“It just doesn’t add up.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Eighteen ponies have gone AWOL over the last few days. Only three have been found, and the rest just up and disappeared off the books. I’ve seen shifty shit before, sergeant, but this just takes the fuckin cake. And to top it all off, I’ve got families on the lines asking why their spouses haven’t returned from their latest deployment! What the fuck am I supposed to tell them? ‘Oh, I’m sorry, but apparently your husband doesn’t exist anymore?’”
- 3356 E.C. - [REDACTED]

We were well on our way to pick up Fritter’s family in the Core, by the time I finally sat down in front of the comm suite and set it up for my call to Chance. The wiring was a little tricky, and more than once I had to pull Tick over to help me get it set up, but once we had a solid connection to the M-Net, the thing worked beautifully. I used the contact information that Chance had left attached to his mail, and used my WAND to handle most of the grunt work.

Ooh! Are you trying to call somepony? Tex said in my head, her amber image appearing on a nearby monitor and staring at me with a beaming smile.

Yes, and it’s a private call, so if you don’t mind. I said back. Being forced to sit with the thing for hours on end had enabled me to come up with a way to work with the little program so I didn’t end up looking like some crazy pony talking to himself. Granted, the whole talking in my head thing was a little weird to get used to, but I found that, so long as I subvocalized the words I was saying, I could clearly communicate with her, without opening my stupid mouth and drawing attention. It would split my attention any time I wanted to talk with her, of course, but it at least it was better than having a one-sided conversation with myself in public. I had also found that as long as I kept my emotions in check, she couldn’t quite tell exactly what I was thinking. A comforting notion, considering her lack of any understanding of privacy. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about my innermost secrets leaking out. The whole method was similar to how I used my WAND, minus the required intent behind it. I figured that with some practice, it would eventually become natural.

Aw, but I can help! The AI protested. Through the monitor she gave me the best impression of puppy dog eyes I had ever seen. Combined with her stature as a filly it was extremely hard to resist.

My lips drew into a thin line as I considered it. How can you help, exactly? It’s just a call, nothing more, I thought back.

Well, I can stabilize your connection so that you can minimize errors in the data flow… you’re… not following okay, uh, less static noise, jitters, and a clearer conversation? I could go on. Tex explained.

Uh, well, I could research any relevant information based on your conversation if that would help. You wouldn’t believe how well I can data mine.

Alright fine, but don’t share anything we talk about, I thought. Some things are meant to be confidential, and could hurt ponies if the details leaked out. Are you familiar with how investigations work?

Well of course! Or… at least I think so, it’s been awhile since I’ve needed those subroutines. Tex replied.

Close enough. Just remember that if any of the details get out, it could damage an investigation. Okay? I said.

The console beeped, and Tex’s face disappeared from the monitor, replaced a moment later with an image of a loading bar and a message that the system was connecting to the requested host. It rang a few times, the audio being piped into my earbuds, until after the fourth ring, an automated voice picked up instead.

“Thank you for calling the legal offices of Chance and Law. We are currently unavailable to take your call, please leave your name and contact number after the tone and we will help you as soon as possible.”

If I had my math right, it would be just after closing time on L6-C. I was banking on whether he might still be there.

“Chance, it’s Horizon, answering your call. If you’re still in the offic-”

I heard a scrambling on the other side as the other side suddenly picked up. The display switched to a picture of Chance’s politely smiling face as the connection completed. The poor buck looked a little weather worn, with a short delay between the audio and the visual. As soon as I noticed it, the signals suddenly aligned, making the whole thing almost appear to be in real time, were it not for the few second delays between responses. Probably Tex.

“Horizon! Good to hear from you! You just caught me as I was on my way out. I take it you got my message?”

I smiled, “Yeah, though I admit it was a little ominous. Do you need me to call back later? Or…”

“No! No, it’s fine. My martinis can wait a little longer. This can’t,” Chance explained.

“Alright, so, what’s going on? You said something about another murder?” I asked.

MURDER? What do you mean murder? Should I be worried? Tex interjected suddenly.

Quiet! Tex, I can’t hear him! I said, annoyed. Whatever Chance had said was lost, and by the expression on his face, he was probably wondering what was wrong with me.

“I’m sorry, Chance, could you repeat that? I’m having a problem on my end.”

“Problem? What problem? I can see you just fine from this end. Better than fine, actually. Just what are you doing to the connection?”

