Of Oracles and Sirens - Chapters 1 - 4

Prologue

“It’s the only way. I can’t resist him much longer…” the woman’s voice was raspy, the stress straining her words.

“I know, but children? We’re becoming just as monstrous as he is.” The man’s low voice reverberated off the steel walls, and she could feel his words as much as hear them. The blood pounding in her head made it hard to listen, but she pulled all her strength into it. 

“They’re the only ones we’ve been able to find so far who stand… a chance at being compatible. No adults yet, though we can only check a few people at a time, without raising, suspicions with the whole ship.” She had to pause for breath at times. Having to think about him threatened to send her into a full panic attack. She forced herself to get the words out while thinking about something else instead. 

A monitor built into the wall of the janitor closet they stood in had been commandeered, a wire running from a tablet system into the ports just below the screen. The man tapped at a few buttons on the tablet, and images began scrolling across the monitor; teams of people being led through specific areas on the ship, always the same area of the Commons. As they walked single file on the pathways which were lush with greenery, one of the aliens lifted up a chalky white arm, its tentacle like foot pad curling just over the head of each human that passed by. 

Each time, one of the children caused the alien’s pads to light up an electric blue, and the guards pulled the child aside. Sometimes the parents or teachers with the children protested, most of the time they were just concerned while one of the Lab assistants explained what was happening. Just some tests they need to run, that’s all. Their children might actually be able to help the ship. No, nothing invasive. Not physically invasive, anyway, he thought to himself. He gave the woman time to collect herself.

She drew a deep, shuddering breath and opened her eyes again, gazing at the images playing on the monitor but looking through them. “A child’s mind is more resilient than you think. They’re the only hope we have of pushing back.”

The man grimaced, rubbing the stubble on his chin. “I’ve seen what he does to you just for not cooperating. If we push back and it doesn’t work…” he put a steadying hand on the woman’s shoulder as she began to withdraw into herself again, her lower lip trembling.

“Its… it’s a risk we….we have to take. If we don’t he’ll… he’ll break all of us, one by one. He’ll find a way.” She inhaled sharply, and her whole body began trembling, arms rubbing each other and her torso involuntarily rocking back and forth. 

The man put his arms around her, rubbing her back, gently massaging her shoulders, trying to relax her again. On the monitor, an image of a young girl with dark curly hair was displayed; her classroom had been called to run a routine safety drill. The girl’s instructor began lining up the children in the classroom. A teenager passed by, saying something to the teacher; she wore a blue jumpsuit, and her dark straight hair was tied back in a ponytail. The cameras followed the group of children, boarding the tram between the ship’s rings, and then into the Commons where the aliens awaited, waving its arm past each in turn until it lit up above the head of the girl with dark curly hair. 

“Shh shh shh. I know. You’re right. I’ll prepare the tests. Find us somewhere we can coach the child without him finding out.” The man detached the cable from the monitor, stowed it in a pocket on his black jumpsuit, and scanned the security camera feeds on his tablet; the hallway outside their closet was empty. He bumped the button on the door. It swished open, and he stepped through and turned back to face the woman. She looked at him through red, teary eyes and they exchanged nods as the door closed.

The man turned back to the research room in the Lab module with a sense of dread. He took several deep breaths, which did nothing to calm his nerves. He shook his head in frustration and set off for his office. We escaped our own extinction, only to fall prisoner to him. 

Chapter 1

Forced to wait, again, for access to their own shuttle.  Renata Garver Soto, whose grandparents had helped build this ship, held back her annoyance at the delay. Her father, standing next to her with his face thinly concealing his frustration, had been barely eight years old when the Requiem de la Lune launched. Renata still didn’t understand why everyone refused to entertain the idea of taking their ship back, risks be damned. Her parents urged her not to ask such questions.    

Thus, here she stood staring as one of the chalky-white skinned aliens checked her father’s security credentials to ensure it was alright if they took one of their own shuttles to perform a routine inspection of the ship’s hull. The creature stood almost as tall as Renata herself, a good fifteen centimeters shorter than her father’s one point eight meters. They were vaguely octopus-like but had six legs with three big bony joints in each.  

The Pod, as they’d come to be called, had big inky black eyes with faint white cross-slit pupils that skewered her father as he explained, for the third time, why they needed to inspect the hull of the Requiem.  It rested one of the tentacle-like foot pads of its six legs on top of its translator box. The device looked like a speaker had been attached to an oval piece of glass, with a few dozen white pearl-like objects hidden underneath, the whole thing wrapped in a thin reflective foil-like material. The translator box filtered her father’s words into rapid and precise electrical pulses which were received by similar pearl-like nubs on the alien’s pad.  

Her father, Ben Garver, ran a hand through his short black hair as he sighed in exasperation. “Stars! We do these checks every year; since our warp drive isn’t pushing away interstellar dust, we need to be sure that hull accumulation isn’t going to reach problematic levels.”  There was a brief electric-blue flash as the translator box did its job. 

Ren stifled a sigh of her own as she looked around the entry to the lift.  It was situated in one of the Junctions between the five Arcs; subsections of the habitation rings, the physical divisions serving as neighborhoods. One lift leading up to the center of the ship was flanked by two lifts leading down to the tram station. Ren’s brown eyes traced the central lift shaft up to the ceiling of the Junction, which towered fifteen meters overhead.  Her naturally warm, tan skin reflected her mother’s heritage much more than her father’s, though her straight black hair matched both parents.   

She casually brought her hand up to the earbud perched just behind her right ear and lightly pressed it, turning her head to the side as she muttered, “They’re stalling again.”

“Shocker, right?” The reply from SAMI came immediately, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Lot of that going on lately. If only we had some way to see what they were up to…” this last part was full of coyness and Ren suppressed a grin as she turned back to her father.

The Pod sent an electric flash back to the translator box and it began speaking in a synthesized voice, though the only thing that gave it away as such was that all the translator boxes the Pod used sounded the same. “I assure you, Passenger Benjamin Garver, that I do indeed understand the routine nature of the request to utilize your utility space conveyance system for inspection of the Requiem de la Lune’s surface structure.  However, Jared has requested that he personally review any request by a homo-sapiens to perform operations in the vacuum environment so that we can ensure your safe operation and return. I have sent my request to Jared as protocol requires and now we must wait on his decision, my apologies for the delay.”

The Pod’s message only took an instant to send to the box. Ren had been studying the devices since their creation a couple years after the Pod had arrived and she could time the delays of the reply precisely. Pod didn’t have to process their signals into words and seemed to be able to communicate astonishingly fast between members of their own species.  Humans, by comparison, were painfully slow to converse with. Sure enough, this Pod seemed impatient as the lengthy audio translation played out, tapping its feet idly, its gaze wondering around the room.  

“Right, our safety, I’m sure that’s at the top your list there, pal.” Ben said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Look, we’re going to wait over on that bench, let us know when we’re cleared, ok?” Ben turned and walked toward the bench he had mentioned before the Pod could respond, Renata trailing behind him.  

The utilitarian and cave-like ambience of the Junction gave way to the airy and lush greenery of the Commons as they arrived at a bench facing the Junction entrance and sat.  The Junction entrance was a large, curved doorway, with two large, convex pressure doors on either side.  Smaller side entrances were off to the left and right.  Above the curve of the large door was the label ‘Junction 3-4’ in blocky black stenciled font, indicating it was situated between Arcs 3 and 4. 

They had walked out into Arc 3.  Here, as with all the Arcs in the rings, workshops and habitation units lined either side of the Commons. A balcony providing access to more of the same on the second floor. This two-story hallway of greenery sloped up and away, curving toward the ceiling, wich was lined with screens depicting a blue sky, light fluffy clouds lazily floating past. Ren glanced up at people walking out of sight under that curve as she sat next to her father.  

