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]

They are a match made in heaven! Especially after Dro's first few attempts at a dating life fizzled out.

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Twenty – The Darkness Pulls

The Verity of Fate





Andromeda finished calculating the jump to their next destination and let Andreja do the honor of initiating the grav drive. The ship lurched as the familiar folding of space encompassed their ship and the autopilot took over for the short duration of their travel across vast stellar distances.

Never seemingly satisfied, Andromeda’s stomach growled and she decided it was time to pay the galley a visit.

“Hungry, sweetie?” she asked Andreja.

“Do you never not eat? How do you maintain that figure with the amount of junk you consume?”

“Was that a rhetorical question?”

“I did not intend it to be.”

“Oh. Then that should be obvious. A winning combination of anger, stress, and the fear for my life that began when I was run out of my home. And the vigorous exercise we engage in now. I did not peg you for being so insatiable!” She unbuckled and gave Andreja a kiss before heading midship where the fridge was tucked away. “Besides, I was never petite like you are,” she called back.

Andreja unstrapped herself from the copilot’s chair and followed Andromeda back to the small dining area. She fixed herself a cup of tea and sat at the table for two while Andromeda hunted through the refrigerator in search of ingredients she could pile onto her sandwich. After layering some lettuce and tomato slices over synthameat turkey, she sat across from Andreja and took a messy bite.

“Know anything about our final stop?”

“Only what is already in the database,” said Andreja. “Strong magnetosphere with an M Class atmosphere. The gravity is a little stronger than on Jemison, and we will not be doing any swimming this time.”

“Chemical oceans?”

“And cold weather. The mean temperature is -65° celsius.”

“Life?”

“If that information was on hand, we would not need to be doing this survey, Annie.”

“Ugh. I’m aware of that. I meant are there any signs of life?”

“That is unlikely.”

Chewing thoughtfully on her sandwich, Andromeda wondered for the first time since leaving The Eye where exactly they would go next. With a third completed surveys under their belt, money wouldn’t be an issue for a while, but she didn’t think Andreja would bite on going back to her home on Nesoi for another vacation. Her partner was a busybody in every sense of the word and enjoyed having things to do.

“Something on your mind?” Andreja inquired. “Your brow is furrowing in quite an adorable manner. Do your eyebrow piercings twinge at all when you do that?”

“Nah, you get used to them after a few days. Wanna stop by an Enhance! and get some of your own? You’d be even sexier with a few piercings, maybe some ink…”

“I cannot. It would violate the religious doctrine of Jinan Va’ruun.”

“Can’t fault me for trying,” chuckled Andromeda. “Actually, I was trying to figure out what our next move would be.”

“One thing at a time, Annie. We will have ample opportunity to discuss that matter when we finish our next survey.”

* * *

Verity of Fate, Piazzi II, Piazzi System

“Are you finished tinkering with that yet?”

“Still need a bit. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

Andromeda probed at the exposed contacts inside her helmet HUD with a circuitry microprinter. Easily her favorite tool, it took the guess work out of forming new pathways with pre-programmed schematics that were freely available. They were just about to touch down on Piazzi II when she had an epiphany: scanning would be a lot easier if you could link the handscanner to your helmet interface instead. All it took was proper integration between the scanner input and the target assist sensors in the helmet. At least, that’s what Andromeda theorized.

“Go ahead and start suiting up, Dre. I’ll be done in a minute whether it works or not.”

“Very well.”

Their spacesuits hung from two racks near the landing bay hatch just at the back of the Verity’s main hab. Andreja lifted her helmet down and set it on a small table while she unzipped the back of the suit. Then she slipped out of her pants and shirt, letting them fall to the floor with a soft rustle of fabric. She usually preferred more typical undergarments as opposed to the form fitting undersuit Andromeda liked to wear, which was just fine with Andromeda since she happened to be staring intensely in that direction.

“Quit staring at my ass, Annie,” said Andreja without turning around. “It will only delay your work.”

“Can you blame me? I’m pretty sure you chose those panties for a reason. How about you give it a little shake for me?”

Andreja sighed. “Will that really do anything to help?”

“It’ll certainly do something to me.”

“Focus, Andromeda.”

Uh oh, thought Andromeda. Full name. She’s already in work mode. Tearing her eyes away Andreja thoroughly checking her suit seals, she resumed the attempted modifications with a slight grimace at the little puff of smoke rising from the overlay chip.

“[censored].”

“Problem?”

“I burned out a diode. Your fault for distracting me.”

“So now this will take longer?”

