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  26

  Ether Rogue returned to subspace outside a dark, cold cluster of floating asteroids stretched into a long belt of immense density. A brown dwarf star hidden behind the massive floating rocks cast a sullen magenta glow on our surroundings, shrouding everything in a dark, crimson-rimmed haze. Deuterium and lithium fusion in low-mass stars was too cold to sustain natural life on any planets that might be nearby in the system, but that didn’t matter if you weren’t building a planetary base of operations. For a station, even the darkest, coldest corners of space could suffice as long as external hazards were relatively low.

  Dark Reaper jumped in, materializing a kilometer away from us. In this light, its frame blended in with the shadowy asteroids, silhouetting the ship in ghostly light. “Welcome to our humble home,” Cadan said over comms. “We took less damage than was expected. It’s good to know Dark Reaper can hang with the best. Follow me and I’ll guide you through.” External light nodes blinked to life on Dark Reaper’s frame, helping us see our guide without the assistance of AI-boosted optics or the image recognition systems on Ether Rogue that weren’t back online yet.

  “Thanks for the help getting out of Vrenn, that was one hell of a show.” Gwen lifted a safety panel, flipping the switch underneath to restore full system capacity to Ether Rogue, booting up the AI and all the digital systems characteristic of modern starships. With that, Fen retracted both blaster turrets on the ship into their enclosures, giving Brandon control over one of the two powerful rotating floodlights as he returned to the flight cabin. The two of them passed the light beams over asteroids, illuminating hard surfaces with rich veins of glimmering black running through—probably some kind of ore.

  “If it is okay with you, I will run the information you pulled on the bounty hunter on Vrenn to see if my suspicions are correct,” Fen said, toggling the automatic functionality on her floodlight.

  “Yeah, go ahead, Fen,” Gwen said. “This Cadan guy might be able to give us more information too, especially since he paid the guy through Bounty Net to give Kyle the chat lobby info.”

  “Good Gesh. Well, we’re going to need to refuel at Cadan Graves’s station. That jump ate eighty percent of our jump fuel,” Brandon said, toggling through the display windows on his console, as he made the report.

  Gwen nodded. “Yeah. Hopefully it won’t be a problem. Hull damage is surprisingly minimal, and other than a little durability strain on the shield generator, we’re doing just fine. Shouldn’t be anything the Omnidrones can’t patch up.”

  Fen didn’t seem happy with the results of running the data snippets Gwen had snagged from the bounty hunter through Ether Rogue’s AI. “The data is inconclusive, I am going to leave it running on our AI node to see if it can pull anything else. It seems most of what you gathered in our encounter was just simple AI commands interfacing with the Treshian Commando Armor.”

  Gwen eased Ether Rogue into a smooth acceleration, following behind Dark Reaper but leaving plenty of space between the two ships. “That’s okay, Fen. Hopefully we’ll never see him again. If he had been working with Dalthaxia, he probably would have had insight on the forthcoming raid on Vrenn and would have been able to make an early capture when he had the chance. We can ask Cadan, but I don’t think what we know is conclusive enough to link Dalthaxia and the Black Lotus Cartel in any sort of conspiracy.”

  Satisfied, or at least knowing there was very little else she could do about it for the time being, Fen started working with the others to better appraise Ether Rogue’s condition.

  The others were so transfixed on checking the ship for wear and tear, but my thoughts were somewhere else entirely. I had a strong suspicion Cadan wouldn’t be the only one talking with us on Dark Eternity’s station. I wanted to check my character sheet and see what I could acquire with my class point, but it would have to wait until my thoughts and feelings weren’t so jumbled. Our entire group had reached level 5 as well with the massive kill count we’d racked up on Dalthaxian forces. Ideally, we would all work together to optimize our class point usage to build a well-rounded party for the coming expedition.

