentle squelch and another sharp sting. The cables loosened, dropping her lower, holding her over the heated tiles, bobbing like a fly in a web.

Thwip! The cables released.

She yelled as she fell. She hit the floor hard. A thirty-centimetre drop, but it drove the air from her lungs and sent a deep ache twisting through the base of her back. She’d braced in expectation of being cooked alive.

“What the?” The tiles were cool. Cold even. She sat up and rubbed her wrists and ankles. The rough cables had encircled them with stinging bracelets of cuts. She gulped. The action more fluent than before. Her tongue had returned to its normal size. She pressed her palm to her forehead. The headache had gone, the lit panel four tiles away much easier to tolerate.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

She threw a raised middle finger at the ceiling. “Fuck you!” She sprayed saliva like she had it to spare. “Just let me die, you fucking fucks!” Actual tears from replenished tear ducts ran down her cheeks. “Just let me die.”

Hunching over onto all fours, she wound back and drove her head at the tiled floor.

Fzzt!

The shock hit her left elbow and sent her across the room while the lit panel jumped three tiles to the right.

“Just let me fucking die!” She tried to head-butt the floor again. Again, the shock, birthed from the tile four away from the bench, slammed into her. Like the light, she jumped right. Unlike the light, she slammed into the far wall. Her ankle throbbed from the second shock, the skin raw from the slight electric burn.

She moved closer to the shocker and farther from the lit square.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

Just two tiles from the shocker. She wound her head back again.

Fzzt!

She pissed herself. Enough moisture in her bladder to lose control.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

The dark room grew hotter. Sweat beaded her brow.

Her elbow and ankle stung from the shocks. Her salty sweat burned her bracelets of cuts.

“The only way out of here is—”

“To touch that square.”

“Or tell us where it is.”

“Yeah, right!” She dragged herself closer to the glowing tile. She reached out, and it jumped to the other side of the room.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

The room’s heat had already dragged much of the moisture from her body. She barked a dry cough. “You know I can’t touch that fucking square!”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

She dragged herself closer to the square and closer to the tile that sent out the electric shocks. She reached for the glowing panel. It jumped across the room.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

That’s what they think. But with the shocker within reaching distance, there might be another way.

CHAPTER 11

“There’s no other way to find her. We’re done. We have to leave.” On his tiptoes, Shalk stood taller than most in the crowd. They were on the move again, the gallows empty, the crowd deprived of their thirst for an execution.

Sparks waved him away. “You go if you want.”

“Without my ship’s starter?”

“My ship now. My starter.”

Although he made a show of scanning the crowd like he saw nothing, Shalk lingered for a second too long in the direction the shapeshifter had gone. A slight wince at the side of his right eye. The slightest tell. “We have no way of finding her.”

He clearly didn’t want to help, but the bounty-hunting lizards had shown her how to search the crowd. It might be dangerous to expose herself, but what choice did she have? Shalk had planted his flag in the ground. For him, the search ended here. “Believe me, Shalk, there’s nothing I want more than to go back to Flanterian.”

“Well, let’s go, then.”

“I can’t go back without Greeta. As much as I want to see Reyes. If I leave Greeta now, I might as well be the one putting her to death.”

“So now you have a conscience?” He scanned again and again; he threw one too many glances after the shapeshifter.

“You know I could have left you when you followed that gloyner.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t. I delayed getting to Greeta—”

“Not Greeta.”

“Because I knew you were running headlong to your death.”

“Yet you didn’t know you were sentencing my planet to the same?”

She inhaled through her nostrils. Counted down from three. Kept her tone level. “All I want to do is get Greeta and get back to Flanterian. To find Reyes. But I stepped off that path to bail you out.”

“I wouldn’t be in this shithole were it not for you. In fact, I’d still be in the royal palace under the protection of an impenetrable force field.”

“Not so impenetrable.”

He glanced after the shapeshifter, the crowd still cutting around them for now. “What’s your point?”

“Helping you went against what I wanted to do, but I did it anyway.”

Shalk’s marine-blue eyes narrowed. His mouth opened a little and then closed again. She was on her own.

Sparks elbowed her way through the crowd. Cut through the flow, aiming for the gamer den on the side of the road and the streetlight beside it. She had to get high enough to see for herself.

Before she broke from cover, Shalk caught her silk robe and dragged her back. “I have a line of sight to the shapeshifter.”

Sparks scowled at him. “You were happy to keep that to yourself.”

“I’m not convinced it will help us.”

“But you know we have to try.”

“You have to try. I have to go with you. Either that or I need to hitch a lift home somehow.”

“So we’re going after them?”

“It looks that way.”

“Can I trust you?”

“Clearly not enough to give me a blaster.”

“Stop screwing about, Shalk. If I have to spend the entire time second-guessing you, I’d rather do this on my own. Can I trust you?”

“I don’t like this plan.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Shalk bounced on his toes. He peered over the crowd again towards the shapeshifter. “I’ll stay on its tail for as long as I can.”

Sparks dipped her head once. “Thank you.”

Still clinging to Hat, still keeping him covered well enough to protect him, Shalk headed after the shifter, and Sparks walked in his wake. Much easier when he led the way. Hopefully, it would lead them to Greeta. Hopefully Shalk would be true to his word.

CHAPTER 12

Just give up, darling. You’re done.

“No!”

A small asphalt ledge ran down either side of the corrosive pit. As Piltred charged, Faz Went took the left side while Reyes went right. Ten centimetres wide at best. She pressed her palms against the rough wall. For what good it did. Push even a fraction too hard and she’d overbalance.

Go for a swim. Get it over with. At least it’ll be quick. It’ll be much worse if he gets you. I’d hate for you to suffer.

The small stones where the bottom of the wall met the narrow ledge hopped and bounced like popping corn. Many took a prophetic journey down the side of the pit and dissolved on impact with the fluid.

Reyes slid her front foot ahead and dragged her following foot behind. She’d shuffled five of the twenty metres by the time Piltred reached the pit’s edge.

Just jump, you disappointment. You’re no marine. You’re an embarrassment. Die now!

“No!”

Faz Went kept his head down, crow’s feet stretching from the corners of his eyes like he too tried to shut out Piltred’s manifested demons.

Piltred paced back and forth. Ten feet tall, his thick and scratched armour made him as heavy as a tank. His steps ran through the ground into the soles of Reyes’ boots. Each one threatened to crack the ledge beneath her. Every gap in his suit offered a window to his deep purple scarred flesh. His throat flap spluttered. He swiped in her direction, his thick fingers splayed and closing around the air like he might be able to grab her. His rattling snarls grew giddy as he jumped up and down. Every landing sent ripples through the pool. The liquid sloshed back and forth. Just a drop of the stuff would eat through her boots to her bones.

Click!

Something snapped behind her. Reyes shuffled forwards as part of the ledge sheared away, and a chunk slid into the pool. The splash-back landed centimetres behind her. The liquid chewed into the base of the wall and what remained of the thin asphalt path.

The Faradis was your fault.

Reyes gasped.

“It’s not real, Reyes.” Faz Went remained locked in his scowling wince. His next words delivered to the heavens. “Please let it end.”

Clamping her jaw like the force of her bite could drive away her dad’s voice, Reyes continued on. She slid her front foot ahead and dragged her trailing one behind.

Reyes reached the halfway point as Faz Went jumped clear of the pit. He jogged a few metres farther on like he could outrun Piltred’s abuse. Like he might get clear of the monster’s range. He aimed his blaster at the brute but lowered it a second later. The shot would only make the monster worse.

Throwing his enormous arms up and down, Piltred jumped on the spot. He sent an earthquake rumble through the ground. Reyes kept her feet on the vibrating ledge, sliding one foot and then the next. Stand on one leg and she’d lose her balance in a heartbeat.

That wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen.

The green liquid foamed with its churn, swaying from side to side, sloshing up the sides of the blue membrane.

Piltred opened his black hole of a mouth. He leaned forward at the waist and loosed a rattling roar. The rush of air hit Reyes in the back. She slipped.

Faz Went reached out. “No!”

She landed on her arse on the ledge. The slamming contact sent a shock up her spine. Pressing down on either side, she remained on her small perch, the sloshing liquid almost hypnotic as it swayed from side to side.

Let go. It’s over. You were never meant to be a marine, anyway.

Reyes tried to find purchase, her heels slipping against the pit’s edge. She took short and sharp breaths, accelerating towards a panic attack as Piltred loosed another blusterous roar. His breath reeked of rotting meat and vomit.

Give up. Recognise when you’ve lost.

“No! You wouldn’t say that. Ever!” She turned sideways and brought up her front foot so her toe pointed where she intended to go.

Just give up, darling.

Piltred screamed and stamped. A toddler throwing a tantrum. A wild and enraged animal. His scratched armour clanged and screeched from where the plates rubbed together. His throat flap rumbled. Fresh rivers of blood ran down his mask’s cheeks.

Reyes’ thigh shook from where she tried to leverage her bodyweight to stand. She pressed against the wall on her right and grunted. Her knee burned like her patella might pop off. She yelled through gritted teeth. Dug deep for that final push.

Give up.

“Yeargh!” Standing, she brought her back leg up with her.

“Woo!” Faz Went punched the air. “You can do it, Reyes.”

You can’t.

She slid her front foot ahead and dragged the back foot after. Front. Back. Front. Back.

Locking into the sloshing fluid’s rhythm, Reyes passed the spot in the pit’s membrane where she’d fired her rifle. As the fluid lifted on Piltred’s end, it dropped on hers, exposing the tear she’d made. But not a tear. A hole. An expanding hole.

You might think you’re nearly there, but you still have a long way to go. You must be tired.

Reyes jumped clear of the pit and into Faz Went’s arms.

He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tight. “Don’t do that to me again! I thought you were done for.”

“You and Dad both.”

Faz Went knocked the side of his head. “It’s not real, remember?”

“I remember.”

Letting her go, Faz Went’s arms fell limp at his sides. He fixed on the pacing Piltred. The caged animal on the other side. The armoured monster took several steps back and charged. “Oh, fuck.”

Stumbling back, Faz Went fell just as Piltred halted on the other side of the pit and yelled again.

Reyes helped him stand. “He can’t make that jump. Not weighed down like he is. But we need to go before he sees.”

“Sees what?” Faz Went dusted himself down.

“The liquid’s draining. Through the hole I shot in the membrane.”

“Draining?”

“There’s something beneath it.”

“Sewers?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“And he doesn’t know about them?”

“Who knows? But even if he does, what are the chances he can access them? And surely it’s free of cameras down there?”

Throwing a series of wild air-punches, Piltred jumped up and down again.

Faz Went shuddered, and his gills rattled. “I’ll try anything to get away from that. But how do we find the sewers? I’ve not seen an entrance anywhere.”

“We find somewhere where there are a shitload of lavatories.”

“The stadium?”

Reyes nodded. “I reckon that’s the best place to start. They have to drain off somewhere, right? Come on, let’s go.”

As they set off, Piltred turned his back on them, dropped his head, and sprinted away.

Breaking into a jog, Reyes waved Faz Went on. “By the time he finds a better route, I want to be long gone.”

CHAPTER 13

They remained on the shapeshifter and their crew’s tail, following them from the busy main strip into Stargart’s industrial area. The alleys were as narrow as those leading out into the death zone, but instead of hotels and casinos, they were flanked by warehouses and garages; the businesses that facilitated the main strip’s garish nightmare. And because of the dome’s mirrored underside, they were as subjected to its blinding glare, even if they added little to the glow.

The dome gave Stargart a finite footprint, so any growing business had only one plane on which they could expand. They passed warehouses that stood on a patch of land only a few metres square, but they shot up into the sky like chimneys. Plain windowless walls, they made Sparks dizzy to be so close and try to see their tops. But none were as tall as the Grandest.

Although they’d left the chaos of the main strip behind, Sparks’ shoulders still burned from where she’d slammed into so many beings in the bustling crowd. She rubbed where it hurt, the lighter and thinner fabric of the Tickle Nipple gown a much more practical garment for Stargart’s climate.

Shalk carried Hat, taking on the burden of his body temperature and protecting his identity. He rolled his eyes every chance he got, but had he hugged the small creature any tighter, he’d surely suffocate him. From the way Hat’s tongue hung from his mouth, he enjoyed the tight squeeze as much as the protesting-too-much gloyner.

Even though Shalk whispered, his voice echoed off the tall walls, chasing after the shifter and their small army of guards. “How much quieter do you think it will get?”

Her head bowed, Sparks twisted past a couple of oncoming beings, their arms loaded with linen and cushions. “Hopefully not much more.”

“You don’t think it’s a good thing?”

“It’s easier to hide when you’re one of thousands. Especially dressed as I am.” She clapped her hand over the embroidered pocket. But she’d take the reduced digital interference. It had now dropped to little more than a background hum as worker droids focused on their menial tasks. They stacked shelves, shot up chimneys to retrieve stock, fixed vehicles …

A steady stream of ships continued to exit and enter above. Those leaving flew at their own reflections. They must have prayed they didn’t birth a physical manifestation in the form of an incoming vessel on point of exit.

Shalk’s neck stretched from where he stared up with her. His mouth hung open. “How aren’t there more accidents?”

“Search me.”

“But how would you even go about flying in or out of this place?”

“Close your eyes and hope for the best.”

“You’ve done it?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. I think I’d rather land outside, hold my breath, and run at the dome.”

“And just hope you don’t get nailed by a speeder on its way out.”

“Yeah.”

Sparks snorted a laugh. “That little cretin had it coming.”

Laughing too, Shalk nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m worried about Reyes.”

“So worried you left her on Flanterian and came here?”

“I had to.”

“So she’s in danger?”

Sparks shook her head. “Dunno.”

“Is she capable of looking after herself?”

“She’s one of the most capable women I’ve met. She’s a force of nature.”

“Then you need to let her do her thing while you do yours.”

They rounded the same left bend the shifter and their small crew had followed. They caught them taking another turn a few hundred metres ahead, once again vanishing from sight.

They passed the largest building they’d seen since leaving the main strip. Its open entrance revealed a workshop, most of the space taken up by a stark white freighter a few hundred metres long and almost as wide. The entire ship crawled with a plague of mechanic droids. It sent a twist through Sparks’ spine, but not a single machine had any interest in her. “Did I tell you how Greeta got herself into this trouble?”

Shalk shrugged.

“It was my fault. Something I need to fix. Greeta came here as a favour to Faz Went.”

“Your friend on Flanterian with Reyes?”

“Yeah. And he was here as a favour to me. I entered a droneball tournament, which is what started all this nonsense.”

“I lost my planet over a silly game?”

“You’d lost your planet before then.”

“But you made sure.”

“If you like.”

Although his lips tightened and his nostrils flared, Shalk conceded the point with a slight dip of his head. “I don’t like, but go on.”

“It was Greeta who found out the Ringdell Group was behind everything.”

“Yet you still worked for them?”

“She found that out and told Faz Went, but then she vanished. And I didn’t get back to Faz until it was too late. By then we’d already lowered the force field over the palace.”

“So we’re here to help a friend of a friend? Are you one of them who’d give a stranger the shirt off your back?”

“She wouldn’t be in this mess were it not for me. It’s the right thing to do.”

“I’m surprised you know how to make that distinction.”

Sparks’ right eye shut against her will. She grabbed Shalk and pulled him around so they both had their back to the approaching drone. A small surveillance bot, it sailed overhead and paid them little mind.

“How did you know that was coming?” Shalk led them on again, around another bend. They caught the back of the shifter’s crew just before they vanished, and delved deeper into what now looked like Stargart’s residential sector.

“It’s a long story.”

They passed a stack of modest grey steel pods arranged like a retro computer game. Windowless and octagonal, they’d stacked them like honeycomb. Hundreds of small dwellings, each with their own doors accessed by a series of ladders. A place for the workers to rest before they returned to their labours. Little time for leisure on Stargart. Here, credits flowed day and night. The scuff of their steps punctuated the silence.

“That story?”

Sparks knocked on the side of her head. “I had an accident. They put a plate in my head.”

“That makes sense.”

“Fuck you.” Sparks showed him the back of her middle finger.

“You wish.”

“I really don’t.”

“All right. Bit strong.”

“You deserved it.”

“Fair.”

“Since I’ve had the plate fitted, I’ve developed some kind of digital intuition.”

“You speak to machines? Dr. Dronelittle.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

A scream came from one of the pods. Ten storeys up, it rang through the residential sector. “And no, I don’t speak to machines. It’s not a discourse. They speak to me.”

“Like confession?”

“Exactly.”

“And what do these machines say to you? Forgive me, father, for I have sinned?”

“That would suggest I’m a willing participant. They thrust upon me whatever they’ve done. Or what they intend to do. I can read their programming and their intentions, which rarely deviate once set in motion.”

“Which is how you sensed that drone?” He pointed behind them.

“Right. Surveillance drones are rarely an issue. It’s actually quite handy to know they’re coming.”

“Especially when you’re carrying around such a valuable skin suit.”

Sparks raised an eyebrow. “But it becomes a real pain when walking through somewhere like a purple-light district. Or even worse, being inside a brothel.” She screwed up her face. “Would you want to watch a mental recreation of three mandulus being tied, smothered, and having their feet tickled while they’re milked dry?”

“Eww!”

“I know, right? It’s sticky, messy, and never fails to bring up the taste of bile. Now I’m not one to kink-shame, but I’d rather not experience perversities that are not my own. And then there are the others …”

“Others?” They rounded a bend just as the shifter and crew vanished into a small building.

“On Acoolter, when we were trying to get weapons to get to Flanterian …”

“I’m still not going to thank you for that.”

“I wasn’t asking you to. But we tried to buy supplies from a sadistic crew who had a freighter called the Pisstake.”

“And was it?”

“It was awful. Colonisers ran the ship. Cowards who landed on planets that were less able to defend themselves. They used droids to enslave beings. We got close to those droids. They showed me every gruesome detail. How they’d touch down and send out an automated army to break a species until the only option they had was to come aboard and accept the work. They tore families apart. Tortured them. Murdered. And the worst thing of all?”

“Go on.”

“To make sure they broke a civilisation as quickly as possible, they always started with the chil—”

Shalk showed her his large palm. “That’s enough.” His bottom lip wobbled. He filled his lungs and straightened his back, stretching to his full height.

They slowed as they drew closer to the building the shifter had entered. Small like the residential pods, but in the shape of a dome. Little more than an entrance that led to a flight of descending stairs. An embossed stone emblem hung over the door. A single line spiralling all the way to a star in its centre.

Shalk’s shoulders slumped, and his eyes narrowed. “What makes you so sure Greeta’s still alive?”

“So sure? I’m not. But I’m not certain she’s dead either, so I can’t give up on her. And I’m convinced they had the shifter in place as bait. Were they looking for me, Reyes, Faz … who knows? Maybe they want leverage with Greeta? Maybe she has something they need? I’m sure it will all make sense eventually.”

“And that’s enough?” He threw a limp hand towards the building. “To go in there, I mean?”

“I need to. Whether you join or not is on you.”

“But I’m not getting out of here on my own, am I? No weapon and no way to fly my ship without the starter.”

Sparks shrugged. “You could hitch a ride?”

“And get them to drop me off in the middle of the ruined city for Piltred to find? Yeah, right! And you’re sure you want to go down there?”

“I’m sure I don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“Not this time there’s not.” The second Sparks stepped onto the first step, an icy chill rushed up to meet her, lighting her skin with gooseflesh more than any machine ever could.

Shalk stepped in behind her. His voice raced ahead, plunging into the depths. “Fuck me, why does this feel like we’re walking to our deaths?”

CHAPTER 14

Descending into darkness, Sparks’ stomach lurched with every drop like she might fall. Until the next step didn’t come. She tapped the floor with one foot and then the other. The stairs had become a ramp. Waving her hands out in front of her like feelers, she led them into the darkness until she reached a rough and warm sandstone wall. The path turned one hundred and eighty degrees and continued its steady decline.

It had been impossible to see the glow from the stairs, but now they were close, it dazzled her.

“Jeez!” Shalk joined her at the top of the next sloping pathway. “What is it?”

“Fungus maybe? Moss.” The growth covered the walls and ceiling like a rash. Bioluminescent, it cast the place in a spectral green hue.

“You think it’s safe?”

“Hopefully it’s safer than walking blind.” Sparks shrugged. “Come on.”

Gravity on her side, Sparks led them on, her heavy steps amplified in the enclosed space. Shalk’s too. Hat followed behind with the slight click-click of his nails against the stone ground.

The ceiling was at least eight feet above her, yet Sparks still ducked when they passed beneath the fungus. Streaked with thick veins, they throbbed like they could burst at any moment.

A carbon copy of the turn above, the path doubled back on itself and ran deeper into the abyss, the floor getting rougher with every step. The shifter and their guards vanished around the bend ahead.

“You’re sure this is a good idea?”

Sparks shook her head. “No. But I can’t walk away from this. If Greeta was dead, why would they go to all the effort of putting a shapeshifter in her place and pretend to hang her? She’s alive. And for a good reason.”

“You just don’t know what that reason is yet?”

“That’s what I believe, anyway. If you want to go back, I understand.”

“It’s okay.”

“Is it?”

“No. But I understand.” Shalk shoved her in the back to encourage her on. “Keep going.”

Sparks’ digital intuition ran through her mind like white noise. Rang in her ears like tinnitus. Like a radio awaiting a signal. Always ready to hijack her at the most inconvenient moment.

“And there’s no surveillance?”

Like he could read her mind. Sparks shook her head. “Not from what I can tell. The last time my intuition was this quiet, we were having Greeta’s funeral on a tech-free planet.”

As with the previous bend, Sparks reached it first, just in time to catch the shifter and their crew vanishing ahead. They rounded another bend. This maddening descent felt like it might run all the way to hell. Or worse.

Deeper and deeper. They rounded bend after bend. Trudged down slope after slope. The same green glow lit their path, the veiny fungus clinging to the walls. As master of this subterranean domain, they were here with its permission, and they were now deep in its embrace. The shifter and their crew remained a consistent twenty metres ahead. Sparks continued leading the way, Shalk and Hat following behind.

Sparks’ head spun, and her lungs tightened. She drew deep breaths of the thin air. “Are you feeling that, Shalk?”

“A lack of oxygen?”

“Yeah.”

He sniffed. “And … methane?”

Sparks sniffed too, the air riper than before. “You think?”

“That’s what it smells like. Decomposition.”

If they had a canary, it’d be as dead as the stale air. If they carried a naked flame, the explosion would probably send them into orbit.

“At what point do we give up?”

Trudging down the next slope, Sparks rounded another bend and plunged deeper. “That’s not a choice I can make for you, Shalk.”

“At what point do you give up?”

“When I can’t go on. I owe Greeta that much.”

“If you can’t go on, that means you probably can’t go back either. Well past the point of no return …”

“I hope not. Hopef—” Instead of vanishing around the next bend, the shifter turned into a doorway about halfway down the slope.

Sparks jumped when Shalk touched her back. “Looks like we’ve reached our destination.”

They waited for about a minute before following the shifter and their crew. The same green bioluminescent glow spilled in through the doorway and lit the massive amphitheatre. A vast cubed room, it ran at least one hundred metres from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling.

Shalk leaned over her, but they pulled back together. He gestured at the doorway with his thumb. “What is this place?”

“Our final stop.”

“You want to go back?”

“After we’ve checked it out. We’ve come this far. Deal?”

Despite his hard frown, Shalk nodded. “Deal!”

The shifter and their crew pulled on breathing equipment before they vanished through another entrance on the other side of the room. A door slammed down behind them like a guillotine. Thunk!

“This is definitely the end of the line, then.” Sparks led them in, the floor bumpy with engravings. Carved symbols. A single image on repeat. Each one exactly the same size and distance from those around it. Each one contained by a three-metre square border. A printed pattern, it covered the entire floor. The same as the symbol over the door above ground. Spirals with a star in their centre. They filled their frames, their central stars about the same size as Sparks’ face. She slid her glasses back up her nose. The veiny fungus covered every centimetre of the high ceiling, but it still left most of the underground room in shadow. Lumps littered the floor away to their left.

As they drew closer, the shadowy lumps turned into bodies. Tens of bodies.

Sparks pressed the back of her hand to her nose like it could counteract the reek. “The stench makes more sense now.”

“And somehow smells worse.” The room’s acoustics accentuated Shalk’s warble. “What the fuck is this place?”

“It looks like some kind of—”

“Sacrificial chamber?”

Everything about the bodies repelled her, but Sparks continued closing in. They’d strung each corpse over a spiral. They’d tied the ropes to pegs on the tile’s corners, each one as taut as a glutarn string. Stretch the beings any tighter and their bodies would tear. Some had needles wedged in their eyes. Some had slit throats and wrists. The spirals caught the blood. Funnelled it into each central star. “You think this place belongs to the Ringdell Group?”

“Yep.” The green glow lit the tears in Shalk’s eyes.

“What makes you so sure?”

“They’re all younglings.”

Sparks gasped as she moved from body to body. “Shit. So they are. But how does that make them the Ring—?”

“Because of what they did on Flanterian.” Tears ran down his cheeks. “There’s still no surveillance?”

“Not machine surveillance, no. Look, Shalk, if you want to leave and wait for me outside … I know they all look like children, but I need to be sure Greeta’s not among them.”

“It’s fine.” He wiped the back of his nose with his sleeve.

“But is it?”

“No, but it’s nothing on what they’ve already done.”

They remained in the shadows where possible, peering down on every corpse. The next being still had the chubbiness of youth, the weak glow from the ceiling shining into its deep lacerations and reflecting off the marbled fat in its flesh. Its mouth stretched wide in a silent scream.

Shalk dragged in another wet sniff. “I’ve seen that logo before.”

“The spiral and star? Other than over the door to this place?”

“Yeah. I recognised it there, and it’s come back to me now. It was on the main strip. Over the doors of some of the bars, casinos, and brothels.”

They passed a decapitated mandulu. A youngling, its horns still intact on its liberated head. Not even they deserved this.

“I promised her, Sparks. I promised I’d do all I could.”

“Who?”

“Spirulanu.”

“Your partner?”

“And the kids’ mum. She was wonderful. The best gloyners had to offer. She fell ill and died. At least she didn’t have to see what happened to our planet. To our …”

Sparks rested a hand on his shaking back. He bounced with his sobs.

“Braly and Sphire. My twins. They were four when she died, and six when the Ringdell Group showed up. They took them like they took every other child. They forced us to watch them bury them in wet cement. To stand by while their little legs kicked as the life left them. Held us there until they stopped. Every one. Jarindeel’s boy kept going like he could breathe underwater. I’m sure it lasted for only a few seconds longer than every other child, but it felt like it would never end.”

Sparks put her arm around Shalk’s waist. The best she could do to comfort the tall being.

“With every child they plunged into cement, they chanted the same thing. They told them to look for the stars. When they were done, they said not all stars are in the sky.”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

Straightening with his deep inhalation, Shalk shook his head. “Who knows? But that’s when I stopped fighting them. I had nothing left to give. It’s selfish b—”

“It’s not selfish. It’s what anyone would have done in your situation.”

“That’s not true. I saw some fight like they were possessed. They’d had everything taken from them, but they still died for the cause.”

“We all deal with things differently. With what you’ve been through, you don’t need to feel guilt on top of everything else. And you’re still fighting for the cause.”

They passed over the final few bodies in near silence. Shalk drew damp sniffs and sobs. Sparks’ eyes stung from picking out the detail of every mutilated face in the gloom. “Have you seen Greeta?”

Shalk shook his head. “Nope.”

“We need to get out of here.” Sparks pointed at the floor. “You said this emblem’s on the main strip?”

“Yep.”

“Then we need to check those buildings next.”

Something spluttered behind them. Sparks and Shalk spun around, and Hat growled.

The youngling’s eyes flashed open. It had cuts across its forehead. Sharp rods had been driven into its ears. Its mouth opened and closed, tearing from where it had been cut at the sides. But it only gargled through the slash in its neck.

Gooseflesh covered Spark’s entire body. Spasms snapped through her. Her right eye twitched shut.

Shalk stepped towards the poor creature, but Sparks caught his arm.

“I need to help him!”

“Something’s coming, Shalk.”

“Something?”

The ticking of tiny feet rushed towards them from the door through which they’d entered. Hundreds of the fuckers descending on their location. All driven by the same purpose. “Cleanse.”

“You’re not making sense, Sparks.”

“Cleanse. That’s what they’re coming to do.” She grabbed Shalk and dragged him across the room, her feet twisting and turning in the symbols’ grooves. Hat followed.

They reached the wall with the doorway leading back onto the ramp. The doorway about to birth the droids. Sparks counted down with her fingers. Three. Two. One …

Each droid about the size of a stall rat. Eight-legged, they had razor-sharp teeth. “Eat. Dissolve.”

“What are you talking about?”

“They’re here to eat the bodies. Dissolve them in the acid in their bellies. They’re driven by their single purpose.”

The flood of small machines headed straight for the bodies.

Shalk bounced on his toes while the droids continued spilling into the room. “So we’re safe?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Sparks drew her pistol and handed Shalk her rifle. “Things could change in a heartbeat, so we need to make sure we’re ready for war.”

CHAPTER 15

Shalk grabbed the offered rifle like her gesture offended him. “You’ve been asking for a weapon.”

“You said they were attuned to corpses.”

“They are.” Sparks’ eyes burned from where she refused to blink. She scanned the gloomy room, the throbbing bioluminescent ceiling causing more of a hinderance than help. Her brain pulsed like the droids crawled over her mind. “And that’s what they’ll go for first.”

“First? So they’ll turn on us eventually?”

“It seems that way, yeah.”

The skittering droids at the front reached the corpses while those flooding into the room showed no end. An undulating carpet of sanitation. Cleanse! The ceiling’s green glow reflected off their chrome backs. Shalk aimed his rifle at them, but Sparks shoved it down.

“What else would you have me do?”

“Wait.” Hat growled, and she silenced him with a sharp, “Shh!”

He fell silent, but kept his teeth bared. He would go for them to protect her, but they’d dissolve him in seconds.

Leading them back towards the door a step at a time, Sparks clung to her blaster but kept it lowered. Shoot one and they’d attract the attention of them all. And maybe more.

A break in the stream of robotic bodies. The last of the droids entered the room, leaving a space behind. Those that entered first moved from one juvenile corpse to the next, devouring them with clicks and squelches. It took them seconds to consume each one, Sparks’ skin alive like the things ate into her. All the while, the child yet to die gargled and squirmed, ignored for now.

Some of the droids at the back diverted from the path. “Oh, shit!”

“What?” Shalk’s gun rose with his shrug, and his words fell from him like blood from a slit throat. “What is it?”

“They’re running out of corpses.” Four ran towards Sparks, Shalk, and Hat. She shot them one after the other and pushed down on Shalk’s rifle again. “We don’t need to shoot them all. Just the ones coming for us.”

“How do I know which ones they are?”

“You don’t.”

