Valiant

[Valiant #39: Dizzy Little Circles]

Log Date: 1/3/12765

Data Sources: Feroce Acceso, Kiwi

Event Log: Feroce Acceso

Halomor: The Howler Mines

5:46pm SGT

“Wells, a-heah we ahr, hunnabunnies.” Finch drawls as we come to a stop on the edge of a massive mining pit, about a tenth of a mile wide and almost perfectly circular. “En’t it jussa si’ht f’th’ ais? Wonna th’ many uhn’at’ral wondahs o’ th’ worl’. Hennybudy wanna selfy whiles we heah? H’issa grea’ view.”

Ridge stares at the greasy, fedora’d spy, then at the rest of us. “…what language is he speaking?”

Quincy grins at Ridge, elbowing him. “What, you’ve never heard a Ranter accent before?”

“I’ve heard Ranter accents before, and that ain’t it.” Renchiko says, zipping up her Agent jacket as she comes to the railing ringing the pit mine and staring down into it. It’s so deep that it quickly disappears into darkness, especially with Halomor’s sun starting to set over the horizon. “That’s some kind of dark space accent. Or maybe an accent from a galactic edge world.”

“You sure this is it, Finch?” I say, staring over the railing into the darkness below. The only thing I can really make out are old elevator tracks and rails lining the side of the pit. “There’s almost forty of these pits in this area. I don’t wanna get to the bottom and find that you’ve sent us down into a nest of mutant cockroaches.”

“Ha’a liddl’ faif, boi.” Finch scoffs, swatting away my concern. “Yous know Ah’m goo’ forrit. Wha, yous think Ai sen’a priddy liddl’ Vahcalian boi dow’there a’get et’in b’jiant spidahs?”

I open my mouth slightly, then think better of it and turn to Kiwi, silently asking for translation.

“He says to have a little faith. Says that he wouldn’t send a pretty Valcalian boy down there to get eaten by giant spiders.” Kiwi clarifies.

“It ain’t the giant spiders I’m worried about.” Sierra says, peering over the railing as she takes her lollipop out of her mouth. “Why’s our contact hangin’ out at the bottom of a mining pit? I was kinda hopin’ for something a little more prestigious, y’know?”

“Nao nao, missy, doan’ getcher tits’inna twist.” Finch says, sauntering along the grated walkway towards what looks like an elevator placed along the rim of the mine — one of many such fixtures around the edge of the pit. “We’s cain’ awl live en beeg priddy ‘ouses widda green lawln ’n pikket fences. Gotta make do wit’ wha’ we gawt, yanno? I’doan mayk’us enny less forrit.”

“I’m trying, I really am, but I have no idea what he’s saying.” Ridge says to Quincy. “He can’t be speaking galactic common. There’s no way.”

Quincy chuckles. “Need me to translate for you?”

“Stop beating around the bush and let’s get to it, Finch.” Kiwi says, moving after him. “Sun’s going down and I don’t want to be caught in these mines after dark. Hell, I don’t wanna be caught on this planet after dark. What are we looking for down there?”

“S’yu h’ain’t lookin’ fer ennythang dow’there.” Finch drawls, pulling the grated fencing back from the elevator’s entrance. “Jus’ head awn down, Feathah. N’keep gow’n til she foins’ja. Yous run’in’ner soonah ah’layter.” With that, he gestures obsequiously to the battered old mining elevator. “Laydeez fahst.”

I look to Kiwi. “So we just. Step into the elevator and head down?”

“Pretty much.” she says, stepping into the elevator. “And if it turns out you sent us down into a trap or an ambush, Finch…”

“Feathah puhleeze. Meh, dubblekraussin’?” Finch scoffs, leaning on the corner of the elevator as the rest of us reluctantly filter into it. “H’an’ Ah thau’ we ‘ad sommat spesshul. Doan’ yeh trus’ meh, lassie? Etter awl we been through?”

“I’d say I trust you as far as I can throw you, Finch, but if we run into any trouble down there, I’m gonna hunt you down and chuck your ass into the stratosphere. The rest of you may or may not be attached to it.” Kiwi says, pulling the grated fencing closed once we’re all in the elevator. “We’re headed down now. This better pan out.”

Finch gives us a greasy, yellowed smirk as Sierra hits the descent button, and the elevator rattles to life, starting to creak downwards. “Awh, ih’ll be wor’h it, lassie. Yew ken trus’ meh on’at.”