  Dalthaxia was a huge enemy, and I wasn’t feeling great about it, even with the tremendous opportunity for wealth now that we confirmed what Gwen held had incalculable value. Dalthaxian citizens or not, there was almost no way we’d be able to return to good standing with them in Eternity Online anytime soon. Admiral Nsara had my face, my voice, and everything else in Eternity Online. She would be out for our blood, but I was thankful she wouldn’t have a way to link her intel to my real-world identity thanks to the ironclad privacy encryption standards built into Eternity Online.

  Dark Reaper trundled forward in front of us, bright blue burners on the back generating acceleration as the massive ship charged straight toward the asteroid belt. Light beacons on the outward asteroids burned to life, illuminating the path while propulsion boosters on the sides of two large masses of rock kicked on, moving the asteroids out of the way along an unseen track. The two asteroids came to a stop, and we were free to enter a tunnel-like system carved right through the dense belt.

  “Damn,” Fen cursed. “It looks like the pressure coiling on the jump drive took some damage during the escape. Can you help me patch it, Brandon?”

  “Okay,” Brandon agreed, standing from his chair and following the yōkai woman back through the flight cabin.

  “What do you think the chances are they break the ship?” Gwen asked before Brandon and Fen had made it all the way out of our proximity.

  “Fifty-fifty, I’d say,” I replied with a grin.

  Brandon huffed. “Can’t break what’s already broken. And it wouldn’t be broken if you hadn’t crashed us into that dropship.” It was just some friendly banter, there was no hostility in his joking tone.

  “We will have it fixed before we dock,” Fen assured as the two of them disappeared further into the ship.

  “That was some really impressive flying,” I said to Gwen once we were alone. In the backdrop, I could hear Brandon swearing as he struggled to repair the coiling. Fen was shouting helpful suggestions with increased concern, and I could tell Brandon’s frustration was building.

  Gwen punched off the ship-wide comms as Brandon’s profanity intensified, temporarily muting him. “Thanks, you think so?” she flashed a grin at me, toggling the AI to maintain her current flight perimeters and follow Cadan through the asteroid belt. The light of the distant dwarf star was consumed in the tunnel carved through the asteroids, and soon the lights on the dashboard and cabin were the only things illuminating our faces as the darkness swallowed Ether Rogue.

  “Yeah, I do. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve probably been flying a lot longer than two weeks, especially since you kept us alive against a full blockade without any AI assistance. I’ve never seen anyone move a light freighter like you just did.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. But to be fair, Dalthaxia wasn’t trying to pop Ether Rogue, they were only trying to disable her. And what about you and Brandon? All that fancy shooting and technical know-how. I don’t think you learned all that since the Eternity War started. With skills like that, you’d be valuable to any fleet.”

  I laughed, deciding to give her more information without anything too specific. “You want to build more trust? Here it is. We’re deep space miners working for a company under Dalthaxian contract. I’m a drone operator, and Brandon’s a quality analyst. We work on the same shift. We’re playing neutral because we didn’t want to work the same job we do in real life, even though our employer is offering some attractive contracts. That, and I didn’t want to sign up for the military life, even though the benefits are really good—assuming Dalthaxia wins the war.”

  She nodded, looking pleased that I’d decided to open up more. “Good to know. I’m a former racing rig pilot based out of Protogeyn. I lost. Badly. Now, I’m living in just another segment of Dalthaxian Slums trying to build a new life for myself while I hide from my former creditors un
til I can pay them off. Anyway, I’m sorry Dalthaxia is after you now, that could have been a cleaner escape. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we’re successful, and I’m pretty sure you want to do the same for me.”

  I nodded appreciatively. “That would explain your skill—consider me impressed. Brandon and I knew the risks when we decided to play neutral. We can all come out on top, and we’re going to do everything we can to help you along the way. Back on Vrenn, you mentioned you hate Dalthaxia, but why didn’t you sign up to be a pilot if you were going to conscript yourself into their military anyway?”

