The World at the Edge of Space (Perseus Gate Book 2) Read online

  She stepped toward Cargo, wrapped an arm around him—at which point Cheeky realized that Clarissa was naked—and planted a kiss on his lips.

  “Come back some time. We can do that again for free. Now give me your pistol. I don’t have video in here, but they’ll have audio of it firing, and I’ll need to say that its mine.”

  “You going to be OK with the cops?” Cargo asked.

  “Yeah, its fine. I have a license for heavier weapons in here. Station is cool with it because it means they don’t have to patrol as much.”

  Cargo nodded and gave Clarissa a final longing look before he turned and gestured for Cheeky to follow him.

  “You going to be OK?” Cheeky asked Clarissa. “Will they come back for you?”

  Clarissa shook her head. “Those two have just worn out their welcome on Hermes Station. RHY has cleaned this place up a lot lately—they don’t tolerate that sort of shit anymore.”

  “Good for something at least, then.” Cheeky said as she followed Cargo to the rear door.

  “Maybe,” Clarissa replied with a grunt.

  “Well, thanks anyway,” Cheeky said as she stepped into the back room—a storeroom with a cot against one wall.

  “Cargo…seriously. Dino shorts. We have to talk about this.”

  RETYNA GIRL

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  After waking and having a light breakfast, Jessica was led down a series of corridors to a large room filled with various props and a set of a-grav units—probably to simulate her flying.

  Phoebe was waiting with a steaming cup of coffee, and let out a delighted gasp when she saw Jessica.

  “Oh wow! They said you glowed, but I thought it would just be a little bit—shit, you look amazing. How does it feel to be Retyna Girl?”

  Jessica said to Iris.

  Iris replied, sending supportive feelings into Jessica’s mind.

  “Feel to be Retyna Girl?” Jessica asked. “I am Retyna Girl.”

  Phoebe’s smile grew into a broad grin. “Now that’s what I want to hear. Let’s get started.”

  The next few hours were spent with Jessica taking thousands of still images in a variety of outfits, reciting lines, and doing action stunts, flying about, and providing full range motion capture—in case they decided to make sims at some point.

  Part way through the day, Trevor arrived and sat along one side of the room—where the food and beverages were arrayed—and watched with admiring eyes. He seemed to especially like the skimpy outfits they had put her in—the better to show off her glowing skin.

  After her confession to Iris the night before, and her acceptance that this was a necessary sacrifice for her crew—her family—she allowed herself to fully slip into the character of Retyna Girl, enjoying the release of being someone else.

  “With Retyna Girl, light is never the enemy!” she cried out with a glowing fist thrust in the air, finally not giggling after the fifth try.

  Iris asked part-way through the day.

  Jessica replied, smiling for the sensory capture devices.

  As the day drew to a close, and the retakes had been completed, Jessica slipped away from the capture devices and approached Trevor.

  “Looks like I’m done,” she said as they embraced.

  “Too bad,” Trevor grinned. “I think I could watch you do that stuff all day—of course I recorded what I was here for, so I can sample your best lines as needed.”

  Jessica laughed. “Yeah, I kinda suspected that would happen.”

  “You seem far more OK with all this today than I thought—glowing skin notwithstanding.”

  “I had a really good heart-to-heart with Iris last night…about some stuff that happened a long time ago. Stuff I’m finally ready to share with you too.”

  Trevor placed his hands on either side of her face and leaned into a kiss.

  “Glad to hear it, love,” he said when they finally separated. “Here. I brought some clothes for you, just in case.”

  “Thanks!” Jessica said. “I like this dress, but these heels are starting to kill my feet.”

  Trevor glanced down at her feet and laughed. “Well, I didn’t bring any shoes, so you might be in those for a bit longer.”

  “Men,” Jessica shook her head and grabbed the duffle from his hands. She pulled the heels off and walked barefoot to the changing partition, knowing with absolute certainty that Trevor was watching her ass in the short, slinky dress she wore.