None of us say anything to that, and it’s only when the elevator’s thirty or forty feet down that Quincy speaks up. “Did that, uh… sound a little ominous to anyone else?”

“Yeah, that was really creepy.” Ridge agrees.

“That’s just Finch being Finch. He likes to get people weirded out.” Kiwi says, tucking her hands in the pockets of her jacket. We’re all dressed in our black field jackets, marked with the Valiant insignia. “We’ll find our contact down here. May be a little inconvenient, but it’ll be down here. Finch knows that if he doesn’t deliver, it reflects badly on him.”

“I don’t trust him.” Renchiko say, unzipping her jacket enough to pull out her stunner and turn it on. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

“I don’t disagree, honestly.” I say, pulling out my stunner and doing the same. “Weapons hot, but keep ‘em holstered until a threat presents. Sometimes we create a threat by being threatening. We want to be ready for hostilities without appearing openly hostile ourselves.”

The others pull out their stunners and charge them on, before holstering them once more. As the shuffling of jackets fades once more, we’re left with the arthritic humming of the elevator as it descends deeper and deeper into the pit, the light from above growing weak and distant. Once it’s gotten dark enough, pilot lights on the elevator itself click on, providing a sterile white glow as we sink into the depths of the earth.

“So, uh… how deep is this thing supposed to be?” Ridge says, leaning forward a little, trying to peer into the black pit we’re descending into. “I think my ears just popped.”

“Better yet, who would live in a place like this?” Quincy adds, scratching his head. “Grocery trips would be a nightmare if you’re making this commute every week.”

“There’s an ecosystem in abandoned mines like this.” I explain, studying the control panel for the elevator. “Fields of pit mines like this are linked at the bottoms by a network of tunnels to help with drainage. Fungi and lichens grow down here, and insects and other cave creatures feed on those. Usually those are pretty small, but because Halomor’s run by a combination of crime syndicates, pirate lords, and mining corporations, it has some… substantial ecological problems.”

Ridge gives me an alarmed look. “Wait, the guy with the fedora wasn’t joking about the giant spiders?”

“Eh, the spiders aren’t too big.” Sierra says, leaning back against the side of the elevator and folding her arms. “About the size of a small dog, mostly. Anklebiters. I hear they keep ‘em like chickens down here. They mix the egg sacs into this mushroom… soup sort of thing. Like a hot spider caviar porridge sort of thing.”

“Hhht.” Renchiko says, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her mouth. “Okay, please stop. I don’t wanna know. That sounds so revolting.”

“I hear it’s not too bad with a little seasoning.” Sierra goes on, grinning evilly. “Giant centipedes are the real delicacy, though. When they hunt and kill those, they pit-roast them like a pig. Except instead of putting it on a spit, they curl it up in the roasting pit for hours, then cut it into sections. You can eat it right out of the shell; it’s like centipede barbecue.”

Renchiko’s shoulders hunch up as she shivers and grits her teeth. “I think those are the most cursed words I’ve ever heard. Feroce, please tell me that’s not a thing.”

I shrug. “Food’s food, whether you get it from land, sea, sky, or earth. People will eat birds, they’ll eat fish, they’ll eat mammals, and they’ll eat insects. You eat what you have to in order to stay alive.”

Renchiko whips her head back and forth, eyes still squeezed shut. “That’s gonna be in my nightmares tonight. Spider egg porridge and centipede barbecue. Hhhcck.”

“Wait, so you’re telling us that enough people live down here that they farm spiders and hunt centipedes?” Quincy says. “I thought we were going down to meet someone that was just hiding down here for some reason or another, but you’re talking about this like there’s entire communities down here.”

“Oh yeah. Exiles, the mentally ill, people that just want to be left alone, people that wanna hide from crime bosses or pirate lords they might’ve pissed off… all sorts of people hang out in the Howler Mines.” Sierra says. “It’s like a castaway colony. Everyone that’s got a reason to run and hide is out here. Hidden from the rest of the world; out of sight, out of mind.”

“So we’ll run into people down there?” Ridge asks. “Criminals and crazy people?”

“Not everyone down here is a criminal, or crazy.” I say. “Everyone’s got a story. It’s best not to judge sight unseen.”