“But you do?”

Sparks shoved him towards the exit. “Yep.”

They reached the doorway as the droids finished their feast.

Sparks stood aside to let Hat and Shalk leave first. Their shadows stretched across the room as they exited. The droids’ sensors lit up, the hair on the back of her neck tingling.

“I’m sorry.” She shot the living juvenile.

Driven by their programming, the droids turned on the final corpse. Distracted for now.

Sparks shooed Shalk and Hat on. “Run! Now!”

The droids spilled from the amphitheatre as Sparks reached the first one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. A carpet of chaos. Cleansing carnage. She cupped her mouth with her hands. “They’re coming!”

Her legs aching from the incline, her lungs tight, despite the air growing increasingly breathable. Sparks charged around the next one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, the tick-tick of thousands of skittering legs on her tail. She kicked off from the wall, boosting herself up the next slope after Hat and Shalk, shooting behind before she lost sight of the creepy little mechanised bugs.

Around the next couple of bends, her legs burning, her clothes clinging to her sweat-soaked body, Sparks opened her mouth wide like it might help her breathe better.

The droids now just a few metres away. Their intention crawled over her like red ants on sugar. She fired blind, quietening only a few of the hundreds of digital voices.

Sparks stubbed her toe on the rough ground, tripped, and fell. She reached out to cushion her fall, scraping her palm and losing her glasses. “Shit!”

Shalk called back, “What?”

She screamed over the clicking chorus, “My glasses.” She shot the closest droids. “I’ve lost them.” She shot several more, taking down the front runners.

“What shall I do?” Shalk ran back down to her and opened fire. His rapid blasts chewed through the stall-rat-sized arachnids while Sparks locked into those at the front and held them back with single shots.

A skittering behind, Hat slammed into Sparks’ back. He whined. She reached for him and found her glasses in his mouth. “Good boy!” They revealed the reality of what descended on them. Too many to handle.

On her feet, backing away up the tunnel, Sparks’ trigger finger cramped and became unresponsive. They held back the droids as best they could, but for how much longer?

“Fuck this!” Shalk opened fire on the ceiling. His blasts tore into the veiny fungus, bursting the bulging arteries like water balloons. Liquid rained down on the droids, hissing on contact. It cut through their metal shells, which gave off an acrid reek of burning hair.

While Shalk dissolved the bulk of the pack, Sparks shot those that got through. From hundreds to tens, she nailed them like the best fucking droneball player in the galaxy. All the while, she walked backwards towards the next bend.

The insanity halted about the same time as they reached the turn. Sparks touched Shalk’s arm. He stopped shooting, and she smiled at him. “Well done! What made you think of attacking the fungus?”

“Desperation.”

She laughed. “Well, here’s to desperation. But surely something else?”

“You noticed how the floor got rougher the lower we went?”

“Yeah.”

“That also coincided with the amount of fungus above.”

“So you knew it was acidic.”

“I hoped it wasn’t until—”

“You hoped it was.”

“Right.”

“Thanks, Shalk. We wouldn’t have beaten them were it not for you.” The path ahead of them was gloomy save for the light shining through the open doorway at the top of the stairs. She pointed up. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Fuck yeah I am.”

Sparks stepped out of the small hut last, to be dazzled by the brilliance reflecting at her from the underside of Stargart’s mirrored dome. Squinting, she rested her hands on her hips and filled her lungs. Shalk clung to Hat, holding him close. Sparks ruffled his fur and smiled at the tall gloyner. “That was intense.”

Shalk laughed. “You can say that again.”

“We make a good team, you know?”

“Maybe. But I still think you’re a vile little spider-droid that gets off on eating corpses.”

“Wow. I suppose it’s an upgrade on a stoova jockey.”

“A stall rat’s nutsack.”

Throwing her head back with her laugh, Sparks punched Shalk’s arm. “Say what you like, all of them are better than being a tall streak of piss with a bad attitude.”

Unable to hold his scowl, Shalk smirked and then laughed. He placed Hat on the ground again and flicked his head back towards the main strip. “So we need to find that fucking spiral, then?”

Sinking with her exhale, Sparks’ smile fell, and she nodded. “Looks that way. Hopefully it will lead us to something better than an army of nasty little droids.”

Shalk led them away while shaking his head. “I doubt it.”

CHAPTER 16

Her dad’s voice would forever haunt her memories, but at least it had left her head. For now. Fictitious or not, Piltred knew what cut deep and slashed around inside her mind with wanton destruction. And maybe he had a point. After all, what had Reyes done when faced with a hostile situation? She’d run. Like a fucking coward.

An exhausted coward. A defeated coward. Her legs ached, and her lungs were tight. Her eyes stung from where she refused to blink. Faz Went might be better than her at spotting traps, but that didn’t mean he’d see them all.

Up ahead, gloyner corpses hung from the steel frame in the plaza. The victims of Piltred’s barbarity. The hadounds might be their beasts of burden, but in this they’d avoided their masters’ fate. Too heavy to hang? Too low in social standing to matter?

Faz Went led them along a familiar route. One Sparks had guided them through when they were here last. Remembering her path, he kept them in the shadows and took alleys when roads seemed more obvious. Only time would tell if they’d avoided the hidden cameras.

The stadium, their destination, rose from the ruins as they drew close. Like the palace in the distance, it had avoided the carnage brought upon much of this city. A massive oval structure made from steel and masonry. Thousands of plastic seats encircled a pitch. Space for fifty thousand or more spectators. A Mecca to an unknown sport. Unknown, but hopefully not forgotten. One day, the crowds would again cheer their teams in this arena.

Fighting to keep her breaths regular and her pace steady, Reyes followed Faz Went from another alley. They dodged through the gloyner and hadound bodies covering the road. Some lay on their backs, their distended stomachs pregnant mounds that threatened to burst, thrusting their contents to the sky like spores from the erupting pods on Windtrill.

Faz Went halted at the stadium’s entrance and rattled as he caught his breath. Reyes fell in beside him. Two enormous doors hung open, giving them access. Gloyner and hadound bodies covered the pitch. From one side to the other. Away fans to home support. They’d hacked some into smaller pieces while others lay over one another with deep slashes across their throats. Some had holes in their faces. Slits along their wrists. Crusty blood flaked from their skin like paint on the walls of an abandoned building. Their mouths hung open; their tongues poked out. Those that still had their eyes levelled glazed stares at the clear sky as if they’d spent their dying moments hoping they’d end up somewhere better.

“You ready for this?”

Reyes gulped, her throat dry. She opened her mouth just as Piltred’s roar called through the city. “I’m not sure we have any other choice.” She pointed across Faz. “We can walk around the side of the pitch to get inside. Hopefully, it’s not as bad in there.”

“Hopefully.” Faz Went skirted along the edge of the dusty pitch, the grass another casualty of the missile Reyes and Sparks had handed over to the Ringdell Group. He moved with the same grace and apparent ease with which he’d passed along the side of the acid pit, while Reyes stepped on limbs and body parts she could no longer identify.

The stadium’s open hallways were lit with the white glow of strip bulbs and were clear of corpses. Although, what did corpses matter? Sure, they weren’t a pretty sight, but a corpse couldn’t aim a weapon at them. Couldn’t report their location. Couldn’t hijack their mind and show them their worst fears and regrets.

The sticky floor clung to the soles of their shoes, tracking their progress with a gummy tick. Steel poles and girders ran up the walls and across the ceiling. This massive structure’s skeleton. Reyes’ voice ran away from her. “So many must have gotten away from the missile before it dropped.”

“How do you mean?”

“Any corpses that were here before would have been vaporised.” She hooked a thumb behind her. “Those lot are the second wave. They must have thought they were safe.”

“And then Piltred landed.”

“Fuck.” Reyes chewed the inside of her mouth. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to witness.”

“Can’t you?”

“Okay, I’d rather not imagine what it must have been like to witness.”

Gesturing with his rifle, Faz Went pointed at the bathroom door up ahead. Reyes caught his shoulder and pulled him back. “Let me lead this time. You’ve done your bit for now.”

Slipping past him, the butt of her rifle resting in her shoulder, she pushed the bathroom’s red swing door open with her boot. The hinges loosed a sardonic creak.

The same brilliant bulbs lit the long room. She’d not been inside long, but the beginnings of a migraine already speared her eyeballs. Sinks ran down the left side of the bathroom, stalls down the other. Twenty to thirty in total.

“There!” Faz Went gestured towards a circular steel cover in the floor about fifteen metres away. “That has to be it, right?”

Reyes led them on, kicking open the door of every stall they passed. She whacked some too hard, the doors hitting the stalls’ inside walls with a crack that rang through the haunted structure. Tension locked her back tight in anticipation of Piltred’s response.

Using the end of her gun as a hook, Reyes fished the handle from the recess in the steel disc and grabbed it. She grunted with the effort of lifting the heavy cover, dragging it clear with the scrape of steel over the hard, sticky floor.

The stench hit her like an uppercut and caught in the back of her throat. She blew out hard, her cheeks puffing. “There’s no better option, right?”

“We need to be somewhere that’ll give us time to think.”

“Yep.” Letting her rifle’s strap take her weapon’s weight, Reyes hung a leg down and caught the steel ladder rung with her toes before she descended into the stinking gloom.

Although she stood back from Faz Went’s dismount, the splash-back still covered Reyes, the filthy water soaking her from the knees down. Faz Went had dragged the cover back over, blocking out the light from above, but something down here glowed bright enough to cast everywhere in a low blue hue.

A river of shitty water ran down the centre of the circular tunnel. The slosh of its perpetual motion a constant white noise, but something else sang through this subterranean maze. A distant and resonant wailing as if the earth cried out in pain. The river a metre deep in the centre. Even at its edge the vile fluids ran just over the tops of Reyes’ boots. Her socks sodden, her feet squelching, she kept her rifle raised and led the way.

“When will we know where’s the right place to stop?”

“Maybe we won’t.” They passed another ladder on their right. Maybe it led back into the stadium. She tugged on one rung embedded in the wall. “I’m guessing there are exits throughout this place. Maybe one of them will come up somewhere better than where we’ve been so far.”

“Doesn’t seem like a very solid plan.”

“I ran out of solid plans the second we returned to this hellish city.”

“Wish you’d not come?”

“No, I’d rather die doing what’s right than live with the guilt.”

“Careful what you wish for.”

The splash of their footsteps filled the lull. The rush of running water. The surge of—

A tail wrapped around Reyes’ left ankle and yanked her hard, throwing her onto her side. Its powerful grip burned. Shitty water splashed in her face and ran up her nostrils as it dragged her into the deeper centre and spun with a death roll.

With every turn, she whacked her head on the tunnel’s rough floor. Each contact sent a cannon boom through her skull and threatened to take her consciousness.

The beast, a five-metre-long eel with a tapered tail, lifted Reyes so high, the sole of her boot came close to touching the ceiling. It fixed her with six black eyes, three running down either side of its square head. It wound back, ready to batter her against the ground.

A blue flash. Faz Went shot the eel.

The beast dragged Reyes into the line of fire. She reached out and gasped, “No!”

The eel slammed her into the water with a cracking slap. It spun another death roll. She reached down to her ankle and tried to dig her nails into its thick brown skin.

It lifted her again, and Faz Went raised his blaster.

“No, Faz. Let me deal with i—”

She slammed against the water’s surface again. It drove the air from her lungs, and the eel rolled, keeping her submerged. Daring her to gasp.

On the next lift, Reyes caught her swinging rifle, aimed at the six-eyed head of the vicious beast, and opened fire. She drew a line of blasts up the front of its face. They chewed into its thick skin, cleaved its head in two, and blew open its skull. She turned its soft pink brain to pulp.

The creature released its grip, dropped Reyes back into the water, and fell limp.

Stumbling to the side, she wiped her face, clearing the filthy and gritty water as best she could. She leaned forward, rested on her knees, and fought for breath while the current carried away the eel’s long body.

“What have we been reduced to, Faz?”

Her tall friend helped her to the side. “Huh?”

“Look at us. Running and hiding in the sewers like stall rats. Preyed upon by belly-crawling monsters. I should have stayed on the Faradis with Dad. If I could see myself now, I would have.”

“Don’t disrespect your dad’s death like that.”

The heaviest blow of the lot, Reyes leaned against the rough wall, the bricks slick with damp. “But he’s right. I should quit.”

“That was Piltred saying that.”

“But we can’t beat him.”

“He wants you to think that. Would your dad tell you to give up? Ever? Solutions, Reyes. Remember?”

“Not problems.” Reyes nodded and stood up straight. She swiped her sodden hair from her face. Flicked away the sticky chunks. “You’re right. Dad wouldn’t say that. If he saw me now, he’d be disgusted.”

“Beating yourself up helps no one.”

“But giving myself a talking-to is exactly what’s needed. I need to stop being such a self-pitying baby. We need to find Sparks, which means we need to leave this city.” She rubbed her hands together, one side of her mouth lifting in a smile. “Which means we need to kill Piltred.”

“Are you mad?”

“Actually, for the first time in a while, I can confidently say no. This is the only way, and I dunno about you, but I’m sick of running. We might not be able to stand toe-to-giant-toe with the fucker, but we can outwit him.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

Faz Went rattled and rubbed his long hands together. “Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s kill Piltred.”

CHAPTER 17

She lost her dignity the second they’d locked her up, and the only way to get it back would be to tell them where it was. But tell them that, and they’d surely kill her. She dipped her tongue in the warm water, her hands twitching with the need to lift the bowl and drink freely.

Her knees sore from kneeling on the hard ground, her bed-cum-bench just a few metres away. The shocker also close, the lit panel ahead of her to the right. The only way out of there. Her mirthless snort sent ripples across the water. She’d been skittering around this room like a bug. Like a cat in a fucking box at the whim of something infinitely more powerful than her. Something that exerted control by moving the white light whenever she got close. They’d even taken away her choice to die, bringing her back from dehydration and starvation with whatever shit they’d pumped into her veins. And why would they let her go? She had something they wanted. But she had a choice. Give it to them and die, or die eventually, knowing she’d not yielded. Or maybe there was another way …

In one swift movement, she whacked the water bowl with the back of her left hand, sending it towards the wall. The electric shock streaked across the room and struck the metal container, sending a small geyser of water into the air and flipping the dish like a coin. It slammed into the right wall with a clang!

The lit panel jumped three squares to the right. The electricity from the shocker struck her left hip. Her leg spasmed, the shock threw her onto her back, and her trousers turned damp with her own piss.

Crack! The hatch at the bottom of the door slid open. Four snaking cables slithered in.

Her legs slipping on the floor, she tried to push away from them like she had somewhere to go. Like she could outrun them.

The first one caught her right ankle, biting into the skin as it tightened its grip. The next grabbed her left ankle, and then her right wrist. She tucked her left hand beneath her right armpit and twisted away from the final restricting snake.

It struck the back of her head, sending a boom through her skull. Her ears rang, and her head spun, but she kept her back to the cable. It struck again.

Boom!

And again.

Boom!

The cable on her right wrist tugged, manipulating her arm and exposing her left hand. The spare snake caught it and gripped on. Her fingers tingled from where it cut off her circulation. If it clamped on any tighter, it’d snap every bone.

Stretched out in the shape of a star, she faced the dark ceiling. The cables kept her suspended thirty centimetres from the heating tiles. Two more cables came in and removed her food and water bowls.

The next cable, the one with the hypodermic needle for a head, slithered in and hovered over her, the sharp and hollow tip just a few centimetres from her eyeball. It watched her through the small dark tube, considering its next move. Should it plunge into the soft orb and suck her brain from her skull?

The needle rose, readying to strike.

She winced and turned away. Like that would make a difference. Like she had any control in this place. Other than keeping schtum. Whatever happened, she’d never tell them where it was.

The needle withdrew. Shot backwards from the room, catching the door with a whack on its way out as it vanished back through the hatch.

The other four cables released their grip, and she hit the floor with an, “Oomph!” They followed the needle and her dishes.

On her back on the hard tiles. Covered in her own piss and sweat. Defeated again.

“Just tell us where it is.”

She rolled on the floor, turning over like she could squirm away from her discomfort, her voice a hoarse croak. “Fuck you.”

The room grew hotter. The lit panel had jumped over to her left, close to the bed-cum-bench. “The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

Regardless of her intention, crawling across the room on her front towards the white light lowered the room’s temperature. Made them think they had her beat. They had control. Like she’d give up and give them what they wanted. But they’d have to go much further before she broke.

She dragged herself on her front, closing in on the bench and white light. She halted three panels to the right of the lit square.

The piss and shit bucket on her left. Close to the lit panel. Closer to the left wall than her. She made a fist with her left hand and whacked it like she had her drinking bowl. She sent the heavy, rusting pot towards the shocker.

Blue electricity streaked across the room. A flash of anger. A flare of rage. It slammed into the bucket and sent its contents erupting into the air. She covered the back of her head with her hands as it landed on her like wet mud. She heaved, her body bucking with violent snaps.

Coated in her own waste and that of the cell’s previous residents, she remained on her front and laughed, the small room amplifying her weak cackle. The white light was now beneath her. It stayed true to form. After the shocker had been activated, it jumped three squares to the right. Exactly where she’d chosen to lie.

“I’ve done it!” She laughed harder and sat up, thick muddy chunks rolling off her head. The tangible stench caught at the back of her throat. “I’ve done it! Fuck you. You think you’re smarter than me, you fucks. You wanted me to touch the light. Well, here I am!”

The light changed from white to red. A shot of adrenaline flooded her system. She’d done it. She’d wo—

It jumped to the other side of the room.

“What the …?”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“No.” She shook her head, sending more chunks cascading down her face. “No.”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“This is bullshit.” Her throat ached, and her voice echoed through the room. “I’ve done what you asked.”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“Fuck you!”

“Just tell us where it is.”

“Fuck you!”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” She fell on her back and kicked her legs. “Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Fuck you!”

CHAPTER 18

“There’s one!” Shalk pointed through the crowd.

Sparks weaved left and right. Being at least four feet shorter than him, she had to wait for gaps to get a clear view. He’d pointed at a casino called High Rulers. A spiral with a star at its centre sat to the left of the sign. “Rate themselves, don’t they?”

The whir of servos announced an approaching mech. Sparks’ heart skipped and sank. It passed on her right, cutting a path through the dense crowd. Not Reyes. And why would it be? Surveillance drones flew overhead. Each one sent a twinge through her intuition. Winged beings cut through the sky. Several were of the same species as the transparent kidney beans she’d left on Acoolter after destroying their freighter. Like the surveillance drones, they’d be on the lookout for bounties, so she kept her face hidden.

A lumbering brute kneed her in the back, driving the air from her lungs with a deep bark. Sparks grabbed her blaster, but Shalk pressed down on the top of her head. And it worked. The brute didn’t matter. She’d save her blasts for Shalk. Condescending prick!

Still gripping her head, he turned her towards a karaoke bar called Singdell. The spiral and star beside the neon blue sign. How had they not seen that one before?

A scuttle of fedora-wearing lizards skulked past, their eyes hidden in the shadow of their hats’ peaks. They scanned the crowd. Shalk pulled Hat even tighter, covering him with his arm.

Every building’s lights reflected at them from the dome’s underside. Ships came and went. The hot air dried Sparks’ throat. The casinos whined and clattered, coins hitting trays, punters landing jackpots.

“There’s another one.” Shalk pointed at a hotel.

Sparks kept her Tickle Nipple robe’s hood up. “How much of Stargart do they own?”

Shalk pointed at a brothel. “And there! At what point do we give up?”

“You give up if you want.”

“But how do you know …” Several beings turned Shalk’s way. He lowered his voice and dipped his head. “How do you know she’s alive?”

“How do you know she’s dead?”

“I don’t.”

“Exactly. So we have to assume she’s not. We owe her that.”

Shalk frowned.

“I owe her that. Look, I believe she’s alive. And they have a reason for keeping her that way. I’m yet to understand that reason, but if they wanted her dead, we wouldn’t even be here. We would have seen her hanged.”

“They own that place too.” Shalk pointed away to his right.

A gamer den called the Best of the Best. Its open front revealed a large screen dominating the back wall. They’d split it down the centre, showing the progress of the two competitors. Packed tighter than the main strip, the beings inside screamed, shouted, and punched the air.

The players battled against one another in a dogfighting simulation. Twisting and turning, the spectators swaying with the ships’ wild movements.

The screen’s right side erupted with the flash of an exploding ship. The crowd cheered and hissed. Some hopped up and down, pointing at the defeated competitor, waving tickets that must have been their losing bet. The second the loser removed their helmet; the crowd jumped on them and dragged them to the ground. Some kicked while others punched. Every being in the place took a turn. The crowd shoved them out into the street, battered and bruised. Some threw glasses until they ran away, covering their head with their arms.

The winner—a small being with powerful legs that bent back at the knees and a medicine-ball head that had no right being supported by its skinny neck—jumped onto the back of her seat, clinging on with her opposable toes. She threw her muscly arms in the air. “Dare anyone challenge the mighty Baltutha?”

“I’d smash her on that.” Shalk sneered.

“You think?”

“I know. I bet she’s never even flown an actual ship.”

A long bar ran along the room’s left side. The bartender, a hulking brute with dry and cracked orange skin. Luminous fluids lined up on the back shelf, probably sold at an extortionate price on account of the free entertainment. Stacks of computers sat beneath the shelf. “That might not be such a bad idea, you know?”

“What?”

“Computers.”

“You’re not making any sense, Sparks.”

“That place is owned by the Ringdell Group, and they have a bank of computers in there. I might get more information from their systems.”

“Might?”

“It has to be worth a try.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one challenging them.”

“You’re not the one with a bounty on your head that could clear many planets’ debts.”

“Yet. Besides, you just saw what they did to the loser.”

“But you won’t lose, right? Just go in there like you belong.”

“I belong back on Flanterian.”

“I know.”

“This is madness, Sparks.”

“I know.”

“Fuck!” Shalk handed over Hat, and Sparks wrapped her robe around him, pulling him close. “You’d best be right about this.”

“I hope so too.”

“Doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

“Show them that and they’ll eat you alive.”

“I’m going to stop talking to you now before you convince me this is an awful idea.”

As Shalk walked away, Sparks followed, scanning their surroundings from beneath her hood. If they’d had another option, she would have gone for it. If she could have played the game instead of him, she would. He said he could beat the champion, but there were no guarantees. Had she just sent Shalk to his death?

CHAPTER 19

Sparks’ heart beat faster with every step she and Shalk took towards the Best of the Best. Much quicker and it’d either burst, or she’d fall in sync with the panic-attack kick drum driving the dance music blaring out into the street.

Just before Shalk entered, Sparks veered away and hung back. Hid in the shadow of her hood, she became one of the many loitering at the side of the strip, staring out at the world with the glazed eyes of someone beaten by insomnia.

The last loser had taken a kicking. Would Shalk get the same? She’d have to step in. They were in this together. They’d fall as a pair. A trio if Hat had anything to do with it.

But from what they’d already seen, he’d beat her easily. If Baltutha’s hubris matched her flying skills, they’d have a problem, but Sparks could throw a stone in any spaceport in the galaxy and hit a better pilot. Although, she’d only seen Shalk fly for a few minutes before she’d stolen his ship. What if he suffered the same delusions as his opponent? Hat twisted beneath her robe. Much thinner than the hessian number, but still too hot in this oven of a place. She wiped her sweating brow and patted his bottom. “It’ll all be over soon, boy. There, there.”

Shalk walked with his head bowed and his shoulders stooped. He held himself like he expected to lose. She muttered beneath her breath, “Come on, Shalk, you can do this!” She moved aside for a trio of galloping quadrupeds, their accompanying breeze dragging on her silk robe and pulling her hair. She scrunched up her nose at their musty sweaty funk. “Show them you intend to win.”

There was no way he’d heard her, but Shalk lifted his chin and pulled back his shoulders. He flung four beings aside with a swipe of his arm.

“Hey!” One of the four stepped up to Shalk, and the bartender turned off the music. Five and a half feet tall, but broad shouldered and with biceps like meteors. He had a chin like a brick, his bald head studded with a series of small tusks like the kind Sparks had seen on expensive buildings to discourage beings from stopping to rest. The gamer den’s flashing lights reflected off his shock-white skin like a mirror.

Sparks rested her hand on her blaster. She’d draw and blow his brains through the front of his face before he could make a move. They were in this together.

“I said hey!”

Shalk threw a hand through the air and replied with a camp twang. “Heyyyyy.”

The studded brute drew their blaster to the snorts and giggles of the other punters.

Sparks pulled hers from her holster, sliding it into the front fold of her silk robe. She accidentally poked Hat with the barrel. “Sorry, Hat.”

He shuffled beneath the silk as if trying to get comfortable.

The brick-chinned beast looked Shalk up and down. “You not going to draw?”

His rifle slung across his front, Shalk shrugged. “Don’t need to.”

“What?”

“If someone of your size—”

“My size? I may be shorter than you, but—”

“You have arms like you bench freighters …”

“Huh?”

“My point is, you’re built like you should be able to kick my arse, yet you draw a weapon … Do you think that’s something I should fear or respect?”

Several more punters giggled. One wheezed, and another whistled. All of them wore their own form of mirth.

The shock-white brute balled his spare fist, but Shalk turned his back on him and pointed across the room. “Baltutha, is it?”

Still perched on the back of her seat, clinging on with her opposable toes, Baltutha scowled at him, her gaggle of groupies hissing and sneering at Shalk. “It is. And what?”

“I’ll challenge you.”

The shock-white thug replaced his blaster. “Fine.”

Shalk turned from Baltutha’s glare. “You’re still here?”

“Let’s see what you’re made of. I’ll back you. And if you lose, I’ll kill you.”

Shalk tutted and shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re still talking. Jeez, you need to get a handle on that ego of yours, pal. I don’t care if you back me. You’re not relevant. Now fuck off.”

Still clinging to her blaster, Sparks’ eyes burned from where she hadn’t blinked. She’d draw and fire in a flash. The spiky beast wouldn’t get the jump on Shalk. But as soon as Baltutha spoke, the horn-headed egotist turned from the gamer den and vanished into the crowd.

“You’re coming in confident.”

“I’ve watched you play.”

More beings laughed. Some gasped. One fell into a series of phlegmy hacking coughs. Baltutha’s groupies hissed. But Shalk had the room’s attention. Even the bartender with their bank of computers behind them leaned on their clean white bar and watched on. Not every day they’d seen a being enter the place with such confidence. It had to be good for business.

“You really think you can win?”

“I don’t think …”

“What if you don’t?”

“I will.”

“Humour me here.”

Shalk nodded at those gathered around Baltutha. “I’d say you’ve had enough humouring to last a lifetime.”

Baltutha’s blue eyes narrowed. She shook her head.

“Only a moron would back you.”

“You’re offending a lot of beings in here.”

“I’m helping them out.” Shalk shrugged. “But if you choose to back yourself …”

“Which I will.”

The silence hung, the music still off. The replay of Baltutha’s victory ran on the screen on the back wall. Her toe knuckles turned white from where she gripped the back of the seat. Could she really reject his challenge?

Sparks stepped closer to the Best of the Best, but halted when Hat shuddered beneath her robe. She shivered a second later.

Nine fedora-wearing bounty hunters broke from the main strip and closed in on the bar. Not even Stargart’s lights reflected off their dark green scaly skin. Only the bottom half of their faces were visible beneath their hats. The punters recoiled, their entrance like an oil spill into spring water. Like they were death incarnate. Even Baltutha gulped at their presence. She scratched her hairy face with her long fingernails.

The bounty hunters formed a ring around Shalk. They looked him up and down.

“Fuck!” Sparks worked out her anxiety by chewing the inside of her mouth. Her heart beat harder than before. She gripped her blaster tighter. Whatever happened, she couldn’t leave Shalk on his own. Even if it meant death.

“Come on, you lot.” Shalk flicked a hand towards the bar. “You’re making the place look untidy. If you’ve come to watch the best game you’ve ever seen of … What’s it called?”

Baltutha rolled her eyes. “A Dog in the Fight.”

“Shit name.”

“I didn’t name it.”

“No, yours. What kind of name is Baltutha, anyway?”

More beings giggled.

The bounty hunters remained in a tight ring around him. Shalk shoved one towards the bar. “If you’ve come to watch this, stop making a scene. We’ve already had to deal with one brute who wanted to be the centre of attention. Now order a drink. You’re giving everyone the creeps.”

The hunter Shalk shoved approached the bar, the orange bartender recoiling from their advance.

Those already sat on the stools grabbed their drinks and moved out of the way. A chair for each of them with several to spare. The hunters sat in a long line, ordered drinks, and turned to face the screen on the far wall.

Despite the nightmare waiting for her inside, Sparks grinned. Shalk had a sharp tongue and nasty streak. He could hold a room’s attention like no other being she’d met.

Baltutha threw up her arms. “Okay, fine.”

The crowd cheered, chattered, and whinnied.

“I’m on for my twelfth straight wi—”

Shalk loosed a loud yawn and covered his mouth with his hand. “Sorry, do continue while I try to keep myself awake.”

A bright green winged being close to Baltutha sprayed a jet of luminous yellow spit in Shalk’s direction. He snapped his rifle’s butt into his shoulder, aimed it right at them, and screamed, “Do that again. I dare ya!”

The bar fell silent. Even the bounty hunters squirmed.

Although it bared its sharp little teeth, the spitting cretin recoiled in the face of Shalk’s aggression.

Several punters shuffled away from Shalk and his raised rifle. “Now, Baltutha, I think everyone’s heard enough. I’ve come here to play, not to listen to your bullshit. So, are we playing or what?”

The bounty hunters at the bar nudged one another, pointed at Shalk, and nodded.

Baltutha threw a glance at her spitting sidekick before shrugging. “Fine!”

The room, including the bounty hunters, turned towards the screen on the back wall. The crowd parted for Shalk. They gave him more space than before.

“I don’t think we’ll get a better chance than this.” Sparks patted Hat and snuck into the gamer den. She dropped and rested her back against the end of the bar. Just metres from the bounty hunters, but hidden from sight. For now.

CHAPTER 20

“Is that all you’ve got, motherfucker?”

Sparks remained on the floor, facing out onto the main strip, her back against the bar’s thin edge. Some beings glanced into the den, but she kept her hood up and face hidden. The computers were just a few metres away, the bartender as captivated by Shalk’s bravado as everyone else. As captivated as everyone in her line of sight, which didn’t include the nine deadly bounty hunters on stools to her left. If just one of them recognised her, she’d be done for. Not only the hunters, but the entire place would turn on her and Hat. She stroked his furry head.

“Oweee!” Shalk giggled over his ship’s plasma cannon rapid fire. “One of these will get you soon, Baltutha.”

The computers were just a few metres from Sparks. Could she crawl to them unnoticed? Did Shalk have the bounty hunters’ attention too? She reached into her silky robe, shoved Hat aside, and retrieved her mini computer. Jumping into the nearest surveillance drone, she turned it to peer into the bar and left it hovering above the crowd.

