Starchildren Options

[Kane]

Two stories at once is a lot for me, so these updates may not be as frequent. I also did not plan on this but a certain young woman in my head refused to be quiet.

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Prologue (May 7th, 2330)
Ebbside, Neon City, Volii Alpha


Andromeda awoke with a start. Somebody was pounding frantically on the door to her sleep crate and had ruined a perfectly deep slumber after a long day of work and even longer night of partying to celebrate her birthday. There was no way in hell it was daylight already which meant she probably left her slate at Euphorika. Again.

The bleary-eyed young woman fumbled in the dark for her glasses while the pounding on her door continued. If whomever it was out there kept it up much longer, she felt like her head would start pounding, too. Having finally fished her glasses off of the cold floor Andromeda slid them on and then clicked her bedside lamp to life. Most of her clothes were strewn about the floor of her metal box, which also explained why she was now so cold.

Two minutes or so later, she was half-dressed, and her nearly decrepit Solstice was clutched tightly in her left hand. Please don’t fizzle out on me now old girl, she thought. Looking down at the worn laser pistol in her hand, she sighed and silently chided herself for never spending any credits on a decent gun. The little pistol had been thrown out for good reason, yet Andromeda had fished out of the garbage anyway and fixed it up in the most half-assed way possible. Each time she squeezed the trigger was just another gamble on whether or not the damned thing would even fire.

This time she prayed to gods she didn’t give a [censored] about that it wouldn’t let her down. And then she finally opened the door.

Andre burst into her sleep crate and slammed the door shut behind him.

“It’s about goddamn time you answered! What the hell took you so long, Dro?”

Andromeda blinked in surprise at the urgency in his voice. She’d known Andre for over six months now, and the man was usually as cool as a cucumber. Even when he drunkenly tried to flirt with her. Andre had taken a courier job for HopeTech on Valo and was reassigned here to Neon City, much to his initial dismay, but they had grown close in the time since. The man was of average height with dark skin and kind brown eyes that sometimes hid behind a mop of unkempt blue hair.

“Slow down, Andre,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”

“No time to slow down. The ‘big deal’ is that your [censored], Dro. Absolutely [censored].”

“Wha -”

“Gather up what you care about the most and stuff it in your bag. Security thugs are closing in already �" I set up a prox alert for when they get within twenty meters.” Andre saw her bag sitting on the floor near the door, grabbed it, and handed it to Andromeda. “Pack! Now!”

“Andre, I am not going to move another goddamn muscle until you tell me what the [censored] is going on!”

“[censored]. Fine. Start packing and I’ll explain while you go.” He waited until a few things had been shoved unceremoniously in her bag before continuing: “Those Ryujin files you hacked yesterday for your anonymous buyer? They were tagged for Bayu’s personal records. Dunno how he tracked you down so quick but if you wanna live to see your twenty-sixth birthday then we need to get you the hell out of this city.”

Her blood froze. Benjamin Bayu. The Administrator of Neon City and possibly the most corrupt man in the settled systems. His fingers crept into every business venture on the planet and the security force was at his beck and call. No one did business in Neon without giving him a cut, and his ruthlessness against would-be competitors was legendary. Everyone who lived in Neon lived comfortably by skirting his brutality.

If she was on his radar at long last, then she had definitely taken the wrong job, pile of credits notwithstanding. Being a Cyber Runner in Neon always ran the risk that Andromeda would one day cross paths with that monster, but she had always been careful about her choice of contracts in the hope of avoiding Bayu. Her luck had finally run out and yet she still was uncertain about leaving the only home she ever knew.

“I can’t just up and leave!” stammered Andromeda, freezing midway through emptying the contents of her wall safe. “My whole life is here! It’s all I’ve ever known!”

“Doesn’t matter. Bayu will have you killed just to make an example - “ Andre ceased talking abruptly at the sound of rapid beeping emanating from his slate. His face took on an unhealthy pallor and he nervously ran his hand through his hair. “Time to go. They got there sooner than I expected.” Andre pulled another slate out of his jacket pocket and gave it to Andromeda. “Here, take this and give it to Doc Manning at the clinic. He’ll give you a short makeover to fool security at the spaceport.”