“No it’s... “ I sighed. I might as well get this out of the way if Tex was going to keep interjecting, just so that she would be part of the conversation, instead of the problem, “maybe it’s better if I just show you.” I took a breath and said, “Tex, go ahead and say hi.”

I watched Chance’s confused expression with some amusement as he suddenly got the surprise of his life.

Last Chance jumped, rearing out of his chair and crashing onto the ground with a shout. His eyes were still wide as he came back into view, the camera on his end rotating toward the floor where he was sitting. He stared blank faced at the screen, his eyes switching rapidly from the screen and the camera following his movements.

“What in Equestria…” he started, “Horizon, what is this some kind of joke?”

“No, it…” I stopped, thinking. “She,” I corrected, “is a little thing I picked up on my last run. Harmless, I swear. Well, I hope. I can’t really get rid of her.”

Chance looked at me with a level frown, “You do realize this is supposed to be a confidential conversation. Right?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She responded cheerfully.

I was struck immediately by two things. The first was a sense of amusement at how ludicrous a statement that was, and the second was this odd sense that I was suddenly being watched very carefully. I shivered. So did Chance.

Chance eyed me skeptically through the monitor. “You certainly lead an interesting life,” he said.

“Right.” Chance cleared his throat. “You remember what I said about the Just Cause Act, right?”

I had to jog my memory a couple times, before the details came to me. “Vaguely, why? Did you finally get your break?”

Chance frowned, “Not exactly. But this recent case certainly gave me some more ammunition to use against it. I can’t give you specifics, but the new murder case has been sharing details very similar to yours.”

“Changelings,” Chance said. “Ever since your case, the investigation bureau has been checking all the cases for traces of changeling activity, and since I’m the only pony in recent history to successfully use the changeling defense, I’ve been getting calls practically all day from other lawyers to compare notes. Even miss Primrose has been talking to me, much to my chagrin.”

I remembered Prosecutor Primrose. She was a pony that was a little harder to forget. “I thought you two hated each other,” I said.

Chance shrugged, “Call us professional rivals. I tolerate her, at least.” He shook his head, “Ever since our last case, she wanted to avoid being blindsided like that again. She’s the one who convinced the DA to order changeling detection on all new cases. Regardless, that brings me my point.”

He looked at me seriously, “This latest murder was committed by a changeling. We’re very sure. The scans turned up their magical signature quite clearly. But we’re still puzzling out as to why.”

Chance smiled patiently, “Because partly I believe you should be aware of what is going on. The first thing the DA did was try and pin it on you, due to your prior history, but that was debunked within minutes when we learned that you were long gone by the time it happened. You can imagine how that conversation went.”

“The situation was virtually the same. The pony accused of murder was swearing that he was innocent, and when the investigation turned up the changeling signature, the ponies in State Legal suddenly got very interested,” he said. “Out of suspicion, the DA ordered all cases with similar scenarios busted open, and their entire legal team has been working around the clock to see if there were any other cases in progress that could have reasonable doubt.”

“Yes. This last week, I’ve been buried in paperwork trying to play the devil’s advocate for a bunch of deceased ponies,” Chance said with a grim frown.

Chance nodded reluctantly, “Yes, it would be, were it not for what we’ve been finding.”

“Yours wasn’t the first case in recent history to involve changelings.” Chance said, “in fact, now that we’re looking for it, the evidence for similar cases has been going back nearly decades.”

Six. Six murders like mine, at different times in history, and this is only the first week?

“I can tell by your expression that you’re beginning to understand the situation,” Chance said.

He took a breath, “And that’s only the beginning. Since we opened this investigation, I’ve been getting calls from defense lawyers both inside and outside the PC, wanting to compare notes. Apparently, they’ve been having the same problems.”

“Yes.” Chance said seriously, “And while many of these call don’t have many problems too similar to yours, they do share one thing in common.”

“Faders. In every case, either the victim or the perpetrator had Fade,” he said.

“I’m not normally one to yell ‘conspiracy’, Horizon, but at the rate I’m getting these calls, I’m starting to think something is very, very wrong.”

Chance recovered a moment later, “I don’t think I’ll be able to get used to that,” he said, laughing softly. “Either way, I’m calling to tell you to keep an eye open. I’ve forwarded some of the more public details to your broker friend so that he could look into it as well. I’m hoping he can help.”

He smiled, “My pleasure, take care out there Horizon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a drink.” With a final nod, the call ended, and I was left staring at the blank screen.