The shadow cast by her hood kept her face hidden. The bounty hunters were as engrossed in the battle as everyone else. Shalk, headset on, jumped left and right, danced, shuffled, and spun while on Baltutha’s tail. Not only would he win, but he’d make sure he did it in style.

Half the room gasped when Shalk sent his fighter into a hard dive. Standing on his tiptoes, he leaned forward. “I’m coming for you, Baltutha!”

Several bounty hunters chuckled at his bravado, letting out deep croaking clicks like dry twigs in a fire.

With one hand wrapped around Hat to keep him contained in her slippery robe, Sparks crawled towards the computers, plugged in a remote adaptor—the light on its end blinking red—and returned to her hiding spot. She waited for the red flashing light to turn green.

Poking Hat to stop him squirming, Sparks typed, lowering the drone by half a metre. She smiled as Shalk toyed with Baltutha, getting her in his line of sight before throwing a full loop, coming back around, and getting on her tail again. How much did he do for his own enjoyment versus giving Sparks the time she needed? What did it matter? As long as it continued.

The flashing red light turned green. Sparks left the drone hovering and jumped into the computer. She flicked through several pages of data. “Shit!”

Hat squirmed again.

“It’s the gaming machine.” Not that Hat understood. “Damn!”

He whined.

Sparks closed her eyes and reached out to the machines. Two identical computers, they sat side by side, their only purpose to process the game being played on the far wall. She reached out with her intuition, finding another one farther down. She leaned around the bar. The bartender at the other end remained too captivated by Shalk’s performance to serve drinks. They leaned on the bar’s top, a computer between their legs.

“Shit!”

Hat whined again.

They’d come in here to search the computers. And Shalk had more than delivered on his part of the bargain. Risked his life for this. She needed to get that information. But how?

“Who wants me to pull the triggers?”

The crowd locked into the same jeer. “Shooooot!”

Sparks rocked forwards. If he ended the simulation now, she needed to get out of there.

“Ah, not yet.”

She relaxed against the bar again. Not that time would help her sneak between the bartender’s thick legs. She jumped back into the surveillance drone. Shalk twisted and turned, the crowd still hypnotised by his routine.

Taking Shalk’s lead, Sparks dive-bombed the machine into the Best of the Best’s entrance. The drone clattered into the doorway with a loud clang!

Gasps ran through the room. The bartender slapped their large palms against the bar’s plastic top. “Who did that?”

The floor shook with their heavy steps, and they strode past Sparks to investigate.

Hopefully, the bounty hunters were as distracted as everyone else. Sparks crawled on all fours to her remote device, dragged it from the gaming computer, and continued down the long bar. Slipping it into the next computer’s port, she crawled back.

At the end of the bar again, Sparks breathed heavily and winced in anticipation of a hand reaching down and dragging her to her feet.

But the bartender returned and passed her again like she didn’t exist. The small red light flashed on the remote device, the bartender oblivious. Shalk continued to shout and sing. “One, two, Shalky’s coming for you!”

She’d done it. She just needed to wai—

A long-limbed, turquoise-skinned being stood outside the den, swaying like their skinny legs didn’t have the strength to support their weight. Four feet tall at a push, they had a large round head like a balloon on their string of a body. They stared straight at Sparks through bulbous eyes of pure white save for the small black dot at each one’s centre. Pointing two long fingers at their eyes, they turned them on Sparks and then gestured towards the machine into which she’d plugged her remote device. They’d just seen what she’d done.

“Shit!”

Stumbling towards her, their head swaying from side to side, the wobbly being closed in on Sparks, their wild eyes rolling. They dropped in front of her, falling like a marionette with cut strings. They sat cross-legged, their head in perpetual motion, chasing after their roving eyes. Drool ran from the right side of their jagged slit of a mouth and dripped from their chin in long sticky strings.

Sparks rested her hand on her blaster.

A being called from the crowd, “You’ve had your fun, but surely it’s time to end it now?” How much had they put on Shalk to win?

Hat wriggled beneath Sparks’ robe and growled at her when she tried to push him back in. He poked his head out.

It halted the curious being’s motion. Even their wandering eyes. They fixed on the furball, and Sparks tensed when they reached out.

Patting Hat’s head, the small creature cooed. One side of its mouth lifted in an attempted smile. A sensation this creature had long forgotten.

They flinched when Sparks took their hand, and their mouth formed a curious O.

“I’m Sparks.”

Although the being’s chin flapped, they managed little more than a dry rasp.

“You’ve had it rough, eh?”

A sheen of tears covered the creature’s bulbous eyes before cutting two damp trails down their round turquoise cheeks. They jumped back from Sparks’ glowing mini computer screen.

The transfer complete, she’d taken all the information from the computer.

Among a lot of files and earning reports, she found a list of all the connected establishments. Sparks leaned forwards and kissed the destroyed being’s forehead. “I’m sorry this has happened to you.”

The creature’s breathing became ragged, and its stream of tears turned into rivers. It stroked Hat again, its breaths levelling out.

Grabbing a cushion from a nearby seat, Sparks handed it to the poor creature.

It hugged it to its chest and rocked back and forth.

“I’m so sorry.” Sparks patted it on the shoulder as she left the gamer den. The speakers rattled with the dog fight’s conclusion, the left side of the screen, Baltutha’s side, aglow with the explosion.

CHAPTER 21

The small tower comprised three progressively smaller tables with a chair perched on top. Reyes stood on the chair and swung her arms for balance. Her shaky structure lifted her two metres from the ground and closer to the net they’d taken from the stadium and had hooked over the crystal chandelier.

Faz Went spotted her from the ground. His lack of feedback served as a warning for just how much help he’d provide should her tower topple.

Posting the twelfth and final limpet grenade into the net, she stood straight again, re-centred her balance, and gave Faz a thumbs up.

“Hopefully it’s enough.” His voice carried through the open foyer, the ceiling at least five metres from the ground. It had to be tall enough so Piltred wouldn’t think twice about entering.

“I hope so too.” They were in the reception area of one of the tallest towers in Flanterian. Who knew what they’d used the place for before the Ringdell Group devastated the city, but they certainly wanted to make an impression. Padded chairs, dark wooden tables, a long sweeping desk over to her right, the wood streaked with gold veins and inlaid with the same logo above the door of a shooting star. “And even if we don’t bring down the entire building on top of him, twelve limpet grenades should be enough to blow him to pieces.”

“Or wound him at the very least.”

Reyes sighed. They had to believe they had the beating of him.

The wind whistled through the massive foyer, entering via an open front that must have once been made from glass. Chandeliers like the one to which they’d attached their net hung from long steel cables and traced a line from the entrance all the way to the elevator in the back wall. A small green light showed it to still be active, the starinium mine still powering a lot of Flanterian.

Reaching for the net again, the chair and tables swaying, Reyes set about activating the limpet grenades. “I’ll rig them to blow two seconds after they connect. He’ll only be able to remove one or two before the rest go kablooey.”

“Kablooey?”

She shrugged, the tables and chair teetering on the edge of their balance. With six activated, she tugged the bulging net to bring the others around to her side.

“Reyes!”

She caught her rifle as it lifted towards the activated grenades. She dragged it back, pulled the strap over her head, and tossed it down to Faz. She blew out hard, her cheeks bulging. “That was close.”

His eyes wide, his already pale skin paler, his shirt flapped with his rattle. “Too close.” He looked up at the ceiling. “There’s a lot of concrete and steel above us.”

“That’s why we’re here.”

“You think we can topple this tower?”

“There’s no harm in trying.”

“Unless we’re caught in the collapse.”

The last grenade activated, Reyes jumped to the ground, landing beneath the bulging net. The top chair toppled, and she caught it. Light on account of it being made purely from plastic. She tossed it aside. It landed awkwardly and lay at an angle, like the rest of the furniture in this place.

Faz Went pulled down the top table in the stack, Reyes the next one. “He doesn’t seem the full ticket and probably won’t think twice if he sees this stack here, but better to be safe than sorry, eh?” Going back for the final table, Reyes removed the evidence of them accessing the chandelier, a spider’s web of live grenades hanging above them.

The wind filled the silence. Faz Went scowled at the ground. Reyes took his hand. “Honestly, I don’t mind being the bait.”

“No.” He shook his head and rattled. He rolled his shoulders back and raised his chin, his eyes still cast in the shadow of his cap’s peak. “I can see the traps sooner. If anyone’s running through the city, it has to be me. Just make sure your shot counts when he arrives, yeah?” He threw back her blaster, the bulging net swinging as it tracked its movement.

Reyes slipped the strap over her head and clung to it with both hands. “I’ll do what needs to be done.” She hugged her tall friend, the air from his gills flapping against her stomach. “Be safe.”

“Ha!”

“Okay, but don’t die, yeah?”

Faz Went smiled. “I’ll try. And you stink.”

Backing away, Reyes sniffed her own arm. “Jeez. I do, don’t I? But I bet that eel stinks worse. Break a leg, Faz.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Sorry. It’s an old human saying.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“I hear that a lot.”

He winked at her. “None taken.”

She smiled. “Good luck, Faz.”

Saluting her, Faz Went spun on his heel and ran out through the foyer’s open front.

* * *

What Reyes would give to have Sparks with her right now. Sparks and her bullseye aim. Her mini computer. She’d have already hijacked a drone and would be monitoring both Faz Went’s and Piltred’s locations. They’d know the monstrous fucker’s exact time of arrival.

Instead, she had to pace the foyer with nothing to distract her but her own destructive thoughts. She paced back and forth beneath the bulging net. Jumping at every creak and groan calling through the derelict city.

Are you sure this is a good idea?

“You know what, Dad? No, I’m not. There’s not much I’m sure of right now, but it’s an idea, right? And any idea, any step towards a resolution, is better than inaction, no matter where it leads. Am I right?”

But can you really beat him?

“Of course I can. We’ve fought worse, remember?” She smiled. “Even as a rookie, I would have found a way out of this.”

One lucky call doesn’t make you a marine.

She put her hand to her abdomen like the words were a sharp blade.

He’s too strong for you.

“Oh, fuck!” Reyes backed away from the main door. She rapped her knuckles against the side of her head. Why didn’t she see this coming?

In fact, I think you should give up now. Sacrifice yourself and be done with it. At least give Faz Went the chance to run.

“You idiot, Reyes.” She ran for the back wall.

His shadow stretched ahead of him. Twice his height at least, it ran across the tower’s entrance, prophesying her annihilation. She didn’t stand a chance.

His throat flap rattled. His steel boots slammed against the ground. Every step threatened to drive cracks through the asphalt. He came into view, partially blocking out the light with his hulking, armoured form. Reyes aimed her gun at him. He’d not yet looked her way. Could they really make this plan work?

Fixed on Piltred with unblinking eyes, Reyes continued clinging to her blaster until she hit the back wall. Her elbow knocked the elevator’s call button. Servos whirred. The elevator dropped.

“Oh fuck! Oh fuck!”

Piltred still hadn’t looked in.

The elevator drew close.

Ping!

Piltred’s crimson glare pinned her to the spot. He cried blood for what had to be done to her and every living being. He threw up his arms and roared, the rumble of his call rattling through the foyer. He charged with a thunderous gallop. Bore down on her as hatred incarnate.

Just give up, darling. Let it happen. Join me.

“No.”

Join your mother. She misses you so much.

Reyes remained with her back pressed against the wall. “No!” She stood up straight again, adrenaline surging through her in waves. Her rifle shook in her trembling hands.

What are you doing? You think you can shoot him? Her dad’s face crashed into her mind. His skin puce, hatred twisting his features. He sprayed spittle with his yell. Give up!

“Stick to the plan, Reyes.” She aimed at the taut rope attached to the limpet grenade net. Whether Piltred had caught her by surprise or not, this was what they wanted. Faz Went had played his part. Had set up a standoff between him and her. She had her chance. Now she just needed to make the shot.

No chance.

She squeezed the trigger as Piltred sprinted beneath the chandelier. A pulse of five green blasts chased one another across the foyer. Each one sailed past the rope and burst against the ceiling. “Fuck!”

Piltred ran beneath the net, the grenades attracted to his progress until he ran from their magnetic field and they swung back.

“Fuck!”

Reyes ran left towards the stairwell’s entrance.

Piltred launched a table, which turned to splinters against the wall above her.

The brute leaped at her, leading with his massive fist.

Changing direction, Reyes ran back towards the tower’s entrance. Piltred sailed past and crashed into the stairwell’s doorway. The wall collapsed in an avalanche of bricks, rubble, and dust.

Her disappointed father reappeared. You should have been in that pile. It’s just a matter of time. You’re done for. Accept your fate, darling.

Spinning around so she ran backwards, Reyes aimed her rifle at the rope hanging from the chandelier.

You’d have to be a real failure to miss it for a second time. With an aim like that, I’m starting to wonder if I should have taken a paternity test.

Piltred on the charge again, Reyes closed one eye and rested her cheek against her rifle’s barrel. She fired.

Missed. Again. He tutted and shook his head. I don’t know who you are.

His massive strides ate up the distance between them. Reyes had but one advantage over the beast. He charged like a train. She jumped aside as he barrelled past her. He turned like one, too.

Reyes ran for the elevator as the beast slowed his momentum and turned. The door remained open from where she’d pressed the call button. She aimed at the rope again.

I could give you all day to hit that rope and I bet you never would. What kind of marine tries to turn a rapid-firing weapon into a sniper rifle? Did you absorb any of my teachings? Just give up now, you fucking loser.

Reyes fired. She missed. Again. But she could avoid Piltred for days. She had to hit the rope eventually. She darted left, and he moved across to block her. She darted right, and he had it covered. He closed the distance. Shut off her escape. “Shit!” Not as stupid as he looks.

Jumping into the elevator, Reyes jabbed the button for a higher floor. She pressed it repeatedly, stinging the tip of her finger.

You’re a failure.

Ping!

As the doors closed, she thrust her middle finger at the brute. “Fuck you!”

The elevator lifted.

Piltred hit the wall below. Thadoom!

The elevator swayed, and she thrust out her arms like it might help.

Thadoom!

The elevator halted, and the lights turned off.

Boom!

A wall toppled. Steel groaned. His spluttering roar filled the elevator shaft.

Fucking useless! And now you’ve gone and gift-wrapped yourself for him in a neat little box.

CHAPTER 22

Supporting Hat with one hand, Sparks clung to her mini computer with the other, electric shock side out. The middle of her back ached, and her head rang from too many knocks. The next fucker who barged her would get a surprise where the sun didn’t shine. And that was a challenge for a place like Stargart. Being smaller than most, she had a unique angle of attack. At least her diminutive stature offered some advantages.

Slipping clear of the crowd, she reached the opposite side of the road to the Best of the Best. Ducking into a shadowy alley, she took over another surveillance drone. She picked out a smiling and waving Shalk surrounded by what he no doubt saw as his adoring fans. He bowed so many times it was a wonder he didn’t get dizzy and fall over.

The bartender cut a path through the busy den and handed him a trophy and credit card. Shalk gave the trophy away, saluted Baltutha, and returned the credit card. The sound came at Sparks in stereo. It both rang through her mini computer’s tinny speakers and crossed the road from the open den. “Put it behind the bar. Let these good beings drink until it’s spent.”

The crowd cheered and hooted as Shalk left with a swagger, high-fiving and fist-bumping on his way out.

Tracking him from the other side of the road, Sparks slipped back into the crowd. They’d not agreed a meeting place, but surely even he’d expect he was being watched for a few minutes at least. She’d attract his attention when they were in the clear.

Ducking and sidestepping, Sparks dodged swinging legs and thrusted knees. She gritted her teeth, blowing so hard her cheeks bulged when someone kicked her in the thigh, giving her a dead leg. She hunched over Hat for the entire time. Little point in them both getting hurt.

Sparks remained a part of the crowd, but caught up to Shalk and limped beside him. “Impressive.”

Chin raised, chest out, he beamed a wide grin, but kept his attention ahead. “I was, wasn’t I?”

“Although Baltutha was shit.”

“Fuck you, you stall rat tick.”

“That’s a new one.”

“I’ve plenty more.”

Sparks laughed. “Well done, Shalk.”

Hat leaped from Sparks’ robe, weaved through the legs of several beings, and jumped into Shalk’s arms. He protected him like Sparks had and covered him with his shirt. There were so many surveillance drones it made her brain itch.

“You’re right.”

Sparks lifted one side of her head. “I am?”

“Baltutha was shit. I’ve played better younglings than her.”

“You’ve played the game before?”

“You haven’t?”

“Never even heard of it.”

“Where have you been?”

“The arse end of nowhere.”

“Sounds hostile.”

“You have no idea. And it’s even worse now.”

“Because you’re not there anymore?”

“You know, I truly wish I had nothing to do with the planet’s fate.”

“Jeez, I was joking. Rate yourself, don’t ya?”

“Not as much as Blark Venn-Quarter does.”

“Ahh. The being who’s put out the bounty?”

Another alley on their left. Darker than most. Perfect for what they needed. Sparks cut from the crowd and dragged Shalk into the gloom.

Even with the mirrored dome enhancing Stargart’s lights, the close press of tall buildings left the alley in relative shadow. The mirror at the far end about as dark as she’d seen it. It reflected the alley’s gloom back at them. Sparks, Shalk, and Hat became three of many silhouettes. Some were as still as corpses. Judging by the rotten funk in the air, some of them were corpses.

A being in a high-visibility waistcoat broke through the dark mirrored wall, entering from the death zone.

Sparks kept her head lowered. Her face in shadow.

The same height as her, but a brute of a being, the worker had a single horn on the end of her grey leathery snout. Mammary glands hung down from her stooped frame. Beaten by the job. Beaten by life. And if the hive of sleeping pods in the residential sector were any reflection of what it meant to survive in this place, then who could blame her for carrying such dejection? But at least she still had a purpose, unlike the corpses she collected.

A line of hovering drones came in after her like stucklings following their mother. Every one identical, they were the size of dinner trays and had tails that ended in an open handcuff. The worker snapped one around the ankle of the first corpse with a click! She pressed the green button on the hovering tray. It shot away so fast it lifted the body as it dragged the corpse back out into oblivion.

Three more trays joined the queue, their cuffs at the ends of their tails open, ready to take more.

Shalk spoke beneath his breath as she sent another body through the mirrored dome. “Fucking hell.”

“What else should she do with them? They’re dead.”

The next being groaned and threw out a lazy kick. The worker snapped a cuff around their ankle.

“Hey!” Shalk reached towards her. “They’re still alive!”

Thick bags hung beneath the worker’s vacant gaze. “For now.”

Sparks caught Shalk’s rifle before he aimed it at her. “She’s right. They’re nearly done.”

“So we give up on them?”

“They’ve given up on themselves.”

“Nah!” Shalk shook his head. “Screw this.” He pointed at the worker, exposing Hat in his arms.

The worker’s tired eyes widened. She looked from Hat to Shalk. She lingered on Sparks and gasped. She stepped closer.

Her heart beating hard, the busy main strip just a few metres away. If this worker blew their cover …

Shalk jumped when Sparks shot her, searing a hole through the centre of her thick forehead. “What the fuck, Sparks?”

Did she really need to answer that? He’d just blown her cover. She pressed her lips tight. There were too many beings in the alley. Too many on the main strip. “You were the one pissed off about what she was doing.”

“Not so pissed I wanted her dead.”

“You were just raising your rifle to make a point.”

“Exactly.”

Each hovering droid had a small surveillance camera. Sparks hacked into their hive mind and shut them down, blinding them for now. She attached a cuff still slick with chunks of purple flesh and black blood to the worker’s ankle. She pressed the green button and did to her what she’d done to so many. The mirror consumed the tray and corpse, leaving Sparks to face her own guilt.

A nearby being shuffled where they lay.

Shalk threw up his arms. “What the fuck, Sp—”

“Names, Shalk. They have a lot of power. Names and faces.” She looked at Hat for a second and raised her eyebrows.

“Huh?”

“They might look like corpses.” She gestured at those lying around. “But corpses don’t have ears and eyes.”

“They do.”

“Not working ones.” She pointed at her own face. “The last thing I want to do is stand out in this place. To cause a fuss. And when you just revealed Hat to that worker …”

He clapped his hand to his mouth. “Oh, shit.”

“Yes. Oh shit. So maybe hold your tongue next time. Maybe accept that’s the way things are here, yeah?” Tutting, Sparks opened her computer, blinking against the backlit glare.

He leaned over her. “Did you get what you needed in the gamer den?”

“Yeah.” Sparks brought up the list of places owned by the Ringdell Group. Alphabetised and in small print, the list filled the screen.

“Shit!”

“That’s just A–C.” She scrolled down.

“Damn!”

“Yep.”

Shalk scratched his head. “At what point do we give up?”

“I can’t make that choice for you.”

“At what point do you give up?”

“There has to be a clue in here.”

“Where?”

“I dunno.”

“So, again, at what point do you give up?”

Sparks put her computer away. They went to all that effort in the gamer den, and for what? “I’ll search every spot. I owe it to her.”

“But there are so many places. Why don’t we leave and get you back to Reyes?”

“Names!”

“Sorry. But if I had a chance, I’d go back to Spirulanu in an instant … Go back to my kids and get them away from there. Spend every precious second I could with them.”

“You were the one who said I should trust Reyes would be okay.”

“I said you should let her do her thing when you had something to follow.”

Biting down so hard it hurt her jaw, Sparks gritted her teeth. “I have something to follow.”

“A lot of somethings.”

Sparks snatched Hat from Shalk’s arms and tucked him in her robe. The furball twisted with a couple of weak protestations, but even he seemed to understand Shalk was a liability. He’d already blown their cover twice. She left the dark alley, and Shalk followed.

They passed casinos, brothels, bars, nightclubs, and hotels. Many carried the Ringdell Group’s insignia. The spiral represented the maddening journey they were now on as they tried to find their star at its centre. A subtle logo. Part of the brick and steelwork on many buildings, but now she recognised it, she saw it everywhere. And with each one, her mind replayed what they’d witnessed with the sacrificed younglings. “Damn!” Sparks squinted from the glare. Mirrors reflecting mirrors on the tall tower’s surface. “They even own the Grandest.”

They passed the gallows from which they’d intended to hang Greeta. The spiral logo on its upright. They passed several more casinos, all of them owned by the Ringdell Group.

Shalk, much taller than Sparks, probably saw many more logos, but he kept his mouth shut. They weren’t on a sightseeing tour. Without the resources to check them all, they’d keep walking until something stood out.

“Damn!” Sparks halted, several beings slamming into her. She jumped from the main strip, out of the moving crowd. They were back at the row of four buildings that housed Diced and Sliced and Tickle Nipple. “They own those places too?”

“And that’s relevant how?” Shalk turned on the spot, taking in their surroundings.

“It just seems like they own everywhere.”

“Good chat. Now let’s keep moving. The sooner we search the place, the sooner we can leave.”

“Hang on.” Sparks caught Shalk’s arm. The sign above the left of the four buildings flashed. The basement she’d not been able to enter earlier. The glowing green letters blinked and stuttered. “Schrödinger’s!” Her digital intuition a constant background hum. She filtered out the noise as best she could and locked into the sign. The connection struck her like an electric shock, and she stumbled back. Distress and desperation. This building held secrets none could see. None but her. “That’s it! It has to be. Here, take Hat.”

Sparks turned around. “Shalk?” She stood on her tiptoes. “Shalk?”

He’d vanished.

“What the fuck?” But what could she do? Call out for him? She tapped her robe’s pocket, and her entire being sank. “Oh, you didn’t.” The ship’s starter button had gone. Left with Shalk. “You fucking fuck!”

CHAPTER 23

Fzzt!

Another shock threw her across the room, sending the lit square three to the right. “Argghhhh!” She rolled over on the soaked floor.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“Fuck you!” On her feet again, she kicked what remained of the waste bucket, the electric shocks having torn out the base and blown apart the seam, reducing it to a half-pipe of rusting steel.

Fzzt!

Her right leg snapped back from the shock, but she kicked the bucket again. Each time, the light jumped three squares to the right.

Fzzt!

Another shock struck her right knee. It dropped her to the ground, the lit square landing beneath her and changing from red to blue.

She stood again on shaking legs. She crossed the room to the panel sending out the shocks and kicked out.

Fzzt!

Another blast threw her to the floor and turned her left foot numb. The blue square jumped three to the right.

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or touch that square.”

“I’ve touched that square, you fucking prick!”

“The only way out of here is to tell us where it is.”

She ran and kicked the shocker.

Fzzt!

It thrust her right foot back with such force it sent her spinning away from the wall and stung her right hip.

“Just tell us where it is.”

Up again, she charged at the shocker.

Fzzt!

“Argh!” It struck her abdomen and gave her instant stomach cramps. She wrapped her arms around the blow, fell to her knees, and doubled over. Tears and snot cascaded down her face. Her entire body trembled, challenging her ability to stand, but she still got to her feet.

Fzzt!

The shock slammed into her chin like an uppercut, driving her backwards.

She lay on the floor and stared up at the dark ceiling. Soaked and stinking. Every part of her body throbbed. The blue panel now on the other side of the room. But screw them. Let them do whatever they had planned. “I’m done. I’m not playing your sick game anymore. This is over!”

CHAPTER 24

The green sign flickered again. Shalk might have screwed them over, but that didn’t matter right now. They had a hostage in Schrödinger’s. A hostage in a heightened state of distress. Which might not narrow it down on this hellish planet, but with the distress came a twinge of familiarity. It had to be Greeta.

Hat whined from inside her robe.

“Do you think we really have a better lead than this?”

His low growl shook her sternum.

“I get and respect what you’re saying, but I have a strong feeling, and while that might not be enough most of the time, this isn’t most of the time. We have to roll the dice eventually. Also, if this is Greeta, and we get her out of here quickly, we still stand a chance of getting back to the ship before Shalk.” She clenched her fists. “Of being there waiting for him.”

Much like leaving Stargart to enter the death zone, Sparks marched towards her own reflection, the front of Schrödinger’s a massive mirrored window that stretched the building’s entire width save for the doorway on its right. They probably had more than stall rats waiting inside. How many were watching her approach at that moment? The green light flickered again, slamming her with another gut punch of desperation. The changing light played with the shadows on the embossed spiral logo on the wall.

A plain black room cast in the same green hue as the light above the window. A small desk like a DJ booth in one corner. A solitary guard stood in front of a screen, the glow from the display lighting up its slack purple face. Its spherical nose. Its pastel yellow eyes. Its open mouth. Its puckered suckers. It looked up and gasped. It spoke with a phlegmy rattle. “Show yourself.”

Leaning towards them like she hadn’t heard, Sparks stepped closer. “What?”

The being showed her its large purple palm, more suckers running the length of each long finger. A slap from that would bond them for days. “I said show yourself.”

The one-way mirror looked out onto the busy street. At all the beings going about their day.

“I said—”

Sparks shot the single camera in the room’s corner, sending small shards of glass raining down on the being’s head. Before they drew their weapon, she shot them in the face, spraying the back wall with a splattering of white blood. They head-butted the desk on their way down.

Hat grumbled.

“This isn’t the kind of place for introductions. And what would I say, anyway? Hi, we’re the ones with the massive bounty on our heads … They work for the Ringdell Group. Trust them and we die.”

Another low grumble.

Letting Hat out, Sparks ran around to the other side of the desk and leaned closer to the screen. “Oh my. Greeta?”

Trapped in a windowless room with a single light, Greeta got to her feet on wobbly legs and ran at the wall. Within two steps, her body spasmed from an electric shock that threw her on her back. She squirmed and twisted as if relearning how to use her body. She got to her feet and ran at the wall again, only to be stopped by another shock.

“But where is she?” Hat beside her, Sparks threw an arm at the screen. “Where is this?”

Hat growled, looked up at her, then at the underside of the desk before growling again.

Sparks crouched beside him to find a small red button with a pulsing white light. She touched the button and gasped as a memory from minutes before flooded her mind. “They’ve called for backup. Shit!”

Her fingers alive on the keyboard beneath the monitor, Sparks hacked into the machine. She shut down the comms and killed the distress signal. Her chest loosened ever so slightly. She found the building’s schematics. “Of course.” She scanned the floor. An unbroken expanse of black. No hatch. And when she’d approached the basement from the lower level, she’d found that way blocked too. “Then how …”

Hat ran to the window and barked.

A squad of four bipeds, their faces criss-crossed with scar tissue, clung to rifles and charged towards Schrödinger’s.

Slipping from around the desk, Sparks ran to the room’s window and leaned against it, standing beside the door.

Three of the four guards charged in, heading straight for the booth in the corner. She let off three blasts, nailing the side of each one’s head, dropping them as they ran. The fourth slid a small box into the room and peered in after it.

Sparks nailed the final guard, spraying the wall behind them with their blood. She dragged the corpse in with the others so they couldn’t be seen from the street.

The top of the box split in two. The pair of flaps released a swarm of six-legged droids that fizzed and spat from their electric charge. She stamped on one and ran back to the booth. Greeta remained locked in a battle against the shocker in the basement.

The remaining five bugs thrummed, a web of thin blue electric tendrils linking them together. Crack! They loosed their charge and blew a hole in the bottom of the booth.

A mini fridge behind her, Sparks ripped it open, pulled out a large bottle of water, and dashed it against the ground close to the machines. The swarm went off like a line of firecrackers, each one’s demise marked by a thin trail of smoke.

Another guard lolloped towards Schrödinger’s. Sparks ducked behind the booth and aimed through the fresh hole. Each kneecap was the size of her face. She shot them both, sending a third and final blast through the top of their huge head when they hit the ground.

Click!

A section of floor over to Spark’s right lifted by a few centimetres. A large brown furry hand flung it wide, releasing a sewer stench.

“Greeta?” Sparks tracked the next guard descending on the bar. A mandulu. They burst in. Greeta, small at only five feet, but stocky and powerful, tackled them around the waist and threw them to the floor. She attacked their face, their bulbous chin wobbling with each blow. After several wet crunches of grinding cartilage, the thing’s skull cracked, and Greeta lost her fist with a squelch!

Sparks shot the next guard, the explosion releasing a burst of feathers. It ran for several paces and fell on its front.

Still mounted on the dead mandulu, Greeta fixed on Sparks. She panted and bared her teeth, her fur clogged with faeces.

But the guards continued coming. Like workers returning to the hive, they heeded the call of their queen. Sparks aimed at the doorway, their next aggressor tall and slim. Greeta beat her to it again, hitting them with a two-footed sliding tackle. Her hands a blur, she laid into them with a series of blows before biting into their throat and pulling up. A line of sticky blue blood ran from her chin. She spat away the chunk of flesh and fixed on Sparks again.

“Greeta, it’s me.” She pulled back her hood. “Sparks.”

Fire burned in Greeta’s dark brown eyes. She snarled. The blue blood ran from her chin like mucus.

“Faz Went?”

