Lalia only calls me up once, sometime around midday, when I’ve packed up Bat and the humans and the leftover waffles and headed across planet to the first place marked out on my map.
It’s just a quick check-in, and I realize it’s understandable given I left before she woke up, but it rekindles my nerves. Yvonne is letting Anya do her hair at the back of the ship, but her eyes on are me. We haven’t figured out Neyla Ve, but we have time to talk and think about it. Now that I’m slightly more alone with her—just Anya and Bat as company—it’s difficult to force myself near her. She hasn’t seemed to change her mind about her feelings for me. Instead of comforting, I find it more and more terrifying. She’ll realize and change her mind eventually, won’t she? Certainly.
When I glance back, she smiles, her eyes soft, and I turn away before my own expression betrays me.
Hytha isn’t large. There are perhaps a few hundred cities of note, fewer large enough to actually warrant a visit, and I’ve no interest in making side trips. We’re here for a reason, I remind myself, and staying out of the public eye with my recognizable face on a high bounty would be wise. I’m pushing it as it is, wandering around to some orphanages, but I bet the chance of anyone recognizing me in such places is low. I tend to run in circles of people who check on such things, but the average person isn’t exactly tuned in to criminal activity and bounty charts, let alone competent enough to see a rogue cyborg and even think twice about their chances.
Despite that, we’ll be keeping our heads on a swivel for anything suspicious.
I was using this as an excuse to get away from the siblings and their cozy little home and unhappy parents. But now that we’re landing in the nearest city with an orphanage, I’m more nervous than I expected to be. But this is a cold way to gather information, no emotions involved from the people running these places. I don’t even have to mention I’m looking for my own records. I’m just a cyborg on the hunt for some lost kid. Nothing to be nervous about.
Try not to puke, Aaron.
I think I’ve lost my nerve over the last few weeks. I need to learn to relax. Have I ever been able to relax? Probably not. I can’t have always been such a nervous wreck.
Good job lying to yourself for this long, dumbass.
I snort at my own bad joke, then clear my throat when it draws Yvonne’s gaze.
“Are you nervous?”
Great. “What do you think?” I grumble, landing the ship in the forest near enough to the city. I don’t need most of this trip to be taken up by walking.
“I think you’re handling this better than I would.”
So I’m hiding the panic? Fantastic.
“I’m not sure you should go in with me. Staying in the ship is one thing, walking around is asking for it.”
Her eyebrows immediately furrow, and Anya pouts behind her. “We’re not exactly super recognizable. Plenty of people look like me in general features.”
“Eyes are a dead giveaway.”
She blinks a few times, as if remembering. “Right, where did those starglasses ever go to? We’ll get some new ones.”
“Don’t you think we’ve had enough stupid moves for one month? I’m pushing it as it is.”
She grins wickedly. “Hey, as you’re so happy to point out, who’s going to stare at us when you’re walking alongside?”
Oh, now she’s going to use my arguments against me. Typical. Maybe because she actually believes it.
Bat snorts. Traitor.
“If you’re insistent, let’s go, I can just dump you two when someone spots you.”
“Good luck with that.”
“You haven’t seen how fast I can run.”
Anya considers her toes. “Could I catch you?”
Huh, maybe. “Doubt it.”
I try to decide if I should be giving in on this while Yvonne gets dressed in less revealing clothes. It’s warm here, but not so much so she’ll be too hot in that jacket of mine she insists on wearing.
Belatedly, I now realize why she must like it. My cheeks burn.
Anya doesn’t have a bounty, but Yvonne gets her in a long-sleeved shirt and pants anyway. No use people staring at her subtle prosthetics only to notice us. If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that strangers will stare. Bat drops the backpack beside my hand, nosing me, tapping his toes. No matter how sick he gets of being stuffed in that backpack, he never gets tired of being carried.
I drop out of the airlock and glance at the sky. It’s clear and bright blue to a point it nearly hurts my eyes. Trees are thicker on this section of the planet. We maybe traveled a few hundred miles to my first point on the map. Not for the first time today, I check the bounty sheet on my tablet. No changes to the list, or to my page or those of the humans with me. The quieter they stay, the better.
Where does Captain think we are now? What happened when he learned the fate of the two ForceZero numbers on Lee’s ship?
That makes three of his private force. The first underestimated us. The next two…
Well, we just got damn lucky.