I had just woken up from a particularly vivid dream about flying paperwork, when Estoc entered the living space with a particularly diplomatic mask on his face. Even with my bleary eyed glance, I could tell that he wanted something from me.

I groaned as I sat up on my couch, wiping some of the sleep from my eyes with a hoof before regarding the yellow pegasus with one of my trademark, ‘this better be good’ looks.

“I was wondering if I could speak to that AI for a bit. I’d like to get some more details on the events leading to the Salvation’s destruction,” Estoc said.

Yep. He wanted something alright. Instantly, my WAND flared to life of its own accord, projecting the little filly slightly above my head over the couch.

“Sure! What do you want to know? If I can answer I would be happy to help you,” Tex said. “I have to warn you, however, that a lot of the data from back then has really degraded since the… incident.”

It was becoming very obvious that I was about to have no real say in this conversation. Instead I just sat and listened. As Estoc focused his entire attention on the filly and ignored me entirely. Rude much?

“Well, if you don’t mind, you could start with yourself. What exactly are you? I’ve worked with some of the brightest minds in the NSR, and I don’t think they’ve ever even approached the level of sophistication your programming shows,” Estoc said.

The filly blushed, “Oh, well, um, you know, I’m just this and that. Really, I’m not all that special.”

“Yet even by your reaction to my simple you’re surprisingly pony-like. You even show sincere modesty. That isn’t exactly a feature that most programmers think to include when designing an intelligence,” Estoc said. “A lot of care obviously went into your creation. What exactly were you made for? Were you made specifically for the Salvation?” he asked.

“Uh, no. I think. Yeah, no. I was not made specifically for the Salvation, I think. I remember helping run some of its more critical systems, but I was on the crew serving more as a fail-safe than a critical part of the system. As to what I was made for, I…”

Tex’s face went blank as she spoke in a low monotone, “Data not found.” She cringed, rubbing the back of her neck with one hoof while apologetically bowing her head to Estoc. “Sorry.”

Estoc frowned, “Damn, well I suppose it wouldn’t be so easy.” He seemed to think for a moment. “Wait, you said you served on the Salvation. Did the other ponies treat you like another one of the crew?” he asked.

Tex nodded, smiling, “Yep! A lot of them were really nice too. I remember some of the engineers sharing stories with me about their families back on Equestria Prime, and what they were planning to do once they got… home.” Her smile fell. “They’re all gone now.” She sniffed. “I saw them… all of them.”

Whatever interest Estoc had been showing wavered as he stared at the AI. “I… I’m sorry if I brought up bad… memories?”

The filly shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Friends come and friends go. I’ve learned that lesson more than once, believe me. I do wonder what happened to their families on Equestria Prime, however. I wish I could tell them how much they were loved.” Tex looked at Estoc, her face quizzical. “What’s wrong?”

“You… don’t know, do you,” Estoc said, uncomfortably shifting in place as he took a seat.

“Dead,” I answered bluntly. I was getting tired of being a third wheel on this discussion. “Equestria Prime is dead."

“WHAT?” Tex nearly screamed in shock. “You’ve-you’ve gotta be kidding! You’re kidding right?” My head tickled for a moment. Tex ‘sat down’ in midair as she seemed to process it. “You’re not kidding,” she muttered numbly. She started shaking, “you’re not kidding at all. How?” She pleaded.

“According to the histories, there was an accident with the talismans a few years after the first ships departed,” Estoc replied. “To this day we don’t really know what exactly went wrong, but it certainly stands as a dark moment in our history. One of many, I’m afraid.”

“That’s… awful,” Tex said. “Do you at least know some of what happened?”

“From what my researchers told me, the talismans maintaining the day and night cycle failed after a few years of operation. No one knew how to maintain the spells, or why they stopped working.”

“Celestia...” Tex said. “Celestia helped make them. I knew they were only supposed to be a temporary measure, but they should have lasted longer than that!”

Tex’s mood visibly improved. “Well, yeah, I was kinda her personal assistant.”

“What? is something wrong? Was it something I said?” Tex asked, looking at me. I really didn’t have an answer for her.

A dark look came over Tex’s features, “First off, she hates that term, and second, if I hear one mention of goddess this, or her highness that, I’m ending this conversation. Celestia hated it when people venerated her. I can’t tell you how many cults she had to quell over her lifetime, and that before I was even made!”

Estoc regained himself, “I’m sorry, of course.” I could have sworn I heard him say something about goddesses under his breath.