She took a deep breath in, enjoying the scent of plants here in the Commons.  It looked like a very long park, with walking paths along the sides and meandering down the center.  The peacefulness here contrasted with the inner turmoil that Ren felt.  The turmoil won out, and she let her breath out in a huff. “Why are they messing with us like this?  We’re in the middle of interstellar space; it’s not like we could escape somewhere in a shuttle.” 

Ben grunted, glancing around the area before answering. “They do it to remind us who is in charge, Ren.” He said in a low voice. “As long as we follow their rules and play their games, they leave us alone. Don’t make trouble where there isn’t any.”

Ren frowned at this, tapping a finger impatiently on the shoulder of her blue jumpsuit.  “The Pod kidnapping kids isn’t trouble?” 

Ben looked up sharply at the Pod still standing by the lift in the Junction before narrowing his eyes at Ren. “The Pod aren’t kidnapping kids, where did you hear that?”

She rolled her eyes at this. “Oh, sure, they’re just sick and only the Pod can help them out since they deleted all our Machine Intelligence Agents, right?  I don’t know why everyone actually buys that crap, you all should be kicking—”

Ben put a finger up to her mouth, cutting her off, his eyes darting around the area to see if anyone was nearby. “Ren, look... I can’t explain right now, but rumors like that are dangerous. Let’s drop that one for now, ok?”

Something in those pale blue eyes squelched any further argument from Ren. He was genuinely worried.  Which all but confirmed her suspicions. The Pod were definitely up to something new, and her parents were worried about the implications. “Uh, yeah ok.  Sure, dad.” Ren said. 

They waited another ten minute with still no indication from the Pod. Renata was tempted to reach out to SAMI again but decided to wait. Eventually, Ben blew out his breath, running his hand through his hair.  A moment later he shook his head and said “Look, this might take a while. Not much point in both of us wasting our time here, you can head back to the hab if you want. I’ll let you know when they finally clear us.”

She nodded and rose from the bench, walking back through the Commons towards their habitation unit. If people wanted to believe the convenient lies the Pod gave them, then clearly Renata needed to remove their excuses to ignore the truth. To accomplish that, however, meant that she would need to collect proof. 

Ren popped open the case for her lens that was attached to a mag-catch point on her jumpsuit and slid the stylish frames onto her face. They looked a bit like glasses that people used to wear to correct their vision, but medical advances had long since rendered such things archaic. Ren tapped the side of the lens in a specific pattern, and with a flash of color from tiny projectors built into the device, SAMI’s familiar form materialized to stand on the walkway ahead of her.

Her skin was violet and had a visible glow. She wore loose-fitting grey cargo pants and a big puffy blue jacket, with nimble looking black boots. As SAMI smiled and looked around the Commons her fiberglass-like hair shimmered, slowly shifting through an array of colors.  

“The Pod are really playing up the security theater today,” SAMI said as they walked, giving a sideways glance to Ren.

“Yeah, that’s getting to be a new trend lately. Remember that project we were talking about?” Ren asked as she slid a bit of her black hair behind her ear.  

“Mm hm, got the last few details all worked out. It’s ready when you are.” SAMI said.

“Good. I can’t believe we’ve been dealing with the Pod for ten years now and no one has ever really tried to do anything about them.” Ren spoke in a low voice, glancing around to be sure no one was close enough to overhear. 

“They knew what they were doing when they arrived. I’ve only been able to pick up random details here and there, but they knew exactly where to go to gain control of the ship. If I had existed back then maybe I could have stopped them, but… here we are.” SAMI clasped her hands behind her back as she recounted the details. 

Requiem’s warp drive had failed suddenly, thirty years into a planned forty-year voyage. The emergency stop had not been gentle. SAMI mentioning it brought back memories of the terror; people floating uncontrollably towards globs of fire as the gravity provided by the spin of the rings stopped. How the Pod had just happened to be in the area was still a matter of open speculation, with no shortage of conspiracy theories on the topic.  

“Yeah, well… the Pod deleting our MIA definitely didn’t help things. Luckily, I had a local backup copy, eh?” Ren said.

“Ren, with you, there’s no such thing as luck.” SAMI gave her a knowing smile. The smile faltered and SAMI’s eyes snapped back forward “Ah, you’ve got company. I’ll leave you to it. Blueprint is ready to go, I’ll have it on Sven’s workstation for you tonight.” SAMI made a finger-gun gesture at Ren and vanished. 

Ahead, walking down the curve of the ring towards her, was the familiar care-free visage of Avery Torres. Ren grinned, imagining what her fingers would look like running through that blue hair. She shook herself back to reality as soon as she felt herself drifting off, striking a more casual pose as Avery approached. He was talking with a gangly youth with an unmistakable mop of red hair. 

Kevin nodded in Ren’s direction and Avery looked up slightly as he descended the curve of the ring towards her. Ren stowed her lens back in its carrying case and clicked it back onto one of the silver mag-catch points on her jumpsuit. As he drew close, Avery gave her one of his usual lopsided smiles and opened his mouth to speak, but Kevin jumped in first. 

“Thought you and the old man were supposed to be measuring space dust on the outer hull or something?” Kevin said, idly scratching his head.  

“Well, we were, the Pod are stalling us again though.” Ren said, scooping a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. “I think my dad knows some things he isn’t telling me. Are you both still in for that project we discussed?” Ren looked between them both meaningfully. 

“I guess,” Kevin said with a shrug.

Avery nodded eagerly. “Anytime, but I’m still confused on how you designed this cam—uh, I mean, this project.” He caught himself, looking around for anyone nearby. As he leaned in to speak in a low voice, Ren caught a whiff of what smelled like wood shavings and oil; he must have just finished up working on one of his carvings. He’d finally gotten to claim one of the old trees that had died in the Commons, after years of practicing on printed wood simulations. “I know you’re good with micro-electronics, but what you described the other night would be some seriously next level shit, Ren.” 

Ren beamed at the compliment, her cheeks growing a bit warm. “Oh, I have my ways. Maybe someday I’ll let you in on that secret. But for right now, we need to focus on the mission.” She whispered back to him. 

“Just because you call it a mission doesn’t make us spies.” Kevin whispered, his pale freckled face suddenly right next to Ren and Avery’s.  Ren gave him a copious amount of side eye.  Kevin returned the side eye and gave her a big goofy grin.  Ren held his gaze for a moment, slowly reaching her hand up behind his back so he wouldn’t see.  She gave it another moment and then jabbed him hard in the kidney. “Agh, haha, come on!” He rubbed his back where her jab had landed. “How are you so good with those?”

“Because she trains four times a week, genius.” Avery said shaking his head. “Even I can’t keep up with those hands when we spar.” 

“Yeah, I bet you’d like—” Kevin began.

“Anyway!” Ren interrupted loudly, “Since you’re both onboard, you know where to meet me. Avery can assist, and Kevin will be on observation duty.” She gave Kevin a pointed glare as he began to open his mouth for a retort, but he thought better of it and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, great, fine. Just remember our bet, Soto. Two weeks of your deserts if it turns out you were just paranoid the whole time.” Kevin said.

Now Avery rolled his eyes, “Come on Kevin, you seriously don’t think the Pod are up to something shady?”

“I think we’ve got it made right now, and I don’t get why you guys aren’t satisfied with what we’ve got.” Kevin shrugged as he walked backward and turned to leave. 

“Hopeless,” Ren said, shaking her head as she watched him go. She looked back at Avery and noticed there were indeed some wood shavings stuck to his jumpsuit, the same color of blue as hers.

Renata reached up and brushed the wood shavings off and then grasped Avery’s shoulder. “Thank you. For believing me on this.”

Avery froze for a moment as he eyed Ren’s hand on his shoulder. “Well yeah, of absolutely, uh, all problems, uhhhh I’ll see you tonight!” He spun out from under her hand as his face reddened.  Ren stood with her hand in midair where his shoulder had been and stared after him in confusion. 

“Hmmm, I swear I wasn’t listening the whole time, but I think he likes you about as much as you like him, Ren.” SAMI’s voice came in over her earbud. 