I remember Zane’s wounds and wince.
“Are there any records of your ForceZero numbers at all?” I ask Yvonne as the two join us. Anya pats Bat through the backpack, and there’s a hiss I’ve come to associate with his particular toothless threat toward the little girl.
Yvonne shakes her head. “And they aren’t mine.”
I ignore her. “Could you describe the rest of them to me? And their augmentations?”
Her nose wrinkles. “Maybe? I’m not certain I’ve met all of them.”
Well, that complicates it.
“Just try, but not too loud. Let’s go.”
I only parked us a few dozen yards into the trees where it was still spacious enough to maneuver the ship down while only crushing a bit of undergrowth. Farther in, the trees become thicker all at once, but we don’t have to worry about that.
I do, however, expect the trees to thin once we step inside the city limits. If anything, they become more artistic. This really is a planet that decided to intertwine with their environment instead of cutting a glimmering knife through it. Large, smooth trunks of unfamiliar, brown-green trees sprout between every building. The city itself—the name of which I only glanced at in passing, we’ll be heading to too many to track—consists of fairly new buildings. Metal and glass and wood and cement, mostly shorter than a few stories. The exceptions are the way the sprouting, ancient trees lean against them, vines clinging to every surface. I get the oddly distinct feeling we’re walking under a forest though I can still see the sky and treetops and roots.
Everything smells of moss despite the modern glimmer of the city. Other than the people, it’s nice. Zane and Lalia probably fit right in, the two happy idiots.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Yvonne asks, craning her neck to look at the canopy creeping over the tops of the buildings. Her hand slips into mine. I glance at it.
“What are you doing?”
“For a smart guy, you ask some remarkably stupid questions.”
I’m starting to doubt the “smart” aspect. “And you don’t think that’s—”
“What? It makes you less conspicuous.”
“I would argue the opposite.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I don’t answer, and try to ignore Anya’s soft giggles from the other side of her sister. Yes, I think, but can’t force the word past my chest. I clear my throat again. “Just tell me about the ForceZero numbers.”
“Do you. Know. Where. We’re going?”
I wave my tablet dramatically, catching the quick stare of a passerby. “Just keep walking and start talking.”
She snorts. “Okay, well…”
I listen to her disorganized thoughts about the ForceZero numbers she’s certain she’s met. None sound as if they were remotely friendly to her. Given the way she speaks of and tells me she interacts with Captain, it’s a little unsettling how his private force seems to be unaffected by the princess. I know they creep her out, but I wonder how deeply she fears them. One day, when we’re not trying to appear as casual as possible on the streets of an unfamiliar city, I’ll ask her.
My hood is up, and my clothes are inconspicuous. The cut isn’t the same as the fashion trends here, but it isn’t stand-out as it was on Amethyst. Perhaps Yvonne is right. Perhaps her obvious comfort with me makes me appear harmless. I can’t be certain if I’m gathering fewer stares or if people here simply don’t react to cyborgs the same. Maybe no one’s looked close enough yet to see I’m unusual.
Anya keeps trying to drift off towards the various shops on the thoroughfare full of clothing and unfamiliar foods. Eventually, Yvonne grabs her hand and keeps her within arm’s reach.
Nothing Yvonne mentions about the ForceZero numbers strikes me as particularly relevant—she doesn’t know most of their enhancements, as she didn’t know about the lack of temperature. Still, I store all the information for later. At least, perhaps, her physical descriptions can be of some use. Hopefully, we never run into one again. But I’m not holding out hope.
It’s a twenty-minute walk alongside the main street before I turn us left down a smaller sidewalk. I’ve never been to an orphanage—well, I’ve never been to one as an adult. Never to one I remember. I’ve never felt any particular kinship with others who grew up without people of their own. Thinking about it probably won’t do me much good.
The building marked on my tablet sits nicely into the rest of the street. If I squint, I can see a large yard in the back past the alleyways of the other building and cover of the trees. I wonder how many kids sneak out into the trees and play. I can imagine myself doing so, if I were a child here. Inspecting the building, I likewise find nothing memorable or familiar. But this is one of many we’ll be visiting. Not recognizing this place doesn’t mean anything.
“What do you remember?” Anya asks. When I glance down, her head is dropped back, squinting up at me against the sunlight filtering green through the trees.
“Not this.”
“But what do you?”
Yvonne says, “Don’t pester him.”
