Anomaly on Cerka Read online

  “Ignore Jessica,” Cheeky said as she held out a hand for Jinx. “She’s an alien now, what does she know?”

  “I’m not an alien,” Jessica grumbled. “I’m more human than you are, Cheeky.”

  “Sure, Jess, whatever you say. The fact that your body’s been converted into a purple alien power plant is hawt, kay? Own it.”

  Jessica shrugged. “I guess I might as well. It’s not like you’re ever going to lay off on the alien jokes.”

  “See?” Cheeky laughed as she clasped Jinx’s hand and pushed Iris and then Jessica into the airlock ahead of her. “My plan is working. Just a couple of alien and AI girls heading out onto the station for some dancing, drinking, and if we’re lucky….”

  “There’s luck involved?” Jinx asked with a worried look on her flowmetal features. “I don’t think I’m very lucky.”

  Jessica leaned back and whispered loudly to the AI, “Sex. Cheeky’s talking about having sex.”

  “Do AIs have sex?” Jinx asked. “I barely understand having a physical body. Attraction and intimacy are totally foreign to me.”

  A boisterous laugh burst from Cheeky’s lips, and she turned to walk backwards in her towering heels, skipping past Iris to the front of the group.

  “You know what they say, Jinx….”

  “Ummm…I do?”

  Cheeky winked and then turned to face forward once more, adding an extra sashay to her saunter. “I wasn’t always an AI.”

  Jinx’s brow furrowed. “But I was, so…”

  “Jinx!” Cheeky called out over her shoulder. “Stop overthinking it!”

  * * * * *

  “Cerka’s lame,” Cheeky complained as the four women sat on a pair of sofas at the edge of Club Noir’s dance floor. “Why did we save such a lame station?”

  She and Iris had just returned from a session of gyrating that had only brought three others to the floor, so when the song ended, everyone had returned to their seats.

  “Pretty sure that we don’t save places based on the merits of their nighttime entertainment,” Jessica replied as she took a sip from her third nova bomb…or perhaps it was her fourth.

  “Maybe we should add that to a checklist of things we think about before we put our lives on the line,” the pilot said, a sulky expression settling on her normally cheerful features. “I mean…we’re heroes! I should get at least some action for that.”

  “I think it’s because we’re heroes,” Iris suggested. “Maybe we’re intimidating.”

  Jessica looked over the group and nodded slowly as she assessed her companions. “You might be right. I mean, look at us…we look like ancient goddesses who have come down to smite or save humanity. Love us and despair and all that.”

  Jinx leaned closer to Iris. “I can’t tell if she’s kidding. Is she kidding?”

  Iris laughed and shook her head, silvery hair dancing across her shoulders. “Stars, I have no idea, and I’ve spent most of my life in that purple noggin of hers.”

  “I think she’s drunk,” Jinx said as she peered at Jessica’s eyes. “But it’s hard to tell—her eyes are glowing, and I can barely see her pupils.”

  “See?” Jessica shrugged. “Goddesses.”

  “She’s drunk,” Cheeky confirmed.

  “And still human!”

  Iris patted Jessica’s cheek lightly. “Only because she wants to be. It’s a breeze for her to clear out her blood. Heck, I still have access to do it remotely.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Jessica ordered, grabbing Iris’s hand by the wrist. “I’ve been stone-cold sober since we left Orion Space, and I plan to break that streak with a vengeance tonight.”

  “OK, well, either way, we’re going to continue this somewhere else,” Cheeky said as she rose. “I’ve settled up our tab and left a tip. There’s a place on one of the lower rings called ‘The Smash and Grab’ that I think will be more our speed.”

  The other three women rose and followed Cheeky out of Club Noir. As they walked toward the door, Jessica kept an eye on a hooded man in a nearby sofa alcove. He was surrounded by women, but had hardly paid any attention to them all night.

  He had, however, spent a lot of time staring at Cheeky, rather lewdly.

  She checked his ident and saw that he was a merchant who was stuck in the inner Virginis system, burning credits while he waited for the stalemate with the AST to end.

  She considered chastising the man, but though she could read his ident, he didn’t seem to have a Link channel to talk on. Ahead, Cheeky had already reached the club’s exit, and Jessica picked up the pace to reach the rest of the group.

  At the door, Jessica took a moment to mentally congratulate herself for making it without even a wobble.

  Iris said privately.

 

  Iris sent a compassionate smile into Jessica’s mind as the four ambled down the concourse, Cheeky explaining to Jinx how to spot the best shops that carried authentic local goods.

  the AI asked.

  Jessica elaborated.

 

 

  Iris sent a feeling of agreement.

 

 

 

  Iris didn’t reply, and Jessica pushed the weighty thoughts from her mind as they reached a maglev platform that would take them to the station’s central spire.