  Something flashed across her face, maybe it was regret, or maybe it was emotion slipping through a hairline crack in her icy composure. It was gone a moment later. “Harder to get away, and I didn’t need them to know about my past—most of which isn’t exactly legal. I purposefully botched portions of my aptitude testing when I was conscripted so I could avoid being a pilot, even though I can fly anything. I was lucky to land the squad I did as only a Private First Class in rank since I had no military background before the war. It was either a lowly position on a treasure hunting squad or serving as a Dalthaxian Commando Cadet, but as you know, I’m a terrible pilot so Commando work was out of the question.” She winked.

  I couldn’t help but smile at her. “And you’ve been on Vrenn ever since you escaped Treshvyn with the map fragment?” The pieces were coming together, and I was glad we were able to start building some trust. I wasn’t going to answer questions about where exactly I was located in the real world, and I wasn’t going to insult Gwen’s intelligence or risk harming whatever respect and trust I was garnering by asking those questions.

  “Yeah, Fen and I scrounged the credits to buy Ether Rogue and piece together a plan to put together a group under Dalthaxia’s radar, which seems to have gone to hell at the end. Here we are, and assuming this goes well and doesn’t backfire, which I’m not too confident about given what you’ve told me about this Cadan Graves, then we’re all set. Just so you know, I’m not eager to cut anyone else in on our deal, and we sure as hell need unanimous agreement from everyone in the current party before we make any revisions to our agreement.”

  I nodded in understanding. “I’m not planning on working with Cadan Graves. I told you how I feel about him and what he did. The man almost ruined my entire life, and that’s still something I struggle with.”

  Fen and Brandon returned to the cabin, taking their seats. Brandon was smeared in grease and a thin layer of sweat coated his pale skin. “Jump drive is squared away. That leak might have been there before our escape. It’s not going to be an issue now though,” he reported.

  “Thanks, you two,” Gwen said, flashing me another look. Her beautiful crimson eyes lingered on mine for just a second too long, and she gave me a weak smile. I returned the smile, thinking about everything she had just told me and how I was excited to get to know her better. I had no reason to lie to her, and hopefully she didn’t have any reason to lie to me.

  We cleared through the asteroid passage and entered a large clearing that housed the Dark Eternity station. It was much smaller than Vrenn, but massive nonetheless. A large energy-shielded hangar set in the center of the cylindrical station occupied a significant portion of the real estate. Several large ships were docked within. Mining barges scoured nearby asteroids with powerful lasers while smaller drone ships hauled away ore to mobile refineries and forges for immediate processing. It looked like the station was still under active construction, expanding to fill the ambitious scaffolding reaching out from all sides of the station.

  “This is it. Follow us into the hangar, our space traffic control will guide you to a landing platform. We’ll be happy to refuel Ether Rogue and assist with any repairs you might need while we talk in the conference room,” Cadan said over comms. “Welcome to Dark Eternity.”

  27

  We walked off the ramp of Ether Rogue and into the massive hangar, full of real players and NPCs alike as they worked diligently on their current projects. Some of them stripped parts from the skeletons of conquered starcraft in various states of malfunction, filling large repulsion bins and pushing them over to fusion forges to melt down into slag. Other workers patched damage to Dark Eternity ships and loaded cargo crates and barrels on large freighters. All of them looked up to appraise us as we walked by.

  Brandon and I had already disabled our alarms in the real world and remotely alerted Nick Ramirez that we would be taking a personal day on Tiyvan IV. While it would give us more time to play, we wouldn’t be able to surpass much more than 13 hours of constant gameplay without waking up to at least eat, use the restroom, and stretch out. With the day off, we’d probably be able to jump back in and play shortly after though.

  Our two new friends didn’t have hard alarms of when they needed to wake up, but they wouldn’t have much longer to play before they would need a break too.

  I was surprised to see Cadan was playing as an anomaly as he walked from Dark Reaper’s ramp toward us, other crew members filing out behind him and talking amongst themselves. The Anomaly race were faceless cosmic beings with star-like patterns shimmering across their sleek metallic skin. They were shaped like humans but looked like someone had forgotten to fill their face with features.

