Hunter's Will: A Borderlands Tale Part 3

[ima_pseudonym_2]

This is the third part to my Hunter’s storyline, which started in Hunters Folly and continued in Hunter’s Quarry, both of which were recently reedited, fixing a truly egregious number of typos and can be found on these forums, as well as on fanfiction.net. It picks up where the events of the second one left off and does not contain any form of recap, so it is strongly recommended that you read the other ones first in order to understand what’s going on.

That said, like the previous two, the characters contained are my interpretations of them, the way I envision them, so if it doesn’t line up with how you see them, know that this is just my version of them.

I hope you enjoy this story, or at least some part of it entertains you.

That said, any form of feedback would be welcome, though I would ask that it try and be constructive. If you dislike it, then by all means, dislike it, but if you can, tell me why or what part you didn’t like. If you liked something, also let me know. This is the only way that I will improve as a writer.

There are undoubtedly mistakes in it. I do not profess to be an expert on the Borderlands setting, though I did try and research what I could. If you see something egregiously wrong, please let me know.

All that said, I hope you enjoy my contribution to the Borderlands setting.

Note

I do not own the characters, setting, nor items used in this story. Nor do I claim to. They belong to Gearbox and whomever else created them. They have been used in good faith, with good intentions, with hopefully evident love and without permission.

This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people and/or events is purely coincidental. Any comments, derogatory remarks or offensive comments are not intended to be, if a character is saying it, it is being said by that character, and should not be taken personally. Any social message or real world allegory is likely not intended, I’m not that clever. But if you find one you liked, feel free to give me credit anyway.

Warning:

This story contains depictions of violence and gore, language, instances of bullying and some truly mean comments, as well as grievous grammatical errors, if any of these things are offensive to you, proceed at your own risk.

A cover for the story

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 1

Eden 5

“Hi dad, I’m home.”

Those were the first words she had spoken to her father, in person, in almost eight years. She had imagined this moment a million times over those years, thought of all the things she wanted to say and how they would go, how her dad would react, but all of that fled in the face of reality, leaving her mind blank, except for those four simple words.

Gaige stood nervously in front of the open door, a half-smile on her face, wondering if she should say something else, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think of anything, not one of the millions of things she had wanted to say to him over those long years came to her in that moment, leaving her standing there, the same awkward teen that had fled the school all those years before.

Her father’s wits came back to him first and he stepped forward, sweeping her up in a great hug.

After a minute he pulled back and looked at her, almost like he couldn’t believe that he wasn’t dreaming, before pulling her in again.

Finally letting her go he looked her up and down and said “My little girl’s all grown up.”

“Jeez dad, no need to act so cliché.” Gaige retorted, embarrassed, but the huge grin on her face said that she didn’t mind one bit. “I mean, I wasn’t gonna mention all the grey that you’ve added to your hair, but…”

“And who do you think is responsible for most of that? Hmm? It’s not like having a daughter gallivanting around the galaxy is relaxing. Do you have any idea how many assassinations I’ve had to sabotage? No? Well good, because the more I did, the fewer found you.”

“I know, you’re the best dad ever. Seriously.”

“That said, I kind of was expecting you a couple of weeks ago, I mean you had to have heard about what happened to Holloway.”

“Heard about it? We were responsible for it.”

“That’s my girl.”

“It was those stupid fines that held us up.”

“What fines?”

“Well, there were all the fees for the crimes I was accused of, for the minor offenses and such, plus the compounded interest. That’s what really killed me.”

“You should have called me. I could have tried to do something about them, argue them down or get them dismissed. Or at the very least I could have helped raise the money. How much were we talking about anyway?”

She told him and he visibly paled “What! That’s ridiculous. How do they expect someone to pay that kind of money? How did you get that kind of money anyway?”

“As much as I love the breeze out here, can we come inside? Unless you don’t mind the neighbors to start gossiping about you making your own daughter stand around on the front step all day?”

“I’m sorry. Of course you can come in, you’re always welcome, it is your house after all, no matter how much time has passed. It’s just that this is all so sudden. I mean, I was expecting you, but then you’re here and it’s like I’m completely unprepared.”

“I know. I still can’t believe it myself, to be honest.”

He drew her into another hug, before stepping aside and letting her in. Turning he saw the two loitering by the gate, trying not to spy on the intimate moment and waved them over.

“Wow. You’ve changed a bit from the last time I saw you.” He said, looking Deathtrap over. “I see a lot of new modifications. Been rough on you, hasn’t it?”

“Urgurr”

“I know. Thanks for looking out for her for all these years.” He said, patting the robot on the shoulder.

“Urrrr” Deathtrap said, a bit embarrassed.

“Now then” Gaige’s dad said, turning to the last person, who was awkwardly standing behind the robot as if she was trying to shield herself with him and eyed her with a bit of suspicion “Who might you be? And what’s your relationship with my daughter?”

“Dad!” Gaige said, spinning around, hands on her hips.

“What? It’s my right to ask. Isn’t a father allowed to find out who the strange person showing up with his daughter is?”

“That’s not the point.”

“It’s fine.” Came the reply from the other girl. “He’s right, you show up, after all these years, with a strange girl in tow, he should be questioning who I am and what I’m doing here.”

“No, he shouldn’t. I brought you, that should be good enough.”

“Try and see it from his perspective. He doesn’t know what we’ve been through.”

“Fine, you’re right. This is Artemis, she’s my friend.”

“Jinx.” She corrected “My name is Jinx.”

“My dad should be able to call you Artemis as well.”

Her dad caught the small twitch of disappointment on the other girls’ face, it seemed to him that she had wanted that name to be just between them, so he couldn’t help but say “Welcome to my house, Artemis. Would you like to come in?”

He felt petty when he saw the flicker in the girls’ eyes, but she just shrugged and said “If you’ll have me.”

“What are you talking about? Of course you’re welcome here. I mean, it would be pretty awkward living together from here out if you weren’t. So get in here.” Gaige told her forcefully as she kept her hands on her hips and fixed her with a commanding look.

Artemis looked at her for a second and then walked through the door muttering to her on her way past “You really should think about how you phrase things, especially around people who might not know what you’re talking about.”

Gaige looked at her funny before looking to her dad and seeing the expression on his face, realized what she had said must have sounded like to him and quickly clarified “She’s a friend, I’m just traveling with her on her ship. It’s not like we’re sleeping together, actually we are, but not like that.”

As Gaige attempted to clarify things by digging herself into a hole, Artemis looked around. The house was clean and neat, but there were signs that that had been done recently, as if in preparation for Gaige coming home. Artemis could smell the cleaners on the air, hidden under the smell of flowers and food. The hardwood and carpeted floors were free of dust, even in the corners and the shelves looked like all the objects on them had recently been moved. Either that, or the place was lived in by an absolute neat freak, and judging by how Gaige lived, she doubted that.

The walls had a few pictures on them, mostly by the stairs, which caught her eye. A number of them were of various family members or groups, including one of a younger Gaige, her dad and a woman, who she figured must be her mother. There were also a few shots of Gaige from her younger years, including one school picture of her with braces that Artemis thought made her look adorable.

Gaige finally got her dad to understand the situation and looked over to see Artemis staring at the pictures on the wall and to her horror, at the one from when she was thirteen and had to have braces.

“GACK?!” She exclaimed “What’s that doing out?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Her dad asked.

“I look terrible in that picture.” She retorted.

“I think you look cute in it.” Artemis said honestly.

“Cute?” Her dad countered “She’s adorable in it.”

“Stop making fun of me!” Gaige shouted. “I know I look like a dork in that picture.”

“Looking at it I can see how you got that Excessive Adorability charge.”

“Stop teasing me.” Gaige shouted.

“I’m not teasing you. I really think so.”

“Really?” Gaige said, calming down a bit before turning to her dad “But still, it’s embarrassing, how could you leave it up?”

“I wanted to remember you. Besides, isn’t it a dad’s job to embarrass his daughter?”

“Well mission accomplished, so can you take it down? At least while I’m here.”

“We’ll see.” He said before turning to Artemis “Still I’m amazed that you were able to calm her down like that. How did you do it?”

“I don’t lie to her.”

“That’s not easy.” He replied with an air of knowledge about him.

“Urrgur”

“Right, where are my manners, standing around the entryway talking, come along, let’s continue this in the lounge.” He led the way through one of the side doors and into a room dominated by a couch and overstuffed chairs. Motioning them to take a seat he turned to the side board and asked “Can I get you anything to drink? You’re old enough now to share something with your old man.” He said holding up a bottle of liquor.

Gaige nervously glanced at Artemis who leaned over and whispered “Go on, share a drink with your dad. But just the one, okay?”

Gaige’s dad couldn’t help but notice the exchange and had to ask “What’s that about?”

“I, uh, well…I had a bit of an, well let’s call it, an over fondness for margaritas, that I’m, well, kinda trying to get past.” Gaige said looking at her fingers.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have offered.”

“No, no, that’s what we were discussing. Just the one should be fine, besides, you did promise me that we’d share a drink when I was older.”

“You remember that? You were, what, seven, eight?”

“It was something like that, and of course I remember.”

“Still, I don’t know if I should.”

“Oh come on, it was just an over fondness, and I’m mostly over it, and it’s not like I’ve completely cut the alcohol out of my life.”

“If it makes you feel any better about it, her fondness for them was more of a symptom of something else bothering her.” Artemis interjected.

“And she’s been trying to help me with that.” Gaige added.

“More than anything, I’ve just been trying to get her to cut back on the drinking in general. It’s more for my own sake, I like having someone to talk to.”

“Still, I had no idea. I wonder what else I missed.” He said looking at the glass in his hand. Shaking his head, he poured three glasses and held out two of them to the girls.

Gaige took hers, but Artemis looked at it a bit awkwardly before Gaige nudged her in the ribs and whispered “Take it, you can just take a sip and be done, but don’t be rude to my dad.”

Nodding, Artemis took the offered glass and held it, looking at the rich liquid inside as Gaige’s dad picked up his own glass and held it out.

“To reunions.” He said “L’Chaim.”

“L’Chaim” Gaige answered and took a drink.

Artemis held her glass up, a look of confusion clear on her face, before miming the glass move the others had done, clicking it against the air and took a small sip, before breaking into a coughing fit.

“Are you alright?” Gaige’s dad asked, genuine concern on his face.

“She’ll be fine” Gaige said, patting the girl on the back “She just isn’t much of a drinker.”

“Then why did you make her take the drink?”

“So she wouldn’t be rude. That said, maybe we should get her a glass of water.”

“Urgurr”

“Please do, you know where the glasses are kept?” Gaige’s dad asked the floating robot. With a nod Deathtrap flew out of the room as Artemis stopped coughing.

“I’m fine, just not used to these kinds of things. Don’t worry, I’ll finish it.”

“Nonsense” Gaige’s dad said, plucking the glass from her hand “I should have asked you what you wanted to drink instead of forcing my preference onto you.”

“No, I’m sorry. I kinda ruined your father-daughter moment.”

At that moment Deathtrap returned and slid the glass into her hand. She took a small sip and patted his arm, with a “Thanks bud, I’m fine.”

“Urgur”

“You seem to get along well with Deathtrap. I’ve been wondering, how did you meet my daughter?”

Gaige leaned forward with a “Well, it was…” When Artemis tapped her on the arm and with a concerned glance at her father, leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“I don’t want to ask an inappropriate question, but your mother is, well, um…”

“What?”

“Well, she’s alive?”

“Of course she is. Why?”

“Well, wouldn’t she want to hear about what you’ve been up to as well? Or do you want to tell it twice?”

“Oh.” She sat back and looked at her dad “She makes a fair point. We should wait for mom to get home, I think she’ll want to hear it as well.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Her dad looked a bit crestfallen.

“While we wait, why don’t you tell me about what you’ve been up to? I haven’t heard anything since I left.”

“Alright.” He said, brightening visibly “Where to start…”

A Few Hours Later

Gaige was laughing, listening to her dad tell another story, Artemis had retreated to the kitchen with Deathtrap. There were only so many stories about crazy uncles, cousins’ birthdays and various weddings that she could take, especially when she didn’t know any of them. She had sat there for hours, listening and trying to be entertained, before she had excused herself and asked to use the kitchen, explaining that where she was from, the first time you visited someone’s house, you brought a present, and hers had been steaks for supper. So that was what she was working on.

She was glad to hear the laughter coming from the other room. It seemed that, at least for this moment, Gaige was free from all of the burden she had been carrying for years. And it was good to see her genuinely happy. Which was the other reason that Artemis had left the room, this was a moment between them, the two of them who had eight years prior said goodbye after the bloody incident in the gymnasium. The two of them who had suffered through the long separation. It should be just the two of them in there. Even Deathtrap had seen that and come out to help her.

The two of them were working, when they heard the front door open and a woman’s voice call out “Well something smells good. What’s the occasion?”

The two of them looked at each other in a panic, they could hear the footsteps approaching and neither wanted to see what would happen when Gaige’s mom found a pair of strangers using her kitchen.

Just as the footsteps were getting close, a voice called out from back down the hall.

“Honey, come over here for a second.”

“What are you doing over there? Why aren’t you keeping an eye on supper?”

“Just come over here.”

The footsteps receded, and just as the pair was breathing a sigh of relief, they heard something hit the floor, followed a second later by a shout of “Gaige!?”

“Hi mom.”

“Wha…what are you doing here?”

“Jeez, way to make me feel welcome. I was in the area and thought I’d stop by.”

“Of course you’re welcome.” She wrapped her daughter in a hug before pushing her back and continuing “Let me look at you. Look at those clothes, for shame, look at the length of those shorts! What will the boys think of you? And the state of your hair. We are going to the salon. How long are you staying for? Why didn’t you call ahead? Look at the state of the house. I could have had something prepared for you. Have you been eating properly? And I’ve got to call your relatives, Aunt Shela will be thrilled to hear you’re back…”

“Dear, give her space to breathe.”

“Yeah mom, besides, the house is spotless, I mean, I can still smell the cleaners. You knew I would be stopping by as soon as I could, didn’t you?”

“Is that any way to talk to your mother? And if I knew you were coming, then what took you so long to get here?”

“I ran into a few snags on the way.”

“Nothing too scandalous I hope.”

“Jeez mom, I just had to make some money to pay off the last of the fines.”

“Doing what? That wedding planner thing I heard about?”

“Uh, no, we can, um, talk about that later, right now it’s just good to see you.”

“Later? Why not now?”

Hearing the direction the conversation was devolving to, Artemis nodded to Deathtrap and he went flying off. Showing up in the lounge to see a thin woman in a business suit, hair done up, with a hand on her hip, the other wagging in her daughter’s face. Sensing him coming down the hall she spun at him.

“I see you’re still with my daughter. Good lords, look at the state of you, well I should be grateful that you don’t have feet to track in with. What’s with those spikes? And those stickers? What kind of look were you going for? And that’s not even starting with that crystal. Wait, were you just cooking? Is it alright to leave it alone?”

“Urgurr”

“Don’t take that tone with me, mister.”

“Mom, it’s alright, just relax, everything’s fine. My friend’s doing the cooking.”

“You’re dating a cook?”

“Wha…we’re not dating.”

“Not dating? What kind of behavior have you gotten into since you’ve left? I don’t recall raising a daughter that would engage in this kind of scandalous action.”

“Scandalous what now? Wait, what do you think’s going on?”

“You brought some boy you’re with home with you and”

“Boy? With? Whoa, hold up. Artemis is a friend. She owns the ship I’ve been traveling on and has helped me with all this crap that I’ve had to deal with over the last month.”

“Arte…You mean it’s a girl?”

The rest of her family nodded.

“And you two aren’t?”

Gaige shook her head, but added “Even if we did have that kind of relationship, would that make any difference? Would you not accept me? Or her?”

“Well, no. I mean, yes. I mean…”

“She’s her friend dear. We should be happy that she’s finally brought one home. Not to mention the fact that our little Gaige has finally come home to us. We should be happy.”

“I am happy. I’m just flustered. Why didn’t you call me? Let me know? How could you just let me walk in on this kind of surprise? I bet I look a fright.”

“You look fine dear.”

“Yeah mom, you look great.”

“Sweet talk all you want, but I know the truth. Oh bother, it’s good to have you home.” She pulled her daughter in for another hug.

“Now then, how did you meet this friend of yours, and when are you going to introduce me? Wait, first I should check my hair and…”

“Trust me mom, she won’t care.” Gaige said starting down the hall.

Her mother fell in behind her and soon they were peeking around the door frame and into the kitchen, where they found Artemis working. Gaige’s mom didn’t know what to make of what she was seeing. The girl had lopsided purple hair, with messy spikes on one side of her head and the other cut short, but even from the distance, she could tell that it was in worse shape than her daughter’s. She was wearing a dark red shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing the dark purple interior under an almost black, dark green hooded vest thing that she couldn’t even really call fashion. Her left arm was cybernetic and when she turned to look at them, she could see that she had violet eyes under heavy makeup, that made her think of someone trying to look older than they were. Other than that, she was short and fairly attractive, if only in a bit of a rough sort of way.

For her part, Artemis didn’t know how to act as she turned and looked at the woman standing in the doorway. She was surprised to see that she wasn’t as harsh looking as she had sounded. In fact she had a warm face that she could see bits of Gaige in. She was dressed in a sharp suit and had an air of elegance about her, from her tasteful makeup, to the small, but undoubtedly expensive earrings.

Not knowing how to interact with someone like that, Artemis settled on smiling and saying “Hello.”

Gaige’s mom smiled back and after a “Hello” of her own she ducked back and whispered to her daughter “No one’s going to come looking for her, are they?”

“I don’t think she’s got any bounties on her head.”

“No, no, I mean, well, she seems awfully young, how old is she?”

“I’m twenty-three.” Came the answer from the kitchen, which caused the older woman’s head to whip around.

“How did she…”

“I’ve got good hearing.”

“Stop eavesdropping.” Gaige yelled back.

“Sorry.”

Gaige shook her head and looked at her mom, who was looking at the kitchen in puzzlement. “She’s got good hearing.”

“How ever did you two meet?”

“That’s a story for after supper.” Turning to the kitchen she called out “How long till it’s ready?”

“Wait, am I supposed to be listening now?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, well, I just pulled the meat off the heat, so it should rest for a couple of minutes, other than that I think we should be ready. So call it five minutes. And I need some help finding the plates and stuff.”

Gaige looked back to her mom and with a smile said “Work, work, work. Never ends, does it.”

Just before she turned to walk away, her mom caught her arm and whispered as soft as she could “She does know that we can’t eat certain things, right?”

“Don’t worry, I let her know about your dietary restrictions.”

“Oh, OK then.”

Gaige smiled and walked into the kitchen and was tempted to call out the other girl with a ‘I thought you said that you couldn’t really cook.’, but she had seen the other girl’s efforts to surreptitiously read through cookbooks and other sources to try and learn these recipes when Gaige wasn’t looking so that she could make this meal and impress Gaige’s parents.

She was opening cupboards and getting out the plates when her father walked in and suggested “Why don’t we eat on the back porch. Weather should be good for it, plus the breeze would be nice.”

“Sounds good dear, should we break out the good bottle?”

“Maybe, but I don’t think either of them would be joining us.” Seeing his wife’s questioning look he whispered “I’ll explain later.”

They helped their daughter get the dishes out and watched as Artemis dished up the steaks and roast vegetables before leading their guests outside.

The view from the back porch was serene, the backyard enclosed by trees and shrubs, giving them privacy. Below and off to the side was a small building set off of the well-maintained yard. The table where they found themselves was polished wood and the chairs were comfortable.

Artemis found herself looking around, wondering if she should be here, or if it would be better if she went back inside and let the family eat together.

This was put out of her mind by Gaige leaning over and hissing into her ear “Don’t even think about it, sit your butt down and enjoy our company.”

Once everyone was seated Gaige’s dad raised his glass and offered another toast “To our daughter, back with her family, to the end of…” He caught his wife’s eye, as well as the discomfort in his daughter’s face, and cleared his throat and started over “To family and friends, together again, or for the first time, but may they not be strangers again.”

Everyone raised their glasses, Artemis and Gaige with their root beer and her parents with a glass of wine, and toasted, before digging in.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 2

Eden 5

After the meal, they sat around on the deck for a while, relaxing and letting the meal digest, before they made their way inside and reconvened at the lounge. There Gaige began regaling them with stories of her time on the road, though Deathtrap occasionally stepped in with an alteration to her memory. Thought Gaige jumped all over the place with her tales, none of her audience minded, each one listening with a different outlook.

Her dad beamed with pride as she used her wits and robotics knowledge to thwart her foes. Her mom fretted as her daughter faced dangers she couldn’t imagine. And Artemis was happy to find out parts of the other girls’ life before they had met.

It wasn’t long before Gaige felt that she had to tell her parents about how the two girls had met, as well as what had happened since. She knew there would be more time for telling them everything, all the other adventures, exciting and not, but she knew that they needed to hear about how much the other girl had helped her. How she had been there when Gaige needed her, more than she knew. How she had got her back to them, at great personal sacrifice. So she told them, even as she could see the expression on the other girl’s face twist.

For Artemis, the stories that Gaige was telling about them sounded made up, or at the least, they exaggerated Artemis’s exploits, making her sound heroic when she had been anything but. Every time that she tried to interject, to tell them that it hadn’t been like that, Deathtrap placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She didn’t get it, it was almost like he was telling her that Gaige was right, that she was telling it how it had happened, even though they all knew that it hadn’t been like that. In the end, she was forced to sit there, squirming in her seat, as the nearly fictional exploits were spun.

Eventually Gaige got to them paying off the debt and paused to take a drink as her parents sat in silence.

Artemis finally had enough and broke the silence “Not to be rude, but that’s not how I remember things happening.”

“What? That’s exactly how they happened.”

“No, I seem to remember you doing a lot more and me standing around uselessly while you worked.”

“You didn’t stand around uselessly.”

“Only every time you worked on a door, or a machine, or we had to solve a problem.”

“And I ended up standing around all the times you were doing the important stuff, like crawling through vents and”

“That’s because I made you wait around while I took too long screwing up.”

“Ugggur”

“Sorry.” They said in unison, hanging their heads like chastised children, which elected a chuckle from Gaige’s parents.

“Well, it’s getting late.” Gaige said standing up “We should be getting back to the ship.”

“Already? You just got here. How long are you going to be staying in the area for?”

“Well, probably about a week.” Artemis answered, surprising Gaige.

“We don’t want to be a burden.” Gaige added “I don’t want to put you out, dropping in suddenly and all.”

“Nonsense.” Her dad countered “You should stay here. We left your room just the way you left it.”

“Well, I did do your laundry and put them away.” Her mother added.

“Well, yes that, but other than that, everything’s the same. You should stay here tonight, your friend can take the guest room.”

“But, we really didn’t plan on it. I mean we left our stuff on the ship.”

“You can get it in the morning then, besides, it’s dark out.”

Artemis cocked her head and stared at him “And there’s something in that dark that should worry us?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Fine, we can stay the night.” Gaige said, realizing that her dad would keep on them until they relented.

“Great.” He said happily “You can go back to your ship while we’re at work. I’ll give you the spare key. What else were you thinking of doing while you’re back?”

“I hadn’t really thought about that.” Gaige said, realizing that her plans had never gotten past her getting to the front door.

“Well, think about it and let me know in the morning, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Alright, why don’t you show Artemis the guest room and facilities while I go check out my old room.” Seeing the other girls face, she added softly “I think this is something that I need to do alone.”

Leaving the girl with her parents, Gaige started up the stairs and soon found herself standing in front of a door covered in warning labels and caution tape. Sighing at the juvenileness of it she opened the door and stepped in.

Her parents had been right, with the exception of the clothes no longer being scattered across the floor, the room was like stepping into a time machine.

Nothing was different, from the posters on the walls to the calendar pinned next to them, with the date of the science fair circled in red. The shelves practically bulged with toys and robotics projects. A few stuffed toys were hidden against one wall and on her desk were notebooks containing everything from the plans and ideas for Deathtrap, to her old homework that would never be finished. Her bed looked so small against the wall that she wondered if she would even fit on it anymore.

Her old backpack was sitting on the desk chair, undoubtedly where her father had left it after retrieving it from the school.

Gaige stood in the doorway, looking at all the things from her old life, the things that had defined her and had been so important for so long and felt a sense of profound loneliness sweep over her, until a hand landed on her shoulder.

Turning she found Deathtrap floating behind her. He nodded and patted her shoulder again, which finally got a small smile from her.

“I’m OK.” She said “It’s just, well, it’s like looking into a barely remembered dream. Like I know all this stuff, like each thing I see, I’m like ‘Oh, I remember that’. But it all seems so far away, like I can hardly recognize the girl who owned it.”

He patted her on the shoulder again, letting her take her time in silence, which she was grateful for.

Eventually she took a step into the room and picked the old book-bag off the chair. Clutching it to her chest, she sat down and slowly spun the chair, taking in everything.

After a few minutes she suddenly stood up and walked to the corner, where the stuffed animals were hiding and dug behind them. Coming up with what she wanted she walked out of the room and went back downstairs. Hearing her parents in the kitchen, undoubtedly talking about what their daughter had become, she resisted the urge to eavesdrop and instead went to a door just down a hall and knocked on it.

A moment later it cracked open and a familiar face showed through the crack. Seeing who it was, Artemis opened it the rest of the way.

“How’s it going?” She asked in a low voice.

“Good. Weird. I don’t know.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and then, as if remembering why she was there in the first place, brought out what she had taken from her room.

“I just wanted to show you something.” She said holding up an old Equine toy “Like I said, I had most of them.”

Artemis looked at the other girl in confusion, before taking the toy gently and looking it over.

“I don’t know why I thought of that, but I wanted to show you.”

“Thank you.” Artemis said, carefully handing it back “But what you really wanted to do was to talk, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just so strange, being home I mean. It’s like, nothing’s changed, but it’s, well…”

“Like you don’t know if you belong anymore?”

“Yeah, kinda. I mean, my parents look, well, older. Not old, mind you, but older, and I know that it’s been about eight years now, but I have this mental image of them, like they didn’t change from my memory, and suddenly, they seem old.”

“Still, not as bad as you were afraid it would be, is it?”

“No, but I haven’t told them about quitting my job yet either. Oh, and speaking of being a bum, you really think we should stay here for a week? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wanna see my parents, but do we really want to impose on them for that long?”

“How would I know, it’s not like I’ve ever been over at someone’s house before. I was just thinking that would give you enough time to spend with them and take care of stuff around here.”

“Sorry. You’re right, thanks. But what are you gonna be doing in that time? I mean, I know that you don’t want to be part of all the family talks and stuff. And besides, both of my parents will be going to work during the day, so even I won’t have something to do for a good part of the time.”

“Um, well, I hadn’t really thought about it. For tomorrow at least, we can go back to the ship and collect our stuff.”

“And then? I mean, that’s gonna take an hour, and that’s if we stretch it. What are we gonna do for the rest of the day?”

“I donno, I guess I didn’t think about that, still, all the more reason for us to stay longer.”

Seeing the confusion on Gaige’s face she continued “You’ll only have evenings to talk to your parents, so it won’t be as much time per day.”

“Ah. Right.”

“Oh, and when we get to the ship tomorrow, we should check in with A.I.ngel. It’ll be evening there, but we should let her know that we got here safe and all.”

“Right, well, I should be getting out of here, let you get some sleep. See you tomorrow.”

“Night.”

Gaige walked back upstairs, clutching the Equine to her chest, and after a bit of prep, made for her old bed. Turning back the covers, she could smell the familiar scent of her mother’s preferred detergent on the sheets, belying their protests from earlier. It seemed that the old clothes weren’t the only things that she had washed, and that they had put fresh sheets on her bed, in anticipation of her arrival.

Just as she was about to slip between the sheets, there was a knock on the door. When she called out that it was OK to enter, the door opened and her dad poked his head in.

“What’s up?” She asked him.

“Just making sure that you’re all set. You don’t need anything do you?”

“Only stuff that I’ll need to pick up tomorrow.”

“Alright, sleep well. Oh, and I brought you this.” He said stepping in and holding out a steaming mug. Looking at it, Gaige couldn’t help but to smile. It was filled with hot chocolate.

“Thanks.” Gaige said, taking a sip.

“I wasn’t sure if you outgrew hot cocoa or not, but if you didn’t want it, I would have drunk it.”

“I learned that you’re never too old for hot cocoa.” She said with a melancholy smile.

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“There is. But for now, let’s just say that Artemis had the same idea as you. She served me hot cocoa on my first night on her ship. And it took me a little while to admit that it had been too long since I’d allowed myself to enjoy a mug.

“She seems like a good kid.”

“She is.”

“Well, I should let you get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Night dad.”

He paused in the doorway and looked back at her for a moment, before adding “It’s really good to have you home.” With that he closed the door behind him.

After she finished the mug, and brushed her teeth, she snuggled in her old bed, pulling the sheets up and sighing. After so many years, she was home. Despite that, she found sleep evading her for a good while that night.

The Next Morning

Artemis woke early and after using the bathroom, padded silently out of the guest room. She didn’t have any particular reason for being up so early, she had slept fine, but still had woken early. It wasn’t like she was a morning person, nor was she a distinctly non-morning person, she tended to wake when she did and thought nothing of it. It was also hard to be any kind of person, morning or not, when you were constantly jumping planet to planet, so she had learned to adapt.

She stepped into the hall and stopped, unsure of what she was doing. She didn’t want to get caught wandering around and give some kind of wrong impression to her hosts, but she couldn’t spend the morning cooped up in the guest room, waiting for Gaige to get up either. In the end, she followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen, where she found Gaige’s dad sitting at the table.

“Oh, didn’t take you for a morning person.” He said, spotting her in the doorway “Sit down, have some breakfast. We’ve got cereal, eggs, toast, and probably something else in the fridge.”

“Thanks? I think I’ll wait and have Deathtrap whip me up an omelet after he comes down.”

“He cooks now?”

“He does. Rather well, truth be told. He actually helped with last nights’ meal.”

“Thanks for that. I don’t know if I said that last night, but it was really good. Not trying to capture someone’s heart with your cooking, are you?”

“Wha, no.”

“I’m teasing. Please sit down, even if you aren’t eating anything, keep me company while I finish up. Got a little bit of time before I have to go to work. Still, you’re up early, couldn’t sleep? Bed not comfortable? Something else we can do to make your stay comfortable?”

“No, no, it’s not that. The bed was fine. And I slept alright, a strange house is no different from sleeping in the forest for me. It’s one of the first things you pick up. Being able to sleep wherever, I mean. You learn to catch what sleep you can, wherever you can.”

“Seems useful, I think I’ve got a coworker with that skill.”

As Artemis sat down in the chair, he spotted the fact that even inside, on this peaceful of a planet, she still had her pistol and shield on her. He wanted to say something, but even he knew that people like her couldn’t relax, they never let their guard down, since it was a good way to die in the rest of the galaxy. Still, he worried that his daughter was much the same, unable to ever let her guard down for the rest of her life.

He looked at his guest, over his coffee mug, and sighed. Setting the mug down he looked her straight in the eye and said “We need to talk.”

Artemis froze “About what?”

“A number of things. Things that I don’t want my daughter to overhear, and I don’t think you want her to either.”

Seeing the look on the girls face he relented slightly “Relax, there’s just some things I want to clarify. First off, last night, when you said you wanted to stay a week, Gaige seemed surprised. That seemed odd to me. Mind telling me why you want to stay that long?”

“Well, I uh…I kinda, wanted her to, um, celebrate her, well, her birthday, with her family. I think she’s, well, forgotten about it, honestly. So, I kinda, well, I wanted to surprise her with it, you know?”

He nodded “That’s what I thought. I’ll tell the missus that we were right about that. Second, yesterday you seemed to imply that my daughter had a, well, I guess, a drinking problem.”

“Not really a problem, more of a, well, Idonno.”

“Tell me about it, if you could. I want to be able to help her while she’s here. Also, does she have any other problems like that that I should be aware of?”

“I don’t know if it’s my place to say…”

“Just tell me what you can, even if it’s just enough that I can avoid a repeat of last night.”

Sighing, Artemis told him, in brief, about Gaige’s drinking. In the end, she wound up telling him about nearly the whole Jaka 4 debacle, only realizing near the end that she was probably saying too much, so she ended with “Please don’t tell her I said any of that.”

“I’ll try.” He said, sounding somewhere between relieved to know what had happened and worried about what had happened before the girls had met. Resolving to talk to Deathtrap about that later, he continued “But I don’t think that I want her to know that I’ve been talking behind her back any more than you do.”

Getting a guilty looking nod from the girl, he continued “Gaige doesn’t know about you, does she?”

He got a look of genuine confusion “What do you mean?”

“Well, that you like her.”

“I told her that.”

“Yeah, but she didn’t take it the way you meant, did she?”

He watched as the girl froze up, her eyes wide in either shock or panic. She even seemed to have stopped breathing. After a good few seconds, she managed to squeak out the most unconvincing “Wha…I don’t, I mean, she, me…” She cleared her throat and tried again with a bit more success “It’s not like that, I don’t think of her that way. I mean, we’re just friends.”

“I’m sorry, I must have been mistaken.” He said, clearly not meaning it. Dropping it he switched to a neutral subject while picking his dishes up “Well, that’s enough of that. What do you girls have planned for today?”

The girl was still too stunned to give much of an answer, but still managed to get out “We’re goin to the ship.”

“Well, if you find yourselves with time on your hands, you can have Gaige show you around town, or maybe you two can use her old workshop for something. Tell her that I left it just the way it was.”

“I, uh, will.”

He placed his dishes in the machine and started to walk out when he stopped and looked at her. “Remember what we talked about.” Then almost as an afterthought, he pointed to her belt and said “Hey, I recognize that, one of those Friendly Equine or something right? Gaige has a bunch of them in her room.”

“She showed me.”

“Good for her, I’m glad that some things haven’t changed.”

He nodded to her and stepped out into the hall, before poking his head back and adding “Sorry if I seem a bit harsh on you. I really want to thank you for helping her. And more than that, for being her friend. To tell you the truth, you’re the first person that she’s ever brought home to meet us. So I’m glad that you seem to be alright. Well, tell Gaige I’ll see her tonight and have a good day. Both of you.”

And with that he was gone. A minute later she heard the front door close, leaving her sitting at the table alone and confused.

A Bit More Than An Hour Later

Artemis had still been sitting at the table, staring off into space, when Deathtrap had come down and offered to make her something to eat. She found that she didn’t really have much of an appetite at that moment, so she thanked him, but asked him to wait till Gaige got down before starting.

It was about half an hour later when she heard the stairs groan ever so slightly as Gaige came down. When she entered the kitchen, Artemis almost didn’t recognize her. Her hair was down, she wasn’t wearing any of her jewelry and most striking, she was wearing an old T-shirt. One that might have been OK when she left, but was now a bit tight, causing Artemis to blush and look away.

Noticing the discomfort of her friend and completely misunderstanding it, Gaige tugged at the shirt and said “I swear this was baggy when I left. Mom must have washed it wrong or something. Oh well, it’ll do until we get back to the ship.”

As Deathtrap got to work in the kitchen, Gaige plopped down across from Artemis, in the seat her father had vacated and looked around. “You’re up early. I mean, I get it, strange house and all that.” Then almost as an aside she added “Man is it weird to be back.”

“Odd, your father said almost the same thing. The early part I mean, not the weird part.”

“What? You mean he already left for work? Dang it, I wanted to see him off. Guess I’ll need to set an alarm to do that. So, how was he?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you did talk to him didn’t you.”

Seeing the other girls’ reaction, Gaige’s eyes narrowed and she asked in a low voice “What’d he say to you?”

“Wha…”

“You’re no good at hiding things, he said something to you, didn’t he?”

Artemis sighed “He asked me a couple of questions, that I won’t be repeating.” Catching the look on Gaige’s face she quickly added “Nothing too bad, just stuff that he couldn’t really ask you, I think.”

“Oh, and what couldn’t he ask me? And no, I’m not gonna stop pestering you about this, so fess up.”

“Well…” Artemis quickly racked her brain and decided to be as honest as she could, without letting anything important slip. “He wanted to know about the, um, alcohol thing, and if, well, there was anything else like that, that he should know about.”

“And what’d you tell him?”

“I kinda told him about Jaka.” Artemis said trailing off, looking down like a guilty child.

Gaige sighed “How much of it did you tell him? I mean I kinda skimmed over it last night.”

“All of it.” Came the barely audible reply.

“Well, he knows about it now, but at least that story ends with you saving the day. You did tell him that part, right? Wait, did you mention ‘Him’?”

“I kinda left him out. I just ended with you getting drunk and us having to carry you back.”

Gaige sighed and held her head in her hands “I don’t know whether to be glad or angry at you. I mean, I don’t want him worrying about me out there, well any more then he already would. But I want him to think well of you, and that was one of your moments.”

“I just didn’t want him to know how close you came to, well, you know.”

“Thanks. I get where you’re coming from. I’ll have to decide later.”

“Decide what?”

“I donno, whether to be angry at you or grateful, what to tell him about the rest of it, you know, all that stuff.”

“Oh, OK. Oh right, speaking of your father, he wanted me to relay a couple of things. First, he’ll see you tonight and that he wants you to have a good day.”

“Well duh.”

“Just passing it along.”

“I know, was there anything else?”

“Yes, that’s why I started with ‘First’.”

“Bitch.”

“Anyway, second. He wanted me to tell you that he thought that if we were bored you could show me around town, or maybe we could work on something in your old workshop, which was the final thing. He said to let you know that he left it just as it was.”

“Really? Wow, we should check that out later. But right now, food.” She said as Deathtrap set their plates in front of them.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 3

Eden 5

After they finished their meal, they stepped out into the backyard and went over to the building that Artemis had seen the previous night. Gaige opened the door and stepped in, hand automatically hitting the light switch to the side of the door.

As the lights came on, Artemis saw that this was where Deathtrap had been born. There were alternate arms, the discarded legs that Gaige had chosen to leave off, and other bits and parts that couldn’t be immediately identified. In addition to all of that, there were tools laying around and parts in boxes stacked against one wall.

“Just like I left it.” Gaige whispered looking around.

