Despite putting Constance with them, Avery, and DH as a family unit until they could find her father, TO knew very little about her, or her family. 

 

“Constance said her father was a… skimmer?” TO ventured as they picked at their meager breakfast. It was better than the slime at least; the gray sludge had a slightly more appealing texture and when TO tasted it their chip, thankfully, didn’t go off. Hunger drove them to eat a quarter of it without hesitation, but as the hunger pains subsided TO became pickier. 

 

“Yeah, it’s one job they give people who can stay underwater for long periods.” Pearla said, “If Lendulin wasn’t doing art, well, that would be her next option.”

 

“But what is a skimmer?” TO asked. 

 

“Well, it’s basically what it sounds like.” She said, “You swim to the bottom of the sea, and you ‘skim’ the seafloor to find whatever the employees want you to find. Mostly it’s garbage around the islands, but sometimes you go deeper for coral.” She frowned, “The latter isn’t so bad, but if you get stuck around the islands for a long time, the pollution around here can make you sick. That’s what happened to Lendulin’s parents.” 

 

“Yeah, and it’s awful.” Mira said, “There’s too many people who get shipped here from their home planets - clean, aquatic planets- and end up living in filthy water and cleaning toxic sludge from the bottom. Now, I’m too young to have witnessed it myself but I’m told that about 75% of the people who became skimmers after the first migration got really sick. Their kids, not so much.” 

 

“Well, the kids are sick in the early years. I guess their bodies adjust.” Pearla said. “Lots of parents came to me when their kids started coughing up gunk, when their gills clogged, and when fungi started growing on their fins.” 

 

“So… Her father is likely to be sickly?” TO ventured as they looked around. They hadn’t seen too many sick people around yet which of course made sense. Unlike in the training center, here there was a chance of outside sickness being introduced to the general population. It would be important to isolate anyone who got sick to prevent an outbreak.

 

“No worse than most.” Pearla said as she looked over the crowds. 

 

“Either he’s here, or they’ve taken him for questioning.” Mira said, “I doubt they’ll take him in though, he wasn’t involved in anything dangerous.” 

 

“If we don't see him, we ask around.” Pearla said, “It’s not too suspicious for someone to look around for an old friend when they show up here.”

 

TO nodded. “So we ask around for someone who looks like Constance-“ 

 

“Oh, no.” Pearla said, shaking her head, “Constance looks like her mother. She has her father’s teeth though.” 

“So we ask around for someone who looks like they could turn a person into this,” As TO spoke, they poked at their sludge. 

 

Pearla chuckled, but shook her head, “We go around, and ask if someone knows a Piscijin named Mark, with green-toned skin, fins on his head, and scales up his back.” She said “He also has a fake fin on the right side of his tail; He lost it to fin-rot as a kid.” 

 

“There’s a lot of Piscijin in here though…” Mira muttered as she looked around, taking in all the different kinds of fish-people in the cafeteria. “Hopefully that’s enough to identify him.” 

 

“I suppose we can always ask if they have a daughter?” TO offered, “Even if we found a Piscijin who looks like… Mark, you said?” At their questioning glance, Pearla nodded. “Even if we find one who looks like Mark, what’s the chances they’ll have a daughter named Constance.”

 

“Slim.” Pearla said, “And that’s not information we have to keep quiet.” 

 

“Right. So, we have a plan to start.” Mira said, “We split up, and ask around. People will head to get their assignments for the day. We’ll follow them and look for Mark. After we’ve found him, we can look for the other people on our list.” 

 

“Will you be ok splitting up, TO?” Pearla asked.

 

“I’ll manage.” TO said. Already the lights and the noises were bothering their eyes, but they had work to do, and if they couldn't split up, then it would take them longer to get everything done. 

 

They didn’t have time to waste and even if they did, TO wanted to get back to DH. 

 

The alarm sounded again, making TO wince. People once more started filing out of the cafeteria. This time, the three got up and melted into the crowds quickly. 

 

“Alright.” Mira said, “Send a message if you find him. If you can’t, then we’ll meet in the laundry room at noon to wait for the night shift people to wake up; understood?” 

 

She spoke with such authority that TO couldn't help but offer their quick, trained response of “Understood.” And only just stopped themself from calling her, “Officer.” 

 

With that, they split up in search of Mark. 

 

======

 

The mood was much duller as everyone trudged along the wide hallway towards the assignment office. It was just as it sounded; a place where the indebted got scanned in and given assignments for the day. While TO had to make sure they weren’t in a position to be scanned, it was fine to just follow along and talk to people. 

 

Well, if there was anyone who wanted to talk. 