Tex looked up, as if remembering something fondly. “Warm. Kind. Like the mother you never had,” she said with a distant smile.

Tex continued. “But she could also be steel. She had a mask like you’d never believe, and she wore it around everypony. She was always so lonely, even with her sister by her side.”

Estoc nodded quietly. “I must admit, this is a lot to absorb. The way you talk about her makes her seem so… normal.”

Tex frowned. “Because she was. She was just a pony, your grace, just like you, and that’s all she wanted.”

“So what happened?” I asked, changing the subject, and then clarified, “with the Salvation. I mean.”

Tex tilted her head, thinking. “Um well we-” Her face blanked. “Data corrupted,” She droned. “Sorry. Most of it’s gone.”

Estoc’s face soured. “Damn. Can… can you recall anything? Anything at all? Details? Places? What was your mission? What happened to the other ships?”

Tex’s mouth worked, “I-I uh oh.” Her face suddenly concentrated. “Dammit! Corruption is spreading. Hang on while I isolate this. Stupid virus.”

Tex rolled her eyes. “Just a memory worm,” she explained, “If I had access to my main database I’d be able to just purge it, but it attacked my antivirus first.” She straightened, “There. That should do for now. As long as I don’t get too close to it, I should be fine. I forgot the stupid thing was there. I wonder if it caused that. Ugh.”

Tex focused, and then deflated. “Oh dang it! The Prancing Pony, volume two. I liked that one! I’ve only read it a few thousand times, too.”

Tex hummed, “maybe some of them. Mission, let’s see-” She rubbed a leg under her chin. “We were sent out to find out what happened to the Golden Dawn. We…” She stopped, mid-thought. Estoc leaned forward, hanging on her every word. “succeeded,” Tex finally said. She stared forward blankly as her eyes widened. “We were attacked,” she said numbly. “Ponies died.” Her image sank to the couch beside me. “Everyone died. The ships they…” She looked ahead, comprehension dawning on her face.

Tex blinked as her voice switched to monotone. “Data not found,” she blushed, “I’m sorry, I spaced out there. What were we talking about?”

“Enough,” Estoc said weakly, “I think I’ve heard enough. Thank you for your time.”

I watched as Estoc left us, stumbling slightly as he hit the control for the cargo hold.

The rest of the trip passed quietly. Estoc didn’t bother me again for Tex for the time being and everyone else just kept busy doing their own thing. Tick pointedly ignored me for some reason—I didn’t really know why—so I spent the final leg of our journey in the pilot’s cabin with Jess, eager to learn some of the procedures that were standard out in this region of space. As a PBJ headhunter, Jess was very well-traveled. I figured I could learn a thing or two from her if I was going to be out on my own someday.

We eventually arrived at one of the stations orbiting New Canterlot, the Core’s political and industrial hub.

It was with wide eyes that I took in the sight that followed. I had thought that I had seen large stations before, was impressed with their size, and told myself, ‘wow that thing is gigantic.’

The station orbiting New Canterlot put all that to shame. I’m not sure if a single word would be at all useful in describing it. Monolithic, is the first thing that comes to mind, but in the heat of the moment the only thing I could say was,

THIS was the Core, the central hub for most of the commerce flowing in and out of Unicorn space, and the key headquarters for most of the major corporations that ran it, both inside, and outside national borders. It wasn’t a single station, it was a megaplex, a conglomeration of equally massive stations seemingly welded together to form some gargantuan superstructure that I’m sure rivaled the size of one of New Canterlot’s many moons. And this was only one of the stations orbiting the planet. In the far distance I could see many, many more, each owned by a different company, and each virtually a nation to itself.

Numbers started running in my head. A pony could make quite a lot of bits ferrying supplies between the stations, but then again, judging by the seemingly endless lines of ships and cargo snaking their way into and out of the starports I wasn’t the first pony to think of that. A bigger ship chose that moment to blink in, a massive freighter that barely even hesitated before aligning with one of the larger space elevators and powering forward on its sixteen industrial grade thrusters.

I stood in awe of industry. It was everything I could do to keep my mouth from hanging open like some stupid fish.

“First time in the Core, Horizon?” Jess asked, glancing back at me from the pilot seat. She wore a knowing grin that flashed with her steely blue eyes.

Jess laughed, “Yeah, it gets me every time too. Gotta be quick on your hooves too, else you’ll start drawing attention from the local authorities. They don’t like it when you hold up the line.” Immediately, Jess turned back to the controls and started us on a course I didn’t quite understand.