Picking up a finger laying on one of the benches, she held it up with a soft smile and showed it to Artemis “A rejected part of my first hand.”

The other girl was silent, looking around and taking it all in. Eventually she spoke up and asked “So, any projects that spring to mind? Anything that we could do out here?”

“Hmm, not off the top of my head, but let’s get back inside. Mom should be up soon and I wanna say hi before we head out.”

They headed back inside and after a bit of time sitting around the table in silence, heard the sounds of activity from upstairs and shortly after that, Gaige’s mother came down.

Walking into the kitchen, she stopped, surprised to see her daughter up and waiting for her.

“Well, this is a first.” She said “I don’t recall you ever being up before me, unless someone woke you.”

“Geez mom, thanks for that. You want an omelet? Deathtrap can whip one up in no time.”

“Thanks, that would be…lovely” She said, obviously not used to being waited on by floating death machines. She poured herself a cup of coffee and turned, and looked her daughter up and down before declaring “Gaige! What do you think you’re wearing? It leaves practically nothing to the imagination, what will the boys think?”

“What boys?”

“Any that see you, I mean, even your friend can’t look at you.”

“Leave her out of this. Besides, it’s not like I had any other options. Plus, I thought this was bigger, I always remembered it being baggy when I wore it before.”

“Yes, well, it kind of fell victim to the new dryer.”

“What? So it did shrink. Thank goodness, I was worried there. Why didn’t you tell me that sooner? We could’ve gone to the ship and at least grabbed some clothes last night. Sheesh.”

“Don’t you sheesh me, young lady. Now go and change that at once.”

“Into what?”

“Well, if that’s the way you’re going to be.” She paused and took a breath “I can loan you one of my shirts, just to get you back to your ship.”

“Ugg, fine. Do you wanna get it for me, or should I just go choose one.”

“There should be a nice gray one at the end of my closet, I’d go get it myself, but it seems that my breakfast is done.” She said as Deathtrap carefully set down a plate of eggs in front of her, as if he was handling high explosives, and darted back, not wanting to get pulled into the conversation.

Gaige got up and stormed out, stomping up the stairs as she went.

“And don’t stomp!” Her mom yelled after her before sighing and turning to the other two “I’m sorry you had to see that. I hate to pry, but does she normally dress like that?”

Deathtrap looked to Artemis, hoping that she could do the talking. She sighed and answered for them “No, honestly the first time she’s worn anything like that since I’ve met her. She usually dresses like she was yesterday.”

“Well, that was bad enough. I swear that girl.”

She stabbed her omelet a bit harder then was necessary and took a bite before turning to the robot “This is good. I suppose I should be grateful that she’s at least eating properly, at least some of the time.”

Artemis kept her mouth shut and waited. After a few more bites, Gaige’s mom turned to her and said “Speaking of eating well, I want to say again that last nights’ meal was delicious, we don’t often get such exotic fare around here.”

“Ah well, it was frozen, but, I mean, well…”

Putting down her fork, the other woman turned and faced her “You need to have more confidence. Don’t be so indecisive, choose what you’re going to say, and say it.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just speak clearly.”

“Lay off her mom, she’s just a bit shy.” Gaige said walking back into the room.

If her earlier look had been strange, Gaige’s current look was completely alien. Her hair was still down, and with the addition of the gray dress shirt over her usual shorts and tights, she looked unrecognizable.

“Well I never. I wasn’t doing anything to her, I was just trying to get her to communicate better. And you look better, almost respectable.”

“Gee thanks.”

Her mother didn’t retort, only shot her a look before standing up and setting her plate in the washer. “Well, I must be getting to work.”

She walked to the front door and stopped. After a moment she sighed and turned around, facing her daughter. “I’m sorry if I seem a bit, well, harsh. I’ve been worried about you, and, well, now that you’re here, I find that I don’t know how to really interact with you. In my mind, you’re still the little girl that begged for a new toy, or tool every time we went to the store. I know that you’ve had to grow up fast and in a hard place at that. And I know that you’ve had to make some tough decisions. Do things that I couldn’t dream of, and I don’t know how to, well, relate. I want to. Trust me, I just want my little girl back. But I know that you’re a different person and that I need to accept that. It’s just…”

She was interrupted by Gaige grabbing her in a hug and just holding her. After a few seconds, her mother wrapped her in her arms and they stood there for a bit.

Pulling apart, Gaige’s mom straightened her clothes and cleared her throat “Well, I need to get going, have a good day dear.”

With that she stepped out the door, only to reopen it a second later. She opened the drawer of the table next to it and pulled something out. Tossing it to Gaige she said “Here, make sure to lock up after yourself if you head out.”

Gaige looked down at the key in her hand as the door swung shut. Turning to Artemis, she cocked an eyebrow and asked “What should we do first?”

Hunter’s Moon

The first thing they did after they got to the ship was to change clothes.

Gaige walked out of the bedroom, stretching, and found Artemis getting ready to open up an ECHO channel. Sliding up next to her, she pretended to be offended as she asked “What? You weren’t gonna wait for me?”

“What?” Came the reply she wanted “No, that’s why I was sitting here. I was waiting on you.”

“I was kidding. Sorry. Well, let’s go.”

Artemis turned back and hit send. A few moments later, the other end picked up and the familiar face of a young woman appeared. A.I.ngel’s face bloomed into a bright smile upon seeing who was on the other end and she waved at them.

“Hey, did you make it?”

“Yeah, we got in last night, but by the time we got settled, it would’ve been night where you’re at.”

“Oh, and how was it.”

“Things are good here, how’re you doing.”

“I am having a good time here. Today Timothy taught me how to shoot.”

In the background they could see Timothy smiling proudly, like he had finally gotten one up on them.

“Oh, that’s a pity.” Artemis said shaking her head sadly “When we get there we’re gonna have to try and get you to unlearn all the bad habits that he taught you.”

“Hey!” They heard from the background.

“Oh, what did he do wrong?”

Gaige took over, nudging the other girl in the shoulder and said “She’s joking. Well, mostly. Everybody had their own style. What she’s meaning was that rather than learning Timothy’s style of shooting, you should try and learn your own.”

“Wait, that’s not what I…ow!” Gaige cut off the other girl’s comment with a judicious application of force to her foot. Wincing, Artemis corrected herself “I mean, that’s exactly what I meant.”

“Oh, that is good. I will have to try and work on that.”

“Other than that, how’ve you been holding up?”

“I feel fine, and there is so much to learn here, not to mention all of the things that I find that I can help with. It turns out that a good knowledge of engineering is no substitute for hands-on learning, so I try and do what I can and learn as I go.”

“Good for you.”

“Well, it’s getting late over here.” Timothy said, walking forward “So we should probably cut this short.”

“Oh.” A.I.ngel said sadly “Well, if we must. How long do you think you will be staying there?”

“About a week more. We’ll try and ECHO every couple of days to check in, but don’t hesitate to call us if something comes up, no matter the time.”

“Alright. Well, good night. Or I suppose it would be day there.”

After the girls bid their friend good night and hung up, they sat back and looked around.

“Well” Gaige said after a moment “I suppose we need to figure out what we need to take back with us. And by that, I mean, what do I want to take back to show my parents.”

“Oh, I was gonna suggest some clothes and toiletries and such.”

“I know, that’s why I clarified. But what to take?”

Artemis looked over at Deathtrap, who responded with a shrug, so she turned back to the other girl and watched her ponder. After a moment, Gaige slowly got to her feet and started wandering around, looking at things.

“You know, if we do forget to take something, we can always come back for it.”

“I know, but I just wanna take the best stuff this time.”

“Well, I’m gonna get started on my clothes and stuff, you might want to do the same. Might help you to think of stuff.”

“Fine, you’re probably right, but I’m gonna take a minute out here to mull a bit more.”

Artemis shrugged and headed into the bedroom. Grabbing her large ‘adventuring bag’, she drug it out, surprised by its weight. Opening it up, she found that, other than taking out her clothes, she hadn’t emptied it after their time at the Project Odysseus site. Glancing at the door, she quickly slipped a couple of items out and hid them among her things.

It wasn’t like Gaige didn’t know about them, but it seemed that in all the commotion afterwards, they had both forgot. Still, that would let Artemis surprise her with them later, though she did feel a bit bad about hiding things from her friend.

Almost exactly as she finished, the door opened and Gaige walked in and happily declared “I got it.”

“Got what?” Artemis said, failing to hide her nervousness.

Ignoring the weirdness coming from the other girl Gaige continued “I figured out what we can do over the week. While my parents are at work, I mean. Really, I suppose I should have stated, I’ve got a favor to ask you, but I just kinda got caught up in the moment.”

“Huh?”

Realizing that she hadn’t really said anything yet, Gaige continued “I was looking at the crates and stuff in the back, trying to figure out what to take, when I saw some of the projects on the workbench and I remembered the finger I found in my old workshop and thought, ‘I wonder if she still has any of that stuff from Jaka?’. And I mean, I am always worried that this spike on my hand will catch on something, especially while I’m sleeping, like the sheets or the blankets, or that I might poke you with it, so I had been thinking of changing it. So, what do you think?”

She looked to the other girl, who had confusion written all over her face “About what?”

“Making me a new arm, of course. Well not a new arm, just new plates for this one.”

“Oh, I might be able to, though I don’t think I could replicate the electro-dispersion properties of those plates. I suppose I could re-coat the ones that are on there if you wanted, though I couldn’t do anything about the spike. Or, wait, I could use that part and coat it to match.”

Gaige watched the other girl work through the logistics of the problem, till she came to a conclusion.

“It depends.”

Gaige arched an eyebrow and waited for her to continue.

“I didn’t really check what you had in your workshop, so I can’t make any promises, but I do have the wings that I used to color mine, so if you have the right tools, I could recoat your plates. And with a little work, I think I could make an alternate part for the spike, so that you could switch it out when you wanted. So, the only question that remains is, what do you want it to look like?”

“Hmm, while I do like purple, I don’t think I could pull it off as well as you. Any suggestions?”

“Well, I think I could make one that matches your hair, or the usual red you wear. I could also make one in mostly solid colors, though if you want a pattern on it, I would need to see the equipment that would be available before I made any promises.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 4

Eden 5

They ended up spending the rest of the morning on the ship, Gaige going through things to take to her parents’ place and Artemis organizing what she’d need to modify Gaige’s arm. They decided to eat lunch there, rather than raiding her parents’ pantry, and afterwards, Artemis grabbed a few cuts of meat from the freezer to take back with them and they headed back down to the planet.

They made their way back to the house, not really interested in exploring the town. Artemis was curious about Gaige’s old school, though she didn’t know how to broach that subject. And Gaige, while curious to look around, didn’t want to run into anyone that she might know who still lived in the area, as well as that she had other things she felt she should take care of first.

Following the same path as the day before, they quickly found themselves back at the house, and after locking the door behind them, made the way to the kitchen to drop off the food, and then out to the workshop.

After a bit of looking around, Artemis determined that she could, in fact, re-coat the cyber-limb plates here, though it would take some time. Gaige got to switching out the anti-electric plates for her old ones, while the other girl got started setting things up.

Feeling that she would just be in the way, Gaige left her to do her thing and headed back inside, going up to her room and started going through all of her old stuff, trying to decide what to take back to the ship with her. She quickly found herself in a bit of a predicament, a lot of the stuff weren’t things that she necessarily wanted to take to the ship, but that she didn’t want to get rid of either and would feel bad just storing at her parents place indefinitely.

When her dad got home from work, he found her in the middle of her room, still trying to decide what to do with her stuff.

The Next Evening

That night Gaige continued to tell stories of her adventures and the following day had proceeded much like the previous afternoon. When evening came around and Gaige’s dad showed up, she relocated to the lounge to continue talking with him when the doorbell rang. Her father was busy looking for something so he asked if she could get it.

Opening the door, she was met with a tall, well-built man, about her age. He smiled a bit awkwardly at her as she stood there staring at him.

“Can I help you?” She asked, her hand behind the door resting on her pistol.

“So, you are back.” He replied, “Not that I doubted your father when he told me.”

“And you are?” She said, this time drawing her gun and holding it against the door, wishing that both Deathtrap and Artemis weren’t working out back at the moment.

“Sorry, I completely spaced, seeing you again, it’s, well, a blast from the past, to say the least. You probably don’t remember me, well, at least I hope you don’t, I was a bit of a, uh…I’m Gabe, I was in some of your classes back in school.”

“I remember you” Gaige said, her voice dropping into arctic territory “What do you want, and when did you talk to my dad?”

“Yeah, I suppose you would remember me.” He said, shoulders slumping a bit “I work with your dad, well really for him. He’s my boss. As for the rest, well, I’ve wanted to see you for a while now. See the thing is, I was, well, I was a jerk to you back in school, and I feel bad about that. I’m not going to ask you to forget it or anything stupid like that, but I’ve wanted to apologize for the way I acted. There was no excuse for it. So, I’m sorry.”

“Well, you’ve said your piece, you can go.” She said, starting to close the door.

“Hey, Gabe. Why don’t you come in.” Suddenly came from behind her causing her to snap her head around and fix her father with a hard glare, as if to say ‘NO’.

“Don’t be rude dear.” He said, brushing her look off and stepping up to the door. “Come in, come in.”

“Thank you, sir, but it seems that this may not be a good time.”

“Nonsense, you two should talk.” He pulled Gaige aside and whispered “Just hear him out. He helped me quite a bit with getting some of your charges dropped after all.”

Gaige gave him a hard stare and when he didn’t back down, she gave a flat reply “Fine, but I want Deathtrap and Artemis here for it, and I’m keeping my gun at hand.”

A short while later they found themselves sitting around the kitchen table, Gaige, Artemis and Deathtrap on one side and a very nervous looking Gabe on the other, glancing around like he didn’t know where to look. Gaige’s dad stood off to the side quietly sipping on a cup of coffee in case he was needed as a moderator.

“So, what is it you want?” Gaige asked coldly.

“Like I said, I wanted to apologize for the way I behaved back in school.” Gabe replied, choosing to look at Gaige.

“Great, you did, bye.”

Her dad cleared his throat and looked at her sternly.

“What do you want me to say?” She shot back “Him and his buddies made school a living hell for me back in the day, and now what? I’m supposed to be all, forgive and forget? Well forget that. He can say his piece, and I’ll even listen, but that’s it.”

“That’s all I’m asking” Gabe replied “And that’s what I was trying to say. I didn’t realize how mean we were being. I thought it was all a bit of fun, sure we picked on kids, but I thought it was OK. They were weird, or nerds, or not as cool as us. But as I got a little older, I started to see what that was doing to them. How much it was hurting them. I saw someone I knew, someone close to me nearly die from it.”

“Who?”

“My girlfriend’s younger sister. Well, I guess ex-girlfriend if we’re being totally honest. But that’s beside the point. I was dating her at the time. Anyway, her sister was a cute kid, shy and a bit bookish, but nice, at least when I was over. Except she started to get withdrawn, none of us noticed at first, I was probably the first to realize that something was wrong, only seeing her once a week or so. But it continued to get worse. Each time I was over, it seemed like she was withdrawing further and further, but I didn’t know what was happening with her, and to be honest I was a bit too preoccupied at the time to give it much thought. Until I happened to see her slip in one day.

“I was in the kitchen, I’d come down for some juice or something like that, when the side door opens and Emily snuck in. That’s her name, by the way. Anyway, she slips in and freezes, like she didn’t expect to see me there. And I look at her, all frozen up and I see she’s been crying, but not just that, her books are all a mess, like they had been stomped on. So, I asked her what had happened and she just says ‘Nothing, I fell down.’. But I don’t believe her. Something about how she said it worried me, so the next afternoon, I headed for the school and watched. Sure enough, as she’s leaving, I see a couple of kids start talking to her. Only they’re not really talking. I could see that. The next thing I know, they’ve pulled her backpack off and dumped it on the ground.

“Now, I was about to go over there, when I see a teacher walking out of the school, but this guy, he was the worst of them all. He just walks past. But as he’s doing so, I can hear him yell at Emily to not treat her books so roughly. I mean, he had to have seen what was going on, but he just walked away. Well, I didn’t. I knew that I shouldn’t get involved, but I had to do something. Right about then, the kids walk away, laughing, so I walk into their path and confront them.

“I tell them that I saw what they were doing and asked them why they were harassing her. Well, the first one, who seemed to be the leader, told me to piss off and when I didn’t, he took a swing at me. Well, I drop him, I was a pretty decent boxer back in the day, if you remember. Anyway, the rest look spooked, so I asked them again. This time they seemed to be inclined to answer. The first one tells me it’s cause she’s a freak, the second says it’s cause she’s a nerd, always has her head in a book. But the last one, looks at me and says ‘We didn’t mean anything by it. We were just having some fun, she knows that, it wasn’t like we did anything to her’. And that was the one that got me, cause I don’t know if you remember the time we got sent to the principal’s office for fighting, but when he asked me why I’d been bothering you, that was almost exactly what I told him. That I didn’t mean anything by it and I was just having a bit of fun.

“And that’s when it hit me. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was no different than these jerks. The way we treated you was appalling. What with the name calling and the graffiti. But mostly it was the small things, the harassment, the shoving, and that type of thing that I remember. And I realized that the first thing I needed to do, was to apologize to you. Except it was too late, you were already gone. By a good couple of years actually. But I knew that if you ever came back, I would need to tell you this.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me, and that’s not what I’m here for. I just wanted to let you know that some of us are sorry for what we did, and that we did eventually grow up.”

He fell silent as Gaige mulled what he had said. Eventually her father spoke up.

“Gaige? What do you have to say about that?”

“What do you expect me to say? I mean seriously, what were you expecting to happen next? That I would drop to my knees and forgive him? That I would ask him to marry me since all is forgiven? What? What does everyone expect me to respond with?”

A hand gently touched her arm, causing her to look over to see Artemis looking at her.

“What do you think?” Gaige asked her.

“I think what he did took courage. It’s not easy to admit your faults, especially to the one that you wronged, we both know that.” She held up her hand, stalling Gaige’s heated response “I’m not saying that you should forgive him, or forget what he did. Only that you acknowledge that he has at least realized that he was a jerk. And that he is trying to make it better.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Whenever we have a fight, I at least hope that, even if you can’t forgive me, that you can at least accept my apology.”

“Yeah, but we’re different, you’ve never done anything like what he did to me.”

“I know, that’s why I’m not telling you to forgive him, nor suggesting that you even should. I’m just asking that you recognize what he is trying to do now. That he at least recognizes that he did wrong, even if it is too late. Besides, you’re not that girl anymore, and if he hadn’t been a bully to you, you may not be the girl that you are now, either.”

Gaige looked into the other girl’s eyes for a minute and then sighed. Turning back to Gabe, she said “You’re lucky that she’s standing up for you. And like she said, I’m not the same person I was, so maybe you’re not as bad as you were. I’m not gonna be your friend, but I’ll at least acknowledge what you came here to try and do. That good enough?”

“It was more than I expected.” He replied, seeming like a weight had been lifted off of him. “Well, I should be taking my leave before I do anything to ruin the little bit of progress that I’ve made.”

He stood up and stopped, looking back at Gaige before adding “Oh, but don’t expect any of the others to show up to apologize. I don’t think any of them had any kind of, well, insight on what they had been doing. Heck, after you fled, a good number of us badmouthed you, but then, after you got famous, a number of the guys started bragging about having, um, shall we call it, intimate knowledge of you?” Seeing the rage building across the table he quickly added “No one believed them, of course, but I was just passing that along to let you know the kind of things that went around.”

He nodded to Gaige’s dad and left, with the old man following along to see him out, leaving the two girls alone in the kitchen with Deathtrap.

“I still can’t believe that you were on his side.” Gaige said, miffed “What was it? Just because he’s now kinda hot, you don’t know what kind of jerk he was back in the day.”

“His appearance had nothing to do with it. He is definitely not my type. I just wanted for you to be the bigger person.”

“Again with the weight jokes.”

“That wasn’t a…”

“I know, I was just trying to lighten the mood. Sorry. And I get where you’d be coming from, but I can’t see him without thinking all the things that him and his buddies did back when I was in school.”

“Then why did you say what you did to him?”

“Cause you were right. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would’ve ever built Deathtrap. I mean, he did start out as an anti-bullying robot, and without him, I never would’ve left the planet. Well, at least not like I did. So, none of that would have happened. So, you were right, I am who I am today, because of him. Doesn’t mean I have to like him, but I should at least acknowledge that.”

About then, her dad came back into the room and declared “Well I think that went well.”

To which Gaige fixed him a hard glare and asked “Is there anyone else around here that I should know about?”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 5

Eden 5

The next few days, things around the house improved greatly and Gaige’s mood was bright, even if that was only what she was showing to those around her. The truth was, she was getting bored. She hadn’t been in a fight since they had killed Shiva, and while she didn’t need that kind of violence to get through the day, the complete lack of anything exciting was starting to wear on her. It wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy the peace and quiet of Eden 5, it was that she wanted to get out and move, to do something exciting or different to break things up and she was starting to feel trapped, which was something that she didn’t want to associate with her parents.

She knew that she should say something to Artemis about it, but after everything that she had sacrificed to get her there, she found that she couldn’t say it. Besides, she told herself, it was only two more days, including today, and then the following morning they’d be off, so she should be able to cope. Plus she knew that she’d miss her parents as soon as they left, so she should spend as much time with them as she could.

For her part, Artemis had finished the outer plates for Gaige’s arm, though it had taken her a lot longer than she had anticipated, mostly due to the lack of proper equipment. The workshop was filled with tools, most of surprising quality, but the problem had been that they had been for robotics. Tools for cutting metal and assembling circuits had been plentiful, but tools for super heating the plates, not so much. In the end, she had to assemble a small crucible to get the right finish. But it was now done, and one of her best works, if she was bragging. She had managed to get the plates to go from an almost black through the deep red of Gaige’s favorite shirt, to highlighting in the same coppery red as her hair. And it all shifted based on how the light hit them.

She hadn’t given them to Gaige yet, she had told her that she could have them the following morning, but that she wanted to make sure the coating held before she handed them over. It wasn’t entirely true, she was fairly confident that the coating was at least as good as the one she wore, but she had her reasons for holding onto them, ones that she couldn’t tell Gaige.

The truth was that Artemis was becoming worried. She’d seen how much Gaige was enjoying being around her parents, how at peace she seemed, and was worried that when the time came, she would choose to stay. This didn’t come as a surprise to her, she had wondered about this even before they had come to Eden 5, but seeing her interact with her family just drove it home. That and how lonely Artemis actually was. It seemed that no matter where they went, Gaige knew someone, met a new friend, or something. And Artemis left each planet with the same number of friends that she had arrived with. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand it either, after all, she liked being around Gaige herself, so she could get why she had so many friends, but it didn’t help ease the worry she felt that she would be abandoned.

Which was why the afternoon found her feeling down. Gaige’s father had taken the afternoon off of work, and had the next day off normally. So, he had decided that since they were nearing the end of their stay, he would spend some of that time showing them around town.

It seemed everywhere they went, someone knew Gaige. Some were old classmates who greeted her cordially, others were kids who grew up with storied about her. They ran into a few relatives around town, meetings that neither girl thought were entirely coincidental. Not all the meetings were friendly though, they ran into a few of the less savory characters from her school, who still called her names, as well as four separate run ins with the police force, who didn’t seem happy about losing their precious Crime-fighter bots and wanted to take it out on her. Of course, it was just harassment, since they didn’t have anything to charge them with, and they weren’t about to attack her in public, especially with Deathtrap hovering nearby, but it was still annoying.

Still, as they sat in the shade of a park, eating frozen yogurt and watching people stroll by, Artemis couldn’t help but think that she was about to lose her friend.

For her part, Gaige sat eating her icy snack, looking around at all the people and thought ‘Man, I could never do that every day, I’d go nuts’. She took another bite and sighed inwardly, she wasn’t a huge fan of frozen yogurt, she always found it to be pretentious, regular ice cream was perfectly fine for her, or if she was feeling a bit fancy, frozen custard. But her dad had wanted to treat her and she wasn’t going to disappoint him any more than she already had.

It had been shortly after Gabe’s visit that her dad had said it in passing, he’d asked her if staying this long wasn’t going to interfere with her clients plans. When she looked at him, confused, he had clarified, “Your wedding planning business. Is it alright to spend this much time away from them?”

This had forced her to admit to something that she knew she should have told him the first day, but couldn’t find a way to interject it into the conversation, not that she had tried hard. She knew that he would be disappointed in her when she told him, but the time had come, she could tell, even without the looks coming from the other two. So she had sighed and come clean.

“I’m actually on a bit of a hiatus.” She had said “Truth is, I’m thinking of quitting altogether.”

“Oh?” Was his only response.

Feeling the need to get him to understand she had continued “Yeah, I, well, I wasn’t enjoying it all that much anymore. I mean, while I was working, it was fine. But, I wasn’t looking forward to the next client, the next challenge, the next anything anymore. I guess what I’m saying is that I felt like I was wasting my time. If I couldn’t give my client my all, then I shouldn’t be doing it. I felt like, I wasn’t in the right place anymore, if that makes sense. Someone told me that I should take a sabbatical from it, clear my mind. And what I’ve come to the conclusion of is that I should quit. I know, you’re disappointed in me, quitting without a new job to take its place. But, well, there you have it.”

“Oh, OK.” Was all he said, but she knew that he was disappointed in her. He had graduated and taken a job at the company and had been there ever since. Even in school, he’d had a job. So, he hadn’t been out of work since he was in his teens. So, there was no way he couldn’t be disappointed in his daughter not being able to hold down a job.

He hadn’t brought it up again either, which made her more confident that he was displeased.

So they sat around, eating the frozen treat, Gaige pretending to be happy, her dad genuinely was, and Artemis was clearly feeling like a fifth wheel.

A short while later, after they had finished, as they were walking home, Artemis suddenly stopped and looked down the street to the spaceport.

Noticing that her friend had stopped, Gaige asked “What’s up?”

“I, um, I think I’m gonna, well, go back to the ship. For a little while. I, uh, need to do something.”

Gaige knew something had been bothering the other girl, she was terrible at hiding things, and this answer had been quite evasive sounding, so she decided to press. “What things?”

“Oh, uh, just some stuff that I wanted to get ready. Stuff to bring down for, well, tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Uh…”

“You’re not planning on leaving? Are you?”

“Wha…?” She sighed suddenly and whispered “Would that really be so bad? If I did?”

Gaige suddenly felt the anger surge in her, she wanted to smack her friend, but held back and instead, asked in as calm a voice as she could “Why would you think that?”

“Well, you just seem so happy here, at peace, you know. And I was just thinking that you might want to stay. That maybe you didn’t want to leave. And that would be fine, if it’s your choice.”

“Bull.” This time she didn’t stop herself and hit the other girl on the head. As she stood there, clutching her head, not that it hurt, Gaige had only bopped her lightly, just enough to get her attention, she heard Gaige sigh and continue. “What did I say? When I joined you?”

“Uh, ‘Just a normal day, following a strange girl to her ship’ I think it was.”

“No. When I asked to travel with you. On Feno Phena?”

“Um…”

“How long did I say that I wanted to travel with you?”

“Till the stars fell out of the sky.”

“Exactly. That hasn’t changed. Of course I love spending time here with my parents, but I still want to travel with you. You need to believe that.”

The other girl sighed and looked up, squinting against the bright blue sky and whispered “I want to, but I can’t see any stars anymore.”

Gaige looked up and pointed “There’s one.”

“That’s the sun.”

“It’s still a star.”

There was a brief pause, and then the silence was broken by the soft laugh coming from Artemis. Gaige looked over to see her failing to stifle her laughter. Seeing that she had been spotted, she let it out. Straightening out a few seconds later she looked at Gaige and said “I’m sorry. You’re right, it’s just so easy to forget some things. To get lost wondering why you’d want to come with me, when you have all of this, that I forget that you have your own reasons.”

“Of course I do, and why wouldn’t I want to travel with you? And as for all of this? I love being back here, I really do, but I don’t want to stay here. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” She quickly added, looking at her dad “But I’m a woman of action. I need excitement, to get out there and see the galaxy. If I stayed here, I’d get bored, listless and then I wouldn’t like being here anymore. It’s a place I like to visit, not to live at. Get it?”

“I think so.”

“Good, now are you still thinking about going to the ship?”

“I still need to get some stuff done up there.”

“Should I come with you?”

“NO! I mean, no, I can handle it.”

“Reeeeelly?” Gaige said, more suspicious than ever.

“Gaige honey” Her father said, stepping in “Everyone needs some privacy once in a while. Why don’t you head on home, spend some quality time with your mother? Just a little woman time. I’ll walk your friend to the spaceport.”

“But…”

“Besides, I haven’t gotten a chance to get to talk to her. One on one I mean, and I thought I’d take this chance.”

“But…”

“If you’re worried, Deathtrap can come with.”

“But…”

“Urgurr”

“But…”

They all looked at her and she finally said “Fine. But go easy on her, she’s a bit, well, unused to dealing with people.”

“We’ll be fine.” He said, reassuring her. “I won’t get too personal. Besides, I kind of do want to see this ship I’ve heard so much about.”

In the end, Gaige relented and headed back home, leaving the other three standing there.

Once she was a ways away, her father turned to Artemis and declared “Let’s go. I can talk as we walk.”

She nodded nervously, only to feel a steadying hand on her shoulder. Looking up to Deathtrap, he nodded to her and they headed out.

They walked in silence for a minute before Gaige’s dad spoke. “So, it sounds like you’ll be traveling with my daughter, at least for a while longer. So I wanted to ask you, what do you want?”

“Huh?”

“With Gaige, what do you want for your future?”

“To be her friend.”

“You already have that. I was meaning more of, what do you want?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Is it? I wouldn’t think so. I would think that you’d hope for something more.”

“But that would change things.”

“All things change with time. That’s one of the inescapable truths that you learn as you get older. So it’s better to be in charge of the change, then to be subject to the whims of the universe.”

“But I don’t want things to change.”

“Really? Things could get better.”

“But they would undoubtedly get worse. So it’s better to keep things as they are.”

“But things will change, whether you want them to or not. If you keep traveling together, someday Gaige is going to find someone else, someone she thinks she likes more than you. So she will leave you.”

“Then that’s what’ll happen. And I’ll be grateful for the time I got to spend with her.”

“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that you don’t want anything more. And I can’t believe that you wouldn’t fight for what you want. Don’t you want to be happy?”

“But I am.”

“A tiny fragment of what you could have and you call it happiness?”

“That tiny fragment is more than I deserve. People like me, we bring misfortune, we live lives of pain and suffering. We drink it in, till it bleeds out, tainting those around us. We don’t get happiness, and when we see even a glimmer of light in our bleak existence, we clutch it in our memories, desperate to hold onto that fragment. You see, I am a monster, and monsters don’t get happy endings.”

“Jeez, is that what you really think of yourself?”

“It’s what I am. So you see, Gaige would be better off with someone else.”

“But she’s happy around you.”

“Huh? No, you’re wrong. She’s kinda down around me.”

“That’s cause she hears you say crap like that about yourself. I mean, I don’t really know you that well and I feel down listening to that. Look, Gaige, well, she had a bit of a rough time at school and she didn’t have any friends. Me and her mom, we did our best to try and give her a happy childhood, but there was only so much we could do. You met Gabe, listened to what he did and he was one of the nicer ones. There’s a reason that she hates bullies. So when she sees you bullying yourself, she gets sad. She doesn’t know how to help you, to make you happy.”

“Like I said, this is as happy as I could hope for. More than I could hope for actually.”

“Don’t you get it, she likes you. More than I’ve seen her like anyone, except Deathtrap. He can back me up on this. He’s been with her these last eight years. Tell her.”

“Urgurrug”

“See, even he sees it. The truth is, she hasn’t been very happy for a long time, but around you, it seems that she’s finally found something. So that’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. To see if I could, well, not figure out why, but to see if I could make sure that happiness wasn’t being misplaced.”

“Well I’m sorry you had to find out the truth.”

“What truth? That she wasn’t wrong, that you seem like a good person, except for your incredible habit of cutting yourself down? That if you could just get the confidence, you could be truly happy? Yeah, real sorry I got to see that. But what I can’t figure out is this strange disconnect between the girl in front of me and the one in the stories Gaige tells. I mean, the way she tells it, you’re a badass. You fight with a ferocity that she has a hard time matching. But then I see you standing here like this and I think to myself, where’s that fire? The courage that it must have taken to storm a bandit stronghold to rescue her? The fortitude that it must have taken to face an entire mercenary squad alone, just so that Gaige could face Holloway uninterrupted? Where’s that girl?”

“She never existed. I told you that it didn’t happen that way.”

“Urgur”

“But it didn’t. It wasn’t courage that made me storm the stronghold, it was fear. I was so afraid of losing her before I could make it up to her for my screw up, that I didn’t think about it, I just attacked. And the mercenaries? They wouldn’t have interfered anyway. Holloway would’ve had them sit on the sidelines while he fought.”

“Maybe, but do you think they wouldn’t have tried to kill her to save their boss? Doesn’t it take courage to attack a base, even if you call it fear? The truth is that you wanted to save your friend, that you were more afraid of losing her, then of an entire stronghold of bandits.”

“Why are you so insistent on this anyway? I thought that you were trying to set her up with Gabe. Isn’t that why you told him to come over?”

“I think the only one that wants her to be with Gabe is my wife. Everyone else sees that it was never about that. I was just trying to show Gaige that some people have changed, that they are sorry for what they did and to try and get her to be a bit more at peace with her past. And as for why I’m so insistent, maybe because I want you to see that you aren’t happy.”

“I know that.”

“Don’t interrupt, what I was saying is that I want Gaige to be happy, and until you stop tearing yourself down, I don’t think she’s going to be truly happy around you.”

“So, I should leave her, let her find someone better for her.”

“How can you not hear me when I’m talking? She likes you, so wants you to be happy. Get that through your thick skull.”

“But surely she can do better. You’ve got to agree with at least that.”

“Of course I think she can do better. I’m her dad. I don’t think anyone out there’s good enough for her. It wouldn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done, they wouldn’t be good enough. But, I also know that it’s not my place to choose. That’s one of the hard things I had to come to terms with these last eight years, that I don’t get a say in how she lives her life. But I’m still her father, so I can try.”

“So, are you disappointed?”

“With what?”

“How she turned out.”

“Why would you even ask that?”

“It was something that was bothering her, something that she was reluctant to admit. But she was worried that you would be disappointed in her. That you would see how she had lived her life and not approve.”

“What wouldn’t I approve of specifically?”

“Well, for one, that she doesn’t have a job.”

“I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t worried about that. I mean, I want her to be secure. But she had someone to fall back on, to help her find her way. And I’d rather her quit then suffer through a job that she couldn’t stand.”

“You should tell her that. She’s been worried about it. Hasn’t said anything, but I could see it.”

“Maybe I will, but you’ve got to work on your end as well. You’re the one she’s going to be traveling with after all. And speaking of that, I think it’s time I saw this ship of yours.”

“Uh, do you have to? It’s a mess right now.”

“I’ve seen my teenage daughters’ room, I think I can handle this.”

That Afternoon

Gaige had spent the afternoon having a rather awkward talk with her mom, who seemed to think she needed some ‘feminine advice’. She had finally drug her daughter to the salon and gotten her hair done, though Gaige didn’t notice any difference except that she smelled funny and her mom was out a ridiculous sum of money.

About the time they had got home, her dad arrived alone. He had been impressed by the parts of the ship he had been able to see, it turned out that Artemis had been adamant about him not seeing the hold or the bedroom. Still, he had found the ship to be an acceptable home for his daughter and had come back with a bag of meat that Artemis had insisted on him taking. Gaige groaned, she had told the other girl that she didn’t need to keep giving gifts to her and by extension her family, but it seemed that she still hadn’t gotten through.

Seeing her expression, her dad clarified “Well, we’re going to go to the park tomorrow and have a bit of a welcome back/going away party for you with some of the family who didn’t get a chance to come over and see you, so she thought that she could provide some of the food. She also said something about ‘been in there too long’ and ‘can replenish on Wilina’ or something like that.”

“Where is she? I need to have words with her.”

“She said she had something to finish up on the ship and she’d be down later. Deathtrap stayed with her to help or something. I didn’t get a clear picture of what they were doing. Sorry.”

Gaige sighed as her mom took the meat to the kitchen to get it ready for the following day. Once she was out of earshot, her dad leaned over and quietly continued. “Your friend seems nice enough, but she has some serious issues, doesn’t she?”

“Oh god, now what’d she do?”

“Wasn’t so much what she did, but, well, some of the things she said seemed a bit worrying. As if she has some serious self-image issues.”

“You noticed that as well? I’ve tried talking to her about it, but I don’t think she believed me.”

“I don’t think she did either.”

“Why, what was it this time?”

“Well, I don’t want to say too much, but it seems like she has a deep-seated image problem.”

“She call herself a monster this time?”

“For one. Which makes me wonder, do you know where she’s from?”

“You mean originally?”

“Yes.”

“No. Never got that out of her. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I asked. Why?”

“Well, it was the way she talked about herself, like she thought such thoughts were normal. And I was wondering if it might have something to do with where she was brought up.”

“I never thought of that. I should have, what with all the different cultures that I’ve had to learn bits of over the years. But what could make a person like that?”

“I have no idea. But speaking of which, she also told me I should talk to you about that. You’re wedding planner business I mean.”

“Nosy bitch.” Gaige muttered before continuing “Look, I’m not proud of the fact that I don’t have a job at the moment, but I really don’t think that I can go back.”

“No, no. You misunderstand. And I guess she was right. I wanted to tell you that while I may not be excited about you not having a steady income, I am proud of you. I am proud that you were able to see that you weren’t happy and were able to step away. I mean, did you really think that I would want you to stay in a job that made you miserable? Of course not. I want you to be happy. In that, I think, me and your friend see eye to eye.”

“You really mean that?”

“Of course I do. What? You think I want you to be unhappy?”

“Of course not, but I just thought that, well, you’d be disappointed with me.”

