“And this was our section of the ship, you know… decades ago.”

  Erie pointed to part of the ship that had twin green lines running along the walls. She touched those lines affectionately and said,

  “We called them lifelines. Because we lived by them. Hahaha.”

  She ran forward, beckoning Althea along whenever she started to lag behind.

  Althea asked,

  “What happened to Surge?”

  Erie stopped in the middle of the hallway and shook her head,

  “Idiotic politics. Mostly. A few of the old Surge teams are still around, just in new forms. And a lot of what we learned lived on after Surge officially ended.”

  “Sounds like you didn’t stay on long after Surge disbanded.”

  Erie shrugged.

  “I got dumped on Earth as part of the whole “politics” thing. They tried to keep tabs on me, which was a mistake because they spent a lot of money teaching me how to avoid that. When they lost me, I suspect my handler listed me as deceased. Which is better, really.”

  “You don’t miss it?”

  Erie shook her head.

  “I miss the people. Even the sons of bitches who picked on me and made void life harder than it needed to be.”

  “I spoke to Boris a little bit about that.”

  Erie looked over Althea’s shoulders as if expecting to find him waiting there. But he had begged off right away to stay on the ground levels where the infrastructure controls were.

  “What did he say? How much of a badass I was?”

  “He told me your job or whatever. And about how people were dicks to you over your condition.”

  Erie shrugged.

  “Yeah, that part sucked a little bit. But you gotta understand something about special forces like Surge. Convincing the men that women belonged there only required that the women whup the snot out of one or two men. But someone like me, who breaks too many taboos in the first place… I am lucky my father was who he was, or I would have been assigned somewhere else despite my selection scores.”

  “Why Surge?”

  Erie laughed and said,

  “If you decide the purpose of your life is to kill people, wouldn’t you hang with the deadliest killers you knew? Make sure you survive your new mission in life?”

  Althea grinned and said,

  “Okay, yeah. That makes sense to me. Did it work?”

  Erie nodded as she stopped before a room with a sealed door.

  “They made me a kind of mascot. Here.”

  She pressed her hand into the panel next to the door. It opened with a soft puff of air. Althea had expected a musty odor, but the ship’s air reprocessing kept the room smelling neutral, mostly pleasant.

  “Mascot? That sounds patronizing or something?”

  Erie shrugged again.

  “After weeks of people being a dick to you, any improvement is acceptable. Once the whole crew adopted me, most of the bad pranking ended and the good kind started.”

  “The good kind?”

  Erie stepped into the room and lifted up a long white blanket with a little pipe sewn into a corner. She lifted it so Althea could see the mark.

  “This is one of my sheets. It didn’t come with the logo. They dubbed me the Pied Piper and someone stitched this into everything I wore. At first, I wanted to complain or find the perp and beat them. But Aly… I mean Boris, convinced me that this had shifted from hazing to adoption. And that was just what big brothers did to their little sisters.”

  Althea wanted to argue there, but Erie continued,

  “After my first deployment, things really turned around. “Piper” became a badge of pride. People would shout it at me when they saw me in the halls, clap me on the back and cheer. It was a little like a second birth.”

  “It sounds like you miss them?”

  Erie shrugged,

  “Some were total douchebags. I would stand behind them in any firefight, knowing they would lay down their lives to protect me, just like I would for them. But I don’t miss those people. Others like Boris, I miss the shit out of those guys.

  What about you, Althea. What’s your family like?”

  Althea shrugged, looking down at the scattered bunks and trying to sort through the mess with her toes.

  “I’m an only child. My mother helped design a line of circulatory implants that ensured we never wanted for money. When I left home and went to college, they divorced. My father died during the Saturn disaster. My mom is so heavily medicated these days, I doubt she remembers me or dad.”

  “Shit, that sucks.”

  “It’s the middle class dream. I can’t really complain. It’s not like I ever wanted for anything. My parents even paid my way through school and helped me earn my first Persona implant. But yeah, I would prefer they were both still around and could remember the year correctly.”

  Erie nodded and said,

  “Okay, I am changing the subject officially. Do you want to bunk here or separately?”

  Althea had been worried about this question the whole walk. Her current Persona Profile kept her from dwelling on the concern. But now she felt she had to say something.

  “Hey Erie, I don’t mean to make things weird. But I am not attracted to you. At all.”