“No, I think it was redundant. There’s two more nearby.”

She blew the acrid smell of of burnt circuitry away and resumed penning new routes for data and power to flow until the indicator on the pen lit green. Rolling the helmet over, Andromeda thumbed the diagnostic key at the back to reset its onboard systems and allow the new information to stream in. After a few seconds, the interface readout show all systems as nominal.

“Yes! It worked!” She tossed her helmet to Andreja. “Try it on and look out the porthole. See if the scanner data is incorporated!”

Andreja caught it and lowered the helmet over her head. She looked out the dirty and scratched window and peered outside, breathing in sharply. A multitude of resources lit up with their chemical compositions displayed right across the HUD for easy identification and analysis.

“My goodness. You have outdone yourself this time, Annie. Perhaps I shall keep this. You can use mine for now.”

“Excuse me?” sputtered Andromeda. “No, I-I… I did that for… I can do yours later, too. I-”

“Relax, Annie,” laughed Andreja. “I am just teasing you.” She removed the helmet and walked back to Andromeda’s workstation. “Here, it is all yours. Just be sure to make the same modification to my own helmet after this expedition, yes? Now, if you do not mind, I will finish suiting up. The cold from this world is seeping through the hull.” Andreja returned to where her suit hung and then swiveled her head back around. “Andromeda?”

“Hm?”

“Stop putting your things away for a moment.”

“What? Why?” She glanced from her toolkit and felt her jaw drop open at the sight of Andreja fulfilling Andromeda’s earlier request while pulling the spacesuit up over her knees. “Goddamn it, you’re such a tease. I’m gonna slide out of this stupid chair.”

“Suit up,” winked Andreja. “We have a planet to survey.”

* * *

Plateau, Piazzi II, Piazzi System

Three hours into surveying the final biome Andromeda had made up her mind completely: Piazzi II was the most boring planet she ever set foot on. They had surveyed the frozen hills near the northern ice cap first.

Boring.

Then the moved onto a sandy desert.

Still boring.

And now, they clambered over steep hills, rocky outcroppings, and dunes of sand. Andromeda kicked a rock over and found more sand. The planet was utterly devoid of life outside of a few hardy microbes that clung to rock faces. No plants, no alien creatures. Not even any outposts or other man made structures to break up the monotony.

Just… emptiness. And two explorers who spent a lot of time scanning minerals.

Everything about the job led to it being boring enough for Andromeda to start humoring herself. “Hey, Andreja!” she said into her mic. “You’ll never believe what I found over here!”

“What is it? A life form?”

“Even better – more sand!”

Andreja sighed heavily. “Andromeda…”

“What? Not like there’s anything else to find on this [censored] rock,” she mumbled.

“… I must admit, I am inclined to agree. But we are almost finished with the survey. Let us climb that mesa to the east and have a look around. Perhaps we will spot a geological formation to investigate.”

Following her gaze, Andromeda looked east at the mesa. Then she looked back at Andreja. And then she looked at the mesa again. Had she not been wearing a helmet, she’d have scratched the side of her head in confusion.

“Excuse me? How the [censored] are we supposed to climb that, Dre? Its gotta be over two hundred meters tall!”

“I will teach you. Should be fun!”

“You and I have very different ideas about what consists of fun, sweetie. I think you’ll owe me a few drinks after this.”

“Sweetie? Again?”

“I like pet names. Get used to it.”

“I do not have a problem with that,” said Andreja. “It just sounded a little condescending is all.”

Andromeda shrugged, and followed Andreja east to the towering mesa. They had about three kilometers of ground to cover before reaching the base and they spent most of it debating on how to fairly split the credits Vladimir would dispense for their efforts. Two planets and a moon was no small feat and would net them a hefty sum. Andreja felt they should upgrade the weapons on the Verity, but Andromeda wanted to save it for fuel. There were a lot of systems out there she’d never been to, many of them with cities to visit and sights to see.

It was still a hot subject when they reached the mesa’s base, and Andromeda craned her neck up the sheer rock face. The shadow cast by the geological uplifting painted an evening glow where they stood. Andreja set her boost pack on the ground and began to fiddle with the settings until she nodded in a satisfied way before doing the same to Andromeda’s.

“There, I have them set for short bursts.” She opened a pouch on her suit’s utility belt and handed some small picks to Andromeda. “Take these – use them to find purchase in the stone. And make sure you deploy the climbing spikes in your boots.”

Taking them with shaky hands, Andromeda bobbed nervously on her heels. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I should’ve just stayed home.”