 

“Excuse me?” TO said, gently tapping an insectoid on the shoulder, “I’m looking for someone by the name of-“ 

 

“I don’t know anybody.” They grumbled as they walked on, pointedly avoiding looking at TO. TO didn’t know why people were like that, but it was becoming an irritatingly common reaction. Still, there was no point in giving up. They went to the next person, and the next, and the next; three people in quick succession waved TO away, or rushed to slip away from them in the crowds. Was it because they had legs? While most people in the center were legless, there were plenty of bipeds, quadrupeds, and more! There were even a few people with some form of wings, so while rare it wasn’t unheard of. 

 

“Ah shit.” someone from behind TO snapped. They turned to look and saw a Piscijin - not the one they were looking for, this was one female, blue in tone, and had iridescent scales- struggling with the hem of their uniform which had gotten caught in the board's wheel she pushed herself around in.

They knew they shouldn’t feel happy about someone’s misfortune, no matter how minor, but TO couldn’t help but think this was an opening for them. They scurried back towards her against the crowd of people surging forward and knelt down.

“Stuck?” TO asked as eyed the scrap of fabric caught in the wheel.

“Yeah.” She muttered as she struggled to free the fabric. “It’s in there good.”

“I could cut it?” TO offered, flexing their hand to reveal their sharp nails.

“I’m surprised they didn’t cut those down before you got in.” She said, She examined the hem for a moment longer, then sighed. “Yeah, go ahead. Cut it. It’s in there good and it’s already so worn that I’ll need a new one soon, anyway.” 

 

TO glanced around, suddenly very aware of their claws. They had seen no one else with claws like theirs in here but even outside of the training center; it wasn’t polite to flash them unnecessarily.

Well, no matter. They just had to be careful from here on. 

TO helped get her towards the wall and out of the way so that they could pick at the fabric and save as much as possible. “I’ll try not to do too much damage.” TO promised. Of course, that wasn’t just for her; If TO was careful and took their time, then they’d have a moment to talk. “While we’re here.” They said as they picked at the threads of fabric holding the garment to the wheel, “I’m looking for another Piscijin. His name is mark?” he glanced up, hoping to see a sliver of recognition in her large black eyes, “Fins on his head, green toned, with-”

“With a missing fin on the left side of his tail?” She asked. TO breathed a sigh of relief as they freed more threads from the wheel. “Yes.” They said, “You know him?”

“He’s new, right?” She said, frowning, “He said they caught him in that whole raid a few days ago on the underground. If that’s him, then yeah; He and I got sent on a cleanup job yesterday around the coast.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“Why?” She asked, stiffening, her dark eyes narrowing.

TO felt their own ears pin, their wings fluffed out slightly at the sudden change in the woman; it felt somehow aggressive to them! Still, they did their best to calm themself. “I know his daughter.” TO said, and that was true enough, “I wanted to tell him that she’s ok.” 

She seemed to relax at this, her shoulders dropping, her eyes widening once more. “Yeah, I know where he is. He got injured while he was out-”

“Is he ok!?” TO’s claws cut through the rest of the fabric that held her uniform to the wheel, but they didn’t even notice it; they were too busy imagining Constance, so bright eyed and happy, talking of her father, the skimmer.

“Oh, yeah.” She said, “I mean, he got a nasty gash on his arm from some scrap near a busy shipping yard. He probably could have worked today, but the water is nasty there, right? If you get injured, they’ll shoot you up with antibiotics and keep you for observation. He’s likely still in the infirmary.”

A lead! Perfect! TO didn’t know if Pearla or Mira had found anything, but they had something, and they could bring it back to them.

“Where is the infirmary?”

Before she could answer, there was a sudden commotion at the entrance to the assignment room. The crowds ahead of them stopped, and the people surging forward collided into the now still wall of people.

“What the hell?” The Piscijin grumbled. She looked at TO, “You’re tall; Can you take a peek and see what's going on?”

“Sure.” TO said as they got up from their knees to see what was happening. They were taller than most others, so it was easy for them to see over the heads of everyone else.

As soon as they saw what was happening, they ducked down again, trying to keep out of sight.

“What is it?” the woman asked from below, “What’s going on?”

TO straightened once more so they could look again, so they could be certain of what they were seeing. Their eyes were sore, so maybe they weren’t seeing right! Or maybe they were so dizzy that their eyes were playing tricks on them!

They weren’t.

At the door leading to the assignment room, flanked by her own personal guards, was Gyrini. She was talking to a guard, her antennae back against her head, a hand on her hip as she spoke to a security guard at the door. Because of all the surrounding chaos, TO couldn’t hear what she was saying. They could, however, recognize the glint of metal in her hands.

A communicator. A basic, civilian grade communicator, just like the one TO and Mira had and just like the one Pearla had taken from her.

Somehow, TO knew that the communicator in Gyrini’s hand was, in fact, Pearla’s.