“I could never be disappointed in you. Well, that’s not right. If you did a few things I’d be disappointed, but you haven’t. Am I worried about you? Of course I am. I haven’t stopped being worried for you since you were born, it’s part of the whole fatherhood thing. But am I proud of you? Of course I am, you’ve done so much stuff that I couldn’t even dream of. I look at you and I see nothing to be ashamed of.”

Gaige threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.

Her mom found them like that when she came in to tell them that supper was ready, but left without a word. Food could be reheated. Moments like this would last the rest of their lives.

Later That Evening

In the end, Artemis didn’t get back until late. Gaige and her dad had still been up, talking in the lounge, when they had heard the door open as quietly as it could and the girl and robot sneak in. Gaige immediately headed out there to confront them and found Deathtrap carrying a crate. Not a large one, but one a bit smaller than Artemis’s backpack.

“Where have you two been? And what’s in the box?”

“Hurk…” Artemis choked, eyes darting around. “Uh, we were taking care of stuff on the ship, and, um, nothing, er, important, for, uh, tonight. Your hair looks nice, did you do something new with it?”

Gaige just narrowed her eyes. “Don’t try and change the subject. Now, was any of that a lie?”

“No! Your hair does look nice and the other thing, well, it’s just that, er, I’ll tell you, uh, tomorrow.”

“It’s something for the party we’re throwing for you tomorrow.” Her dad said, covering for the panicking girl. “Don’t worry. I told her that we were getting together with some of our family and friends tomorrow to celebrate Gaige’s return and departure.”

“Really?” Gaige said incredulously “That’s what’s in the box? Something for the party?”

“Uh, yes.” Came the small reply.

Gaige couldn’t sense any real dishonesty in it, but she did feel that something wasn’t being said, but she also knew that she wouldn’t get it out, especially with her dad there, so she let it drop.

Still, she couldn’t help but throw one last try “But still, what took you so long?”

“Urgur”

“Fine, but what’s with all the secrecy. It’s like you’re all up to something.”

“Honey, just let it drop. I swear you’ll understand when you get to the party.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll let it drop.” She said, but as soon as Deathtrap floated into the guest room with the crate she rounded on the other girl and, with her face inches away from hers, hissed “But what was up with telling my dad about the jobless thing?”

“Huh?”

“Oh don’t pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about. You told him that I was worried that he was disappointed in me, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes. I just thought that, well, I wanted, um. I was hoping that you two could patch things up before we left. That’s all. Was it wrong of me?”

“You shouldn’t meddle in family affairs.” Gaige hissed.

“Gaige.” Her father said with a stern warning in his voice.

Gaige shot him a look, before cracking and laughing at the other girl “I’m sorry. That was petty of me. I know I’ve got to stop doing that, but your face. It was priceless. You did alright. It worked out in the end. And, well, I’m grateful.”

“I never would have even thought about it if you hadn’t mentioned it. So I’m grateful as well.” He added. “But Gaige, you shouldn’t do that to your friends. I don’t think she quite knows when you’re joking, so you can’t press too hard.”

“Sorry. I’ve been trying to not do that as much, but I couldn’t help myself.” She said turning back to Artemis and watched the color slowly return to her face. “Really, I’m grateful. And I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Came the thin reply.

“No it’s not.” Gaige said, a bit shortly “You should get mad at me when I do things like this. Damn it, stand up for yourself, would you?”

“I’ll…try.” Came the distant reply and then she headed to the guest room, ducking past Deathtrap as he floated out, before pausing and calling back “Good night.”

When the door closed, Gaige’s shoulders slumped and she muttered to her dad “I really screwed that up, didn’t I?”

“No, but I don’t think you helped her either. You need to remember, she’s got problems of her own and you should be trying to help her if you can.”

“I always thought the best thing I could do for her, would be to treat her like a normal person. Joke around with her and such, like I would’ve with the other Vault Hunters. But I guess that was the wrong thing to do.”

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to say. But something that you’ve got to remember, everyone’s damaged in their own way. You won’t find anyone in the six galaxies that isn’t broken in some way. The secret isn’t to find someone that matches your own damage. But to find someone that supports yours, whom you can support in turn. Someone that holds your broken pieces together and that you do the same for.”

Leaving her with that thought, he patted her shoulder and headed off to bed.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 6

Eden 5

The following morning Artemis had given Gaige her cybernetic plates, which Gaige found to be some of the best work she had seen. She also knew that it wasn’t what had been in the crate from the night before. But she couldn’t find a way to pry into what had been in it without drawing her dad’s ire. So she let it rest. The truth was, she had never been the patient kind. If she got a present, she wanted to tear it open right away, she wasn’t one of those delayed gratification types, thought that didn’t mean she would foolishly rush into things. But it did mean that the crate had been on her mind since she’d gotten up, and the first thing she’d asked that morning had been what was inside. But she had just been told to wait, that she would find out later. The only thing she had figured out, was that Artemis was the opposite of her in that regard. She could set a present aside and not open it for days, though Gaige had to wonder if that didn’t have more to do with her not getting any presents in a long time.

Still, the morning had rolled past and midway through the afternoon they had gathered their things and headed out.

It wasn’t long before they got to the park, which seemed to have been reserved for them, since there were a few people standing outside and a sign that told that there was a private party going on today and apologized for the inconvenience.

Gaige just shook her head. She couldn’t fathom what had possessed her parents to go this far. It wasn’t like she was particularly close with any of her relatives, in fact, she never got along with any of her cousins, finding that she didn’t have anything in common with them and she doubted that had changed. Still, it was a nice gesture, so she didn’t say anything.

They walked down the path, through the trees and soon emerged in a large open space. She could see family members from all over had gathered and didn’t know whether to feel flattered or nauseous. To make things worse, they were all standing together, quietly and staring at her.

Just as the sense of unease reached the breaking point, a banner over them unfurled and they all yelled in unison the same thing that it read.

“Happy Birthday!”

Gaige was stunned. Her mind went blank as she turned to her family.

“Happy birthday sweetheart.” Her dad said.

“Happy birthday dear.” Her mom said.

She just turned and found herself facing a grinning Artemis, who was holding a present that she had pulled out of her pack.

“Happy birthday.” She said, then leaned in and whispered “You forgot, didn’t you?”

Gaige could only nod mutely. Suddenly everything snapped into place. The other girl’s oddness over the week, and actually for a bit before that. The insistence on staying this long. What she had been doing on the ship. It was all for this.

Gaige finally found her voice and whispered back “I thought you said that you weren’t a planner?”

“Oh, I didn’t plan this. Your father did.”

“But you still remembered. Is this why you were so insistent about getting me home so soon?”

“Part of it.”

“I can’t believe you kept this a secret.”

“It wasn’t easy, trust me. But enough of that, go greet your guests, cause they’re staring at us and I’m getting a little uncomfortable.”

Gaige turned back to the crowd of people, some of whom looked a bit uncertain because of her silence.

Clearing her throat she stepped forward and realized that she had no idea what to say. She glanced around her, and got no help, but a few thumbs ups and sighed.

“Thanks for coming.” She finally said “I guess I haven’t seen most of you in a while, so I’m gonna need you to forgive me if I don’t recognize you. That said, let’s start this thing.”

She leaned over to her dad as the crowd gave a whoop and asked “Was that good enough?”

“It was. And if it wasn’t, well, this pile of meat we brought should go a long way.” He answered with a laugh.

Gaige almost immediately found herself swarmed by relatives, all shouting and trying to elbow each other out of the way. She sighed as she found herself getting rocked by the constantly changing wave of faces in front of her. She managed to get herself loose for a second and looked around for help. Her father had drug Artemis over to one of the fire-pits and seemed to be insisting on her helping with the cooking. On the other side she could see her mom getting drug off by other middle-aged women who seemed to want to talk or gossip or something. Her last hope was Deathtrap, but she saw that he was similarly mobbed, this time by some of the men, and a few of the women, who were eying him like they wanted to take him apart and see what made him tick, as well as a number of children who seemed to think he was the coolest thing ever.

In the end, it was Deathtrap that got her out. He seemed to have had enough of the leering techies and grabbing children and flew straight up, escaping them, before swooping in and snagging her out of the crowd.

“Thanks babe, I don’t know how much more of that I could’ve taken.”

“Urgurr” He replied, setting her down near where her father and Artemis were starting to cook. A number of other men were also standing around some of the grills and fires, trading stories, recipes and tall tales. They looked over at her and raised their beers in a salute. She nodded back before scampering over to her dad.

“You’ve gotta help me.” She begged “These people are outta control.”

“Now honey, aren’t you an adventurer? Surely you can handle something like this?” He said with a smirk.

“I could, but I don’t wanna start shooting them.” She retorted as the mob got closer.

“Alright, fine.” He said turning to the crowd and shouting “Hey! She’s not going anywhere for a while, act like adults, would you. Sheesh. Now, one at a time.”

After that, there was a bit of scuffling as everyone tried to get to the front of the line, but that was ended by Deathtrap clapping his hands loudly and pointing to one person at random and getting the line started from there.

From there things went smoother, but after an hour of getting job offers, marriage proposals and other less scrupulous offers, she had to make an announcement declaring that she wasn’t looking for a job, she wasn’t going to invest in anything, she wouldn’t be a spokesperson, model or anything of that nature, she wouldn’t give any technological secrets away, and she wasn’t going to date, marry, or anything with anyone.

After that, the party settled down, though there were still a few who tried anyway. Other than those, most of the people just wanted to talk. A number of the younger ones, who had grown up hearing about the Vault Hunters, wanted to hear stories from her. A few of the younger women, and a few men, wanted to get advice on their weddings. And some of them just wanted to say hi and catch up.

She was polite with those ones, trying to be helpful where she could, and in a short time, supper was called.

This turned out to be a typical party for Eden 5, with the side dishes and pre-cooked food being set on side tables that people could pick from, then they would go to the grill or fire-pit of their choice and get what they could.

Gaige, of course, found herself standing next to Artemis and eating one of the stakes she’d brought. Her dad gave her a look, and when that didn’t work, leaned in and whispered “Don’t be rude, you know that you need to try from all of them.”

“Ug, have any of them learned how to cook since I’ve been away?” She hissed back.

“Doesn’t matter, you need to be a gracious guest of honor.”

“Couldn’t I just claim that I no longer follow those traditions?”

“No, now move.”

“Fine, but just a bite.”

She walked to the nearest one, looking like she was being forced to fight the entire Hyperion army with only a toothbrush.

“Is that really the tradition here?” Artemis asked.

“Yeah, but I’m with her on not liking it.” Seeing the confused expression on her face he continued “At every gathering, there’s always at least one person that insists on cooking who should never come near a kitchen. Either they have no sense of spice, or how done it should be, or the like. And they’re always the most sensitive about criticism. It’s just a huge pain.”

“So why did you force her to go then?”

“Cause if I didn’t, I wouldn’t hear the end of it. Every gathering for the rest of my life, I’d hear how my daughter didn’t try their whatever, how it was an insult, yadda yadda yadda, and I would rather her be polite, then me have to face that.”

“Oh.”

Artemis looked over to where Gaige was trying the food of someone, probably an uncle or such and a well-built man about her age had walked up and was obviously hitting on her. Even at the distance, Artemis could tell that the guy oozed confidence. She couldn’t tell how well he was doing, since Gaige’s back was turned, but from the guy’s smile, she had to wonder.

“Don’t worry.” Gaige’s dad said quietly to her “My daughter knows a fool when she sees one.”

“I should be worried, she hangs out with me.”

Gaige’s dad looked at her, hoping that she was joking, but knowing that she wasn’t, he tried to cheer her up “Exactly, she knows that you’re not a fool.”

Her counter was interrupted by a familiar voice “Man, I can’t stand that guy.”

She turned and saw Gabe walk up, holding a plate. Forgetting her worries, she flattened her expression as he neared.

Noticing this Gaige’s dad whispered “It’s alright, he was invited.”

Ignorant of what was being discussed, Gabe continued “Sorry to interrupt, but I thought I should get some of the best food here before it was gone.”

Catching the look from Artemis he clarified “Well, both Gaige and her dad headed straight to you to get food from. And they probably know the quality of the cooks around here.”

After getting nudged by Gaige’s dad, she dumped a piece of meat on Gabe’s plate without any gentleness.

He took a bite, as if he hadn’t noticed and looked at her “I don’t think you get how this is supposed to work. See this is good, and that never happens at these things. It’s always like everyone’s trying to either make the worst food they can get away with serving to another human, or experimenting with spice a bit too much.”

He took another bite and after swallowing added “I also wanted to come over and thank you. I know that you don’t like me, that was pretty clear, but you still helped convince Gaige to listen to me. And for that, I am grateful. I don’t think she would’ve listened to me if you hadn’t been there.”

“I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know, but I still wanted to thank you.”

“Fine.”

“Well, I should get out of here before Gaige spots me.”

“If you think that, why did you come?”

“For the free food, and to help set the place up.”

“He was a big help.” Gaige’s dad added “We couldn’t exactly be here to set things up and get it organized, so the missus asked him to help.”

“Yeah, I think she’s got the wrong idea about me, no offense.”

“None taken.”

“Wait, what idea?”

“That we should hook up. Me and Gaige that is.”

“And you don’t like her?”

“Not really, you see, I want a girl who’s happy settling down. Who wants to stay put. Not to say one that stays home or anything like that, but one who’s happy being here. And, well, Gaige obviously isn’t. I don’t think she’s ever going to be the kind that wants to stay in the same place for very long. She’s a child of the stars now, as I’ve heard it called. That’s not a bad thing. And it doesn’t mean that she wants to be alone, she just needs someone to travel with her. I think you’re much the same, you don’t want to call anywhere home.”

“My ship is my home.”

“Exactly. You don’t want to stay anywhere, long term I mean, do you?”

“No.”

“She’s the same, and I like it here. And I would never ask someone to give that up for me, just like I wouldn’t want someone to try and make me leave home for them.”

“I think I get it.”

“Good, well, it was good talking to you. Thanks again.” He turned to Gaige’s dad “I’ll see you at work.”

“Bye Gabe.” He said as the young man walked away.

During the entire exchange, Artemis had been keeping an eye on the situation with Gaige. As their conversation had progressed she had seen that the guy kept trying new ways to try and hit on her, until Gaige had walked away. Unfortunately for her, the guy followed her to the next grill and kept going. Just as Artemis was about to leave her cooking post, Deathtrap patted her on the shoulder and went flying over to introduce himself to the guy.

Artemis shook her head and turned back to the fire only to find herself facing a child. They were looking around like they had lost a bet and a short ways off she could see a gathering of most of the children at the party, shooing them on.

She fixed the kid with a look that made them flinch back and glance at the rest of the kids, before swallowing hard and managing to ask “Are you a monster?”

“Yes.” She answered flatly.

“Really?” The kid seemed excited for some reason “Where’re you from?”

“Space.”

“What’cha doin?”

“Cooking.”

“What?”

“Meat.”

“Can I have some?”

Artemis sighed and looked around for help, but found that all the parents were busy, including Gaige’s dad, who had wandered over to another grill and was talking to someone. She looked at the kid, holding out their plate and grabbed the smallest piece off the grill, before dropping it onto the plate.

“Thanks monster lady.” The kid said before dashing back to the others, who looked at them in awe. Seconds later the hoard of kids descended on her, all holding their plates out. Groaning inwardly, she snatched a large chunk of meat off the grill and dropped it onto her own plate. She quickly sliced it into thin strips and dropped those onto the outstretched plates, before trying to shoo the kids away.

It didn’t work. The next thing she knew, the kids were all shouting questions at her, like ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘Why’re you purple?’, but mostly it was a chorus of ‘Tell us a story.’

“No.” She replied flatly.

“Tell us a story!” They repeated, over and over.

“Don’t you kids have parents to go bother?” She growled, which only got the chant to repeat.

“Fine.” She shouted in exasperation “Just one, alright? Then you’re gonna leave me alone.”

“Yay!”

She started quoting the first story that came to mind, which was, The Lonely Siren but was immediately interrupted.

“No, tell us one of your stories.” The first kid yelled.

“What do ya mean, my stories?”

“You’re from space, so tell us about it.”

Artemis stared at the kid, unsure of what they were asking, but eventually, she told the story of her fighting the ‘Keeper of the End’ and the subsequent monster she fought in the volcano.

The kids seemed to love the story and as soon as she was done, demanded another.

“You agreed to one.” She flatly rejected them.

“We never agreed.” One of the kids said, before another added “Yeah, 'sides, wasn’t it one each?”

“No. Now scram.”

Eventually they gave up and went off to bug someone else.

“You seem good with kids. You want some of your own?” A voice to her side asked, dripping with self-confidence. Artemis turned and found herself facing the guy that had been hitting on Gaige a short while ago. Groaning, she turned back to the fire, trying to ignore him.

Not taking the hint he leaned in and added “I might be persuaded to help if you want.”

“Not interested.”

“Aw come on, I could show you a good time, one that even someone like you wouldn’t forget.”

“Not. Interested.”

“Don’t be that way, I’m just tryin to be polite, get to know you a little. But as long as I’m here, could I get a piece of your meat, and if not, could I interest you in a piece of mine?”

Artemis turned slowly to glare at him. “No. And if you want your meat slapped on the grill, find a different one.”

The guy’s buddies laughed and one of them added “Oh, she’s got fire.”

“I’m standing in front of a grill, of course I’ve got fire. Idiot.” She muttered.

“Come on, feed us. It’s traditional at these parties to give food to those who ask.”

“Where I’m from, it’s traditional to not give food to something that you want to go away, lest it decides to stay.”

“Aw, why’re you being so cold to us? Give us a chance and we’ll warm you up.”

“Not interested.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“Cause I mean it.”

“Nah, I know your type, playin hard to get. But you want it, I can tell.”

“I’m not playing anything, I don’t like you.”

“Aw, quit bein mean to me, you just need to open up to me, and I’ll thaw that frozen heart of yours.”

“Look, get it through your thick skull, I’m not interested. You’re not my type.”

“I’m every girl’s type.”

“So go find every girl and bother her.”

He was about to retort when he noticed a presence behind him. Turning he found himself facing the center of Deathtrap’s chest.

“Urgurrur”

“Er, let’s go guys, plenty of other girls here, so why waste time on this frigid bitch.” He said with as much dignity as he could and scuttled off, nearly tripping over himself as he did.

Watching him go, Artemis turned and said “Thanks buddy, he just wasn’t getting it.”

“Urgurr”

She looked down and saw that her fingers were, in fact, whitened as she gripped the handle to her pistol. Forcing her hand to relax, she managed to let go, and she let out a long, shaky breath.

A short time later, Gaige and her dad made their way back, having finished the rest of her circuit in relative peace, ending at the pit that her dad had been at.

“Ugh” She moaned as soon as she got back “Why is everyone in my family such lousy cooks? Mom excluded of course. But seriously, I don’t remember them being this bad”

“They’re not that bad.” Her dad countered.

“Really?”

“Your tastes have just changed while you were away.”

“Is that what it is? Cause whatever Uncle Marlon was cooking up, shouldn’t even be considered food.”

“Oh? So he won this time?”

“Yeah, but don’t tell him that.”

“Won what?” Artemis asked, genuinely confused by the conversation.

“Oh, ever since I was little, I hated doing this, so dad suggested that I hold a contest to see who made the worst food. Unofficially, of course.”

“That seems mean.”

“So is making me eat that food.”

They fell into silence as Gaige massaged her stomach. Artemis shrugged and started eating, while continuing to cook. Eventually the sun started to set and everyone finished milling around while a number of them started clearing the central area.

“Ah crap.” Gaige muttered.

“What?”

“Looks like they’re still doing this.”

Catching the confused look from the other girl, she just shook her head.

“The dance is going to be starting soon.” Her father said, stepping in.

“So? A dance at a birthday isn’t that weird.”

“The dance isn’t the problem” Gaige said with a sigh “It’s the other tradition.”

“You’ll see.” Was all her dad added.

It didn’t take long for the area to get cleared and at the edge of the area, near one of the tables, a device was set up.

As soon as it was set up, there was a line forming. Artemis looked on confused. She glanced over at Gaige, and to her amazement she found the other girl trying to hide behind her. Turning back, she watched as the first person picked up the gun that had been placed on the table and slapped the clip in. He nodded to the person by the device and then pulled the gun up. The other person pressed a button and immediately ten glowing spheres popped out and started flying around in random patterns. The guy with the gun started to try and track them and fired off ten rounds, causing four of the glowing spheres to go dark. Sighing, he put the rifle down and left the line as the next person stepped up.

“What the heck is this all about?” Artemis asked.

“It’s a tradition on Eden 5.” Gaige finally said “Whomever can hit the most of the lights with their ten shots gets the privilege of having the last dance with the birthday girl. Or boy. There’s also an urban legend that if you get that dance, you’ve got a better chance to score with them.”

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

They watched in silence as the next dozen guys took their shots. They even saw Gabe take a turn, and though he did well, getting six, he didn’t displace the current high score of seven.

“What happens in a tie?”

“Usually they go again, though sometimes, the birthday girl will get to choose. It’s mostly determined by what the crowd wants.”

They looked over and groaned, the next shooter was the guy who’d been hitting on Gaige. He smirked to the rest of them and said something that got glares from half of the guys. About half of the remaining ones just got out of line and slunk off, causing the girls to look around in confusion.

“Ah crap.” Came a familiar, if a bit unwelcome voice to their side. Looking over they found Gabe standing there. Despite Gaige’s glare he continued “I didn’t realize that Miles was here. He hasn’t lost one of these in the last three years.”

“Wait, how do you know that?” Artemis asked.

“Well, my aunt remarried Gaige’s second cousin, I think it was, so I’m almost family.”

The smirking guy, Miles, stepped up and fired off his ten shots with confidence, and to everyone’s horror, he hit all ten.

Shouldering the rifle, he turned to the crowd and declared “That’s it, the winner’s been chosen.”

The rest of the line broke apart, disheartened.

Gaige groaned as he started swaggering over, slapping some of his buddies a high five as he did.

Artemis watched, and suddenly strode forward. She walked up to Miles and held her hand out.

“What’s this? You wanna dance with me after seeing my magnificence with the rifle? I mean, who could blame you. You almost missed your chance earlier, but I might just be persuaded to give you another shot.”

“Shut it.” She replied “And hand over the gun.”

“What? You wanna try?”

“There isn’t a rule against it, is there?”

“No, but what kind of girl wants to dance with a chick? Besides, there’s no way you could beat me.”

“I can tie.”

“No. There’s no way a chick could handle a rifle that well, but maybe you could try your hands on my magnum.”

“Give me the gun.” Came the cold reply, even as half the women there started yelling insults at him.

“Fine.” He said, a bit unnerved by the crowd turning on him “But when you embarrass yourself, just remember that I warned you.”

She grabbed the gun from his hand and walked over to the table. Picking up the clip she slapped it in and checked the gun out. It was some older DAHL rifle that she wasn’t familiar with, not that she had much experience with any of the DAHL line. Still, as long as it shot straight, she shouldn’t have any problems.

She nodded to the person at the device and they pressed the button, launching the spheres.

Tracking them she aimed and pulled the trigger, only to have the gun snap off two rounds before she got her finger off it.

Ignoring the groaning coming from the crowd and the derisive laughter coming from the jerk, she checked the side of the rifle and spotted the selector switch sitting on full auto. She mentally kicked herself for not checking it earlier, but it was too late now. Seeing that the other option was burst, she left it where it was and instead focused on the spheres, tracing their paths through the darkening sky.

She shouldered the rifle and taking her time, fired off seven more rounds darkening the rest of the spheres, before ejecting the clip and racking the slide to clear the last round.

Setting them on the table, she turned to the crowd, most of whom had their jaws hanging open.

“What?” she said.

“Looks like we have a winner.” Gaige’s dad declared.

“Hey! I also hit ten.” Miles yelled “Just cause she got lucky and hit two with a shot, doesn’t mean that they count differently.”

“She did that twice, so I doubt it was luck.” One of his friends said unhelpfully.

“If you want to go again, we can.” Artemis said.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Gaige said stepping forward “I believe the birthday girl gets to choose.”

The crowd nodded and Miles smirked at Artemis, knowing that any girl would choose him over a scrawny chick like her.

“Obviously, I choose her.” Gaige said, throwing her arm around Artemis’s shoulder before whispering “Thanks.”

The crowd cheered and shoved the stunned Miles out of the way, quickly clearing the central area as a group of the family got instruments out and started playing. Before long the central area was filled with dancing.

The girls quickly found themselves sitting off to the side, even as a steady stream of other family members came over. Many were just there to congratulate Artemis, it turned out that many of them had been waiting for someone to knock Miles down a peg for a while. It seemed that they weren’t happy with him dancing with their wives or daughters.

Others asked the girls to dance, and while Gaige did accept a few invites, Artemis turned them all down. Gaige tried to get her to go out, but she declined, one dance to embarrass herself would be more than enough.

Still, the rest of the night passed quickly and before they knew it, it was time for the last dance. Everyone started pouring out into the dance area, while Gaige went over to the band and put in her request for a song. Grabbing Artemis’s hand, she led them out to the center of the area, despite the stream of protests coming from the other girl.

“You didn’t dance with anyone else tonight, so deal with it.” Came the reply.

“I don’t know enough dances to use up one of the few I did know before now.”

“That excuse doesn’t even make sense.”

The girls fell silent as the music started and they started dancing. Slowly they made their way around, repeating the same dance that Gaige had first taught her on Talion 6. As they drifted past, a few couples smiled at them, others nodded. Some were caught up in their own world as they went past.

“Looking good honey.” Her dad said as they went past.

“Thanks, I had a good teacher.”

“And where can I find this handsome devil that taught you so well?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll let you know if I see him.”

As they swung off they could hear her mom saying “Don’t pout dear, you set yourself up for that one.”

They moved past a couple of kids awkwardly imitating the adults, as well as a few parents dancing with their kids, when they found themselves moving past Miles and his friends.

“Tch” He sneered “Should’ve known they were dykes, why else would they have passed up on me.”

Gaige shot him a dirty look and tossed his way “You don’t have to be gay to not want to be around someone cursed with your personality.”

She was about to move one, when she realized that Artemis had frozen up.

Before she could say anything to her, Miles retorted “The only things I’m cursed with is the misfortune of being this good looking, that and wasting my time with freaks like you. I mean, I wish you’d just told me from the start, could’ve saved me some effort. Though I should’ve known, I mean, there’s no way a real girl could’ve beat me at shooting.”

Gaige felt the heat rising and wanted to shout back, but she caught the rest of the party out of the corner of her eye, and remembered where she was, so instead she just tossed a “Losers sure do like to cry.” his way and then tried to pull Artemis away, only to have the other girl pull away from her and run off without a word.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 7

Eden 5

Gaige stood, stunned for a few seconds, watching the retreating form of her friend, unaware of the music dying out around her or the growing murmuring from the crowd. A tap on her shoulder broke her out of her daze. Turning she found her father standing behind her.

“Go after her.” He said before turning and fixing Miles with a flat smile that made the younger man take an unconscious step back “We’ll deal with this one.”

Gaige didn’t wait to find out what they were going to do and instead took off running after her friend. It didn’t take her long to catch up, especially since the other girl wasn’t running flat out, so she caught up with her just past the edge of the park.

“Would you stop.” She managed to get out as she grabbed the girls’ arm. “Look, he’s just a jerk, you shouldn’t let him get to you.”

“It’s just…what he said…and, me…”

“Don’t worry, I know that you don’t swing that way, I know you better than that. Someday you’ll find the right guy. Trust me, it’ll work out, so don’t listen to jerks like that.”

She didn’t notice that the other girl seemed to deflate as she talked.

“Yeah.” she said, her voice so small that Gaige almost didn’t hear her “You know me so well. Why don’t you go back to the party? I…think I, well, need to, um…”

“Uh…” Gaige staggered back, realizing that somehow, she’d made things worse, though she couldn’t figure out why. “Did I say something wrong?”

The other girl twitched like she’d been shocked “No, you said nothing wrong. I, uh, don’t think I can face the crowd after that. You go back, I’ll be…fine. I don’t want to ruin your party any more than I already have.”

“You didn’t ruin anything. You were the reason that there was a party in the first place. Jeez, I wish you’d stop being so down on yourself.”

“Sorry.” Then almost so softly that Gaige wondered if she’d heard right “I’m not worth it.”

“What was that?”

“Just go back.” Artemis said in a tired voice “Salvage the rest of your party, if you can. I just, I wanna be alone for a while.”

And with that, she started walking away. Gaige took a step to follow, only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she spun and found Deathtrap floating there.

“Urgu” He said, motioning for her to head back.

“Keep an eye on her, would you? I don’t have any idea what I did wrong, but tell her I’m sorry.”

He nodded and she headed back. Deathtrap watched her go for a second before floating over to the other girl and silently floating alongside her.

Gaige turned and watched them go. She didn’t get it, what had she said wrong? She had thought that she was cheering the other girl up, only it seemed that she had just made things worse. But she didn’t know what had gone wrong. She sighed and turned back, heading down the path. She needed to talk to someone about this, and Deathtrap didn’t seem to be very open about talking about Artemis, so she would have to ask her dad. He seemed to have gotten along alright with her, so maybe he could shed some light on what was going on.

She emerged from the trees to find the crowd milling about, awkwardly and she realized that despite being concerned about her friends well-being, she was still the guest of honor at the party and she had abandoned it.

Sheepishly she looked around and said “Sorry bout that. Turned out that she just wasn’t feeling well, so I sent her home with Deathtrap. Where were we?”

Her dad emerged from the crowd, out of everyone there, he was the only one that could see that everything wasn’t alright. But he could also see that she was trying to power through this, so he took over and said “Presents. You still have to open your gifts.”

A Few Hours Later

Gaige sighed as she sank into the chair. She had spent a good hour opening presents and thanking people for things that she couldn’t figure out why they thought that she would want. From clothes that were so far from her style that she could hardly figure out how they were supposed to be worn, to store credit at places she would never go to, to tools that she already had in triplicate. She marveled at how little they seemed to care about what she would want and instead just seemed to be giving her things that they thought they would like to see her with. Still, she had to be impressed, they had managed to get all of this together in less than a week, which probably explained the large percentage of store credits she had received.

Still there had been a few good ones mixed in. One of her uncles had given her a case of hydrophobic polygrease, a cousin had given her a cool collection of movies and even Gabe had given her a stack of books and an old portable game unit exactly like the ones that him and his friends had damaged back in school. She didn’t open the presents from her parents or Artemis while there, despite wanting to find out what was in them, but she wanted to get home more and find out if the other girl’s mood had cheered up a bit.

She had stood at the entrance and bid everyone goodbye, as well as thanking them for coming and for their gifts, and eventually the crowd had dispersed. She had been hoping that Deathtrap would have come back by that time, but there had been no sign of him.

Sighing, she looked at the mound of presents and groaned. There was no way of carrying that much stuff home with her.

Her dad just patted her on the shoulder and told her to get to work, indicating a number of boxes that had been hidden at the edge of the clearing. She got started packing the stuff away, when her dad stopped her and looked around before whispering to her “Pack the stuff you actually want to keep in the first box, and then I’ll help you just throw the rest in the other boxes.”

They quickly separated the stuff into the boxes and Gaige hefted the one that she was going to keep, while looking at the others. To her surprise, a few of the cousins showed up and grabbed them with a smile and a nod to her and lugged them back to her place.

Trailing along after, she couldn’t help but feel down. Not just because of the events with Artemis, but it was also hitting her that this was her last night with her parents before she was leaving. Then it hit her, what if Artemis had left? What if, after whatever Gaige had done wrong, she didn’t want her to travel with her anymore?

As soon as the thought struck her, a cold certainty gripped her heart. She was suddenly sure that the other girl was already on her ship and prepping to leave orbit.

Just as the panic was starting to take over, her dad nudged her and whispered “Deathtrap’s with her, it’ll be fine.”

She didn’t know if he had read her mind, or completely misinterpreted what she was thinking, but his reassurance settled her down.

As soon as they got home, she was off, searching for her missing friends. But the guest room stood cold and empty, as was her old workshop. Coming in dejectedly, she almost missed the small covered container sitting on the table. Glancing at her parents, who had followed her into the room, concerned looks on their faces, but they just shrugged.

“It’s from your friend.” Her mom said.

Pulling the top off, Gaige found a plate with cupcakes on it. And not just any cupcakes, but triple chocolate and berry Arogolian cupcakes.

Gaige’s shoulders slumped and she muttered “How am I supposed to enjoy these when I don’t know where you are?”

“Call her up.” Her dad said, and when she looked at him, like she wanted to say that she had no idea where the other girl was, he pointed to the ECHO device that was always hanging from her belt.

“Why don’t you go to the lounge?” He added “Bit of privacy.”

She nodded and hurried off. Getting there, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had no idea of what to say, especially when she had no idea what had gone wrong, but she knew that she needed to say something, to at least try and make things right in some way, so she called.

Trying to put on the best face she could she asked “Hey, where are you?”

The response was a soft “Sitting, out watching the stars.”

“Well,” She took a breath and continued, trying to ignore her uncertainty “Look, I know that this is probably going to make things worse, but, I’m sorry for whatever I said, I’m also sorry that I don’t know what it was, all I do know is that I screwed up, and I’m sorry. So please, come home. I wanna enjoy opening my presents while eating those delicious looking cupcakes, but I can’t without you here to enjoy it with me.”

“I thought you’d want to spend the last night here with your parents, alone.”

“No. I wanna spend it with all the people I care about. But if you really feel that way, come home, enjoy a cupcake with me, watch me open my presents and then you can excuse yourself and turn in early, but I’d rather you stay with me.”

“Oh.” Her voice seemed somewhere between resignation and depression “I guess we’ll be there soon.”

Gaige stared at her ECHO as the other girl hung up. “Now what’d I do?” She asked nobody in particular.

“Why? What’s all this about anyway?” Her father suddenly asked, coming in and sitting across from her.

“That’s just it, I have no idea.”

“Why don’t you start by telling me what actually happened after you two left the party.”

“Um, well, I caught up with her, and then I told her that that guy was a jerk, I said that she shouldn’t listen to him and that she shouldn’t worry, that I knew her better than that, and also that the party wasn’t ruined by her, that it was only happening because of her.”

Her dad let out a weary sigh. “I see, anything else?”

“I think that about sums it up. Oh, I also told her not to worry, she’d find a good guy one of these days, so she shouldn’t worry about what a jerk like that said. Or something like that.”

Her dad looked at her, as if exhausted.

“That’s it, I swear, that’s all I remember saying.”

“And how did she react?”

“Well, at first she seemed almost, what would I call that? Panicky? Distressed? I donno, but after I tried to cheer her up, she just seemed to deflate, like her will had been sucked out or something.”

“I can see that.”

“Why? What do you know? And how do you know something about her that I don’t? Wait, she didn’t hit on you while you two were alone, did she?”

“No.”

“Good. I didn’t think she was the kind, but then how do you know what’s wrong with her?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you what you did wrong, or why she reacted like that. You’re right, I do know, or at least I have a good hunch, but it’s not my, for lack of a better phrase, secret to tell.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because it’s something she needs to tell you herself. Or you need to figure out for yourself. But it’s not my place to say.”

“Well then, give me a hint about what I did wrong.”

“All I can say, is that I did warn you that she’s got issues. You seem to have stepped on a bit of a mine. I’ve got to ask, how much do you really know about her?”

“Well, she spilled some really personal things the day we met, but after that? We’ve had a few heart to hearts, she’s revealed some stories about her past and the like. Why?”

“It’s just that, I wonder if you really know her as well as you think you do.”

Gaige looked at him, offended, but then looked away and softly added “It seems like I don’t.”

Her dad was silent as his daughter mulled over what she knew about the other girl. As she did, he heard her muttering “She wanted to get me back here for my birthday, wanted me to enjoy that with my family, but she didn’t tell me about it, what’s that about?”

Suddenly her eyes went wide and then her face seemed to crumple sadly. “Birthday. My birthday. Her birthday. I’m so stupid. How could I forget that? And she put on a brave face too. Stupid, stupid Gaige. Talking to her about presents and parties and all that crap, all while I was forgetting hers.”

“What?” Her dad asked.

“Her birthday.” She replied sadly “She told me when we met that it was about a week before mine. And I completely forgot about it.”

“To be fair, you forgot about your own as well.”

“Yeah, but even after the party started, I never thought about her. Aw damn, she even said it.”

“What?”

“When we first got here. Mom asked how old she was, and she said twenty-three. She was twenty-two when we met. I completely missed that, how could I be so stupid. Some friend I am. I told her. I told her that I was a lousy friend, but she didn’t listen, and then she does all of this for me, while I completely forget about her. Man, I feel like a jerk.”

“I don’t think that’s what she’s upset about.”

“What? How couldn’t she be?”

“I don’t think it ever even occurred to her that her birthday might be celebrated.”

“That makes me feel even worse.”

Before he could say anything to her, they heard the door open. Gaige hopped up and ran for the entryway where she found Deathtrap standing behind a bedraggled looking Artemis.

“What happened?” Gaige nearly shouted.

“We ran into some former Holloway Robotics employees that weren’t too happy with us costing them their jobs.” Artemis said in a tired, flat voice.

“How’d they know you had anything to do with that?”

“They must’ve seen us together at some point, or maybe they recognized Deathtrap here.”

“But…”

“Sorry, I need a shower.” She said shuffling off.

As soon as the door closed, Deathtrap led them into the lounge and took his time telling them what happened.

Right after they got Gaige’s ECHO, some people threw bags of garbage at them, shouting something about them now being out of work thanks to them, and something about how Holloway should’ve killed them when he had the chance among other things, and how Artemis had just stood there taking it.

“But he was the criminal.” Gaige fumed.

“I know dear, but to them, he was their boss. They don’t care that he was wrong, only that they lost their jobs because of it. So rather than blaming him, it’s easier to blame you, after all, if you hadn’t exposed him, they’d still have a job. And more than that, they’d probably be getting rich off his stolen tech.”

“But he was still wrong. And she wasn’t even part of it.”

“Maybe they mistook her for you. Or maybe they didn’t care, they just wanted to vent and she was there with Deathtrap, talking to you.”

“So this really is my fault.”

“Urur”

“But if I hadn’t called.”