“Hold one a moment,” said Andreja, sharply. “You are not afraid of heights, are you?”

“I, uh… I honestly don’t know, Dre. I’ve never been that high without being in a ship, or a building. And what if I slip? Falling to my death would be such a lame way to go out after all the [censored] we’ve been through.”

“I would never let that happen, Annie.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Andromeda took several deep breaths. “Okay. I know you won’t.”

“Then let us ascend. Follow everything I do exactly.”

The thrusters on her boostpack fired for a split second to propel Andreja roughly two and a half meters in the air. She grabbed onto a small ledge with her hands and instructed Andromeda to do the same.

“There is plenty room for us both,” she promised.

“[censored]. If it was anyone else, Dre…”

She fired her thrusters just as Andreja had done, and to her surprise, Andromeda managed to grab ahold of the stone ledge with her feet dangling below. Andreja smiled encouragingly through her helmet, and then blasted off again. This time, she moved nearly four meters up and swung her picks into the rock wall.

“Okay,” whimpered Andromeda. “Okay. I c-can do this. I can do this.”

Her boostpack fired and she rocketed up, swinging the picks wildly at the wall in a desperate bid to find purchase but ended up sailing a full meter further than Andreja, who climbed up beside her with graceful ease.

“Are you alright, Annie?”

“Mhm. Yes.” She took a minute to breathe and let heart rate calm when an unexpected realization began to set in. “You were right,” she admitted. “This is fun! And I only peed myself a little bit! Thank god for the recyclers in these suits.”

Andromeda could scare believe what she was saying. Never did she think that scaling a vertical cliff face with nothing below but the ground to break one’s fall would be something she enjoyed. Cards with her friends? Absolutely. Dancing at the club? Always. Climbing perilously high mesas? Not a thing she’d ever envisioned.

What’s happening to me?

“I told you there was a brave woman buried in there,” said Andreja, approvingly.

Oh. Right. She’s what happened to me. Goddamn beautiful minx.

Onward and up they went. It was slow going but they kept making undeniable progress for about fifteen cautious minutes until Andreja stopped on a ledge wide enough to sit and they took a break, staring out over the rocky expanse far below.

Andreja took a sip of water from the dispenser feed in her helmet and glanced sideways with a raised eyebrow. Andromeda was repeatedly slapping the side of her modified helmet.

“What is it you are doing?”

“My screen crackled just before we sat down. I think that diode I burned up is shorting out. I’m trying to jostle it around to see if I can reproduce the interference.”

“Please just rest, Annie. You can fix that later.”

Andromeda conceded her point and stopped fussing with it. They rested for nearly ten minutes and then resumed the harrowing climb. Bit by bit, and boost by boost the two of them made their way higher and higher up the near vertical face of the mesa until the top was tantalizingly close at hand. Standing on another broad ledge, Andreja estimated one more two second burst from the boostpacks would careen them over the top.

“Are you ready?” she asked Andromeda.

“Ready.”

This time, Andromeda didn’t wait. She blasted off ahead of Andreja, coasted up over the rim of the mesa, and alighted gently onto the top of it like a professionally trained climber. Her companion touched down mere seconds later and gave her a slap on the ass.

“Very well done, Annie! You learn quickly!”

“I had a good teacher,” winked Andromeda. “Should we rest? Or do you want to -” She paused as more static crackled across her integrated scanner feed. Another thump to the side of her helmet didn’t help. “Damn it. I must have screwed something up.”

“Still not working correctly? Perhaps you should sever the link for now.”

“Nah, it’s intermittent. I should be fine.”

“If you say so. We can rest later; I want to look out over the eastern rim before nightfall. We should get moving.”

“After you, toots.”

“Toots?” remarked Andreja. “Jinan preserve me.”

It was a long trek across the top through rocky expanses and sandy deposits. The sun began to set at their backs when they were nearly to the other side but only Andreja was still scanning minerals. Andromeda’s interface had continued to grow so static-filled that she did end up switching it off and resigned herself to follow Andreja about like a lost puppy. She filled the time by humming random tunes or chattering ceaselessly through their helmet mics while Andreja smiled to herself. It took some getting used to at first, but she had grown to adore the way Andromeda apparently never felt she’d said enough about, well, anything.

Evening approached rapidly when they finally reached the opposite edge of the mesa. It would have been a breathtaking view across the plateau lands had a singularly unique landmark not been jutting up from the ground several kilometers away.

Andromeda froze in fear as an icy claw gripped her heart.

They had found another Temple.