Greeta’s back end lowered like a quadruped ready to pounce.

“Hat!” Sparks pointed at the furball. “You remember Hat, right?”

A flash of clarity cut through her glare. Her snarl faltered.

“Damn!” A guard entered and pointed at Sparks. Another followed him in. The pair were identical in every way. Rows of small horns ran over their bone-white heads. They had sharp little red teeth and white eyes. “That’s the one with the bounty.”

Exploding from her crouch, Greeta batted his blaster so hard it cracked against the black ceiling tiles. Possessed with a berserker rage, she scratched, punched, and bit, taking the fight to the ground.

The second guard fixed his unsteady aim on the pair, trying to track the chaos and clearly trying to avoid shooting his friend.

Sparks shot him as Greeta threw her target onto their back, locked her fists together above her head, and brought them down in the being’s face. The pop of its shattering skull turned Sparks’ stomach.

Surrounded by weapons, Greeta could have taken any of them, but she seemed oblivious. Either that or she preferred to fight with her bare hands. Sparks shoved the first guard’s blaster towards Faz Went’s friend, sending it skating and spinning across the black floor until it came to a halt by her feet.

Greeta stared at the rifle and then at her. Sparks opened the mini fridge, removed another bottle of water, and rolled it across the floor.

Her hands shaking, Greeta slipped the rifle’s strap over her head and fought to remove the bottle’s lid. It spun away and hit the floor. She drank half the bottle and poured the second half over her head.

Sparks shot another guard as they entered, their falling form little more than a peripheral blur. She passed Greeta another bottle and then another, rolling them across the floor one after the other.

As Greeta washed off the piss and shit, her glare softened. She ran her hand over the top of her head, flicking off the excess water.

“I’m so glad to see you, Greeta. I’ve no idea how I opened the basement, but I’m pleased you’re out.”

In a flash, Greeta raised her rifle and aimed it at Sparks. She stepped closer. “You didn’t open it. I did.” She fired a blast into the wall to the left of Sparks’ head. “Don’t you dare take credit for that!”

Holstering her blaster, Sparks raised her hands and stepped clear of the booth. She matched Greeta step for step, closing in on her despite every atom of her being urging her to run.

When they were close enough, Sparks threw her arms wide and wrapped Greeta in a tight embrace.

At first rigid, Greeta fell limp. Sparks leaned close to her ear. “Whatever got you out of there, I’m pleased to see you. We’ve been worried sick. Faz Went thinks you’re dead.”

She pulled away, the old Greeta back in her deep brown eyes. “Dead?”

“That was the worry. But then we saw them try to hang you.”

“Hang me?”

“It’s a long story.” Sparks shot the next guard. “And one I will tell you, but not here. Right now, we need to go. And we need to move fast to get back to the ship before Shalk.”

“Shalk?”

“Can you run?”

“Yep.”

Sparks pulled up her hood, slipped Hat into her robe, and took Greeta’s hand.

“Thanks for coming, Sparks.”

“Of course. Now let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER 25

Pitch black and going nowhere, Reyes needed to get out of there and fast. She jumped at Piltred’s next roar, the elevator swaying with her twisting and turning. The screech of more bending steel below, the dry scrape of his armour against brickwork. The clatter of falling debris.

It’s over, darling. Her dad sat down in her mind’s eye. The kind of thing he always did when he wanted a heart-to-heart with her. The sooner you realise that, the better. Just accept it for what it is. You’re done. Let him take you. Don’t continue disgracing the family name.

Her jaw wobbled, and her chest tightened. A lump wedged in her throat. Returned to her throat. A manifestation of the grief she knew all too well. Had lived with for most of her life. She shook her head. “You’re not real. You won’t win today.” Reaching out, she stepped forward, her fingers bending on contact with the steel-panelled wall. She reached down and caught the horizontal handrail.

And what do you hope you’ll get for checking every wall? A greater understanding of your steel coffin?

Piltred’s next roar shook the elevator floor, and the steel doors buzzed.

She followed the handrail to the elevator’s corner and followed the ninety-degree bend, moving down the next wall.

At the next right angle, the handrail vanished.

More bricks and rubble fell below. The walls shook with his blows. The elevator swayed.

Reyes halted at the slit running down the wall’s centre. She dug her fingers into the gap and grunted with the effort of pulling the doors apart.

Piltred’s rattling howl hit her like a hurricane. Light shone up from below. Reyes stepped to the edge, leaned out of the elevator, and rested her head against the shaft’s wall. He looked straight up at her.

Gasping, Reyes jumped back. His glare burned with his desire for destruction.

There’s only one winner here, sweetheart.

“Shut up!” She returned to the open doors.

His mouth wide, Piltred loosed three roars in quick succession, each one adding gusto to the next.

Regardless of how it looked, just one thing had changed; she could now see. The light from below revealed the square hatch in the elevator’s ceiling.

Reyes jumped up onto the handrail and lifted the hatch.

The entire building shook from Piltred’s attacks.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

“Shove your serenity up your arse.” She slid the hatch aside, shoved it halfway clear, and climbed out so she stood on top of the swaying elevator.

The light from below shone a spotlight on the falling brick. It spun as it hurtled towards her.

Reyes jumped aside, the brick denting the spot where she’d been seconds before.

Three more bricks rained down from Piltred’s next blow and played an off-tempo triplet against the elevator’s roof.

The elevator hung from a thick steel cable looped around two pulleys. One on the elevator’s roof, the other a hundred metres above. It swayed as Piltred continued destroying his surroundings.

Several more bricks rained down on her. She dodged each one before they landed.

So what now, genius?

Crack!

The cable snapped and struck out like a snake. Reyes ducked, narrowly avoiding losing her head. The elevator dropped.

A moment of weightlessness brutally halted by Piltred’s head. The shock ran through the cab into the soles of her boots. It threw her to her knees, the base of her back burning with white-hot agony from the sudden compression.

The elevator leaned right and fell through the hole Piltred had made. It threw Reyes back out into the foyer. It sent her sprawling across the hard floor. An all-consuming cloud of brick dust chased after her.

The coarse particles raked at Reyes’ respiratory system. She coughed and retched. She spat, her feet slipping over the debris-strewn ground as she fought to stand.

Piltred wailed. The elevator groaned, shifting with his movement. But it kept him pinned. For now.

For now is right. This won’t last long.

Reyes ran back towards the chandelier and the swaying net filled with limpet grenades. Towards the wide-open entrance.

A clattering crash behind. Piltred kicked the elevator away, the steel box turning over like a can in the wind. He clambered from the ruins, his suit glinting with fresh scrapes and scratches.

How many hints do you need before you accept this is over?

The base of her back still burning, a twinge running through her with every step, Reyes lost her momentum. She turned to face the fucker, shouldered her rifle, rested her cheek against its steel body, and closed one eye.

Well, at least you’ve grown a spine. Stand toe-to-toe with him. Show him a Reyes doesn’t run from a fight.

The net filled with limpet grenades tugged on her rifle. It challenged her aim. All twelve of them pulled closer. The ropes creaked from the strain.

Why don’t you discard your rifle? Bare-knuckle box the fucker. You can beat him.

What was she thinking? She had no chance.

Okay, maybe not boxing him, but stay there and fight. Shoot him. Blow his fucking head off.

His boulder of a head. Shielded by a massive steel helmet. The masonry had done more damage than she ever could, and he’d walked away from that with seemingly little impact.

Reyes turned and ran. Piltred charged.

You’re such a disappointment.

Faz Went slid into view at the foyer’s exit. She shooed him away. “Go! Now!”

He entered the building.

“What are you doing? The plan’s failed. We can’t beat him.”

Dropping to one knee, Faz Went raised his rifle and looked down its barrel. Piltred drew close to the limpet grenades. He fired too soon, his blue blasts racing past the taut rope. Close, but no cigar. Closer than her, in fact. Close enough to take a bite from the rope, the fibres frayed. Close enough to give her a chance.

He might not be good enough, but he’s a better shot than you. You’ve always been a moaning little brat, you know? Were it not for you being such an arsehole, your mum would still be alive.

“Arghhhhh!” Reyes ground her teeth, slipped her rifle’s strap clear of her head, and ran at Piltred. She grabbed her weapon by its barrel and launched it, sending it spinning through the air on an upward trajectory. It sailed over Piltred’s head and beneath the limpet grenades. The magnetism pulled it up, the net swinging with its momentum.

The frayed rope snapped.

“Run!”

They took off as the net’s contents spilled, sending them and Reyes’ rifle down on the monster.

Boom!

The shockwave shoved Reyes forwards. She tripped, fell, and slid on her front. Scrambling back to her feet, she took off again as the chandelier and ceiling rained down on the fallen monster. Deep popping cracks ran through the entire building.

Following Faz, Reyes sprinted clear of the tower and out into the city. The palace at their backs, the stadium up ahead on their right, they headed for the open plains they couldn’t previously cross. What did it matter if someone saw them now?

Faz Went scanned ahead for traps while Reyes cast glances behind.

A crack raced up the tower block. Brickwork and steel spat away from the break as it streaked towards the top a hundred metres above.

The split reached the tower’s mirrored pinnacle with a glittering eruption. A moment of stillness. Silence. A pause, as if the city held its breath like it might avoid the inevitable. But the tower dropped like a controlled explosion, the top folding in on itself, an increasing cumulus of dust racing to the ground, rolling and billowing with its collapse.

Reyes had never heard a building wail. Now it screamed. Cackled. Roared. It threw down a challenge to the beast it buried.

The tower hit the ground like a detonated warhead. The force of the explosion shoved Reyes forwards, but she remained on her feet and remained ahead of the blinding, choking dust cloud.

Staying on Faz Went’s tail. Using their sight while they had it, they ran right, cutting around another tower block for cover.

Faz Went jumped in through a ground-floor window, and she followed.

He ran for a storeroom, waited for Reyes to slip in after him, and closed the door.

The room lit by a small bulb, Faz Went removed his shirt, exposing his gills. He laid it along the bottom of the door as a draft excluder.

Reyes backed against the wall and held Faz Went’s hand as hurricane winds assaulted the building. She savoured every breath. If it got too dusty in the small space, they were screwed. Had they just buried themselves like they’d buried Piltred?

Dust particles swirled in the air. Reyes rubbed her itching eyes and pulled her shirt up over her mouth. She squeezed Faz Went’s grip. They’d had a good run.

But the howling winds abated. The swirling particles settled. She leaned the back of her head against the wall, pulled her shirt down, and smiled. “We did it?”

His gills on display, the strings of skin rattling with his laugh, Faz Went threw his arms around Reyes and pulled her close. “And they thought Piltred couldn’t be beaten.”

“That’s because they’d not met us.” Her eyes already watering, Reyes blinked, sending a stream of tears running down each cheek. “See, Dad, I knew we’d win.”

CHAPTER 26

A small victory, but they’d take it. Now they had to clean up, and fast. The spilled blood had turned the black floor slick. A nightmare should they need to continue fighting, but at least it made dragging the corpses easier. They now slid across the floor like they had wheels. But Sparks slipped too as she backed towards the hole leading to the basement. Hopefully the hatch would close again when they left. Hide the evidence. Even if it didn’t, at least they were moving the massacre so it couldn’t be seen from outside. Surely it’d buy them even a small amount of time to escape. Although, whether they’d reach the ship before Shalk left or not …

The wide window looked out at the busy main strip. Surveillance drones, mechs, beings of all shapes and sizes. Some flew, some walked, some galloped. None were interested in Schrödinger’s, and there were no more guards. For now.

Like whenever she broke through the mirrored dome to enter the death zone, Sparks held her breath as she drew close to the hole in the floor. It stank like a sewer. She dragged one guard with the criss-crossed scars on their face and dropped them in. They turned in the air and landed head first on another corpse. Their feet fell against the lit panel. It turned the blue light green and triggered an automated voice. “The only way out of here is to tell us where it is or to touch that square.”

Greeta tutted and shook her head while dragging a body to the hole. Hat sat close to the window, his tongue hanging from his mouth. After throwing the corpse in, Greeta ran to the shelves by the corner booth. She removed the stopper from a dark blue glass bottle with a gentle pop! She sniffed it and pulled away like the stench had dealt her a physical blow.

Sparks grunted with the effort of dragging the final corpse. Heavier than the one before, her feet slipped with every tug. But Greeta remained in the room’s corner with the bottle. A little help would be nice!

Greeta wandered back over, but instead of helping Sparks, she blocked her path.

“Come on, Greeta, we’re in a rush here.” Sparks flung an arm towards the street. “You understand we only have a certain amount of time before Shalk gets to the ship and leaves us stranded, right?”

“I’ve been all right on my own until now, thanks.” She sneered at the stinking basement. “I got out of there just fine.”

Sparks filled her lungs. “Okay, whatever, but how does that change anything?”

“Are you saying I didn’t get out of here just fine?”

“No, I’m saying we need to go before our ride out of here leaves.”

Greeta smashed the blue bottle against the final corpse. The heady alcoholic cloud made Sparks dizzy, but at least it banished the basement’s reek. A shard of glass skittered across the room towards Hat. “You need to watch yourself.” She pointed at Greeta. “Whatever’s going on, I won’t have you hurt him.”

Stepping forwards, pressing her chest against Sparks’, Greeta bared her sharp teeth. Her fur was still sodden from where she’d washed off the waste. She swayed with ragged breaths, her small nostrils flaring. Thick bags hung beneath unfamiliar dark brown eyes. What had happened to the Greeta she knew?

Friend of Faz Went’s or not, Sparks held her ground.

Lowering her focus to Sparks’ robe, the embroidering on the breast pocket—Tickle Nipple—Greeta tutted and shook her head again, snatched Sparks’ mini computer, and turned her back on her.

No one took her computer! Sparks drew her blaster and hooked her finger over the trigger. But how would she explain it to Faz? Greeta needed help. From the look in her eyes and the state of the basement, she’d been to hell and back. She reholstered her weapon.

The street remained clear of any immediate danger. Every passing drone and droid sent twinges through Sparks, but none struck her as unusual.

Greeta hunched next to the final corpse, Sparks’ mini computer in hand.

“What are you doing? We need to get out of here! Now!”

With the fizz of the computer’s shocker, Greeta sent a tiny bolt of electricity into the corpse. The alcohol caught fire, and the flames chewed into the being’s cotton shirt.

Sparks’ chest tightened, and she stepped back. Amelia screamed through her mind. “What are you doing? Greeta? Talk to me?”

“I don’t answer to no one.”

Sparks stepped back another pace, the flames spreading across the corpse. “Where’s the Greeta I met?”

“This is the Greeta you met.”

“The one on Acoolter, who was happy to help and a joy to be around.”

“That was a Greeta living in times of peace.” She lifted the corpse’s legs and tipped them into the basement with the others. “This is Greeta at war.” She returned Sparks’ mini computer. “Besides, this will create a distraction. Give the beings on Stargart something to focus on other than us.”

Hat remained close to the window, the chunk of blue glass half a metre away. Maybe Sparks had overreacted. He pressed his nose to the pane and whined. Three more guards closed in. Blue, over seven feet tall, and they each had a spring in their step from where their legs were bent backwards at the knees.

“We need to get out of here, Greeta.”

The flames lit her tired face. Her wide eyes. “Don’t you dare tell me what I need to do!”

“What part of this aren’t you getting?”

“I said don’t.”

At what point did she leave her? Tell Faz she’d tried, but what could she do? He’d talked of her stubbornness, but this Greeta had lost her mind. Stubborn and irrational.

Sparks ran to the door and caught the first guard mid-hop. Grabbing his shirt, she launched him across the room, drew her blaster, and shot him. He turned limp in the air, slid across the floor, and vanished through the hole, the flames growing brighter with his landing.

Back at the shelf, Greeta launched another bottle. It spun through the air and smashed against the second guard’s forehead. Alcohol and blood rained down her face. She screamed and clapped her hands over her eyes.

Sparks shot the third through the temple.

The second guard continued screaming. Greeta kicked her knees the other way, snapping one and then the next. Broken like a bug beneath a boot heel, she dragged her towards the hole and shoved her in. Leaning over the pit, she shook and spat with the force of her delivery. “The only way out of there is to tell us what you know or press the square!”

The broken being screamed as she burned.

Greeta threw in another bottle from the back wall. It landed with a splash and a whomp! The flames burned brighter. She leaned over the hole. “Now you know how it feels. Press the square, motherfucker.” A burning hand reached up from the basement. Greeta stamped on the broken guard’s blistered fingers, and she wailed again. “Who’s playing games now?”

The fire’s glow sent deep shadows across Greeta’s already haggard face. Accentuated her rictus grin. Her glazed and wild glare. Could Sparks leave her here?

Lifting Hat, Sparks slipped him into her robe as she stepped towards Greeta. “We need to go.”

The furry maniac might have been smaller than most, but at five feet tall, she still towered over Sparks. She spoke in monotone. “I’ll leave when I’m ready. I got myself out of this.”

“You did, and I applaud you for that. And I’m sure you can get yourself off this planet too.”

“I can.”

“But why reject a ride out of here to prove a point?”

“Because I can.”

She’d have to return to Faz with an apology instead of his friend. The Greeta he knew had passed the point of no return.

CHAPTER 27

“Hold your breath!”

Slowing her approach to the mirrored dome, Greeta shook her head. “No! You can’t be serious.”

Deadly serious. Especially with how much time she’d wasted on her bonfire in Schrödinger’s. Clinging to Hat, Sparks twisted between a pair of beings readying themselves for their own trip out into the death zone. She dropped her head and sprinted at her reflection.

The sun’s glare kicked like a muletoid, the death zone brighter than a star at close range and hotter than hell. The shine bounced off her computer’s screen, and she had to angle it to get a read on the ship’s location.

Bursting through a second later, her lips pressed tight, her brow locked so hard she looked in pain, Greeta shook her head and chased Sparks like she wanted her dead. And if anything went wrong out here, she might just get her wish.

Sparks showed her the computer’s screen and pointed to where they needed to go. While Greeta could no doubt get herself off this planet, if she wanted an easy way out, she’d shut up and learn to follow.

Sweat ran down Sparks’ face, pulled her clothes close to her slick body, and made her skin itch. The scorching breeze hit her head-on and sandblasted her sticky skin. To rub her burning eyes now would be like soothing them with sandpaper. She kept the dome close on their left should they need to dart back in. Its curve hid the ship from view.

Sparks lifted her computer and turned to show Greeta their progress. A twinge disturbed her from her right. She drew her blaster and fired.

The hovering tray crashed down at Greeta’s feet. For the first time since Schrödinger’s, she looked at Sparks with something close to respect. But it soon gave way to another hard scowl.

Blaster raised, Sparks led Greeta back in through the mirrored dome into one of many dark alleys.

A worker with thick and hairy arms, a pair of horns protruding from their temples, and a high-vis jacket covering their skinny torso, detached the corpse from the dead droid before strapping it to another. Sparks threw her arm across Greeta, slamming her into a steel wall as it shot out into the death zone.

“Why’d you shoot my droid?”

Sparks pointed at Greeta. “Because it nearly destroyed her.”

Tutting, Greeta stiffened where she stood. “I’d have stopped it.”

The next being groaned as the worker clipped the cuff to their ankle. Sparks shot the hovering platform. It fell dead with the clack of steel against concrete.

The worker raised their large fists, rolled their shoulders, and fixed on her from beneath their lowered brow.

Greeta struck the worker on the chin. Their legs folded beneath them, and they hit the ground like a dead droid. Some of the dazed beings in the dark alley flinched before returning to stupefaction.

Snapping a cuff to their wrist, Sparks sent the worker into the death zone, their long body trailing behind them. Faced with hers and Greeta’s sweating reflection, she blew out and raised her eyebrows. “You think they deserved any better?”

Greeta shrugged.

“We need to keep moving.”

But Greeta hunched next to one of the hovering trays.

“I will leave you. I waited in Schrödinger’s. I won’t do it a second time.”

“I didn’t need you to wait.”

Sparks stamped her foot, the same checked-out beings flinching for a second time. “If we don’t go now, Shalk will be long gone by the time we reach the ship. If he hasn’t already left.”

Still focused on the droid, Greeta tilted her head to one side. The machine interested her more than Sparks ever could.

“Screw this. I’m getting out of here.”

The death zone’s heat smothered Sparks like a surprise kidnapping. It dragged sweat from every pore and threatened to drain the strength from her legs and desire from her heart. Too hot for Hat in her robe, she let him out, and he ran beside her.

The computer suggested they were close to the ship, but the shining dome still blocked her line of sight. The sun shone off the sandy plains, the billions of grains almost as reflective as the protective bubble disrupting the continuous landscape. Miles of open and arid desert punctuated by a pimple of civilisation. A close-by cluster of stall rats watched Sparks and Hat run for their lives.

Hat halted. Sparks pointed at him, pointed at the stall rats, and wagged her finger. Don’t you dare, you little prick.

But the furball turned back to where they’d just left. And he had a point. What would she tell Faz? After coming all this way and fighting this hard to reunite with Greeta …

Sparks lost precious air with the single syllable. “Fuck.”

Stepping back towards Greeta, Sparks jumped when she burst from the dome, riding one of the worker’s droids like a hoverboard.

She stopped close by and offered Sparks her hand. Hat jumped on straight away, and the droid sank with the weight of Sparks stepping on a second later.

Taking Sparks’ mini computer from her for a second time, Greeta sent the ship’s location to the droid, handed the computer back, and dropped, bending her knees to help balance as the droid shot away.

They were moving much faster than before, but the death zone’s breeze now hit them like an open blast furnace. Sparks shielded her eyes from the glare and to prevent the hot wind from cooking her eyeballs, even with her glasses on. She held out her other hand for balance.

Leaning left with the curve of the dome and the droid’s trajectory, Sparks’ head throbbed with a combination of fading oxygen and extreme heat.

The computer suggested they were close to the ship. Sparks’ eyeballs needed convincing. But when it came into view, she gave a little hop, which sent several bobbing waves through the droid. They’d got there before Shalk!

The droid maintained its pace. It headed straight for the ship like a missile. Greeta clearly hadn’t trained it as well as she’d thought. Sparks bent her legs, ready to jump. The droid deprived her of that choice. It halted, launching the three of them through the air.

Hat spun like a tumbleweed, while Greeta turned a full somersault and landed on her feet with only the slightest kick of sand. Sparks slammed against the desert like a flying fish. She landed on her left hip, flipped, and landed again on her back with an, “Oomph.”

A hand to her throat like it would somehow keep what little oxygen she had left in her body, Sparks scrambled to her feet and hobbled towards the ship, her hip throbbing and her head spinning.

She unlocked the door with her mini computer and fell into the back. Hat hopped in after her. Greeta stepped in last and closed them with a whack of the button.

The door shut out the death zone’s light and flooded the space with oxygen. Sparks gasped. “That was amazing, Greeta.”

“And you thought I was holding you up! That I was wasting time at Schrödinger’s for the fun of it.”

They would have reached the ship sooner had they left sooner. No doubt. “I was worried.”

Greeta raised her eyebrows.

“We need to wait for Shalk to return with the starter, and give him the arse-kicking of his life.”

Greeta dug at her teeth with the sharp claw on her little finger. She inspected the excavation before sucking it off. “We going to leave him here?”

“I dunno.”

“You dunno?”

“I promised I’d get him back to Flanterian.”

“But doesn’t him screwing you over mean all bets are off?”

“That’s certainly a consideration.”

“I’d say it’s more than a consideration.”

“Do you want some fresh clothes?”

Greeta scowled until she sniffed her sleeve and spoke to the floor. “Yes, please.”

Hobbling to the ship’s cupboard, Sparks pulled open the door to reveal the clothes hanging there and stood aside to let Greeta take her pick.

Still fixed on the floor, Greeta passed Sparks and mumbled, “Thank you.”

Reaching out to rest a hand on her back, she stopped before touching her. One step at a time, Sparks. One step at a time.

CHAPTER 28

Not that she didn’t appreciate Faz Went’s quick thinking when he blocked the bottom of the door with his shirt, but at least she didn’t have to look at his gills now he had it back on. It scrambled her mind to be so close to the puckered, grinning slits and the strings of calloused skin, beaded like an abacus. Something about it made no sense, no matter how she framed it. She’d squirmed the entire time, an involuntary reaction, which, judging by his sideways glances, she’d failed to keep to herself.

Carrying the burden of his physiology with stooped shoulders, Faz Went shoved open the storeroom’s door, a thick and pale cloud swirling away from the disturbance. White dust covered everything as if a wintry storm had hit the ruined city.

Grit still in her eyes, Reyes’ fingers twitched, but rubbing them only made it worse. She blinked repeatedly, the emotion gone from her tears, yet they flowed as freely.

Lifting his shirt over his mouth like Reyes, Faz Went pulled his trousers up to cover his gills. He led them back to the window through which they’d entered. An eerie stillness hung in the city as if every building held its breath, even if the weather didn’t. The wind sent thick blankets of white racing through the streets.

The absent tower left a gap in the skyline that cleared their line of sight to the palace’s blue force-field dome. The centre of the city and the source of the conflict. So many dead for control of a natural resource. What a waste. Hopefully Piltred’s demise signalled the beginning of an end to this conflict.

The stadium loomed large on their right. One of the many landmarks they’d leave behind as they headed into the plains in search of Sparks and Hat. A frosting of dust lay over the bodies and parts like a coroner’s blanket.

The ground rumbled, and Reyes stopped in her tracks.

Faz Went spun around, the fallen tower a mountain of rubble behind them. His bloodshot eyes widened. Had he just heard that?

The silent question was born from hope. The fragile thread on which they clung. It snapped when Piltred’s second roar rolled through the city. Reyes’ shirt muffled her words. “What will it take to kill him?”

“A fucking miracle.” Faz Went pointed at the stadium.

“Really?”

He raised two fingers in time with his points. “You think we can outrun him? And if we do, you think we can then get away from the city unseen and unfollowed?”

“I’m not going back into those sewers. All that for what? To return to where we were? And worse off, because I now have no fucking rifle.”

“You can have mine.”

“That’s not the point, Faz. I’m tired. When do we accept defeat and simply give up?”

Faz Went stepped closer as a third roar shook the city. “What would your dad say if he heard that?”

“He’s been saying a lot of things lately.”

“Piltred’s been saying a lot of things.” He jabbed his index finger against his temple. “He’s doing it to me too.”

Shifting rubble followed the next roar. The beast dragging himself from his grave.

Faz Went offered Reyes his hand. “We’ve got this. Whatever it takes.”

She sighed, took his hand, and together they ran.

Back through the stadium’s open gates. Close to the pitch’s edge and the dust-coated corpses. The same route as before, they ducked inside.

Dust spilled into the hallway and swirled in the air, but much of the stadium’s internal area remained clear of the choking particles. A victory, no matter how small. And maybe the last one they’d get in a while. They were about to plunge back into the stinking depths. About to crawl through the sewers like the eels who saw them as prey. And what had they achieved other than a stark reminder that no matter what they threw at him, Piltred simply wouldn’t die.

CHAPTER 29

“So you’ve robbed an arms dealer, destroyed a planet’s economy, gained a bounty on your heads that’s made you one of the most wanted beings in the galaxy, been screwed over by a gloyner, and now you’re going to war against the Ringdell Group?”

Sitting on the bench opposite Greeta, Sparks paused for a moment and shrugged. “Doesn’t sound great. But yeah, pretty much …”

“Pretty much?”

“Very much. Yes, that’s exactly what’s happened since I saw you last.”

Greeta whistled. “Damn!” She leaned back against the wall and crossed her legs. “That’s some heavy shit.” For the first time since Sparks had met her in Schrödinger’s, she smiled. A full-blown grin that revealed her pointed teeth. “I’m in.”

“But we need to wait for Shalk to get here.”

“If he’s getting here.”

“You think he’s not?”

“I’m not the one running this mission.” Greeta closed her eyes.

“Mission?” Sparks laughed. “It’s a fucking shit show. Reyes is the one with the organisational skills.”

Greeta shrugged, drowsiness clearly taking over as she slurred her words. “But we’re here and alive. That’s something.”

“You’re right. It is. I used to do a lot of this, you know?”

Opening her eyes, Greeta sat up straighter. “Sitting in ships that were no more functional than air-conditioned breathing tanks in inhospitable environments?”

“Not exactly like this. But waiting around. Biding my time for the right moment to strike. Before I met Seb Zodo.”

“Who?”

“I was in the Shadow Order with him. He and I joined at the same time. Although, join is a bit rich. They hoodwinked us into service.”

One eyebrow raised, Greeta spoke in monotone. “Yet you didn’t learn your lesson?”

“At least that one worked out.”

“Hopefully this one will too.”

“It will. Whatever happens, I’m going to get back to Reyes. But before the Shadow Order and before Seb Zodo, I used to rob beings. Scope a place out for days, sometimes weeks, before I struck.”

“Sounds like a noble profession.”

“An orphan from Thryst can’t afford to have morals.”

“You stayed on Thryst long?”

“Not after Amelia …” Sparks gulped, chugging on the lump in her throat. “There was little left for me after that. Fuck, there was little there for me in the first place. Amelia was all I ever had.”

Greeta shuffled on the bench, making herself comfortable.

“I travelled the galaxy as a stowaway, moving from one freighter to the next, nicking a living where I could, and taking what wasn’t bolted down.”

“Needs must.”

“Exactly.”

“And I’m sorry I got stressed in Schrödinger’s. Fire always makes me giddy, and time was running out. I’m worried about Reyes and Faz Went.”

“What’s happening with Faz?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why are you worried?”

“They’re on Flanterian, in a ruined city with a horrific being.”

“And the being’s caught them?”

“Him. Piltred. And not as far as I know.”

“Can Reyes look after herself?”

“She’s formidable.”

“Faz is no slouch either. You need to focus on what you can do in this moment. Trust they’ll be okay.”

“That’s what Shalk said.”

“A wise thief.”

“You sound surprised. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know?”

Greeta looked Sparks up and down. “I’m yet to be convinced.”

“Fuck you.”

Folding her arms, Greeta smirked.

“So, what happened? In that basement.”

The smirk fell. Greeta’s eyes narrowed.

Sparks shivered, and Hat crossed from the other side of the ship to lean into her legs. “Okay. ’Nuff said.”

Her chest rising with her deep inhale, Greeta let it go with a prolonged sigh. “At what point do we accept Shalk’s been held up?”

“We haven’t already accepted that?”

“Permanently held up.”

“You think?”

“You don’t?”

She had a point. How long could they sit there waiting for him to arrive with the ship’s starter button? “What do you suggest?”

“We find another starter button in Stargart. And maybe that’s a good thing.”

“Doesn’t sound like a good thing. Remember, Hat and I represent financial independence to the first being to cut our throats.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“I’d kick your arse.”

Greeta snorted a laugh. “There’s a reason the Ringdell Group held me prisoner.”

Sparks rolled her eyes and deepened her voice. “Because you’re a dangerous motherfucker who can do baaad things?”