“Or if you hadn’t won against him.” came the soft voice from the doorway. Looking over Gaige was surprised to see Artemis standing there, hair still dripping. “Or if we hadn’t released that ECHO, or, or, or. We could go on forever like that, but the truth is, we weren’t in the wrong. And this wasn’t your fault any more than it was mine, or Deathtrap’s. In fact, it was more my fault then yours, I should’ve heard them coming, and I should’ve avoided the trash, but most of all, I should’ve known that people like me, we bring this kind of thing on ourselves, especially after tonight.”

“Stop that.” Gaige said forcefully “You deserve happiness, that’s what you deserve, not to be treated this way. So stop saying that you do.”

“But it’s true.”

Gaige didn’t respond, instead she stormed over to the other girl and slapped her, then pulled her into a hug. Holding her tight she whispered in her ear “It’s not true. You deserve to be happy. I know that I screwed up earlier, and I know that it’s bad that I don’t know what I did. But I’m sorry. Whatever it was, I’m sorry. And if you can’t, or won’t tell me what I did, know that I never meant to hurt you. And I’m also sorry that I missed your birthday.”

“My what?”

“Your birthday. It was, what, right before we got here?”

“Uh, first day we got here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve done something”

“I’ve…never celebrated my birthday.”

“Next year, we’re going to. So, look forward to it.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hold you to it.”

Gaige tightened her grip till she heard Artemis yelp “Stop that.” She whispered “Stop acting like I should hate you, or fear you. Stop acting like I’m gonna throw you away. Like I’m gonna leave you behind, and start accepting that I’m gonna stick around. So, it’s a promise, next year, we celebrate our birthdays together.”

“Sure.” She said listlessly.

Gaige tightened her hold again till the other girl squeaked out “It’s a promise, I promise, lemme breath.”

“Finally got it? Good. Now, let’s go eat cupcakes and let me show you what kind of crap I got from my relatives. You might not feel so bad about not getting anything then.”

“I don’t feel bad about that now.” She muttered, rubbing her ribs, but following Gaige into the lounge.

Gaige immediately went to one of the boxes that had been brought in and grabbed one of the dresses that had been tossed into it.

“Look at this.” She declared, holding it up.

“I think you’d look good in it.” Artemis said, cocking her head “I mean, it’s not your color, but I think you wouldn’t look bad in something like that.”

“Seriously?” Gaige said in exasperation “What color do you think this would look good in?”

“Uh, maybe black, with some red or something. Why don’t you try it on?”

“I’ll try it on, if you try this on.” Gaige declared, pulling out an outfit that one of her more appropriateness impaired aunts had given her. An outfit that was so small and transparent, that Artemis went red so fast at the sight of it, Gaige worried that she might faint.

“I’m sorry. I won’t say any more.” She squeaked out.

Gaige took sympathy on the other girl and shoved the lack of clothes back into the box and found her parents standing in the doorway. As everyone got sat down, her mother brought in the container of cupcakes and set them next to Gaige, who promptly pulled one out, and now that everyone was there, took a bite.

“Mmm, so good.” She said through a mouthful “Seriously, these are almost as good as the professionally made ones.”

It took her a second, lost in cupcake bliss, to see that all Artemis had heard, was ‘almost’.

“Hey, for a non-professional’s first try, these are amazing.”

“Those were actually my sixth try.”

“First time making them you…” She took a breath and continued “Look, I know how hard these are to make. You don’t think that I looked up the recipe after I had that cake? But I couldn’t get past all the precision temperature changes, and the bake it for this long, then do that’s to ever even try to make one, so from my perspective, the fact that you made these yourself, is astounding.”

“Deathtrap helped, he did most of the temperature changing and stuff.”

“Quit being so down on yourself. You did good, so have a cupcake.” She held the tray out.

“There for you.”

“And I can’t enjoy them if I’m eating them alone, so everyone gets one. But I’m keeping the rest.”

She handed one to each of her parents, before sitting back and pulling out a second for herself. They all took a moment to try the dessert, marveling at the changing texture of it, the way it smoothly transitioned from the rich, thick, brownie-like bottom, to the light and fluffy top. The way the berry puree was mixed with a rich chocolate sauce in the center so that it seemed to explode with flavor when they bit in. To the mixed bits of chocolate and berries that were sprinkled throughout the cupcake. And finally, the rich, but airy frosting, piled high on top.

Licking her fingers, Gaige set the rest of the plate down, deciding to save them for later so that she wouldn’t be eating them in front of everyone else, forcing them to sit around while she did so.

“Well, I think that counted as a gift from Artemis, so I should probably open one of yours next.” She declared, turning to her parents.

“We should all wash our hands first.” Her mother stated before turning to Artemis “Those were delicious, thank you dear.”

“Bit rich for my taste.” Gaige’s dad added “But very tasty.”

Gaige looked over at the other girl, who was blushing lightly under the praise. On her plate was still half of the cupcake. Seeing Gaige looking at it she softly said “It’s very good, but a bit much for me.”

“You did say that you weren’t much of one for fancy desserts. Do you wanna save it for later?”

The girl shrugged and said “I don’t want it to go to waste. But if you wanted it, you could, I donno, cut off part of it.”

Gaige shrugged and asked “You sure?”

Getting a nod, she grabbed it and tossed the half a cupcake in her mouth and walked out to wash her hands, chewing away at the little piece of heaven.

Moments later everyone had reconvened with freshly cleaned hands and Gaige’s dad handed her a largish package.

“Sorry if it’s not to your liking, we kinda had to rush it.”

Gaige tore open the package and pulled out a new coat. Made of super soft leather in red and black, it even had her trademark skull on the back, making it look a bit like the coat she had been wearing, minus the spikes. She immediately stood up and tried it on. She found it a bit baggy, especially the sleeves, but knew that it would be perfect the next time she ended up on a colder planet. In fact, she wished that she’d had something like it on Xylourgos.

She turned to the others and asked “How’s it look?”

Everyone nodded and gave their approval, with the minor exception of Gaige’s mom, who made comments about how it hung off her, and that they should’ve gotten it made smaller.

Ignoring her, Gaige sat back down and turned to Artemis “Other than the cupcakes, you had something else for me?”

Gaige’s dad pulled a large, long package out and handed it to her.

“Is this a gun?” Gaige asked, hefting it, before shrugging and tearing it open. Inside she found a familiar sight. “You already gave this to me, didn’t you?”

“No. You merely found it and I told you that I’d be giving it to you.”

“What is it?” Gaige’s dad finally asked.

Gaige pulled the object from the packaging and held it up, revealing the DAHL surveyors’ tool that she had previously seen in Artemis’s backpack on the Project Odysseus station.

Gaige’s dad stood up and swiftly made his way over “Is that a…first generation…it’s in…Where did you find that?” And then softly “How am I supposed to compete with something like that.”

“It’s not a competition.” Artemis said, surprising him that she’d heard.

“Of course it’s a competition.” He whispered back.

“Then you win, she loves her father more than anything I could give her.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Gaige said, turning to them.

“I was just asking her if she was trying to one up me.”

“Dad, it’s not a competition.”

“Well, at least it didn’t come with the book.” He said, turning back to find his daughter flipping through the manual “Oh come on.”

“Dear, give her a minute to enjoy it, then you can give her the good news.”

“What good news?” Gaige said looking up.

“Well, your father talked to the government fine collection board and after some protesting and well, you tell her.” She said, turning to her husband.

“What your mother was trying to say was, it took a bit, but I was able to get your fine reduced, so they’re giving you a bit of a refund.”

“Wow! You’re the best dad ever.” She set the surveyors tool aside and jumped up, throwing her arms around him.

He just stood there enjoying it for a moment before she stepped back and asked “How much?”

“What?”

“How much of a refund did you get?”

“Oh, about a fifth of what you paid. I was trying to get them to give back more, but that was the best I could do on short notice.”

“You hear that?” Gaige said, turning to Artemis “You’re getting some of your money back.”

Hearing that, her dad looked a bit crestfallen, but said nothing.

Artemis on the other hand spoke up “No.”

“What do ya mean, no? I told you I was gonna pay you back, and now I can. Well at least part of it.”

“I know you’ll pay me back, some way or another, it’s just that…” She looked around before getting up and leaning in and whispering into Gaige’s ear “You spent all of your money to get back here, right? You should keep at least part of it and save it. In case of emergencies.”

“Well, you spent most of your savings too. So, you’re taking most of it. And I’m not gonna listen to any arguments.”

“But you will keep at least a fourth of it for yourself, right?”

“Fine.”

Gaige sat back down, not looking as happy as she had a moment before, but still, she flashed her dad a huge smile.

“Now then, it seems that you have three presents left.” Her mom said, trying to lighten the mood. “One from Artemis, one more from us and one from Deathtrap.”

“Babe! You didn’t have to get me anything.” She said turning to the floating robot.

“Urrgur”

Gaige put her hands on her chest. “Aw. Thanks.”

Her mom was about to handed her the present when Artemis butted in “Wait, you should save his for the last. Especially since mine isn’t really a gift, it’s more of, well, giving you back something you forgot about.”

Gaige eyed her, but seeing the seriousness in her face, relented and her mom handed her the other package. Taking the heavy box, Gaige puzzled over what could be inside, what had she lent the other girl? She couldn’t think of anything so she carefully opened it and with a groan, realized what was inside. She mentally kicked herself, she had been so excited when she’d found it, how had she forgotten it?

“What is it?” Her dad asked.

She pulled the heavy book out of the box and showed him.

“The Engineer’s Guide to…Wait, is that an actual copy of The Engineer’s Guide to Guns, Electronics and Cybernetics?!”

“Yeah, we found it in the same place as the surveyors tool. Well, not the same place, but the same overall location, but different rooms. Man, I can’t believe that I forgot about this, that’s embarrassing. But why give it to me as a gift? You could’ve just left it on the ship and reminded me when we got back.”

“But I thought you’d like to look through it with your dad.”

“Plus, if I opened it at the party, it would totally shame everyone else.” Gaige said with a wicked smile.

“Maybe.”

“I don’t even know if this is legal to own.” Her dad whispered looking at it “It might actually be on a banned list or something.”

“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t open it at the party.” Gaige said “We’ll just keep it on the ship from now on.”

“You probably should. Now, after all that, I don’t know if the last gift will be anticlimactic or not, but open it.”

“It won’t be.” Artemis said confidently as she tore open the last package from her parents and pulled out a bunch of the movies including some of them that they’d been watching together over the last week.

“Aw Dad, they’re great.” She said with a goofy grin.

“As much as I’d love to watch them all with you, I figure this would give you two something to do while you go around looking for trouble.”

“We don’t actively look for it, we just kinda find it.” Gaige said with a sigh.

“Actually, I do think that sometimes we kinda do go out looking.” Artemis said.

Gaige shot her a dirty look and hissed softly “Don’t tell my parents that.”

“Sorry.”

Gaige’s dad looked like he had been trying to overhear what they’d been whispering, but quickly straightened and picked up the final present and held it out.

Gaige shot him a quizzical look and took the last package. It was lighter than the others by a fair margin. Puzzled, she carefully opened it and looked in.

“Babe!” She said, looking at her robo-buddy with an almost sappy expression.

Noticing the looks from her parents, she pulled a piece of jewelry out of the box. It appeared to be some kind of necklace or choker carefully made out of robotic parts.

“You made this, for me?”

“Urru”

“Awww, and it’s from the pieces left over from your injury on Feno Phena, isn’t it?”

“Urru”

“I love it.” She threw her arms around the robot and hugged him.

She eventually let him go and turned to Artemis “Help me put it on.”

Artemis looked around like a small animal in the face of a predator, looking everywhere for help. When she didn’t get it, she reluctantly stepped behind the other girl and helped secure the necklace.

As she did, Gaige whispered to her “You helped him make this, didn’t you? I can see the hallmarks of your work all over it.”

“But it was all his idea, and his directions that I followed.”

“Still, thanks for helping him.” She turned around “How do I look?”

“Amazing.”

Gaige grinned and turned to her family, who nodded in agreement with the assessment.

With the presents opened, they all settled in for their last night of the visit and stayed up way too late talking.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 8

Eden 5

The last morning, everyone got up late. Gaige’s parents had taken the morning off, both in anticipation of a late night and wanting to see her off. Her mom had been up early preparing an elaborate breakfast for them, which consisted of stacks of light, fluffy, sweet, bread-like layers, drenched in various syrups and fruits. It turned out that she rarely made them, due to the challenges to making them come out right, but on this day, she had made the extra effort. Not that it hurt to have Deathtrap around to help.

After enjoying the leisurely meal, Gaige reluctantly started to get her stuff together. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to get back to space, in fact she had been going a bit stir crazy from having to behave herself in front of her parents. Still, she wanted to stay with them for longer. But the fact that she could come back whenever she wanted helped ease the sadness.

It wasn’t long before she finished stacking boxes in the entryway. Stepping back, she was amazed at how much stuff she was taking back with her, and how much was left. Turning, she found Artemis looking at the stack.

“I don’t know where we’re gonna put it all, but this is what I was thinking of taking back with me.” She explained.

“I was afraid of that.” The other girl replied with a faux grim expression. She turned and pointed to another box that was sitting off to the side. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that? That’s the stuff that I was gonna try and return before we left. Birthday presents and stuff.”

“Jeez.” Artemis said looking at the overstuffed mound “Maybe we should push back departure for a day.”

“Nah, as tempting as that sounds, we’ve gotta leave sooner or later, and we shouldn’t put any more burden on my parents then we already have. Besides, I can get this knocked out in an hour or two, unless my mom drags me into a changing room. Still, the hard ones are the credits.” She said lamenting the pile of cards stacked in another box that was currently sitting in the lounge.

“Credits?”

“Basically, money that can only be spent at the one store, or chain of stores.”

“That sounds…less than useful.”

“Yeah, but they tend to be good gifts for someone you haven’t seen in like, eight years, so I can’t really fault them for that. It’s just that I wish they’d got them for somewhere that someone would actually go. Unless of course, you wanna go with me on a shopping spree?”

“I doubt I’d find anything that suits me.”

“I donno, I bet we could find something interesting at ‘Siren’s Secret’.”

“Siren’s what?”

“Ah, it’s an upscale lingerie store.” She said watching the other girl’s face as it tried to decide whether to turn red or white, unable to resist the final tease “It could be fun. It’s supposed to make you feel…I’m sorry, I’ll stop. Point is, that’s the most useful one in the bunch, it’s the only one that’s for a store chain that extends off of Eden 5, well, there are a few Digi-structed food places that I also got cards for, but that’s beside the point. Most of these places are only on Eden 5, and sell stuff I’d never wear.”

“I see, ahem, well, if you want to get started on your returns, I can try and help Deathtrap get the rest of this stuff stored on the ship.”

“I’d rather join you, but your plan’s probably the best, so let’s get this over with.”

About Three Hours Later

Gaige was sitting in one of the chairs in the lounge, eyes closed. The returns had been worse than she’d imagined. It wasn’t just that, like she’d feared, her mother wanted her to go into every changing room to try on some outfit or another, but at two of the stores they’d run into the relative that had given the gift in the first place, leading to some quickly spun half-truths, mostly about the color, or the fit.

This, of course, led to them having to try on other versions of the same outfit and made Gaige say things like ‘It just isn’t sitting right’ or ‘It doesn’t come in a color combination that I like’. In one case she’d snapped and flat out said ‘I hate the feel of it’, to which the Aunt that had given it in the first place stormed out in a huff.

The worst part though, had been when she returned the outfit she’d shown Artemis the night before. While she was returning it, she noticed the same outfit in other colors, including a black and red one. Remembering what Artemis had said the night before, she felt compelled to try it on, and to her horror, found that it didn’t look all that bad on her. In fact, she felt that Artemis might have been right, it did look good on her, though it wasn’t something that she would wear often, if ever. Still, she had decided to exchange the one she had for it. She tried to convince herself that it was only because she had a little money from the refund her dad had got her, as well as that it was something to wear in a different, more formal setting then what she was normally dressed for, but she knew, deep down that it was cause she wanted to show the other girl that she’d been right.

She also ended up keeping the other outfit she’d shown Artemis the night before, as well as the ‘Siren’s Secret’ card, in no small part because she couldn’t face trying to return them with her mother along.

Which is what led her to be sitting, exhausted in the lounge, a few bags piled next to her when her dad walked in holding a couple of cups of coffee.

“Rough day?” He asked, handing her a cup.

“I’m beginning to think that these stores are worse than any bandit camp, at least there I can just shoot them and get it over with.”

She took a sip and winced, it was straight black coffee.

Noticing that, her dad apologized “Sorry, you don’t take it black?”

“I used to, but then I realized that I didn’t have to torture myself to be an adult. Well, more of had it shouted into my ear until I listened, but either way, I prefer cream and sugar.”

“Ah, I’ll go grab some.”

“Nah, I suffered through it for years, so one cup won’t do me in. Besides, I’d rather spend more time with you.”

He got a slightly goofy look on his face for a second before clearing his throat and looking at her, a serious expression on his face.

“Yes well, I’m glad we can talk one last time before you go, just the two of us.”

“Uh oh. Is this gonna be one of ‘Those’ conversations?”

“What kind of conversation?”

“Dad, you know that I’m twenty-six now, right?”

Her dad looked at her, confusion clear on his face. Realizing that she may have misunderstood something, Gaige quickly added “What was it you wanted to talk about? Let’s just start there.”

“Well, it’s about your future.”

“I think I’d rather have the other conversation.” Gaige muttered too softly for him to hear.

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking, maybe I should’ve asked for that cream and sugar. So, what about my future? I already told you that I’m not sure what I wanna do next, career wise, so what else was there?”

“No, no, not that, though I am a bit concerned about it, I know that you’ll find something. What I wanted to ask you about was your friend.”

“Artemis? What about her?”

“Well, I was wondering what you were going to do next?”

“Next? We were gonna go to Wilina 2. She’s apparently got a place there and we were gonna drop some of our stuff off there, after that…well, we’re gonna contact A.I.ngel again and see what she wants to do, but other than that, we hadn’t really talked about it.”

“Again, not what I was meaning. What I was wondering about, was what you were going to do about the, well let’s call it tension, between you two at the moment?”

“I donno. I mean, if you’d just tell me what I did wrong, that’d solve a lot of the problems.”

“Still not my place.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that. But that’s the thing, until I know what I did wrong, I can’t really do anything about it. So, until either someone tells me or I figure it out, I guess I’m gonna have to keep treating her like I have.”

“And do you think that’s a good idea?”

“What do ya mean?”

“Well, treating her like you have hasn’t worked out has it?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to treat her differently. I mean, what if the way I start treating her is the exact opposite of what I should do and I just make things worse? Or if I act like anything I say is gonna set her off, I know that’s just gonna make her more depressed, and she’s gonna think that I’m trying to think of a way to ditch her or something. She’s got a serious problem with that.”

“She does seem to believe that, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, I mean, on that last thing we did, I said I wanted to talk to her, I mean, I just wanted to tell her to stand up for herself and such, but she thought that I was abandoning her, and she was ready to die so I could have her ship or something. Makes it really hard to talk to her.”

“That would. But if I can give you one piece of fatherly advice about this, it would be to remember that without maintenance all things fall apart. You of all people should know that. And not just guns and robots. Friendships, family, marriages, they all take regular maintenance to keep functioning. Do you think that me and your mom always get along? That we haven’t had so hard times, especially after you had to flee? Of course we did, and we got through it. How? By working on it. It wasn’t easy, but we did it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault. We had other fights and rough patches long before that, and we’ve had our share since as well. The point is, it’s not easy, and you can’t always fix things. Think back to your first robot, there came a point where too much had gone wrong and he couldn’t be fixed anymore. But then look at Deathtrap. He’s still going strong after all these years. Why? Because you make sure to keep him in good repair. Friendships are the same. They easily break down. And many get broken past the point of fixing them. But the ones that last, the ones that are important enough to really try and keep, they have to be kept in good repair as well. So don’t take anything for granted, always try and fix your problems instead of ignoring them, otherwise, one day, you might find that things have gone past the point you can. And then where will you be?”

Gaige sat in silence, thinking over what her father had said, before saying “Well, the best way to move forward would be to find out what’s bothering her. And the best way to find that out is for you to tell me.”

“Nope.”

“Force her to tell me?”

“That would make things worse.”

“Find someone else that knows, and get them to tell me?”

“No, you need to figure it out on your own. Just think about it and what you’ve talked with her about.”

“I’ve tried, but I can’t think of anything.”

“I think the problem is, you’ve made some assumptions about her, and you know what they say about assumptions?”

“They make an ass out of you and leave me out of it?”

“No, they…” He looked at the smirk on her face and let out a sigh. “Dad-isms.” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, and I’m grateful that you don’t make too many of them. But I gotta ask, what assumptions have I made?”

“I already gave you as much of a hint as I can. But rather than focusing on this, I’d rather have a good old father daughter moment before you go.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“Well, I know I shouldn’t, but how about having one last drink with your old man.”

Gaige looked at the bottles of alcohol and licked her lips, but sighed and said “Sure, but I’ll have a root beer.”

A quarter of an hour later, Artemis and Deathtrap returned to find them deep into a conversation about the best manufacturer of cybernetics versus making your own.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 9

Wilina 2

After a long lunch, the girls finally said goodbye to Gaige’s parents and put Eden 5 behind them.

“I wonder if we should swing by Eden 6?” Gaige said, trying to distract herself from the fact that she was about to leave orbit around her home for the second time “We could say hi to Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright.”

“We probably shouldn’t drop in unannounced. I mean they have a business to run and hunts to go on and probably aren’t even at home at the moment.”

“True, it just seems like a bit of a waste to be this close and not say hi.”

Still, they had decided not to intrude and instead charted a course for Wilina 2.

On the way, they checked in with A.I.ngel to let her know how the visit had been, which she listened to with rapt attention. They left out a bit of it, especially the way the party had gone, but she didn’t seem to notice. In the end, she wished them both happy birthday and lamented that she couldn’t be there. They agreed to ECHO her again after they had unloaded the ship, to find out what she was wanting to do then and after saying goodbye, hung up.

The rest of the trip had been a touch awkward, with Gaige trying to figure out what she’d done wrong without pressuring Artemis or letting her know too much of what she was doing.

In the end, she found herself no further along than when she’d started, so she was feeling a bit down herself when they finally found themselves entering orbit.

Looking out the cockpit she found the planet to be covered in vast swaths of green, with blue dots all over. The caps were white, as were patches of one of the hemispheres, luckily not the one they were going to.

When they got to the surface, Gaige found that the planet was covered in forests. Not the massive swamps and trees of Eden 6, nor the dense jungles of Jaka 4, but tall hardwood trees, each about as big around as herself towered out into the distance. Calls that sounded like they came from birds echoed through them and the chittering of insects created a wall of background noise.

They hadn’t arrived in town, since the Montamore estate, now known as the old Montamore estate, was situated well away from it from it. But they soon found the path that led up to it and started hiking.

Gaige marveled at the area, the shades of green all around and the gentle breeze made her understand why the old man had set up his home out here. Though it was a far cry from the area she grew up in, she could feel at peace in a place like this, at least for a while.

Still, she was regretting that they had to walk all this way to get there. She knew that once they got there, they could set up the fast travel station and make the unloading easier. But for the first trip, they’d have to hoof it.

It wasn’t long before the path widened out into a clearing and sitting in the middle of it was the manor. It was a large building, not as large as some of the mansions that Gaige had seen, but still large enough that it sprawled out and away into the trees, and was made out of wood and stone, with tall pointed gables and lots of windows. A wide porch ran around it with plenty of space for chairs and gliders, though none sat out at the moment. Above the door was the skull of a massive bird-like creature that Gaige had never seen before.

All in all, it was a beautiful place.

Next to her, Artemis sighed and seemed to be trying to work up the courage to move forward. Gaige let her take her time, and after a few seconds, the other girl straightened up and marched forward.

She strode up the steps and stood before the large dark wooden doors, before reaching up and grabbing the metal ring, which was in the shape of a great antlered animal, the antlers twisting around to connect it to the door, and knocked it.

Moments later the door swung open and a gentleman with black hair, with wings of silver at his temples, wearing a black suit came into view. Spying Artemis his eyes widened slightly and he intoned with a slight accent “Ah, madam, welcome back. Or I suppose I should say, welcome home.”

“Oh, um, hello, Cranley? Wasn’t it?”

“Very good madam. And this is?”

“Oh yeah, this is Cranley, he’s the…butler, I think it was? Cranley, these are my friends Gaige and Deathtrap.”

“Far be it for me to correct you madam, but I am the Chief of Staff and the head butler. It is a pleasure to meet the miss’s friends.” He said to Gaige before turning back to Artemis “Though I do not know if this is good fortune or not that you have arrived when you did.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, Mr. Montford is here again, ranting on and demanding the property be returned to him, the self-proclaimed rightful owner.”

“Ugh.” Artemis groaned.

Gaige looked confused so Cranley added “He was Sir Montamore’s second nephew. His bid for the house ended in failure, though he didn’t participate himself.”

“How often has he tried this?”

“This will make his two hundredth and fifty-seventh visit to demand the property.”

“Persistent, I’ll give him that.”

“Indeed. Now, what does madam want to do?”

“I want you to stop calling me madam.”

“I am afraid I cannot, you are the mistress of the manor and must be addressed as such.”

“Fine. I’ll go meet him. See if I can’t get through to him, especially since I might be coming here a little more often.”

“That is wonderful news madam. The place has been so empty since the late master passed.”

Gaige looked around and couldn’t help wondering aloud “How many people are here?”

“There are six of us, including the groundskeeper. And before you wonder, which is rude, by the way, I will inform you that Sir Montamore set up a trust to maintain the grounds and keep us employed so that the madam wouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“Well, that was good of him. This place seems like it’d be a pain to keep up.”

“Very well put.” He said before turning to Artemis “Now, shall I show your guests to the parlor while you go and meet Mr. Montford in the sitting room?”

“Sitting room, sitting room.” She pondered out loud “No. What’s that room, the one with all the guns and trophies on the wall?”

“That would be the study.”

“Then which one has the books?”

“That would be the library, or the reading rooms.”

“Right. Take us to the study, then bring him in a few minutes.”

“Very good.”

“Wait.” She said, something just occurring to her “Why is he in the house in the first place?”

“Etiquette demands that a guest be given refreshments as long as they have not been barred from entry or visits more than once a day.”

“Right.” Artemis said without conviction “Lead on.”

Cranley bowed slightly and led them into the manor itself. The inside of the building was heavy with dark wood and thick carpets which absorbed the sound as they walked. A staircase led to the second floor and despite the darkness of the walls, the place was surprisingly well lit. Gaige had expected bone or antler chandeliers, but instead found the place more tastefully decorated, with a few trophy heads on the walls and a few paintings, but other than that, the entrance area wasn’t what she’d thought a hunter’s house would look like. In fact, as she walked in, she realized that there was a subtle pattern to the color of the wooden boards that made up the floor.

As they entered, Gaige spotted two of the other servants, a round, middle-aged woman most notable for the way she instantly brought to mind baked treats and was wearing a long dress. And the other was a woman about the girls age, with dusky skin and a figure that, even though her dress wasn’t tight, was still apparent enough that it caused Gaige to feel a great surge of jealousy.

The butler led them through a door to the side and into a large room dominated by a wall of guns, similar to what the sitting room on the ship, though these were all older models. One of the other walls was filled by a large fireplace, that currently stood cold. Near it was a couple of tall backed chairs with slightly worn fabric. A ways away from that was a round table and a couple of leather chairs.

It was to these that Artemis went, sitting herself in one that faced the door and waited.

Gaige leaned in and whispered, since the room seemed to demand quiet “I’m kinda surprised that you wanted to meet this guy. You, as you keep telling me, aren’t really a people person.”

“I don’t, I’m not. I mean, I’m not a people person, and I don’t want to meet him.”

“Then why are you?”

“Cause if I don’t end this now, he’ll just get bolder and cause more trouble later on. Besides, we might be stopping here more often in the future, especially if we start dropping more things off here, and I don’t want to have to sneak around him or have to deal with him each time we come.”

“Fair enough, but also surprisingly forward thinking of you. I’m impressed. What do you want us to do?” She said, indicating herself and Deathtrap.

“Hmm. I really don’t know. Why don’t you do what you think is best.”

“How about Deathtrap floats behind you and I go stand by the fireplace?”

“I guess that could work. Oh, they’re coming.”

Gaige hurried over and grabbed a glass from the table near the fireplace and casually started to fill it, when she felt the disapproving gaze on her back. Turning she found the other two looking at her. “What?” She demanded.

“Urgur”

“Fine, I won’t drink it, I’ll just hold it.” She sighed.

“Urur”

“What’s your problem?” Gaige started snapping but seemed to catch herself and poured the drink out as she continued “Sorry. Quitting’s been harder than I thought I’d be.”

Artemis just shook her head and turned to the door and called out “Enter.” before the knock even sounded.

The door swung open and Cranley entered, announcing “Mr. Montford Montamore madam.”

The man who swept past him with a peevish look on his face struck Gaige, at a glance, as being worthless. He had a thin, reedy build off which his well-tailored suit hung. His skin was pale and his overly gelled hair was muted brown which matched his pencil thin mustache. She instantly didn’t like him.

He strode over to the table, not even sparing a glance around the room and looked down at Artemis, and with a voice that was as reedy as he was, declared “Have you finally returned to give back my family’s property? If not for that, then why did you return?””

“What?”

“I didn’t stutter.”

“No you didn’t. And why I came back isn’t your concern. Also, this is my house, Sir Montamore gave it to me, and I’m sure you know that it was legal, otherwise you would’ve already used that.”

“Harrumph.”

Gaige froze, she couldn’t recall ever hearing a person harrumph before. Her dislike for the man was starting to seem more justified.

“I see two ways out of this, either you release your claim on the property.”

“Not happening.”

“Which leaves the second. I shall allow you to become my bride.”

“Wow.”

“You should feel honored at the prospect of marrying into such an illustrious family, though my social standing will take a hit, I can survive. After all, it’s what’s for the best.”

All three of the others in the room just stared at him, disbelief etched across their faces.

“So shall I inform the others that I’ll be moving in?”

That snapped Artemis out of her shock and she flatly stated “No.”

“Ah, you wish to tell them the good news yourself, I understand.”

“No.” She repeated, feeling a rage building inside. Pushing it back down, she continued flatly “You seem to be delusional. I’m not marrying you. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man in the six galaxies and it was up to me to repopulate. What could possibly have went on in your head to make you think that anyone would say yes to that?”

“No? You’re turning me down? Me? Who do you think you are, you overly painted strumpet? You think I want to marry you? I was just the only one in the family willing to stoop to that level. After all, no one would want you after you slept with Uncle Talbot to get this place.”

“What did you say?” Artemis hissed out, red creeping into the edges of her vision. “I have never, would never stoop so low. But a subterranean Murglip worm shoved into a suit like you would never imagine that, would you? You and yours can’t seem to get why Sir Montamore left this to me. It was because you, all of you, were such parasites that he couldn’t rest knowing that it was in your limp hands. You all proved it by having to hire outsiders to do your dirty work. You want this place, you little sack of Vorx excrement? The only way you get it, is to repeat that accusation. Ever. And I’ll count that as a challenge.”

“Vorx…limp…” He repeated, his pale lips flapping as a red flush started its way up his neck “Why wait, I’ll challenge you right now, you tramped up trollop.”

Artemis smiled in a completely evil, predatory way and hopped out of her chair. She walked over to the wall of guns and grabbed two identical rifles off of it, and after checking them, placed them on the table.

“Challenge accepted. As the challenged party, I get to determine the rules of the duel. And as the challenged party, I choose a hunt. You can pick one of these rifles and I’ll take the other. We each then go half a mile away from the house, in opposite directions and then, when someone here fires off a shot, we hunt each other. Last one alive gets the property.”

“Very well, I’ll get my man.”

“You seemed to have misunderstood me. This is between you and me. No substitutes, no seconds. Just the two of us, in a hunt, like Sir Montamore would’ve wanted.”

“That’s preposterous.” Montford gasped, going even paler.

“Your other option is to back out. In which case you and your family will give up all attempts to take the property. You will no longer be invited or welcome here.”

“That’s…”

“That’s your option. You challenged, I accepted. Those are the rules.” She said grinning as she ran her hands over the rifles.

The man seemed to shrink, looking younger and feebler every second till he turned and fled, all traces of dignity gone, and hearing the front door fly open a few seconds later, they knew he was gone.

“Wow.” Gaige said, walking over with her glass still in her hand “That was harsh.”

“Yeah, but do you think he learned? And I didn’t sleep with Sir Montamore, by the way.”

“Never thought you did. What happens now?”

“Now” Came the reply from the doorway as Cranley appeared there “Word of this will spread. He is no longer welcome in this house, nor is any other member of his family. They shall henceforth be turned away at the gate. Though this does present a problem.”

“Now what.”

“Oh, nothing too concerning. It is just that young Miss Flora, whom I believe you saw on your way in, is, well, I probably shouldn’t say, since it is her private life that it deals with.”

“You can’t stop now, either spill it or go get her, I don’t care.”

“Very well, for the sake of sparing her having to explain things, Maleva Montamore is currently courting Miss Flora.”

“And what’s your opinion on this Maleva?”

“She lacks much of what makes the rest of her line, themselves.”

“Meaning?”

“To spread the town gossip, she has been pretty much cut off from her family and wants to run her own business, without relying on her family name.”

“Well, if you think she’s OK, then I guess she can get a pass. Let her come. But if she tries anything, she’s gone. OK?”

“Very good madam.”

“Right.” Gaige said, plopping down across from Artemis “What’s next?”

“I guess we should set up the station and get moving.”

“Alright, though, we might want to figure out where things are going to be stored first.”

“Makes sense.”

“If I may, madam, there is one more piece of business to attend to.”

“Oh, now what.” Artemis groaned.

“Nothing as foul as what you just dealt with, I assure you. It is just that Sir Montamore left something for you, to be opened on your return.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I’m afraid I do not know, it hasn’t been opened yet. But you will find it in his study. Or rather, your study.”

“Right, I better check that out before we get started.” Artemis sighed.

“Urrgurr”

“Good idea.” Artemis nodded before turning to Gaige “You wanna help him set the station up?”

“If you don’t mind, I’m curious what this thing is.”

“Alright. I’m not gonna keep anything from you, so feel free to come along.”

Cranley led the way up the stairs and down one of the halls before coming to a heavy wooden door, next to what Gaige assumed was the master bedroom, and produced a key from his coat pocket. He inserted it into the door, but didn’t turn it, instead he produced a small box and handed it to Artemis before bowing slightly and walking away after declaring “Ring if you need anything.”

After he left, they turned back to the door and Artemis turned the key, feeling the door unlock. Carefully opening the door, she stood there, looking in. It had been years since she’d last been there, but the room seemed to have not changed, like it was frozen in time. She almost expected to see the old man sitting behind the desk. She could almost hear him yelling at her ‘Quit standin there in the doorway like an idiot, you ain’t got the ability to turn invisible if you don’t move, so git in here or git outa here, but close the dang door’.

Shaking her head to clear the shades of the past, she stepped in and looked around. Like the rest of the house, it was done up with rich wooden panels and a thick carpet. One wall was dominated by the heads of various animals, opposite them was a massive dark burl wood desk in front of a wall of trophies, books and knickknacks. Straight opposite from the door was a wall of windows currently covered by curtains.

Artemis looked around, but couldn’t see anything that was different so she took the small box and set it on the desk to look at. The box seemed to have been carved from a single piece of bone. On its lid was carved a horned creature, much like the door knockers, only this one had its antlers spread wide. The sides were covered in a geometric pattern. With nothing else to do, she opened it, revealing the key inside.

Looking around she tried it on the drawers of the desk and found that it opened none of them. After a little looking, she found a hidden panel on the wall, beneath the shelves of knickknacks. Behind the panel was a safe that the key fit. Opening it she found stacks of money. Pulling the money out, she found that there was nothing else inside.

Sitting back with a confused expression she turned to Gaige and asked “Why would he want me to find this?”

“Well, other than it being money?”

“Yeah, but this doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that you make sure to tell your butler to have me find, does it?”

“No. But what else was there?”

Artemis stood up and looked around. Her eyes landed on one of the heads mounted on the opposite wall. The head of one of the animals that had been carved into the lid of the box. In fact, looking at it she could see that it was almost identical to the one on the box, with only one of the tines of its antlers being different.

She wandered over and looked at it closer. Nothing seemed odd about it, but on a hunch she grabbed the antler and gave it a twist. To her surprise, it moved, turning till it clicked into place. Behind her she heard a soft noise and when she turned she saw that part of the knickknack display had slid up, revealing a hidden compartment.

Inside she found an old looking player.

“Wow.” Gaige said “That’s a Delta-3 player.” Catching the look from the other girl she continued “They’re old and rare.”

“Ah. Would you know how to operate one?”

“Pfft, who do you think you’re talking to? Of course I know how. Step aside and let me look.”

Gaige looked at it and hit a few switches and a second later a voice emerged from the player. It had a deep resonance to it and invoked the image of an older man with a thick mustache. She focused on what the slow cadenced voice was saying.

“Well, if you’re listenin to this, you’ve come back. Don’t know if it’s been years or days, but you’re back. Oh, and if you’re not the girl I gave the house to, but one of those limp wristed pansies that share my name, then stop listenin right now and get out. But if you are that wisp of a hunter, then I ask that you hear an old man out.

“In all my years, I’ve had many regrets, but only one that haunts me as I lay here, knowing death is coming. It’s not that I’ve got relatives that wouldn’t be of use for anything aside from blocking a light breeze. I already cut them off, so that’s not it. It’s not some beast that I failed to catch. I’ve got no great foe that eluded me. No, what haunts me is that I never found out what happened to the ‘Ranger’s Iron’.