  The group chatted idly as they entered the rear car and took a group of seats facing one another. Several passengers came by to thank them for stopping the coup on Cerka two weeks prior, and for rescuing friends from Chittering Hawk.

  Eventually, the maglev dropped them off at one of the station spire’s central hubs, and the group moved to a lift, taking it down to Ring Three’s level, where the ‘Smash and Grab’ was located.

  Once there, Jinx asked if they could walk along the spoke that led from the spire to the ring, and the others agreed, taking a broad concourse with a clear overhead that let in the system’s brilliant light, setting Jessica’s skin ablaze.

  “I have to say,” Jinx mused as they walked past a series of shops that all sold flower arrangements—and by the signs on display, were all in fierce competition with one another. “Downtime for organics is a lot different than it is for AIs. You just do mindless things.”

  “Mindless?” Cheeky asked. “I suppose we do. It’s just nice to be relaxed and not under pressure.”

  “Don’t you get that while sleeping?” Jinx asked.

  “Sort of,” Cheeky replied. “But here, we’re building the bonds of friendship as well. Making and strengthening relationships.”

  Iris snorted. “Somewhere in there is at least one euphemism.”

  “Just one?” Jessica asked.

  “Hey!” Cheeky said with an indignant squeak. “I’m more than just se—Shit…what was that?”

  The four women froze, and Cheeky passed a marker across the link, highlighting a corridor on their right that ran past a pair of mod shops.

  Jessica asked.

 

  Cheeky was closest, and her body was the best that Earnest Redding could make, so Jessica didn’t doubt the woman’s hearing.

  Iris asked as a pulse emitter emerged from the palm of her hand.

  the pilot replied as she pulled a lightwand from her thigh. danced this number before.>

  Jessica felt her head clear and glanced at Iris.

  Iris replied.

 

  Iris glanced over her shoulder as she followed Cheeky down the side passage.

  Jessica didn’t reply, other than to shoot Iris a narrow-eyed look as she followed after.

  She knew she should change her root codes. There was no reason to allow Iris so much latitude with her body when the AI no longer resided within it.

  Maybe later.

  The passage Cheeky was inching down was dimly lit, but none of the four women had any trouble seeing in it. Cheeky reached the corner, and a feed from her drones appeared on their shared channel. Jessica tapped into it and saw that a quartet of people wearing dark clothing were huddled around a door that led into an auxiliary comm node.

  Cheeky commented.

  Iris said, beginning to pull off her dress. Cheeky was already ahead of the AI, her body disappearing from view, only her floating bikini giving away her location. Then that hit the floor, and she was gone.

  Jessica glanced down at her dress, debating whether it was worth it or not for her to join the others, while Jinx—who wasn’t wearing anything to begin with—strode past her and disappeared from view.

  Jessica said as she flipped their shared channel to a combat net.

  Iris asked as she finally divested herself of her clothing and disappeared from sight.

 

 

  Jessica decided to remain clothed, and leant against the bulkhead while watching the other three women’s progress on the feeds.

  The four targets got the door open, and two disappeared inside as Cheeky reached them. One of the remaining crooks, a stocky woman, walked to the fallen station security officer and grabbed him by the ankles.

  “Jal, help me with this dick,” she said to the man standing on the far side of the door.

  “With his dick? I don’t think so. You’re on your own, Mary.”

  “Fuck you, Jal. Dude weighs a ton. Grab his arms.”

  The man pushed himself off the wall and ambled toward the other robber, only to trip and fall, barely catching himself on his hands before his face hit the deck.

  “What the hell?” he muttered, glancing back to see that there was nothing he could have tripped on.

  Mary was chortling as she looked down at her fallen comrade. “You’re such a tool, Jal. Get up already.”

  The man didn’t have a chance to reply before something hit his face, snapping his head to the side as blood sprayed from his nose.

  Mary opened her mouth to cry out, but then gasped and reached for her throat, eyes bulging as she clawed at an invisible hand.

  Then something hit her head, and she was out.

  Jinx commented as Mary fell to the ground.

  Iris said.

  Jessica walked around the corner, moving toward the downed CPS officer, while the markers for the other three women showed them moving through the door after the other two thieves.

  She pinned the feeds from her team to the side of her HUD as she knelt next to the cop.

  “Officer Dale, this is not your night.”

  She dropped more nano on him and set the pulse emitter in her left palm to emit a gentle sonar wave as she ran it over his abdomen. Iris’s assessment had been accurate; the man’s stomach, spleen, liver, and lower intestine had all split open, turning his insides into a toxic soup.

  She searched his uniform, finding nothing.