  Once behind the partition, she slipped off the dress and opened the duffle. Within was her favorite purple shipsuit, and the unmistakable smell of new leather.

  She reached in and pulled out the leather jacket, holding it up and examining the alterations. It looked perfect.

  Jessica dressed quickly, and selected a lower pair of heels that she’d worn earlier in the day. She grabbed the empty duffle, and paused, eyeing the clothing from her multiple wardrobe changes during the shoot. With a quick glance to ensure no one was looking, she grabbed a few items—including the dress she had just been wearing and tossed them in the duffle.

  Once her act of larceny was complete, she walked back out from behind the partition to be greeted by Trevor’s wide smile.

  She ran a hand down the jacket and returned the smile.

  Trevor replied.

  Jessica laughed.

 

  Iris laughed.

  Jessica replied to Trevor with a wink.

  She approached Phoebe, who was reviewing some of the capture with another woman.

  “This was a lot of fun, Phoebe. I trust everything is in order now for our ship to scoop fuel?” Jessica asked.

  Phoebe looked up and smiled brightly. “Just about, yup!”

  “Right. I assume you first have to do the surgery to de-Retyna me?” Jessica asked.

  Phoebe’s diminutive features pinched as her brow furrowed. “Um, no, you’re coming back to Bennia with me. You’re Retyna Girl now.”

  Jessica took a step back, her eyes narrowing.

  “We have a deal. One shoot, then you undo this, and we go our separate ways.”

  “Well yes, but there’s a clause the contract to extend your term indefinitely if everything goes well—which it did! You were great, Jessica. You’re set for life now! A real superhero!”

  Phoebe’s face was glowing with excitement, either that or it was reflecting the light that seemed to be coming off Jessica more brightly as anger flooded her.

  “We removed that clause. I specifically struck every clause that had to do with reappearances, reprisals, and anything of the like.”

  “Huh,” Phoebe put a finger in her mouth. “I recall a discussion about that, but the version we have—one with your tokens on it—has all those clauses still in place and we’re exercising them.” The small woman’s eyes narrowed as she reached up and put a hand on Jessica’s cheek. “Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of you, Retyna Girl. Oh! By the way, I’ve started proceedings to have your name legally changed to that too! It’s really awesome!”

  Jessica couldn’t tell if Phoebe thought that it was awesome, if she was putting on a show, or if maybe the diminutive woman was crazy.

 

>  

 

 

 

 

  Jessica carefully schooled her expression—as much as she could. “Phoebe, I’m sure that Bennia is a great place, and being Retyna Girl would be a blast, but I have a crew, a family. I can’t just leave them.”

  “You don’t understand,” Phoebe said, a look of worry clouding her face. “RHY Dynamics really wants Retyna to succeed. There’s a lot of pressure, there are competing interests. You give us an edge. You’re amazing. You’re going to start a craze. We’re going to drag Orion space into the future. Enough of this slow expansion, salt-of-the-earth stuff. RHY has the right people in the government to give us an edge. But we have to execute perfectly, and you’re perfect, and I’m not giving you up.”

  Jessica said to Iris before responding aloud to Phoebe in an acidic tone. “What’s stopping me from just walking out of here?”

  “Well, there’s all the guards—we are deep within the RHY sector of the station,” Phoebe winked at Jessica. “You’re not really a superhero. You know that, right?”

  Iris suddenly interrupted.

  Jessica sent an affirmative response to Iris and let her face fall. “No…so what now?”

  Phoebe waved a hand in Trevor’s direction. “Why don’t you go say goodbye to your man-mountain over there and tell him to go get your things from your ship.”

  Jessica glanced at Trevor, and sighed. “Fine, but I’m getting a lawyer to undo this crazy contract.”

  Phoebe raised an eyebrow. “You did so well today, Retyna Girl. Don’t make me do things you won’t like to ensure your good behavior. I have a lot of shit to deal with—you’re supposed to be a solution, not a problem.”