“Yeah, but the rest of us can’t really walk off a knife in the ribs or a spike between the eyes like you two can.” Kiwi says, motioning to me and Sierra. “So we’ll be keeping our guard up, because there’s a lot of screws loose down here, and we can’t afford to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

“How deep is this mine?” Renchiko says, leaning to the side a little to stare into the darkness. “We’ve been descending for ages.”

“Mercurials are good at digging.” Kiwi says. “Their mines are often miles deep.”

“We’re down here because this contact had something they wanted to give us, right?” Quincy says, looking at me. “Do we know what it is they wanted to give us?”

“We don’t, but they seem pretty set on trying to give it to us.” Sierra answers for me. “And so long as it’s something useful, we ain’t gonna complain. The contact demonstrated Challenger knowledge, so we think it’s a retired or rogue Challenger that wants to pass something along to us now that we’ve got the Bastions back.”

“Or it’s a trap.” Kiwi points out. “Whoever they are, they haven’t asked for anything in return. And Halomorian’s locals aren’t exactly known for their charity work.”

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst.” I say as the elevator starts to slow down. “And remember your manners. In a place like this, if you talk shit, you’ll probably get hit.”

“Are those lights?” Ridge says, peering through the elevator’s exposed sides. Down below, there’s a thin, winding network of weak, reddish lanterns that provide illumination among the rocks at the bottom of the mine.

“For the ones that need them, yes. Red light helps preserve vision in the darkness.” I explain as those winding trails of light slowly come level with us. “There are things and people down here that do not need light to navigate, and actively avoid strong light sources.”

“I didn’t think to bring a flashlight with me.” Quincy says, looking around at the rest of us. “Anyone else got one handy?”

“I got it.” Kiwi says, shaking her wristmarks to life. Combining a couple of the runes, she comes up with a floating sphere that casts an eerie green glow over the near area as we step out of the elevator. It throws the carved floor of the mine in sharp relief, and after realizing that it’s casting shadows at shoulder height, she floats it above her head so that our group is no longer in the way of the illumination it provides.

The moment she does so, though, the shadows slide away, and we all suddenly realize that there’s a pale old man with milky, empty eyes standing six inches from our group. Pretty much all of us scream and scramble back a few feet.

“Holy, holy, shit! Where the hell did he come from?” Renchiko gasps, clutching a hand to her chest.

“Goddamn. Could you at least say something before you sneak up on us like that?” Ridge says, his voice cracking a little as he fumbles for his stunner.

“Oh gods. My poor heart.” Quincy pants, running his hands through his hair. “Gaah, that did more for me than a cup of coffee ever will.”

“You all must be the Valiant.” the old man rasps. “We have been waiting for you.”

“Yeah, we can tell!” Kiwi says, catching her breath. “Ink have mercy. They need to put a bell on you or something so people know where you’re lurking.”

“Surface dwellers often struggle with the darkness.” the old man says. “No one down here hides, at least in the public areas. Many of us have other ways of seeing that do not require light.”

“Yeah, how exactly do you get around, what with being blind and all that?” Sierra says as she adjusts her Challenger cap and dress jacket.

“Many of us are psions. We navigate the shadows by memory, and by sensing the life around us. It serves well to hone the mind.” he says, motioning a hand to the path that leads deeper into the mine. “If you’ll follow, the Fire is waiting for you.”

“The Fire? Are we talking like a literal fire, or is that a title, or a place, or…?” I ask as the old man turns and starts walking.

“It is the one who invited you here. The one who purifies when a forest is corrupt and needs a cleansing flame, a rejuvenating burn. Even now, she sends her disciples abroad to judge the impure and cleanse the corrupt.” the old man intones as the rest of us start following behind him, albeit at a bit of a distance. “She has eagerly awaited your return, Songbird. She says that if we will clear the way for you, then you will lead us unto a bright and beautiful future, filled with light and freedom.”

“Oh.” I say, taken aback by that and aware of the curious stares of the others. “Well, uh. Sorry to disappoint, but uh, uhm. I’m prooooobably not what she’s looking for, then?”

“Nah man, that’s totally you!” Sierra says, elbowing me. “Beacon of hope! Light of freedom! The phoenixfire of the Valiant!” She turns to the others. “Quick, anyone else got any other bird metaphors we can throw on this?”

“Wings of liberty?” Quincy suggests.

“Eyy, that’s a good one!” Sierra champs.

“Talons of justice?” Renchiko offers.