“No. When I came here with Faz as a favour to you, I looked through their networks and downloaded a lot of private information.”

“And they want it back?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is it?”

“Anything that leaves Stargart is traceable.”

“So what have you done with it?”

“Stored it on their local networks.” Greeta scrunched her nose. “Hidden it right under their snouts.”

“I’m guessing it’s pretty valuable to them. Either that or they just like torturing beings.”

Greeta looked away.

“Not mutually exclusive.”

“No. But I’ve not had time to look through it yet to assess just how valuable.”

“So you want to go back into Stargart and access a local network?”

“Not just any local network.”

“Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

“I need to get to the one inside the Grandest.”

“Are you mad?”

“It’s one of my best features.”

“You can’t access it from anywhere else?”

“Maybe, but I know for sure I can access it from the Grandest. They place too much confidence in that tower’s security.”

“That’s because there’s no way we’re getting in there. Especially with half the fucking galaxy wanting to claim my and Hat’s bounty.”

“So we wait here and hope Shalk turns up?”

“We can still get a starter. It’s the Grandest part of the plan I don’t like.”

“I’m not sure I can walk away from this, Sparks.” Greeta lost focus. “I’ve paid a heavy price for that information. They followed me to Acoolter and got the jump on me. Took me from my home and …” She shook her head and rubbed her face with both hands. “After what they’ve done to me, I need to make sure I leave this planet with something that can hurt them back.”

“Shit!”

“You don’t have to come. I got out of Schrödinger’s basement on my own. In fact, based on what I’ve seen so far, you’ll probably be more of a hindrance.”

Sparks stretched up to the ceiling and rocked from side to side, working the aches from her shoulders. “You’re a prick, you know that?”

“Careful, Sparks, I’ve killed beings for less.”

“Faz Went told me. He also told me you have a good heart.”

“He lies.”

“Come on.” Sparks stood up. “Let’s get this over with.”

“You want to give me your computer”—Greeta held out her hand—“so I can change the ship’s locks? That’s a little above your skill level, right?”

“Prick.” Sparks filled her lungs, whacked the button to open the ship’s door, and jumped back out into the scorching desert.

Once Greeta and Hat had followed, she hacked the ship’s system and changed the code for the locks. Even if Shalk made it back, he wouldn’t be getting out of there. And if he stayed too long trying to get in, he wouldn’t be leaving Stargart at all. And who’s to say it wasn’t a fitting punishment?

Running to catch up with Greeta and Hat, Sparks fell in line, the three of them marching towards their own reflections. Hat bounced and hopped with his usual short-legged skip, and Greeta strode at her own image like she’d fight herself. She threw a sideways glance at Sparks and used up valuable oxygen. “When are you going to take off that stupid fucking robe?”

Sparks ran her hands down her sides, pushing it flat against her body. They were close enough to the dome. She could afford to speak. “You want to borrow it?”

Greeta scoffed, and Sparks picked up Hat, slipping him inside the silk garment.

For most, they entered and left Stargart once. Chewed up and spat out again. Sparks had lost count of the number of times she’d gone through this dome. But one of them would be her final time. Which one was this?

CHAPTER 30

The largest phallus of them all, it stood alone as the proudest structure on Stargart’s skyline. It stretched towards the dome’s underside like only it had earned the salvation required to transcend this shackled existence. Cowed on a planet, hiding beneath a dome, it deserved to be elevated above the rest. And when it poked its head into the death zone to which it had grown so close, it would challenge the elements and win. Its name ran down its side in huge red letters. In a garishly dazzling world, they shone as if lit by a celestial presence. The surrounding illuminated chaos played only a supporting role. It didn’t promise hookers, games, or intoxication. In fact, it promised nothing, yet it inspired awe. The most beautiful building of them all. They were standing in the presence of greatness. They were standing before the Grandest.

Sparks closed her mouth as another ship came in to land on the roof. The privileged and the few, the Grandest’s clientele didn’t mix with the hoi polloi. She tugged on her hood again. “All right then, genius. What now?”

Pausing before the marble stairs, Greeta scoffed. “Remember, I’m happy to do this alone.”

“You won’t be saying that when you’re neck-deep in shit.”

The white steps ran from the front door down to the main strip like a waterfall. They were designed to look like they flowed one way. Beings left this place. Were ejected from this place. To step on them and approach would be to trigger a silent alarm of social affront. Who the fuck were they, and what the fuck did they want? Greeta began the climb. She clearly cared little for societal convention.

Sparks jogged to catch up with her. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

They ascended under the watchful glare of the punters in the hotel’s foyer. About halfway up, they stepped into the shadow cast by the thick red and white canopy stretching out over the entrance. “You think there’s a better way?”

“I think there are plenty.”

“Go on then …”

She’d previously entered through the roof and the front door. She’d come as a welcome visitor.

“I’m waiting.”

Halfway between the front door and the main strip. Marooned on an isolated island. The centre of attention. Sparks’ heart raced. She tugged on her hood. “Anything has to be better than this.”

“Useful. Good chat.” Greeta continued her climb.

Falling in beside her again, sweating, Sparks pulled Hat close to her chest. “How are you going to get in?”

“They’ve let you in before.”

“That’s because I came here with something to offer.”

“You have something to offer now … Forty thousand somethings, to be precise. More if you give them your severed head.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

“But you’ve come along because I need help, right?”

“There’s no way in.”

“No way in for the timid. I’m going to stride in there like I belong.”

“But you need to look like you belong.”

“Then I’ll go in all guns blazing. Whatever it takes, Sparks.”

They climbed the final steps, the light bouncing off the window and throwing their own reflections back at them. Sparks with her hood up, a bulge beneath her Tickle Nipple robe. Greeta like she’d come for war. “Entering this place makes going into the death zone look easy. We’re about to alert every being on Stargart as to where their bounty is, and they’ll have you back in that basement in a flash.”

Greeta’s voice dropped to a low rumble. “I’ll kill every being on this planet before that happens again.”

Every being, including Sparks. She caught Greeta’s hand to prevent her from pushing the door open.

“What are you doing?”

Sparks pulled back her hood.

Greeta gasped. “What are you doing?”

“Rolling the dice.”

“Huh?”

“I’m betting my anonymity that very few beings in this place would even consider killing me for a paltry forty K.”

“But why—”

“Because you won’t take no for an answer.”

“Don’t put this on me.”

As white as his guard’s uniform. As pale as the marble steps. His face all snout, his chin vanishing into his shirt, he pulled open the door and poked out his head. “Miss Sparks?”

She acknowledged him with a nod.

“Where’s Just Reyes?”

Sparks pulled up her hood, reclaiming her anonymity. “She’s somewhere safer than here. Can we come in?”

Marlon shifted from one foot to the other like the floor had grown too hot. He wrung his hands and shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Pushing down on Greeta’s gun before she raised it, Sparks forced a smile. “We need to get out of this heat. Maybe have a sip of water. Use the bathroom. You know what it’s like out here.” She’d done little other than insult this being for most of the time they’d been together, and now she came for his help. “Please, Marlon.”

“The clientele won’t like it.”

“Fuck the clientele.” Greeta winked and grabbed her blaster. “I’ll have a word with them if you like?”

“I think she’s asking if you could take us upstairs where it’s quieter?”

“I wasn’t asking that at all.”

Sparks pressed her hands together, palm to palm. “We’ll be quick, and then we’ll be out of your way, I promise.”

Marlon tutted, opened the door, and stood aside. He shrank back as Greeta walked purposefully close to him.

The air conditioning was so low it stole Sparks’ breath, her gasp drawing the attention of the few beings who hadn’t already fixed on them with slack horror. How dare they enter this place? They belonged in the death zone. The alleys at best. She spoke beneath her breath. “Why didn’t you let me handle it? The threats were entirely unnecessary.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“We can work well together if you trust me to handle things once in a while, you know? No being is an island.”

Greeta scoffed. “I’m a fucking planet.”

The elevator opened on their approach, and they strode in. Marlon joined them, pressing the button to close the doors.

Leaning against the elevator’s wall, Sparks finally caught her breath. “Sometimes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Isn’t that right, Marlon?”

“Yes, Miss Sparks.”

“That’s lucky,” Greeta said. “Were life a meritocracy, you’d be screwed. And this little fucker here”—she pointed at Marlon—“would be unemployed. Any old useless shitbag can make friends.”

“I used to think the same.” Sparks cleared her throat. “And then I met you.”

CHAPTER 31

“I don’t trust him, you know?”

Sparks rolled her eyes and rested a hand on Marlon’s shoulder. “You don’t trust anyone, Greeta.”

“He’s one of them. He works for them.”

“Me and Reyes worked for them too.”

“And I’m not confident you can do much to help me, either.”

“So you keep reminding me.”

The button for the fourth floor aglow, Greeta shoved Marlon aside, slamming him into the elevator’s left wall, and pressed the button for the penthouse suite.

“Uh … Th-th-that’s not where we’re head—”

“You gonna stop me?”

Sparks eased Greeta back a step.

“You … uh. You can’t go up there, I’m afraid.”

“I know you’re afraid.” Greeta sniffed him. “You reek of cowardice. You’re brave when you think you have someone trapped in a nice little box, eh?”

“Huh?”

“That’s enough, Greeta.”

Greeta tutted, the elevator swaying from where she fell against the back wall. She remained fixed on Marlon. “It will never be enough.”

The doors opened on the fourth floor, revealing the lavish hallway and thick brown carpet stretching away from them. The white walls and ornate ceiling. Thick wooden doors with golden handles. A life only enjoyed by a select few.

The anticipation sucked the air from the elevator. They could still get off. Sparks tugged at her collar and patted Hat. The chime of the closing doors cut through the stillness. The whir of servos removed plan A.

Marlon hopped from one foot to the other and whimpered. He stared at his feet. “So … uh, how do you two know one another?”

“I came here to rescue her.” Sparks winked at Greeta, whose lips pulled so tight they damn near vanished.

“Read the room, Sparks.”

Greeta struck the back of Marlon’s head with an open palm. His snout bounced off the closed doors.

Getting between them, Sparks turned her back on Greeta and stood over the pathetic creature to protect him. “Leave him alone. It was my joke.”

“That what you call it?”

“I need to make being around you bearable.”

Marlon cowered on the floor, crying, blood dripping from his nose. His whiny tone ran like nails down a chalkboard. “What have I done to you? I let you in when I didn’t need to.”

Offering him her hand, Sparks helped him to his feet and remained between him and Greeta. “It’s not you, Marlon.”

“It fucking is.”

“It’s what you represent to her. She’s had a rough ride lately. She’s taking it out on you. She also refuses anyone’s help.”

“So I should seek counsel from fools?”

“You should open your eyes and see who’s on your side. Fighting every being you come across won’t change what’s happened.”

“But it will make me feel a hell of a lot better.”

“Just go easy on him, yeah?”

“You on their side now?”

“Whatever happened to you is not his fault. And it’s not my fault. And while I can see you’re struggling—”

“Struggling to not snap your neck where you stand.”

Sparks stepped forwards. “I’d like to see you try.”

A lightning flash streaked across Greeta’s stare. A spark to a pile of alcohol-soaked corpses. But she stepped back and leaned against the wall again.

“Just leave him alone and accept his help. He’s not done anything to you.”

“He has by association.”

“And that’s a reason to attack a weak and vulnerable creature?”

“Fuck yeah it is. It’s a reason to attack them all.”

“How brave of you. It’s not like he can fight back.”

Marlon sniffed. “I am here, you know?”

The elevator’s chime cut them off. The doors opened, and Marlon stepped out first.

Sparks followed with Hat beneath her robe. Greeta came out last. The plain hallway didn’t have the luxury of a penthouse suite. White walls, a much thinner carpet than the ones on the other floors, and the ceiling an expanse of bare white plasterboard studded with simple lights. Just one door on their right, the hallway leading all the way to a single window at the end. “I must say, I expected …”

“Something more?” Greeta smirked.

“You didn’t?”

“Why do you think I wanted to come up here? And why do you think he wanted to stop us?”

Marlon whimpered, and Greeta caught him by his white shirt before he returned to the elevator.

“I’ve done what you asked. Now let me go.”

She dragged him clear of the closing doors. “No chance.”

“Miss Sparks?”

“On this, I agree with Greeta.” Sparks took Marlon’s shirt and pried Greeta’s hand free. “You’ve helped us get where we need to be. Now we need to make sure no one else knows we’re here.”

“But you said you wanted to get out of the heat. Have a sip of water.”

“We lied.”

Marlon gasped.

“But we won’t take up much of your time. And I promise you, you won’t come to any harm. We appreciate your help. Isn’t that right, Greeta?”

Now they were on the top floor, some of Greeta’s tension left her stocky frame. Her snarl sank, and her scowl lifted, her hairy brow fluffy now it had dried. A flicker of compassion softened her brown eyes. They were where they needed to be. She’d accepted his help, and it had paid off. And if they all kept their heads, they’d be leaving the Grandest with the data they’d come to collect. Not everything needed to be a battle. She dipped her head ever so slightly. “Yeah, that’s right. You won’t come to any harm.”

CHAPTER 32

Like holding a toddler back from running out into a busy street, Sparks tightened her grip on Marlon’s shirt, dragging him along the plain hallway while following Greeta. He tugged back every step of the way. She halted. “Come on, Marlon. Stop fighting the inevitable. Right now, we need you with us.”

She set off again, and Marlon continued tugging. Pausing again, she levelled her blaster on him.

Like a deflating tyre, the small snouty being sank with a whimper.

At the only door along the bland hallway, Sparks’ intuition prodded her with a suggestion of what lay beyond. The reason for Greeta leading them here. Computers … Networks …

Greeta hooked her thumb in the door’s direction. “This is it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I hid it here.”

“You’ve been in here before?”

“Not physically, no. This is where I sent the data. I then covered its tracks. Swept up after it and took it offline.”

“You weren’t worried they’d trace it?”

Greeta scoffed. She held out her hand. “Now, give me your computer.”

Sparks covered her breast pocket holding her computer.

“You don’t trust me?”

“You’re a fine one to talk about trust. I’ve come here to help, yet you’ve treated me like the enemy.”

“Look, Sparks, this data’s offline. If I can transfer it to your computer, I can keep it that way.”

“You can’t send it somewhere again?”

“I can, but why risk it?”

Her blaster still levelled on Marlon, Sparks fished her computer from her pocket with her free hand and passed it over. “Look after her.”

“Her?”

“She belonged to someone I loved dearly. I like to think a part of her remains inside.”

Greeta shook her head. “Next thing we know, you’ll be telling me you talk to machines.”

Sparks kept her features neutral. Greeta would find out soon enough. But she’d not earned the whole truth yet. Not until she’d learned to show her more respect. She treated Sparks like a hindrance. Like she had to prove herself. Like she should list her skills and qualities in a desperate attempt to be liked. Fuck that shit.

“You’re staying out here?”

Despite having Sparks’ blaster in his face, Marlon kept throwing glances along the hallway to the window at the end. She couldn’t leave him on his own. “It’s only a computer room, right?”

Greeta slapped the button to open the door and peered in. “Yep. Looks that way.”

“Then I’ll stay out here and keep watch.”

“Good idea.”

“I do have them, you know?”

Greeta smiled and vanished, the door closing behind her.

“Is she right?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Marlon.” Sparks kept her voice low. Kept it between her and Marlon in that moment. “Is Greeta right?”

“About what?”

“Trust. Am I wrong to trust you?”

“You can trust me, Miss Sparks.”

“And I want to.” Sparks kept her gun levelled on him as she backed towards the window at the end of the hallway.

With every step closer, Marlon twisted and squirmed. He wrung his hands and whimpered.

“Something you want to tell me?”

“I’m just here to help you achieve your goals, Miss Sparks.”

Sparks leaned against the hot glass. They were so high up it made the backs of her knees weaken. The beings on the ground were little more than specks. But specks flooding from the Grandest like they were fleeing a fire. Something twisted through her intuition. A disturbance of some sort. But there were no machines in the hallway.

“You’re sure there’s nothing you want to say, Marlon?” A background hum throbbed through her eyeballs. It had to be the computers in the room next door. That and the familiar thrum of triggers ready to drive the servos powering the doorways. Doorway. Just one. But not if she closed her eyes. There was disturbance for ten or more. As busy as every other corridor they’d visited. “Marlon?”

He whined louder than before. “Janina and Wiltord.”

“Huh?”

“My two kids.”

Sparks stepped towards him. She kept her blaster high. “I have no beef with you, but I need the truth now.”

“Trishtu.”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

“My wife. We’ve been together for sixteen years.”

“How old are you?”

“Fifty-four.”

“What’s your secret?”

“Well, I have this skincare routine th—”

“Fucking hell, Marlon, I was joking. Just tell me what’s happening.” She stepped closer, the digital interference making her vision blur. Had it always been there? Had she lowered her guard? Trusted Marlon too much?

“We live in the hives. The four of us share a small pod. We have to lie across one another to sleep. If anyone moves in the night, we all wake up. We’re exhausted. We’re just trying to get by.”

“I’ve just told Greeta we can trust you. We should trust you.”

“You can, and you should.”

Sparks rested her finger on her blaster’s trigger. She might slip, but how could she have sympathy for the deceitful little fucker? She kept her voice low. Greeta didn’t need the distraction. She could handle this little creep. Show Greeta she recognised when someone needed to be held to account. “What aren’t you telling me, Marlon?”

“It’s their birthday next week. The twins.”

“You want me to bake them a cake in your absence?”

“A-absence?”

She lifted her blaster higher. “I’m running out of patience.” Should she call Greeta? Give her an early warning. She’d gotten Marlon wrong. She’d trusted him like she’d trusted Shalk. Like she’d taken the droneball tournament at face value. And now they were at the top of the tower and were well and truly fucked. But were they? Marlon hadn’t told her anything yet, and the little coward got scared of his own reflection. “I’ll give you to the count of three. One …”

She stepped closer, and her intuition twisted harder. Their surroundings were locked and loaded. But for what? And how? Plain white walls … A blank ceiling … The dull carpet.

“Two …”

His hands raised, Marlon backed towards the elevator. “Please, Miss Sparks. Let me explain.”

“I’d like nothing more.”

“But you don’t understan—”

Sparks’ warning shot exploded against a transparent barrier between her and the small being. She sprinted forwards, slammed head-first into the invisible wall, and stumbled back. Clinging to her brow, she shook her head, her ears ringing.

The pitiful Marlon straightened his back and stood an inch or two taller. His frown melted into a smirk.

“What have you done?” The acoustics of her raised voice revealed her confined space. “Shit!” She banged against the barrier. “Come on, Marlon. Let me out.”

“Show you the mercy you were about to show me, you mean?” The round and pudgy being lifted his head, adding definition to his jaw and chin. His cheeks sucked in, and his stubby snout lengthened. Only slight changes, but they sharpened his soft edges. Steeled his wimpish demeanour. Told her everything she needed to know. She’d trusted the wrong being. Greeta was right. Again.

“Fuck!” Sparks leaned forwards, head-butting the invisible barrier for a second time.

A leering grin spread across Marlon’s shock-white face as he backed towards the elevator. He rubbed his little hands and giggled. “Remember all those times you were horrible to me? I didn’t deserve it, yet you were nasty, just because that’s what’s in your heart.”

“But …” But what? Did she have a reasonable defence?

Marlon slammed his fist against the door’s button, and the elevator opened with a ping! He blew her a kiss and jumped in. As the doors closed, Sparks’ surroundings melted around her.

The walls disintegrated from the top down. Turned immaterial, like fire chewing through parchment, but without the smoke and flames. The false white ceiling dissolved, revealing a shimmering expanse of pulsating brown grime. The surface, slick like snot and uneven like scar tissue.

The stench of rot thickened the air. It stung her eyes. It shoved two fingers down her throat. Her stomach bucked. She fell to her knees and vomited on the plain carpet.

The diminishing walls revealed Greeta, who screamed and fired while she turned on the spot. Her blasts hit the walls of her invisible prison and disintegrated on impact. She stood before a bank of computers, the wall to which they were mounted peeling away like the rest of their environment, leaving them standing on their own.

The same dark brown ceiling grime covered the newly revealed walls. They’d strung beings up against them like those in the sacrificial chamber on the outside of town. Bound by their wrists and ankles, they stood, rather than being suspended, and many were adults. All of them were dead. Each had one of the Ringdell Group’s huge emblems behind them, the brown flesh shaped like the embossed masonry it covered. Vast spirals with stars in their centre. Tendrils reached from the carvings, feasting on the beings they had in their grasp. Each corpse had been stripped naked and wore the same twisted grimace of trauma.

“What the fuck, Sparks?” Greeta kicked out, her foot slamming into the invisible wall. “This was him, wasn’t it? Marlon. And you trusted him.”

The carpet dissolved, the concrete beneath slick and porous. The walls and ceiling throbbed. It was like they were inside a giant organ. “Did you get what you needed from the computer?”

“For what it’s worth …” Greeta charged and slammed into the wall. She kicked out for a second time. “Not again, Sparks. They won’t do this to me again.” She turned on the spot and opened fire. Her rapid blasts burst against the walls. She snarled, spat, and lashed out. “Not again!” She pointed at Sparks. “This is on you!” She fired, this time aiming every shot at her. “When I get out of here, I promise you one thing … I’m going to cut your fucking throat!”

CHAPTER 33

“We wouldn’t be in this situation had you not trusted yet another being who’s taken you for a ride. Are you green or what, Sparks?”

Sparks closed her eyes, let a long breath go, and lowered Hat to the floor. “Fuck you!”

A spit ring of foam around her mouth, spittle on the invisible barrier between them, Greeta rose and fell with her wild pants. In the time they’d been together since Schrödinger’s, she’d looked at Sparks like she’d wanted to kill her more times than not. “You need to watch yourself.”

“Don’t forget, this is where you decided to keep the information you stole, genius. Could you have chosen a worse place on Stargart?”

“That’s why I chose it.” She jabbed her finger into her temple. “Are you too thick to see that?”

“Look at where we are, Greeta. We’re here because of you. And were it not for me, you wouldn’t have even got through the front door.”

“So you want me to thank you?”

“I want you to shut up and do something useful for once.”

“Arghhhh!” Greeta fired at her invisible barrier, the splash of her green blasts forming an ever-increasing hot blob on the wall.

Sparks tutted and turned away. Corpses lined the length of the scar-tissue hallway. Naked and bled so dry their wrinkled skin hung from them like poorly fitted clothes. Their faces had fallen as slack. Twisted grimaces stretched like caricatures of suffering. An art installation designed to horrify and repulse. But this place cared little about how it made the viewer feel. These beings served a greater purpose than provocation.

On closer inspection, the brown walls carried a tinge of red, like human muscles left to cure in the sun. The walls and ceiling throbbed in sync, driven by the same pulse. Something larger and more horrifying than anything Sparks had witnessed. Even in her time in the Shadow Order. A giant living organism, fed and cultivated until it filled the tower. How long before it seeped out of its phallic cage and possessed the main strip? With how well they’d hidden it, who’s to say it hadn’t already? Who’s to say the entire place didn’t exist purely in servitude to this creature?

Scanning the room, Sparks’ intuition snagged on the doorframe through which Greeta had passed. The only part of the wall that had remained standing.

All the while, Greeta pointed and screamed. Ranted and raved. Were the surroundings not so all-consuming, Sparks might have listened to more of her toxic tirade. “I swear, when I get—”

“Will you shut up!” Her own cry thrown back at her from her prison’s invisible walls. Although some of it leaked out from the gap around the top.

The button on the doorframe. The one Marlon had pressed to trap them. Press it again and they’d be free. Although, maybe she should leave Greeta in her box. Return to Flanterian and tell Faz Went she’d done her best but couldn’t find his friend.

Sparks kicked off her prison’s back wall, turned and caught the top of the one opposite. Fire ripped across her fingers, and she let go, falling on her back. Hat nuzzled into her side. She showed him her palms. Nothing at first, but then blood oozed from the slits.

“What’s happened?” Greeta rested against the invisible barrier. “Are you okay?”

“Like you give a shit.”

The furball licked her wounds. Her blood congealed. But they were still in this fucking box. “The tops of the walls are too sharp. We can’t climb over to press the button.”

Reaching up, Greeta hooked her fingers over the top of her cell. She dragged her hand back and sucked the cut. “What button?”

Lifting Hat and standing up, Sparks held him close to the top of the wall. “Can you press the button, boy?”

“What button?” Greeta threw up her arms.

Hat licked Sparks’ face and panted.

“You can do it?”

He licked her face again.

Sparks raised Hat above her head and spread her hand across his bottom like trying to launch a hoop ball.

“What’s that?”

Something white pushed up through the porous floor. Like pus being squeezed from a zit. It throbbed in time with the rest of their surroundings. It was locked into the same swelling beat.

As more came out, the first took form. The bulbous white mound wriggled, convulsing ripples running the length of its fat little body. Sparks heaved when it squirmed free with the slightest squelch! The fat white grub writhed on the floor. Fifteen centimetres long and fatter in the middle. It had a ring of sharp little teeth at one end. It opened its mouth so wide it turned inside out, revealing the glistening pink of its internal organs. Small black spheres like tiny eggs rose to the fleshy surface. They throbbed in time with everything else. It leaned towards Sparks and Hat like those tiny orbs were how it made sense of the galaxy.

Sparks flinched when Hat licked her face. “You still want to go over?”

He panted at her.

A second grub popped free as if driven by a pressure from below. And then another. Each of them turned inside out and found their bearings. They turned towards Sparks and Hat like satellites searching for a signal.

“You can’t send him over there.”

Hat barked at Greeta.

“He thinks I can.”

A grub dropped from the ceiling at the other end of the hallway and hit the ground with a squelch!

The first one out launched itself at the barrier between it and Sparks. Its teeth slammed into the invisible wall with a chink! It fell back to the floor.

Another one dropped from above and landed next to Sparks. She stamped on it, sending green fluids splattering against her cell’s walls. It filled her surroundings with a strong reek of vomit.

Hat licked her face again.

“We can beat them if we can get to them, Greeta.”

The stocky being paced. She ran her massive hand over her furry head. “And the only way to do that is to send Hat over to press the button?”

“Yep.”

“You think it will help?”

“The button, or sending Hat over.”

“The button.”

“I know it will. We just need to hope he presses it.”

Three grubs fell one after the other. Several more crawled up through the floor.

“Do it, then.”

Sparks patted Hat. “You’re sure you can do this? Get over the other side and press the button by the door?”

Hat licked her face again.

Wait too much longer and she’d never let him go. Sparks launched Hat at the ceiling. He narrowly missed the throbbing scar tissue and cleared the sharp barrier.

Hitting the floor with a huff of exhalation, Hat jumped to his feet and froze.

Sparks banged against the clear wall. “Run! Get to the button.”

Five more grubs rained down. They twisted and turned. Squirmed as they fought to turn inside out to find their bearings.

“Hat! Run now. Go!”

But he backed towards the wall between him and Sparks. Rested against it. Centimetres away and utterly unreachable. “Hat! Run! Even if you just get away. Do something.”

The small furball turned and looked back at her. His sorrowful eyes glistened. He’d failed her. A small puddle of urine spread around him.

Sparks’ hands squeaked against the barrier. She slapped the wall. “Hat!”

He whimpered as the grubs wriggled closer, getting ready to attack.

CHAPTER 34

Sparks flinched as if the first grub latching onto Hat had attached itself to her own skin. She slammed balled fists against the invisible barrier between them. “Fight back, you dumb furball!” She kicked the wall, hurting her foot.

The grub had locked onto Hat. It poked from him like an appendage. He whined, his feet sliding across the porous floor from where he couldn’t move any farther back.

Four more grubs fell from the ceiling and landed close to him. Another launched and latched on. Hat made a sound she’d never heard before. The trembling squeal pierced her ears and heart. She attacked the wall again. “Come on, Hat. Do something. You’re dying!”

Even Greeta had lowered her weapon. “What can we do?”

Like Greeta had before her, Sparks ran from one side of her invisible prison to the other, kicking out at the surrounding barriers. Each one sent her a jolting reminder she’d yield before they would.

Tearing off her thin robe, Sparks threw it over the top of the wall between her and Hat. It fanned out in the air, landed, revealed the barrier between them momentarily as it draped over either side, and then broke apart like a feather landing on a las-blade. If she tried to follow, the sharp wall would slice her in two.

Another grub landed in Sparks’ small space. Screaming, she kicked out, splattering it against the wall. The heady reek of vomit forced her tongue forward with her heave.

Two more grubs launched at Hat. They attached to him and squirmed like they were becoming part of his body. A hellish metamorphosis.

“How do we help him, Sparks?” Greeta pressed her hands to her prison’s walls.

“Fuck you, Greeta. You wanted to kill me a moment ago.”

“I want to help.”

“That’s a first.”

“Come on, Sparks.”

“Just shut up and let me think.” Give her more time and she might come up with a better plan. But Hat didn’t have more time. It might kill Sparks, but better to die trying than to watch one of her best friends expire before her eyes. And whatever else happened, one of them needed to press that button.

The cell stretched two metres from front to back. Sparks kicked off the front wall, turned in the air, and kicked off the back. She tried to time her kick against the invisible barrier, but she hit it sooner than expected, which drained her momentum. She spun again, kicked off the front and repeated, getting higher with each kick, learning the width with each boost. Front to back. Front to back. She drew closer to the ceiling and the bugs dripping from it like pus from an infected wound.

Much higher and she’d hit her head. Too low and it’d rip her to shreds. No second chances here. Sparks kicked off the back wall one final time, thrust her arms out in front of her, and dived through the gap.

Sparks corkscrewed through the air and cleared the wall. The impact of landing slammed through her right shoulder, turning her entire arm numb, and her glasses fell from her face.

A falling grub hit the back of her head. She swiped it away, grabbed her glasses, stumbled to her feet, and slid them on. She stamped on an inside-out grub preparing to launch. She then stamped on two more, turning the ground slick.

The still-standing doorframe a few metres away. Greeta a few metres in the other direction. She pressed her palms to the invisible barrier between them. “Sparks, press the button.”

Her blaster drawn, Sparks fired and stamped, bursting those close to Hat, their green essence soaking his fur.

As stationary as before, but now with seven grubs attached to him, Hat stood shivering with his back to the wall. He whined when Sparks tore one free and dragged a line of his thick blood with it. She dashed the fat little fucker against the ground and stamped. She pulled another free before dropping that one and bursting it too.

Five more fell from the ceiling. Sparks shot two as they dropped, each one bursting with a snotty green splash. She nailed the other three lying on the floor. Gripping two more grubs with one hand, she ripped them away from Hat, his whimper tearing her heart. Her teeth clenched, she stamped on the pair so hard her knee ached.

Three left. Sparks ripped them from Hat one after the other and launched them away from her. She lifted him, cradled him beneath her arm, and fired on the grubs as they returned. Each exploded with a splash of green. The acidic reek of vomit hung so thick she struggled to breathe.