“Let’s just focus on the mission,” Ren said quickly as she turned, her own face reddening a bit. 

“Oh, by the way, your dad sent you a message during your meeting there, the Pod have finally agreed to allow the use of the shuttle.” SAMI said.

Ren nodded and began walking back the way she had come.  She had just been out of view under the curve from Junction 3-4, nearly all the way to Junction 2-3.  After five minutes of walking, with SAMI wisely remaining quiet the whole time, she saw her dad waiting next to the lift inside Junction 3-4. 

He had been promising to take her out on the next maintenance flight for at least a few months now. Ren had seen the ship inside and out at every possible level of detail through the VR schematics, but Avery insisted that seeing it in person was a very different experience. And besides, it was a safe place to talk to her father without having to worry about anyone eavesdropping. If she couldn’t get answers out of him here, then at least she would know not to count on him. That thought made her heart ache momentarily, but she pushed it aside. If he knew something, and she suspected he did, he would tell her… eventually. 

“Alright, finally, Ben and Ren get to cruise the stars in style!” Her father said with a big grin on his face. She could tell he was genuinely excited despite all the hoops they’d been forced to jump through.  

Ren beamed back at him and lightly punched his shoulder. “Just be sure not to crash us, old man.”

“I will do my best.  For that… is all that I can do,” he said, with the most solemn face he could muster, striking a pose that ought to have had a cape flowing behind him. As they both broke out laughing, they walked onto the lift, the door swishing shut behind them a few seconds later. Ben pushed the button for ‘Cargo Deck’ and the large circular windows on each of the four walls of the lift became opaque.  Ren felt the lift begin to move, pushing her against the floor.  As it ascended, she and Ben made their way to handholds in the corners of the lift and grabbed firmly. The acceleration from the lift provided a diminishing amount of gravity as they rose towards the center of Requiem de la Lune. 

The lift reached the top and slowed. Ben and Renata lightly lifted off the floor of the lift, using their handholds to keep from smacking into the ceiling. Ren’s stomach did a flip, but she pointed her feet at the wall opposite from the doors and firmly told her brain this way is down now. The doors swished open, now overhead in Ren’s mind. She looked up and saw the hallway beyond, handholds positioned every meter like a very stretched out ladder. 

“Let’s see how much of your training you remember, young padawan.” Ben pushed off the wall and floated up through the door, shooting into the hallway.  Ren followed right behind him, aiming carefully and sailing cleanly through the doors. She gave up all pretense of playing it cool and had a big goofy grin on her face the whole time. She felt like a superhero in one of the old movies from the archives, and she loved every second of it!

They were approaching an intersection ahead, two corridors leading off to Ren’s right and left, and a door capped the end of this hallway. Ben reached out a hand, dragging it lightly across the wall to reduce his momentum and starting a slow spin.  As his feet came around to face the door, he dragged the hand across the opposite wall to arrest his spin.  Ren tried to copy his maneuver, but her hand tapped one of the handholds on the way by and she began spinning faster than she’d wanted.  A moment or two later, Ben landed lightly on his feet, clicking his magnetic boots on to stay put. 

Renata tried to grab for the opposite wall but kept missing. On her next tumble she glimpsed the door, with Ben standing off to its side on what she still deemed the ceiling, growing rapidly closer. She let out a yelp as she again grabbed for a handhold but missed. Her father laughed lightly and managed to reach out and slow her collision with the wall a little. As she bounced from the light impact Ben took hold of her arm and helped her reorient herself. Another moment of temporary nausea hit Ren’s stomach, and she again forcefully told herself this door is down now. The nausea passed. 

She looked around; a short distance down one of the side passages was another door with a label over it that read “Shuttle Bay”. 

“Think you can manage to get to that door without cartwheeling this time?” Her father asked with a smirk on his face.  Ren just rolled her eyes, using his arm to push herself forward and lifting her feet, floating the short distance to the doorway while staying mostly upright. As she drew close she reached out and grabbed a handhold, brought her feet to the floor, and clicked on her magnetic boots in a smooth motion. Her feet clanked as she awkwardly shuffled to look back at Ben.

He smiled and nodded. “Much better!” With a click of his heels, he deactivated his boots and pushed off a handhold, floating over beside Ren. He copied her maneuver to bring his feet down and reactivated the boots.  Then, turning to the door, he thumbed the controls and it swished open.  

The shuttle bay on the other side was somehow smaller than Ren remembered it from the VR diagrams of the ship. Three shuttles sat in a row on the deck in front of them, with large pressure doors separating this bay from identical ones forward and behind it. One of the Pod floated a short distance from the door they stood behind, two of its six legs gripping a nearby handhold. It glanced down at them as they clunked through the doorway and then gracefully pushed off, reorienting as it neared the floor and landing lightly on all six of its feet, grabbing nearby handholds recessed into the floor. 

It brought one of its pads up to the translation box around its neck, issuing an electric blue flash to the device which immediately began translating. “The Passengers Benjamin Garver and Renata Garver Soto have been permitted the utilization of one utility space conveyance system for a duration of up to three standard Earth hours.  The utility space conveyance system has been inspected by trusted Electrocephalus Sapiens and found to be intact and safe for flight within a deep space vacuum environment. Any deviations from the agreed upon flight path will result in the automated return of the space conveyance system and punishment of Benjamin Garver and Renata Garver Soto. Are there any inquiries at this moment?”

The moment the Pod’s message began playing Ren rolled her eyes and began clanking her way to the shuttle, her father giving a soft laugh and following behind. The Pod simply pushed off the deck and floated beside them, letting its message finish as they reached the entrance to the nearest shuttle. 

These craft had been designed to make multiple trips in and out of planetary atmosphere and they looked the part. Squat and wide, their undersides were covered in dark iridescent heat shielding. The entrance was a cargo ramp at the rear of the craft, which was lowered on their shuttle. Ren slowly walked up the ramp, taking it all in as her boots jerkily connected with the metal. Just in front of the ramp, the cargo area was sectioned off with black and yellow striped paint on the floor. Beyond that were six rows of seats, with gleaming white metal and soft tan colored acceleration cushions designed to reduce the pain from the g-forces expected during re-entry and launch. 

Renata and Ben walked past the seats, where the walls narrowed in and the room ended in a flat bulkhead with a ladder leading up into the cockpit. The Pod watched them from the bottom of the ramp out in the hangar bay. Ben gave it a wave, clicked off his boots and pushed with his toes to float up the ladder well. The Pod waved back awkwardly as Ren glared at it. As she clicked off her own boots and pushed off the floor she lowered one hand to her side and raised her middle finger to the Pod. It hesitated, and then slowly put its leg back to the floor just as Ren’s head entered the cockpit.

She reached up and gently pushed against the ceiling to stop herself, then turned and floated over the co-pilot chair. An array of screens and toggle switches stretched from one side of the cockpit to the other, with more controls situated between her chair and the pilot’s which her father was already strapped into.  Ren maneuvered herself into the chair and brough the harness around her, pressing a button in its center which reeled in the straps and brought her firmly in contact with the chair. She was just in time to see the Pod retreat through the doorway, which sealed shut as red strobes announced the hangar was being depressurized. 

Her jaw dropped for a moment as she took in the controls, and her cheeks began to ache a bit from smiling. This was amazing, finally at the helm of a real shuttle! She pumped her fists in the air in a quick happy dance and then began powering on screens and checking readings just like she’d done in the sims a thousand times. Her father flicked a switch and she heard the ramp begin to close. 

“The Pod’s overly verbose assessment was correct, everything is in the green here,” she said as she finished looking over the fuel levels and thruster diagnostics. 

“Perfecto, shuttle bay is clear of bystanders, ramp sealed, we are prepped for launch.” Ben hit a large green button in the center console and a message flashed across both of their center screens: engines armed, flight controls live. He tapped another button to open a communication channel with Requiem. “This is Shuttle Craft Asgard Sierra Forty-Two, we are ready for launch and requesting doors for Bay Seven to be opened.”