  Althea winced, waiting for Erie to blow up at her. The woman turned her head at Althea and narrowed her eyes as if preparing to shout Althea down. Then she burst into laughter, holding her stomach and hooting like Althea had said the funniest thing she could imagine.

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  When she finally calmed down, Erie said,

  “Is that why you’re always a little weird around me?”

  Althea kept wincing and nodded. Erie laughed even harder and said,

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m an ACE, Althea. Even with that sweet chrome exterior, you don’t interest me in the least.”

  Althea breathed out a sigh of relief and said,

  “Oh thank goodness. I’m not an ACE, but I respect your choices. I just got a vibe and I wanted to make sure things were clear between us.”

  Erie still giggled and said,

  “Of course they are.” She ran her hand down her side and said, “this is just too much jelly for you. I respect your choices.”

  “Then I’ll bunk here.”

  For the first time in days, Althea dreamed. Unlike most times, as soon as the visions started she knew she was dreaming. Gravity canted right under her feet as she stood in the doorway of the ship. They never told her its name, or at least she could not remember it then.

  Why she thought of that while the small hoard of sheets and comforters charged her down the hallway did not occur to her, despite knowing she dreamt. Erie sat crosslegged with her eyes rolled back in her head behind Althea and she wore chrome plate armor that resembled her implants.

  Cloth seams battered at her shell, rocking her side to side. When they called her name she opened her eyes.

  Erie stood over Althea, arms raised up like she had just released her and eyes widened in surprise.

  Althea looked around and said,

  “We’re safe from the linens?”

  The last pieces of dream faded as Erie held her stomach and laughed at the woman.

  “I think so, laundry is automated.”

  Althea blushed and said,

  “I had the weirdest dream…”

  Erie held up her hand,

  “Don’t tell me, it’s bad luck. Just know that I will keep you safe from the soft fabrics.”

  She giggled as she spoke, covering her mouth with her hand.

  Althea noticed the time and said,

  “What’s the plan for today? Why are you up so early?”

  Erie beckoned Althea to follow.

  “They’ll make fun of me if I sleep in. Besides, I talked to Boris and he has a surprise for you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You should talk to him. Come on!”

  Erie ran from the room, holding the side of the doorway as she turned. Althea followed her footsteps and giggling out of the room, yawning as she did.

  Still rubbing sleep from her eyes, Althea shielded them as she left the ship from the ground floor. The second time she experienced the gravity transition from the ship to the surface boggled her mind. Seamless. Leaving through an airlock meant she could see neither exterior nor interior so she could not feel the reorientation to the Earth’s gravity.

  The door slid open and Boris waited outside. Unlike the field outfit he wore the previous day, today he wore something befitting an executive. A wrapped two layer piece of modern cloth, the top bright green and the bottom pure white. The material looked like Silkience or one of the smart fabrics. Both layers shone with the distinctive patina.

  He extended his hand to her and said,

  “I understand some difficult people are hunting you. Welcome to the club!”

  She shook his hand and said,

  “Yeah, thanks I guess?”

  Boris looked at Erie and back at Althea and said,

  “Erie tells me you’re an implant fighter. What did they load you up with?”

  Althea glance at Erie, who nodded her head.

  “A bunch of Executive-level reflex, neuromuscular, and Persona-control enhancements.”

  Boris smirked and said,

  “No shit. I mean which ones? OBS? The Zhing Method? What?”

  “Oh, CQC-1 and…” Althea decided to leave out her psychotic protocol, “SLIDE.”

  Boris whistled. One of his guards shifted next to him and he raised his eyebrow at her. She coughed and relaxed under his examination.

  “That is fucking hardcore. Erie said you had no training before and did not receive the standard Executive conditioning. Is that right?”

  Althea nodded.

  “But I have these big, fuck off arms.”

  Boris laughed and said,

  “And bone lacing as well as other things.”

  He motioned to his two guards. The man backed away without so much as a blink. The tall woman looked down at Boris and then back at Althea. She looked as though she intended to stand right there regardless of what Boris said. But the leader of the group made no other move than to turn and face her. With that, the tall woman wilted and slunk away from Boris.

  He turned back to Althea and said,

  “Would you care to demonstrate?”

  Althea shook her head.

  “Boris, uh, Sir. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not real confident with this stuff.”

  He shook his head and said,

  “I know. That’s why I’ll go organic and easy on you.”