“Andre, I...” Andromeda was at a loss for words. The sudden shock of what was happening and the thought of fleeing her life �" Neon, Andre, the friends and people she’d grown up around �" was too much. Hot tears fell down her pale cheeks and splashed on the floor of her crate. She raised a hand to brush them away, and then shoulder her bag. “This isn’t over,” she finally said with a firmer resolve than what she felt inside. “Bayu isn’t chasing me out of my [censored] home forever. I’ll come back for all of you, I promise.” Andromeda stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Andre’s cheek. “I promise.”

“We’ll do what we can to clear your name. You need to go. Now. They’ll be here any second. I can keep them occupied for a few minutes but they’ll tell me to get lost before long. Go!”

Andromeda pulled her hood up to hide her vibrant fuchsia hair and fled into the night without another word. The garbled chatter of Neon Security radios echoed up from the alleyway to her right, so she moved silently away from them and ducked into a dark alcove that was still within view of her crate. It was hard to much of anything, but she recognized the dim form of Andre now standing back outside of her door and soon heard him pounding on it once again.

“Yo! Open up, Jen!” Andre’s voice rang out. “Open up!”

Flashlights illuminated and three security goons stood at the ready, their guns trained on her friend. Andre’s hands flew skyward while the nearest guard began to pat him down.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” demanded another guard.

“Damn, take it easy, bud,” said Andre. “My friend lives here and she’s gonna be late for her shift at Generdyne again. Just trying to get her ass on the move!”

“Jen, huh? Yeah, sure pal.” The guard shoved him aside and addressed one of his partners. “What do you got, Reg?”

“Andre Mitarn, known associate of one Andromeda Renault. Courier for HopeTech.”

“Did ya hear that you lying piece of [censored]?” laughed the first guard. “Jen my ass. Where’s the girl?”

“If I knew where Jen was I wouldn’t be here, officer.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, punk. Reg, you know the drill �" get him out of here.”

Andre lowered his hands to leave while Andromeda released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Her friend turned to walk away but Andre only made it a few paces before two sharp cracks rang out through Ebbside. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood while Andromeda watched in silent horror. She shoved her hand in her mouth in a desperate bid to stop herself from crying out.

“Dump that sack of [censored] over the side. The chasmbass will get rid of the evidence for us.”

Two of the security goons forced open the door to her sleep crate and disappeared inside while the third dragged off Andre’s lifeless body and heaved it over the railing and into the churning waters far below. Andromeda slipped away unseen and headed silently for the Neon Core, wiping away the tears as she went. The nearest door to Bayu Plaza wasn’t far, and within five minutes she had stepped through it and darkened her glasses against the garish light that gave Neon City its name.

Every type of store and service imaginable spanned the length of the Core, brilliant neon signs and lights shining down upon everyone who walked the expansive length from Ryujin Tower to the Trade Tower. Even late at night (or early in the morning, as it was now), the walkways were teeming with citizens, tourists, guards, scumbags, and dregs.

Andromeda’s destination was Reliant Medical and thankfully it was only a short distance away. Doc Manning seemed to never sleep and with her life crumbling around her, Andromeda was grateful to see him sitting at his counter.

“Ah, there you are, Dro! Andre warned me you were coming �" c’mon around back and we’ll get you fixed up.” He paused at the signs of grief that had stricken her normally carefree face. “What’s happened? Wait… where is Andre?”

It took everything Andromeda had to not scream in frustration and anger. She settled for kicking helplessly at the front of his counter which only resulted in a stab of pan shooting through her foot. “They [censored] killed him, Joe! Bayu’s security goons iced him without a second thought and threw him over the rails of Ebbside!”

“Bastards,” sighed the Doc. “I keep hoping this city will change some day but I don’t think I’ll ever live to see it. Despite younguns like you fighting back, Bayu’s grip never seems to relent. All the more reason to get you out of here, I guess.” Doc Manning waved her towards the back again and dismounted from his stool. “Go on, I just have to lock up real quick.”

The back room had a small biological modification chair that the doc had somehow procured from one of the Enhance! stores that were peppered throughout the local galaxy. It must have cost a small fortune, but she once again found herself thanking gods she didn’t care about for its existence in the back of the clinic. Doc Manning followed her in a few seconds later and instructed her to take a seat in the chair.

