First Flyght – Chapter 24

“Oh good, you’re back,” Carlos says, greeting us right at the airlock. “I was getting ready to call out the search party.”

“We’re alive. No worries.” I pat him on the shoulder as I walk by.

I’m exhausted finally. Between the lack of sleep for the past few days, the adrenaline and running around, I’m beat in a good way.

But I’m sure this is no time to rest. I need to call my mother and apologize. I need to look into those men. I need to talk to Marcelo about getting us a dual husband and a mechanic and apologize to him as well. I need to warn Lia about our incoming pigs.

There’s so much that needs to be done and so little time to do it in.

“I just… I really wanted you to see what I’ve been working on.” Carlos cracks an awkward smile.

I have no idea what this means and coming from an ambitious sixteen-year-old computer and technology genius, I believe he wants to show me the new video game he hacked or something similar.

“Can it wait? I haven’t slept in… oh…” I check my wristlet. “Three days now.”

Marcelo slips past me. “Did you set it up like we discussed?” he asks Carlos. Carlos bounces on his toes.

“I did, and so much more. Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop.” He rubs his hands together and throws back his head with a laugh. “Oh God, I love doing this type of stuff! It’s so damned fun.”

It takes a lot of willpower not to sigh and head straight for bed. Everything about me hurts now especially my feet. I ran several blocks in heels. It’s a miracle I’m still alive after that.

Maybe the airlock corridor is not the best place to be barefoot, but I don’t care anymore. I nearly cry as I slip off my shoes and press the soles of my feet to the cold metal floor. Leaning against the wall, I let my eyes close and wait.

“Forget fun. This is serious business,” Marcelo replies, his voice stern.

“Sorry.” Carlos gulps loud enough for me to hear him with my eyes closed. “I went a little nuts.”

“I didn’t ask for nuts; I asked for discretion and a small amount of whispering to turn the tide.”

I pop my eyes open and reach down to grab my shoes. “Okay, everyone. I’ll see you when I wake up in twelve hours.” I yawn as I try to shift past Carlos, but he steps right into my path.

He brings his hands to his chest in prayer position. “Captain, I know you’re tired. But I think you’ll sleep so much better knowing what Marcelo and I have done for you. Please?”

I look between the two men and shrug.

“Okay, fine. What’s up?” There isn’t much in this universe that’ll let me sleep well except for a really strong drink, and that didn’t seem to help last night.

“Come with me.” We follow Carlos back through the ship to his den.

Once again, I get a better look at his room here on the ship. I didn’t think much about the cobbled-together technology he has set up the first few times I saw it, but now I’m paying more attention. Some of the equipment is positively ancient, using optical and magnetic drive technology that dates back to Old Earth. I have no idea where he’d even find tech like this unless he made it himself, and it isn’t a stretch to believe he’s done just that. I’ve built a few circuit boards myself for my aquaponics and hydroponics setups. The parts are all easy to come by.

But the real question is why? Why would Carlos rely on old tech to keep the Amagi going? The only reason I can think of it is to hoard data and keep it off the duonet because paranoia runs in his kind.

Most everything is run off the duonet of each world and synced across the Duo Systems through our jump rings. My wristlet and eye and ear implants are all new products of companies from Palo Alto, only put into service in the last ten years, and still very expensive for most people. The duonet in each system is robust. I’ve never had downtime, not once, since I had the implants installed. We even get duonet on our journeys between jump rings.

My wristlet buzzes as I lean against the wall in Carlos’s den. Yes, sometimes I wish we had downtime. I could use some time off-grid.

“Sit down, Captain,” Carlos says, folding his extra chair out from the wall. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”

“That’s because I am.”

“Then I’ll make this brief.”

An almost orgasmic look comes over his face before he smiles and contains himself. “Our two biggest hurdles now are how to find your brother and how to fix your reputation, right?”

“Right,” I grind out through clenched teeth. Fucking reputation. I was okay with having little to no reputation from the beginning. All I wanted was to grow plants and…

I stop myself before I wander back down that path again. Everyone is sick of hearing about everything I’ve lost, including myself.

Carlos continues, holding out his hands, “So, I decided to tackle the reputation first at the behest of Marcelo.”

“I figure this is a little hiccup.” Marcelo sounds confident, more than he did earlier. “Nothing too bad. The news about your family was going to get out, eventually. If anything, Ken Mata will feel more of the brunt of this than you.”

“My mother is literally going to kill me dead for defaming her. You’ll need to book me into a hospital for months, and I may never walk again.”

Marcelo smiles, though my face is blanker than space. “I think maybe you’re blowing this out of proportion.”

Skylar raises her hand. “You don’t know her mother. She’s nothing like mine.”

Thanks, Skylar. Marcelo loses his smile. Yeah, my mother and Skylar’s mother are nothing alike. Skylar’s mother is forgiving. Mine, not so much, at least when it comes to me. She forgave my brother plenty of times, but I think, finally, he’s run out of her good will.

I don’t want to run out of that.

“Okay. I’ll look into fixing that when we return to Ossun,” Marcelo says, trying to remain sure of the situation.

