Space is cold and empty, no sign of a planet for days, just the burning bright monsters of passing stars.
Precisely as I like it.
Perfect conditions if not for Princess in the control room, pointedly ignoring me for the past three days. At least she’s quiet as a mouse, only a few passing remarks when we interact. Even if she doesn’t bother to offer help when I’m making the three of us food. Knowing her presence is there, just opposite my bunk door, still gets to me. If she were a normal criminal, I could cuff her to the chair and be unbothered about the rest of the flight. I've done it with dozens of criminals. Even stuck a few in my pod back when I had it.
I miss that stupid pod.
But she isn't a criminal. And we're working together. As tentative an arrangement as it is.
At least Zane and Lalia are flying their own ship, following me. All three humans in my tiny vessel would be too much by a long shot.
Once I brought Princess in (she took one glance around my traveling home and wrinkled her nose), I turned on my ships’s AI. Usually, I have it muted to nothing. Now, there's always a camera I can watch. If I can't tie Princess up, at least I can get ahead of any trouble she decides to dig up. I doubt she’ll want to. She's getting a top notch deal out of the arrangement—other bounty hunters aren’t going to help with her harebrained plan.
3,000,000 credits, I remind myself, not for the first time today. Puts a damper on the annoyance.
I lay on my bunk, feet against the wall, and flex my fingers. They're healing. Skin mostly conceals the metal; even the places it shows are a less angry red and mostly painless. I think about taking out the boxing bag I have stashed in the corner of my room, but I don't want to push my poor fingers too far too fast. They no longer ache, but I’ll give it another day or two before punching.
Well, before punching without necessity.
Bat sleeps curled on the covers against my side. I pet his ear. His torso is still mostly hidden in white gauze, but he's past the worst of it. Definitely to the point where he's on his feet, wandering the ship even when I tell him to keep still. I'm no better when I’m injured, but Princess has stared silently several times as I've herded him back to bed like he’s an average house-cat.
Stubborn critter.
I peek out the bunk room door, but the woman is only tapping away at the holographic tablet her bracelet displays. I don't know what she's doing on it, but she isn't sending any outgoing messages, my ship would alert me, so is it isn’t my business.
Her eyes flicker to mine, and I close the door.
My ship’s day/night cycle says 1 AM, so I'm having a late dinner of reconstituted chicken and rice, hunched at the control panel and searching ForceZero while Princess sleeps. She's claimed the same comfortable chair Lalia had, and with a few blankets doesn't complain. At least she didn't make a snarky remark about my beat-up ship. Yet.
There's nothing in popular knowledge about ForceZero. Something random about a television show featuring teenagers who know everything about everything (as a teenage criminal, I take offense at the idea kids are good at anything, I certainly wasn’t), but nothing in relation to Amerov or any real-life crew. My finger hovers over the comm button with Audra’s frequency dialed in. I can't bring myself to press it. We haven't spoken since the incident on Captain’s ship. I know she helped me, but I still don't know what she was doing there in first place, or how Captain found us.
Besides, she probably wouldn't be too thrilled to discover I have Princess Yvonne sitting in my ship.
And given she never told me about Captain’s special task force before, I'm not sure I trust anything she says concerning it now. She isn't much of a liar… Well, then again, maybe she is. I wouldn’t have any way of knowing. My mouth drags down at the corners.
“What are you doing? It’s one in the morning.” Princess shifts in her chair, voice groggy.
“Researching.”
“Hrmph.”
Over my shoulder, I watch her roll onto her side, pulling the blanket over her head. Like Zane, she doesn't have much difficulty sleeping in front of me. Maybe she thinks all Captain’s creations could never raise a hand against the royal family.
I've got news for her.
But I've also got questions. “Tell me more about ForceZero.”
A deep sigh radiates from the blankets, but she throws them aside and sits up. “Told you already. Captain has a special force of elite fighters. They're nasty. You can't beat one of them up like you did that cyborg in the casino.”
“Yeah, I got that. Nothing else?”
“Like what? I've seen a few of them hang around Captain while he's on Neyla Ve. They don't talk to me. Trust me, I've tried. They stare straight through me.” She sounds irritated by the very idea not everyone's interested in her. My back is to her, so I smile.
“Do they have any special augmentations? Specific skill sets? Weaponry the average number doesn't get? Do you think Captain will send more than one after you?”