“Okay, so Andre...” Joe trailed off and made a gesture that Andromeda had never seen before. His hand moved across his face in the shape of a ‘T’.

“What was that for?” she asked him.

“The cross? It’s from an old-Earth religion that most have forgotten about. I’ll explain some other time. Anyway… so Andre most have been tipped off pretty early and with a good bit of info. Bayu has your name, financial history, work records, and physiological profile; but not your DNA records. We lucked out there. A few cosmetic changes will get you past the spaceport sniffers.”

“Joe, I can’t pay for any of this,” said Andromeda. “All my accounts are probably seized and I have less than two-hundred credits in my bag.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Dro. You’ve already done so much for the hard working people of this city that your friends are lining up behind me to get you safely out of this place.”

Andromeda sniffled and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue from the box Doc Manning held up to her. She knew it would be a long time until she saw those friends again, and the thought of that hurt more than anything else. Then she laid back in the chair and closed her eyes while the doctor powered up the alteration arms. She knew it would take thirty seconds to a minute for the machine to fully boot, so Andromeda pressed her friend on what would happen next.

“I have another slate from Andre,” he said. “It will transfer enough credits to get you on an outbound freighter, and provide a new identity. But the tricky part will be getting you to the port with perfect timing. We need to have you at the gates just as the ship’s thrusters begin to burn, so that the guards will hopefully rush you through without looking to closely at your records.”

There was lot that could go wrong with that. However, she trusted her friends implicitly and so she closed her eyes again and let the doctor go to work. The procedure was relatively painless, but she did flinch from the occasional needle or sharp prod. Some calibrations to the machine were in order when she returned. If I can return, she thought. Benjamin Bayu had a long memory, and she doubted he would forget about her anytime soon.

Ten minutes elapsed before Doc Manning leaned back on his stool and powered down the alteration arms. He grabbed a mirror from a side table and handed it to Andromeda. The same brown eyes stared back at her, but Joe had completely changed her hairstyle and its color: the long ponytail she had entered the clinic with was gone, and only a small knot was tied up in the back. Instead of fuchsia, her locks were now dyed an incredible opalescent prism of stunning colors, and the strands on the right side of her face fell down past her cheeks while being tucked back tightly on the left side.

She noticed the bare skin of her neck and left cheek and inhaled sharply. “Did you get rid of my tattoos?! Those were really personal to me, Doc!”
“Relax, I just covered them up with some foundation. Keep your hood up a the spaceport or the rain will wash it away and give up the goose. They’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Oh, and leave your piercings here. Those are easily replaceable.”

Andromeda frowned but did as advised. She popped the studs out of her ears and nose, removed the loop from her septum, and slid the barbell out from her nose bridge. Doc Manning collected them all in a small steel pan and then dropped them into a medical waste bin. Andromeda slid out of the modification chair and gave him a hug.

“Thanks for everything, Doc. I’ll be back to repay you some day.”

“I already told you your credit is good, Dro. Just promise me you’ll be careful out there.”

“I’ll try. But you should know better than most that the trouble usually finds me first.”

“That I do!” laughed Doc Manning. “Damn, almost forgot �" lose the glasses, too. I have some lenses for you instead.”

She removed her glasses and chucked them in the bin with her piercings. The good doctor handed her a set of icy blue colored contact lenses and after a couple minutes of struggling, she managed to pop them in to obscure her natural eye color. Another hug for the Doc Manning. Then he tapped a slate to hers and ushered Andromeda out the back door of Reliant Medical. Syndal, her best friend from university and one-time lover waited somberly in the trash ridden alley running behind the shops.

“Time to go, doll,” said her diminutive cohort. “Ship leaves in six minutes.” Syndal was tiny even compared to the slight 1.6 meters Andromeda rose to. The top of her head just barely made it to Andromeda’s nose. She put a hand on the back of Andromeda’s head and pulled her down to a reasonable level, kissing her very briefly on the lips. “For luck,” she explained to Andromeda’s quizzical stare. “Don’t think we’re ever getting back together or anything.”