“Back in the day, me and Montgomery were close, but that ship’s what tore us apart. After she vanished, with my precious cargo onboard, he refused to tell me anything about it. Not what else it was carrying, nor what course it had charted. At the time, I was furious with him, but now, now I’ve got to wonder why? Why wouldn’t he tell me? He knew that it would cost him our friendship, that I would rage at him for years to come, but he was steadfast in his refusal to talk, so now, after all these years, I’ve got to wonder what he was hidin. Was there something about that ill-fated ship that he didn’t want to let me know? Something that if it got out, would damage his company? Or, as I’ve started to suspect, was there something about what happened to it, that he didn’t want me chasing down? Did the ship vanish somewhere where I wouldn’t return from, should I follow? Was he willing to sacrifice our friendship to save my life? Or was he bein an obstinate old fool?

“Anyway, enough rambling from this old man. Here it is, my final request of you. Find the ‘Ranger’s Iron’ and retrieve my cargo from it. Or at least find out what happened to it, then I can rest in peace.”

“Whether you do this or just choose to ignore it is up to you. And if you want to put it off, well I ain’t goin nowhere. But I feel I can trust you with this.

“Oh, and one last thing, I’ve left a contingency on you owning the estate. You can’t sell it or give it away for twenty-five years. That should give you time to learn to appreciate havin a place to come home to.

“And eat something. You’re too darn skinny.”

The player clicked off leaving the girls standing there.

“So, what do you think?” Gaige asked, deciding it would be up to her to break the silence.

“I think he forgot to tell me a lot of stuff. Like what I’m looking for.”

“And who’s ship it was.”

“What? He told us that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he said it was Montgomery’s ship. And that would undoubtedly be Montgomery Jakobs.”

“And you know that, how?”

“Well, it would make sense wouldn’t it?”

“I guess.”

“So the real question is when we’re doing this. Or if you want to.”

“You’re going to, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, he was good to me, so I kinda owe him.”

“Well, if you’re going to do it, I’ll come along. It’s not like I have anything planned and I do kinda still owe you, plus, it could be fun.”

“You don’t owe me anything.”

“Yes I do, and not just a pile of money either. But we’re not discussing that right now. Now we’re trying to get a plan of action set.”

“Well, we should unload the ship first. No, wait, I should hunt some first, we need some fresh meat before we set out, plus that way they can be draining the blood out while we unload, then we unload.”

“Drain the…you know what, explain that later. I was more of meaning, where do you think we should go from here?”

“Well, we should call A.I.ngel, see if she wants to join this, and we need to go to Eden 6 to see Wainwright Jakobs and see if he’s willing to tell us what happened to the ship.”

“We should contact him first. First off, we’ll need to set up an appointment. He’d be more inclined to help if we did this right rather than just showing up at his door.”

“Oh. Alright, but why contact him first? Why does then order matter?”

Gaige sighed “For someone as good at planning as you are, you don’t really think sometimes. Eden 6 is in the opposite direction as A.I.ngel, so we should find out where he actually is first, then find out when he can get us in. After that we can find out what she wants to do, cause if she wants to go with, we’ll need to go pick her up, and that’s gonna take a while. And what’re you gonna do if that was the best time to meet Wainwright?”

“Oh. I get it. But do you think you can handle contacting him? I only met him the once and you seemed to get on well with him.”

Gaige thought back to her last encounter with Wainwright and felt a cloud descend on her, some of the things he’d said to her were still bothering her. Still the other girl was right, she would be better at this. Not only did she know him better, she was less likely to screw up in some major way.

Nodding she said “Fine, but we should get done here first. Why don’t you go hunting while I start bringing things down? Then while whatever you catch is draining, you can help figure out where to put things.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 10

Eden 6

It turned out that Wainwright had just got back to Eden 6 when they contacted him and could manage to fit them in in just over the time it took them to travel there, so they set out to Eden 6 first. On the way they had contacted A.I.ngel and let her know what was up and where they were headed, but it sounded like she was in the middle of learning something, so she didn’t mind, though the girls did worry about leaving her around Timothy and Moxxi, especially when it came to learning.

The trip had been mostly uneventful and they soon found themselves on the surface of the swamp planet. It was Artemis’s first time there and she looked around at the giant trees and murky waters.

Gaige, who’d been there a few times in her youth, sighed “Place is as swamp-assy as I remember.”

Artemis glanced at her and shrugged, before walking across the raised wooden walkways that stretched between the ramshackled buildings.

“I kinda expected the Jakobs workers to be, well, more refined.”

“You mean less swamp rat.”

“No, but these houses seem kinda…”

Gaige listened as the other girl trailed off and looked around. She could feel the eyes on them, the looks coming from the open windows, from off the porches and even from the trees, though the last one was probably some native animal. She could see a few natives leaning on the rails of their porches, openly staring at them.

“Let’s get outa here.” She muttered to the others.

“Which way is it?”

“Um, I think it’s that way, maybe?”

Artemis sighed and turned to one of the onlookers “Scuse me, where’s the Jakobs estate?”

“Well, you gonna wanna go down this here path, an take a lef at the ol’ Crandel place, but not their newer ol’ place but the ol’er ol’ place. Then you gonna wanna follow that path, till you hit the Branner’s house, ol’ man Branner’ll be out fishin at this time, bu’ he ain’t gonna get nofin. But you gonna need ta take a right, then you follow that path outa town an follow it up to the cliff where Mirna an Gret jumped off. From there you shoul be able ta see the Jakobs estate. But ta get there, you gots ta follow the path a little further up, till you hit the transit across the gorge, but you gonna need 'n 'pointment ta get across or you gonna need ta know somebody up there, but tha’s your business.”

“Uh…thanks.”

The girls walked a little way in the direction that he’d indicated, and after she thought that they were out of earshot, Gaige whispered “Did you understand any of that?”

“Uh, left then right. I was just figuring that we could let Deathtrap fly off and find where we were going, and then chart his way back to us.”

“Sounds good to me. How about it babe?”

“Urru”

“Right, good luck.”

After he flew off, they kept walking at a leisurely pace, fully aware of all the eyes on them. Looking at the townsfolk, Gaige noticed that they all seemed to be either old and probably retired, or young kids, with the few exceptions of those adults who seemed to be looking after the kids. She also noticed more than a few stares at Artemis, or more specifically, the rifle that was over her shoulder. Glancing at her, Gaige realized that her friend was openly carrying two of the guns that these people had probably made, which might make some of the locals a bit more friendly, or at least curious, especially since her rifle was a rarer model.

Still, it wasn’t long before they met up with Deathtrap, who took the lead and showed them the way through the rest of the town and out into the well-trodden path that led away.

Before long they came to the cliff edge that they had been told about and caught their first glimpse of the Jakobs estate.

To Gaige it looked like someone, at some point, had started with a building resembling the old Montamore estate and over the years, had kept building onto it till it took on a life of its own. It stretched above the trees, layer upon layer, growing out into buildings that seemed to have merged together, all surrounded by trees, shrubs and fences.

They turned and headed up the hill, towards the building that was atop it. It was larger than a shack, but dwarfed by the house across the gorge. Cables stretched from it to the other side, and a rickety looking platform sat across the way.

Gaige looked at it as they made their way closer and decided that she really wasn’t looking forward to crossing on it. Still, she was glad that Deathtrap was along, since he would definitely make sure that she didn’t fall off. Thinking of her companions, she shot a sidelong glance at Artemis. Gaige couldn’t help but feel that things had been awkward between them since the party. She knew that the other girl was putting on a brave face and trying to act like nothing was wrong, but things just felt weird to Gaige, like there was a wall between them and she didn’t know how to tear it down. And to make things worse, she still had no idea what had went wrong, and not for lack of trying. In fact, she probably had made things worse by thinking about it for most of the time, which the other girl had picked up on, and that had made her depressed.

Putting it out of her mind for now, she concentrated on the building that they had just walked up to, and the man leaning against the wall.

“Ladies.” He said tipping his hat “Wha brings you up here? There’s nothin up here, less you have an appointment.”

“We do.” Gaige said “We have a meeting with Wainwright.”

“The boss? Well tha’s good. Can I have your names?” He pulled a device out and looked at them.

“Should be under Gaige.”

“Yep, here it is, ‘Gaige plus two’, that’d be them then? Well, hold on one tick and I’ll get you on your way.” He said grabbing the lever near him and pulling, causing the platform to start groaning and creaking as it made its way over.

After a bit it slid into place and he ushered them on before saying “Keep to the center of the platform. The rockin should be minimal, but we don wan yea ta fall off, do we? Other than that, don do nufin stupid like fightin on it, an ya should be good. Ready? Here we go.”

The ride didn’t actually take that long and before they knew it, they felt the platform bump the other side. Artemis looked around and muttered “I think his safety speech took longer than the ride.”

Gaige gratefully stepped off, glad to have solid land under her again. It wasn’t that she had a problem with heights, she just didn’t like trusting thin wooden platforms. She looked around and started down the short path to the gate, making sure that the other two were keeping up, but when she passed through, she found that they were both looking around, so she shrugged and headed up to the porch herself.

Artemis took a moment to look around, walking over to the side gate and peering through, when she heard someone trying to sneak up behind her, someone that wasn’t Gaige.

She spun, drawing her gun as she did and leveled it at the surprised man, who had a hand on his own gun, but quickly raised it at the sight of the barrel he found himself looking down.

“Easy, easy.” He said, trying to calm her in a smooth voice. “Name’s Clay. And I was just gonna tell you that area’s off limits, in fact this whole place is.”

“Then why didn’t you say so, instead of trying to sneak up?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to.”

“No, you were failing.”

Clay looked at her, the smile never leaving his face as he continued, unperturbed “That I did. But like I was saying, this is private property, so I need to ask you to leave.”

“I’m expected.”

“Really? Cause the only meeting is for someone that I know, and you don’t look like her.”

“I am the meeting.”

“I doubt that.”

“You’d be surprised.” Came a voice from behind him. “And you, what are you doing pointing a gun at him? He works for the Jakobs.”

“He tried to sneak up on me.” Artemis protested.

Gaige sighed “Seriously?” She turned to Clay “You tried to sneak up on her?”

“Gaige, long time no see.” He replied with a smile and a carefree shrug “What can I say, getting the drop on people makes them surprisingly honest. You’d be amazed at the things they spill without you even asking.”

“That might be, but look at her. The gear she has, and now that I really look, I can see why you didn’t realize that she’s a hunter. But she is, and a good one too.”

“Well that explains why I couldn’t get close without her noticing.”

“And you, stop pointing guns at my friends and acquaintances.”

“But”

“No buts, holster that pistol. Good, now, this is Clay. Like I said, he works for the Jakobs family.”

“I do a bit of this and that.” He clarified “But mostly I deal with people. I like people, I’m a bit of a people person.”

“I’m not.”

“I can see that.”

Gaige sighed and interrupted “This is Artemis. Or Jinx. That’s her real name. Artemis is my nickname for her.”

“Well then, what should I call you?” Clay said turning to Artemis and holding out his hand.

“You can call me Jinx.” She replied, staring at his hand till it dropped.

“Well, I see everyone’s already met.” Came a familiar drawl from the porch. Turning they all saw Wainwright standing there looking at them. “Now, don’t just stand there like a Jaber gettin its nits picked, come-on up. We can go inside and discuss whatever it is that brought you here like civilized folks.” Wainwright said.

They walked up to the porch, feeling a bit embarrassed to have been caught squabbling like children. Wainwright said nothing more about it, instead he just showed them to the open door and followed them in.

They found themselves in an entrance hall that could’ve fit most small houses inside, if it weren’t for the stacks upon stacks of books and record players and other miscellaneous detritus strewn about. It looked like someone had either fired the cleaners, or was in the middle of reorganizing, though the girls didn’t want to guess which it was.

Wainwright ignored all of this and walked past the stairs to a door in the back and just before he led them through, he paused and turned back “Now, stick close. These halls can be a bit tricky, and I wouldn’t want you to get lost. These walls have enough skeletons in them without addin any more.”

They followed him into the maze of halls that ran throughout the estate and after a number of turns they came out into a lavish sitting room. It was about the same size as the one at the Montamore estate, but was brighter, not just due to the wooden paneling being soft tan, nor the amount of lights on. It was the feel of being lived in that lent it a sense of warmth.

Wainwright led them across the room to where another person was waiting and Sir Hammerlock rose from the chair he had been sitting in to face them as soon as they got close.

“Ah, they have arrived. So good to see you again. I do apologize for not being able to see you off last time, but I understand that you were in a bit of a hurry. Still, you missed a bit of excitement. Turns out someone killed a rather infamous bounty hunter that night. Oh dear, where are my manners, please, have a seat. Would you care for something to drink?”

Gaige winced at the mention of what had happened on Jaka, another thing that she owed Artemis for, but still managed to smile at the sight of her old friend.

“Alistair, you are rambling on worse than the maids.”

“Well, no need to get snippy about it.”

“I wasn’t meenin to.”

“They are happy to see you, I assure you.” Clay said in a low voice, turning to Gaige “I didn’t get a chance outside, but it’s good to see you again, though we didn’t get much of a chance to talk last time either.”

“Good to see you again too. How’ve things been?”

“Better. You know, I think whatever happened at that wedding ceremony did them good. They seem happier. They’ve also seemed to have been in a better mood this last month, since their time on Jaka 4, but I have no idea what happened there either. But from the sounds of it, you might have had something to do with it.”

“No comment.” Artemis interjected flatly.

“I see. Well, I ain’t the pryin kind. I know better than most that we all got our secrets.”

“It’s OK.” Gaige said, shooting Artemis a look “It’s not really a secret, it’s just that, well, we’ve had some bad memories there. Some good ones too as a result, but you know.”

“Speaking of Jaka,” Sir Hammerlock said, turning to them “I see that you completed your project. That is them are they not? If so, they turned out splendidly.”

“Yeah.” Gaige said, holding her arm up “Though she redid mine for me, just this last week actually.”

Artemis looked away, embarrassment clear on her face.

“Still, you do have a talent.” Wainwright said, picking up on the mood “But I suppose we do need to get down to business. So, I know you were offered before, but can I get you anything to drink? Scotch? Whiskey? Probably have some Bourbon around here.”

Gaige licked her lips, but caught Artemis out of the corner of her eye and cleared her throat “Root beer’s fine.”

“Water for me.”

“The water on this planet isn’t as good to drink as the booze. Bein that it’s swamp water and all.”

“In that case, I’ll also take a root beer.”

“I’m not sure if I have any here, but I think I can get a servant to fetch some from the kitchens.”

“That’s alright, we came prepared.” Gaige said, turning to Deathtrap.

A minute later, everyone was sitting down around the big wooden table that dominated one corner of the room and Wainwright took a sip of his drink, before declaring “Now then, not that I mind seein you two again, but what exactly brought this meetin on?”

The girls looked at each other and Gaige nudged Artemis, trying to prompt her to talk.

“And don’t worry about Clay.” Sir Hammerlock added “You can trust him to not breathe a word of this to anyone outside this room.”

Artemis looked at them and then sighed. “Before we begin, here, a gift for welcoming us into your house.” She said, while producing a bottle of alcohol that she’d brought from the ship.

“I thank you kindly.” Wainwright said taking the bottle and looking at it “A nice vintage, but this is surely not why you’ve come all this way for?”

Artemis shifted uncomfortably and finally said “We’re looking for records of the ‘Ranger’s Iron’.”

“Oh come on.” Gaige all but shouted at her “You can’t expect them to help by just dropping that little nugget. You’ve got to tell them what’s going on and why you want that info or else they’re not gonna help.”

“Oh. Really? Um, in that case. Do you, or rather did you know Sir Talbot S. Montamore?”

“Montamore, Montamore, can’t say that I do. Though the name does sound like I have heard it somewhere before.”

“You know that I know him, but I’m guessing that my knowledge is irrelevant.”

“Your right, sorry.” She said before turning back to Wainwright “Sir Montamore seemed to know a Montgomery, who owned a ship called ‘Ranger’s Iron’, whom I believe was your father.”

Getting a nod from Wainwright she continued “Sir Montamore had something on that ship when it vanished and he asked me to get it. Well, it was more of a post-humorous request.”

“Posthumous.” Gaige whispered.

“Posthumous request. He wanted me to find out what happened to the ship. Something that Montgomery wouldn’t tell him, even at the cost of their friendship. So I was hoping that you could help me find it.”

“Do you know what he had on that ship?”

“No. Just that it was enough to end a friendship.”

“I apologize.”

“Oh, so you won’t help us?”

“No, I mean yes. I meant that I do not know that ship. So it will take a bit to find those records. But I will get someone right on that. In the meantime, I would like to invite you two to a meal, after which, you can tell us what you’ve been up to.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 11

Eden 6

The meal had been delicious and afterwards they had retired to a different sitting room, where Gaige told what they’d been up to. She managed to get through the encounter with Steven, though the memory still haunted her. And their time on Pandora, through facing off against Holloway and his goons. She continued through their trip to the home of Project Odysseus, though she did leave out a few details. Though he had never met the real one, Sir Hammerlock was stunned to find out about A.I.ngel, even though Gaige did keep parts of what she really was a secret.

Gaige finished by telling them about their trip to Eden 5, apologizing for not swinging out to see them when they had been this close, and telling about spending time with her family, ending with her surprise party.

Gaige was on her third root beer by the time she finished and sat back. Though it was clear to everyone that she had left some things out, they were impressed.

“So you finally got back home.” Sir Hammerlock said softly.

“Yeah, it was great. And I owe it all to this one, though she won’t let me give her the credit she deserves.”

“I didn’t do that much. Besides, your dad did most of the work.”

“See what I gotta deal with?”

Their squabbling was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Wainwright called.

The door swung in and a servant entered carrying a folder, which he handed over without a word and left. Wainwright set it on the table and flipped it open.

“Let’s see, the ‘Ranger’s Iron’ was a Jakobs freight transport of the Hardback class. Built in…not important, let’s see, ah, here we are, last run was from Mola to Hasta 5 but it never arrived. Not much more in here. It seems that the ships manifest was redacted. Now why on Eden would that be done? Flight plan’s also gone. Not redacted, but missing. This is most peculiar.”

“Well, if we know where they were from and where they were headed, can’t we figure that out ourselves?”

“Not necessarily. For starters, the flight time doesn’t make sense. There’s two whole extra days in it, which most likely means that it was makin a stop somewhere, though where that might be, I have no idea.”

“Is there any way of finding out?”

“Maybe. But I’m more concerned about all the blanks sittin here. Somethin was up with this ship, and it’s startin to look like it was no ordinary transport.” He sat back rubbing his chin as he thought “I’m gonna have to go to my father’s old records and find out more. This is turnin into somethin of a mystery.” He said, eyes gleaming.

“Yes, that’s all well and good Winny, but we do have other matters to attend to.”

“Damn it Alistair, let me have my fun.”

“I’m sorry.” Artemis interjected meekly “This doesn’t have any kind of hurry on it, so we can come back later, after you’ve taken care of your other obligations and found more about that ship.”

“Nonsense, we are doin this now. It’s been a while since I’ve had my own little adventure. Sides, the rest of this afternoon’s meetins can be handled by Clay.”

Sir Hammerlock sighed and said “I don’t mean to disrupt your little pleasures, nor try and tell you how to run your company, I was merely reminding you of your obligations. But since you’ve found a solution, just be sure to let Clay know.”

“I know.” He turned to the girls and said “Excuse me for a moment.”

As he headed out of the room, Sir Hammerlock turned to them “I do love the man, but there are times that I wish I was better at communicating to him what I mean.”

“Oh, trust me, I know.” Gaige muttered.

“So, while we wait, tell me, how have you two been getting along?”

The girls looked at each other, the squabbling and unease of the last few days popping sharply into their minds.

“Dear me, that was a bit intrusive, I beg your pardon. I don’t mean to pry, it’s just that you two seem a bit down is all. Again, I’m prying, I apologize.”

“No, it’s fine.” Gaige said, quickly trying to cover for everyone “Things happen, we all hit little awkward moments in our relationships. Heck I could tell you stories about me and my dad, where I wasn’t even talking to him, and it was all for the stupidest reasons.”

“He’s back.” Artemis interjected just before the door opened.

“I didn’t miss anythin, did I?” Wainwright said looking around, noticing the mood in the room was a bit off. “Well, anywho, I should head to my dad’s private library and try and find what I can about this ship. Now then, I’m just wonderin how we should divide up?”

“Why don’t we all go?”

“There’s only so much that can be done, so we should probably split up.”

“Well, this is my mess, so I guess I should go with you and look.” Artemis said.

“That works for me, will you two be alright?”

“Not really happy about this.” Gaige said, but then shrugged “But I suppose it’ll have to work.”

“What’re you gonna do?” Artemis asked.

“Might see if I can find a gunsmith to take a look at some of the guns we kept from that last job. Other than that, I think I could just sit around and listen to Sir Hammerlock tell stories of his hunts.”

“Right-O, we’re all set then.” He declared and stood up “I shall lead the way. You two have fun.”

Wainwright nodded and turned to Artemis “This way.”

And he led her through a side door and through a series of halls, up some stairs and to another door. On the way he said “We never had a chance to talk, just the two of us, did we? Oh, and I know I don’t have to say it, but this room is private, I’ll ask you not to say anythin about it, nor even its existence to anyone. Well, with the exception of Alistair, and Gaige.”

“Deathtrap?”

“Him too.” He led them into the room, which was large, but most of the area was stuffed with books, records and the like, till they were piled on the floor in massive stacks that threatened to spill at the slightest touch.

Closing the door Wainwright paused and then turned to look at the girl “There’s somthin on your mind, and it ain’t this ship.”

“Wha…”

“As I told your friend last time I saw her, I am versed in various consoling and interpersonal interaction mediation that I have learned for mostly business purposes, but that has givin me the ability to pick up on subtleties in mannerisms. Not that I need it with you two, you are kinda an open book.”

“That sounded like a whole lot of words to say very little.”

“It means that I can see that there’s something wrong between the two of you and I might be able to offer you some advice, provided of course that you want it, and more importantly, that you heed it.”

Artemis sighed before muttering “Great, I’m getting relationship advice from my favorite gun manufacturer.” And then in a louder voice continued “Um, let’s just get to work on this, first.”

“Very well, though I do expect you to talk to me sooner or later, ah here we are.” He said pulling a thick ledger off one of the shelves and setting it on the overburdened desk.

Flipping through it rapidly, he finally stopped on a page and ran a finger down the column till he hit what he was looking for. Seeing the confused expression on the girl’s face he spoke up. “This is a coded ledger identifying the contents of the shelves, well at least some of them. It tells me which book I need to get to find the next piece of the puzzle.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“It is, but that’s the fun of it. Besides, it was my grandfather’s method, and he was, well, a bit paranoid to put it mildly.”

“Nothing wrong with a bit of paranoia.”

“No, not if it’s a healthy amount, but we’re talkin about a man who locked himself away from the world, afraid to let anyone in, lest they hurt him.”

“…We’re still talking about your grandfather, right.”

“Possibly. Ah, here we are.” He said, smoothly turning from one topic to the other as he pulled a large book off the shelf and placed it on the desk before leaning in and examining the front of it. Turning away from it and back to the first ledger, he flipped through the pages and then skimmed down the lines, pausing to double check the front of the other book before his finger stopped.

Artemis leaned in, curiosity getting the better of her, and looked at the front of the closed book. Large numbers dominated the front, but beneath them was an underline, broken and chipped away with age. Or at least that’s what it appeared at first glance. Looking closer, she could see that the brakes were deliberate. “It’s a code.” She muttered, drawing Wainwright’s attention.

“You figured it out?”

“Probably would’ve missed it if I hadn’t seen you examining it, but I’m guessing that the brakes tell you which page and line to look for.”

“And then?”

“And then? Um, maybe you have to use the second book to unscramble the first?”

“You are good at this.” He said, standing up and retrieving the second book from the shelf and setting it next to the first. He flipped through the first book till he found the page he needed and then checked something on the first page of the second and after silently mouthing his way through a math problem flipped it to the correct page.

“Alright, let’s see, here we go. The ‘Ranger’s Iron’ left Mola and made a stop at the moon of Zarrio before continuin on. That explains the time discrepancy.”

“Yeah, but what’s on the moon of Zarrio? What was the stop for? And where did they vanish?”

“One thing at a time. According to these logs, they made it there on schedule and left without incident. They failed to arrive at Hasta 5, and the search turned up nothing.” He set the book down and thought about it.

Artemis pulled out her ECHO and typed in the different planets, pulling up a star-chart of the area they were all in and started examining it. While she was doing that, Wainwright walked over to another pile of books and pulled one down.

“Here we are.” He drawled “The station on the moon of Zarrio was a secret research site for the company. Doesn’t say much about what they were up to, but it does say they had been attacked shortly before the ‘Ranger’s Iron’ was sent there. The base managed to defend itself, but it bein found out, meant that it was no longer a secret, so my father sent the ‘Ranger’s Iron’ to clear it out. Seems that it was supposed to pick up some kind of prototype in addition to the rest of the data, and when it was lost, the whole project was scrapped.”

“What kinda prototype?”

“Doesn’t say. Just refers to it as the ‘Iron Hammer’. You find anythin?”

“Well, judging by the location where they started, where they were supposed to end up and the time it was supposed to take them, and keep in mind that I’m not particularly good at laying out courses, but I’d guess that they were lost somewhere around here.” She said, pointing to the screen “The Apothica Nebula and probably around the Garden of Minos.”

“Why there?”

“Well, they would’ve cut through that area, and if they were attacked anywhere else, they either could’ve sent a distress signal, or someone would’ve found the wreckage. Plus, well, it’s a bit of a, well, unscientific thing, but I’d call it my ‘hunter’s sense’ says that it’s there.”

“Then it’s probably there. I have no difficulty believin in a hunch or other sense. I have seen too much in my life to doubt somethin just cause I cannot see it.”

“OK.”

“Now then, my part in this mystery seems to be over, so what’s left is havin a little talk. Just the two of us.”

“Um, can I pass?”

“You can, but I’m gonna say my bit first.”

“So you mean, no.”

“I mean you don’t have to respond, but I’m gonna ask. Somethin happened between you two, somethin that your friend didn’t tell us. So it might help to talk about what it is. I am sure Alistair is askin her the same thing right now.”

“Nothing happened. It was just a small misunderstanding. My fault really.”

“And what was this misunderstandin?”

“Nothing.”

“It has somethin to do with your, how shall I call them? Proclivities?”

“My what?”

“Your persuasion. Who you like and all that?”

“…you could tell?”

“A blind man would be able to tell, and I’ve still got one workin eye.”

The girl deflated and started telling him what had happened.

Some Time Later

Gaige was sitting across from Sir Hammerlock when the others arrived. Taking a second to glance their way, she casually called out “Learn anything?”

“Yeah.” Came the slightly distant reply “You?”

“Yeah, get this. According to Dalton, that’s their weapon guy, that gun I picked up, the shotgun, is a custom piece called ‘Cerberus’ and it was like the basis for the Hellwalker or something. Pretty cool right? And it was a bit of a blemish on the gun-smiths record or something like that, cause it was used for some pretty bad stuff. But I think I’m gonna keep it. What’d you learn?”

“Uh, cool. We, uh, found out that the ship, kinda, stopped at some station on Zarrio’s moon. Picked up something there and then got attacked or whatever. My hunch, belief, whatever…I think it’s in the Garden of Minos in the Apothica Nebula.”

“Really? So no one’s found it yet?”

“No, they sent out a search crew, but apparently they came back empty.”

“OK, so we’ve got a course. I suppose we’re done here, or was there something else?”

“Urrgur”

“You’re right, it would be rude to just grab what we’re after and bail. I was gonna say goodbye and all, but I suppose we should stay for a little bit longer. But not too long, don’t wanna seem ungrateful.”

They walked over to where the couple was talking and stood a little ways away until they were done and acknowledged them.

“Winny tells me that you found your ship. Or at least where it might be.”

“Yeah, ‘hunter’s instinct’ tells me it’s there.”

“Then there it is. It usually takes a while before someone starts trusting their instincts like that and even longer for them to be sharp enough to be worth listening to, but I believe you are right.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, I think.”

Suddenly Gaige interrupted “Hey, why don’t you go show the gun-smith your backup piece, see if he can offer any advice on it. What? It’s not often that you can get an expert’s advice, so you should get it while you can.”

Sir Hammerlock picked up on what she was doing and said “I’ll show her the way. Winny, why don’t you keep Gaige here company while we get the experts opinion.”

“Very well, just try not to get in his way too much.” He replied with a nod.

As soon as they were out of the room he turned to Gaige and stated “Now what’s this all about, and don’t try and tell me it was just gettin her to talk to the gun-smith.”

“No. You obviously picked up that something’s off between us, Sir Hammerlock did.” When she got a nod she continued, looking like she’d taken a bite of something sour “I need advice.”

“This is about what happened at the party, isn’t it?”

“How’d you…She told you?”

“More like I drug it out of her.”

“That saves me some time. What I want to know, what I need to know, is where I went wrong? I mean, everyone just looks at me like I’m an idiot and tells me that it’s not their place to say, but no one is willing to tell me anything more than that. I mean, even my dad knew what I did wrong, but all he’d tell me is that I was basing everything on an incorrect assumption, but not what that was. So look, I need someone to tell me something, at least to point me in the right direction. So, what’d I do wrong?”

“I do apologize, but like everyone else, I must tell you that you do need to figure this out for yourself. I can also say that your father was right and the only thing I can add is that you still haven’t seen her for who she really is.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’ll figure it out. But I will also tell you that you are goin about this the wrong way. Beatin your head against the wall won’t get the solution to appear, in fact, the more you strain and stare at it, the less likely you are to find where you went wrong.”

“Then what should I do? Things have gotten awkward between us, and I don’t like it.”

“I understand that. But think back to what we were talkin about on Jaka. You said you felt like you were disappointing her and what did I advise you then?”

“Um, what was it?”

“Urrgurra”

“That’s right, you said something about me being sure I was who I thought I was. Or something like that.”

“Mostly correct. But the thing that surprised me about you two, was that she did change you. She made you feel better about yourself. But the change wasn’t out of malice or greed, but out of genuine concern for you. But the problem is, even after that, I think that you’re still looking for who you really are. And that might be what your problem stems from. Not what you said to her that was wrong, but what you think about yourself, that maybe that’s why you can’t figure out what you did wrong. That deep down, you know, and you might not want to see it.”

“That’s ridiculous, if I knew what I did wrong, I wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Sometimes we don’t see what we don’t want to. Maybe because it’s a reflection of ourselves and sometimes because of what it will cost us if we do. The question is why you can’t see what you’ve done wrong. Figure that out, or figure out who you really want to be and I think you might just find your answer.”

“Well that doesn’t do me any good. Why can’t anyone just tell me, ‘Hey, you did this wrong’ and then I’ll know, maybe that would help me find myself or whatever.”

“Because some solutions only mean anythin because you got them yourself.”

“And sometimes you don’t waste time figuring out what you could just look up and get the answer to. I mean, when making a cybernetic you don’t start by trying to figure out how to make a limb. Someone already did that part, so don’t reinvent what you don’t have to.”

“Well, this problem is a bit different. If, when you were fighting Holloway, someone, say young Artemis, had sniped him, killing him and ending your fight, how would you have felt?”

“Pissed. And unsatisfied.”

“Exactly, some things only mean something when they’re done by your own hand.”

“Fine, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

“Good, now let’s go find our partners and see what they’re up to.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 12

Hunter’s Moon

Garden of Minos

They headed out shortly after each of them got some advice, Gaige from Wainwright and Artemis from Dalton. As they were saying goodbye, Wainwright added one thing “If you could do me a favor? When you find the Ranger’s Iron, if you could retrieve the prototype and any data from the Zarrio station it would be greatly appreciated. Why, I would even be willin to reward you for it. But if you find that you cannot bring it back, then at least destroy it. I do not want my family’s weapons fallin into the wrong hands.”

Neither girl thought it wise to mention the number of their guns already in bandit hands. Instead, they had agreed and headed out.

After getting back to the ship, they checked the time and sent a call out to A.I.ngel, but it turned out that she was in the middle of redesigning the central computer system for the casino and so, couldn’t join them, no matter how much she wanted to.

With that they found themselves plotting a course for the Apothica Nebula and called it a night.

The trip to the Nebula took a few days, during which Artemis took some of the advice she’d gotten from Dalton, the gun-smith and tried applying it to her backup piece. Gaige on the other hand, took to scouring the ECHOnet to try and find anything she could on the Nebula and the Garden of Minos in particular.

It was just as the Nebula was in sight that they sat down and started going over her findings.

“So according to this site, the Garden of Minos got its name from the bizarre greenish coloration of the space in the area and the way that it’s swirls run in lines, making it look like hanging vines or something. It also blocks most transitions, which is why so many ships go missing there.”

“Ships go missing there? I mean other than the ‘Ranger’s Iron’?”

“Yeah, at first they thought it was pirates using it as an ambush point, but that didn’t make any sense, especially since no real shipping lanes pass through here.”

“Maybe a pirate base?”

“That was the next theory, but that one doesn’t make sense. If people start to find out about it, then it’s no longer hidden and then what’s the point. Besides, a few of the corporations lost ships out here during some of the corporate wars and it took a bit of digging, but I found that they went in in formation, but two of them never came back out. The rest tried to find them, even sent in some search crafts to follow their flight paths, but nothing.”

“So, what are we talking about then?”

“That, I hate to admit, I have no idea. I mean, if it was just one point in space where the ships vanished, it could be some kind of teleporter or something. If it was an area, I’d lean towards a black hole, but this seems to move. So, I have no guess.”

“A planet? Or maybe a comet or something?”

Gaige shot her a disappointed look and snapped a little harder than she meant to “Really? Planets don’t wander.”

Artemis went silent, causing Gaige to groan inwardly. She knew that she needed to be a bit nicer to the other girl, but her natural snark kept getting in the way, plus she wanted a drink, which wasn’t helping her mood.

“Well, we won’t know until we get there. But back to the mysteries of the Garden, one of the strangest things about the missing ships is that no wreckage from them has ever been found. None of them have shown up at any salvage yards. And there have been no survivors from those ships found, so there’s no actual data on what happened.”

“Next thing you’re gonna tell me is that it’s rumored to be ghosts.”

“Well, that is one theory.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I don’t buy it either. But I have no idea what it could be.”

“I guess the real question that we should be asking isn’t what happened to the ships, it’s do we really want to go there?”

“Hey, this was your thing.”

“I know, that’s why I’m askin. You just got reunited with your family and I don’t want to risk that by going to an area where we might not be able to come back from.”

“We might not be able to come back from the next planet we go to, or the next encounter in space. Heck, we might get hit by a comet tomorrow and die. If you want to use some random fear to keep us from goin there just to try and keep safe, it’s not gonna work.”

“But…”

“Look, we need to do this. We need to get out there and do something, and the way I see it, it could be this, or we can find an actual job. Now I don’t want to go to an office ever again, so I vote for this. Unless you’ve got some other adventure that you’ve been sittin on?”

“No.”

“Great, so it’s decided.”

“Ugh.” Artemis groaned, a dark cloud descending upon her “Fine. What else do we know about this Garden of Minos place?”

“Well, from what I could find, not much. There aren’t any inhabited planets within it, nor any outposts. There probably are a few corporate research sites hidden in it, but they aren’t exactly being advertised. Let’s see, other than that, there’s a few mining sites just outside of it, and a gas collection and processing facility on its edge. Other than that, the nearest station or inhabited planet is a day and a half away, by this ship. So we better be sure that we’ve got everything we need before we head in.”

“I can’t think of anything I would need. I mean, I replaced most of the stuff that we’d used up at the Project Odysseus station while we were on Eden 5. Other than that, I just restocked on meat, we’ve got spices and vegetables, as well as canned food enough to last for a few months, or maybe years depending on how frugal we are with them. So, I can’t think of anything.”

“Yeah, but it’s always what you didn’t think of that you end up needing, isn’t it?”

“True, but if I can’t think of it, I can’t bring it.”

“Speaking of food, I know you’re a hunter, but why do you hunt for meat? I mean, once you’ve got it, you can just Digi-struct some more, right?”

“Ew. You can always tell when something’s been Digi-structed. It tastes…wrong.”

“Hah, I never knew you were a food snob.”

“I’m not a snob.” Came the sullen reply.

“I didn’t mean you were a snob. I was just meaning that I didn’t know that you even could tell the difference in the food. I mean, I guess I’ve just always eaten whatever I could to survive. Within reason of course. I was meaning stuff like Dynasty Burgers or Salamander Sliders, mmm, love those spicy little bites. You know the stuff you get for cheap and just eat to keep goin. Just Digi-structed and greasy and so, so good.”

“Ugh, I can’t stand that stuff.”

“Yeah, that’s why I called you a snob. I’m kidding, you’re not a snob, you just have more sophisticated tastes than me.”

“You’re saying I’m pretentious?”

“No. Damn it, I keep screwing this up. What I’m trying to say is that you have better tastes then me, you’re more used to catching and prepping your own food, so you don’t like cheap and deliciously bad food, unlike me, OK?”

“Oh, OK. I just thought that, with all the food that you got at those weddings, you’d like better stuff.”

“What can I say, I have a wide range of tastes. Not to dismiss your sense of taste, but I am a little mad at you.”

“Wha…why?”

“When we met, you said you couldn’t cook, and then you make all those dishes at my parents’ place and they were all delicious, especially those cupcakes, and I know how hard they are to make.”

“I didn’t lie. I said I could fire roast most things and follow instructions and that’s what I did.”

“I know, but you’re a way better cook then that implied. I mean, I know you have a low opinion of yourself and your skills, other than hunting, but you really should be more confident about it.”

“Um, I don’t know about that. But I can try.”

“Good, now, what were we talking about?”

“Um, I think it was food?”

“Urgurr”

“Right, thanks babe. So, we’ve got food, and we’ve got ammo. What else do we need?”

“Um, send a message to your parents?”

“And say what? Hey dad, I’m goin in search of a spot where ships vanish, possibly never to be heard from again, so if you don’t hear from me by Mercenary’s day, don’t worry. Something like that?”

“Urggu”

Gaige looked at the robot and sighed “You’re right, sorry about that.”

“I was just meaning that maybe you should talk to them before we go. But if you really think that it’s gonna be that dangerous, we probably shouldn’t go at all.”

“Look, we’re goin. I was just bein a bitch. And I’m sorry. You’re right, I should send them an ECHO before we go. I just don’t know what to say.”