  Sheesh, where’s a canister of biofoam when you need it?

  Iris called from inside the comm node chamber.

 

 

  Jessica leaned around the corner and looked into the chamber to see Cheeky doing just that.

  “Cheeky, seriously, this station has laws about nudity.”

  “Fiiiiiine.”

  * * * * *

  “Any idea what they were going for?” Detective Alla asked Jessica as she watched the medics secure her downed comrade to a grav pad.

  “Nothing beyond the systems they were trying to breach. I guess we could have let them get further to see what they were after, but your buddy Dale here needed someone to put him back together before his insides dissolved.”

  Alla pursed her lips. “Dale shoulda known better than going down here alone. If these are the same dickheads we’ve been after for the past week, they’re dangerous. Killed more than a few people on their break-ins.”

  “Damn,” Jessica muttered. “You’d think with all the shit they’ve been through, people would have had enough of violence.”

  The detective nodded. “Most have. But there are always some who see this as an opportunity for the big score.”

  A dozen memories from her days back in the TBI on High Terra came to Jessica, and she nodded soberly. “I know that song all too well.” She clapped a hand on the detective’s shoulder. “You need anything, let me know. We’re happy to testify against these asshats.”

  “I’ll take you up—”

  Detective Alla stopped midsentence, and her eyes narrowed, locking on Jessica’s.

  “What is it?”

  “I just got pinged about a woman we picked up…she’s looking for someone from the ISF. That’s your military, right?”

  Jessica nodded. “Yeah, sure is. My crew roster is public…. This woman after one of mine?”

  “No…she wants someone named Tanis Richards.”

  VOID SHIFTING

  EARTH DATE: 07.18.2017

  LOCATION: Sol Prime, Nexus Space, 200 AU from Sol

  REGION: Another Universe

  Essentia surged around Amanda, and she sensed the powerful, reality-warping magic of the Arch Magus Void reach out and shift them both instantaneously from her room inside the Sol Prime space station to somewhere else.

  Void was a Magus, like Amanda, but an ancient one who had the rare ability to cross between universes, and she’d been interested in recruiting Amanda to her cause.

  Having agreed to help her, Amanda had not seen Void again since their initial meeting a year before. Until now.

  They stood in a large intersection of corridors in what she could only assume was another space station or spaceship. Void floated nearby, her chrome body wreathed in endlessly moving, fractal-like energy that reminded Amanda of mercury. She could see her own distorted reflection in Void’s skin. Amanda’s long, bright red hair fell over her shoulders, contrasting against her glossy white and grey bodysuit.

  Through her Aetheric senses, Amanda knew they were still in her own universe, but they were a long way from Sol.

  “Jaysus,” she cursed. “I am sensing this right, aren’t I? We’ve just Ported halfway across the galaxy?”

  “That is correct,” Void answered, her voice soft and melodious, with a curious pitching effect to it. “We’re in Crux space, close to the galactic core.”

&
nbsp; “Crux space? You can Port that far?”

  Void smiled. “I can, and so can you.”

  “Yeah, right,” Amanda chuckled disbelievingly, and looked around her.

  Corridors led off in several directions. The air had that sterile, artificial taste to it common on stations, and she could hear the soft hum of the station’s systems working away in the background. Most Riven humans wouldn’t be able to detect such subtleties, but Amanda’s enhanced senses were far from those of an average human.

  “I’m not that powerful, yet…” Amanda answered Void.

  “You’re more powerful and capable than you think. Distance is an illusion, Amanda. All things are connected. Linked. You’re limited by your very human reliance on your perception of three dimensions, but there are many more dimensions, and the quantum reality is such that concepts of distance and time are not what we humans think they are.”

  “You’re telling me that I can teleport clear across the galaxy?”

  “When you’re ready, you can Port to other galaxies, but that is not why I brought you here.”

  “No?”

  Void slowly shook her head from side to side, her silvery hair floating around her head as if it were in water. “No. You already know about the concept of other universes, other realities. You have already passed outside of this reality twice.”

  Amanda nodded. “BOB’s Bar, and then to meet my mother.”

  “Correct. I myself have traveled far beyond this reality, and you will too, but we’re not the only ones capable of this. There are others, from other realities, who have visited this one. One such breach happened only recently, and began right here,” Void explained.

  There were cargo crates piled around, but nothing terribly noteworthy, Amanda noticed.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “A group of people from outside this reality shifted in and aided a man called Jaiden. The man was part of the crew of a ship named the Void Star. He had discovered some very sensitive information about the movement of a certain group of Void Dragons, and was attempting to return to his ship. These people from another universe aided Jaiden, who was able to return to his ship and inform his captain about the dragons’ movements. Kora passed this information onto Valerya, and you know the rest.”