“Fair enough,” said Andromeda. “Are we taking the main elevator down?”

“Have to. It’s all you have time for. “Let’s go, and try to keep up. Security is swarming the Core for you.”

Andromeda nodded and followed along in Syndal’s speedy wake. It was easy to unobtrusively hang a few steps back and still keep tabs on the impressive length of platinum hair falling past her friend’s hips. It swayed to and fro in the constant gentle breeze flowing through Neon City. The draft was one of many effects of living on massive platform built high above the roiling seas of a water world. A world that Andromeda had never left. Or had ever planned to leave. Those idle thoughts helped keep her features neutral when they stepped back onto the main thoroughfare and snaked their way towards the spaceport elevator.

Neon Security had fallen for the gambit. None of them paid her any mind, despite having her former appearance projected on the inside of their helmet visors. Syndal led her right past squad after squad of the corrupt officers until they reached their destination.

“You’re on your own from here,” said Syndal. “Take the lift down to the port and make a show of rushing, but don’t outright sprint. Play the part of the late departee who is trying to make their flight. The guards down there are a different detachment than the Core goons and generally skew towards being less of an asshole than the ones chasing you up here.”

“Okay, I’ll try. Never was much of an actor but I can do this. I have to do this.”

Syndal slapped her on the ass. “Quit stalling. You’ve got less than two minutes.”

“Right. Bye, Syn. And thank you.”

The elevator doors opened and Andromeda rode the lift down to the docking port. Two guards flanked the it at the bottom but the alterations Doc Manning made to her appearance seemed to have fooled their scanners. She showed them her slate and they told her to get moving else she miss the freighter. Settling for a speedy trot, Andromeda sighed gratefully and flitted down the long catwalk spanning over the ocean below, squeezing her hood tightly to her face. The warm, wind-driven rain splattered against her while she half ran to the ship waiting for its final passenger.

It was an ancient Deimos model that took up most of the landing pad. Bright lights illuminated faded letters above the ramp: The Gryphon. A crew member ushered Andromeda inside with little patience and directed her to a jump seat in the main cabin. Unsure of how the seat worked, her fingers trembled while she tried to strap herself in.

“First time in space, dearie?” A middle-aged woman next to her smiled gently at Andromeda.

“Yeah. I’m scared shitless if I’m being honest.”

“There’s nothing to it.” The kind woman reached over and showed her which buckles went where, and pointed out the safety pouch under the cushion. “Mouth guards in there if you’re worried about biting your tongue off. Once we take off, just keep your mouth closed and you won’t need them.”

Andromeda thanked her, and the woman went back to humming an off-tune key. Voices rang out over the loudspeaker and warning signs began to light up all around them. The entire ship rattled and shook, and the message on the flight console on the wall across from her changed from ‘docked’ to ‘achieving thrust’. Seconds later the engines roared into life and the sudden g’s from massive acceleration pressed Andromeda back into her seat. Unable to move so much as a finger, she closed her eyes and whimpered slightly as the ship gained altitude.

And then the pressure was gone. She opened her eyes and the porthole in the ceiling above revealed the deep black of space, dotted with innumerable points of light blinking back at her from incomprehensible distances. For the second time in as many minutes, her breath had been taken away for very different reasons.

She had done it. She had escaped Neon City and the closing grasp of Benjaim Bayu.

The tears came again anyway. Her life as she knew it was over and she had no idea where things went from here. She didn’t even know where this ship was bound. She was alone among the stars. And then the engines powered down while the grav drive engaged, folded space around the ship, and leapt from the Volii System in a blazing show of cosmic light and energy, carrying Andromeda far way from danger with a dumbfounded expression on her face..

This post has been edited by Kane: Jun 20 2025, 12:59 PM

[Kane]

Nine - Whiplash

New Atlantis, Jemison, Alpha Centauri System

There were two new faces standing in the greenhouse when Andromeda returned to The Lodge with Noel. A handsome man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, and a young girl who couldn’t be more than twelve years old. The girl stood on her tiptoes hoping to catch sight of Constellation’s newest member while the man stepped forward to introduce himself.

