TWENTY ONE

Jack brought the Odin to a stop at the station orbiting Novella, just outside of conventional weapons' range.

"Well," he said. "There it is."

"I'd call it a thing of beauty," Kane said. "If it wasn't the enemy."

The station was indeed a thing of beauty, though not in the aesthetic sense. It's bulky construction and slapdash armor plating made it anything but chic. The sheer size, though, was impressive. Not to mention the array of turrets it boasted.

"That's definitely more guns than a civilian outpost is legally allowed," Jack said.

"Wait. Are you saying these guys are outlaws?" Arissa asked, dripping with sarcasm.

"No, I'm saying the F.A. doesn't enforce the rules here."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Eden asked.

"Exactly," Jack replied.

"What?"

"On one hand," he said. "We don't have to worry about them showing up and ruining our day. On the other hand—"

"It means these guys are tough enough to keep the feds out of the court," Kane said.

"Or rich enough," Arissa said. "They might just be paying someone off."

"Does that brick look tough or rich to you?"

"Tough," Arissa said. "Alright, at least we know we're not going to shoot our way out of anything. Kane, you ready to do some talking?"

He cracked his knuckles before going to a console to place a call. The holoprojector showed "Standby" for what felt like days before Mr. Synthetic answered.

"You certainly made this easy," he said.

"You gave me no choice," Kane said. "I want my AI back."

"And so, I'm supposed to believe that you've had a complete change of heart and decided to hand over the girl you broke contract to protect?"

"No," Kane said. "She volunteered."

For just a second, Mr. Synthetic seemed surprised. That's exactly what they wanted—to keep him confused enough that he couldn't see through their plan.

"Why would she do that?" He asked.

"She and the AI are friends," Kane replied. "She feels guilty and knows the only way for us to get Talia back is to give you what you want."

"Who you want," Eden said, stepping into the call. "I'm a human being, despite how you treat me."

"Technically, you're not," Mr. Synthetic said. "You're something else entirely."

Eden didn't know what to say to that, so she brought the conversation back on course.

"Let's get this done with."

"Fine by me," Mr. Synthetic said. "You're cleared for docking bay three. We look forward to having you."

Kane glanced at Jack. "I told you they'd try."

"Try what?" Mr. Synthetic asked.

"There's no way this ship is docking with that station. We're not going to let you clamp this ship down, detain its crew, and strip it for parts."

"Shame," Mr. Synthetic said. "I had to try, at least. Well, what do you propose? We don't have any shuttle craft matching your airlock model, so it's not like we can come get her. Alive."

"Of course you can't," Kane said with a groan. "That's fine, though. We'll do it with a good, old fashioned spacewalk."

"What?"

"We strap the girl into a space suit, line up telemetry, and launch her at you," Kane said. "The closer she gets to you, the more of Talia you release from your databanks. Meaning by the time Eden is half way there—"

"You've downloaded 50% of Talia, yes, yes, I know. But, I've seen this one before," Mr. Synthetic said. "We agree, you send her, and we bring her in only to find a space suit full of thermal explosive devices."

"What makes you think we have bombs on this boat?" Kane asked.

"A hunch," Mr. Synthetic said. "And you won't convince me otherwise. No matter, that's what blast doors are for. There's one other thing that you owe me, though."

"The hell there is. She was the deal."

"No, there's one other thing," Mr. Synthetic said, sounding like a parent who was relishing in dangling a surprise over their child's head.

Kane rolled his eyes.

"What is it?"

"You," Mr. Synthetic said. "The moment you betrayed the confines of our contract, you triggered the Capture Clause."

"Capture Clause?" Kane said. "You think I care about a contract?"

"You should care about this one," Mr. Synthetic said. "Now, you turn yourself in with the girl, or we have a fire fight."

"We're out of weapons range there, chief," Kane replied.

"And we have manned strike craft ready to launch at you. This station can't hunt you down but, I assure you, they will."

Kane groaned, sneered, and finally, said, "Give us ten." After he shut off the feed, he added: "Gotta love contracts."

"You knew about that Capture Clause?" Eden asked.

"Of course, I did. I just needed to argue about it so I didn't seem too eager to board that station and beat the mercy out of that guy."

"I love it," Eden said, already on her way to the airlock. "Although I have a feeling they have precautions in place to prevent your mercy beating."

"They always do." Kane cracked his knuckles. "And they always fail. I'm more worried about what you're going to do."

"So am I," Eden said.

"Not very reassuring."

"But, honest," she replied. "That's gotta count for something, right?"

Kane shrugged. "Not always."

Jack and Arissa followed them to the airlock and watched as they suited up.

"Have you done a spacewalk before?" Jack asked Eden. "It can be a little disorienting."

"No. But I've been held captive in a federal lab and experimented on." She clasped the suit around her shoulders and gave Jack a pat on his. "How much worse could this be?"

Jack cleared his throat.

"I guess you're good to go."

"Yep. Hey. In case I don't see you again, thanks for keeping me alive up to this point."

"Don't worry," Jack said. "This isn't goodbye."

"Who said I was worried?" She turned and stepped into the airlock with Kane. Jack couldn't help but smile at how much more comfortable she had become around everyone. Maybe it was just time that did it, or maybe it was that she finally had a purpose beyond hiding, staying alive, and asking questions.

Come to think of it, she had more than just a purpose. The moment she left the Odin, everything was on her shoulders. Kane would help, but for the most part, this was The Eden Show, now.

Kane pointed an almost accusatory finger at Jack. "If they stop transmitting Talia at any point—"

Arissa stepped in. "We'll tell you right away. In the likely event of a double-cross, I assume we need to sweep in and scoop you up?"

"No," Kane replied. "I'll board that station one way or another. I just want to know how mean I should be when I get there."

"Might as well go big," Arissa said. "To be clear, by 'mean' you mean how many bones you should break, right?"

"Something like that. Wish us luck." He slammed a button on the wall, closing the airlock's inner door. Jack worked the panel on his side of the door, slowly decompressing the lock.

"Check, check," he said, into a microphone.

Eden's voice buzzed back at him. "I can hear you."

"Loud and clear," Kane added.

"Good. Try not to die, alright?"

"You bet, cowboy." With that, Kane smacked another button on the wall, opening the outer door and revealing the vastness of space beyond.