Rich coming from her. “I don’t remember anything. Some lights and colors and the vague idea I was alive before Amerov, but nothing more.”
“Think they did something to your memory?” Yvonne asks.
I stop dead, my hand resting on the small front door of the building. I glance at her. I’d never considered such a thing. Perhaps that was ignorant of me, but they never did anything like that to other numbers. Even the criminals hardly ever get their memories wiped unless they did something particularly heinous. It seems there wouldn’t be much reason to do it to me, a child.
Unless they didn’t want me going back home.
But why wouldn’t they? I wasn’t anything special. Sure, I was the first kid there in ages, but it isn’t as if they were raising me to be some sort of killing machine far past their normal numbers. If they were trying, they failed spectacularly. I nearly smirk, but it comes out as a grimace.
“Do they do that?” Anya asks, not appearing to notice my expression.
Yvonne shrugs. “Just seems strange.”
“That fever pretty much melts you from the inside out,” I say. “Not remembering anything before it isn’t too strange an option.”
“I suppose.” Yvonne frowns at the street and the passersby giving us odd glances at our loitering. “They wiped that fever out, didn’t they?”
“Ages ago.”
Her frown smoothes.
Bat noses me through the top of pack, his wet nose of the back of my neck. I suppose we’ve done enough stalling. Even if this place doesn’t have records of me, I’m still going to have to talk to someone, and it feels like forever since I’ve had to walk up to some business and try to get information.
I jab my thumb at the nearest store. “Go get some glasses. Don’t interact with anyone. Call Bat if something seems off.”
Yvonne gives me a look like she might want to go in with me, and I appreciate it, but I don’t want whoever’s in here looking directly into the princess’ eyes. I watch them walk across the street, Yvonne’s hand on Anya’s shoulder, and disappear into the glass doors. It sits incorrect in my chest to allow them to do it, but Yvonne was wandering around casinos on Amethyst for days without anyone of note noticing her. The chances here are ridiculous.
Plus, I already know she’s comfortable shooting people. Not exactly a damsel in distress.
Don’t be so paranoid.
Well, not about this, at least.
Before I can lose my nerve, I lean on the door handle and push my way in.
Lalia only calls me up once, sometime around midday, when I’ve packed up Bat and the humans and the leftover waffles and headed across planet to the first place marked out on my map.
It’s just a quick check-in, and I realize it’s understandable given I left before she woke up, but it rekindles my nerves. Yvonne is letting Anya do her hair at the back of the ship, but her eyes on are me. We haven’t figured out Neyla Ve, but we have time to talk and think about it. Now that I’m slightly more alone with her—just Anya and Bat as company—it’s difficult to force myself near her. She hasn’t seemed to change her mind about her feelings for me. Instead of comforting, I find it more and more terrifying. She’ll realize and change her mind eventually, won’t she? Certainly.
When I glance back, she smiles, her eyes soft, and I turn away before my own expression betrays me.
Hytha isn’t large. There are perhaps a few hundred cities of note, fewer large enough to actually warrant a visit, and I’ve no interest in making side trips. We’re here for a reason, I remind myself, and staying out of the public eye with my recognizable face on a high bounty would be wise. I’m pushing it as it is, wandering around to some orphanages, but I bet the chance of anyone recognizing me in such places is low. I tend to run in circles of people who check on such things, but the average person isn’t exactly tuned in to criminal activity and bounty charts, let alone competent enough to see a rogue cyborg and even think twice about their chances.
Despite that, we’ll be keeping our heads on a swivel for anything suspicious.
I was using this as an excuse to get away from the siblings and their cozy little home and unhappy parents. But now that we’re landing in the nearest city with an orphanage, I’m more nervous than I expected to be. But this is a cold way to gather information, no emotions involved from the people running these places. I don’t even have to mention I’m looking for my own records. I’m just a cyborg on the hunt for some lost kid. Nothing to be nervous about.
Try not to puke, Aaron.
I think I’ve lost my nerve over the last few weeks. I need to learn to relax. Have I ever been able to relax? Probably not. I can’t have always been such a nervous wreck.
Good job lying to yourself for this long, dumbass.
I snort at my own bad joke, then clear my throat when it draws Yvonne’s gaze.
“Are you nervous?”
Great. “What do you think?” I grumble, landing the ship in the forest near enough to the city. I don’t need most of this trip to be taken up by walking.
