Chapter 12: Shadows in the Smoke
Raxis Trade Hub, Outer Reaches
Year 9783 C.C. – Six Days After the Trial
*****
The air inside Raxis Trade Hub was different.
Kael noticed it the second he stepped off The Black Dagger's ramp and onto the metal grating of the station's lower docks.
It was thinner. Drier. Not sterile and balanced like the controlled oxygen fields of Dominion ships. It tasted of rust, fuel, and too many people breathing the same recycled air.
His Celestial Archive flickered briefly, auto-adjusting his body's respiration levels.
[Celestial Archive – Adaptive Breathing]
► Status: [Stable]
► Oxygen Level: [71% Atmospheric Purity]
► Nanite Adjustments: [Minimal]
► External Air Quality: [Suboptimal]
'I never even thought about breathing before. It was always… just there.'
Juno noticed his slight hesitation and smirked. "First time breathing real air, princeling?"
Kael glanced at her. "The Dominion regulates all life-support systems. Everything is terraformed or purified."
Juno tapped the breather unit on her belt, a compact device with a small oxygen filter attached to her collar. "Yeah, well, out here? We get whatever air is available. Sometimes that means paying for oxygen refills, sometimes that means choking on recycled filth."
Kael frowned. "You have to pay for air?"
"Everything costs something, Veyrin," she said, stepping ahead into the crowded station corridors. "Even breathing."
Kael followed her, his mind turning. Even something as simple as air was a privilege in the Dominion.
*****
Raxis was loud, chaotic, and dangerous.
The deeper they went into the station, the more Kael noticed the shifting glances. The murmured conversations that stopped when he walked past.
'Someone is talking about me. But who?'
Juno led him through a maze of interconnected corridors, stopping at a small, smoke-filled food stall wedged between two repair shops. The vendor, a scarred man with cybernetic arms, was grilling thin strips of reddish-brown meat over an open flame.
The scent was… strong.
Kael frowned. "What is that?"
Juno grinned. "Grilled karnak strips. You ever eaten real food before?"
Kael hesitated. The food in noble estates was nutrient-balanced, synthetic, engineered for efficiency. This? This looked raw. Untamed.
Juno took a piece from the vendor and tossed it into her mouth. "You're staring at it like it's a tactical puzzle, Veyrin."
Kael exhaled and took a bite.
The flavor was intense. Smoky, slightly bitter, with a texture that was tougher than he expected. His jaw tightened as he chewed.
Juno laughed. "Yeah, nobles aren't used to eating things with bones still in them."
Kael swallowed, keeping his expression neutral. "It's… different."
Juno smirked. "That's one way to put it. Come on. We have business."
She led him toward the station's lower levels, where Raxis stopped pretending to be a market and showed its real face—smugglers, mercenaries, and criminals conducting business in dimly lit alcoves.
Juno stopped in front of a small bar tucked away in the shadows. The Crow's Roost.
"We find the right people here," she said. "Or we get killed. Try not to start a fight unless you can finish it."
Kael nodded once. "I don't start fights."
Juno grinned. "You say that, but trouble seems to love you anyway."
She pushed open the door, and the darkness swallowed them whole.
*****
The bar was quiet, filled with the low murmur of hushed conversations. The people here were not the kind you made eye contact with unless you had a death wish.
Juno scanned the room and gestured toward a booth in the corner. A man sat there, half-hidden in the shadows—a Lothari, same species as Saros, but older, more weathered.
His black eyes flicked toward them, lingering on Kael for a moment longer than necessary.
Juno slid into the seat across from him. Kael followed.
"Rax," Juno greeted. "I hear rumors are spreading about my friend here."
The Lothari—Rax—leaned back, exhaling smoke from a thin metal pipe. "Rumors travel fast, Reyes. Faster when the people spreading them want attention."
Kael's expression darkened. "Who's talking?"
Rax studied him. "You look like a noble. Speak like one, too."
Kael didn't react.
Rax took another drag from his pipe. "Word is, an Imperial who shouldn't be alive has been seen walking Raxis. Some people think it's a mistake. Others think it's a message."
Juno frowned. "A message from who?"
Rax flicked ash onto the table. "That's the real question, isn't it? The Dominion wants him dead, but they haven't issued a bounty. That means someone wants him alive."
Kael's hands clenched into fists beneath the table. "Who?"
Rax shrugged. "No names. Just whispers."
Kael exhaled slowly. This wasn't just about escaping. Someone—either in the Dominion or the Outer Reaches—was using his survival for their own purpose.
'But why?'
Juno stood. "If you hear more, let me know."
Rax nodded. "Be careful, Reyes. You might have saved him from the Dominion, but there are worse things in the void."
Kael followed Juno out of the bar, his mind racing.
*****
Back at The Black Dagger, Juno leaned against the ship's hull, arms crossed. "So. You still wanna know who's spreading your name?"
Kael exhaled sharply. "Yes."
Juno smirked. "Then it's time to start asking the right people."
Kael's jaw tightened. For the first time since his exile, he wasn't just surviving.
He was hunting.
And whoever was using his name in the shadows?
He would find them.
*****