  Cadan was dressed in a black business suit ornamented in brilliant orange runes affixed with the logo of Dark Eternity, two mirrored sickles joined at the handle and split down the center with a sharp diagonal line. Glowing light shimmered underneath the reflective surface of the emblem. The beer gut he had sported in real life nearly three years ago when I had last seen him apparently didn’t transfer over to Eternity Online with the race he was playing. “Welcome to my home,” he said as he walked up in front of us.

  Cadan Graves showed us the courtesy of not trying to take our weapons as we walked off the ramp of Ether Rogue. He also didn’t have any guards with him and didn’t appear to be carrying weapons on his person—at least none that were in plain sight. If we succeeded in killing him, he would just respawn at Dark Eternity’s station. It would be pointless, even if I still wanted to kill him for what he’d done to me.

  “Hi,” Gwen said, walking forward and extending a hand. “I’m Gwen. Thank you for helping us escape the Dalthaxian blockade.”

  Cadan strode forward, gripping her hand and shaking it. “Hello! It’s a pleasure meeting you, Miss Delarine. I can assure you that it was my genuine pleasure to help you. Those criminals don’t represent what Dalthaxia is, and I will do everything I can to erase their presence. Dark Reaper took a few hard hits, but she’ll be good as new in no time.” Cadan then introduced himself to Brandon and Fen as we worked our way through artificial pleasantries. I could tell my friends were all acting reserved, cautious of Cadan from what I’d told them about my past.

  “I see,” Gwen responded with a level tone, keeping a pleasant smile glued to her face. “Dark Reaper was beyond impressive to watch on the battlefield. I think this might be the first time in Eternity Online any non-capital-class ship has gone up against one in head-to-head combat and made it out in mostly one piece.”

  “Perhaps so. I’ll be interested in reviewing the Datanet footage tomorrow if the story gets picked up. Now,” Cadan continued, clapping his metallic hands together, “I was just wanting to speak with Kyle, but I would insist your entire group join our conversation in the conference room since I now believe we have some potential business to discuss. For now, with your permission, I’d like to refuel the Ether Rogue and make any repairs you might need. Completely free of charge.” While he had no facial expressions or a face to make them with, his voice changed with the normal inflections of conversation.

  “We’d be thankful for the refueling, but we were able to escape Vrenn without any damage, so the repairs aren’t necessary,” Gwen said. The refueling could be done externally without the need of any Dark Eternity personnel boarding her ship, and while she didn’t come right out and say that, Cadan seemed to get
the message. I was also fairly certain Gwen would sweep Ether Rogue for hidden tracking beacons with her drone before we left this cold system.

  Cadan nodded respectfully. “Of course. We’ll perform an external refueling of your reactor core and any jump drive fuel you expended to get here. I know it was quite the distance to travel. I will also try to keep this meeting brief so you are able to log out in neutral space if you’re more comfortable doing so, though you’re welcome to rest here as long as you’d like. You’re our guests.”

  “Thanks,” I said, keeping the contempt I felt toward him out of my voice. “We’re going to try to keep it brief so we can log out in neutral space, though. Can you lead us to the conference room?”

  “Of course. It isn’t a problem. If that’s your decision after we talk, then I’ll respect it and we won’t have any trouble. Believe me, I have nothing but the best wishes for you, Kyle.”

  I had to force myself not to scoff at that, keeping quiet instead. “I only agreed to talk to you, Cadan. I don’t want to see or talk to Stacy today. I have a strong feeling she’s working with you and Dark Eternity.”

  Cadan nodded. “She’s here, but I thought it would be best to leave her out of this unless you wanted to talk to her. That isn’t going to be a problem.”

  I felt some of the tension and anxiety fade, but I wanted to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. I wanted nothing to do with any of this, but I intended to hold up my side of the bargain since Cadan was the only reason we were still alive right now.