“Eh. Probably. But I wouldn't guess more than one or two, maybe three if he’s super pissed. They're a valuable resource. I'm just annoying. I can guarantee you Captain isn't flipping out about my disappearance as much as my parents are. If they didn't get him so involved, he’d probably never have anything to do with me.”
She talks about him so strangely. So familiar. As if he's just another guard or someone on her parents’ payroll. Not like he's an ancient metal and flesh machine who doesn't understand a thing about humanity and basically rules the galaxy though no one would ever say so.
Princess struggles from the nest of her chair, stretches, and wanders near me. I don't allow myself to tense.
“I don't know about special augmentations. I mean, I know they’re scary. And hard to kill. But I can’t tell you specifics. They whole ‘no body temperature’ thing was news to me. I know there’s a sharpshooter in the group, but they’re all good with guns. And I’m sure they get any weapons Captain wants them to have. Believe it or not, I’m not super privy to all the advancements Captain makes. I’m just the daughter of the king and queen.”
“And Captain doesn’t like you,” I mutter.
She presses her lips together. “No. He doesn’t.”
“Why?”
“None of your business.” She leans over my shoulder at the console. I close down the embarrassing failure of a search result. “Where are we headed, anyways?”
“Zar.”
She squints, staring at the ceiling. In the low blue of the ship’s nightlights, her cheekbones and the dips of her eyes are haunted. I can't imagine what I must look like. “I know that name. What is it?”
“The floating city a few quadrants over. Lots of people there who will do just about anything. Not much security. I've been there before. Turned in criminals. Quite frankly, I didn't have much faith they wouldn't escape an hour after I left them even without a cyborg helping them out.”
“How long is it going to take to get there?”
I shrug, watching the heat blob of Bat’s shape sneaking toward the fridge. “Two weeks, probably. Depending on where we feel safe to stop for fuel with you along. I'd rather not take you to any populated planets again—”
“Two weeks?”
I stare up, wishing she would step back, but I'm not going to be the one giving in and moving away. She doesn't get to know how uncomfortable I am with the whole arrangement.
“Yes. Give or take a day.”
She's already shaking her head, tapping her finger on the metal panel. “Way too long. Find a closer planet.”
“Excuse me?”
In the corner, Bat freezes, watching.
“There’s no way in hell I'm heading in the opposite direction of Amerov for two weeks. It'll take me another two weeks to get back even after you break me out, and who knows how long to actually figure out how to get onto Amerov. No way. Find a closer planet.”
“Not much out here. Besides, I'm taking you to Zar because I know it's a place I can break you out. I'm familiar with the city, and I'll know what I'm doing. Your schedule isn’t exactly my highest priority.”
She grinds her jaw. “You never said this would take two weeks.”
“I didn't know you had a timetable. That's your job to bring up when we're negotiating.”
“I'm bringing it up now.”
“A little late.” I return to staring at the console, scrolling through the star chart of the nearby area just to appear busy.
She puts her hand in the middle of the tablet until it glitches. “I am not kidding, cyborg.”
I level my gaze at her. Her arm is right next to my face. My hood is down, and for once, I'm glad it means she can see my eyes. “I know you can boss Captain around, but believe it or not, being unregistered means I don't have to listen to a thing you say.”
“I'm not going along with your plan if you don’t—”
“You are in my ship. You have no say in this whatsoever. You don't get to back out on a deal just because it suits you. You do realize I handcuff most of my bounties? And gag them if they talk this much?”
She leans towards me as if anything about her is threatening. Even sitting down, she knows I can uppercut her face into the ceiling, right?
“I told you, I'm looking for someone on Amerov. I can't take this long, okay?”
I keep the iron in my expression, but I suppose it wouldn't kill me to compromise. This would be much easier on Zar, but if I look, I might be able to find some backwater planet such as Yayth where security is low. Even if it will be unfamiliar territory.
3,000,000 credits, after all.
“I'll look for a closer planet. But don't get your hopes up. This part of the galaxy is pretty uninhabited to begin with, and anything close will likely be way too high-security.”
Opening her mouth, she closes her eyes and sighs through he nose. “Fine. Just hurry.”
She leaves me at the control panel, readjusting her blankets in the chair. I watch her on the camera until her breath is even in sleep, but I don't think for a moment this fight is over.