A voice, human voice, came back immediately. “Roger, Asgard Sierra Forty-Two, permission granted, flight window of three hours approved. Enjoy the flight, Ben.” The last of the atmosphere out in the shuttle bay finished venting, sucked into storage drums next to the bay for safe keeping. By the time the conversation had finished, the Bay doors began sliding open without a sound. Ren couldn’t even feel a rumble in the deck, which was a testament to how well constructed the doors were. 

Ren’s eyes followed the doors retreat greedily, eager to see outside. It wasn’t until the shuttle bay’s lights clicked off that she finally saw them; stars, thousands and thousands of stars. She gasped as Ben lightly touched the throttle and set the shuttle lifting out of the bay.  The Requiem de la Lune’s rings stretched in front of them, slowly spinning with the brilliant arm of the Milky Way spanning the view behind them. Each of the three rings was itself made up of three tubular sections, joined at their sides to provide space for the habs and workshops with the dedicated Commons taking up the central tube of each ring. Aside from a few scattered running lights, much of the hull of the great ship was dark, no windows on the rings to see the living spaces they contained.

“Beginning dust inspection for Asgard ring,” Ben said over the comms. He nudged the shuffle over to the junctions where the spokes of the first ring, Asgard, met the central spine of the ship and kicked on the flood lights on the shuttle’s nose. The stars beyond the ship mostly disappeared in the glare, the light refracting off the dust cloud the ship had collected over the years, and it suddenly felt as if they were in a fog, the sky beyond an inky black. Ren felt a cold chill run up her back at the sudden change, but shook it off. 

Reaching over to a screen in the center console, she brought up the LIDAR systems and initiated the scan. A timer popped up and started counting down.  Ren nodded and settled in.

“So…” she began, trying to sound casual. “if the Pod were kidnapping children, do you think they’re using them as pets? Or just eating them?”

Ben snorted and shook his head. “Aah, I should have known we weren’t done with this.” He turned and met Ren’s eyes. “Ok, here is what I know. There are rumors, just rumors, that some kids went missing a couple months ago. But no one has been able to verify that. The parents swear they are receiving medical attention, and no one that actually saw the Pod take the children will talk to us… or if they do, they swear they can’t remember what happened that entire day.”

“And you didn’t find that odd? How many kids are we talking about here?” Ren asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Three that we suspect, so far. And yes, it does sound odd. But with the workshifts spread out the way they are now and the Pod monitoring communications, its hard to really chase these things down. The crew are terrified of doing anything to upset the Pod, they’re just too good at monitoring for us trying to lock them out of the critical systems. Maybe if we could isolate the lab and keep their leaders in the dark for a while, but… its risky. End of the human race, risky. No one wants to roll those dice, Ren.”

“So we’re just—” Ren began to say, but her father held up a finger as the timer hit zero and the screen began displaying scan results. 

He thumbed his microphone. “Asgard ring scans complete, interstellar dust within tolerable levels. Moving to Roraima ring.”  A couple more taps of the flight stick and the shuttle drifted into position at the second habitation ring. The farming modules spread between the rings, long rectangular sections that made it look like they were inside a giant wheat thresher from early modern times on Earth. As the rings rotated slowly, the blimp-like hulls of various specialty modules came into view, the rings intersecting each module through its center. One of those modules had several antennae rising from it, sticking out like spikey protrusions; the Lab. Ben and Renata watched it move by in silence, as if they were afraid they’d be overheard with it so close.

Ben shook his head as the Lab slid out of sight in the inky blackness of space. “Look, we’re stuck Ren. We just have to wait until the Pod repair the warp drive, and then we can figure out how to deal with them when we finally get to Elpis.”

Elpis, the fourth planet in the Trappist system. According to the scans they’d done from Earth it was lush with life, along with the third and fifth planets, without any signs of technological civilizations. Three habitable worlds in the same star system. It was the perfect chance for humanity to start over. And they’d gotten so close. 

They should have been there by now, had the ship not malfunctioned. Ren shook her head in frustration. She’d like to believe they’d have managed to fix the ship on their own with the help of the MIA, but she’d reviewed all the records from that time; her own memories of the events were filled with smoke and terror but little else. If the Pod hadn’t assisted in those first few weeks, they might not have been able to recover the ship. 

The timer on the console flashed again, the second set of scans completed. Ben called it in, “Roraima ring scans complete, dust levels are good. Moving to Nyanga ring.”  Each of these great habitation rings had been named after various mythologies on Earth, an attempt to keep their histories alive as they fled a dying world. 

“If someone did find proof that the Pod are doing something with these kids… would that change things? Would people try to find a way to fight back?” Ren asked, keeping her gaze locked on the few stars she could see through the glare of the shuttle’s lights. Her throat was tight as she asked, but she had to know.

Ben took a few breaths before answering. “I think evidence like that, if you could get it out to the rest of the ship, would force people to react. That might scare the Pod enough to do something drastic. Which means people could get hurt, or worse. Maybe if we had our MIAs in place again and could remove some of their guard rails so they could react outside the scope of their initial parameters… but it would be risky. No, we have to be careful Ren. I’m not sure what you think you’re planning, but if you find something, bring it to me first, ok?”

He gave her hand a squeeze, and Ren’s eyes watered a bit as she was flooded with relief. “Yeah. ok. Te quiero, papá.”

Chapter 2

Being teenagers, Ren, Avery, and Kevin were experts at sneaking out of their hab units unnoticed. The Pod had tried to keep this type of behavior in check when they’d first arrived, but once they realized how obstinate teenagers could be and that they largely weren’t doing anything dangerous, they’d given up. Ren and her team waited until everyone reasonable would be asleep and snuck to Arc 5’s workshop where SAMI had loaded the schematics onto Sven’s workbench. Kevin stayed outside to keep watch while Ren and Avery got to work.

“Renata, what’s with the gloves?” Avery asked in a hushed voice. His tan face was furrowed in a slight frown as he squinted to watch Ren tinkering with the electronics workbench in the dim workshop, the bright lights on the bench casting stark shadows around them. Avery reached up a hand and scratched at his neatly styled blue hair, eliciting an angry glare from Renata, her soft brown eyes reflecting the light from the workbench. Flinching away from the glare he carefully moved his hand away from his scalp and put it up in an apologetic motion.

“They’re latex.” Ren replied, quietly. “Keep your dandruff away from the workbench, please. This thing’s sensitive!” Her brown eyes flashed with humor as she spoke. She adjusted the dingy gray protective mask covering her mouth and nose and returned her focus to the tiny but complicated bundle of sensors and microwires.  As she centered her vision, the view was magnified by her lens, a stylish set of multi-optical glasses studded with quite a bit of technology themselves, if you knew where to look for it. A bit of warm breath escaped the mask slightly, and a small spot of fog tried to establish a foothold at the bottom of the right lens, but sensors detected this and quickly altered the temperature of that part of the lens to dissipate the fog. Ren barely noticed. 

“Right, I can see that they’re latex. But why are you wearing them? You aren’t even touching the thing with your skin.” Ren ignored him as she finished a delicate maneuver, manipulating controls that manipulated tiny robotic fingers to maneuver a microwire into place between an optical sensor and a power source. Avery waited patiently, nearly holding his breath as he watched her work. With the wire secure, Ren looked up at him, her own tan skin looking a bit washed out in the harsh lighting from the work bench, dark hair just poking out from under a green static cap.

“True, but I do have to touch the controls. And I’d rather not have my fingerprints all over Sven’s workbench. The best spies leave no trace.” Avery gave a tight grin at this and nodded. She focused on her work again, now putting everything in its final position and applying an instant sealant around the exterior of the device. She looked it over, twisting it about with the tiny robotic manipulators; without magnification it looked like a small black grain of rice, slightly bumpy in odd places, perfectly innocuous. 