“Let me out, Sparks.”

Sparks shot the squirming horrors before they rose from the floor, bursting them in their holes. She fired up, the scar tissue flinching from her blasts. The grub’s green essence dripped like the ceiling had influenza.

“Sparks!” Greeta slapped her palms against her wall again. “Let me out.”

Twisting left at the last moment, Sparks dodged a grub as it sailed past her, its circular mouth closing with the click of tiny teeth as it bit the air between them. It hit the barrier behind her, and she shot it on the way down, painting the wall with another green splat.

Catching them as they appeared, Sparks shot and shot. Every one struck true and birthed a small green eruption.

The grubs down, Sparks holstered her blaster. “I’m so sorry, Hat.” She leaned in to kiss his head, but the smell held her away. “I shouldn’t have sent you over the top.”

His breaths rapid and shallow. His eyes dull. He let out low whimpers.

“Come on, Hat. Hold on, boy.”

Although she’d stopped banging and demanding to be let out, Greeta kept her palms against the wall like she might phase through it.

“Come on, boy.” She kept her voice low. Her words soft. “We’re going to get you out of here. We’ll get you back to Reyes and Faz. You’ll get the rest you need. It won’t be long.” She pressed the small button on the doorway’s frame.

It twinged through her intuition, and Greeta fell forwards from her applied pressure.

“How did you know about that button?”

She clung to Hat with a soft grip, but clenched her jaw. Like she needed to tell Greeta anything. A few minutes ago, she wanted Sparks dead.

“Is he okay?” Greeta gripped Sparks’ shoulder and leaned close, searching her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“It’s not about me.” Some of Sparks’ tension melted away. Her voice broke. “He’s alive.”

“Then we can help him.” Greeta tore the sleeve from her shirt, detaching it at the shoulder. She ripped it open down its length and used it to tie a sling around Sparks, attaching Hat to her front.

“How do you know to do that?”

“I used to carry my daughter like this.”

“Your—”

“Daughter.” The deep brown in Greeta’s eyes shimmered. A ripple in her stoicism.

“Faz never told me.”

“He doesn’t know. No one does.”

“I’m so sor—”

“No time. Come on!” Greeta tugged on Sparks’ arm. “Let’s get out of here and off this stinking planet.”

CHAPTER 35

Reyes sent the stinking water kicking up from her every step. Muddy brown and covered in a layer of yellow foam. Even when she walked at the very edge of the rounded path, her ankles aching because of the awkward angle, the murky fluids ran over her boots and soaked her feet. Faz Went led the way and, from what she could see, had the same issues as her. Not that he complained. Where would moaning get them? Solutions, not excuses!

Her head bowed, she winced with every step. Fatigue throbbed through her muscles, and the pain in her ankles travelled up to her knees. Her eyes still burned from the brick dust. With some of the splash-back on her hands, rubbing them now could well blind her. She matched Faz Went’s pace, their aimless journey sound-tracked by the splash of their progress, the churn of the faecal river, and the distant drips of falling water. The humid air broke against the cold brickwork and rained down on them like the sewers had their own shitty ecosystem. Other than the eel that had tried to kill her, the only other living organism took the form of the dark green moss, which clung to the walls like a rash.

Faz Went halted, and Reyes pulled up behind him. He cupped his ear. “Hear that?”

The lapping water consumed his echo. The river’s slight churn. The surrounding drips. “I—”

A deep bass note somewhere in the distance. It rolled through the tunnels, rising and dropping in pitch. Like it came from an enormous beast in mourning. It had been in this place so long it had lost all hope.

Reyes turned away from the sound, but Faz Went caught her arm. “Wait!”

“For what?”

“We don’t know what it is.”

“And I’m okay with never finding out.”

“But things aren’t always as they seem in this galaxy.”

“I’m happy to roll the dice on this one. Anything that sounds that awful can’t be friendly.”

Filling his lungs, Faz Went released a rattlesnake hiss.

“I didn’t mean that. I wasn’t talking about you.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge, yeah? Context is everything. Hear this sound on a sunny beach when you’ve had six months of rest, and I’m sure you’d perceive it differently. Besides, where else will we go?”

“Take your pick. We pass a junction every few minutes. It seems like there are infinite options.”

“We could end up walking in circles. Who knows if we’re not already? What would your dad do?”

Reyes chewed the inside of her mouth and rocked from side to side, working the aches from her ankles and knees.

“Piltred’s good at what he does.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sure he can convince anyone to believe the nightmares he thrusts into their heads.” Faz pointed at his own temple. “But don’t let him win. You own your mind, not him.”

“That still doesn’t make this a good plan.”

“It doesn’t make it a bad one, either.”

“Fuck!” Shitty water splashed up from Reyes’ stamp. She lifted her ear like it would help her better identify the source of the sound. The changes in tone gave the moaning wails a melody. One that chilled her to the bone. But Faz Went’s gills made her head want to fold in on itself, and they weren’t malicious, just different. And as Faz Went had pointed out, context was everything. Other than Sparks’ voice or Hat’s bark, there were very few sounds she’d welcome in a place like this.

Still leading the way like their path might be laden with booby traps, Faz Went rounded the next bend first and stopped. The blue hue reflected off his pallid cheeks.

Reyes came to his side, an azure bioluminescent glow up ahead. The source of the light in the sewers. It shone from a tunnel on the left unlike any they’d passed.

Standing unblinking, his arms hanging limp, Faz Went closed his mouth and let out a quiet rattle with his exhale. “What do you think it is?”

“I’m not sure, but now we’ve come this far …” Reyes passed Faz and led the way.

The raised tunnel stood higher than the others. Reyes stepped up into it, clear of the stinking water. Although round like those they’d already trod, it had been formed naturally as if it had been the path of a massive prehistoric worm. The glow came from lichen covering the walls. While this might have once been the path of a giant beast, nothing had disturbed the bioluminescent growth in a long time. Although maybe the wailing serenade spoke of a monster now too large to make the return journey. One that used its call to lure its prey like a siren.

If his silence were a measure of anything, Faz Went had lost the confidence that had driven his curiosity.

“I don’t see any reason to stop now. And a natural tunnel might be just what we need.” Reyes stepped onto the lichen carpeting the tunnel. It tensed beneath her feet like a twitching muscle and glowed brighter, stimulated by her contact. The song continued, wailing, rolling, harmonising. Her turn to hold a hand out to Faz Went. “You were right to make us come here. Come on, let’s see where this tunnel leads.”

Faz Went stood straighter than before.

“You ready?”

“I think so.”

“Me too. Come on.” Reyes pulled him forward, the lichen flaring with their progress.

CHAPTER 36

The door leading to the stairs was as grimy as the rest of their surroundings. Streaked with rust that ran as red as human blood, the old hinges cackled when Sparks pushed it open. “This might seem like a terrible choice, but when it’s take the stairs or the elevator—”

“We stay the hell away from the elevator.” Greeta threw a glance over her shoulder. “Another prison they can control.”

“Right.” Sparks patted Hat. The grub’s ichor had dried, turning his soft fur crusty. Driven by a twist of intuition, Sparks shot the three mounted cameras hidden deep in shadows.

Slipping in beside her, Greeta, who still clung to Sparks’ mini computer, shone the torch where she’d fired. “How did you see them?”

“How did you not?”

“Because it’s dark.”

Sparks dragged Greeta around in front of her. “You’re the one with the torch. Lead the way.” She reached for the door as it swung back but missed. The crack of it closing flew down the stairs, announcing their descent to any beings who cared to listen.

Humid and hot, the same scar tissue covered the stairwell’s walls and ceiling. The same pulse, although this time, it throbbed with a bassy metronomic beat. The deep swell threatened to take Sparks’ balance and send her after the crack of the closing door. Her shoulders lifted higher, and the back of her sweaty neck clenched. “What’s going on with this place? It’s like the building’s …”

“Alive?”

Sparks shuddered. “Yeah.” She shook her head like it might banish both the twinge of her intuition and her plummeting dread. “I can’t say I’m looking forward to this, but it seems like the only way out.”

Sweeping Sparks’ torch out ahead of them, Greeta led the way, sticking to the clean path running down the stairs’ centre. The part of the Grandest the Ringdell Group showed to the outside world. Clean, polished, high-end luxury. But about half a metre on each side was streaked with crimson rust, like the door at the top. The hidden space beyond the false walls. The building’s true identity.

Sparks’ collar itched with sweat. The damp air had turned the hardened crust on Hat’s fur to a slimy sludge like a blood clot. Had reactivated the strong stench of vomit.

About every five metres, the stairs reached a plateau between floors and doubled back on themselves, dropping to the next level to do the same again. Greeta shone a light on the beings attached to the walls. The living batteries feeding this organic monstrosity. It had run wild through this building like the carnivorous rot-weed from Trantink. But it had some kind of power over the Ringdell Group. Like they revered it.

The torchlight trembled with Greeta’s shaking hand. Her voice echoed in the stairwell. “Good job we have this.”

“Imagine if you’d killed me like you’d threatened and had to come down here on your own.”

“I’d find a way.”

“You’d still be in your prison.”

Sparks held up her hands to block the torchlight from where Greeta shone it in her eyes. “I got out of one. I’d do it again.”

With every step of their descent, Greeta swept her light around the walls and ceiling. They couldn’t let the grubs get the jump on them for a second time.

Her throat dry, Sparks gulped, chugging on a pasty saliva that wouldn’t budge. She shot two more cameras.

Greeta yelped. “How do you see them?”

“How do you not?” She’d not earned the right to know about her intuition. And she might never.

Their path steep and warm. The throbbing pulse destabilising. The stairs clean down the centre, the scar tissue walls free of grubs, but lined with corpses. Unlike anywhere Sparks had ever been, and she’d been to some messed-up places. They reached plateau after plateau, dropping flight after flight. Could they really walk all the way down and stroll out onto Stargart’s main strip like nothing had happened?

Hat stared up at Sparks and panted, smothering her with wafts of vomit. But stinking or not, he was alive. For now. And at least she had both hands free, thanks to Greeta’s sling. “Your daughter?”

“It’s too soon.”

“How long has it been?”

“Fifteen years.”

“And it’s still too soon?”

“Have you ever lost a child?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound insensitive.”

Greeta reached the next plateau, shone her light on the three strung-up corpses, and continued down.

Sparks shot another security camera.

“How do you see them?”

“How—”

“Do you not? Not very helpful, Sparks.”

A gasp to her right. Sparks jumped back, threw a protective arm across Hat, and aimed her blaster at the sound.

Greeta ran back up the stairs and shone her light on the suffering being. Long and thin tentacles hung from her head like hair. She had jaundiced skin, half her teeth had fallen out, and the others had turned brown like they were next. She wheezed again. She worked her jaw. Her left eyeball protruded from her face and then fell out with a moist pop! It rested on her sallow cheek, hanging from a rope of stringy muscles. A pulsing white grub squeezed from the socket like pus.

Even over the stairwell’s throb, the squelching grub wriggling in its damp home, and the thud of her own hammering heart, Sparks deciphered the two wheezed words. “Kill me.”

Sparks turned away from the exploding grub. Greeta kept her rifle raised in case she needed to shoot again. Burn another hole in the face of this poor suffering being. She shrugged at Sparks. “She’s better dead. All she had from here on out was suffering. And that’s never worth it. I saw too much of that when my colony was attacked.”

“What?”

But Greeta had already moved on, leading them down the stairs again.

Sparks followed, her steps unsteady, her legs shaking. She drew heavy breaths from the thick air. “What’s the Ringdell Group up to?”

Turing at the next plateau, Greeta shrugged. “Maybe we’ll find out at some point. Although, I’m also happy for it to remain a mystery.”

A haunting male voice filled the stairwell. “So you got out of your little cage?”

“Marlon?” Hat jolted in his sling while Sparks turned on the spot.

“That’s a mistake. The grubs would have made light work of you. It would have been quick. But because of your stubbornness, things are about to get a lot worse.”

Sparks shot three more cameras.

“You’re good at spotting them, aren’t you?” Marlon laughed. “Pity. I was looking forward to witnessing your demise. Just know that whatever happens, we’re not letting that data leave this building. But thanks for leading us right to it.”

“Who are you?”

“The Ringdell Group’s captain on Stargart.”

“Shut up.”

“Regret treating me like shit yet?”

“So you were responsible for the droneball tournament?”

“Yep.”

“Then my only regret is not killing you when I had a chance.”

“Maybe you can change that.”

“Maybe.”

Marlon’s derisive snort whipped through the stairwell. “You’ve no idea what’s coming.”

White noise from above. Sparks flinched again, blinded by her own torch as Greeta shone it back up the stairs and scanned in wide, sweeping arcs. “What the fuck?”

Her hand on the sling, Sparks pressed against Hat’s panting form. “It sounds like water.” A drop landed on her face. She wiped it away and held her finger in the torchlight. Claret. “It looks like—”

“Blood.”

Greta turned and ran.

Sparks followed.

The thunder of rushing fluids grew so loud it drowned out the building’s pulse. It chased them down the stairs. It slammed into the walls on the plateaus and turned, flooding down the next flight.

They stayed ahead of the main rush, but blood still rained down on them. Sparks slipped and nearly fell, her path slick. An awkward landing could be the end of Hat.

A strung-up being screamed at the next plateau and then fell into cackling laughter.

Greeta paused, their path blocked by twisted razor wire. She pressed the doorway in front of her, and it opened with a creak!

“Stop!” Sparks showed Greeta her palm. Her right eye snapped shut, and her skin writhed with her intuition. “Wait.” The stairs shook with the thunderous swell. The flooding rush of blood raced towards them like a galloping herd.

“What?” Greeta threw up her arms. “Why?”

Sparks wagged her finger. “We can’t go through there.”

“Then where else?”

Her hand over Hat’s head, Sparks shielded him from the blood. “That’s where they want us to go. It’s a bad choice. Trust me for once!”

“Show me a better option, and I will. This isn’t about me not trusting you.”

The blood washed around Sparks’ boots. The main body of liquid would hit them so hard it’d tear their limbs from their bodies. “Fuck!”

Greeta hopped on the spot. Glanced back the way they’d come from. “What do you want me to do, Sparks?”

“Shit! Just go.”

Greeta fell through the door and entered the level of hotel they’d intended for them to visit.

Slipping in behind her, Sparks pulled the door closed. The hallway was well lit and air-conditioned. She twisted the door’s thick bolt, locking it with a deep thunk!

Her heart in her throat, Hat twisting and trembling in the sling, Sparks backed away from the door.

The main body of blood hit the other side with a boom!

But the door held.

Sparks loosed a long sigh and stroked a trembling Hat.

Greeta blew out hard. “That had to be the better opti—”

The end of the hallway went dark, and the suspended beings on the walls broke into hysterical laughter. An awful sound, but not the thing that sent an almost paralysing twist through Sparks’ back. That came from the skittering of tiny feet. From the army of small droids descending on their position. The beings on either side went from laughter to wailing pleas.

“Kill us.”

“End us now.”

“Let us die.”

More lights went off, the darkness jumping towards them in stages until only the area they stood in remained lit. That went off too.

Greeta shone Sparks’ torch. Flashed it across the suffering beings’ faces and then down the hallway. She revealed the first of the chrome droids. About the same size as Hat, it had six legs, razor-sharp pincers, and chittering scales. Like the grubs on the top floor, when it got close, it took off and launched straight at them.

CHAPTER 37

Sparks shot the droid, killing it mid-flight. “One down.”

“Ten thousand to go.”

The beings’ collective moans swirled around them.

“Kill us.”

“End it now.”

“We’ve been here so long.”

Greeta stepped in front of Sparks and opened fire, silencing the beings and lighting up the darkness with her green blasts. She turned on the droids, missing more than she hit.

“Greeta, get back!”

But Greeta screamed and continued firing.

Grabbing the back of Greeta’s shirt, Sparks tugged her back.

“What are you doing?”

“Let me handle this.”

“But you can’t see!”

“Just trust me for once.”

Despite her balled fists, hunched shoulders, and dark scowl, Greeta stepped aside.

The way dark but clear, Sparks opened up on the droids. Her blaster’s lack of rapid fire made her trigger finger ache, but she made good progress, nailing droids she couldn’t see, but existed on her mental map. Greeta followed behind and silenced the strung-up beings with blasts of her own.

The path littered with metal corpses, Sparks kicked them aside with her progress.

At the end of the hall, and before another stairwell’s entrance, Greeta panted, adrenaline thrusting her eyes wide. “How did you …? When did …? You couldn’t see … What was that?”

“The best fucking droneball player in the galaxy.” Sparks shoved the door open and stood aside to let Greeta and her torch go first. “Now come on, let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER 38

The stairwell’s humidity turned Sparks’ skin clammy as she chased after Greeta, taking the steps two at a time. She jumped for the next plateau between floors and landed with a crack! The strung-up being close to her flinched, gasped, and groaned their final utterance. Greeta shot them in the face like she’d shot those before. They fell limp like the rest. The release of death all the pair could offer.

Hat whimpered in his sling, and Sparks laid a hand along his back. “We’re nearly out of here.”

“You believe that?”

“I have to.”

Greeta shook her head and jumped to the next plateau, opening fire and spinning one hundred and eighty degrees. She shot three more beings, one of them flinching, the other two possibly already dead.

Sparks’ intuition twinged when she passed another rusting door and continued down the stairs. She wiped her sweating brow and ran her hand the length of Hat’s curled back. “We’ll get you to Reyes and Faz Went. They’ll know what to do.” She shot another two cameras.

Closing in on the door leading to the next floor, Sparks winced from the anticipated intrusion that never came. “Huh?” She paused. She reached towards it.

“This is it!” Greeta had halted on the plateau below. She pointed down. “The ground floor. At last!”

Pulling away from the door, Sparks jogged to be with her friend. Her next step sent a spearing sting through her brain. She clapped both hands to the side of her face and stumbled into the limp form of another corpse on the wall. Greeta had already shot it, and the blood running from its open wound landed on Sparks’ head. She stepped away as another drip ran down the back of her neck. Greeta reached out to her, but Sparks shook her head. “No.”

“No?”

Now she’d connected with whatever lay on the other side of the ground floor, she couldn’t disconnect. An angle-grinder scream wailed through her skull. Sparks shook her head again and backed up the stairs, towards the solace of the silent first floor. With every step, the chaos calmed. “We can’t go through there.”

“But it’s the way out.” Greeta ran down to the door.

Sparks leaned over the hand railing and thrust her palm in her direction. “It’s not. Beyond that door lies only pain.”

Her hand just centimetres from triggering the trap. “And I suppose I just have to trust you?”

“You’ll die if you don’t.”

“So if not through here, then where? You have a better idea?”

“I don’t have a worse one.” She might have blinded the Ringdell Group, but she’d not deafened them. Who knew where the microphones resided? Or maybe the stairwell’s acoustics were enough? Regardless, she wouldn’t reveal her digital intuition here. “Trust me, Greeta.”

White noise swelled through the stairwell. The same wash as before. A flood. Some of the strung-up beings on the higher floors, the ones they’d not passed, yelled and screamed. Many accents, but they all repeated the same words. “Let it rain!”

Thick blood dripped through the gaps in the stairwell.

“That’s a lot to ask, Sparks.”

Sparks ran to Greeta, the screeching, whining chaos threatening to drop her where she stood. She opened and closed her mouth like it would somehow work away the drilling pain. “There are too many listening ears. Trust me.”

Tasting her own blood while another’s rained down on her, she pinned Greeta to the door and lowered her voice. “I knew about the button to open our prisons on the top floor. I’ve killed every camera we’ve passed. I took down those droids with a pistol in the dark.”

“But what does that mean?”

Stumbling back, Sparks sat on the stairs, rested her elbows on her knees, and her head in her hands. “It means I know if we open that door, it’s the last thing we’ll do.”

Looking straight up, Greeta blinked when a drop landed on her face. “But if we stay in here too long, we’ll drown.”

Sparks fought to stand and only got to her feet with Greeta’s aid. Blood trickled down the steps as a prequel to the flood.

At the plateau, Sparks found her legs again and sped up. She climbed to the first floor, her intuition switching from insanity to stillness. It was as still as it had been on Glootah. Not even a tinnitus ring. Nowhere on Stargart should be this quiet. Not even the death zone.

The blood rushed past her boots. Climb any higher and they’d drown. Sparks shoulder-barged the door, flinging it wide as she fell through.

Greeta followed, closing and bolting it behind them. The gushing blood slammed into the other side of the door. It seeped through the gaps and ran down it in streaks.

Her intuition as silent as it had been on the other side.

“This is the right place? A better option?”

Sparks nodded. “I hope so.”

“Hope?”

She stepped forward, and it hit her, throwing her to her knees. Her mouth, once again, flooded with the coppery flow of her own blood. The screeching angle grinder wailed through her being and rattled her bones. Her head spun.

Before she fell onto her front and onto Hat, Greeta caught her and dragged her to her feet. She pulled her back towards the door. Into the small space of stillness along this hallway. The chaos settled. “What’s going on, Sparks?”

“I dunno, but I can’t go any farther than this.”

Greeta reached out ahead of her. She stepped through the invisible barrier. She turned her large palms to the ceiling. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“I’m trapped.”

Swiping at the air like she might hit something, Greeta said, “Huh?”

“Some prisons have invisible walls.”

CHAPTER 39

Did they know about her intuition? Had they erected the invisible barrier on purpose? Did they have starinium here, repelling her like it had on Flanterian? Altered it in some way. Weaponised specifically against her? The closed door behind her, blood still seeping through the gaps. How much could it hold back before the door fell in and carried them down the hallway on a crimson surf? And how far would she get down the corridor before her brain burst from her skull like an egg in a microwave?

“Then what?”

“Huh?”

Greeta threw her hand towards the bolted door. “We can’t go back that way. And you can’t go any farther, so what? Where do we go?”

“You go.”

“Without you?”

“There’s no point in both of us dying.”

Turning one way and the other, Greeta bounced with her anxiety. “Fuck!” She pointed down the hallway. “I’ll go and investigate.”

Greeta stepped through the invisible barrier and halted.

“You too?”

She pointed at the ceiling. Like with the grubs on the top floor, something squirmed through the scar tissue as if birthed into this world. Forced from a hellish dimension. It led with its six chrome legs. The bulge of its fat body ripped the flesh, revealing its bulbous chrome shell. Another droid like those Sparks had fought in the darkness. Sharp pincers and chattering teeth. Greeta shot it as it dropped, caught it in mid-air, and sent it spinning down the hallway.

Only fifty metres to the shuttered window at the end, but it might as well be fifty thousand metres. She’d never reach the pane of glass, not even on a wave of blood. Doorways ran down either side of the long corridor, beings pinned to the walls between rooms. Some of them wore the fancy garments of the punters from the foyer. The ones who’d turned their noses up at Sparks’ and Greeta’s presence. How dare they walk among them? A strip of crimson carpet down the centre, the Grandest the punters saw when the curtain hadn’t been pulled back to reveal hell.

Intuition blind, but the droids’ shiny legs caught the light. The writhing flesh made way for another critter. Sparks shot it before it had fully emerged. It slid from the gash in the scar tissue like snot and hit the crimson carpet with a thud!

Greeta gave Sparks a thumbs up, which Sparks returned. They were in this together. Until they weren’t. Hopefully Greeta would find a way to get the shutter up at the end of the hallway. That window had to be her best chance of escape.

Hat whimpered and shivered. He didn’t have long left. Could Greeta take him with her? Reaching out again, Sparks broke through the barrier. A roaring like a thousand engines working overtime wailed through her mind. Lightning streaked across her brain, encasing it in a jagged electrified web. Panting and crying, she leaned against the door, the inside now slick with blood.

Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Sparks pulled it away. A line of blood glistened in the poor light. But breaking the barrier had given her something. A closed door sat in her mind. A number on its front. “Room one hundred and …”

Greeta shot two more droids. Aimed her blaster at the face of a tall being with fins running over its head. She showed it the mercy it wouldn’t have shown her. She pulled her trigger and turned back to Sparks. “What?”

“One hundred and something. Room one hundred and something.”

“They’re all one hundred and something.”

Of course they were. They were on the first floor. “Shit!”

Hat growled as she reached out again. He felt her suffering. “I’m sorry, boy, but this might be our only hope.” She poked just her fingertip across the barrier. She clamped her jaw, biting down so hard her gums ached. One-o-one. She pulled back. “One-o-one.”

“One hundred and one?”

“One-o-one.”

Greeta took off down the hallway. She stopped in front of a door and pointed. “One hundred and one.”

“One-o-one.”

Shoving the door wide, Greeta vanished.

Sparks’ heart kicked. What if they’d wanted Greeta to go into that room? She rocked towards the barrier, but halted. What if they were stringing her up right now? Plugging her into those fucking tendrils. She’d listened to Sparks, and now she’d pay the price.

More blood seeped through the gap across the top of the door and ran down it in a scarlet waterfall, turning it into a dark mirror. A reflection of her failing. Hat would perish because she couldn’t get out, and now she’d sent Greeta to her death.

Something hit the door from the stairwell side. Sparks pressed her palm against it, the steel now warm with blood. Droids on the other side, swimming in the fluids. Thud! The second hit stung her hand.

They left a dent with the third slamming contact and forced a wider gap along the door’s top. It sent a continuous jet of blood over her head.

The trickle coming through the bottom turned into a stream.

Thud! She should go after Greeta. Cross the barrier on her own terms.

Shunk! The shutter at the other end rose, and light flooded the hallway.

Walls lifted through the floor on either side, returning the hallway to the one she’d first seen as a guest. The ceiling shot from behind Sparks’ head and raced away as if on rails. It streaked down the corridor, slotting into place at the other end like it had always been there. Like the livid dark red flesh didn’t exist. Ornate plasterwork hid the scar tissue. The white walls blocked the suffering beings.

Thud! The door twisted, and the flood crashed into the backs of Sparks’ ankles. A long chrome proboscis poked through from the stairwell. A beak with sharp little teeth between its snapping jaws.

Greeta stumbled from room one-o-one. “Try now!”

Flinching, Sparks thrust her hand through the barrier. She thrust her other hand. She stepped forward. “You did it!”

“Good. Now let’s go.” Greeta ran for the light at the end of the hallway, and Sparks took off after her, leaving the snapping creature behind.

Sending several green blasts into the window at the end, Greeta blew the glass out.

“You’re going to jump?”

Clang! The doorway fell in behind. The snapping beast, a long aquatic droid, rode in on the wave.

“I have to trust something eventually.” Greeta leaped and pulled into a ball.

Sparks kept one arm across Hat and followed her out.

She landed beside her on the thick red and white canopy covering the Grandest’s entrance.

Rolling over several times, Greeta flipped off the end. Sparks landed on the marble stairs beside her.

Droids and guards packed the foyer. The swift death that had been waiting for them if they’d entered the ground floor. “That’s why we needed to use the fir—”

“Three …” Greeta dropped one of her raised fingers.

Some of the guards pressed up against the foyer’s window.

“Two …”

They tugged on the door, but couldn’t get it open. One raised a blaster and aimed at the glass.

“One.”

A sonic boom of closing shutters rang through Stargart, returning the Grandest to its steel cocoon. Greeta smiled. “Room one-o-one had a computer terminal. I put a time limit on how long I wanted the shutters to remain open. It’ll take them an age to fix it again.”

Covering her eyes against the glare from the Grandest’s mirrored surface, every shutter shimmering with the same highly polished chrome, Sparks smirked. “I’m glad we’re on the same side.”

“Are we?”

“Aren’t we?”

Greeta punched Sparks’ arm. “Of course we are, you tit.” Her large hairy hand swamped Sparks’ as she took it and led her down the stairs. “Now let’s get that starter and get the fuck off this hellish planet.”

CHAPTER 40

Clinging to Greeta’s hand and exposed on the marble stairs without a robe, Sparks ran from the Grandest while holding Hat close. She dipped her head, a pitiful substitute for the shadow cast by a hood. “Greeta, someone will recognise me soon. Surely we ne—”

A rolling siren cut her short. The Grandest pulsed red in time with the alarm. Sparks followed Greeta into the crowd. “You did that?”

“I had access to their main computer.” Greeta grinned. “What would any self-respecting net-runner do?”

“A what now?”

“Yes, Sparks.” Greeta looked back over her shoulder. “That was me. With you and Hat being probably the two most recognisable beings on this shithole of a planet, I figured we could use a distraction or two. If we can find somewhere safe for you to hide, I can then get the ship’s starter on my own.”

Turning back around, Greeta bumped into a being about the same height as her. The biped’s pastel-yellow eye flared, their dark brown skin like bark. They opened their slit of mouth, their black tongue lolling out. “Greeta?”

“Do I know you?”

“No, but you’re worth a fortune.” Their eye spread even wider to take in Sparks and Hat. They went for their blaster.

Greeta jabbed the barrel of her own into their eye, driving it deep with a squelch. As they yelled and peeled away, Greeta darted past, and Sparks followed.

They left the Grandest and its piercing alarm behind. They sought shelter in another dark alley doorway. Greeta ran a hand over the top of her head, swiping her hair back. “I can’t believe they’ve put a bounty on me too.” She pointed at Sparks. “This is all your fault.”

“For breaking you out of Schrödinger’s?”

“I got myself out.”

“That’s right. The bounty has probably come from me setting fire to the place before we left. Oh, wait, that was you too.”

“Fuck you, Sparks.”

“And I hid their stolen data in the worst fucking place on this planet. I accept full responsibility for us having to retrieve it. Oh, wait, that wasn’t me eith—”

“I said fuck you.”

Hat’s whimpering had faded, and his breaths had grown shallower. Sparks scanned the crowd. The shops on either side of the street. “We need a disguise. We need t—”

“What?” Greeta leaned so close to Sparks their cheeks touched. She peered out onto the main strip. “What is it?”

“See those fedora-wearing fuckers?”

“The trio on the other side of the road? The ones with the scaly skin?”

“Yep.”

“What about them?”

“Bounty hunters. And nasty ones at that.”

“There are other kinds?”

A computer screen’s back light lit one of their faces. The other two fixed on their dark alley. “Shit.”

“They know we’re here?”

“It looks that way. And if I were to guess, I’d say they’re calling for assistance. There’s a few hundred of them here at least.”

“Damn. So what now?”

The trio cut into the crowd towards them.

“Come on.” Sparks dragged Greeta from cover and ran for the mirrored barrier at the end of the alley. She drew a breath and broke through. The heat and glare drained her instantly. An anchor to their escape. Still, she ran left, and Greeta followed.

Sparks cut back in again at the next alley. As dark as the others, tall walls stretched up on either side. A fire escape ladder ran up each building. She jumped, caught the rungs of the one on her right and climbed. It shook when Greeta latched on behind.

Sparks reached the top about four storeys from the ground and threw herself over the small wall running round the roof’s perimeter.