“Tell them you’re helping me take care of something and you might not be in contact for a little while.”

“Oh, that works. I’ll do that. Well, we’ve got a little time before we head into the Nebula, so I’ll get on that.”

“I’m gonna check our progress. Where was that spot that the ships vanished from anyway?”

“Oh yeah, that’s the other thing. Like I was saying, it wasn’t one spot, it was all over the place.”

“All over the place? Can I see the info?”

“Here. You look that over while I send this.”

Gaige walked into the bedroom while the other two looked at the data she’d gathered.

“Help me out here.” Artemis said to Deathtrap and started giving him the coordinates and the dates that the ships vanished, or as close an approximation as she had. Once she was finished, she sat back and looked at the plotted positions, but she couldn’t see anything there, other than they did form a bit of a pattern, but she couldn’t quite make it out.

Just as she was pondering that, Gaige made her way back out with a smile on her face.

“Went well I take it?”

“Yep, they’re fine, little surprised that we didn’t say hi when we went right past them on our way to Eden 6, but other than that, all good. What’re you doin?”

“Trying to figure this out. We took all the dates that the ships vanished and the locations and were trying to figure out if there was a pattern to them.”

“And?”

“Well, I feel like I can almost see it, but something’s not right.”

“Did you try setting them to appear in sequence?”

“What?”

“Let me see that.” Gaige snatched up the ECHO they were working on and did some quick typing before setting it back down and hitting the button. On the screen a series of dots appeared as the spots that Artemis had typed in were placed in chronological order.

When the series finished Gaige sat back and sighed “Waste of time, sorry.”

“No, that helped, play it again.”

Gaige shrugged, used to the other girl’s eccentricity and hit the button to start it over again.

This time when it finished Artemis was nodding.

“Figured it out?” Gaige said hopefully.

“Yeah, what was throwing me off, was that the spots were appearing to be all over the place, so I couldn’t figure out the pattern, but with them playing like this I figured it out. The spot where the ships are vanishing is moving in an elliptical pattern that is rotating as it moves.”

“Huh?”

“Here.” She hit the button that Gaige had, but nothing happened. Gaige sighed and hit the reset button and then the play one.

Artemis reddened in embarrassment but still spoke up. “Can you play it slower?”

“Sure, here we go.”

As the sequence played again, Artemis started tracing shapes on the screen with her finger. As she did so, Gaige suddenly could see what she had been trying to say.

“So that’s why no one could find it.” She muttered “Good catch. How’d you even see that?”

“Eh, you learn to spot patterns when you hunt. Need to be able to figure out how prey is moving and spot them in the wild, so I guess this wasn’t all that different.”

“If you say so. Well, I’ll extrapolate this and chart our course.”

It didn’t take her long to do the math and declare “If my calculations are correct, and they always are, the, well, let’s call it a spot or whatever, should be about here right now.” She said, pointing to a space in the expanse of stars.

“OK, so should we avoid that for now and look around first, see if we can find anything?”

“Quit being a coward. It’s here, my Vault Hunter sense is tingling. I just know that there’s something there, and we’re gonna find out what it is.”

“Fine.” Artemis said with a sigh.

“Now, I’m gonna go plot in our course, so come along and let’s see where we’re goin.”

She hopped up and led the way to the cockpit. Artemis tagged along behind her, but her face looked troubled as she did. Deathtrap floated along next to her and patted her on the shoulder, trying to reassure her.

Gaige quickly altered their flight path and soon they were entering into the nebula and its dense clouds. Before long the space around them turned green and true to its name, it was like flying through a giant jungle of a garden.

The girls were looking around in wonder when suddenly the ship gave a mighty lurch and everything seemed to vibrate. Casting a panicked look around, they tried to kill their forward momentum, only to find the ship unresponsive. Gaige hit full reverse on the controls and they could hear the engine start to scream at them, but they were still being pulled steadily forward, their progress not even slowing down.

Gaige sighed and shut the power to the engines off. Catching the look from the other girl she stated “What? We would’ve burned the engine out without making any difference, we’re getting pulled in, though that would explain why no one’s gotten out yet.”

“Well, you seem awfully calm about it.”

“Eh, I kinda figured this was gonna happen. Well either this, or we’d fly through a wormhole and pop out somewhere else.”

“And you didn’t mention this, why?”

“Cause I knew you’d react like this. And then you’d insist that we not go.”

“Darn right I would’ve.”

“See, I do know you.”

“What? Why do you wanna get trapped here?”

“I don’t want to get trapped, I just figured that there has to be a way out.”

“One that no one’s found before?”

“Yep.”

“Gah.”

“Hey, relax, enjoy the ride. Besides, this problem hasn’t run into us yet, has it.”

Artemis slumped down and watched as they were drug into a dense cloud and muttered “Bad luck, that’s what I am, nothing but bad luck.”

Neither girl noticed the shadow in the clouds, one that resembled a slightly pointed arch, that the ship was slowly drug through.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 13

Garden of Minos

The ship burst through the clouds to reveal a sight that stunned them all into silence.

A field of ships stretched as far as they could see, so close that they were almost touching each other, built up in layers around a central point. There were all different sizes, from small pleasure crafts, all the way up to massive warships, and from all different ages. Gaige could see ships that were brand new and ones that hadn’t been produced in hundreds of years. The ships were so dense that they couldn’t see what was at the core.

The girls’ jaws were hanging open as their ship drifted around the veritable fleet of crafts, till they felt themselves slowing down and coming to a stop next to two other ships.

They looked at each other and Gaige shrugged “Well, we’re here.”

“Wherever that might be.”

“Oh, don’t be so sour.”

“Sour? We might be trapped here.”

“No, we won’t.” Catching the look from Artemis she sighed and continued “OK, we might, but I have faith in our ability to get out. Besides, it’s too late to worry about that. So let’s just focus on finding your ship and figuring out how to get out.”

Artemis groaned in frustration. It wasn’t that she minded being with Gaige, but she knew that if they got stuck there, really stuck, that Gaige would end up blaming her, and then hating her for trapping them, not that she blamed her.

Gaige didn’t notice any of that and hopped out of her seat, declaring “Well, let’s go.”

She led them back through the ship, pausing in the sitting room to grab their gear. After strapping their guns on and grabbing their packs, they checked to make sure there was an actual atmosphere before making their way out of the ship and stopped, taking in the vista.

They stood on top of the Hunter’s Moon and surveyed the area. The ship to their side was a new looking pleasure craft, about the same size as the ship they were standing on, but covered in gaudy colors and patterns. The one straight ahead of them was an older cargo hauler, it’s hull pitted and scratched. Moving to the side and looking down, they could see that the ships continued like this for as far as they could see.

“See anything?” Gaige asked hopeful that the other girls’ eyesight could spot something that hers had missed.

“No.”

“Really?”

“What, you think I’m lying?”

“No, I trust you, it’s just that your eyes are much better than mine, so I had hoped you might spot something that I missed.”

“Oh, sorry to fail you again.” She said dejectedly only to be lightly smacked in the back of the head.

“Stop being so down on yourself. Seriously. But what do you see down there?”

“Um, I’m not being down on myself, I’m just being useless.” When Gaige raised her hand again, she quickly continued “But all I see down there is, like a fog or something.”

“Really? I can’t even see that. See, not useless.”

“We’ll see. So now what?”

“Hmm, well, we need to find the ‘Ranger’s Iron’, but we have no idea where it is, nor what order the ships are being lined up in. So, I guess we should try and see if anyone’s left alive out there, at least ones that haven’t gone insane.”

Just as Artemis was about to answer, Gaige’s ECHO crackled “Uh. To the ship that just arrived, well, first off, welcome. Don’t know how you got here, but unfortunately for you, I’m afraid that there’s no getting out. And to make things worse, you got placed in a bad spot. You’re right next to one of the gang’s territories. Unfortunately, they went rather insane over the years they’ve been here. But the good news is that you’re almost in a safe zone. If you look off your bow, you’ll see an old Stenoild cruiser. It’s the one that has twin towers on it. We are near there. Please, if you can, get to us. This message will repeat.”

The girls looked at each other and then out off the front of the ship till they spotted the cruiser in question. Gaige spoke up first “Well, shall we head out and see what they know?”

“I don’t trust them.”

“You don’t trust anybody.”

“I trust you.”

“Alright. You don’t trust new people.”

“They haven’t really given me reason to.”

“Well, let’s go see if these ones change the pattern. Still, I don’t disagree with you, so let’s be ready for an ambush or whatnot.”

“Why don’t you two lead, and I’ll follow along shortly after.”

“Wow, you really don’t trust them.”

“I don’t trust anything in this place.”

“Not even me?”

“I didn’t, I mean…I don’t trust anything that didn’t come in here with me, how about that?”

“Fair enough. Let’s go.”

Gaige nodded to Deathtrap and she started walking along the surface of the ship as he floated next to her. It didn’t take long for them to get to the end of the hull, and as she got near, Gaige took off running. Just as she got to the end, she jumped, allowing the lowered gravity to carry her across the gap.

Landing lightly, she took a few steps to slow down and then after nodding to herself, kept going.

She continued this way as she traveled to her destination, occasionally leaping sideways to another ship to make her forward progress easier. As she closed in on her destination, she started to see signs of life. Proof that people had been there. It started with the barrier, a crude wall made up of torn-up deck plating that ran as far as she could see, along with other bits of metal to mark territory and defend it. Past them she could make out bridges and stairs, built into and around the ships. Even further in, she could make out a few shacks and she could just make out something larger, but it was impossible to tell more since it was down a number of levels and further in, but whatever it was, it appeared to be massive.

As she approached the first of the walls, she made out motion on the other side, and just before she arrived, she heard a shout from the next ship over. Turning she spotted a hand waving from over the wall and a voice carrying yelled out “Over here.”

Gaige looked over, but other than the hand, which quickly vanished back behind the wall, she couldn’t make out anything. Sparing a second to catch Deathtrap’s eye long enough to get a nod from him, she glanced behind her. She couldn’t see Artemis anywhere, though that didn’t surprise her much, still she knew she was still there, which was a comfort. With one last look around, she took off in a sprint and jumped across the gap, landing safely on the ship.

Turning, she examined the wall in front of her. The thick plates of metal had been welded on in winglike chunks, with a central area that was made up of other bits of metal that could be slid to the side to allow entrance. There was nothing over the gate, no sign of what the place was called, though she supposed that wouldn’t be so weird if there really was a gang on this side. She could also see a few areas that would serve as firing ports along it’s top.

Cautiously she approached the gate, keeping an eye on all of the gun-ports. Suddenly a figure popped it’s head over the wall and gave her an appraising look. Staring back, she took in the hastily finger combed hair of an indeterminate color over the slightly sickly looking skin, though that could have been from the ambient green light coming in from the nebula. The man had a scraggly beard that also looked like he had run his fingers through it to try and look presentable. She couldn’t make out what he was wearing, but his hands had thick dark gloves on as he looked down at her, with a slight smile on his face.

“You must be the crew of the new ship.” He said in a voice that was slightly gruff.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Gaige shot back.

“Just the one of you? Sorry, but that seems like quite a lot of ship for one person.”

“Well, there’s two of us.” Gaige shot back, patting Deathtrap on the arm.

“I see, well, that’s good. But I’m gonna have to ask you to drop your weapons.” He said, snapping his fingers. As he did, a wave of troops, many of which were wearing masks popped up from their hiding spots and Gaige quickly found herself facing down a dozen guns.

“Well, ■■■■.” She muttered “Looks like she was right.”

She looked at the man and called up “I know that you said there was a vicious gang in the area, but you didn’t say it was you. Out of curiosity, what happens if I say no?”

“Seriously? We shoot you. We’d prefer you alive, but some of us aren’t so picky.”

“Well,” Gaige said, turning to Deathtrap “You heard him.”

“I did.” Came Artemis’s voice in her ear “So who should I start with?”

“Well, he’s the boss.”

“Ready.”

“Alright. Let’s do this. Now.”

As soon as the word was past her lips, a bullet slammed into the man’s face, obliterating it and sending the bullet bouncing into the guy next to him. The rest of them froze for a split second in shock, it seemed that they hadn’t been expecting to have their boss’s head explode. Gaige took advantage of their pause to whip her gun up and send a strafing line of bullets across the top, mowing down half of them before they could recover.

Artemis fired off another two shots, dropping three more and by the time the last few were starting to get their return fire going, Deathtrap had shot up and launched a scything line of caustic laser into them, before diving in and finishing them by Digi-claw.

Gaige pulled the empty clip from her gun as Deathtrap flew back to her.

“What’d you see?”

“Urrgurr”

“Right, let’s get out of here.”

She turned and jogged back down the length of the ship till she met up with Artemis, who was casually waiting for her.

“Don’t say it.” Gaige said as she went past.

“Say what?”

If it wasn’t for the genuineness of the question, she would’ve thought that the other girl was being snarky, so instead of getting mad she just replied with “Nothing, forget it.”

“OK, so now where do we go?”

“Well, this turned out to be a trap, so let’s see what’s in the other direction.”

“You don’t think they were telling the truth about there being a gang that way?”

“Well, if they were, it would’ve been the only thing that they said that was true.”

“So we’re sure that they were in fact bandits? They didn’t just want you to throw your guns down to be sure that you were safe?”

“You’re asking that now? You did kinda kill a number of them you know.”

“Well, you told me to.”

“And what? You’re just going to kill whomever I tell you to?”

“No! But this seemed like a good time to obey.”

“Right, sorry, but the masks some of them had were definitely bandit design, and Deathtrap saw at least two psychos running towards the wall, so I think we did the right thing.”

“Oh, OK. By the way, what did you see over the wall?” Artemis asked.

Even though the question was directed at Deathtrap, it was Gaige who answered for him “Not much, but it seemed like there were a number of other bandits coming up from a few ships over.”

“Right, so maybe we should get out of here a bit faster then, unless you want to fight them?”

“Probably a good idea, which is why we’re running. But before we get too far away, what did you see back there?”

“Huh?”

“I mean down and between the ships. I saw something off a ways, but I couldn’t make it out and was just wondering if you had.”

“I didn’t even look that far, I was trying to keep an eye on you and your surroundings. Sorry.”

“No problem.”

“Hold on a second.” And with that Artemis turned sharply to the side and jumped between the ships, looking back the way they’d just come from. As soon as she landed on the deck of the neighboring ship she was sprinting and hopped back over.

“What was that about?” Gaige asked.

“Takin a look.” Came the reply.

“Oh, and?”

“To be honest, I couldn’t get a good look at it, but what I did see looked like someone had taken a town and dropped it across three ships. It was down quite a ways, so I couldn’t really get a good look as I was moving, but there were a number of buildings, some of which were attached to the ships on either side, a bunch of bridges and that’s just what I could see, but I could tell there was more past that.”

“Right, that makes sense.”

“How so?”

“Well, I was meaning the part about it being further down, but the rest of it is a fair description of a bandit town. But the part about it being way down makes sense. The longer that you’ve been here, the more likely you are to have gone crazy, so the psychos would start further in. If you take the logical approach that the ships get lined up in a layer till that layer is full and then start the next concentric ring. It also makes sense that they would’ve built a town for themselves and then set up outposts as near to where the next ships would come in as they could.”

“Great, so you think they go down all the way or what?”

“If they don’t, then there’s got to be a reason that they don’t go any further.”

“Why does that scare me more than them?”

“Because you’re not an idiot.”

“Anyway, I think we can slow down for now. I didn’t see anyone coming after us. Plus, if they were really willing to come to this side of their barricade, they would’ve ambushed us somewhere earlier.”

“True.” Gaige said, slowing down to a brisk walk. “So now do we make a stop back at the ship? Or do we keep going?”

“Well, I set the best security I could around the ship, so I guess we should go past it to make sure that no one has tried anything, and then keep going.”

“Sounds good.”

It wasn’t long after that that they passed by the Hunter’s Moon and a glance across it told them that nothing had been tampered with yet. It seemed that whatever was keeping the bandits behind their wall hadn’t touched the ship. In fact, they noticed as they went along, none of the ships in that area showed any signs of being tampered with. No deck plates had been torn up, no holes had been cut into the hull, none of the doors had been blasted open. Each and every ship seemed like the crew had just up and walked away, which was likely not far from what happened.

With a little more caution in their step, they continued on. It wasn’t long before they came to the end of the ships on this level. Looking around they saw a few ships over on the layer beneath them was a giant wall, nothing like the one that surrounded the bandit area. This one looked like it had been built a while ago out of as many chunks of ships as they could get. But strangest of all was that the wall appeared to have been built from this side. All the supports and bracing ran up from the side the girls were viewing it from.

From what they could see, the walls ran the width of the ships they were on, some of them connecting to the ship next to them, while others extended a little ways past the ends of the ships, usually ending in jagged spikes and blades, all of which were pointed outward.

“What do you think they were trying to keep out?” Artemis muttered.

“Whatever it is, let’s hope we don’t have to find out.” Gaige replied, for once not letting her curiosity get the better of her “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

Looking around, they chose to go to their left, mostly because the ships continued in that direction so they wouldn’t have to backtrack or drop down a level.

It took a while but eventually the wall on their right turned and continued away from them. It seemed that they had come to the edge of whatever it was’s territory.

Not long after that, Artemis spotted another set of barricades up ahead. This time Gaige pulled out a scope from her pack and took a look at them. Catching the look from the other girl she flatly stated “OK, so I learned from the last time. Happy?”

“Yes. Now, what do you see?”

“Well, it seems to be another bandit camp, though this one isn’t anywhere near as crafty or subtle about it. I mean I can see at least three separate rib cages on the wall, eight, no wait, nine skulls and enough blood to make a major hospital’s blood bank jealous.”

“Yeah, that’s about what I got as well. So now what?”

“Now you need to start making decisions for yourself, or at least offering suggestions.” Gaige said a bit more shortly than she meant.

“Um, oh, alright. Uh, we could go back the way we came. I mean go back along the wall till we get to the other end.”

“Where we might hit another of these bandit camps.”

“True, or we could turn and follow the walls to the right. See where that leads us.”

“Which might lead us to another bandit camp.”

“If you’re gonna shoot down all of my options, then why’d you want me to give them?”

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be mean, but it is the most likely outcome of each direction, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, but even if it is, we still need to choose a direction and head in it.”

“And if it does lead to a bandit camp?”

“Then we’ll try another direction, and if that leads to another camp, we make a full circuit around this enclosed area. Then I suppose we either choose one of them to try and sneak through, preferably the one that looks the least crazy, or we go down and see what’s at the bottom of this whole thing.”

“And what happens if we go down and can’t find a way back up?”

“I thought I was supposed to be the morose one here?”

“I’m not being morose, I’m just doing what you usually do and pointing out what could go wrong with each option.”

“Am I really that bad?”

“No, but it can be a bit disheartening can’t it.”

“Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, but you’re right, we do need to make a choice in direction and go with it. And you did lay out the best plan that I could think of as well, so I guess as long as we haven’t been spotted here yet, we probably should head to the right, since we’ve already come this far.”

She started forward only to get tackled from the side, sending both of the girls hurtling off the edge of the ship, just as the area they had occupied exploded.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 14

Garden of Minos

Gaige managed to twist around as they fell and hit the deck of the next ship in a roll. Coming up, she spun around, making sure that Deathtrap had followed them, and spotting him she shifted her attention to what had just happened.

The debris from the explosion was still raining down, as the cloud of fire turned into black smoke, obscuring her view of the ship they were just on. Looking around she couldn’t immediately see what had caused the detonation. Hearing a groan from next to her, she looked down and sheepishly offered Artemis a hand up.

“What was that? Thanks for it, though by the way. The saving me part I mean. Though my first part was more of a what caused that explosion in the first place?”

“Seriously?” Came the quiet reply “And keep it down, they might think we’re dead. Either way we need to get out of here before they spot us and continue.”

“Who? What?”

“Yeah, yeah, where, when and how. You mean you really didn’t see that psycho with the rocket launcher?”

“Uh, no. Sorry.”

“Yeah well, she was on our side of the wall and she wasn’t alone, so we need to get out of here.”

“Right, considering that the bandits around here now know we’re here, and since we find ourselves down a level, let’s go back the way we came.”

And with that she spun and sprinted off, only to be grabbed and shoved behind one of the towers that jutted up from the deck. She started to protest when she saw Artemis with a finger in front of her lips as she tried to pull her under a small overhang.

Just as she pulled under, Gaige spotted two things, the first was that Deathtrap was floating tightly up against the bottom of the ship directly over them. The other was a badass psycho with a rocket launcher walking along the edge of the ship they had just been on.

She pressed herself into the small space, aware of the other girl squished between the metal wall and Gaige’s side. Gaige shifted slightly, trying to keep the spikes on her coat from stabbing into Artemis, especially since one of them was right next to her eye and ended up nearly pressing the smaller girls face into her chest. From the way her face went crimson and her eyes widened, it was clear that she was extremely embarrassed, but as Gaige was about to pull back, Artemis met her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly.

Gaige strained her ears and could just make out the voices from above. They must have been shouting considering that she could hear them at all, let alone make out what they were saying.

“Damn it Xarxa, the boss wants them brought in alive. How’re we supposed to keep her entertained now? If we don’t find someone soon, one of us might be going in next.” The angry voice of a woman echoed.

“Blixirix.” Came the garbled babble of the psycho back.

“Yeah well, that’s not good enough. Those were the first ones to come this way in a while.”

“Blaxxiax”

“Well, if you hadn’t gotten trigger happy, or at least had aimed to the side a bit, we could’ve at least brought back what was left, but no, you had to go shooting rockets at whatever you see.”

“Blaxic”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too, but that’s not gonna do us any good now, is it?”

“Blix”

“Right, let’s head back. I’ll think of something to tell the boss, so try and keep your head down for a while, alright? Good.”

Gaige strained herself to try and hear if there was any more to their discussion, or if they were leaving, but she couldn’t hear anything, so she remained frozen there, despite the awkwardness of it, till Deathtrap floated into view.

He took one look at the situation and let out an “Urggru” To which Gaige flipped him off while quickly stepping back.

Deliberately not looking at the other girl, she instead directed her gaze upward and said “Well, I suppose we should be grateful that these ships are so close together, so they couldn’t get a good look down.”

The other girl didn’t respond immediately, instead she just stood there blushing for a moment longer before shaking her head and clearing her throat. “Yeah. We should probably also be glad that they’re idiots. Not even looking for proof. Still, let’s not stick around till one of them thinks of it.”

Gaige nodded and they headed back across the ships. Periodically they paused and looked down, trying to see what was below them, and once they came to the wall, they took a minute to examine it, as if they could figure out what it was trying to keep out just by looking at it.

It took a while but eventually the end of the wall came into sight. The girls slowed down and Gaige pulled out her scope and began searching the area past it periodically till they spotted another wall. This one was also made out of ship parts, but had a dilapidated look to it, as if whomever had put it up, had forgotten about it. They decided to follow it to the left, away from the first bandit groups area.

After a while, they paused and took a break. Hiding on the giant wall’s side of one of the ships, behind the protruding bridge, they sat down and dug out something to eat.

As they sat there, Artemis looked at the wall and said “You know, looking at this, I can’t help but remember that cheesy old movie that your dad made us watch. You know, the one with the monster on that island, kept on the far side of the massive wall.”

“I know which one you’re talking about, but I doubt it’s as friendly as that thing was.”

“Still, what’s with your dad and those movies? I mean, just cause they’re old, doesn’t mean they’re good.”

“Hey. Don’t talk ■■■■ about my dad. He’s got great taste in movies. Just cause you can’t appreciate quality doesn’t mean that you can trash him.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything, all I was saying was that some people mistake old for good. Sometimes old is just old.”

“And sometimes it means it’s a classic.”

“Fine, yes, but you’ve got to admit that sometimes people defend something that’s old under some kind of misguided notion that it’s good, just cause it’s old.”

“And here I thought that you were more of the sentimental kind. Don’t you still have a lot of old guns back on your ship?”

“Yeah, but I’m not carrying them, am I?”

“Well, no. But you still hang onto them.”

“Yes, but I don’t try and convince everyone that they’re the best and that they should carry one.”

“Yeah, I see that. And to your point, that movie was a classic, but it is a bit dated.”

“Yeah, well, I guess my bigger problem with it was that I’m a hunter, so I know about things like the creature that was in it.”

“Ah. OK, I can see that. Well, enough of this, we should get going.”

“Right. And I’m sorry if it sounded like I was attacking your dad. He’s got his taste in movies and I’m sure that it’s good, it’s just that I’m not really that much of a movie person.”

“Yeah, I get that. Back when I was a kid, he tried to show me some of those movies, and to be perfectly honest, I hated them. I mean, I thought they were the stupidest things I’d ever seen. I would’ve much rather been working on some kinda robotics project or surfing the ECHO. But later, I got them. Sometimes it’s just the frame of mind that you’re in, so I get it.”

“Thanks.”

They repacked their things and got going again. As they made their way across the fleet of ships that were parked, Artemis kept looking around.

Eventually Gaige had to ask “What’s up?”

“Well, a couple things actually.”

“Spit it out.”

“Well, for starters, it seems like none of these ships have been touched.”

“I know, makes me wanna pop one open and see what’s inside, right?”

“What? No. Well, I mean, yes I’m kinda curious as well, but what I was meaning was that despite the massive wall to that side, none of these ships appear to have been touched aside from those that the wall was built on.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re wondering what’s up with that. Like if there are people living here, why wouldn’t they raid all the ships they can. Yeah, that does seem weird now that you mention it. Huh? Guess we’re gonna need to find someone to ask. So, what else was there?”

“You mean you haven’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“The wall. The other one, over there, it’s been getting more and more well cared for. Right there, for instance, you can see a patch that doesn’t look that old.”

“Which means…we’re probably getting close to wherever whomever is caring for the wall lives. Right?”

“That was my read on it.”

“Right, we’re gonna need to proceed with caution. Not that we haven’t been so far, but I mean, well, you know.”

“Yep.”

Heading out, Gaige once again took point, with Deathtrap floating a little behind her, to try and not give her away too easily, and Artemis once more took a far back-rear guard position.

They headed across the ships, but this time, Gaige kept her eyes on the wall to her right and soon enough found more and more evidence that it was being kept up. From a few shiny metal plates to weld lines that her trained eye could tell were fresh even at the distance, they were small things, but important. But beyond that, she couldn’t find anything indicating that anyone was alive in the area.

“Got something.”

They had been traveling for what she guessed would be between two-thirds to three-fourths of the length of the wall, judging by the one side that they had traveled the length of, when Artemis’s voice came over the ECHO.

“What is it?” She called back, ducking behind the nearest bit of cover before she did so.

“Hard to get a good look at it, but it appears to be some kind of settlement. It’s a ways past the wall. The one on the right I mean, and down about six layers. From where you are, it’d be about your, um, two o’clock? I think that’s the right way to say that. Or about fifty-seven degrees off of straight ahead of you and down, what would that be, forty maybe? Or would that be closer to fifty?”

Gaige shrugged and moved to the edge of the ship. From where she was, she couldn’t see anything, there was a large ship in that direction, so she did some quick calculations and headed back till she ran into the other girl.

Looking to where she pointed, Gaige eventually found what she was trying to point out, but even with the scope, she couldn’t get a good look at it.

“How the heck did you even spot that? Wait, lemme guess, it’s a hunter thing.”

Getting a nod from the other girl, Gaige just shook her head.

“What?” Came the reply “A hunter has to be able to pick up its prey even when it’s trying to blend into its surroundings. That’s all.”

“No, no. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that, well, you’re really good at some really weird stuff is all.”

“I know I’m a weirdo.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Gaige snapped “You’re just good at a lot of stuff that pertains to your job, stuff that I’ve had no training in.”

“Oh, um, OK. So how do you, uh, wanna do this?”

“Do what?”

Artemis looked at her in disbelief till Gaige suddenly got it and went “The settlement, right. Well, first thing we need to do, would be to get on the other side of the wall. That is, if we actually want to investigate the place.”

“Why wouldn’t we? It doesn’t seem like a bandit camp, at least from what I can tell. And if we get closer to it, we should be able to figure it out before they spot us, provided that we’re careful about it.”

“Right. In that case, like I was saying, we need to get across the wall. Then we need to get closer and see what we can see. If the place looks alright, I’ll approach the front, you stay back in case things go wrong. Babe, you’re with me.” She said turning to the floating robot, who nodded his ascent.

“Works for me. So, what are we hoping for here?”

“Best case scenario? We learn what we need to know and move on. More likely? They’ll demand some kind of trade for the info, so we might need to do a job or two for them. Worst case scenario? They try and keep us there for some perverse purpose.”

“I thought the worst-case scenario would be that they’re bandits?”

“If they’re bandits, they would want us for some perverse purpose, so I stand by my statement.”

“Fair enough.”

“Right, so let’s get closer to this wall and see about getting past it, alright?”

It wasn’t long before they were standing on the next ship away from the wall, staring up at it.

“Well, it’s a wall.” Artemis said, head cocked to the side.

“No ■■■■. How do we get past it?” Snapped the exasperated reply.

“Well, we can try and scale it, which would be the hard way. We can have Deathtrap carry us over it, or we can jump down to the next level at an angle and land behind it.”

Gaige looked down. There certainly was enough space to make it, provided that they didn’t screw up, but that raised a question for her.

“If we can jump between them, it’s not much of a wall, is it?”

“No. But I think that it’s not really for that.” Catching the look from the other girl, she continued “The other wall, with all of its spikes and stuff, that’s meant to keep something in. This one, if I had to guess, would be to keep people from the other side from going too close to the other wall. I mean, it could be a back-up wall, you know, in case whatever gets through the other one, but it doesn’t seem well enough built for that.”

“Well, let’s hope you’re right. Come on, let’s jump. Babe? Why don’t you swing down and make sure that we make it?”

“Urrgur”

“It’s alright, I kinda wanna try jumping it anyway, plus you carrying us all the time will wear you out.”

“Urr”

Artemis patted him on the shoulder. “It’s OK. Don’t worry, we’ll rely on you when the time comes, trust me.”

He nodded and she smiled before taking off running and with a hop, jumped off the edge. She casually sailed between the wall chunks and landed lightly on the other side, rolling to her feet and turning to give them a thumbs up.

Gaige shook her head as Deathtrap flew down to cover her, just in case. She took a deep breath and took a short run before jumping herself. She felt her pigtails pulling back behind her and nearly let out a laugh as she cleared the wall and rolled up on the deck.

“Wanna do it again.” Artemis said with a grin.

“Maybe later, right now, let’s move, in case anyone spotted us.”

“Or if they had sensors around this thing.”

“Fair point.”

With that they got going again, though this time they split up by a larger amount, despite the increased threat the unknown area presented. Gaige quickly dropped down one level, followed by another.

Landing on the ship she stood up and hopped in place before muttering to herself “Just what I thought, the gravity is increasing a little the further down we go.”

It wasn’t a large amount, but it was still noticeable and would make traversing from ship to ship increasingly harder. That and the haphazard placement of the ships was making traveling a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t that the ships weren’t lined up perfectly, they were, but with their different sizes, some being longer than two or more other ships, plus the height difference, meant that sometimes, she would have to jump to another ship and back to get around the one in her way. It was tiring, but before long she spotted her distention.

She crouched down near the edge of the ship she was on and looked down at the settlement. She had purposely not dropped down to its level exactly for this reason, so she could get a good look over its walls. Still, it was hard to see, even with a scope, but what she could make out was that whomever had made it must have torn apart a number of other ships. They had found two large cruisers that appeared to be identical as well as a third that was nearly the same size, but of a different manufacture and had built a platform spanning the width of them. On top of that they had built their settlement. She could make out watchtowers in the corners and a number of buildings within, along with a rather large building near what appeared to be the front gate. There was something painted above the massive doors, but she couldn’t make it out from her angle. Still, it seemed rather well built considering where they were.

It also didn’t look like any bandit camp she’d ever seen, so she looked to Deathtrap, who nodded and after getting the confirmation that Artemis was in position, they proceeded down to its level.

Gaige stepped out into the open, keeping her hands away from her weapons and proceeded to the front gate. As she got closer, she could see some of the people manning the towers scrambling around, obviously they’d spotted her and were trying to get someone in charge to come up and make a decision.

Stopping near the edge of the next ship over from the settlement, she looked up. The place was a whole lot more impressive up close than she’d imagined. But what drew her eye was the sign over the gate. It was in a language that she couldn’t read much of, but could easily identify as the common language of the Vladof corporation. Despite her barely knowing just enough of it to get by repairing her guns, she could roughly translate the sign to read ‘The Bear’s Den’.

“Well, looks like I found out what happened to their missing ships.” She muttered to herself as she eyed the door.

Just as she was wondering how long they were going to make her wait, a voice called down to her, thick with an accent.

“Identify your selv.”

“Uh, I’m from the latest ship to come here. My name’s Gaige.” She realized as soon as she said it that someone there might recognize her and that maybe she should’ve used an alias, but it was too late now.

“And are you the entire crew?”

“Well, there’s two of us.” She said with a gesture to Deathtrap.

“Thein anyone out there, they is not wit you? Very well, take anyone elze out.” He finished to whomever was standing next to him.

“Call your men off before they get hurt.” Gaige called back.

“So, you were not alone. Eizer way, we sweep area.”

“Oh, she’s not gonna like this.” Gaige muttered to herself. She started to reach for her ECHO, but was stopped by the man yelling at her.

“Halt, keep hands where we see them.”

“I was just trying to…”

She was interrupted by a body slamming into the ship near her.

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 15

Garden of Minos, ‘The Bear’s Den’

Gaige looked at the body with a sense of depressed boredom. Whoever it was, they were at least still alive, since they were twitching and trying to move.

“Call your men off.” Gaige shouted up to the boss “And I’ll call my friend down so we can talk like civilized folk.”

“Civilized? I ask question, you lie to me now you want civilized?”

“I didn’t lie, I said there were two people, didn’t I? Not my fault that you took Deathtrap here to be one of them.” She turned to her robo-bestie and whispered “Sorry for that, by the way.”

“Urgur” Came the reply.

Turning back to the guy she was talking to, she yelled up “Look, she’s gonna keep sending your men down like this until you run out, or you call them off, so let’s save your guys a lot of pain, shall we?”

“You don’t know my men. They know these ships like hand back.”

“And I know her.”

“We can just shoot you.”

“That would be a mistake. She hasn’t shot anyone yet, we’re trying to be peaceful here, but you shoot me, and she will fire back at you.”

There seemed to be some commotion on the other side of the wall, the boss ducked back down and there was the barely discernible sound of an argument coming from within.

The man popped back up and yelled “If you try being peaceful, why have she not come with you?”

“Prudence. We don’t know anything about you, not if you’re gonna be friendly, not if you’ve been overrun by bandits, nothing.”

“Is fair point. Caution is often prudence, as you say. Very well. Call friend, I call my troops, they escort her down.”

“I’ll call her and she’ll be down on her own.”

This time when she went for her ECHO, the troops didn’t react.

“It seems alright, come on down.” She said into it.

A few seconds later something landed lightly behind her. She didn’t bother turning, instead she never took her eyes off the gate. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Artemis walking up.

“Welcome back.” She whispered “Ran into some natives I see, good job not killing him.”

“Yeah well, you said not to.”

“That I did.”

“So, what’re we dealing with?”

“Seems to be the missing Vladof ships.”

“Great.” Came the reply with no small amount of sarcasm.

“Enough chattering.” Came the voice from the top of the wall. “We open gate, you come in. Do nothing, you do not get shot.”

“Well, that’s reassuring.” Artemis muttered with an eye-roll.

“Shut it.” Gaige hissed back as the gate slowly pulled to the sides. Once it was cleared, a portcullis was raised and then with the low groan and grind of gears, a walkway extended across, followed immediately by a number of scruffy looking, but well-armed people.

To their credit, none of them tried to disarm the girls. In fact, it seemed that they were more interested in making sure that there wasn’t anyone else out there then with them. A few of them rushed over to where the man had fallen onto the deck and helped him up, throwing his arms over their shoulders and rushing him across the walkway. The girls shrugged and followed them across. As soon as the rest of the people who had rushed out were back, the walkway retracted and the gate closed.

Looking around, Gaige saw that the place looked like she had seen from above, only it was in worse shape than she’d thought. Obvious wear and tear could be seen on the hinges to the doors on most of the buildings. The people looked like they’d only recently hit a hard time, which was a bit of a shock to her. But most of all, the lack of heavy weapons worried her. Places like this relied on those to keep bandit raids away, her only thought was that there must be something in the large building to her side, a building so large it took up almost half of one of the ships.

Motion to her side drew her attention away from her surroundings and she got her first real look at the man whom she had been talking with.

He was a beefy man, one who looked like he had been a mountain of muscle in his prime, but had now gone a bit soft around the middle. His hair had once been black, but was now shot with more salt then pepper and his mustache was the same, though it was well trimmed. He wore an old military style uniform, no doubt from his days in service to the corporation. But he had seen better days. His left eye was covered with a rough patch, a strip of cloth with a Vladof emblem that had no doubt once been attached to a medal or something else, now affixed to it. His left hand was tucked into the front of his uniform, telling of some kind of damage to it that he was failing to hide, which was highlighted by the cane he leaned heavily on.

“So, we meet. I am Commandant Riviavich, of the glorious people’s army of Vladof.” He stated, clicking his heels together and nodding to them. “And this is Logovo Medevedya, The Den of Bears.”

“I’m Gaige, of no affiliation, that’s Deathtrap and this is Jinx.”

Artemis nodded to them as they were appraised by the Commandant and his followers. She returned the favor, scoping out what they had for equipment and defenses, and found it all to be lacking. It wasn’t just that their guns were old. She didn’t have a problem with older guns, but these were lackluster guns even back in their day, and that was before the wear and tear on them.

The Commandant turned to Gaige and seemed to choose her to be the spokesperson as he continued. “I see you have taste. Vladof rifle, very good. You’re friend, not so much. Still, we no hold her taste against her. Still, we need to talk. How long have you been here, and what brings you to this pit?”

“Pit? You mean the garden?”