Satisfied with the results, she took hold of it with a small static field box, and the rice sized spy device floated there, held firmly in place as she pulled it and the matchbox sized metallic shell of the static field box up to eye level. She carefully removed her mask with the other hand, setting it on the workbench. “Ok SAMI, let’s test the connection.” 

“You bet, I’ve already got the secure protocols in place, tight beam established... give me a second to calibrate... there! It worked, and all tolerances are above spec! Stellar job, Ren!” As SAMI finished speaking, she saw the feed from the device spring to life, floating in front of her right eye. It was a bit disorienting, not having the usual three-dimensional view to work with, but compromises had to be made to keep the camera undetected. Avery’s face floated in front of her, though he stood just behind and to the right of her. He grinned, clapping and stuck out his tongue. Ren cracked a grin, gave a short laugh, and pumped a fist in the air in triumph. 

“Nice work, Ren!  You still haven’t told me how you came up with this design, I’ve never seen anyone pull of something this small before.” Avery said, admiring the rice-grain sized camera.

“Let’s just say I have a friend that is so good at math and engineering it makes our senior engineers look like students.” Ren grinned, and turned to face Avery while keeping the spycam pointed at him. 

“You mean Sammy? I thought she was just running operations for us. Stars, she’s that good at math too?” Avery frowned, thinking for a moment, but shook his head and changed the topic. “You really think the Pod are kidnapping people though? I mean, why hasn’t anyone said anything? Someone had to have seen something happen.”  

“The Pod aren’t stupid, they’re being careful about it. Dad said people were forgetting entire days after an incident too, probably some sort of gas. Plus, these random drills they have us doing aren’t just to test our reaction times. If they were it’d be whole arcs or rings doing them at once, not just one shop at a time.” As Ren was talking, SAMI had been cycling the spycam's optical sensor modes to test them out. In Ren’s right eye she saw Avery’s face dissolve into patches of reds and oranges as the thermal lens adjusted and focused, then shifted into the eerie green of night-vision. The last view was a subtle blue that showed faint field lines of electrical energy, like wires undulating so fast they almost seemed to hold still, until they shimmered and interacted with each other. 

The field lines around Avery’s body were faint at first until Ren focused her eyes on them, and the lens adjusted to highlight these and fade out the background noise.  They didn’t travel far, but they were there, detectable. She held a finger up to Avery’s chest and watched as their field lines arced towards each other. Avery watched, his face growing a bit red, his eyes darting from her fingers to her soft, brown eyes. Ren gave him a coy smile... and then jabbed him hard in the solar plexus. He made a rough ‘oof’ sound as he stumbled backwards. “Ok SAMI, looks like everything is working great, shut it down and top off the power.” Ren said in a cheerful sing-song tone and clicked the box closed.

Avery laughed and rubbed his hand over his chest, covered in his usual blue shop suit festooned with pockets and mag-catch points, a patch over the upper left pocket labeled ‘Asgard, Arc 4, Engineering’. “Well, if nothing else we’ll be able to keep watch over our hideouts easier.” He jerked his head around suddenly, as Kevin’s red mop of curls appeared in the doorway.

“Hey, we need to go, I think I heard the lift at Junction 4-5.”

Ren attached the static-field box to a mag-catch point inside one of her jumpsuit’s pockets, quickly hitting the power button on the workbench and glancing around the now dark workshop. The strangeness of being here after hours was multiplied by the dim lighting, casting everything in unfamiliar shadows. Fabricator units sat in large cabinets towards the back of the shop, tools and material bins arranged precisely at all the workstations. The big window facing the Commons had its safety shielding closed, just a blank metallic gray rectangle recessed into the wall. A few in-progress projects sat on top of workbenches here and there. Everything was still. Quiet, except for the slight hum of the air circulators and Ren’s footsteps. Like so many places on the Requiem de la Lune these days, once filled with people and activity, but now empty and feeling wrong. 

Ren and Avery followed Kevin through the doorway. The Commons stretched out to either side, arcing up and out of sight behind the bend in the ring overhead. Some of the older passengers who had grown up on Earth said it took a while for them to get used to the horizon sloping the wrong way, but Ren had been born here on the ship. 

The plants and trees that made up the majority of space in the Commons were all dark shadows at this time of night, the overhead lights just barely putting out a silvery glow that was supposed to mimic the light from Earth’s moon, the namesake for the ship. The screens that made up the ceiling panels were displaying a sky filled with stars, though Ren thought it wasn’t as good as the real thing. The scent of the plant life filled her nose, a refreshing break from the plastic and metallic smells of the workshop. The air felt crisp and chilly, causing her skin to prick up into goosebumps. 

The three of them turned to their left, but immediately halted as Ren spotted something and grabbed Avery’s arm. Bright, white light danced through branches and leaves in front of them in patches, as if from a source above and behind them. Kevin spotted it quickly as well, and they all crouched and looked behind them, heads rising up slightly to follow the source of the light. 

Someone had just come through the junction between Arcs 4 and 5, just visible up the slope of the ring. Big handheld floodlights were casting giant pools of light on the walls, moving slowly and methodically, revealing dark habitation units and shop fronts designed to mimic houses and buildings from Earth. The brightness of the lights rendered their wielders as dark silhouettes, but the beams shot straight across the curve of the ring as they swung around, over all but the tallest of trees and in between the second story catwalks. The tech shop Renata and her friends had just exited was right in the middle of the arc. This meant they had close to two hundred meters between them and whoever was out searching, and plenty of cover from the plants and trees in the Commons. 

They kept to the sides of the Commons, sticking to the shadows as much as possible, with the second story catwalk overhead as they intermittently crouched and walked. After a couple minutes of this, their hearts pounding in their chests the whole time, the floodlights were finally behind the bend of the ring overhead, and they moved to the central walking path and broke into a light jog. Another minute later they reached the junction between Arc 3 and Arc 4, panting mostly from the fear. The big, arched central doors to the Junctions were always closed at night for safety measures, but the smaller side doors were unlocked. Ren moved to one of the side doors, placed her thumb on the door reader; the door whisked open, and they walked through.

Kevin breathed a heavy sigh of relief, running a hand through his red curls as the door closed automatically. “Fucking flare, thought we were busted for sure! What in the void do you think they were doing, anyway? Looking for a leak or something?” His voice echoed a bit in the cavernous space of the Junction. They walked in between the lifts leading up to the spine of the ship and down to the tram stations as they crossed the room do the opposite door leading to Arc 3. 

“Requiem has sensors to find leaks. The only reason you’d go searching the Commons at this time of night is for a game, or ... or if you were looking for something and didn’t want people to know.” Ren grimaced as she thought about the implications. 

“Hey, yeah, probably just some kids playing hide and seek!” Kevin said, putting on a hesitant smile. 

Avery snorted and rolled his eyes. “Stars in my eyes, know any kids that have access to emergency level lighting like that? No, that had to have been someone from the crew. Ren is right, something weird is going on.”

Kevin’s face fell as Avery spoke, and he looked around, checking their surroundings. “Mm, yeah well... maybe. Anyway, I better get back to my hab, sneak back in before my parents wake up.” He nodded at Ren. “Class tomorrow, right?”

Ren nodded. “Right, I’ll see ya there. And uh... thanks for being backup tonight.” Ren gave a quick smile, and Kevin smirked as he turned to walk away. 

“Yeah, just don’t forget, if you don’t find anything you owe me two weeks of desserts!” he called over his shoulder. 

Ren rolled her eyes and turned to head back to her own hab... only to remember that taking the shortest path there meant going back into Arc 4. Avery noticed and failed to suppress a laugh. She smacked a hand on her forehead and turned again to walk the long way back to her hab in Arc 5. 