“Nice, nice, keep ‘em coming!” Sierra says.

“Feathers of… freedom?” Ridge shrugs.

“Eh, that one’s a little anemic, but we can workshop it.” Sierra says, tapping her lollipop against her tongue.

“Okay, yeah yeah, this is all very funny and all that, but seriously, I am not any sort of messiah or savior figure.” I say, talking past them to the old man that’s leading us among the damp boulders that tower along the floor of the pit. “Your leader probably needs to look somewhere else for a beacon of hope. I just kinda putter around with these nerds and help people every now and then.”

“Hey, who ya callin’ a nerd, nerd?” Kiwi says, giving me a light punch in the arm. “You’re prolly nerdier than the rest of us.”

“The Fire said that you would be modest. That you always are, and that you will need to cast off your reticence in the months ahead, and confront your past. It is coming for you, and you cannot shy from it.” the old man says. Kiwi’s hovering light shows that we’re starting to near the side of the pit mine, where a tunnel is bored into the pit wall. That’s likely the case in other areas around the pit’s side, but we likely won’t get a chance to see — the walk from the elevator to the tunnel entrance isn’t a very long one.

“Sounds like this Fire used to know him.” Sierra remarks as the ground beneath our feet starts to angle down towards the tunnel. “She got any other names, or is it just the one?”

“Other worlds may know her differently. We know her as the Fire.” the old man says, treading into the tunnel ahead of us.

“What about you? You got a name?” Ridge calls.

“I am the Guide. I have had other names in my lifetime, but that is the name for this time in my life.” the old man replies, his voice echoing a bit more now that we’re in the tunnel, and the acoustics are more contained. “I guide visitors to the Fire, and witness her word. I cannot tell you more than that — your questions, if you have any, can be answered by the Fire when we arrive.”

“Hmm. Seems like someone’s not in a chatting mood.” Kiwi remarks. The Guide doesn’t rise to the prodding, though, so we simply follow in silence a bit, down into the winding tunnels of the Howler Mines. The shafts that have been carved down here are decently sized — at no point does it ever feel crowded, and there’s plenty of room for us walk side by side with each other. If I had to guess, these tunnels were drilled out with vehicles, and not people, in mind.

“Why do they call them the Howler Mines?” Ridge asks at some point. “Been pretty quiet since we got down here.”

“Sound the wind makes when it blows over the surface.” Kiwi answers. “You didn’t hear it when we were up there because it wasn’t windy today. Sounds like moaning or howling when the wind is kicking up.”

“That’s the official explanation.” Sierra says, lacing her hands behind her head. “Real reason is because you’ll catch the people down here howling, and it echoes through the tunnels. For miles and miles and miles. At least, they say it’s the people. Could be the ghosts.”

“Sierra.” I say, giving her a flat look. She just grins past her lollipop stick.

“Do people live in these spots carved into the walls?” Renchiko says. She’s been paying attention to the tunnels we’re being led through, and I can see that in the walls, there are openings every so often, vaguely rectangular as if they were meant to be doorways.

“They used to. In the earlier days, when the pit mines were freshly abandoned.” the Guide answers, never having slowed his pace. “The network of tunnels at the bottom of the mines has grown since then. Most live in caverns like this, although this is the only one that hosts a psi crystal like this.”

I’m about to ask what he means, but we round the corner at that point and the tunnel opens up into a wide, irregular cavern that’s bathed in constant red light. The source is a massive shard of red crystal, about the height of two people stacked on each other, hovering in the center of the cavern. It’s rough and unhewn, and only some of the sides are faceted, but it provides illumination for the entire cavern — the sides of which have openings similar to the ones we saw in the tunnel. There are actually people here, some of them sitting in a circle beneath the crystal, while others are at work, fixing machines, managing cages of spiders, or making food.

“Oh, that is… very red.” Quincy remarks from the back.

“I am told it is quite a sight to behold.” the Guide says, leading us into the cavern. “This is the cavern where the disciples of the Fire gather. We learn at her hand, and carry out the tasks she gives us to bring about a better galaxy.”

Renchiko starts walking closer to me, murmuring quietly. “I’m getting some pretty strong cult vibes here.”

“Perhaps, but let’s be polite about it while we’re here.” I murmur back to her, noticing that the Kiwi’s green light sphere is canceling out some of the red glow and leaving our group in muted greys. Raising my voice a bit, I speak to the Guide. “Is this where we’re supposed to meet the Fire?”