“I think you’re handling this better than I would.”
So I’m hiding the panic? Fantastic.
“I’m not sure you should go in with me. Staying in the ship is one thing, walking around is asking for it.”
Her eyebrows immediately furrow, and Anya pouts behind her. “We’re not exactly super recognizable. Plenty of people look like me in general features.”
“Eyes are a dead giveaway.”
She blinks a few times, as if remembering. “Right, where did those starglasses ever go to? We’ll get some new ones.”
“Don’t you think we’ve had enough stupid moves for one month? I’m pushing it as it is.”
She grins wickedly. “Hey, as you’re so happy to point out, who’s going to stare at us when you’re walking alongside?”
Oh, now she’s going to use my arguments against me. Typical. Maybe because she actually believes it.
Bat snorts. Traitor.
“If you’re insistent, let’s go, I can just dump you two when someone spots you.”
“Good luck with that.”
“You haven’t seen how fast I can run.”
Anya considers her toes. “Could I catch you?”
Huh, maybe. “Doubt it.”
I try to decide if I should be giving in on this while Yvonne gets dressed in less revealing clothes. It’s warm here, but not so much so she’ll be too hot in that jacket of mine she insists on wearing.
Belatedly, I now realize why she must like it. My cheeks burn.
Anya doesn’t have a bounty, but Yvonne gets her in a long-sleeved shirt and pants anyway. No use people staring at her subtle prosthetics only to notice us. If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that strangers will stare. Bat drops the backpack beside my hand, nosing me, tapping his toes. No matter how sick he gets of being stuffed in that backpack, he never gets tired of being carried.
I drop out of the airlock and glance at the sky. It’s clear and bright blue to a point it nearly hurts my eyes. Trees are thicker on this section of the planet. We maybe traveled a few hundred miles to my first point on the map. Not for the first time today, I check the bounty sheet on my tablet. No changes to the list, or to my page or those of the humans with me. The quieter they stay, the better.
Where does Captain think we are now? What happened when he learned the fate of the two ForceZero numbers on Lee’s ship?
That makes three of his private force. The first underestimated us. The next two…
Well, we just got damn lucky.
I remember Zane’s wounds and wince.
“Are there any records of your ForceZero numbers at all?” I ask Yvonne as the two join us. Anya pats Bat through the backpack, and there’s a hiss I’ve come to associate with his particular toothless threat toward the little girl.
Yvonne shakes her head. “And they aren’t mine.”
I ignore her. “Could you describe the rest of them to me? And their augmentations?”
Her nose wrinkles. “Maybe? I’m not certain I’ve met all of them.”
Well, that complicates it.
“Just try, but not too loud. Let’s go.”
I only parked us a few dozen yards into the trees where it was still spacious enough to maneuver the ship down while only crushing a bit of undergrowth. Farther in, the trees become thicker all at once, but we don’t have to worry about that.
I do, however, expect the trees to thin once we step inside the city limits. If anything, they become more artistic. This really is a planet that decided to intertwine with their environment instead of cutting a glimmering knife through it. Large, smooth trunks of unfamiliar, brown-green trees sprout between every building. The city itself—the name of which I only glanced at in passing, we’ll be heading to too many to track—consists of fairly new buildings. Metal and glass and wood and cement, mostly shorter than a few stories. The exceptions are the way the sprouting, ancient trees lean against them, vines clinging to every surface. I get the oddly distinct feeling we’re walking under a forest though I can still see the sky and treetops and roots.
Everything smells of moss despite the modern glimmer of the city. Other than the people, it’s nice. Zane and Lalia probably fit right in, the two happy idiots.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Yvonne asks, craning her neck to look at the canopy creeping over the tops of the buildings. Her hand slips into mine. I glance at it.
“What are you doing?”
“For a smart guy, you ask some remarkably stupid questions.”
I’m starting to doubt the “smart” aspect. “And you don’t think that’s—”
“What? It makes you less conspicuous.”
“I would argue the opposite.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I don’t answer, and try to ignore Anya’s soft giggles from the other side of her sister. Yes, I think, but can’t force the word past my chest. I clear my throat again. “Just tell me about the ForceZero numbers.”
“Do you. Know. Where. We’re going?”
I wave my tablet dramatically, catching the quick stare of a passerby. “Just keep walking and start talking.”