Chapter 3

As it turned out Mr. Mukai, the instructor for Renata’s age group, was not feeling well the next day. In fact, the instructor for the youngest age group, Ms. Sagan, was also out sick. Since this meant Renata didn’t have class till the afternoon, Ms. Sagan had left a message to see if Ren could help teach one of Ms. Sagan’s youngest students. They had been scheduled to go over the map of the ship and emergency routines, easy enough. And Renata enjoyed helping out with the younger kids. They were still happily oblivious to the happenings of the ship, lost in games of their own imagination and the joy of exploring the Requiem de la Lune.

“Yeah sure, I’d love to catch up with Zoe! I can show her all the best hiding spots on the ship!” Ren said to SAMI as she finished reading the message. 

Ren was finishing up breakfast in the galley. Her mom and dad were sitting across the table from her, talking with each other quietly. Luciana Soto de Garver, her mother, was looking a bit more tired than usual; her black hair had strands escaping her usually tidy bun, and she had dark circles under her brown eyes. Benjamin Charles Garver, her father, had a flat poker face on, the fair skin of his face framed with a black, bushy beard, his blue eyes scanning the galley.  Lucy grasped Ben’s hand as it rested on the table, her warm brown skin contrasting with Ben’s pale fairness. 

“Hm, that seems like an unfair advantage for Zoe. I’m sure she’ll love it!” SAMI replied. Ren grinned at this as she glanced around at the first-floor galley in Arc 5 of Asgard ring. It was pleasantly busy this morning, with only a few empty tables left. This made it easier for Ren to get away with talking to SAMI, people just assumed she was on a call with someone. A low buzz of conversation filled the galley, and there was even a bit of sporadic laughter here and there. The tables out in the common area were starting to fill up as people started arriving for the late breakfast shift. This was one of the few places that still felt normal to Ren. 

A few minutes later, a small girl with bright blonde hair came skipping up to Renata, squealing with delight the whole way. Zoe’s parents followed a short distance behind her, amused expressions on their faces. 

“Good morning miss Renataaaa! I’m so excited you get to be teacher today!” Zoe exclaimed as she rushed in to hug Ren. Ren, laughing, turned her stool and returned the hug. Luciana and Ben, now both genuinely grinning as well, waved to Zoe’s parents.

“Oh, I know! I always love our sessions, I get to show you all kinds of cool stuff about the ship, and you teach me about all kinds of amazing new snacks to try! Ok, are we ready to head to the classroom?” Ren gathered her things as she stood, and then said to her parents “I have apprenticeship today after class too, so I’ll be home late.” 

Ben put his poker face back on at this news. “Ah, is Avery there too tonight? I’d, uh, just feel a lot better if you had someone to walk home with.” 

Renata gave her dad a knowing smile “Yeah, he’ll be there, don’t worry dad. We’ll be fine.” Then, turning to Zoe’s parents “We’ll see you back here at lunch time!” She gave a wave and Zoe ran back for hugs from her mothers. Ren walked after her and they proceeded together into the Commons. 

As they made the five-minute walk over to the classroom, Zoe sprang from one side of the walk way to the other, telling Ren all about the latest adventures she’d done in VR; it was apparently something involving evil cows in space suits, using their utters to shoot milk and propel themselves through zero gravity. Ren didn’t even know where to begin with that and just nodded in amazement at the energy levels that Zoe displayed. Renata was careful to casually scan the increasingly empty space of the Commons as they walked. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for exactly, but the lack of people sitting on benches or under the larger shade trees still unnerved her. 

The noise from the breakfast crowd slowly dropped off as they walked, the air a bit warmer compared to the chill of last night. The environmental system liked to vary the temperatures from day to day to give a bit of variety and simulate weather changes. The older passengers who lived on Earth claimed this was a nice touch, and Renata tended to agree even though she’d never experienced a planet before. The virtual sims she’d dove into got close, according to her grandparents, but still lacked the pure sense of freedom and adventure one got on a real planet. 

“Hey Renata, why does, why do all the hab units look like places from Earth?  Shouldn’t they look more like, ya know, space ship houses or somethin?” Zoe asked as they walked. 

Ren smiled. “Well, a lot of people here still remember Earth, they grew up there. So this kind of makes them feel like it’s home in a way. But we can always change up what the front of the habs and shops look like if we get bored!”

“When I get a hab of my own, its gonna look like a space ship house! Cuz, because that’s what it is!” Zoe nodded very seriously and Ren suppressed a laugh.

The hab units facing the Commons varied depending on their size.  Family habs were the largest and featured big windows and welcoming porches, inviting people to linger and talk.  Couples and single units were combined in a bit more of an apartment style fashion and tended to have a central entrance accessed via a walkway leading back from the Commons. 

Many of these walkways here on Asgard ring had decorative arches with vines growing up, little white flowers like starbursts popping out at the top.  Zoe stopped and pointed to one of these arches.

“Hey, is that, Ren is that supposed to be a solar system?” Her face was scrunched up as she tried to make out the design at the top of the arch peeking out from under the vines. “But its not Earth, its only got seven planets!  Earth has eight!’ She said this last part with no small amount of pride at having remembered this important fact.

Ren smiled and mussed Zoe’s hair. “You’re right, the Sol system has eight planets, plus a bunch of dwarf planets too!” she gently corrected. “That’s the Trappist system, where we’ll build our new home. This Arc really likes to get fancy with their decorations.” 

Overhead a wide balcony provided access to the second floor, which mirrored the first in its layout of habs and workshops. Every few tens of meters a bridge crossed the Commons, decorated to look like historical bridges from Earth.  The one they’d just passed under looked like a miniature suspension bridge, complete with steel towers and faux cables all painted a reddish-orange. 

As they neared the classroom, the hum of the air handlers shifted, mimicking a natural breeze.  Simulated birdsong played from hidden speakers.  

“I wish I could see a real bird!” Zoe said as she tilted her head, listening to the bird calls. 

“Me too.  My grandparents really miss them…” Ren grimaced a bit. They had countless DNA samples from every species they could collect on Earth, and even a million human embryos to help the population rebound. But unless they could get the warp drive fixed, those dreams would stay frozen in storage.  

“Hey Ren!” Zoe piped up, interrupting her thoughts. Ren shook her head to clear it and smiled down at the girl who was now standing with a mischievous look on her face, both hands behind her back. “Guess what?”

Ren made a show of contemplating her answer, scrunching her nose up in thought and holding her chin between two fingers. “Hmmmm, did you find... a starleaf?” 

Zoe’s jaw dropped in astonishment, her blue eyes wide. “How did you know?!” Renata smiled smugly, stealing a quick glance around the small park-like area in the Commons they had stopped in, the ground here randomly spotted with star shaped leaves from a nearby tree. 

Something else caught her eye just then; a couple of Pod were just exiting into the Junction ahead. They were known to do random patrols sometimes but usually they kept out of the way. Their control of the critical systems on Requiem meant they didn’t need to resort to overt shows of force. Ren waited till the door had closed, eyeing them warily. She shook off the feeling and looked back at Zoe. 

“Because on this ship, I see everything!” Ren said mischievously. Zoe giggled while Ren mussed her hair a bit, and they walked on through the courtyard. They arrived outside the classroom, a broad open space that felt more like a community hall than the traditional school rooms of Earth. In the middle of the wide opening into the classroom on a decorative faux-wood sign the name of the classroom was displayed: “Stanford of the Stars”, the letters painted in a sweeping decorative script with metallic gold paint. Above the name, the technical location of the classroom was written in more standard stencil, with white paint: Asgard, Arc5, Classroom. All this information could also be displayed over someone’s lens, but the physical sign added a personal touch and gave people something to work on besides their ship duties. 

Walking into the classroom, Ren found an empty tutoring room off to their left; there were ten of these small rooms inside each classroom, with the main space at the back of the room kept open for group lessons. As Renata and Zoe walked towards the empty tutoring room, Ren spotted someone practicing a cello a couple rooms over. The blonde curly hair of the instructor bobbed as she nodded, her blue eyes intently following her student’s movements on the instrument. Ren gave a quick wave, and Emily pushed up her big stylish lens, gave a quick smile and wave, and snapped back to watching her student. 