  Jessica decided that she’d pushed Phoebe far enough and let out an angry breath before turning and walking to Trevor.

  he said as she approached.

  Jessica sighed.

  Trevor asked.

 

  Iris said.

  Trevor asked.

  Iris replied.

  Jessica glanced back at Phoebe, who was still reviewing the results of the shoot. It was hard to believe that bubbly little waif was involved in something like this—although she may not know anything about it.

  Jessica asked.

  Trevor asked.

 

  Trevor asked.

  Jessica asked.

 

  Iris countered.

  Jessica said as she rolled her shoulders and raised each arm, stretching them out in preparation for the fight to come.

  Trevor said as he rose from his seat and grabbed a sausage roll from the food table.

  DEPARTING

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  Cheeky called the data dealer once more over the Link.

  She had been reaching out to him every fifteen minutes since he’d missed their prearranged meeting time at thirteen hundred hours. It was becoming more and more likely that Mandy and Jenn had caught up with him before they’d been booted off the station earlier in the day.

  That had been fun to watch. Heavily armed station security had shown up at a local warehouse where the pair had been conducting some business—legitimate from the reports—and frog-marched the two women to their ship.

  The pair’s ship was only fifteen berths spinward on the docking ring and from Sabrina’s external cameras, they’d had a great view of a heavy tug latching on to Mandy and Jenn’s ship—the Endless Spark—and hauling it off into space.

  It had felt like sweet, sweet victory. Until Misha hadn’t shown up.

  “Any luck?” Cargo asked.

  Cheeky shook her head. “I’ve got nothing. If he’s on station, then he’s disabled his Link.”

  “Well, I did manage to get some data on one good jump coreward. It’s fifteen light years and takes us to a system where there’s a few more people. Might be able to try our luck there.”

  Finaeus spoke up from the rear of the bridge. “It’s not that hard to blind-jump across space—especially if you are going into well-travelled systems. The jump points out of this system, all have their available destinations broadcast on the beacons. We just jump to toward the one that looks best.”

  “Except we don’t know where to come out,” Cheeky said. “Vector is one thing, but where do you drop from the DL?”

  “Easy. You do it early.” Finaeus shrugged. “Then you wait for another ship to pop out ahead, and then go back into FTL and hop to where they emerged.”

  Cargo shook his head slowly. “Yeah, that’s possible. But it will add weeks to every single jump. I’m not exactly keen on the idea.”

  “True,” Finaeus nodded. “It would add considerably to our travel time.”

  “Really, Cargo? Keen?” Cheeky asked.

  Sabrina interrupted.

  “Oh? Is that all?” Cargo asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “The more we travel to different stars, the more they’re all the same.”

  “Well, I doubt you’ve encountered something like this before,” Finaeus said, shaking his head. “I gotta say though, I’m surprised. Planet-killing biowarfare is really not Praetor Kirkland’s MO.”

  “Well, its someone’s MO,” Cheeky replied.

  “Looks like Jessica wants to destroy their research labs on the station,” Cargo said. “And Iris has identified their main facility on the planet below. She wants to destroy it and then get the heck out of dodge.”

  berth. You saw the heavies station security has.> Hank said.

  “Trevor’s with her, right?” Cheeky asked. “If someone could run them some weapons…”

  “Run through the station with armfuls of heavy weapons?” Finaeus asked. “That’s a bit on the nuts side. You’d be in a fight with station security in no time.”

  Sabrina offered.

  Hank replied.

  “You too, Hank? Keen?” Cheeky laughed.

  Hank groused.

  “You’re welcome, Hank,” Cargo said with a grin. “Unless someone has a better plan, that’s what we’re going with.”

  “OK. I’ll get us in the departure queue,” Cheeky said. “That’s gonna determine our timing more than anything.”

  BREAKOUT

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  Iris reported.

  Trevor replied.

  Jessica added.

  Trevor said.

  Jessica sighed while glancing over at Phoebe who was involved in an animated conversation with one of her flunkies. Jessica was disliking that bubbly little woman more by the minute.