She snorts. “Okay, well…”
I listen to her disorganized thoughts about the ForceZero numbers she’s certain she’s met. None sound as if they were remotely friendly to her. Given the way she speaks of and tells me she interacts with Captain, it’s a little unsettling how his private force seems to be unaffected by the princess. I know they creep her out, but I wonder how deeply she fears them. One day, when we’re not trying to appear as casual as possible on the streets of an unfamiliar city, I’ll ask her.
My hood is up, and my clothes are inconspicuous. The cut isn’t the same as the fashion trends here, but it isn’t stand-out as it was on Amethyst. Perhaps Yvonne is right. Perhaps her obvious comfort with me makes me appear harmless. I can’t be certain if I’m gathering fewer stares or if people here simply don’t react to cyborgs the same. Maybe no one’s looked close enough yet to see I’m unusual.
Anya keeps trying to drift off towards the various shops on the thoroughfare full of clothing and unfamiliar foods. Eventually, Yvonne grabs her hand and keeps her within arm’s reach.
Nothing Yvonne mentions about the ForceZero numbers strikes me as particularly relevant—she doesn’t know most of their enhancements, as she didn’t know about the lack of temperature. Still, I store all the information for later. At least, perhaps, her physical descriptions can be of some use. Hopefully, we never run into one again. But I’m not holding out hope.
It’s a twenty-minute walk alongside the main street before I turn us left down a smaller sidewalk. I’ve never been to an orphanage—well, I’ve never been to one as an adult. Never to one I remember. I’ve never felt any particular kinship with others who grew up without people of their own. Thinking about it probably won’t do me much good.
The building marked on my tablet sits nicely into the rest of the street. If I squint, I can see a large yard in the back past the alleyways of the other building and cover of the trees. I wonder how many kids sneak out into the trees and play. I can imagine myself doing so, if I were a child here. Inspecting the building, I likewise find nothing memorable or familiar. But this is one of many we’ll be visiting. Not recognizing this place doesn’t mean anything.
“What do you remember?” Anya asks. When I glance down, her head is dropped back, squinting up at me against the sunlight filtering green through the trees.
“Not this.”
“But what do you?”
Yvonne says, “Don’t pester him.”
Rich coming from her. “I don’t remember anything. Some lights and colors and the vague idea I was alive before Amerov, but nothing more.”
“Think they did something to your memory?” Yvonne asks.
I stop dead, my hand resting on the small front door of the building. I glance at her. I’d never considered such a thing. Perhaps that was ignorant of me, but they never did anything like that to other numbers. Even the criminals hardly ever get their memories wiped unless they did something particularly heinous. It seems there wouldn’t be much reason to do it to me, a child.
Unless they didn’t want me going back home.
But why wouldn’t they? I wasn’t anything special. Sure, I was the first kid there in ages, but it isn’t as if they were raising me to be some sort of killing machine far past their normal numbers. If they were trying, they failed spectacularly. I nearly smirk, but it comes out as a grimace.
“Do they do that?” Anya asks, not appearing to notice my expression.
Yvonne shrugs. “Just seems strange.”
“That fever pretty much melts you from the inside out,” I say. “Not remembering anything before it isn’t too strange an option.”
“I suppose.” Yvonne frowns at the street and the passersby giving us odd glances at our loitering. “They wiped that fever out, didn’t they?”
“Ages ago.”
Her frown smoothes.
Bat noses me through the top of pack, his wet nose of the back of my neck. I suppose we’ve done enough stalling. Even if this place doesn’t have records of me, I’m still going to have to talk to someone, and it feels like forever since I’ve had to walk up to some business and try to get information.
I jab my thumb at the nearest store. “Go get some glasses. Don’t interact with anyone. Call Bat if something seems off.”
Yvonne gives me a look like she might want to go in with me, and I appreciate it, but I don’t want whoever’s in here looking directly into the princess’ eyes. I watch them walk across the street, Yvonne’s hand on Anya’s shoulder, and disappear into the glass doors. It sits incorrect in my chest to allow them to do it, but Yvonne was wandering around casinos on Amethyst for days without anyone of note noticing her. The chances here are ridiculous.
Plus, I already know she’s comfortable shooting people. Not exactly a damsel in distress.
Don’t be so paranoid.
Well, not about this, at least.
Before I can lose my nerve, I lean on the door handle and push my way in.