“Garden, pit, whatever, is still place you cannot escape from. Now, if you want to stay, you need to talk, then we see.”

“Who says we wanna stay here?” Artemis asked, cocking her head and looking around, only to be smacked by Gaige. Her protest was silenced by the look the other girl gave her.

“Sorry bout that.” Gaige said, turning to the Commandant and continuing “We were looking for a ship that went missing round these parts and kinda got sucked in. We’d appreciate any knowledge you can impart on us.”

“I see. That is how we all get here. One minute you travailing fine, the next, you find this place. Still, you want help, you need earn our trust. You help us, we help you, simple, no?”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“We start simple. First, you come, look at Ratch farm.”

“Ratch farm?” Artemis asked, unable to contain herself.

“Yes, is how we get most food. Easy to breed, eat anything. Not so tasty, but best we can do.” He nodded to one of the men next to him and said “This Nikko, he will show you what is needing done.”

And with that, he started limping off.

The man, Nikko, looked at them and turned. “Follow me.” He said. He was a thin man, dirty, with knee high boots that were covered in muck and surrounded by an unpleasant aroma.

They followed along after him till they got to an enclosed area, filled with Ratch, squealing and crawling over each other. He turned to them and said “Before we begin, just know that I’m not the only one keeping an eye on you.” When they nodded, he continued “Right, so the problem we’re having is that somehow they keep getting out. They’re not escaping the base, but they’re getting into everything else, eating wires as well as the few crops we have. We need you to figure out how they’re doing it. That’ll be your first task.”

And with that, he walked a ways away and sat down, pulling out a gun and started cleaning it.

Gaige looked at the squirming mass of disgusting Ratch and said “Don’t even start.”

“What?”

“I know, this is messed up, but don’t start, don’t say anything, let’s just get to work.”

“Fine, but what am I supposed to do?”

“I donno, aren’t you good with figuring out animals and stuff?”

“Yeah, maybe, but these are Ratch, they’re vermin, usually you just figure out where they’re nest is and burn it or smoke it or something, not keep them.”

“Well, just look around, we need to get on these people’s good side.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do we need on their good side?”

Gaige stopped and looked at Artemis, seeing she was serious Gaige sighed and told her “Look, we don’t know how long we’re gonna be stuck here for, right? And this seems to be the sanest group that we’ve found so far, so if we can get information out of them, great, we get it and move on. But if we find that it’s gonna take a while to figure out what we need and how to get out, then the more allies we have, the better. I know you’re not used to having to rely on others, but trust me, this may come in handy.”

“Fine. And I think the problem is that they’ve chewed through the wires in the fence.”

“Huh?”

“The Ratch. They’ve chewed through the wires in the electric fence, back there I think, and that’s how they’re sneaking out.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, there seems to be a mass of them in that area, and one of them keeps bumping the fence. It’s the only area that I can see one doing that, the rest of the fence they’re keeping away from, so that’s probably it.”

Gaige nodded and turned to Nikko “We’re gonna need some new wiring and some metal plates. And a welder of some kind, doesn’t really matter what kind, we just need to cover the wiring up.”

“Wait, you’ve solved it already? Gregor’s been trying for a week and hasn’t found anything. What is it anyway?”

Gaige told him what they thought, getting a nod out of Nikko. “I’ll be right back. Don’t forget, there’s still eyes on you.” And he took off to get the supplies they requested.

In no time he was back with someone else and between them they had a box of parts and a small welding kit.

“Right, I’m gonna need someone to keep the Ratch away while I work.” Gaige said, looking around. The two men looked at each other like she was asking them to kill themselves, which caused Artemis to sigh and state “How do you feed them?”

“Well, we usually just throw a bunch of dinner scraps and other waste in there and let them fight over them.”

“And how long before we get more of those scraps?”

“Um, we just ate a few hours ago, so it will be a while.”

“Great, guess we’ve gotta do this the hard way. I’m gonna need two large sheets of metal, or one curved one at least this big.” She said, holding her arms out.

Getting nothing but confused looks she added “Now, or do you wanna wait till after supper?”

“Right. I’ll get them right away, but how’re you going to lift them? And what are they for?”

“You’ll see.”

The two of them headed off again, leaving the three of them alone. Artemis just shook her head and muttered “How are they still alive?”

It wasn’t long before they returned with a large curved piece of metal being carried between them and another pair of guys. They set it down with a grunt and looked at Artemis expectantly. She ignored them and turned to Deathtrap and nodded. He flew over and examined the sheet of metal and grabbed it, easily hefting it and flew over to where the power was out.

Carefully he started lowering it into the pen, pausing while the girls grabbed nearby poles and started shoving the Ratch out from where it was lowering. As soon as it was down, Gaige got to work as Deathtrap continued to hold it in place.

“I get it.” Nikko said “That way they won’t try and bite you as you work.”

Artemis nodded silently and waited, fixing the fence was a one girl job at this point and there wasn’t much for her to do. Next to her, Nikko started talking, it seemed he was the kind of person that liked filling any silence with noise.

“So, these Ratch are the ones for eating, we’ve got a Broodmother in her own pen and once she births a new one, we take it out and put it in one of these pens for it to grow up, but these are the only ones getting out, so we were getting worried about what to do, especially since these ones will be ready to eat in a few days and without them we wouldn’t have enough to eat.”

Artemis tuned him out and kept her eyes open, making sure nothing went wrong as she wished Gaige would speed up. But Gaige being Gaige, the repairs didn’t take long and before anyone knew it she was instructing Deathtrap to get the metal clear so they could turn it back on. As soon as she did, one of the Ratch, probably the same one as earlier, trundled over and bumped into it, causing it to get shocked and hop away with a screech.

“Well, that’s fixed.” Gaige said, looking around only to find the men quickly scrambling to grab the tools and scatter, leaving only Nikko to stay. Looking around to find the cause of the sudden desire to look busy she spotted a well-built woman walking up.

“I see he continues to waste new supplies.” She declared, her voice thick and low, with only a hint of the Vladof accent on it “Let me guess, he did not even bother finding out what you two did before you came here?”

“No, he didn’t.” Gaige answered, eying the woman. She had at least three-forths of a head on Gaige, not quite enough to tower over her, but enough to make Gaige feel small next to her. It wasn’t just her height that made Gaige feel small either, despite the well-developed muscles that were showing, the woman had a chest that was full enough to make Gaige jealous. It strained against the dark cloth of her outfit which consisted of a short tank top under an open jacket, whose sleeves were rolled up and loose pants. Looking up at her, Gaige took in her dark hair, pulled back and loosely tied out of the way of a face that was too severe to be considered beautiful, though she would still turn heads despite the scars covering her arms and abs, with one of them lancing its way up her forehead from her split eyebrow.

“So, let me ask, what did you two do? Before all this?”

“Uh, I’m kinda between jobs at the moment.”

“And before that?”

“I was a wedding planner.”

“Wedding planner?” She said as if she’d never heard of the job.

“Yeah, I planned weddings. You know, found the right location, organized the catering, planned the seating and the entertainment. Plus a whole bunch of other things.”

The woman looked at her like she was speaking in tongues.

“What, you don’t have weddings here?”

“We do, but they just go to the Commandant and he declares them married.”

“You mean, no party? No celebration? Nothing?”

“Niet, so I do not think you will be of much use. And you?” She said, turning to Artemis, who was a bit taken aback by this woman.

“Um, I was a hunter?”

“Why do you say that like you do not know? Still, a hunter. One who hunts. You, I can use.” She turned and looked at the fence a moment before turning to Gaige “And you, you say you are wedding planner, yet you fix fence with apparent skill, you are hiding something? Yes?”

“Aren’t we all?” Gaige replied with a blank expression.

“Yes.” Came the serious reply “Everyone that comes her from outside seems to have something they hide. Still, you two have many…how you say…” She ran her open hand in front of her left arm.

“Cybernetics?”

“Yes, that is word. You have many cybernetics. And you are accompanied by a robot. Do you know about these things?”

“Uh, yeah.” Gaige replied.

“Then why did you not say so?”

“You asked what my last job was, not all the jobs I’ve had, nor what our specialties were.”

“I see. I will be more thorough in my inquiries in the future. But for now, I can use you two.”

“You keep saying that, but what are you thinking of using us for?”

“In time. First, how did you get here? I thought that new ships were in the clear zone?”

“The what?”

“Clear zone. The, um, zone where no one goes. Between the walls.”

“Like a no man’s land?”

“I do not know that phrase. But if it means a land where no one goes, then that is it.”

“Look, we’re new here, that much you already know, so we have no idea about anything, can you help fill in some of the blanks?”

“Blanks?”

“Things we don’t know.”

Her eyes narrowed before Gaige clarified “Just some things about the area, nothing about this…camp?”

“Base.”

“Right, base.”

“Very well, I will answer a few questions if it helps get you to answer mine. Ask.”

“OK, so first, what’s beyond the wall?”

“I was gonna ask what’s all the way down.” Artemis added.

The woman glared at them before answering “No one knows. Either of them. No one who has crossed the wall has ever come back, all we know is that there is something in there, something hungry, that is why the wall is there.”

“And the second wall?”

“A long time ago, there was only one wall. But people kept vanishing. The thing on the other side wasn’t getting through, but still people would disappear. So, the second wall was built. Now no one goes into that area, and they have stopped vanishing. Except for the ones that die.”

“Die?”

“Yes, bandits attack our collection teams or they stray into another zone and do not come back.”

“Um, do you have any kind of map?”

“Yes. But you cannot see it. That must be earned.”

“OK. And what’s all the way down?”

“I have never been down myself, but the elders tell tales of descending to the depths. They tell stories of what they find down there. After you prove yourself, I will tell you some of them.”

“And how do we prove ourselves?”

“You do two things for me. You do them, and I will tell you everything you wish to know.”

“And they are?”

The woman stared at them for a moment before she turned to Artemis “You are a hunter, yes?”

“That’s what I said.”

“This means you can track?” Getting a nod, she continued “Then I want you to find my brother.”

“Sorry, what?”

She swore under her breath “Right, you know nothing. We send out groups. Mostly to patrol for incursions, repair the wall and to scavenge, food, weapons, supplies anything we need. We search the ships for what we can. This is what my brother was doing. But he did not come back.”

“Did anyone else that was with him?” Gaige asked.

“No. Entire patrol, gone. If you find him, the Commandant will welcome you.”

“They’re that important?”

“He is his son.”

“Wait, you’re the Commandant’s daughter?”

“You didn’t know?” When the girls shook their heads, the woman’s eyes widened and she swore in Vladof before continuing “Apologies, allow me to introduce myself, I am Alexandrite Katarina Mericovia Riviavich, third in command, leader of the Bears, at least I was.”

“That’s quite a mouthful.” Gaige said “What do we call you?”

“You call me Alexandrite Katarina Me”

“I’m just gonna call you Alec.” Gaige said, interrupting her.

“A-Alec!?” The girl squeaked, obviously surprised at the name.

“Yep. Now, Alec, where was your brother last seen?”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 16

Garden of Minos

“You want me to track someone, across solid metal, after how many days?” Artemis muttered, carefully examining the top deck of the ship.

“What was that?” Gaige asked from a little way behind her.

“Nothing. But how do you expect me to track this guy when everything’s metal?”

“That is why we did not send anyone to look for him.” Came the voice from Alec. She had demanded to go with them, despite her position, telling them that even if they did find her brother, they wouldn’t recognize him and he probably wouldn’t trust two strangers, which they had to agree with.

Artemis was displeased to have her along and not just cause she didn’t know how the woman fought, which could put them in danger if and when a fight broke out. Still, she had to admit, having someone that knew the lay of the land might prove invaluable, should anything happen.

“What’ve you got.” Gaige said, walking up.

“Well, someone’s been here.” Artemis said, rubbing her finger against a droplet of dried blood she’d found on the deck “Though it’s hard to tell how long ago that was. I have no idea on the oxidation rate of blood here, heck, I don’t even know how we’re breathing.”

“Yeah, must be something at the base of this or something.” Gaige said, leaning in and examining the blood “Still, how long do you think it’s been here?”

“Day, maybe two. It’s headed off in that direction.” She said standing up and dusting her hands against her pants while nodding to one side.

“Right, lead on.”

Artemis nodded and headed off in that direction, examining the ground as she went, occasionally turning and heading in a different way, eventually she stopped, just after jumping to the next ship and looked around. Retracing her steps, she looked over the edge of the ship and said “I think they went down.”

“Right.” Gaige said, turning to the third girl “Before we go any further, if we go down, can we get back up?”

“Yes.”

“How.”

“I suppose you need to know, so here it is. There are a number of ways. First, some of the ships have been connected by stairs or ladders, very challenging to do, so there aren’t many. The next way, a number of cranes have been installed on the sides of some ships, they lower a small platform down and you can ride it up. The other ways include a number of cables and ropes that are lowered, but since you have to climb them, they aren’t favored. The last major way is also rare, but a number of ships have some kind of launching mechanism on their deck. I do not understand how it works, and in fact I think they all work differently, since some shoot you up with what feels like air and others an energy surge.”

“Alright, and are there any in this area?”

“No, the nearest one is a ways that way.” She motioned back the way they’d come and a little off to the side.

“So they wouldn’t be able to get back up.” Gaige muttered.

“I don’t think they were thinking about that.” Artemis interjected “The way the blood’s splattered, I think they got hit hard and were fleeing for their lives.”

“My brother is no coward!”

“She never said he was.” Gaige snapped before taking a breath and continued, trying to calm the woman down “But everyone has a point where they have to fall back, especially if he was trying to protect the troops that were with him.”

“What’s in the area? Enemy wise?” Artemis asked, ignoring the outburst.

“There shouldn’t be anything.” Alec replied.

“Then why’s scavenging these ships not more common? I mean, it looks like most of them haven’t been touched yet.”

“Take only what you need. That is my father’s philosophy.”

“But things go bad quickly.”

“Look, we need to know this stuff if we’re gonna help.” Gaige added, more than a bit tired of having to play the peacekeeper, especially since she was feeling pretty irritable herself.

“Fine. Like I said, there should be nothing out here, but that doesn’t mean that bandits do not probe our borders, or that there are not things out here that once lived on the ships, pets and the like that have gone feral. So, we need to be cautious, but there has not been anything in a while.”

“Which is the perfect time to push.” Artemis muttered “Right, we need to go down.”

Alec looked like she was going to argue, but Artemis just stepped off the edge and dropped out of sight. Gaige looked at her and shrugged before following her friend off the edge. Deathtrap gave her a look and motioned for her to go. Swearing under her breath, Alec looked down and with an odd whimper dropped. Deathtrap followed immediately after.

She landed a bit heavier than the other two, staggering slightly and stumbled towards the edge of the ship, only to be stopped by Artemis catching her arm and pulling her back.

“You alright?” Gaige asked her as Artemis turned away and continued looking around for the trail.

“Yes, thank you.” Alec said with a nervous gulp “I-I do not care for heights.” She finished with an embarrassed turn.

“You live on a series of ships, and you don’t like heights?” Gaige asked incredulously.

Alec felt her face heat up, and she turned away in irritation “No.” She quickly changed her statement.

“We all have something we have trouble with.” Artemis said, standing up “My list is pretty extensive.”

“Oh? Like what.”

“People. I don’t care for people.” Came the reply “This way.”

“She’s not kidding about that.” Gaige said, walking past Alec as she followed her friend while muttering “Man I could use a drink.”

“Urgurr” Deathtrap said with a shrug and followed after.

Alec watched them go, staring after them in confused silence. She couldn’t figure out if they were insulting Artemis, her or were being serious. And she didn’t know which would be worse. Shaking her head, she hustled to catch up.

It wasn’t long before they had to drop down another level to keep tracking the trail. As they came to the edge of another ship, Gaige spoke up.

“Do we have any idea where this leads or who it’s leading us to? I mean, as far as we know, we’re following a wounded bandit.”

“It’s possible.” Artemis said, looking up “But unlikely. There are scuff marks around the blood, not to mention small things that undoubtedly fell off from where they were being carried.”

“Wait, what did you find?” Alec interrupted.

“Nothing major. Just a button on the previous layer, bits of foil from what I’d guess was some kind of either travel ration or, like, the stuff mechanical parts sometimes come in.”

“Oh, you mean like that anti-static foil?”

“Something like that. Plus, there were a few used Insta-Health vials.”

“And you did not think to mention any of this?” Alec snapped

“No.”

Alec let out a string of curses in Vladof, before calming herself and saying “May I see this button you found.”

Artemis shrugged and pulled it out of her pocket before dropping it in the woman’s hand. Alec brought it up and scrutinized it, turning it over in her hand.

“This is from one of their uniforms, though I cannot tell from whose.”

“See, like I said, we’re on the right trail.”

Gaige leaned in and asked “How many Insta-Health vials did you find?”

“Two, why?”

“Trying to figure something out.” She turned to Alec and asked “How many did they have with?”

“What?”

“Insta-Health vials. How many did your brother’s group have with them when they left?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Answer me and I’ll answer you.”

“Ugh, you two are exasperating. Fine, they had four with them when they left. Medical supplies are precious here.”

“That’s what I thought. They were a precious resource and yet they used half of their supply while moving, which means someone was hurt pretty bad.”

“Which means we need to hurry.” Alec declared.

“You can’t rush this.” Artemis countered and turned back to the trail.

She jumped to the next ship and stopped, head cocked to the side. Gaige held up her hand when she saw the irritated Alec open her mouth to say something.

After a long pause, Artemis turned back to them and Gaige asked “What’d you hear?”

“Gunshots, a ways off, probably down and that way.” She said, pointing off in the general direction that they had been headed in, but a little off to one side. “Though I can’t be sure, this place echoes weird.”

“I hear nothing.” Alec stated flatly.

“Yeah, neither would anyone else, but she’s got a gift, and not just to irritate the crap outta me. Besides, I trust her.” She turned to Artemis and declared “Lead on, but make it quick, if there’s a firefight and they’re involved, we don’t want to be late.”

Artemis nodded nonchalantly and picked up her pace, jumping to the next ship as she did. It wasn’t long before Gaige could hear the sounds of gunfire echoing up to her. Next to her Alec swore and started to run forward, only to be stopped by Artemis.

“What’re you doing? We need to get down there and help them. That’s my brother down there!”

“If you give away our surprise before we’re ready, you’re gonna be fighting this on your own, cause we’re outta here.”

“Why you!” Alec seethed.

“Now now,” Gaige said, trying to calm her down “She didn’t say we wouldn’t help, only that we have to be smart about this.”

“My brother could be dying down there, we need to get moving.”

“And if you don’t want to be dead before you see him, follow our lead.” Gaige snapped

After Alec stopped, gun in hand, Gaige nodded to Artemis and walked over to the edge of the ship.

Looking down and ahead she could make out a fair number of bandits and psychos on the deck of one of the ships. From the look of it, they’d blown one of the hatches off the ship and were in the process of forcing their way in.

“Right, we’re going down.” She announced to Alec as she stepped to the edge, but the woman just stopped and watched as Artemis walked away.

“Where’s she going?” She snapped.

“Huh? Oh, she’s gonna stay up here, don’t worry, she’ll help out when the time comes.” And with that, she stepped off the edge.

Alec looked from the edge, to Artemis and back to the edge before swearing and stepping off, following Gaige down.

She found the girl pressed up against the raised midsection of the ship, peeking around it and looking at the bandits. Alec tried to ignore her and was about to charge, when the floating robot slid in front of her and shook his head.

“We need to get closer before we begin.” Gaige whispered to her “Follow me, and don’t get spotted.”

With that, she took off, dashing across the top of the ship and jumping to the next ship, always keeping part of the next ship between her and the bandits.

Alec wanted nothing more than to just charge in, killing the bandits as she went, but she knew that alone, she had no chance of saving her brother, so bottling up her anger, she followed along.

It wasn’t long before they were on the next ship over from where the shooting was happening, hiding against the raised section. Gaige peeked around, taking in what was happening. It honestly didn’t look good. The bandits had managed to press past the door, and a number of them were already inside, though there was still a fair number milling about on deck, waiting for the door to clear so they could follow inside.

Gaige whispered into her ECHO “All set here, you good?”

“Whenever you are.”

“Right.” She checked her assault rifle before nodding to the other two behind her and added “Then start us off.”

The first shot destroyed the head of one of the bandits who was using a knife to try and pry something out of his boot. The bullet ricocheted into the back of a psycho’s head, staggering him forward and causing him to fall off the deck of the ship and out of the fight.

Gaige bounced her eyebrows at the other two and swung around the cover, breaking into a run as she did so. She hit the edge of her ship and jumped across as the bandits scrambled around, trying to find where the shot had come from.

Even before she’d landed, Gaige had her trigger depressed, sending out a stream of bullets into the waiting crowd. She watched the shots tear through the first two before they’d even registered that she was there and by the time her boots hit the deck, the cry was going up.

She felt more then heard Alec land just behind her as she brought her own rifle up and started contributing to the firefight.

Every few seconds another head exploded, sometimes accompanied by a second as Artemis ricocheted her bullets around the fight.

It took only a few moments for the deck to be transformed into a bloodbath, with dead bandits and psychos littering the deck. Alec ignored that and ran for the open hatch, only to be snatched back from it by Deathtrap as the opening erupted with fire as the bandits inside let loose.

“Look I know you’re worried about your brother, but you won’t be any use to him dead.” Gaige snapped in exasperation. “Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be a commander or something.”

Alec spun around, eyes glowing with anger “I am.” She snapped, before looking at the girl and letting out a breath “I mean, I’m normally a lot better than this, it’s just that Alezander is my little brother. He’s the only one who gets me like this. I don’t know, whenever he’s in trouble, I seem to be unable to stop myself from having to rush over and bail him out.”

“So why weren’t you out looking for him?” Came a voice from next to her, causing both of them to jump.

“Damn it, stop sneaking up on me.” Gaige snapped at Artemis. Before muttering “I’m starting to get serious about attaching a bell to you.”

“How did you…” Alec said, hand against her chest. For the first time, she appeared to have dropped her guard and was showing an honest face, even if it was a bit pale.

“She does that.” Gaige said “And no, you never get used to it.”

Artemis looked annoyed, like she thought she was getting made fun of, so she was a little snippish when she said “Well, what are we waiting around out here for?”

She spun her rifle onto her back and pulled her pistol as Gaige swapped her assault rifle for her shotgun. Alec looked at the two of them as they seemed to move as one.

“Ready?” Gaige asked.

Artemis nodded and spun across the open hatch, firing into the darkened interior as she did. Gaige heard the wet sounds of bullets tearing through flesh and as soon as the return fire started, stuck her shotgun out and fired, hearing a satisfyingly meaty noise from within.

Just as Artemis snapped her cylinder back closed, Alec dashed into the opening, spraying bullets as she did. The girl’s eyes met as they exchanged a look of frustration before diving in after.

Gaige quickly caught up with the woman, catching her shoulder and slamming her out of the way, just as a buzz-ax flew through the space she’d just been in. Artemis fired into the now open space, killing the psycho and as she was squeezing off her second shot, had to yank her hand to the side as Alec stepped right in front of her barrel.

Losing her cool, Artemis grabbed the woman by the back of her jacket and slammed her into a closed door on the side of the hall.

“If you ever step in front of my line of fire again, I’m not gonna alter my aim, got it?” She snarled before shoving her way past the stunned woman and charging down the hall. Artemis kept low as she went, before springing up and off the wall just as she got to the corner, coming around it above the level of the bandit’s guns. She fired off the rest of the cylinder as she went, before hitting the ground and rolling behind the rest of them.

Gaige took advantage of the chaos to follow along, spinning around the corner and finishing off the last of the bandits that was there.

“How many more?” She asked, sliding a new clip into her gun.

“Only a few. But we should’ve left her behind.”

“Yeah, well, we’re just not use to her, but too late now. Which way.”

Artemis snapped her cylinder closed and tossed her head to indicate which way to go.

“Right. Alec, we’re almost there, just follow along this time.” Gaige said, as kindly as she could, before hustling down the corridor that had been indicated.

Alec blinked and looked after her for a moment, before dashing past Artemis with a glower. As soon as she’d caught up with Gaige, she expressed her displeasure.

“I have never been talked to the way you two have just done.”

“Yeah well, what’s the problem?”

“First off, your friend is extremely rude.”

“Well, she did tell you she’s not a people person.”

“She threatened to shoot me.”

“You did cross her line of fire.”

“Well, my troops know how we move.”

“In case you forgot, we’re not your troops. And you’ve been butting into the way we do things, so of course she’s gonna be mad. But she did get you this far, so be a bit more grateful.”

“Of course I’m grateful, it’s just…”

“Shhh.” Gaige interrupted “We’re almost at them.”

She slowed down as she heard the incessant banging coming from ahead. Peeking around the corner she spotted three bandits with guns ready, all aimed at the door that a badass psycho was trying to pound its way through, all under the direction of another bandit, this one with a air of command about him, made more evident by the differently designed mask he was wearing.

Gaige turned and mouthed out what she saw to Artemis, who had just slipped up next to her.

“You got the badass?” She whispered back “I got the rest? Or do you want the Anarchy?”

Gaige checked her gun, looked to Deathtrap and they both nodded. Gaige held up three fingers and pointed to herself, to which Artemis’s mouth narrowed, but she nodded back and spun the rifle off her back.

She held up her hand and counted down on her fingers and when she hit zero, they dashed around the corner.

Gaige closed the distance before they even realized that she was there and just before she got point blank, Artemis fired, striking the badass in the head and bouncing the shot into the leader.

Gaige fired into the leader’s face, just as he started to turn, making his head disappear in a spray of blood. The other three bandits froze for a second, watching their boss slump to the ground, dead. The psycho on the other hand immediately turned and spotting Gaige bellowed out “I want hair in my sausage!” And raised his hammer.

Artemis didn’t bother trying to figure out what the gibberish meant and instead sank another shot into his head, staggering him and causing his swing to miss. Gaige took the chance and spun, firing into the next of the bandits, killing him before he had a chance to get his gun up. She shot her shoulder forward from the slight crouch she was in, slamming it into the stomach of the next bandit and jamming him against the wall, buying herself enough time to kill the third one and stepping back, dropped the last one, even as Artemis switched to her pistol and fired three times in rapid succession as she walked forward, killing the psycho.

Slipping fresh rounds into her pistol she called back to the stunned Alec “You’re up.”

“Wha?”

Gaige turned to her and clarified “They should be on the other side of this door, so you need to let them know that it’s all clear. They’ll trust you, right? That’s why you came along.”

“Right.” She said, stepping forward and choosing to ignore the casualness the girls had about killing a whole lot of people. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to death, it’s just that most of the people from the outside weren’t so casual about killing, it made her wonder what the two of them had seen, but she decided to shelve that for now and focus on the task at hand.

She raised her hand and banged on the door before yelling “Little bear, little bear let me in.”

There was a moment of silence and then from the other side of the door a voice called out “Alexandrite?”

“Who else would be stupid enough to come bail you out.” She yelled back “Now open this damn door.”

The girls looked at each other, this wasn’t the reunion that they’d expected. Alec sounded irritated and like she would beat her brother as soon as he opened the door.

Noticing this, she shrugged and said “You two, only child, yes?”

“I was.” Gaige said, and Artemis nodded her ascent.

“If you had a sibling, you would understand how you can want to kill someone and hug them all at the same time.” She smiled slightly before turning back to the door and bellowing “We are waiting!”

“Well, you will have to wait a bit longer, I can’t get the door open.”

“What do you mean, you can’t get it open, this is why I tell you to build muscle.”

“That wouldn’t help, I think the door must have been damaged or something.”

Alec let loose a string of Vladof curses and turned to the girls “I do not suppose that either of you has anything to cut open this door? Plasma cutter perhaps? Do you think we can find something on this ship?”

Gaige leaned in and examined the door “Well, it’s certainly warped.” She declared.

“Any chance Deathtrap can push it open?” Artemis ventured “Or we can use a Digi-blade to cut the lock?”

“Maybe, lock should be about here, so why don’t you give it a go.” She said, pointing to an area near where the metal was dented.

Artemis crouched down next to it and looked closely at it, examining it from a few angles before popping her Digi-blade and stabbing into the narrow gap. She wiggled it around a little and stepped back, stating “Well, I think I got it, buddy, you think you can get this?”

Deathtrap shrugged and switched places with her, braced himself and gave the door a mighty shove. Nothing happened for a few seconds and then with a mighty screech, the door opened, revealing an anxious group of people staring at them.

The man at their lead, who was probably younger than Artemis, though he looked older than her, nervously held his gun on the giant robot that filled the door. When it slid aside and revealed the women, the tension melted out of him and he slumped to the floor with a smile on his face as Alec stepped forward and threw her arms around him.

Turning she said to the other girls “I would like to introduce you to my brother Alezander Karlious Marious Riviavich.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 17

Garden of Minos, The Bear’s Den

As soon as the introductions were finished, and they’d checked on the wounded, the party headed back. It wasn’t long before they’d made their way to the front gate of the Bear’s Den, only to be stopped as the guard on duty ran to get the Commandant.

Soon a very displeased man was glaring down at them.

“You disobey direct order.” He bellowed “Additionally you take assets out of base without clearing it with me first.”

“You never even found out what kind of assets they were before you squandered them on fixing a fence.” Alec yelled back.

“SILENCE!” His voice boomed “You dare talk back to me?”

“With all due respect…”

“You talk respect, yet you show none.”

“If I hadn’t acted when I did, the bandits would have killed or taken them. They were almost at them when we got there.” She protested.

“Be that as it may, I cannot let this insubordination go unpunished. You will be confined to quarters until further notice.”

“Yes sir.” She replied, snapping to attention.

“Now someone get gate open and get wounded to infirmary.” He yelled back into the base.

Seconds later the gates opened. As they did, Artemis turned to Alec and said “That wasn’t fair, you only did what you could to save your brother.”

“I knew what I was doing and was prepared to face the consequences.” Alec said “I got off lucky, I was expecting much worse.”

“Day’s not over yet.” Alezander said, patting her on the shoulder “But for what it’s worth, we appreciate it. That goes to all of you.” He added smiling at the rest of them.

He grabbed the shoulder of one of the injured and helped walk them through the open gate, and just as he got to the other side, was stopped by the Commandant.

“You, help Nerig.” He barked to one of the others near the gate before turning back to his son “I need Alezander for debriefing. That goes for you two as well.” He added, looking at the girls.

Not wanting to disrupt things any more than they already had, they followed along and soon found themselves in a waiting area. The chairs had no doubt once been in one of the ship’s rooms, and were not the most comfortable to sit in, but far from the worst. They were upholstered in red that had worn to the point of being threadbare pink, with the lacquer that covered the wood peeling off in sharp chunks that Gaige found herself unconsciously picking at. The rest of the room consisted of a small table off to one side where they guessed coffee would be laid out if they actually liked the people that were waiting.

They sat there in silence until one of the uniformed troops arrived and announced that the Commandant would see them, before leading them to an office that must have been inside part of the ship.

The office was well furnished, if a bit militaristic and austere. The only real decoration was a Vladof flag hanging behind the Commandant’s chair. Other than that, the office consisted of a large desk, which the Commandant was currently behind, a couple of chairs in front of it and a cabinet against each of the walls.

After they had sat in the offered seats, the Commandant leveled a cycloptian stare at them.

“In your words, tell me what happened.” He declared.

The girls looked at him, then each other before shrugging and Gaige launched into what had happened. She made the choice to not leave out anything, nor try and spare anyone’s pride by making them sound selfless, only telling what had happened as she saw it.

When she finished, the man sat back and stared at them. Shifting his focus to Artemis he asked “And that is how you remember?”

“Yeah.”

“This is good then, no one lies. Still, you must understand my position. I can not allow the appearance of insubordination. Alexandrite needs punished, or others will think it favoritism. Do not mistake, I would have gone after my child myself if I could, but my position requires sacrifice of self. Still, I thank you, you bring son back to me. Now we need to work on finding better use for you. Talk to Istavan, he will find what you do.”

With that, he must have pressed a hidden switch because the door slid open and their escort walked in. The Commandant looked at him and said something in Vladof that the girls didn’t catch, but they did catch Istavan. The escort saluted and motioned for the girls to follow him.

Just as they were about to leave the Commandant added “Oh, one last thing. While you were gone, another ship arrived. Are they related to you?”

“Not that I know. What kind of ship was it?”

“Unknown, we do not have up to date files. But it smaller than yours.”

“Did you try and contact them?”

“No.”

“You didn’t contact us either, I gotta ask, why?”

The Commandant looked somewhere between pensive and embarrassed as he answered “It is broken.”

“The radio? And you only have one?”

“Only one left that will reach new ships.”

“Then why didn’t you have us fixing that instead of a Ratch pen?”

“Trust.”

“Well, the first thing I’m telling Istivan is to take me to the damn radio.” Gaige grumbled before turning to the escort and snapping “Well, you just gonna stand there? Lead on.”

The man looked at them in surprise, not used to being ordered around by people who weren’t ranked above him, but he rolled with it and led them back outside. They crossed the length of the base and went into the tower that jutted up from the far ship and after a few turns and a flight of stairs, stopped in front of a closed door.

The escort knocked twice on it and waited, a few seconds later the door slid open and a voice inside demanded “What?”

“Sir, the Commandant has ordered me to deliver these two to you.”

“So, they’re the newcomers, eh? Well, you’ve done your part, get outta their way and send them in.”

The escort saluted and stepped out of the way, motioning for them to enter.

They stepped into the room and looked around. The space had at one time been rather large, but now it was cramped with stacks of paper and boxes overflowing with stuff. Directly ahead of them was a large desk, mounded with papers, data cards and any other means of communicating ideas. Behind the pile was a folded-up man. He appeared to be rather tall and well built, but crammed into a space that Gaige would’ve found tight. He had a shaved head, but it had a few days of stubble showing on the pate. His beard was forked, with a line of silver running down each side. He had a number of scars visible, but his eyes were kind, even if they did look like he wouldn’t put up with any wastes of his time.

“Right.” He said, digging through the stuff on his desk, till he came out with a ledger “Names first.”

“I’m Gaige, that’s Deathtrap and this is Jinx.” Gaige said, taking the lead for the group.

“Right, and what’d you do before coming here?”

“Well, we’re actually between careers at the moment.”

“Lady, everyone that arrives here is between careers, it’s part of getting stranded. What was the last jobs that you lot had?”

“Uh, I was a wedding planner.”

“A wedding planner? Seriously? Let me tell you what a wedding around here’s like. Do you, good. And you? Great, you’re married. Done. And what about you?” He said turning to Artemis.

“Um, I was a hunter?”

“What, you aren’t sure what you did? Or were you really bad at it? Either way, that I can use.”

“Urrgurr”

“Yeah, I kinda got that from lookin at you. Alright, any skills or anything I should know about, and try and keep them relevant, I don’t need to know that you know thirty-seven ways of arranging flowers.”

“Well, I don’t know how useful it’ll be around here, but I’m, let’s see, a Vault Hunter, a mechanical engineer, a robotics expert, cybernetics specialist, a fair hacker and a expert at jury-rigging.”

The man stared at her for a second and then spat out “Why didn’t you say any of that before?”

“Because you asked me what my last job was.”

“OK, fair, but what’s someone with that skill set doin plannin weddings?”

“Trying to find something I wanted to do, and I kinda fell into it. What’re you doin behind that desk?”

He rubbed his face and sat back. Looking at them a moment before he let out a weary sighe “Look, sorry about this. You see this stack of crap? This is just from today. I need an assistant to keep everything flowing, but they always need them to man the towers. Or be Ratch handlers. Or whatever else needs a body shoved into it, and it’s not like we get a lot of new faces around here. So, I’m a bit cranky, plus we ran out of coffee, like decades ago. And I’m meanin the real stuff, not that Digi-structed mud they serve in the mess.”

“I’ll trade you a cup of it for information.” Artemis said.

Everyone in the room spun at her in disbelief. One at her offer, two that she’d spoken up. She ignored them all and dug a thermos out of her pack and held it up.

Istivan dumped the remains of whatever had been in his cup into the trash and hastily wiped it out. Artemis took it and poured it full of rich smelling black coffee and handed it back.

He held it up to his nose and inhaled “Oh, that’s something that they can never get right, that sweet, sweet scent of perfection.”

He slowly brought it to his lips and took the smallest sip. His eyes squinted shut in pure pleasure. He took a second sip and held the mug against his chest before sighing deeply. After a moment, he reluctantly opened his eyes and looked at the girls. “Nice, almost as black as I am. So, what’ya wanna know?”

“Well, I guess the big things would be, do you know where the ‘Ranger’s Iron’ is?”

“What’s at the bottom of all of this?”

“Do you have a map?”

“Why…”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it. I can only answer one question at a time, and that’s about as many as I can remember at once anyway, so start over, and ask one question at a time, including relevant details.”

The girls looked at each other and Gaige nodded, so Artemis asked again “We’re looking for a ship, named the ‘Ranger’s Iron’.”

“When did it get here? I said I need details.”

“Um, let’s see, it would’ve got here about, what? Thirty, thirty-two years ago, something like that. It was a Jakobs ship and, uh, that’s about all I know about it.”

“Not much to go on. It doesn’t ring any bells for me, but I’ll ask around, someone might remember something.”

“That’s the best we’re gonna get.” Gaige said with a sigh “Not blaming you, I mean, we’re looking for a needle in a Skag den here, so we appreciate anything you can get us.”

“You’re welcome, and it’s good to see someone appreciating that I can’t work miracles.”

“Hey, trust me I know. I’ve done repair work before and it’s like, everyone wants to ignore you and keep piling work onto you until it’s impossible to keep up, and then, rather than get you help, they just rag on you some more.”

“Finally, someone gets it.”

“If you two are done commiserating, I’d like to move on?”

“You really have got to learn to read the moment.” Gaige said patting the other girl on the shoulder.

“Nah, she’s right. As much as I want to keep going, talkin to someone who finally gets it, you should also get that the longer this takes, the further behind I’ll get, though maybe if I get far enough behind, someone will recognize that I need help. Either that or punish me, but if that involves getting sent to another department, I’d still call that a win. Anyway, enough of that. What’s your next question?”

“What’s at the bottom of this thing? Like all the way down.”