“That sounds like it came from experience,” I said, tearing my eyes off the scene through the viewport and looking at Jess.

The mare shrugged, “The PBJ isn’t very well liked around this sector. The station cops think they have everything under control and try to keep us out. It used to be a real point of contention between us and them before they set up the contracts that give us our freedom to work.” Jess punched a few buttons on the control board before sending her authorization to the tower, “Still, so long as we stay out of their business, they’re willing to let us go poking after fugitives from the PC. I still don’t know how the old director pulled that one out of his ass.”

Jess shook her head for a moment and then sighed, “We’ll be docked in another thirty minutes or so. I hope you have our pick-up’s contact information otherwise we’re never going to find them—not within a week, anyway.”

Fritter had sent it along with his request. His wife knew to expect me, but I was pretty sure she didn’t know when. I would need to send her a message at least, and that meant that I would need a solid M-Net connection. Messenger ho!

“I’ll be on the comms,” I said, taking one last lingering glance out the viewport before turning toward the door.

Out by the comm suite, I hooked in with my WAND and set to work, inputting the credentials I needed to send a message to Fritter’s wife. I had a hunch that she was also using a WAND, given the importance of her position, so I set up the details for a device to device connection. My hunch was correct. The details were enough, and before long I had a solid connection on the messenger client with which to send a brief message:
Connecting… connected.

>Hello. My name is Horizon Seldat, your husband asked me to come pick you up after my last run. We’re just now arriving and I have been told to expect a party of two. I’m sorry about the short notice.

Patiently, I waited for a reply while idly tapping one of my back legs on the deck. I didn’t have to wait long. The response from my intended customer was surprisingly prompt.

<Hello, Captain Seldat! I was wondering when you were going to arrive. My name is Pearl Shine. My husband did mention that you had some business to attend to prior to your pick-up, but he forgot to when I should be expecting you. I’m afraid you’ve caught me at a bit of a bad time. I’m still packing things up here for the day, so if you will please inform me of which platform I should go to when you land, I will be by as soon as possible. I will be waiting for your response.

>Will do. We should be landing in thirty-minutes or so according to my pilot. Once I have the port info I will be sure to pass it to this number.

“Well that was easy,” I muttered. To be honest I had been expecting something more. Maybe some imminent danger or legal hoop we would have to jump through to complete the mission, and maybe get shot at in the process. I suppose that is a bit of an unhealthy way to look at things, but with my luck...

She seems nice. Tex suddenly said. And stop being so negative! Don’t you know it’ll put wrinkles on your face?

So does smiling. I thought back at her. And yeah, you’re right. She does seem like a nice pony.

Ugh. Fine, Tex replied, and then she was gone, presumably off to pester somepony else. Probably Tick. Ever since Tick ran off in a huff, the program had been trying to make friends with her. Tick was having none of it. Any time the AI tried anything she would retreat to the cargo hold and turn off all the nearby devices. You’d think she had some sort of phobia or something. Bizarre for the usually machine crazy mare. Either way, the way she kept pushing the AI out was starting to frustrate it.

I added the thought to my ever growing list of things to look into before heading back to the pilot’s cabin to watch Jess pull us in.

Docking was an interesting thing to watch. Unlike the mining colony closer to the fringe of the Core, we weren’t allowed to go docking pell mell like I had gotten so used to with other parts of the universe. There were queues, just like in my hometown, but they moved much faster, and the majority of them relied almost entirely on magic once you reached a certain point. After sitting in line for an hour or so to get our final clearance, we were instructed to power down the engines and wait for transport. At first I was a little skeptical as to exactly what was going to happen, but once an industrial grade TK field materialized around us and started pulling us along, I started to understand. Tens of ships were getting the same treatment all at the same time, and judging by the distance glow of several emitters, the station was using some sort of system similar to a WAND, only much, much bigger. It was big, flashy, and expensive, a theme that stuck with the decor as we moved along and got packed in with the other ships like sardines.The unicorn stations in the Core didn’t shy away from using magic, that’s for sure.

I watched the whole process with interest, paying special attention to the cues and authorizations that Jess gave in order to get her clearance, just in case I ever found myself needing to travel the same space again. It was an educational experience, to say the least.

Once we were all locked down, I sent a final confirmation to our pick-up with our hangar and pad number, and began the waiting game.