“Hello, miss,” he said with tip of his wide brimmed hat. “I’m Sam Coe, and this here is my daughter, Cora.”

Andromeda felt herself go weak in the knees. Sam had a low, almost husky voice that flowed so smoothly off the tip of his tongue that she had no trouble imagining how he would end up with a kid at such a young age. The blue eyes certainly didn’t hurt either. Nor the scruffy beard, and shoulder length brown hair.

“Um, I-I’m, Dro. Er, Andromeda. Renault. Andromeda Renault.”

“Be cool, girl!” Noel whispered in her ear.

“Pleasure to meet you, Dro,” said Sam. If he had cottoned on to the smitten look she ogled him with, Sam was too much of a gentleman to tease Andromeda about it. Not that he had the chance, anyway.

“First things first,” Cora cut in. “What’s your take on books?”

“Like, stories or novels?” asked Andromeda in surprise at the pointed question. “I’ve read plenty on my slate. And I guess I read enough of them in school.”

“No, I mean physical books.”

“Only held one or two in my life, kiddo. Why do you ask?”

Cora began to answer but she was cut off by her father. “You two can get into that later. We’ve got a job to discuss - maybe over a drink, Ms. Renault?”

Andromeda gulped while Cora rolled her eyes and shuffled off with the sudden desire to be anywhere else. Nodding in agreement, Andromeda followed Sam up to the lounge where he pulled out a chair for her at one of the round pub tables. Then he went to the bar and returned with two cold beers, cracked open and ready to go.

“In the future, I prefer gin,” winked Andromeda. She took a drink from the bottle regardless and then resumed admiring Sam Coe.

“Noted. So, tell me about yourself, Andromeda. Or was it Dro?”

“The latter, if you please.”

Despite it only being midday, the two of them knocked back more than a few drinks while starting to get to know one another. Sam listened earnestly to Andromeda’s glum life story, commenting in all the right places, and even offering gentle words of consolation. But before they could move onto who he was, Sarah interrupted the ad-hoc date with a measure of impatience that greatly annoyed Andromeda for very obvious reasons.

“Did you tell her about the mission, Sam?”

“Not yet,” he sighed. “I would’ve gotten there eventually, Sarah.”

“Now would be more appropriate, Sam. We need to strike while the iron is hot.”

Andromeda let out a groan of frustration and started sniping at her boss. “Sarah, would you kindly [censored] off for an hour? Seriously. Sam and I were having a great time here and waiting a bit longer won’t change a damn thing, will it?”

Sam’s eyes roved back and forth between the leader and the upstart rookie. In all his years as a member of Constellation, he couldn’t think of a single time someone had spoken to Sarah Morgan in such a way. He couldn’t help but admire Andromeda’s gall, even if there was probably a smoother way to go about it.

“Well, I don’t know, Ms. Renault,” mocked Sarah, her voice dripping with warranted condescension. “Maybe the two of you would like to keep playing kissy face while our friend Barrett is strung up by pirates and extorted for everything he’s worth!”

Andromeda opened her mouth to retort, but Sam cut her off. “I got this, miss.” He pulled up another chair for Sarah and patted the seat of it. “Sit down and tell us what’s goin’ on.”

“Thank you, Sam.” She took the offered chair and fired a withering glare at Andromeda before continuing. “A courier just came in from Argos - they’re packing up the site after another attack. An attack that ended with Barrett and a man named Heller being taken hostage. I believe you may know this Heller, Dro?”

Worry and angst immediately crashed into the pit of Andromeda’s stomach and took up an unmoving residence there. Barrett had seemed like a genuinely nice guy that didn’t deserve to be captured by the Crimson Fleet. Doubly so for Heller. That poor guy was just a hapless miner… and one of the few friends she had.

“We need to go help them,” said Andromeda. “Now. Look, I’m sorry I was acting like a cow, Sarah. It’s just -”

“I know. Don’t worry about it.” Sarah pulled out her slate and laid it on the table and began calling up star charts. “We’ll have to split up. You and I, Dro, will go back to Vectera and see if we can’t pick up Barrett’s trail. Sam, you and Cora can head home to Akila. Start scouting for the Artifact. We’ll rendezvous at a later date.”