“Wow, sorry but, two for two. I mean, I don’t know. No one does. I think that if we knew that, we wouldn’t be here anymore. Look, all I can tell you is what I’ve heard, never went down that far myself.”

“Anything might prove to be important.”

“Alright. Now remember, this is all hearsay, but from the stories that I’ve heard, if you go all the way down, down to the very bottom ring of ships, all you see below you is swirling fog so dense that it’s like looking at a planet from space. No one who ever penetrates that fog has ever returned and it’s not known if there is anything below it, but shortly after we were stranded here, an expedition went down. After the main party rappelled down past the fog, there was the sound of gunfire and then nothing. But the strange part is that those who were above the fog said that it lit up with blue fire, and that red and blue will o’wisps could be seen breaking the surface.”

“The only other stories that I’ve heard came from someone who’s been here much longer than I have. He tells that in one section, creatures will break the fog before diving back in, strange things, like living cloaks. At least that’s how he described them.”

“And that’s it? That’s all you know?”

“That’s it. Anything else I can help you with before I get back to work?” He asked, taking another sip of coffee and sighing.

“Do you have a map?”

“Of what?”

“This place, what would I need a map of somewhere else for?”

“No need to get snippy. Yes, we have one, and before you ask, no you can’t have it. This is out of my hands, you have to get the Commandant’s permission to see it and that’s all there is to it.”

“Fine. Can you at least tell us the lay of the land?”

“Well, I guess I can always say it was to help you do your job better, so fine. Let’s see, that way, you’ve got the creature. No one knows what it looks like, or what it is, just that people vanish around the inner wall, so no one goes that far anymore. Everyone’s got their own name for it, but no one knows what’s in there, from what I hear, your ship should’ve gotten parked right next to its territory, scary thought.

“On the far side of that is the Bloody Gear clan, group of bandits and psychos led by some psycho named Splinterhead, a real crazy bitch, even for a psycho. If she catches you, she’ll likely kill you for the clan’s amusement. Other than that, I don’t know much about them, they’re kinda not dealt with all that much bein that they can’t get here.

“Between them and us it the Rust Devils, they’re a lot smarter than the Bloody Gear’s, but nowhere near as bad. Their leader, Cap’n Clot is rarely seen, most of their activities are under the direction of a Tink by the name of Stripe, though everyone just calls him McStumpy, mostly due to his peg leg. It was probably his men that you encountered. They’re dangerous, using guile and wits to try and capture their victims. Still, we would rather have them next to us then the Bloody Gears, so they prove to be a useful buffer.

“Let’s see, other than them, oh yes, the opposite way from the creature’s territory, on our other side is the Silent Death. It’s not a gang or anything, it’s just this large swath that anything that goes in there, dies. No one knows why, some think that one of the ships in there was hauling something and it leaked out, others think that it’s some kind of vent from down at the core, but the truth is that no one knows, and no one’s goin in to find out.

“I guess that leaves the last side. That’s where the debris fields are. There used to be another settlement, kinda like this, out there. But one day, they fell out of contact, so we sent a team out to find out what’d happened. Thing is, when they got to where the Horizons Star used to be, they found only destroyed ships. Not just the Star either, but over a hundred ships, just torn apart. Since we didn’t hear any explosions, we don’t know what happened to them. In fact, one of the guys you saved, Nerig, was from there, he happened to be here on a trading trip when it was destroyed.”

“Are there any other settlements?” Gaige asked.

“There’s one somewhere, almost on the other side of the place, but since we can’t get there, we don’t really pay it much mind, just a few radio communications, or we did, until the radio went down. Speaking of which, I’m supposed to assign you your tasks, and that’s the first one on the list, fix the long-range radio.”

“Well, it’s a better use of our talents then Ratch herding.” Gaige muttered.

“Right, you said you were an engineer and a repair person.” He turned to Artemis and asked “I forgot to ask, since your friends got so many hidden talents, did you do anything besides hunting?”

“No.”

“Oh, still useful I guess.”

“She’s being modest.”

“No, I’m not, I’ve never had a job besides being a hunter.”

“Yeah, but you’re also an expert at craftsmanship. Trust me, if you want it fixed, I’m your girl, but when I need parts, she’s mine.”

“Huh?” Istivan seemed confused by the statement.

“She’s a wiz at making things. Very precise, high quality stuff.”

“OK then, I should let you get to it.”

“Wait.” Artemis said as Gaige stood up. Everyone waited for her to continue as she sat there until Gaige nudged her “Um, is there anything else that needs repairs. It’s just that, well, if we need to go out and scavenge parts, or I have to find somewhere to make them, it would be better to do it all at once, right?”

Istivan eyed her and nodded “You’re not wrong. I’ll send you to the Bear master, he can determine what else to tell you.”

“Can I ask you something?” Artemis said.

Istivan arched an eyebrow as if to say ‘What?’.

“It’s just that, well, you seem different from most of the rest of them around here.”

“Not much of a question, but I get your drift. Truth is, I’m not from here, or rather I am from here, but not from the here that…you know what, I’m just gonna start over. Reason I seem different is cause I’m from this ship, whereas most of the rest of them were from the Vladof pair. See, back in the day we were in the middle of this corporate war. Not just us and Vladof, there were a number of others involved as well, but they were the ones we were fighting around here and we were observing them when we found ourselves stuck here. Next thing we knew, a pair of Vladof ships parked next to us and at first, we were all at each other’s throats, but then my captain had a meeting with Riviavich and Karivona, their captains, and they came to an understanding. Since none of us was getting out of here, we should work together and since Riviavich had two ships to our one, it was better if he led. And that’s how we ended up like this. Still, gotta say it’s worked out a lot better than if we’d just tried to kill each other.”

“What happened to your captain?”

“He was part of the expedition that went down. I was his first mate, so I had to stay behind and mind the base. Guess it worked out in my favor.”

“Wait, why would the captain himself go?”

“Some said it was so Riviavich could get rid of his competition, but I don’t buy that. It was simply that they needed a leader to go with to inspire the troops. Well, enough time spent going down memory lane, you two should get to work, unless you have any more questions?” He said, taking another sip of coffee and sighing contently.

“One other thing.” This time it was Gaige, looking at Artemis, who interrupted “If we do need to make a part, do you have the facilities here? Or will we have to go find a ship? And if so, where’s the nearest ship with a good machine shop?”

“Um, we have a small shop here, but nothing for large parts, or specialty stuff. I’m not sure on the best ship for that, you’d have to talk to one of the scavengers, Alezander would be your best bet, see if you can ask him.”

“Right, well, first to the radio, then to this Bear master.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 18

Garden of Minos, The Bear’s Den

It turned out that the radio was trash. It would be easier for them to find a completely new one then to fix this one, though the operator seemed strangely reluctant to part with it. But, in the end she had come around to their view. Still, Gaige did an inventory of the parts that would be required to fix it, just in case.

After leaving the communications post, they headed to find the Bear master and see what they needed. It took a bit of asking, but eventually they found themselves outside of the massive building that dominated one of the ships. The main door reminded them of the ones they’d seen on the Project Odysseus station, in the loader repair bay, a massive sliding sheet of metal big enough for a WAR Loader to walk through. Since they really didn’t need that much space to enter, they went to the smaller door to the side and knocked.

A minute later the door flew open and a small woman stood blinking at them.

“Whadaya want?”

“Uh, we’re looking for the Bear master?”

“Who’re you, I ain’t seen you before?” She asked.

“We’re new here.” Gaige replied, wanting to rub her temples.

“Then why would I show you to the Bear master?”

“Because Istivan sent us, said we could help. Especially since we’re already heading out to get the parts we need to fix the radio.”

“And why should I believe you?”

“Cause we wouldn’t be walking around by ourselves otherwise.” Gaige snapped.

The woman looked at them for a moment and then finally said “Wait here.”

She slammed the door in their face and left them standing there. As the time passed, a few people walked past, giving them odd looks as they went. Eventually the door reopened and the woman popped her head out.

“Alright, your story checks out and the master will see you now. This way, and don’t touch anything.”

She led them inside and followed along the wall. On their other side, they could see a huge open area, dominated by eight massive frames around what appeared to be some kind of mech suits. Various parts, welding tanks and other tools were scattered around them. The lights in that section were turned off at the moment, but even so, they could tell that each and every one of them was in a state of being repaired, with hatches hanging open and limbs removed.

The woman didn’t give them time to examine them, instead hustling them along and into a door in the back, which led to an office.

Behind the desk that must have been drug up from one of the ships was an elder man. His grey hair was cut short, leaving a bristly steel layer across his head, which matched his thick eyebrows and iron-colored eyes. His mouth was hidden behind a large drooping mustache, but even so, they could tell that it was permanently pulled down in a frown.

His clothes, an old jumpsuit, open at the front, was covered in grease stains, its collar frayed and yellowed. The dark shirt he wore beneath it was also covered in stains that couldn’t be identified, but bulged with muscles underneath.

He squinted at them, his left eye narrowed almost closed and he let out a displeased grunt.

“So, these are the so called help I’m bein sent?”

“Yes sir.”

“Bah, they look worse than the last group. At least those ones looked like they could lift the wrench.” He turned his ire at the girls and continued “So what makes you think that I can use you?”

“Well,” Gaige snapped back, not at all cowed by his attitude “For starters, you can’t use us, but we might be willing to help you, which it looks like you need. I mean, you couldn’t even cobble together one working unit?”

“What would you know.” The man barked at her “You think that you can tell that just by walking in here?”

“Yes” Artemis shot back “You wouldn’t have left them in the dark and all torn open without a single one of them working if you could fix them yourself.”

“Smart ass little brat.”

Gaige continued “Here’s the thing, we’ve got to go out and get the parts to fix the radio, or more accurately, find a replacement. And since I’m an engineer and a mechanic, I’m supposed to find out what’s needed to get you back up and running, and help how I can. So, let’s cut the crap and why don’t you tell me what’s wrong with your suits.”

“You think a snot nosed little punk like you’s gonna fix what a forty-year veteran like me can’t? Fine, if you’re so confident, go look at them, figure it out for yourselves. But when you fail, you’re gonna be servin me coffee for the next month.”

Gaige shrugged and left the office, she could hear not only Artemis behind her, but the other woman as well. Turning slightly as she walked, she called out to her “Turn the lights on so I don’t trip over something, would yeah?” before continuing up to the nearest suit.

As the lights came on, she took in the rows of mechs. She recognized them as early Vladof Bears, though after seeing one of the newer models recently, she couldn’t help but think that they’d made great improvements over the years. Still, these older ones were incredibly durable and rarely burned out, especially with regular maintenance, which she couldn’t imagine the old man neglecting, so she needed to get to work figuring out what had gone wrong.

The next few hours were spent examining the suits, taking things off and testing the exposed parts, as well as asking the woman what was wrong with them.

“I thought that was for you to figure out.” Was all she replied with.

“Well, even you guys knew what the pilots were saying they were acting like, right? So, the least bit of knowledge of that is owed to us if you really want our help. Or if this is just a ‘watch them fail so we can laugh’, if so, tell me now so we can all save some time.”

“Here’s the complaint log, figure it out yourself.” Came the gruff reply from the doorway, where the old man was standing with a binder in his hand. It seemed that he wanted to get the Bears up and running after all.

Artemis took over reading the list of complaints to Gaige as she worked on the Bears, with Deathtrap helping with the heavy lifting.

Eventually Gaige sat back and picked up her cup of coffee, taking a moment to breath.

The moment was interrupted by the gruff voice of the master asking “So what’s wrong with them, and how are you gonna fix it?”

Gaige turned to him and said “Well, you ran out of the right kind of grease for them, didn’t you? That probably contributed to the wear on those one’s joints. I mean, you used the best you could, but nothing works like the proper stuff. We’re gonna have to manufacture a new collar to insert into the joint after we drill it out, which is the easy part. The hard part is that you’ve got circuit damage on all of them, not to mention a whole bunch of blown fuses, which you don’t have replacements for. That’s not counting all the other wear and tear on them, like that one’s targeting array being out of calibration or those three’s energy converters on their left cannon’s being toast.”

“Hurmph” The old man snorted “And if that’s what’s wrong, how’re you gonna fix it?”

“Well, she can handle the making of the joints, not to mention some of the circuit repairs, but for that, and the rest, we’re gonna need to get to a real machine shop, not this kiddy crap you’ve been working with. So which ships got the best setup, and is within range?”

“Wouldn’t know.” Came the reply.

“You’d have to talk to the expeditionary squads to find that out.” The woman said.

“Fine, where can we find them?”

“They would probably be in the mess right now, since it is dinner time.”

“And what? You two aren’t joining them?”

“We tend to eat in here.” She replied “Unless there’s a reason to join the rest.”

“Fine, where’s the mess?” Gaige asked, keeping the snarky shot about the state of the room to herself.

The woman gave them directions and the girls headed out. It wasn’t long before they found themselves in a large room, filled with long tables covered in what could only charitably described as food and surrounded by people shoveling it into their faces. Glancing around they found the Commandant sitting at the head of the room, and next to him was a line of what were obviously the important staff of the base. There was also a chair empty two down from him, where Alec would’ve been, if she hadn’t been confined to quarters.

Before they could spot the person they were looking for, the Commandant saw them and called them over.

“So, Istivan has you on repair detail. Even letting you see Bears. He pressed into you that everything you see is confidential, yes? Good. I will be needing report later, for now, grab food.”

“Uh, thanks.” Gaige managed, looking at the chunk of cooked Ratch on the plate, next to some Digi-structed other stuff that she couldn’t identify but thought it might have once been mashed potatoes but was now something else entirely. “But I think we’ll pass.”

“Nonsense, you must eat, and do not worry, we all eat alike here, builds camaraderie.”

“Really, we’ll pass. We just needed to find one of the expeditionary leaders and ask them a few questions before we can continue our work.”

“It will wait till after dinner. When you work, work. When you eat, eat. Is Vladof way.”

“Yes, well, we’ll go outside and wash up before eating.” She lowered her voice and continued “We have food in our bags that we need to eat before it goes bad, so we’ll eat it outside, so not to disrupt your camaraderie.”

She turned and walked away before he had a chance to respond, which no doubt displeased him, but she wasn’t about to eat Ratch if she could help it.

By the time they’d found somewhere to wash up and got back, dinner seemed to be over since there was a large stream of people exiting the building. They watched the mass of people walk by till a few of them broke off and headed their way.

They recognized a few of them as some of the group they’d rescued earlier, and at their front was Alezander. Gaige took the moment to actually get a good look at him, she’d been preoccupied earlier with trying to get them back safely. He stood a little taller than her, but a bit shorter than his sister, and other than the color of their eyes, they didn’t look all that much alike. Where she was muscular, he was lanky. Her hair was dark, and his was blond. Her face was severe, while his was open and expressive. But most of all, it was the way people around them acted. With her, they’d been afraid, and she was cold and aloof to them. He had an arm around one of the others and they all seemed to be sharing a joke, so it seemed that he was well liked by his fellows.

He walked up and casually raised a hand in greeting while saying “Hey, glad I caught you. We wanted to thank you personally for saving our skins, even Nerig, who didn’t come back with all of his skin, wanted to thank you for bringing back what you could. So, thank you. If you ever find yourselves in need of anything, just let us know, we’ll see about sneaking it in. Within reason, of course.” He added with a conspiratorial wink.

He paused and then, like he’d just remembered something carried on “That’s right, you wanted to ask us something earlier, in the mess?”

“Yeah.” Gaige said, noticing that his eyes seemed to be drawn away from her, but let it slide for the moment “We’re in need of a ship.”

“Well, we got those in spades, though I don’t know what good it’s going to do you.”

“A specific ship.” Artemis said with no small amount of exasperation.

“Anything you need.”

“We need to know the nearest ship that has a full machine shop on it, preferably one with electronics as well.” She flatly stated.

“Nearest ship like that…hmm…that would be the Astrivalius. But that one’s in the Rust Devils territory. So, the best one that you can get to would be…I guess, it would probably be either the Dawn’s Ray or the Quartermaster’s Pride.”

“Yeah” One of the others piped in “Quartermaster’s Pride would most likely have the better shop, but it’s a bit harder to get to and from.”

Alezander nodded “Though if I knew what you needed it for, I could probably help better.”

Gaige looked at him and said “We’re not allowed to say.”

“Oh, so old man Verichenko’s got you working on his precious cubs, has he? Don’t worry about it, we know everything that needs to have parts found for them.” He said with a smile and a shrug.

“So how do we get to these ships?”

“I’ll show you in the morning, for now, you should get some rest.”

“I’d rather get this started.”

“Sorry, gates are closed for the day. We can only go out during certain hours without special permission.”

“Well then, let’s go see the Commandant and get permission.”

Alezander shrugged and turned to his friends “I’ll catch up with you guys latter.”

“Don’t leave without us.” One of them called back as they gave a wave.

“Alright, follow me.”

A few minutes later they found themselves standing in front of a closed door, which he knocked on.

“Enter.” The gruff voice from within barked.

Alezander opened the door and stepped in before snapping a salute, the easygoing attitude he’d had up until then dropping.

The Commandant nodded to him and declared “At ease. What bring you here at this hour? It not about your sister is it?”

“No sir. These two are requesting permission to leave the base.”

“In morning.”

“That’s what I told them, sir, but they seemed to want to carry on with their task now.”

The old man turned to them and asked “And what is so important that cannot wait till morning?”

“Well, we’re supposed to fix the radio, as well as the Bears, and we feel that getting communications and defenses up is more important than sleeping. Or at the very least, getting started as soon as possible would be for the benefit of everyone.” Gaige snapped off, used to this kind of boss from a number of her jobs.

“Verichenko approved?”

“He did.”

“Very well, you make valid argument.” He turned to Alezander and asked “And your opinion on this?”

“As much as I would like to have our workers rested before they head out on a dangerous task, I do concur with what they said.”

“Very well, select two of your force and send them out. I make sure gate knows.”

“Sir, I would like to volunteer.”

“You just got back from a hard expedition, you need to rest. Denied.”

“Sir, they need the best.”

“And you heard my order. You will stand down.”

“Yes sir.” Alezander relented, but didn’t sound happy about it.

“And none of your squad that just come back either.” The Commandant added “Dismissed.”

“Sir.” With one last salute, Alezander turned and led the girls out.

After a short walk, his posture slumped and he sighed “Well, not everything we hoped for, but not bad.”

Gaige eyed him “You act different around him.”

He tensed up for a moment and then smiled guiltily and said “It’s a bad habit. When you’re out with the troops, and your life is held in a matter of split seconds, formalities kind of fall by the wayside. Truth is, I’m more comfortable out there, with my troops, than I ever am in here. Alexandrite’s the same way. She’s a real hard case in here, feared by everyone, but out there, she actually smiles.”

“So why doesn’t she join you?”

“Because someone has to stay here and mind the base. One of us can be loved, and the other feared, at least that’s what she said, and she thinks that she’s better at her role, and truth be told, I have to agree with her on that. Though I think it’s really that she doesn’t like having to jump between ships.” He paused and hastily added ”Don’t tell her I said that.”

The girls shrugged and soon they were in front of a building that must have led to the barracks. With a “Wait here.” Alezander entered.

“What do ya think?” Gaige asked softly when they were alone.

“About what?”

“Oh, him, the base, the job?”

“I think he talks too much.”

“Not as much as me though?”

“I like talking to you.”

“But not him?”

Artemis just shrugged.

“And the rest?”

“Well, the base is falling apart, and not just cause of disrepair. They have families here, but there are too few here anymore, and I think the bandits are getting desperate as well.”

“Really?”

“They’re pressing past their territory. The only reason a predator changes it’s territory is either if it’s out of food, or something stronger moves in.”

“Yeah, neither one of those sounds good. But I see what you mean. The recent attack?”

“Yep. It seemed to catch these guys off guard, which means they’re just starting to test the border.”

Gaige nodded “And the job? You think you can do it?”

“If you give me the plans, I can make it.” She replied with a smile.

“I know you can.”

“So the real question is, do you think we can do it?”

“For everyone’s sake, I hope so.”

Catching the raised eyebrow, she continued “Look, when we go for whatever’s at the bottom of this, we’re gonna need all the help we can get, and the more of their Bears that we have on our side, the better.”

“Fair point. Oop, sounds like they’re back.”

A moment later and the door opened. Alezander walked out with two other young men.

“This is Yerik and Havlig. They are the two best expeditionaries that I can offer you. They will not turn you wrong.”

“We heard about what you did, and we thank you for it. Whatever your current task, we will see it done.” Hevlig said. Yerik just nodded.

“Wait, they don’t know what we’re doing?”

“We do, you must get to the Quartermaster’s Pride, yes? And also maybe the Dawn’s Ray. Other than that, we don’t need to know.”

“Fine.” Artemis grumbled “Let’s get going, before I think of any more reasons to regret this.”

[ima_pseudonym_2]

Chapter 19

Garden of Minos

They made their way past the gates and followed their guides across the field of ships in near silence, interrupted only by the occasional instruction from Havlig. It seemed that he did most of the talking for the two of them in a way that reminded Gaige of her relationship with Artemis. Havlig seemed to be the more talkative one, while Yerik kept his eyes contently moving, always looking for enemies. In fact, since they’d been introduced, Yerik hadn’t said more than five words to them, which at least told her that he could talk, he just didn’t seem to want to.

After a while, they paused, and while Yerik was scouting out ahead to check the path, Gaige tried to take her mind off of how much she wanted a drink and how she still wasn’t getting anywhere with figuring out what was wrong with Artemis, so she took the chance to try and get to know her guide.

“So how’d you two end up drawing the short straw? You lose a bet with Alezander or something?”

“Why would you think that? You think spending time with two young and beautiful ladies would be punishment for us? Are you kidding? And besides, with the way Alezander bets, he’s more likely to be the one owing us.”

“No good huh?”

“Let’s put it this way, when it comes to gambling, he could call a one-sided coin wrong. But don’t tell him I said that, OK?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks, but just to be clear, we all love the boss, and we can’t begin to express our gratitude at you bringing him back safe. Also, when I said he’s terrible at gambling, I only meant actual gambling, like cards and dice and stuff, when it comes to gambling with his life, that boy has more luck than the rest of the squad put together, I mean, the number of tight scrapes that he’s come out of is unbelievable.”

“Oh, I bet I could believe it. I’ve had my share and then some, though in my case, I’d say it’s got more to do with having a friend or two by my side to get me through.” She said casting her gaze over to where Deathtrap and Artemis were talking.

“I’ll bet you have, not that I’m meaning that you seem like you get in trouble or anything, just that you seem like someone who knows how to handle themselves. I kinda screwed that up, didn’t I?”

Gaige sighed in exasperation “Don’t worry about it, I’m getting used to dealing with someone that can’t form a sentence without screwing it up. Though lately, I feel like it’s me that’s getting it wrong.”

“Really?”

“Ah, forget I said anything.”

“I don’t know, seems like you want to talk about something.”

“I don’t know you well enough for that.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Good.”

They fell into silence for a moment, and Gaige scanned the horizon, not seeing Yerik. “He alright out there? Yerik I mean.”

“He’ll be fine. If something had happened, we would have heard something.”

“Donno about that, he seems pretty quiet.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty good about that, not as good as your friend though, sometimes I couldn’t even hear her moving.”

“That’s not what I was meaning, but yeah, I’m thinking of getting her a bell or something. But what I was meaning was that he doesn’t talk much.”

“Nah, he would talk your ear off, it’s just that he is a little shy and gets nervous around new people, especially girls.”

“What, he doesn’t have anyone back at the base?”

“No, though I think he does have a bit of a thing for someone, not that I think he has a chance, but that’s not my place to talk about.” His tone dropped a fair amount of the jovialness, becoming serious. “But you should be careful.

Gaige looked at him, realizing that he was struggling to say something so she let him mull it over for a minute before he continued.

“You may have noticed, but, well, there is a bit of a shortage of women at the base. I mean, it started out as a military thing with more men than women on board and then they got stuck here, so there were about a third as many women as men. And things haven’t really improved, the number of kids that have been born isn’t all that high, so females are kind of sought after, I mean, everyone wants to have, um, you know.”

“Relationships?”

“Uh, sure, we’ll call them that, anyway, most of the women are already spoken for, or actively shun that kind of thing, and even they generally get pressed into it. That sounded wrong, I’m not meaning that they are forced into doing stuff, it’s just that they tend to face a lot of pressure to settle down and help expand the base, not that we’ve had much of that for a while. And I’m not suggesting that they are only good for that, but, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to see. But are you sure that you should be telling me this? I mean, doesn’t telling me this give us reason to not settle down at your base?”

“No, well, I guess I see what you mean. I just thought you should know. Besides, where else are you going to go?”

“We’re gonna get out of here. And I don’t just mean the base, but out of this trap.”

He smiled sadly “Everyone says that, but no one ever does.”

“We’re not normal.”

“Yeah, I believe that, but I just thought you should know, so that when you do realize that you might have to spend the rest of your lives here, you can be ready.”

“He’s back.” Artemis said from next to them, causing them both to jump.

“I see what you mean about the bell.” Havlig said, putting his hand to his chest.

Artemis ignored him and pointed for Gaige. She followed the direction and spotted Yerik hopping from ship to ship as he approached. If she hadn’t had him pointed out, she wouldn’t have spotted him, he was that good at keeping to the shadows.

He landed on their ship a minute later, surprised to see everyone looking at him as he approached. Havlig patted him on the shoulder and said “Sorry pal, she spotted you a good fifteen ships away.”

“Wha?”

Gaige nodded at him, but Artemis just said “And?”

“It’s clear.” He replied softly.

“Right,” Havlig said “Let’s go.”

He led them across the field of ships, eventually dropping down a few layers till they could see the massive bulk of their destination. It was almost as big as a dreadnought class ship, easily taking up space in two of the lines of ships.

Gaige looked at it and then looked around at the ship they were standing on and finally asked “I gotta ask, but, why haven’t you guys scavenged all these ships yet?”

“What makes you think we haven’t?”

“They haven’t been pried open. Look, I’m an engineer, and I know that no one leaves their ship without locking it up first, no matter how deserted the area seems, and none of these ships show any signs of tampering.”

“OK, fine, you got us. We haven’t opened up most of them. In part, it takes a lot of effort to crack open a ship, not just manpower, but supplies and such. And beyond that, we have most of what we need at the base, the only things that we’re constantly looking for are more ammo and medical supplies. Of course, most of what we’re actually out to get are repair parts for things, I mean the list of them is longer than you are tall, but we don’t have the ability to check all the ships. So, we tend to scout around, find ships that seem to be the most likely to have the parts we need, and spend our energy getting them open, then we take our time stripping them of what we can and noting the stuff that we have to leave behind.”

“And you’ve already raided this ship? Will there even be anything left for us to work with.” Gaige griped.

“No, we haven’t cracked it open yet.”

“Then why are we headed there, what if there’s nothing in it and this is all a waste of time?”

“A ship that size has gotta have a workshop, right?”

“I hope so, let’s get down there and see what we’ve got.”

They made their way till they were directly over the ship and dropped down onto it. Their guides then set about opening the door until Gaige shoved them out of the way, irritated that it was taking so long. The guides tried to look over her shoulder to see what she was doing until she spun around and snapped at them to “Back off and let me work!”

As soon as the door was opened, the girls reflexively swept in, guns drawn and cleared the room, to the amusement of their guides.

“If the door wasn’t opened, there’s not going to be anyone waiting.” Havlig said with a chuckle.

“There’s more than one way into a ship.” Artemis said flatly, cocking her head to the side and listening.

Gaige waited till the other girl nodded before adding “Better prepared when it’s not needed, then to be surprised.”

“Alright, point made.”

“So, I guess we should check out the machine shop first.” Gaige said “Then, if it’s good, I can work on finding us a new radio.”

Artemis nodded “Works for me.”

The Next Afternoon

Gaige had headed back with the radio components she’d managed to scavenge, leaving Artemis and Deathtrap behind on the Quartermaster’s Pride, since they were well on their way to manufacturing all the parts that were needed. Artemis had assured her that she was fine, and since she’d brought along the blueprints of what she needed to make, she’d get right to work on them. Deathtrap had stayed behind to assist her, especially with the heavy lifting, as well as protect her in case it was needed, not that she couldn’t handle herself in a fight, but in case she was attacked by overwhelming force.

As soon as she’d got back to base, Gaige set about fixing the radio and as soon as it was working, sent off a message to Artemis. Getting the all-clear reply, Gaige had called it a night, and went to bed, finding herself sharing a room with a woman that she’d never seen before.

She missed having her robot around to keep an eye out while she slept, and therefore only got a light rest, thoughts of someone sneaking up on her kept pulling her awake at every little sound, till she gave up and went to where the Bears were kept to get some work done while she waited for her friends to show up with the parts. She had been surprised to find the Bear master and his assistant working on one of them when she’d got there, but it turned out that they were getting everything prepped for when the parts arrived.

She started working on her own Bear, stripping out the damaged and worn parts and getting everything ready that she could, though it took longer than it should have since everything kept going wrong, like nuts not coming loose, and when they did she would bash her knuckles. But in the end, she got it apart. Before she knew it, morning had come and the Bear master’s assistant, who she learned was named Caz, brought everyone a mug of something that tasted like coffee made with battery acid and engine grease, still, it helped keep her going.

It was mid-afternoon by the time that Artemis returned, carrying a bag full of parts, while Deathtrap followed along with a set of replacements for one of the Bears.

She informed Gaige that the rest of the parts were ready and to send some of the expedition guys back with Deathtrap to fetch them, before she curled up under one of the shelves and instantly fell asleep, something that irritated Gaige for reasons that she couldn’t articulate. She found herself repeatedly glancing over at her and having to resist the urge to throw a wrench at her or deliberately make a loud noise just to mess with her. She did her best to ignore her as she went back to work.

About the time the first batch of parts arrived, with the poor expeditionary troops struggling to carry one part each, the Bear master spotted Artemis and kicked her awake, informing her that if she wanted to sleep, she needed to go find a bunk.

She stretched and pulled a sandwich out of her bag, before setting out to find somewhere to sleep, while munching away. Gaige just shook her head and went back to work.

Before she knew it, the expeditionary troops had finished bringing the parts up, and Alezander, who led the last group, plopped down on a crate near where Gaige was working.

“Whew, these things are heavy. You sure that they will work? I mean, I’d hate for us to have had to lug them all the way back up here only to find out that there was something wrong with them.”

“Trust me, if Artemis made them, they’ll work.” She grumbled, still irritated at the other girl for no real reason.

“Who’s Artemis?”

“Sorry, Jinx.”

“Huh?”

“I have a nickname for her, it’s kinda a personal thing, so only I get to call her that.”

“Ah, she must really like you.”

Gaige just sighed and thought about it for a moment before replying “I used to think so. Actually, I think you’re right, she does like me, or at least she used to, now? I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Sorry.”

“Why, what’d you do?”

“Nothing, I just thought that you two were really good friends.”

“We are, I think. It’s just that, well, we hit a little snag is all.”

“It’s not because one of you’s blaming the other for getting you two trapped here, is it?”

“No, we hit this before we got here. Look, you seem nice and all, but I don’t think I’m comfortable talking about this with you. No offense.”

“None taken. But as long as we’re on the subject of her, I was wondering something.”

“Now what?”

“Well, I know that this may be a bit forward of me, but I was wondering if she, well, uh, is she seeing anyone? I mean, before she got here? You know, like, does she have anyone that she’s hoping to get back to? Someone that would hold a special place for her?”

“Wait, you mean like a boyfriend?”

“Or a husband or fiance?”

Gaige looked at him for a moment before her eyes widened as she declared “You’ve got a crush on her, don’t you?”

“Well, I don’t know about that, it’s just that, well, um…”

“You do. You’ve got a thing for her.” She let out a snort of laughter.

“Well, if you are just going to mock me about it, I’ll see myself out.” He declared rather defensively.

“No, no, it’s not that. I was just surprised is all. I mean, I think you’re the first person since I’ve met her that’s shown that kind of interest in her. Though to be fair, there hasn’t been all that many eligible people that we’ve met.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“So, she doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

“So, do you think I’ve got a chance?”

“Maybe.”

“So, what does she like in her men?”

Gaige froze, it suddenly hit her that she had no idea, for some reason, she’d never asked her about that. It was pretty standard girl talk, yet she’d never asked, almost like she didn’t want to, like she had a feeling about what the answer would be, and she didn’t want to hear it. Or at least that was what suddenly flew into her mind as soon as she realized it. Shaking her head, she replied “I actually don’t know.”

“What? How can you not know? Are you not her friend?”

“Dude, screw you.” Gaige snapped at him, even as she knew that she wasn’t mad at him, but she couldn’t help but feel the heat rush to her cheeks.

Alezander seemed taken aback by the force of her anger, but just held up his hands and said “Sorry, but how can you call her a friend and not know such things? That is about all that some of us guys talk about as we traverse the ships. Is it really so different? What girls talk about, I mean.”

“Uh, I’m really not the best person to ask about that. I mean, the last time I had a real ‘girl talk’ was between a ten-year-old demolitionist and a Siren, so we mostly talked about killing stuff.”

“Wait, you knew a Siren?”

“Three, no wait, four, five of them. Wow, that’s actually quite a lot of them really.”

“You’re making this up, trying to make a fool of the kid in the middle of nowhere.”

“Yes, you caught me, I’m making it up to impress someone like you. Seriously? I really knew five Sirens, though to be fair, one of them wasn’t a Siren when I knew her.”

“You’re being serious? Wow. I can’t even imagine meeting one of them.”

“Yeah, they’re kinda weird, to be honest.”

“I will have to take your word for it. But I have to say, I am a bit surprised that you have traveled with Sirens. Well, actually what I was going to say, was that I am surprised that you’ve never had a girl talk with Jinx.”

“Well, it’s not that we haven’t had talks about girl stuff, but most of them didn’t get anywhere close to ‘girl talk’. I mean, let’s be honest, neither one of us is all that girly.”

“I don’t know, I at least cannot help but see you as women.”

“Not what I’m meaning. But I guess you might not really get that since you’ve lived in a place like this for, wait, how long have you been here?”

“I was born here.”

“Really? So you’ve never seen, well, anything outside of here?”

“No, though I have heard stories.”

“Wow.”

He just shrugged.

“So you really have no idea about how girls act? I mean, if the few that I’ve seen here are anything to go by, they all seem pretty tough, so I guess you might not get what I mean by girly.”

“Not really.”

“Yeah, I guess…I really don’t know how to describe them, except not me. I mean, they like girly things, but that’s not really useful is it? Um, they like stuff that isn’t practical, like dresses and stuff. Yeah, I can’t really describe them.”

“Oh, like the pictures on the old calendars and the women in the old books?”

“Uh, sure? Though that would depend on what kinda pictures those were. Don’t answer that.”

“Uh, sure, but they’re not what you’re thinking of. But still, I get it. I think. But no, I can see what you mean about you not being all that much like them, but that is fine. I mean, you can handle yourselves, and that’s important.”

“Right. I would much rather be in comfortable clothes then something that looks good to the kind of person that I wouldn’t like to be with anyway.”

“I get it. I mean,” He looked around nervously before continuing “The uniforms that the rest of the people have to wear are so uncomfortable, it’s one of the reasons that I love getting out of here, so I can wear my expedition clothes.”

“Yeah, never got the formal clothes thing myself. I mean, I get it for the corporations and all, but I don’t work for anyone but myself, so why not be comfortable? I mean, I did have to wear some fancier clothes once in a while when I was working, but that was for special occasions. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Artemis, Jinx, in anything close to formal clothes, let alone girly clothes.”

“You mean like dresses and stuff?”

“Yeah.”

“I would kind of like to see her in one.”

“I’d rather see her be comfortable myself, but I kinda get what you mean. So, sorry if this is weird, but what exactly do you like about her?”

“You mean you don’t?”

“Of course I do.” She snapped before taking a deep breath and continuing “But what I like about her, and what you do are completely different things, I’m betting.”

“You want to wager on it?”

“No.”

“Oh well. I guess what I like about her is how cute she is. I mean, she seems so much like a doll, not that I have any mind you. Actually, the only doll that I’ve seen was Gretta’s. She had one when her ship got stuck here, that was a number of years ago, but she carried that thing everywhere for the longest time. I guess it was some kind of reminder of the outside world or something.”

“A memento.” When he gave her a blank look, she explained “That’s the word for something like that, it’s a memento of her life before.”

“Huh? If you say so. Anyway, where was I?”

“You were saying that you liked how doll like Arte…Jinx was.”

“Oh yes. I like how small and fragile she looks, like she could break under any pressure, how she seems to be putting on a tough act, like she’s trying to scare everyone away. I know that she is tough, I mean, she did help save me, which is another thing I like, but I really like how she hides her feelings behind that tough girl exterior, and it just makes me want to protect her.”

“Wow, you really don’t get her.” Gaige said without thinking “I mean, needs protection? Her? This is the girl who slaughtered her way through a bandit camp when I’d been kidnapped by them. Single-handedly mind you. This is a girl who likes living by herself, who gave up a fortune just so that I could see my family. So let me tell you, beneath that scary exterior, is a core of tritanium. She isn’t some frail waif looking to be rescued, but the kind of person that busts out of her own cell and rescues the prince.”

“That wasn’t what I was meaning, I was just saying what she seemed like to me.”

“I know, but you shouldn’t make assumptions about her just based on her looks or what you want her to be.” Gaige trailed off, looking into the distance, remembering what she herself had been told, that she was making assumptions about Artemis, and that to understand what was going on between the two of them, she’d need to figure out what it was.

“Sorry.” She said “I’ve apparently made my own assumptions about her, though I don’t know what they were.”

“My mom used to say, and mind you I am translating this and simplifying it, but she used to say ‘We often see in others what we want them to be.’ so I get that she is not the person that I wish she was, but that is why I asked you about her.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Tell you what, if I get the chance, I’ll try and suss out what she thinks of you.”

“Suss?”

“I’ll ask her what she thinks of you.” Gaige snapped back, shaking her head.

“Oh, well, that is all I suppose I can ask for. But if I could, can you put in a good word for me?”

“We’ll see.” She said and as he walked away muttered “I need a drink.