Ren closed the flex-glass pane door behind them, and the small amount of noise from outside immediately diminished. It was always disturbing to Ren how quiet the tutoring rooms could be. She brought up the terminal built into the desk, quickly logged in, and selected some nice classical music to play in the background to fill the silence.

The walls here were made of a soft, taupe colored fabric which helped to absorb sound and gave it a cozy feel. The stark white table in the center often doubled as a whiteboard, but also contained AR projectors. Zoe plopped into the chair on the other side of the table, its mesh fabric a dark forest green in color with a black fabric seat cushion. 

Renata removed her lens and stashed them in a pocket on her shop suit. Then she made a motion over the AR projector. With the faintest of electronic whirs it emitted a flash of light that spiraled rapidly through a full spectrum of colors, and Ren began picking out images to use for Zoe’s lesson. 

Zoe’s mind was voracious; she ate up everything Ren could throw at her. Ren was delighted as her face lit up when she began showing her the array of maintenance tunnels which led all over the ship, from workshops into the engineer bays, and even into their vertical farming modules.  

The only module on the entire ship that was isolated from that network was the Lab module. Ren avoided talking much about it. The Pod’s leaders had taken up residence there, and people who were taken to the Lab came out… different. With hours and sometimes days missing from their lives. 

Zoe thought the Lab looked like a porcupine. Ren laughed at this, amazed at how unfiltered the mind of a child could be. Then a thought struck her.

“Hey, Zoe… can I ask you kind of a scary question?” Ren said carefully. 

“Ooo spooky questions!  Yes yes yes!” She bounced with each ‘yes’ in her chair, a giant grin on her face.

“Have you heard about any other kids going missing? Like, not showing up to class when they should be?” Ren watched Zoe closely. 

She screwed up her nose as she thought. “Well, Jean-Luc was missing last week.”

“Oh? Do you know him well? Did his parents say why he went away?” Ren felt her pulse quickening but kept her voice steady and her face passive, not wanting to alarm the girl.

“Well yeah, he was using the VR when he wasn’t supposed to and ran into a wall. The doctors had to, like, glue him back together I think? Yeah, I think his finger fell off! But you couldn’t even tell yesterday when he got back, that’s how good our doctors are!” Zoe looked at Ren, her face deadly serious.

Ren nodded as an odd combination of relief and disappointment washed over her. “Ah, well I’m glad it wasn’t anything too serious!” 

“Ok, my turn for a spooky question!” Zoe declared, smacking a hand on the table. “Why?! Do the Pod look so funny?” 

Ren laughed and nodded. “Ah ha!  Well, we probably look really funny to the Pod! Their planet shaped the way they look, just like ours shaped us.” Ren used the terminal to bring up a hologram of one of the Pod. Zoe immediately clicked a button to make it life sized, standing next to the table. With their chalky white skin and multi-jointed legs, they reminded her of a cross between an octopus and a skeletal looking hand.

She’d only ran into one Pod so far that she didn’t mind. He could even be downright curious if she spoke with him out of earshot of his superiors. 

“And they’re, uh, they’re going to fix our ship so we could, so we can move again?” Zoe asked, as she put a hand up to the hologram. It put one of its pads up to meet Zoe’s outstretched palm, the short, tentacle like appendage curling upwards from the end of its leg.

“Right. That’s what they say. Someday.” Ren’s stomach was starting to tie into knots. Her hand slipped into the pocket with the tiny spy camera, fingers running over the static box that held it. “But, I’m sure Ms. Sagan will be telling you all about the Pod in one of your classes soon! Let's focus on the Requiem again.” Ren forced a smile and waved a hand in a shooing motion at the hologram of the Pod.

By the time they’d finished running through everything, Ren’s stomach was starting to growl, which prompted a fair amount of giggling from Zoe. They began their walk back to the galley. 

It was less crowded than breakfast had been; lots of people usually opted to have their lunch delivered to their hab or their duty station if they were on shift that day. Looking around at the few occupied tables, Renata didn’t spot her parents. She walked to the back of the galley and they followed along the serving line looking at the options for today. There were a few different choices of meats, all printed using the latest animal protein recipes: roast chicken, pork chops, or a beef yakisoba dish. Several different fruits were available, some sauteed vegetables, and the salad bar, of course. 

Renata’s grandparents constantly told Ren how extravagant such meals would be considered for a spaceship to have before the Requiem had been built. Cooking food like this was energy intensive and time consuming, but it provided much needed psychological benefits versus eating protein shakes for fifty years. On the plus side, their compost and recycling machines meant nothing went to waste. 

As Ren and Zoe were picking out their food, Zoe’s parents walked into the galley and joined them. Zoe immediately began regaling them with the amazing new secrets Renata had taught her, and both of Zoe’s mothers beamed as they listened. Aubrey ruffled Zoe’s blonde hair, which matched her own and contrasted with Lori’s dark curls. Lori turned her hazel eyes to Ren. “Thanks Renata, you do such a great job sparking the little ones’ imaginations!”

Renata nodded, giving a big smile. “Zoe has plenty of imagination to go around, its always a pleasure!” They finished picking out their food, and Aubrey and Lori struck up a conversation with one of the cooks who happened to be their neighbor. They looked rather concerned about whatever it was they were talking about, Ren noticed as she glanced over her shoulder while guiding Zoe to a table. A few minutes later Zoe’s mothers joined them. Aubrey and Lori seemed to be forcing smiles as they sat down. “Everything ok?” asked Ren.

There were quick looks exchanged between Aubrey and Lori, and Aubrey said in a carefully controlled voice, with a quick glance in Zoe’s direction “Oh, nothing major. Roraima had some people getting angry the other night and they’re going to put a curfew in place for the next few days, I guess. It just seems... a little odd, you know? Being told you have to stay in your hab till morning?”

Zoe was quite focused on wrapping her yakisoba noodles around her fork and hadn’t noticed the conversation. Ren frowned slightly at the news and nodded “Yeah, that is ... definitely odd.” She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask but let it wait while they ate. 

When they had finished their meal and were walking out of the galley, Zoe spotted something intriguing in the Commons and ran to go investigate. Aubrey patiently walked after the girl, while Lori hung back with Renata. Ren turned to her and quietly asked “Did they say what people were angry about in Roraima? Someone had to have started some serious trouble for a curfew to get issued.”

Lori kept a smile on her face, watching Zoe and Aubrey now playing tag out in the Commons, but there was a tension in her eyes as she spoke. “There was someone going around marking habs last night. They were going around with big lights and putting stickers on certain doors. When someone poked their head out and demanded to know what was happening, a fight broke out. Safety officers got called, and Jared came down to demand to know what was happening.” Renata shuddered at the mention of Jared. He gave her the creeps. “The Pod started asking security if they needed to search people’s habs for evidence, so the safety chief talked them down and told them they’d do a curfew to make sure everyone was staying calm over the next few days.” Lori’s gaze shifted over to Renata. “Sure would be nice if we could get some proof of what is actually going on, ya know?” 

Ren tried to keep her face passive. With a community as small as theirs, rumors spread quickly and secrets were hard to keep, but she had been sure her friends were serious about not telling anyone about her little spycam project. “Yeah, yeah it would be. Maybe someone will be able to copy some security footage before the Pod get to it next time. Heard C0Y0T3 escaped the purge of MIAs, I should try and track him down.”

Lori watched Renata’s face for a moment longer, a slight smile still masking her own worries. “Or something like that, sure. Well, we have to get going. Hey, thanks again for the lessons, Renata. Stay safe, ok?”

“You bet. Hasta luego.” Zoe ran up and gave Ren a hug goodbye. As they walked away, Renata felt inside her pocket for the small, smooth metallic case of the static field box, caressing its cool form as if for reassurance. This has to work, she thought to herself. Turning the opposite direction, she began her walk to Asgard ring’s engineering module for her apprenticeship class. 