“You got it boss.” Sam stood up and tipped his hat at Andromeda again. “We’ll do this again real soon, miss. You have my word.”

Andromeda nodded fervently and tried not to blush. “See you,” she managed to say without embarrassing herself.

Sam left to find his daughter while Sarah flicked information from her slate towards Andromeda. “I sent the message to your inbox. Read it and then go get ready to leave. I want to be at the spaceport within the hour.”

* * *

Vectera, Moon of Anselon, Narion System

The Argos mining outpost that Andromeda lived in for almost three months was nearly abandoned already. Only the habs remained standing alongside what little valuable supplies had not been shuttled off-world by freighters to be used on the next lifeless moon the Argos Mining Company laid a claim to.

Very few people remained too, but Supervisor Lin greeted Andromeda and Sarah when they landed under the cover of night.

“Welcome back, Dusty. Didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.”

“Hey, Lin.” Andromeda hugged her. She wasn’t sure why at first, but when her old boss did not pull away, she chalked it up as another win for empathy. “Have the pirates been back?” she asked after they separated.

“No, thankfully. But we didn’t get so lucky the second time. Troy, Calvert, some of the other new dusties… we lost them. And Heller…”

“That’s why we’re here, Lin,” said Andromeda. “We’ll find him.”

“Or we’ll damn well die trying,” added Sarah. “Barrett will do what he can to keep him safe in the meantime. He knows how to take care of himself and others. Do you have any leads, Lin?”

“Not really. I tried pinging a message at the ship after it left, but the comm laser got fried in the fight so I don’t know if it even transmitted. If you can repair it, there might be something to hear. No guarantees, though.”

“Sounds like a decent place to start,” said Sarah. “I’ll follow you, Dro.”

Andromeda led the way to the comms building and cycled through the airlock with Sarah at her heels. The scrubbers were still pumping o2 into the hab, so they lowered their suit helmets and breathed in the recycled air. The control room lay beyond a large window and behind a locked door that Andromeda had open in seconds. A few more seconds and the comms computer core also unlocked under her touch, and to her and Sarah’s surprise, an unread message flashed on the screen. Downloading it to her slate, Andromeda opened the audio message and pressed play.

They listened to it intently, a grin growing from ear-to-ear on Sarah’s face. It mostly consisted of Barrett and Heller bickering back and forth until it reached the end where Sarah got what she needed. Grav jump coordinates were buried in the transmission’s metadata.

“That’s what we needed. C’mon, Dro - back to the ship we go.”

“I’ll meet you there. I need to speak to Lin first.”

“Okay, just be brief.”

Sarah tossed her helmet back on and after cycling through the airlock again, she trotted back to the ship and began making calculations for their next jump while Andromeda tarried on the outpost causeway with her old boss.

“We’re going after them, Lin. I’ll make sure Heller is safe, I promise.”

“I know you will, Dusty. Just don’t get yourself killed in the process. And when you find Heller, tell him to meet me at Cydonia. I think we’ve earned a little R and R.”

“Couldn’t agree more. See you, Lin.”

“Bye, Andromeda.”

* * *
Altair IV-b, Altair System

“Sit still, you big oaf,” Andromeda half-shouted. Heller lay on the only bed in the Frontier’s hab, bleeding all over the upholstery and twitching uncontrollably. They had found the Crimson Fleet ship crashed on an icy moon, with Heller laying on the ground outside of the wreckage. A long piece of aluminum had shorn off the ship burrowed itself into his side.

“’Sit still’ she says,” grunted Heller. “Easy for you to say, Annie. You’re not the one with a hunk of metal in their [censored] gut.”

“I’m giving him more pain meds, Sarah.” Andromeda pulled another morphine injector out of the med kit, but Sarah grabbed her hand and held it at bay.

“He can’t have more without risking overdose. We need to treat the wound first - the poultice and wound vac will help with the pain after extraction.”

Still thrashing about in pain, Heller settled the argument for them by ripping the injector out of Andromeda’s grasp and jamming it into his leg. “Ahhhhhhhhh, that’s better. Can you two sew me back up now?”

Andromeda was about to smile until Heller’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell unconscious.