Greeta flew over a second later, the pair of them lying on the bed of small stones covering the flat expanse. “You think we’ve done enough?”

Holding out her hand, Sparks said, “Let me have my computer.”

There were times for arguing. Especially for someone as combative as Greeta. But in that moment, even she made the right call.

Hacking into a nearby surveillance drone, Sparks then turned it towards the alley they’d entered. The three bounty hunters broke from the shadows and stood at the roadside. They scanned the crowd. One climbed higher, clinging to a drainpipe and leaning over the main strip. Another trio joined them.

Sparks took the drone away from the half dozen who wanted them dead. She weaved through the other drones and flying beings. “We need to find a disguise.” She scanned the shops lining the road. Brothels, casinos, bars, clubs, and the occasional convenience store. Fixing on a shop called Fancy Pants, she angled her screen towards Greeta.

“No way.”

“You’ve got a better idea?”

“You want us to wear fancy dress? We’ll stand out from a mile away.”

“Right now, we stand out from two. I’d rather look like an idiot than financial independence to any being willing to send a blast into our faces.”

“No.”

“I’ll ask again, do you have a better idea?” She patted Hat and leaned close to kiss his head, but the reek of vomit halted her like an invisible barrier. She stroked him instead, his fur gloopy with grub slime. “We need to get him seen to, so whatever we decide next, it has to be quick.”

“Fuck!”

Sparks brought the surveillance drone back as the half dozen bounty hunters returned to two trios and went their separate ways. She stood up, wiped her front clear of the small stones clinging to her, and offered Greeta her hand. “Ready?”

Greeta stood. “They say if you have nothing nice to say …”

“That’s never stopped you before.”

Greeta flashed a facetious grin.

“Come on.” Sparks ran across the roof and jumped the narrow alley. She landed with the crunch of stones on the other side and broke into a sprint.

Four alleys between them and Fancy Pants, Sparks skidded to a halt on the final roof. Greeta landed beside her and followed her down the ladder attached to the building’s side.

Another dark alley like those before it. The buildings a little shorter than most. Whacked-out beings and corpses gathered in the gloom. Sparks zeroed in on Fancy Pants’ back entrance. She dropped close to the lock and hacked it with her computer. The small red light turned green, and the door opened with a click!

Her torch on, Sparks nudged the door open with her foot and slipped into the gloomy storage area, Greeta a step behind.

Clothes racks filled with costumes ran in neat rows from one end of the room to the other. The outfits for the larger members of their clientele hung on the walls. Several stretched the full three metres from floor to ceiling.

Greeta walked beside a rail, running her fingers along the hangers, separating them enough for a cursory glance at each costume. She tutted. “How are we supposed to wear any of these?”

“It’s not like there’s a theme. Why don’t you do the rest of Stargart a favour and choose the one that hides your face the best?”

“You’re funny.”

“I think so.”

“Someone has to.”

A collection of beings swarmed in through the front of the shop. “Lads, lads, lads.”

Sparks turned off her torch.

“That’s the last thing we need.” Greeta’s eyes narrowed. “A fucking Bartolian stag do.”

The shop assistant clapped their hands and shouted over the noise. “Right, if you want me to serve you, you’ll shut up and listen. This can be quick and easy, and then you can take your chaos away from my shop, okay?”

Several of them grunted. One let off the clapping slap of loose-buttocked flatulence.

Greeta tutted again and gripped her blaster. Sparks pushed it down. “Let’s just get a costume and go.”

“Right”—the assistant kept their voice raised—“I’ll take you out back to see what you’d like, but any nonsense and you’re gone. The lot of you!”

The back of the shop lit up. Sparks grabbed Greeta’s arm, grabbed a costume, and slipped back out into the alley, the door locking behind them with a gentle, and hopefully imperceptible, click!

Her cheeks bulging with her hard exhale, Sparks shook her head. “That was close.”

“What costume did you get?”

“It comes in two parts. A head and—”

“I’m not being the arse.”

“That’d be a first.”

“Very fucking funny.” Greeta scowled. “I mean it, Sparks.”

“So do I. But I need to stay upright for Hat’s sake. You don’t.” Sparks slipped on the massive papier mâché head, the mask’s chin resting against her abdomen, while the body’s brown fabric hung to her knees. A long train trailed out behind her. Laying her hand against Hat’s back, she lifted her head away from his reek, and her heart beat faster like she too clung onto life.

“I swear I’ll get you back for this.” Greeta stepped into the legs, bent forward at the waist, wriggled into the fabric running down Sparks’ back, and gripped her hips.

Sparks paused in front of the mirrored dome. Their costume’s massive round head had googly eyes on springs, an orange mane, and six tentacles dangled from its body. Trapped in the lightweight head with the vomit reek made her stomach churn. But better that than being the arse. Anything was better than being the arse.

The glow of her computer’s screen lit up the head like a lampshade. She sent a drone down the main strip, finding the closest place that might have their ship’s starter. “You ready?”

“Just hurry, Sparks.”

“And you’re sure you know how to drive your part of the costume?”

“It’s an arse.”

“You’re an arse.”

“What?”

Sparks smirked to herself. “I said follow my lead.”

“Like I have a choice!”

CHAPTER 41

Despite Greeta’s protestations, genuine concern, and understandable shame, she and Sparks made it to Bits and Bobs, the parts shop, with little more than a sideways glance from the occasional being. It turned out that a googly-eyed massive-headed tentacled quadruped didn’t stand out as much as they’d expected. And even the seven-foot-tall, muscly store owner threw little more than a lazy half-glance their way at the chime of a tinkling bell when they entered.

The shop was about the same size as Fancy Pants, but instead of making the storage space separate while they had a section for customers at the front, Bits and Bobs had everything on display. Racks ran in uniform rows from front to back, each one about one hundred metres long and stretching all the way to the ceiling about three metres above.

The store could have been twice the size and would still be rammed. A jumbled mess of parts stacked one on top of the other, the shelves overflowing, pipes and cabling hanging down into the aisles. Sparks led them between two racks, whacking her papier mâché head several times on the dangling parts because of her restricted vision. She breathed through her mouth, a permanent half-heave lingering in her throat.

Greeta gave her hips a squeeze. “What’s going on?”

Sparks had to move her entire body to scan the racks. “I’m trying to find another starter button, but this place is a mess.”

Hat’s already weak respiration had lost its rhythm. He missed one in every six or seven feeble breaths. Sparks’ heart tightened until he caught it with a gasp, providing relief for them both. “We’ve not got time for this. I’m going to ask.”

The seven-foot-tall biped rested his large hands on the counter and loomed over them. Sparks reached into her massive bulbous head and pulled out her computer, turning it to show him the screen; if he could even see through his milky white eyes. Her voice echoed in her spherical head. “I’m looking for a starter button for this ship.”

The being’s voice forced Sparks back a step. The hulking brute squeaked like he’d been huffing helium. “An XV-72 starter button.” He nodded. “I have one.”

“Oh good. How much?”

“I need to see who I’m doing business with.”

“What if that’s none of yours?”

Sparks kicked behind her, catching Greeta. “What she means is, we value our anonymity.”

“I meant what I said.”

He raised an eyebrow at her talking rear end. “Then I suggest you value it elsewhere.”

Greeta let go of Sparks’ hips and stood up, her costume falling to her ankles. She aimed her blaster at the server. “Look, Bobs.”

“Bobs?”

“Bits, whichever one you are …”

The being’s mouth cocked with a lipless smirk.

“We need that starter, and we need it now. We can either negotiate a price and be out of your hai …” She fixed on his bald head. “Or we can shoot you in the face and take what we want.”

Bobs folded his massive arms, his biceps and pecs bulging. “Good luck finding it.”

Sparks removed her head and rested it at her feet. The server’s eyes widened to take in her and Hat. He pointed at them both and then to Greeta. “Oh, damn.”

“You obviously know who we are.” Greeta gesticulated with her rifle. “Which also means you know I ain’t playing. So forget about that bounty that’s running through your mind, Bobs, and get us our part.”

In stark contradiction to his whining voice, Bobs’ laugh rolled through the store like an avalanche.

“Something funny?” Greeta jabbed her gun at him.

Sparks pushed the rifle down. “Maybe we need to try a more diplomatic approach?”

Despite his stark appearance—his bleached bone skull, his massive arms and shoulders—the assistant had a warmth in his milky gaze, which deepened when he looked at Hat. His half-smile faltered like he felt his pain. “What happened to your pet?”

“It’s a long story, and I fear he doesn’t have the vitality for me to tell it. Will you please help us?”

Stepping free of Sparks’ reach, Greeta raised her rifle again. “And if you don’t—”

“Fucking hell, Greeta, give it a rest, yeah? Damn, I can see what Faz Went was talking about …”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You could start a fight in a room on your own.”

“I did, and I won. Remember. Besides, I wouldn’t need to if you weren’t such a gullible fool. What is it about you trusting every being you come into contact with? How many times do you need to be screwed over before you learn? Were you more vigilant, we’d still have the ship’s starter button.”

“Bobs has no interest in handing us over.”

“You expect me to trust your judgement?”

“Do you have any interest in handing us over?”

Bobs shook his head. “The enemy of my enemy and all that …”

“I don’t trust you.” Greeta wagged a finger at him. “You shouldn’t be saying those things out loud. Not in a place like this. They have ears everywhere!”

For the first time since they’d entered, Bobs seemed to take offence, standing taller than before and resting his fists on his hips. “Not in here, they don’t. You think I wouldn’t know if they’d tried to bug me? Besides, I reckon I’m safe speaking my mind around you.”

Greeta dipped a conceding nod. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“So let me spell it out … Fuck the Ringdell Group and their bounty.”

“The Ringdell Group?” Greeta glanced at Sparks.

“The ones who’ve taken out the bounty on you three.”

“What about Blark Ve—?”

“He’s on there too.”

Sparks eased Greeta back a step. “Are you saying the Ringdell Group has added to the bounty? What’s it at now?”

“Seventy-five K each.”

Sparks gasped and stroked Hat. His breathing still hit the occasional snag. She needed to get him help as soon as possible.

“Five hundred K for all five of you. Seven hundred and fifty if you’re dead. In fact, I’m impressed.”

“You wouldn’t be were the same bounty resting on your skeletal head.”

Bobs raised an apologetic hand towards Greeta. “You’re right. Sorry. Impressed is perhaps the wrong word. I’m in awe of how you’ve screwed them over and evaded them to where they’ve had to resort to this kind of bounty. I’m not asking your business—”

“And we wouldn’t tell you.”

Sparks eased Greeta back again. “Why don’t you want to claim the bounty? That’s a lot of credits.”

“Let’s say they paid out, which I’m not convinced they would, but if they did … that kind of wealth comes with more strings than a marionette factory. Doing business with the Ringdell Group is a dark path at the best of times. They’re offering financial independence, but to them, I’ll be permanently indebted.” He shook his head. “No thanks.” Bobs rummaged around beneath the counter and pulled out a starter button. He tossed it at Sparks. “Here. Have it.”

Greeta snatched it and turned it over in her hand. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch.” Bobs dropped from sight and pulled out two hessian robes. He threw them down so they lay across the counter.

All the while, Greeta clung to her rifle and watched him through narrowed eyes. She jumped when Sparks took her hand. “I respect your caution, but recognise this for the win it is.” She dragged a robe clear of the counter and handed it to Greeta. She threw it on and rolled her shoulders, slipping the ship’s starter into her pocket.

“Bobs—”

He smiled at his new name.

Sparks pointed at Hat. “Do you know where I can find a medic?”

“Sure.” He pointed right. “Go about five hundred metres that way, and you’ll come to a small white building on your left. It’s got a red cross above the door.”

“I thought we were taking him to Faz Went and Reyes?” Greeta scratched her face and shifted from one foot to the other like the floor had grown hotter. “We’re on borrowed time here.”

Sparks pulled Greeta to one side. “Hat needs medical care now. I know that’ll mean staying here longer, which is why I want you to go.”

Greeta’s eyes shifted from one of Sparks’ to the other, and her mouth fell open. “How will you get away?”

“We’ll find a way. But right now, my priority has to be Hat. Now you have the starter, you can leave. Get to Faz Went on Flanterian. Or don’t. But I wanted to make sure I helped get you out of the shit you were in.”

“I got myself out of tha—”

“I know. And I’m so pleased you did.” Sparks grabbed an old memory unit from the side and lifted it in the air. “Does this work, Bobs?”

“Everything in here works.”

“How much?”

“Free.”

“You really hate the Ringdell Group that much?”

The smirk slid from his face. “More than you could ever imagine.”

Sparks transferred the data Greeta had taken from the Ringdell Group to the memory unit and handed over the battered storage device.

Greeta took it with a shaking hand. “But what about you?”

“I’ll be okay.” She stroked Hat and led Greeta away from Bobs. “We’ll be okay.” She lowered her voice. Despite all the machine and computer parts in the store, this place had no surveillance. She didn’t need Bobs’ word for that. “I didn’t want to tell you this before because we were being listened to in the Grandest, but I have—”

“A digital intuition.”

“You knew?”

“There had to be a reason for your weird behaviour. And no one’s that good a shot in the dark without having something else going on. I figured it was what made you the b—”

“Best fucking droneball player in the galaxy.” Sparks smiled.

“Right. And a liability when you get too close to a supercharged computer.”

“That’s what stopped me walking down the hallway on the Grandest’s first floor? Then why couldn’t I feel anything from the stairwell before we entered?”

“I’m guessing they wanted to keep the machine hidden. I’ve not seen anything like it. They’d plugged it into that weird flesh inside the building. Like it ran on the malevolent organic power. When I returned the block to its public-appearance state, I think the same shielding they had on the door must have lined the walls and ceiling.”

“Which is what let me walk down the hallway when the building changed.”

“I think so, yes.”

“Wow. That makes sense.” She squeezed Greeta’s hands. “Be well. It was fun.”

“Wait, Sparks.” Greeta caught her arm. “Before we part, I want to tell you about my daughter. If Hat can hold on a few more seconds?”

Sparks rested her hand on his warm and slimy body. His awful condition had stabilised for now. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to. I need to. She was called Woult. She was funny. You would have liked her. She was only twelve when she died of a heart attack.”

“Heart attack?”

“We were fleeing our village on Valiens. We were under attack. I don’t know who they were or where they came from. The story of so many displaced beings in the galaxy. But they were imprisoning everyone they could find to sell them as slaves. They burned everything we owned. But we had each other, right?”

Greeta smiled through her tears and stared at the floor. “Woult died while we were on the run.” She turned her hands over and looked at them like they belonged to someone else. “I had to bury her in a shallow grave on the side of the road. And then I ran. Left my daughter’s corpse as carrion for scavengers.”

Sparks waited for Greeta to look up. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.” She shuddered with her inhale. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”

“Thank you.”

“And I’m sorry for the way I’ve been. Schrödinger’s brought back some awful memories. I’ve seen too many beings I’ve loved imprisoned …”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to explain.” Sparks leaned forwards and rested her forehead against Greeta’s.

“Jeez, Hat, you stink.” Greeta pinched her nose. “Make sure you give him a wash too, yeah? I’m going to miss you, you little prick.”

Sparks pressed her lips tight and nodded.

“Aren’t you going to miss me?”

Of course she would. And she’d want her by her side in a heartbeat. But she’d already asked too much of her. “No, you mad bitch.” Her throat was so tight she could barely speak. “You’re fucking feral.” Stabbing pains speared her chest, and her eyes itched. She turned her back on Faz Went’s best friend before the tears formed. She needed to get away from here while she still could.

CHAPTER 42

They’d been following the tunnel for at least half an hour. Every step of the way, the lichen had tensed and glowed in response to Reyes’ and Faz Went’s steps. “We must be well clear of the city by now.”

“Where do you reckon we’ll end up?”

“As long as it’s away from Piltred, I’m not sure I care.”

The deep wail shook Reyes’ skeleton, but it hadn’t grown any louder despite their progress. “There’s something disturbingly hypnotising about that sound. Where do you think it’s coming from?”

“That’s not obvious?”

“I wouldn’t ask if it were.”

Faz threw out his arms. “The lichen.”

“Really?” The walls lit up when Reyes leaned against them, the lichen tensing at her touch. She turned her head, leaning her ear to within a few centimetres of the glowing wall. Almost imperceptible, but there. The same undulating wail. The same tonal shifts that made up the deep aquatic call. But on a micro scale from where every atom of this organism joined the chorus. “Damn. How long did it take you to work that out?”

“I thought it was obvious.”

Reyes snapped her head to one side.

“Clearly not.” Faz Went led them on.

“Thank you for helping keep me going back there. I was about ready to quit.”

Rattling, Faz Went threw up his shoulders with a shrug. “S’okay.”

“I can normally see the solution, but Piltred … Jeez, he’s a nasty fucker.”

“Tell me about it.”

A quiet being. Someone who sat back and observed. Who read a place like no other because he, more often than not, got out of his own way. But Faz had been even quieter than usual. “What did Piltred show you?”

A pause. His back lifted with his inhale. His gills rattled. “All the enjoyable times I had with my mum and dad. And with Greeta too.”

“Ouch.” Reyes reached out to him, but stopped short of resting her hand on his shoulder.

“She always had my back, and I feel like when she needed me most, I failed her.”

“How were you to know what would happen?”

“She went to Stargart because of me. Made an enemy with the Ringdell Group because of me.”

“You were trying to help Sparks. Trying to save a friend.”

“Sparks is a friend?”

“Of course. You two are tight.”

“I’ve felt so alone for so long. Losing Greeta has compounded that. I thought once we were done here, you’d cut me loose.”

“What?” Reyes’ voice ran away from her, but the wailing song consumed the echo. “You’re not alone, Faz. We’ll find Sparks and Hat. Sparks loves you. I love you.”

“You do?”

“Of course.”

They followed the tunnel’s sweeping left turn. Faz Went halted, and Reyes stepped next to him. The blue lichen finally tapered off into the darkness of a massive open cave. “This is it, then?”

Faz nodded.

Reyes set off again. A huge underground amphitheatre, its vast dimensions lost to the shadows. The only light came from the glow behind them, and it did little to show them the way. The whoosh of dragging air pulled Reyes’ attention up. But they were too late. A large bell jar dropped over their heads, entrapping them. It caught them like bugs beneath an upturned cup. The bottom stuck to the ground with the hiss of vacuum suction. Whomp.

Faz Went raised his rifle, but Reyes pushed it down. The tight dome amplified her words. “There’s nothing to shoot. And if we try, I can see the blasts bouncing back and killing us.”

Another hiss replaced the one that sucked the jar to the ground. Small nozzles above them whispered a lullaby, filling their glass prison with gas.

Reyes launched herself at the side of the jar. The jolt of her impact turned her shoulder numb. She returned to Faz, the gas making her dizzy. But before she could reach him, her legs failed her.

CHAPTER 43

Head down to blend in, Sparks slammed into other beings on the busy strip while always keeping a protective arm across the faltering Hat. A lumbering wooly biped headed straight for her. She led with her elbow again, driving it into the brute’s soft gut. They lurched forwards with a gasp, spraying her with sweat and saliva, several drops landing on her lips. But she moved on.

Look around too much and she’d stand out as a tourist. The last thing you wanted to be in a place like this. Tourists were targets. An easy fleece for a few credits. And that kind of attention would only lead to one thing … More than the opportunist bargained for … The fucking jackpot. The largest bounty on the planet. One of the largest in the galaxy. But don’t look around enough and she might miss the medic’s shop. If it even existed. What if Bobs had been lying? What if she’d placed too much trust in his integrity like she had every other being with whom she came into contact?

Her surroundings were as dull and predictable as ever. Apart from the Grandest, the other buildings were similarly forgettable. The street lined with casinos, brothels, and gamer dens. A life of excess and instant gratification. Anyone in search of anything deeper was better taking the long walk into the death zone. Or joining the Ringdell Group. It might be horrific, but they were certainly exploring something more with their clandestine sacrifices and towers that served as vessels to cultivate the throbbing, fleshy, malevolent growth.

Surveillance drones zipped through the sky. Sparks dropped her head lower with every proximity-triggered twinge. Departing ships hurtled at their own reflections like they were on suicide missions. They broke through the dome and somehow avoided those coming the other way.

A ten-foot-tall being with mottled skin and ankles as thick as its thighs jumped aside from Sparks’ determined march. “Why is everyone so rude?” It pulled her around with one of its fingerless hands and shoved its snout at her. “Hey!” It snorted a hard gust through its massive nostrils that filled her hood and threw it clear of her face. She dragged it back a second too late.

The being froze. “Oh. That makes more sense now.”

Sparks shoved her blaster beneath their chin and pulled the trigger. She spun away and got clear as the green slimy contents of the being’s skull rained down. The thing collapsed a second later.

A wailing alarm came from Sparks’ right. The shriek lifted her shoulders while the droid’s presence turned a corkscrew twist through her spine. A surveillance drone the first to respond. In Stargart, they cared little for life, but they liked to at least appear concerned for the well-being of their visitors.

Eight more drones descended on the spot, Sparks ducking as they shot overhead. Each carried a three-foot-tall humanoid droid, which detached when they were close. The clack of steel feet hit the asphalt near the slain beast, and they issued instructions in unison with a mechanical bark. “You have five seconds to clear the way before we make room ourselves. Five …”

The small white building with the red cross above the door on Sparks’ left. Slightly farther back than its neighbours. Hidden from sight until now.

Sparks cut from the main strip and descended on the glowing green button beside the door. She whacked it, triggering the gentle whir of small servos.

The white room had a white operating table at its centre. Shelves lined every wall, each one stacked with bottles filled with pills, liquids, and ointments. A four-foot-tall being with a round face and semicircular ears smiled at her. Soft fur and deep brown eyes, they had a spherical body and spoke with a deep voice that contradicted their teddy bear appearance. “Can I help you?”

“Not me”—keeping her hood up, Sparks opened her robe, revealing Hat—“him.”

“Oh my.” The medic clapped his hand to his mouth and waddled towards her. “What happened?”

“I sent him somewhere I shouldn’t have.” Sparks’ eyes burned with the start of tears. “He was attacked.” Her tight throat throttled her words. “Can you help him?”

He swiped the bandages and blankets from his operating table and patted the padded white top. “Put him here.”

“Hat. His name’s Hat.” Sparks slipped her hand into the sling, sliding it beneath Hat’s bottom. He whimpered at her touch, but just before she scooped him clear, her intuition struck like a lightning bolt.

She darted left, yanked open a broom cupboard door, and slipped inside. Pulling it shut, she drew her blaster and held it across her chest, ready to burst from the cupboard like a murderous jack-in-the-box.

The front door’s small servos whirred, admitting the clack-clack of droids’ steps.

Sparks winced as they spoke in unison. Why should one speak when all six could? “We need you to help this being.”

They dragged something heavy into the room, the shush of skin rubbing over the bare floor.

“B-but …” The medic coughed to clear their throat. “They’re dead.”

“Dead?”

“Dead.”

“Thank you for the confirmation. Have a nice day.”

The shush of skin dragged across the medic’s floor again, and the door closed a few seconds later with another servo whir. Sparks let go of some of the tension from her upper body and pushed the door open with her toe.

A streaking path of vibrant green blood ran from the door and stopped about a metre into the room. The medic rolled his eyes. “Droids, am I right?”

“They always bring you dead bodies?”

“They’re not authorised to decide themselves. Once, after someone had blown a being up from the inside, they presented me with its liquefied remains in a bucket.”

“Wow.” Sparks stroked Hat. “And they won’t be back?”

“Something to hide?”

Sparks pulled back her hood. “You still want to help me?”

“I want to help your friend.”

“He has a bounty on him, too.”

“I know. I recognised him.”

“And I can trust you? I mean, an accident could be very profitable.”

“I can help him.”

“And you will?”

“Of course.”

A moment’s pause. What would Greeta do? But what other choice did she have? Hat didn’t have long left. “I hope I don’t regret this.” Plunging her hand beneath Hat’s bottom for a second time, Sparks scooped him out of the sling and placed him on the operating table. “Please do your best.”

The medic leaned close and peered directly into Hat’s weary eyes. He gently stroked him. “I always do.” He dipped a soft cloth into a pot of water and cleaned his fur, pulling the grub slime from him in stringy lines.

Hat twitched and whined, but the medic continued with a delicate persistence, applying a white cream to his open wounds. “He’s extraordinary. Where did you find him?”

“Actually, he found us.”

“That’s often the way with guardians.”

“Guardians?”

“Guardians.”

Sparks paced back and forth. “Well, whatever you call him, do you still think you can help?”

“Yes.”

The door servos activated, sending a slight twinge through the back of Sparks’ neck. She spun with her blaster raised. Greeta would have seen it coming.

CHAPTER 44

“You think I’d just let you walk away, you little stall rat?” The door had already started to close behind her, but Greeta still punched the button, sending a rattle through several jars on the shelves. “Besides, I figured you’d need saving eventually.”

“And you wanted to return the favour?”

“I got myself out of Schrödinger’s.”

Sparks reholstered her blaster and ran towards Greeta, throwing her arms around her. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“You wanted to see the back of me.”

“I didn’t.”

“Then why did you say it? And almost straight after I told you about Woult.”

“I didn’t want you risking your life to help me and Hat.”

Greeta stamped her foot. “That’s not your choice to make.”

“You sound like Reyes.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. I’m so pleased you’re here. And sorry for what I said. It seemed like the right thing at the time. I can see that was wrong. I should have been honest. I should have said I wanted you with me.”

“Bobs said you did. I thought he was talking nonsense. But I decided to—”

“Trust him?”

She sent a shot of air from her mouth. “Yeah.”

“Well, look at you.”

“I would have come with you immediately if you hadn’t pushed me away.”

“I know.”

“Because of what happened on Valiens, I’ve committed to never running away again.” She blinked back her tears. “Once was enough. Now I stand and fight. I have a list of regrets that I can do nothing to change. But I don’t have to add any more. Besides, you and Faz Went are all I have.”

“Don’t forget Reyes and Hat.”

Greeta flicked her head towards the medic. “How is Hat?”

The medic shuffled around the table, waddling from their supplies and back to Hat. He cleaned Hat’s fur and applied ointment to his wounds. His movements were gentle and his touch soft. “Squiltantor.”

Greeta leaned closer. “Huh?”

“My name. Squiltantor.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“I’m telling you anyway.”

The side of Greeta’s face twitched with her clenched jaw. “Who is this clown, Sparks?”

“Squiltantor. And he’s trying to save Hat’s life despite knowing how much he’s worth to him dead.”

“He knows that?”

“We lost the right to anonymity a long time ago. Squiltantor?”

He pulled another stringy green line of grub snot from Hat without even a flicker of disgust. “Yep?”

“How long do you need to patch him up?”

“This is more than a patch-up job.”

“How long?”

“Days. At the earliest.”

“Days?” Although she kept her blaster in its holster, Sparks rested her hand on the grip. “We’ll be lucky to last minutes in this place.”

“I’m sorry, but Hat’s in a bad way.”

“Will you come with us?”

“Ask me while you’re not clinging to your weapon.”

Letting go of her blaster, Sparks lifted her open hands away from her sides, spreading her fingers wide. “Will you come with us?”

“I’ve been looking for an excuse to leave this hellhole for a long time.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Nothing happens here without the Ringdell Group’s approval.”

“And that’s hard to get?”

“Most who seek it end up in the middle of the death zone.”

“We can get you away from here if you tend to Hat. And then deliver you anywhere you like.”

“I’d like that.” Squiltantor finished applying cream to another of Hat’s wounds and stood up straight. “That should hold him for now.” He grabbed a small bag and filled it with bandages and ointments. “He’s riddled with infection, but an extraordinary being like this should improve with even just a small amount of help. You’re lucky you came to me when you did.”

Squiltantor placed a small carry box on his operating table. He opened and closed his mouth while placing Hat inside as if his mouth movements helped him be more delicate. He closed off the sides to hide him from view. “This should hold him. How far is your ship?”

“Close.” Sparks opened her mini computer and hacked into a nearby drone. She turned a slow three hundred and sixty degrees above the crowd. Lights. Chaos on the main strip. Ships entering and leaving the mirrored dome. Everything as it should be. She spun the droid again and halted. Double tapping the screen, she zoomed in. “That’s not good.”

Greeta leaned over Sparks’ shoulder. “Damn.”

“What?” Squiltantor pulled on his rucksack and lifted Hat’s carry case. “What’s happening?”

Sparks showed him the screen. “Bounty hunters. At least fifty of them heading this way. Can you find the ship, Greeta?”

“Of course.”

“And have it ready for me?” Sparks reached the door.

“What will you do?”

“Distract them. If I need to. I’m hoping you can be away and safe, but I want to make sure you’re not in a footrace while taking Hat and Squiltantor with you.”

Squiltantor rested a hand on his round gut. “It won’t be much of a footrace if I’m involved.”

Sparks raised her eyebrows at Greeta. “Just make sure you’re ready to take off when I get to you, yeah?”

“You’re sure?”

“There’s another way?”

Chewing her bottom lip, Greeta threw up her arms. “Be safe, okay?”

Sparks pulled up her hood and pressed the door’s button. “See you soon.”

“You’d better, you little prick.”

Blowing Greeta a kiss, Sparks slipped out onto the main strip. Whatever it took, she’d be leaving this place with her friends.

CHAPTER 45

Sparks marched with her head mostly down, fixed on her mini computer, watching the crowd through the eyes of a surveillance drone. She occasionally scanned her surroundings. Beings lined the streets and spilled from buildings. The bounty-hunter mob heading her way stretched the width of the road.

She weaved in and out of those loitering outside a gamer den called It’s All Rigged, while the house champion despatched another pathetic competitor in a combat game. The betting punters cheered.

The reek of cheap perfume caught in her throat, pumped out from a brothel called Whapper’s Delight. She dragged her tongue along her teeth, but the chemical taste endured like it had fused to her taste buds.

Most got out of the bounty hunters’ way, accommodating the line and its progress. Although, a solitary mandulu refused to yield. Sparks zoomed in on him with the drone’s camera as he threw his hands in the air. Six vicious bounty hunters set upon him, dragged him to the ground, and buried him beneath a series of kicks and punches. They were back in formation within seconds, moving on like nothing had happened. The mandulu didn’t get back up.

Reaching across her front to protect a phantom Hat, Sparks looked back. She scoffed and shook her head. Like her three-and-a-half-foot frame would give her any kind of view.

An alleyway on her right ran between two casinos called the Twin Peaks. Sparks ducked into its concealing shadow, most alleys narrow enough to deny the revealing glow of Stargart’s blinding glare. She climbed the fire escape of one, a white furry being watching her, squinting through bloodshot eyes as she ascended. The small creature should be snow white, but with time in this place, they’d turned grey like they’d gone through a coloured wash too many times. Their jaw hung loose, and their tears ran into the sores collected around their nostrils.