Chapter 4

Chief Tawera Bavin was really starting to regret his recent promotion. Trying to find time to feed information to the Archival Team while also finding the personnel for these new late-night patrols the Pod were demanding, and now trying to talk the Pod down from  standing up full-time security on Asgard ring after the incident on Roraima was a bit too much chaos all at once for Tawera’s taste. 

That he was now being summoned for questioning by a random Pod patrol did nothing to help his mood. As he passed the lift to the Engineering bay, he spotted two of the chalky-white aliens standing next to a pillar that separated two workshops. Chief Bavin sighed and ran a hand over the rich bronze skin of his bald head, then pulled his lens out and slid them on. He gave it a set of taps and the standard security interface popped into view. It showed name tags above his fellow passenger’s heads, highlighted nearby cameras that he could pull footage from with a gesture, and outlined the two Pod a short distance away, tracking their movement. 

A moment later, the UI seemed to shimmer and glitch for a second and a rich and confident voice slightly distorted by heavy encryption came through the lens, “Ah, Chief Bavin, your third interaction with the Pod this week. Well done, these conversations are always very enlightening. Do try to ask more questions this time, though, we need to get a better idea of what they are searching for.”

“More questions. Right, I’m sure they’ll love that. Just keep quiet.” Tawera paused, keeping his distance from the Pod for a bit longer. Out of all the MIAs to survive the purge, of course it would be Coyote, or C0Y0T3 as his name appeared in all of his broadcasts. He wasn’t even supposed to be on Requiem in the first place but had somehow managed to hitchhike his way onboard.

“I’ll be disconnecting as usual but will watch from afar. We’ll talk once they’ve left.” The strange UI glitch repeated and with a staticky pop, Coyote dropped the connection.

As Tawera approached he caught sight of what the Pod were looking at; a laser etched bit of graffiti depicting an arc of purple spikey hair with a set of round, gold tinted sunglasses below it. Tawera managed not to break stride and kept his face passive, though his pulse hastened as he recognized the design. He stopped in front of the Pod and looked between the two of them. “You rang?” 

The Pod on the right responded first. “We do not possess excess time to interpret your homo-sapiens regional informal expressions, Chief Tawera Bavin. It appears someone in Asgard ring is defacing parts of the space-conveyance system with these strange shapes which must have some meaning for you homo-sapiens. Please view the shapes and relate to us what knowledge you possess in relation to this vandalism.”

“It’s probably just some kids trying to liven up the place,” Chief Bavin said, which was probably only half a lie. He’d certainly caught more than a few teens adding their own artistic flare to their favorite spaces on the ship. As long as the artwork wasn’t profane, they’d leave it up. Most people appreciated the change in scenery.

“This group of shapes has been observed in multiple locations throughout the space-conveyance system, which would seem to indicate importance of some kind or perhaps an attempt to pass hidden messages between potential conspirators against our presence here.” The Pod on the right, Ralph as Tawera’s lens had labeled it, tapped its forward pad impatiently as it waited for the translation box to finish its job. 

Tawera laughed and shook his head, “Conspirators? Come on, guys, give us a little more credit than that! Look, I know things are tense right now, but people are worried that we haven’t seen progress on the warp drive yet. Have you stopped by the Lab lately, do you know if they’re getting close to having a solution? Or a plan? Ideas?”

The Pod on the left, Fred, practically slapped at its translation box as it zapped a message into it. “Our wise and glorious leader does not deem it necessary for basic security personnel like ourselves to enter the Lab unless there is a sufficiently high level of emergency. If you do not possess knowledge about the shapes on this wall then perhaps one of your adolescent homo-sapiens will, as you say they regularly make similar shapes.” The voice came out even and pleasant as always despite the Pod’s obvious irritation.

Tawera’s patronizing smile dropped into a frown, but before he could protest the Pod had turned to a girl in her late teens walking by. He did a double take as he recognized Renata. Fred held up one leg in an exaggerated waving motion while he used the other to start his translation box speaking.

“Your attention, please, homo-sapiens adolescent. Your cooperation is required in the matter of space-conveyance system security. Do not attempt to avoid cooperating or you will be required to report to the Lab for remedial counseling.” As the message played out, Fred and Ralph moved to flank Ren, and she grew increasingly nervous.

Chief Bavin gave a loud sigh and cradled his face in his palm for a moment, then quickly waved her over. “Sorry, Ren, it’s no big deal. They just want to see if you recognize the artwork here.”

Coyote wouldn’t like it if the Pod learned his name, though with their difficulty grasping lingual nuances they probably would never think about searching for his proper moniker. Still, Tawera braced himself as Ren stepped around to look at the graffiti. Coyote did not limit his contact to his Archival Team as he had begun calling them, but instead reached out to those ‘seeking truth, wherever it may hide’, as he put it. There was a very non-zero chance that Renata knew Coyote, and probably knew the artist that had been tagging pillars and walls throughout the ship with his icon. 

“Uhh, ok, sure let’s see. Oh… uh, isn’t this like a character from one of the classic games? V, or something, right?” Ren said while giving Chief Bavin a pointed glance.

Tawera froze for a second as he recognized the reference to an old cyberpunk game. That wasn’t a coincidence considering Coyote’s avatar. “Oh, yeah, you’re right!” he said after a slight hesitation. “Stars, my old man was just playing that game last week, I remember now!” Chief Bavin nodded with an abundance of confidence.

“Nice, yeah its pretty good for a flatspace game.” Ren smiled, then looked uncertainly at the Pod. They looked like they were almost holding hands, Fred’s pad held upright with Ralph’s just above it facing down, electric blue flashes stuttering between them. A second later, Fred put his pad to the translation box.

“Does this character, V, have any kind of alternate meaning for homo-sapiens?” Fred and Ralph were both leaning closer, eying Ren intently. 

“Uhhh, no? Not… that I… know of?” Ren tried to lean away.

The Pod exchanged flashes again, and two things happened at once. Fred reached up to the side of Renata’s head with his pad, and Ralph flashed a message to his translation box as he stepped around to look directly at Chief Bavin. Tawera tried to reach out to stop the Pod but he reacted to late. He retracted his hand as several very precise threads of electrical energy leapt from Fred’s pad to Ren’s scalp. 

The girl’s face went blank, her hands dropping limply to her sides. The blood pounding in Tawera’s ears began to recede and he heard Ralph’s message filtering through. “...will remember nothing. Your full cooperation in this memory nullification action is expected and appreciated, Chief Tawera Bavin.” 

The Pod were not great at reading facial expressions, but they seemed to get body language fairly well. They nervously stepped away from the Chief as he glared at them, and carefully walked away while keeping an eye on him.  Tawera’s fingers grew sore from the tight fists he held at his side.  He drew in a deep breath and forced it out, coaxing his hands back open. Gods of stars and void, I hate it when they do that to people, Tawera thought. Renata blinked, and then shook her head, looking around.  She started as she turned and saw Tawera standing so close, the anger still dissipating from his face.

“Oh, ah, Chief Bavin... I’m sorry I must have spaced off. I’m uh... I was going to...” Her brow furrowed as she began concentrating, growing worried as her memory refused to cooperate.

“You were heading to the Engineering Bay for your apprenticeship lessons.” Tawera offered, knowing her likely destination given the time of day. “No worries Ren, sorry to startle you. Just worried about this graffiti.” he waved at Coyote’s symbol on the pillar, which Ren turned to look at, seeing it as if for the first time again. “Been seeing these all over the ship lately.  The Pod are taking notice. Would probably be best if whoever is doing these let it go for a while.” he said the last part with a slightly raised voice, and Ren turned back to him.  He arched an eyebrow and she nodded uncertainly.

“Uh, yeah, no I’ll uh... I’ll see if anyone knows whose art this is and let them know.” She rubbed her temples a bit and began walking towards the entrance for the Engineering Bay. Tawera shook his head and blew out a breath. The conversation with Ben was not going to be fun.