“[censored]! That’s what I was afraid of,” said Sarah. “We need to patch him up and hit him with a vial of Junkflush. On my mark, yank that hunk of metal out and I’ll seal the wound!” Andromeda grabbed the end of the aluminum shrapnel and readied herself. “3…2…1… pull!”

With a sharp tug, the hunk of ship wreckage pulled free from Heller’s abdomen with a sickening noise and Sarah immediately placed the sealing poultice over the spurting hole. It formed itself to Heller’s contours and automatically flushed the wound with sterilizing compounds and localized painkillers. They still needed to get him to a hospital for further treatment, but he’d at least be stable until they could do so.

Andromeda rifled through the medkit for the final injection. Her hand closed around the vial of Junkflush, and she wasted no time injecting the contents into Heller. The readout on the auto-doc screen above the bed beeped and chirped a few times before indicating he was stabilizing, and the two women breathed sighs of relief.

“He’ll be fine, Dro. You did well.”

“Least I could do for him,” she grumbled.

“It was more than that. You’re still selling yourself short, Ms. Renault.” Sarah stood up to scrub her hands clean of blood and then headed to the kitchen where she began brewing a pot of coffee. “Mind if I make an observation?” Andromeda shrugged in a non-committal sort of way while standing up to clean her own hands, and Sarah continued: “I noticed you didn’t chastise him for calling you ‘Annie’…”

“He wouldn’t have listened anyway,” said Andromeda. “But it’s more than that. We only knew each other for a few weeks, but Heller felt like the big brother I never had. He looked out for me when I had no idea what the [censored] I was doing. Took me under his wing.”
“And that’s all? There wasn’t something more there?”
“Nope. Heller is about as straight as a circle. Don’t get me wrong - he’s very handsome - but I stopped thinking about him in that way a while ago. He’s a friend.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he chose his friends wisely,” said Sarah. “Maybe we in Constellation aren’t the only ones who saw how remarkable you are, Dro.” She handed Andromeda a bulb of fresh-brewed coffee. “And he even managed to get another message from Barrett to us. Ready to jump to the Bessel System?”

“Ready.”

* * *
Ransacked Research Outpost, Bessel III, Bessel System

At least a dozen Crimson Fleet pirates patrolled the abandoned outpost’s exterior catwalks and roofs on Bessel III. Sarah landed the Frontier within half a kilometer but the only way they were getting in undetected is if the scumbags weren’t paying attention to anything - including a ship roaring down to the surface nearby.

They weren’t that lucky, and all twelve of the defenders had their laser sights trained in the direction of the newly arrived ship. Unfortunately for them, Sarah possessed a stellar aptitude for tactical planning from her time in the UC Navy. After arranging a series of stun mines among the rocky footpath leading down to the base, they drew the pirates out with errant laser bolts and bullets fired solely to gain their attention until the ingrates all charged out in a single sloppy group formation. And they ran right through the mines until not a single one remained conscious.

“What a bunch of idiots,” chortled Andromeda.

“Their strength lies in their numbers,” said Sarah. “Not their brains. But I don’t think we’ll get so lucky once we are inside. Keep your weapon at the ready.”

It turned out that the interior of the base wasn’t all that large, or very well occupied. They stole silently through a small vestibule and down a flight of stairs until voices could be heard from somewhere ahead. Crouching down to minimize their visibility, Andromeda followed Sarah further in until the voices were audible enough to discern from the hum of air scrubbers and water circulating behind the walls.

Barrett sat lounged in a chair, arms behind his head, conversing pleasantly with the pirate leader without a care in the world.

“Why am I not surprised,” muttered Sarah. She broke their cover by standing up and strolled boldly into the room.

“Sarah!” said Barrett. “And the new girl, too! It’s a regular ‘ol Constellation party now!”

Andromeda didn’t know what to say, nor was she surprised by what they found either. She’d only met Barrett briefly on Vectera, but everything that she ascertained about him on that day fit the bill for this situation perfectly. In the end, it only served to annoy her, especially after how things had gone for Heller.

“You deal with this,” she said to Sarah. “Or I’ll just end up punching him out. I’m going to check on my friend.”

This post has been edited by Kane: Aug 23 2025, 04:58 PM