The casino stood four storeys tall. Like most of the other buildings, its flat roof had a small wall around its perimeter and a layer of white gravel that crunched beneath her steps. The reflection from the underside of the dome tracked her progress, revealing her to any with a sharp enough gaze to pick her out in the flashing, seizure-inducing chaos. For any who dared look up rather than searching the crowd for imminent danger.

Her skin already slick with sweat from the hessian robe, but at least, when she lay on her front, it offered a thick layer of protection against the sharp stones. Sparks spun the hijacked drone around and sent it away from the hunters. Greeta, hessian hood up, led Squiltantor and his opaque carry case from his shop into the crowd. The medic’s spherical body gave him an awkward swaying gait, his head bobbing from side to side. A sniper’s nightmare, and a hinderance when you aimed to keep a low profile.

Within twenty paces, Greeta drew her gun and thrust it beneath the chin of a being who’d smashed into Squiltantor. They raised their hands, stood still while Greeta ushered the spherical medic away, and walked in the other direction when they were out of rifle range.

Sparks spun the drone around again, skimming back over the crowd as she returned to the line of fedora-wearing bounty hunters. They might not have seen them yet, but they moved faster than Greeta and Squiltantor fled, closing the distance between them.

As Sparks faced out onto the main strip, she had the line of bounty hunters twenty metres to her right, while Greeta and Squiltantor were fifteen to her left. She needed a plan, and fast.

Lifting the drone higher, the crowd beneath getting smaller, some staring up at the rising machine, Sparks picked out a tight trio of hunters. They moved down the right side of the road, shoving their way along the path. One side of her mouth twitched with a half-smile. Hard to decide which ones deserved it the most, but these would do. She clenched her jaw like she could add to the drone’s acceleration, and sent it into a hard dive towards them at full speed, getting closer until one pointed up. The three split at the last second, her drone slamming against the concrete pavement, the crack of its collision whipping through the street.

Yells from below. Several shots fired.

Sparks hopped into another drone. The trio laid into the machine, shooting and kicking it like they could inflict pain on its dead steel husk. Like they could draw a confession from its permanently tight lips. Like their aggression would turn the non-sentient sentient. Fucking morons.

Flying close, Sparks’ new drone caught the exchange between the trio and another of their kin. “We must be close. Why else would this have happened?” The fourth member dragged them on. “Regardless, we won’t get much sense from a defunct drone.”

The line of bounty hunters broke into a fast march, shoving aside any who crossed their path. Sparks tutted and whacked the roof, kicking up a spray of small stones. “Fuck.” She’d only spurred them on. They’d be on top of her friends in less than a minute.

Jumping onto the small wall running around the roof’s perimeter, Sparks’ stomach lurched as she swayed with a momentary loss of balance. She shoved two fingers into her mouth, pushed her tongue back, and sent out a shrill-peeped whistle.

Many of the crowd, and at least half of the fedoras on the street below, turned her way. Hessian robe or not, they knew what they were looking at, even if the rest of the street were oblivious. She thrust her middle finger at the lot of them.

The hunters cut from the main strip and flooded into the alleys between buildings.

Sparks sprinted right, away from Greeta and Squiltantor. She cleared the first alley in a single bound, a hunter below already halfway up a fire-exit ladder.

Her blaster drawn, she shot the fedora poking over the perimeter wall ahead. The hat spun away, and as she jumped, the creature’s corpse hit the ground.

Bounty hunters behind her, Sparks leaped from one building to the next, each one getting progressively lower. She took control of another drone and crashed into one of the leading hunters, knocking their blaster from their hand.

After clearing another alley, she brought the drone around and slammed into the back of the same hunter’s head, sending them sprawling.

Sparks’ feet slipped on the small stones, denying her a full sprint as she fled. She took control of another drone and raced after Greeta, Squiltantor, and Hat.

Still fixed on her screen, she leaped from another building. Whomp! The net, a few metres wide, spread out like a spider’s web and caught her mid-flight.

The coarse rope wrapped around her, pulled her arms to her sides, and forced her legs together. Cocooned in the air, Sparks hit the next gravel-topped roof and slid for a few metres. The spraying stones chinked off her glasses and stung her face.

Shrieks and cries from below. The tock of hunters climbed the closest ladders. Working her arms free enough to tilt her mini computer so she could see the screen, she stretched her fingers to type the commands and jumped into another drone. Bringing it around in a wide arc, she narrowly missed in her attempt to decapitate a climbing hunter.

On the second flyby, just as the hunter poked their head over the lip of the roof and aimed their blaster at her, she collided into the side of their face, and they fell. “Timber, motherfucker!”

Twisting and turning, she worked the ropes loose, hijacked another drone, weaved it from side to side to avoid the blasts from the ground, and cracked into the hunter climbing up from the alley on her other side.

Those who’d followed her up by Twin Peaks drew closer.

She sent a metre-long drone into the stomach of the closest hunter, dragging it and the machine out into the death zone.

Free of the net, Sparks hopped to her feet and opened fire. She picked off fedoras one after the other. She shot a hunter in mid-air as they jumped between buildings. “The best fucking droneball player in the galaxy!”

She took off again, cleared another alley, and fired down as she leaped. She nailed the next hunter halfway up their climb.

Closing in on a one-story row about twenty metres away, Sparks veered towards the road, relying on her eyes this time rather than the intrusive lens of a surveillance drone. “Fuck!” There were more bounty hunters on Stargart than stall rats. And many of them had gathered around her destination.

Shooting one who climbed up ahead of her, holding back the ones on her tail with blind fire just to slow them down, Sparks halted on the two-storey roof of a building several alley jumps from her destination. She had no other choice. She threw off her hessian robe, the thick fabric catching the wind and fanning out before it fell towards the crowd. She cupped her mouth with her hands. “Do you know who I am?”

At first, just one or two beings in the crowd halted. Then several more. One pointed up. “It’s her. The bounty.”

She shot another hunter and fired on the next to get too close. Maybe she wouldn’t have ever outrun the hunters. Not that it mattered. She now had the attention of more than just them, and greed spread through the crowd. Those close by pointed and shouted. They charged into the alleys. Started fights with the bounty hunters.

Hacking into three nearby drones, Sparks set a pre-programmed command in motion. Each of them synced up with the three closest to them. Then those three found another three, the connections linking up through Stargart. She lifted her mini computer to her mouth as she leaned from the building’s edge to peer at the one-storey building that had been her destination. “Fuck me. Of course that’s where I was heading …” Her words rang out through hundreds of drones. “Anyone looking to claim the bounty on my head needs to get to Schrödinger’s.”

Pulling back, Sparks shot one way and then the other, keeping the hunters on the roofs at bay. She sheathed her weapon, pulled a drone from the hive mind, brought it around over the back of her head, and sent it after her. She pocketed her computer and sprinted towards the edge of the building overlooking the street. Kicking off the small wall around the roof’s perimeter, she leaped into the air and caught the drone as it hit full speed right above her head.

They moved so fast, Sparks’ legs dragged out behind her. She pulled left and right, guiding the drone, heading for an alley out of there.

A fedora-wearing bounty hunter with a massive Gatling gun ran into the alley ahead of her, aimed up, and fired.

The bullets cut through the air, whipping past her. One tore through her drone’s casing, killing their propulsion. They dropped from the sky.

Drawing her blaster as she fell, Sparks shot the hunter dead and yelped when she hit the ground.

Standing on unsteady legs, she took over the Gatling gun and opened fire on the main strip, keeping back any who thought about following her. The gun’s recoil threatened to drive every cubic centimetre of air from her lungs, and sent cramps streaking through her arms. But she kept the trigger depressed and kept firing.

The gun whirred, but the recoil halted as she ran out of bullets. She spun towards the mirrored wall that would get her out of there.

She halted after a step. “Shit!”

Five las-sword-carrying bounty hunters broke through her reflection. Shoulder to shoulder, they blocked her path with their glowing weapons. The gap she’d carved in the crowd with the Gatling cannon closed in behind her.

Sparks aimed her blaster at the five, but she could barely lift it with her weak arm. Battered by the fall and then the cannon, and devoid of hope in the face of the five hunters. No matter how she sliced it, she’d lost.

CHAPTER 46

Her head pounding, her shoulder throbbing, Reyes twisted on the cold stone floor, making sense of the world and reacquainting with her body. She turned over several times before finding the coordination to get to her feet. The blood rushing to her head carried needles to her brain. Dragging a sharp intake through clenched teeth, she pressed the heel of her hand to her temple and closed her eyes until the world stopped spinning.

They’d hollowed her small cell out of a cave wall. It had just enough room for a bed. The white sheets on it were brown with dirt. A hole in the floor served as a toilet. Grabbing the bars between her and freedom, she called into the darkness, “Faz?”

Only her echo responded.

She wore clean clothes, and her hair smelled of soap. “Faz?”

Reyes blinked like it might help her see better in the darkness. “Faz?”

Something rattled in the cell to her right. A wall between them, but she didn’t need to see to be sure. Another rattlesnake hiss. “Faz.”

“Uh?”

“Faz, it’s me, Reyes. You okay?”

He groaned. “I’ve been better.”

“Tell me about it.”

“But you don’t sound bothered.”

Reyes stamped her foot. “I’m furious.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely. But I recognise what this is.”

Faz Went’s fingers wrapped around the neighbouring cell’s bars. His voice fuller. “Go on …”

“This is us away from Flanterian and Piltred.”

“Silver linings.”

“This is us closer to Sparks.”

“You think it’s the same beings who took her?”

“You don’t?”

“But you’re still trapped in a cell. We’re still trapped in a cell.”

“One being’s cell is another being’s step closer to Sparks and Hat. I’d take this over being chased around the city by Piltred any day.” She shook her cell’s bars. Embedded into the wall and floor, they didn’t budge. “Now we need to work out how we’re going to get out of here so we can find the others. By the time those who run this place realise we cannot be contained, it’ll be too late. Wherever Sparks and Hat are, we’re going to find them. And to those who thought we could be incarcerated …” She smiled. “They’re in for a nasty surprise.”

CHAPTER 47

Hot, sweaty, and her body weighted with fatigue and drained by hopelessness. Even aiming her blaster at the five las-sword-carrying bounty hunters proved too much. Sparks lowered her weapon. She’d lost, but if Greeta got Hat away and healed, then it hadn’t been for naught.

Celebrations behind her. Squabbles. Contests over who would get to shoot her and who would claim the bounty. She pressed the barrel of her blaster to her temple. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

A wild scream came from behind. The long-limbed, turquoise-skinned being from the Best of the Best sprinted straight at her in a loose and flailing mess. Their legs wobbled like they didn’t have the strength to support their weight, but they came at her like a runaway shuttle. They had a large, round, balloon head on their string of a body. A pair of bulbous eyes, pure white save for the small black dot at each of their centres. Drool still ran from the right side of their jagged slit of a mouth, but this time it streaked away from them like an anchor against their momentum.

They tore past Sparks, spread their long arms wide, and tackled all five hunters and their las-swords, dragging the quintet back from whence they came. Out into the death zone.

Sparks’ reflection stared back at her. Her blaster pressed to her temple. Her eyes wide and bloodshot like many of Stargart’s desperate cases. Chewed up and spat out. Beings crowded behind her. Blasters aimed down the alley. “Not today, motherfuckers.”

Sprinting at her reflection, Sparks broke through the dome. She caught herself before she drew an instinctive gasp.

The turquoise being stood hunched over five corpses, its skinny arms hanging like vines. They clicked their heels and saluted Sparks. She smiled and pushed her palms together, bowing at the being.

And with that, the being turned and ran. Sprinting on wobbly legs, their wild stringy arms flailing, they kept Stargart’s mirrored dome at their back and hurtled faster than their chaotic body had any right to travel.

Sparks ran the other way, the dome on her left. Hopefully Greeta had led Hat and Squiltantor to safety, and hopefully they’d gotten the ship off the ground.

Mostly bounty hunters burst through the mirrored dome behind, breaking free and giving chase. They shot those who weren’t their kin and sent blasts Sparks’ way. She returned fire, but the dome’s curve kept them forever from one another’s line of sight.

Her head down and arms pumping. Sweat ran into her eyes, down the inside of her shirt, and pulled her trousers tight to her legs.

The ship hovered a metre from the desert. The doors were closed, but as she drew close, the back opened, hanging down like a tongue. She jumped and landed. The ship took off, the hunters’ blasts utterly ineffective against the fighter’s shields.

Stepping inside, Squiltantor, tending to Hat on a bench, Greeta in the ship’s cockpit, Sparks waited for the back door to close and filled her lungs with a desperate gasp. She leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees, and took several more deep breaths. “Thank you.”

“Are you kidding?” Greeta stepped from the cockpit.

“You waited.”

“Of course we waited.” She hugged Sparks. “Thank you for creating a diversion. But now you need to fly us out of here.” She pointed out of the back window. “And you need to do it soon.”

Sparks leaned closer to the hot glass. “Oh, damn!”

Ships burst from the dome.

Jumping into the cockpit, Sparks threw the buckle across her front and called back, “Strap in. We’re in for a bumpy ride.”

Greeta’s seatbelt clicked. “You’re confident you can do this?”

“Of course I’m confident. I’m the best fucking pilot in the galaxy.”

CHAPTER 48

“You’ll be telling me you’re the best net-runner in the galaxy soon.”

“Probably would be if I gave it a go.” Sparks turned a ninety-degree right turn. “Sorry, Hat.”

“He’s okay.” Squiltantor leaned over the furball, checking his straps.

Twisting left, Sparks thrust their right wing at the sky, avoiding the shots from the closest fighters. She fired back.

The ship’s shields ate up the shrapnel from their exploding enemies. What remained of their flaming husks fell to the white sandy plains.

Nailing them one after the other like they were drones in a booth, Sparks chewed through those brave enough to attack. Each one’s fireball explosion paled compared to the sun’s glare. Those that remained retreated, heading back to the dome. “They’re running. I knew they would. We’ve got this.”

“Running or making way?”

“What?”

“I said running or mak—”

“I heard what you said, but what do you mean?”

“Look behind.”

The rear-view screen down to her right showed a massive fighter emerging from the mirrored dome. Jet black, its armour plating like scales. The front shaped like a square reptilian nose. A mohawk of giant steel fins ran down its back. The windows were tinted bright pink. Both prehistoric and futuristic all at once. “The bounty hunters’ ship?”

“Looks like it. And not all of it yet either.”

A seemingly never-ending hull, it slid out into the desert, the length doubled by the dome’s reflective surface. It had a massive cannon beneath its square nose. The barrel’s diameter was twice the width of their ship. It glowed with a plasma charge. Cerise like the windows. “Shit! It’s not about the bounty anymore. That fucking cannon will not only atomise us, but it’ll tear a rip in reality.”

“Give me your computer.”

Sparks clutched her top pocket and paused. Her computer. Amelia’s computer.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Look after her.” Sparks handed it over.

“Now gun it, Sparks. Get us the hell away.”

“You think we can outrun that?”

“It’s using all its energy charging that cannon.”

“That’s what I mean. You think we can outrun that blast?”

“Just trust me. Move. Now.”

Sparks hit the boosters and aimed up, their small fighter shooting away from the vast black behemoth and Stargart’s atmosphere. All the while, the bright pink glow grew brighter. The ball at the cannon’s end swelled, growing as it gathered power.

They hit full speed, and their small ship shook. The desert streaked past below them, the white sandy expanse dotted with stall rats and corpses.

“Done!” Greeta rubbed her hands together and sat back in her seat.

The entire ship still hadn’t broken free of the dome. “Where did they even put that thing? And what do you mean, done?”

“Watch.”

“Oh, I am. And I’d like to say it was nice knowing you, and I suppose it was. And maybe that’s the point, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That everything will be all right in the end. And if it’s not, then it’s not the end. Maybe we just need to make peace with our own mortality. We choose the narrative, right?”

“Dramatic much?”

“It was nice knowing you, Greeta, you mad bastard.”

The vast fighter’s cannons glowed as bright as a cerise star. Whomp! The cannon flared with a pink explosion that released a glitter bomb of sparkles. They dispersed in the winds like a party popper’s innards.

Sparks laughed, and for the first time since she’d known her, Greeta laughed too. Properly laughed. A wicked witch’s cackle that only made Sparks worse.

The scaly and mohawked giant finally broke through the dome. A slow and lumbering beast, it flew over the desert with only the power to glide along in cruise mode.

Greeta forced words out in between her snickering cackles. “Not only did I diffuse their fire, but I also shut down their boosters. By the time they’re back online, we’ll be long gone.”

CHAPTER 49

“So, uh, that information you got from the gamer den.”

Surrounded by the darkness of space, Sparks entered Flanterian’s co-ordinates into the ship’s navigation system. “The information that proved to be less than useless, you mean?”

“Maybe not.”

“Go on …”

Greeta winced. “It’s Shalk.”

“Don’t even mention that bastard’s name.”

“I mean, they’ve not mentioned him by name, but I know it’s him. I’ve found out what’s happened.”

“I don’t care. And how have you managed that so quickly without having his name? Faz said you’re some kind of meta-mind. I thought he was exaggerating.”

“Best fucking net-runner in the galaxy.”

Sparks cocked an eyebrow. “I think I’d rather listen to what happened to Shalk.”

“It’s amongst the comings and goings in and out of Stargart. A group of small-time bounty hunters took him off-planet. He didn’t have a bounty on his head.”

“But they would have taken him after I stole this data, so how can you possibly know that?”

“I managed to update it before we left. While I was taking down the bounty hunters’ ship.”

“I don’t want to know any more.”

“The hunters make their credits by preying on the weak and vulnerable. Abducting beings and selling them to their regular contacts.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So you can make an informed choice.”

“I’m informed enough. He’s a rat. Fuck him.” Sparks hovered over the button to lock in their destination. Her back tight, her eyelids almost too heavy to hold open. She needed a rest, and now.

“The ship’s called the Sunny Horizon.”

“Sounds like he lucked out. What is it, some kind of retirement colony?”

“It’s a prison ship. They exploit the prisoners for their own financial gains. Most of the beings in there are innocent. Purchased from hunters and scoundrels who take deadbeats like the ones filling Stargart’s alleys.”

Like the one who saved Sparks’ life.

“They make them compete in brutal and often fatal games. They sacrifice them for entertainment and sell the galactic broadcasting rights.”

“So his days are numbered? So what?”

“Not only numbered, but will be painful beyond measure.”

“Like I said, so what?”

“Do you mean that?”

Sparks sat back and rested her feet on the flight sticks. “What’s his fate?”

“Death. A very public and brutal death.”

Tutting, Sparks balled her hands into fists and rubbed her eyes. She let go of a long sigh. “Squiltantor?”

“Yep?”

“Is there anything you need to help Hat’s health improve faster?”

“Nope. I have it all here. Well, to be honest, this extraordinary specimen has it all himself. I’m just giving him a nudge in the right direction. I wouldn’t want to take credit for his progress.”

“This is what someone with humility looks like. You’d do well to take notes, Sparks.”

“Fuck off, Greeta. So you can heal him from this ship?”

“Yep.”

“And you can fly if you need to get out of a tight spot? Especially if I leave Flanterian’s co-ordinates programmed into the nav system?”

“Yep.”

“I made him a promise. You know that, right?”

“That’s why I told you where he is.” Greeta turned her palms to the ceiling.

“And to renege on my word would make me as bad as him.”

“Maybe even worse.”

“But I need to get back to Reyes.”

“Whatever you decide, Sparks.”

“I have to trust her and Faz Went are okay on their own. And regardless of what Shalk’s done to me, I don’t break my promises.”

“I figured.”

“And, as you know, I’m quite handy when it comes to rescuing beings from tight spots.”

“Fuck you, Sparks.”

“The best fucking rescuer in the galaxy.”

Greeta laughed and shook her head.

Sparks only momentarily shared her mirth. “Argh!” She punched her palm. “Give me the co-ordinates.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, it looks like we’re going to Flanterian via the Sunny Horizon. If for no other reason than for me to get a chance to kick his arse.”

End of book three.

Thank you for reading Galactic Force.

Galactic Liberation: Book four of Galactic Terror is available now. 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.

The Shadow Order - Available Now

GALACTIC LIBERATION: GALACTIC TERROR BOOK FOUR - CHAPTER ONE

“Whoa!” Sparks jolted back in her seat as they emerged from hyperdrive. The Sunny Horizon filled the windscreen from one side to the other. She leaned forwards and blinked as she scanned from left to right, taking in more of the vast dark ship. Shaped like an obelisk on its side, the jet-black vessel stretched at least three miles long, a mile wide, and a mile tall. A giant four-sided toppled plinth that ended in a point on Sparks’ far right. Ugly. Functional. And so dark against the background of space, the light from the closest star caught just its edges, painting little more than the windowless vessel’s outline.

“Looks inviting.”

Still taking it in, Sparks closed her mouth. “It looks like a floating nightmare. Sunny horizon, my arse.”

Greeta put her feet up on the dashboard. Her dirty boots left grit on the gunmetal grey steel, but Shalk could clean it up. It’d be the least he could do after they’d rescued him. She crossed them over and folded her thick and hairy arms. “I can’t say I’m looking forward to this.”

“No, me either. When you looked at the data we took from Stargart …”

“Go on?”

“Don’t suppose it gave you his current location, did it?”

“Nope.”

“Damn!”

“There’s still time to change your mind.”

“No, there’s not.”

“I’m just saying. And technically, there is.”

“That would make me as bad as him.” Sparks pulled back and rubbed her stinging eyes. “I promised I’d return him to Flanterian, so that’s what I’ll do. Even if I kick him to within an inch of his life when we get there. I suppose the only plus about a ship this size is we should be able to attach to it unnoticed.”

“Like a tick to a snoothlebrot.”

“If you say so.” Sparks altered their angle so they flew alongside the ship. Miles of jet-black steel streaked away beneath them as she gradually brought them closer. “Don’t ticks die when attached to snoothlebrots?”

“If they overstay their welcome.”

Sparks decelerated so they matched the Sunny Horizon’s pace. She edged closer and activated the ship’s magnetic docking function. They gently came together.

Thunk!

“Very graceful.”

“I try.”

Greeta twisted from her seat and slipped into the back. Sparks followed and paused mid-step. Her heart kicked. She gripped her seat for support and laid her palm against her chest. Squiltantor had cleaned Hat and helped steady his breathing. The febrile furball lay still, as if sleeping. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” Squiltantor smiled, and his eyes widened. “I’m sure of it. He’s making great progress. You just focus on you. There’s nothing to worry about here.”

“That’s one thing at least.”

“Catch!”

Sparks turned towards Greeta and got smothered by a white space suit. Wrestling it clear, she threw it on the floor and scowled at her stocky friend.

“I said catch.”

“You could have just passed it to me.”

“Figured it would do you good.” Greeta shadow-boxed, shifting from side to side. “Sharpen you up for what’s coming.”

“I’ll go on my own if you’re frightened.”

“You’re not?”

Sparks shrugged, undid her space suit, and stepped in through the legs. She pulled the waist up her to chest and let it go. It fell to her knees, and the fabric bunched up around her ankles. “This is the only size they have?”

Greeta, whose suit fitted like it had been made for her, winced as she zipped up the front.

Squiltantor helped Sparks gather up her suit’s legs, bunching the loose fabric and pegging it in place. “I’ve had to do this a lot. They don’t make many clothes for beings like us, eh?” Half a foot taller than her, he dragged the sleeves up so her fingers slid into the gloves. He fastened them in place, tying a strip of white fabric around her biceps like a tourniquet.

Wriggling her fingers, Sparks nodded, but couldn’t quite drag a thank you from her tight throat. She leaned over a trembling Hat on the bench and kissed him. Whatever Squiltantor had used to treat him carried a floral, oily scent. Like the sap from a mawdingter tree. It had left him soft and clean. She pulled on a helmet, which fitted better than the suit, and took her mini computer.

“You want me to carry that?”

“I’m short, Greeta.” Sparks’ voice came at her from everywhere. From her own mouth. Amplified through the helmet. And from the speakers all around her head.

“I know.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m incompetent.”

“What do you blame it on, then?”

Sparks flicked Greeta the bird, pulled her mini computer close, and nodded to Squiltantor again. “Look after Hat.”

“Of course. And see you soon, right?”

“Right.” Sparks whacked the exit button, the door opening with a whoosh! A transparent membrane kept the small ship pressurised. It wobbled, distorting their view of the Sunny Horizon’s dark hull. Clinging to her computer with one hand, she rested her finger on the switch for her suit’s magnetic boots. She jumped out and flicked it on. The magnetism pulled her towards the Sunny Horizon’s hull.

Thunk!

Her own heavy breaths came back at her from inside her helmet. Sparks raised her eyebrows at Greeta when she attached to the ship beside her. The vast vessel stretched away from them like a planet. Featureless save for the satellite dishes and maintenance exits, one of which sat about twenty metres away. They say you enter this world alone and you die alone. They say you feel it most when you’re on your deathbed. The void of space had to be a close second. Would Reyes and Faz Went die alone on Flanterian? And now she’d left Hat in a critical state with a stranger; would he die alone while she rescued a cretin who clearly didn’t deserve it? But she’d made a promise.

Mini computer in hand, Sparks set off with magnetised steps. Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

The lack of windows not only deprived the prisoners of a view, but they also concealed the Sunny Horizon’s secrets. What if the entire vessel was filled with something like they’d found inside the Grandest? A pulsing, fleshy monstrosity. The real reason for this ship’s existence, the constant stream of prisoners supplied to it as fuel, the games a distraction from what really went on. What if they’d already used Shalk up and spat him out again? She shook her head, and Greeta glanced across at her. She raised her hand. Nothing to worry about, although her increasing heart rate hadn’t yet got the message.

A streak of white snaked through Sparks’ peripheral vision. The tourniquet from her right arm slithered away like a languid eel through the thick seas on Grovtinal. Her sleeve bunched up around her wrist. Her glove loosened. The fingers turned baggy, deadening her grip on her mini computer. It slipped from her grasp. She snatched at it with her left hand and missed. Her right glove followed her mini computer, floating away from her. “Damn!”

She’d abandoned Reyes and Faz Went. Hat. She couldn’t let go of Amelia too. Sparks fumbled with the tourniquet on her left arm. Pinching through her baggy sleeve was like trying to work with a mitten. She pulled it loose. The small strip of fabric slithered away like the other. She threw her unravelling left arm in Greeta’s direction. She deactivated her magnetic boots. “Grab it!” She jumped after the computer.

Greeta reached out for Sparks’ sleeve, but only caught air. Sparks had already floated too far away. “I’m sorry. Activate your boots.”

Sparks reached for her boots’ button.

“What are you waiting for?”

Her mini computer spun away from her like space junk.

“Sparks! Activate your boots!”

Her hands only reached as far as her sleeve’s elbows. She did a flapping breaststroke in pursuit of her spinning computer.

Tracking her from the ship, Greeta made slow and clunking progress.

Sparks spun like her mini computer. She pinched through her baggy left sleeve, dragged back the loose fabric on her right arm, and slipped her fingers into the glove. She grabbed for her mini computer on her next spin and missed. With every turn, Greeta got farther away.

On her next spin, Sparks caught her computer. She pulled it to her chest and punched the air. She reactivated her magnetic boots and stamped towards the prison ship. She continued spinning away. “Greeta! Help!”

“Why did you go after it?”

“Now’s not the time to have a go. Help me, Greeta.” The radio crackled like it might disconnect. Sparks spun again, every rotation taking her farther away.

“Damn!” Greeta grabbed a small satellite dish with both hands. Were the roles reversed, Sparks wouldn’t have stood a chance, but Greeta had biceps like boulders. She yanked it left and right, wrestling with it until she tore it free. She held onto the cable connecting the dish to the ship and launched it in Sparks’ direction.

On her next turn, Sparks aimed her feet at the dish. It swung close to her, but she turned away and lost sight of it. “Greet—”

Thunk!

The small dish stuck to the soles of her boots. Greeta dragged the cable, drawing in the slack.

Sparks winced as it pulled taut. But the grip held. Greeta reeled her in.

Thunk!

Sparks threw her arms around her friend and clung on like she didn’t trust her boots. “Thank you.”

“That was stupid.”

“We need the computer to get in.”

“I could have carried it.”

Sparks lost the strength in her words and kept her computer to her chest. “I couldn’t let it go. On either occasion.”

Wrapping an arm around her, Greeta pulled her close.

At the maintenance exit, Sparks handed over the mini computer. Greeta took it with both hands. Gave it the respect it deserved. She hacked the lock and opened the door. A pink membrane maintained the ship’s pressure and cast the inside in a rosy hue. Probably the only rosy thing in this floating nightmare. She climbed into the Sunny Horizon, and Sparks followed.

* * *

After discarding her baggy outfit, Sparks took her computer back. “Thanks again.”

Greeta offered her a tight-lipped smile.

The Sunny Horizon’s interior looked much like its exterior. The featureless hallway stretched away for what seemed like miles. The poor lighting cast deep shadows, but revealed enough to show them the hallway was as empty as the ship’s outside. “Nothing like the void of space for reminding one of their own mortality.”

Greeta’s head turned to one side. “Huh?”

“It’s quiet.” Even her digital intuition had nothing on which to grasp.

“Too quiet.”

“Did you have to say that?”

“You kind of set me up.”

Sparks shook her head and blew out, her cheeks puffing with her exhale. “Although, with the number of times we’ve walked into a full-blown war with the Shadow Order, I’ll take too quiet every day. At least there’s a chance this won’t turn into a massacre. It gets weary killing those who won’t get out of your way.”

Now they’d removed their boots, they made quicker and quieter progress. Greeta’s whisper called ahead of them. “There has to be a middle ground, though, right? I mean, it’d be nice if this ship didn’t feel like a graveyard.” She turned a full three hundred and sixty degrees while she walked, her mouth open as she took in their bland surroundings. “Like a ghost ship.”

Sparks shuddered and drew her blaster. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Are you saying it doesn’t? What’s the betting we come across a canteen laid out with hundreds of hot plates of food, like the crew have simply vanished?”

“Let’s just focus on finding Shalk so we can get off this hellish vessel and get back to—”

“Hell on Flanterian?”

Sparks sighed. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Just saying it how it is.”

“You’re not. You don’t know how it is. Neither of us do. We’re not that smart. You simply value your opinion too highly. Or you’re saying the first things that come into your head. Neither are a virtue.”

Thank you for reading Galactic Liberation - chapter one.

Galactic Liberation: Book four of Galactic Terror is available now. You can get the full book HERE

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
www.michaelrobertson.co.uk
subscribers@michaelrobertson.co.uk

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

Galactic Liberation: Galactic Terror Book Four

Galactic Confrontation - Part One: Galactic Terror Book Five

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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

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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

An Interesting Alliance - Book seventeen of Beyond These Walls

Revolution - Book eighteen of Beyond These Walls

The Shining City - Book nineteen 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

* * *

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

* * *

NEW REALITY:

New Reality: Truth

New Reality 2: Justice

New Reality 3: Fear

* * *

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