“Back to this…” Carlos waves everyone’s attention to him. “So, I’ve started a kind-of whispering campaign for you.” His smile grows by five times. “I’ve found all of these little stories about your family’s farm and business, good news only, and I’ve invented a few things here and there —”

“Invented things?”

“Trust me. You won’t even notice,” he says, waving away my question. “Anyway, I have about a hundred stories now ready to go. All I have to do is hack into certain duonet press groups and social comms and let them loose. I’ve got Ai on a schedule, and we’ll handle it together.”

“You’ve got it, Captain.” Ai’s sultry voice comes over the speakers. “Your reputation will be envied by the time we’re done with you.”

I should say no to this. I should shut this down right now. Between Carlos and Ai, my reputation will be sullied in no time.

“I think this is our best bet,” Marcelo says, tilting his head at me. “We’ll repair this little issue, no problem. I don’t want it getting in the way of finding you the right men for your relationship network.”

I rub my face, trying to stay awake. “So, we’re still moving forward on that task? I thought you were done with me.”

Carlos and Skylar glance at each other warily. They were not privy to my conversation where I told Marcelo to go fuck himself.

“Ms. Vivian, nothing could be farther from the truth,” he says in all sincerity. I soften a bit. “Working with you will be the kind of challenge I’ve been looking for for years.” I’m about to jump to my defense when he plows ahead. “You are a kind, thoughtful, and curious person caught up in a really shitty situation. I am one-hundred percent confident that the right men will see what a loyal and strong asset you are.”

I don’t think anyone in the history of ever has described me in such terms. Even my parents have only ever called me ‘reliable’ and ‘smart’ which is an insult at this point.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. “I’m sorry about… about earlier.” Embarrassment floods through me at the way I yelled at Marcelo. Look at how loyal he is. I hate apologizing, but sometimes it’s necessary.

His posture eases. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve been under a lot of strain. Now, we just need to get past this other petty stuff standing in the way.”

“And speaking of petty,” Carlos continues, “I’m on the hunt for your brother.”

This news perks me up. The hunt is on, I told Mr. Sumo and Mr. Tattoo. Do I have the lead?

Carlos returns to his chair, multitasking between his keyboard and his Hecate interface. “The news piece said Tomu was last seen on Ossun Orbital Station One, right? So I combed back through the shuttle manifests, then back through the public transportation transactions until I picked him up at home on the day he left.”

Video pops up on his monitors, a red circle around a young man. I watch Tomu walking through his apartment building, the streets of Sakata City, into the Sakata Metro, into Sakata Spaceport, and standing in line for a shuttle.

Carlos points to the last video. “This is the last time I see him on Ossun. City security feeds are the easiest to crack. I don’t have anything for Orbital Station One though.”

I reach out and lightly punch him in the shoulder. “I thought you could hack anything.”

He snorts, and this makes Skylar laugh. “I can hack anything. No doubt. The universe can’t hide from me. But unfortunately, I’m one of like ten people in the Duo Systems skilled enough to hack certain systems. If I do it, they’ll send the pigs after me, and we’re trying to lie low here.”

I sigh in disappointment.

“But don’t worry,” he reassures me. “I know someone who works in security there. I’ll get that footage.” He snaps his fingers. “Computer hacking is not the only hacking I can do.”

Skylar rolls her eyes. “You’re so full of shit.”

“Yes,” he says, raising a finger in the air, “but it’s what I do with this shit that matters.”

“So see?” Marcelo smiles. “We’re making good progress. We’re going to fix that news report from this morning, and we’re on Tomu’s trail. Now, all we need are some paying customers to get us out of spaceport.”

“I’ve got that covered.” Everyone moves out of my way as I stand up and stretch. It’s time for bed. “Speaking of pigs, we have a shipment of them we need to fly to Ossun by the end of the week. Skylar, can you talk with Lia about prepping the cargo bay?” I turn over my wristlet and access my inbox. A note from Gai Reis details everything I need to get our contract off and running. “We’ll be expecting those pigs to arrive in about six hours, and I really need some sleep. They’ll be coming via three shuttles, so you’ll have to clear out the airlocks and make way.”

“Uh, sure.” She follows me out into the hall, and Marcelo and Carlos lean out to hear more. “When did we score a contract to haul pigs?”

“Right before you got entangled with the mob. Hey, tell Carlos about that too and see if he can’t dig anything up on the woman mob boss I’m now competing with.”

“A mob boss?” Carlos asks, his eyebrows climbing. “Could you make this situation any more complicated?”

“I’m sure I could if I tried,” I snipe back. He retreats as I turn to Skylar. “One of Tomu’s business cards was for a livestock broker out of Concord City. He supplied livestock to our farm, so I figured he’d be game to give us some contracts. His name is Gai Reis, so if he calls the ship’s public comm, put him through to me.”

“Gai Reis?” Marcelo looks at the ceiling. “I’ve heard that name before.”

“Well, you’ll be hearing it a lot for the foreseeable future. He’s now our biggest, and only, client. I’m going to bed. Wake me if anything drastic happens.”

Hopefully, no one tries to ruin me again for five hours. A girl’s gotta get her beauty sleep.