  Althea blinked for a moment, trying to understand what he said when Pontikos flashed an incoming threat warning. The bulk of his robe failed to slow Boris in the least. Althea could hear Erie’s exuberant cheering as more of the community gathered to watch.

  That was all she could focus on in the first few seconds of the melee. Boris moved faster than anyone Althea had ever seen. Though he never struck her, he controlled every second of the fight. He seemed to anticipate how her body would react. Not a single blow or attempt to grapple succeeded.

  Only a few people managed to watch the short fight before Boris threw Althea over his shoulder and pinned her arms with his own. Impossibly, he managed to keep her wrists fixed to the ground and avoided her attempt to connect her feet to the back of his neck.

  “I yield.”

  The words slipped out less then fifteen seconds in to the fight. Althea lay on the ground breathing heavy and staring into the sky. Pontikos had recorded the fight and played it back for Althea as Boris reached his hands down to help her up. She accepted and the group cheered for them both.

  Not once doing the fight had he stopped smiling.

  “How in the hells did you do that?”

  Boris drank tea this morning, sipping from his steaming cup as he raised his other hand palm up on the table.

  “Training. And though I can technically “go organic” in that I don’t use my combat algs, I am still mostly machine. Your arms have a few weaknesses worth pointing out.”

  “Like what?”

  Erie and Althea spoke in unison and grinned at each other as they did.

  Boris shook his head and set the tea cup down. He spun in his chair and raised his right arm. In a flash, the arm swiveled down, shifted with a disturbing twist of non-existent bones and snatched the tea cup off the table behind him

  He turned around as his arm reconfigured itself without spilling a drop of tea.

  “They’re a little weaker than yours, but a lot more versatile.”

  Erie rolled her eyes and muttered,

  “Well, some of us don’t have access to Surge-tech.”

  Boris shrugged, then stared directly into her eyes. Without moving he monotoned: “I do.” The smile that crossed his face made Althea’s belly roll. He continued, “In surplus.”

  Erie froze, glancing between Althea and Boris.

  “Really?”

  Boris said,

  “Would I lie to you, Sis?”

  Erie blushed and said,

  “What do you ha… oh. OH nice!”

  Erie jogged away from the table, no longer paying attention to the conversation, headed directly for the downed spaceship.

  Althea said,

  “What was the point of our fight? Were you checking to make sure you could take me or something?”

  Boris snorted and said,

  “I don’t mean to threaten you, but if Erie or I wanted to take you out, you would not even see it coming.” He seemed to consider his words and softened his expression, “what I was actually doing was gauging your own skills. They are decent, for algs. But I think you can do better.”

  Althea had not mean to be dismissive, but she scoffed automatically and said,

  “I doubt that…”

  Boris’s hand coming down on the table next to hers made Althea jump. He soft expression vanished and he leaned closer to her.

  “I knew guys like you back in the day. Guys with talent and drive, but who, for some goddamned reason, thought you were total shit. Have your AI send me your Ment Prof.”

  Althea felt scared and uneasy with Boris suddenly. She backed up and said,

  “No. I’m not giving you my mental profile. You’re not my commanding officer. Or my anything, really.”

  Boris closed his eyes and nodded.

  “You’re right. My bad. But you need to hear this since I don’t think Erie’s going to tell you. You have a profoundly expensive piece of corporate property in your head…”

  Althea cut him off,

  “No kidding. It’s been nothing but a…”

  Boris cut her off, speaking over her.

  “They’re going to cut their way through everyone you know, everyone who happens to pass you on the street to get what they want. And if you think that bundle of artificial skills and reflexes in your head is the best they can make, you are dead fucking wrong. And that kind of stupidity will get a lot of other people killed!”

  Boris seemed to notice the way he shouted the last. For the first time since the fight, Althea could feel the full attention of the little outdoor cafe focused on them. Half a dozen locals stared daggers at Althea from among the tables while twice that number glared at her from outside the low fence. No one seemed to hold the slightest reproach for Boris.

  Althea felt the urge to explain, to justify herself. But Boris had brought to the fore the very thing eating at her for the last few days, the very thing she had altered her Persona to ignore. Capacity for introspection or none, she could not ignore what she’d done now.

  A handful of spiteful replies rose to her lips, but instead Althea ran from the cafe. Escape was easier, cheaper. And this way neither Boris with his shifting, but controlled moods or his crowd of loyalists would see her cry.