We weren’t allowed to get out and explore the station, unfortunately. Our docking clearance was for shipping only, meaning that besides picking up our cargo, we weren’t allowed to wander off and get into trouble. It was Tick who explained that one to me. Apparently you had to buy certain privileges for the more central stations, and those could run anywhere from a few measly bits, to a small fortune, or even more. Of course things were different if you were an actual citizen of the Core, at which point things became easier for you, but obtaining citizenship was hard, and harder still if you were not a particularly well-bred unicorn. The amount of bias was galling, but expected. After all, there were a lot of privileges that pegasi enjoyed in the PC that most other races couldn’t: exclusive clubs, stores, that sort of thing. Nothing I actually patronized, of course. Doing that required money and I wasn’t exactly rolling in bits before this whole mess started.

Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long. Our client had packed her things well, and arrived at our launch pad just a quarter past the hour.

“Excuse me! Are you Captain Seldat?” A voice like bells called from a short distance away. I raised my nose from a paper magazine Tick had picked up for me from one of the local vendors and looked around for the source. The platform we were on was fairly busy with ponies, but speaker could have stood out in a packed amphitheater. I had to blink a couple times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. When the mirage didn’t go away I immediately had only one thought.

She was a pearly pegasus, her coat an attractive off-white that seemed to catch the light in ways that tricked the eyes into thinking it glowed. This was framed by a wavy pale pink mane that shimmered with the same level of care as her coat, and soft cerise eyes that reflected a kind of grace that probably left stallions crashing into walls. She was waving at me. Dumbly I waved back, and she approached with a calm, near heavenly gait that belied an easiness about her that seemed to radiate from her very soul.

“There you are! I was beginning to wonder if I’d run onto the wrong platform. There’s just so many these days that it’s easy to lose track,” she said. Her voice had a musical lilt to it that made me shiver.

“Uh, yes! I’m Captain Horizon,” I said awkwardly, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name?”

The pegasus smiled in good humor. It was hard not to be swept away in it. “Pearl Shine,” she replied graciously, “it’s good to finally meet you captain, my husband has said nothing but glowing things about you in the emails we’ve been sending each other.”

I smiled back as warmly as I could. “Horizon Seldat, Captain of the Scrap Bandit. And I’m surprised to hear that he thinks so highly of me.”

She laughed. “Well, you know my husband, he’s always one to embellish little details here and there. I think it’s part of his charm.”

Pearl nodded, “Yes, of course, please allow me to introduce my daughter,” she looked down and behind her, lowering her head toward something hiding between the few small bits of luggage she had brought with her, “Nutmeg, please come out and say hi to the nice captain for me?” She asked, raising a wing.

A peach wisp of a pegasus filly cautiously nosed her way out from underneath her mother’s wing and stood just barely in sight, her head held low. A peach eye peeked out from beneath her white and pink mane, which fell low and flat across her face.

“Um, hi,” she said softly. Against the din of the platform, I could barely hear her.

“And hello to you as well, Nutmeg,” I replied with a nod. She was definitely fritters daughter, judging by her coloration, although how Fritter’s overtly cheerful personality and his wife’s angelic gravitas combined to make this shy little filly, I had no idea.

She squeaked in response, retreating further into her mother’s embrace and just out of sight.

Pearl smiled patiently at her, before turning to address me. “You’ll have to forgive my daughter, she doesn’t do very well in crowded places. And the travelling the life I’ve had with the Ambassador has been especially hard on her. Would it be alright if we loaded up quickly? I’m hoping she will be more comfortable onboard.”

“Of course. We’ll take care of loading your things. Why don’t you get settled onboard, it should only be a couple days, before we arrive. Although I have to apologize as we don’t exactly have accommodations that a lady of your caliber might be… um… used to.”

She smiled graciously, “I understand. My husband already told me what to expect. Thank you for flying us out to meet him on such short notice. It really does save us quite a lot of trouble.”

Oh, don’t you sass me. Don’t you have like, calculations to run or something? I thought back.

Already done, Tex replied, and besides, your conversation was much more entertaining.

What? are you bored? If you want entertainment why you go ask Jess to share some of that stupid Soap Opera she keeps watching with you, I thought at her.

They’re STILL running that show? Tex thought, aghast. I’ve… I’ve got to investigate this.

“Okay then,” I said aloud, both disturbed and somewhat frightened. Apparently derelict ships weren’t the only thing to survive the old world.

Looking at the task ahead of me, I took a deep breath and set to work getting Pearl’s luggage aboard and prepared for the trip back.
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The Stars Beyond The Veil

by Charlemane

19 - Details