Is that him? Is he finally here?

I immediately stop, wincing and twisting my head in discomfort as the psi voice thumps through it. The others do the same as well; it’s not like the voices of the Viralix, which sound more like soft, subtle whispers. While the voice is feminine and would normally be pleasant, there’s something powerful and overbearing about it, like it’s crowding out your other thoughts, and not gently.

“Ah, gah— what the hell is that?” Ridge says, holding his head and squinting.

“Psion. A really powerful one.” Renchiko grimaces, looking around. “Quincy, can you block it out or jam it?”

“I dunno, I’ve only messed with electronics and radio waves. Mechanical stuff. I’ve never tried to jam a psiwave before.” Quincy says, a hand pressed to his head.

“Give it a try. If you can’t manage it, I can put something together that can block it out.” Kiwi says, bringing her wristmarks to life again. “I can already tell it’s going to give me a headache if it keeps up.”

“Songbird, behind you—” Ridge shouts, and I twist around in time to see something barreling towards me, and stagger back a few steps when it hits me, wrapping arms around around me.

SONGBIIIIIIIIIRD!

I grit my teeth at the joyous psionic shrilling in my head, and I realize in an instant who it is. There’s only one person in the Challenger program that used to do this. “Alice! Alice!” I grunt, reaching down and grabbing her bony shoulders. “Stop! Use your words!”

Laughing Alice tilts her head up without letting go of me, grinning wildly, her green eyes blazing with the signature psionic glow. “Oh, you mean this voice?” she rasps, her voice rusty and grating, clearly rough from disuse.

“Yes! That one! Goddamn, how many times do I have to tell you that you’re gonna give someone an aneurysm when you do that that?” I pant in relief as the psi shrilling eases off. “I’m surprised you haven’t killed someone yet!”

“Heheh. Heh… yeah. About that…” she chuckles, sounding at once jaded and unhinged.

“Hold up, what’s going on?” Ridge demands, motioning at Alice. “Is this the Fire?”

“ ‘Eeeeeeyyy, it’s Laughin’ Alice!” Sierra crows, taking her lollipop out of her mouth and throwing her arms out. “Bitch, you just gave me a headache!”

“Haha Nympho, that’s where you’re wrong!” Alice cackles, letting go of me and fingergunning at Sierra. “ ‘Cause Headache folded and joined CURSE like the traitorous little bitch she was!”

“Aayyyy, I see what you did there!” Sierra snickers. “Yeah… we’re gonna have to remind her she picked the wrong side if we ever run into her.”

“Wait, hold up. This is Laughing Alice?” Renchiko demands. “Why, why are we…? She’s a terrorist! A major one!”

Alice waves off Renchiko. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic! I’ve only killed…” She trails off, holding up her hands and ticking her fingers up and down like she’s counting. After a moment, she points a finger at Renchiko while looking at me. “…actually, she might have a point. I think the number is in the thousands after the hit on the Grayspur shrine.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Alice, what… how are you… why?! Explain!”

Alice shrugs. “Well, where do you want me to star—” She abruptly cuts off, her glowing eyes going vacant before a grin slowly starts to curl her lips, and her head turns, almost mechanically, towards Kiwi. “No WAY! You got a GIRLFRIEND!”

Kiwi, who’s still tensed up with her runemarks orbiting her wrists, glares at Alice. “Yeah. You got a problem with it?” she demands.

“Are you kidding?” Alice cackles, high and pitchy like a hyena on helium. “Oh, man! That just made my day! Looka you, you don’t like it when other people touch your boyfriend, do you? Looka that jealousy radiating off you, and all I did was givv’im a hug!”

“Alice.” I groan. “C’mon, really?”

“What? It’s true!” Alice protests.

“I’m sure it is, but could you try not to antagonize my significant other?” I say, throwing a hand out.

Alice blows a raspberry. “Fiiiiiiine.” She leans towards me a little, whispering behind her hand. “A Maskling? You sly dog, Songbird. Your parents are gonna have a stroke if they ever find out.”

“I can hear you, y’know. I’m standing right here.” Kiwi says, still glaring at Alice.

“Alice, what’s going on?” I ask, trying to steer the conversation in a less heated direction. “We were aware you escaped from the Pallus Psi Penitentiary, but why are you here on Halomor? In a pirate system? At the bottom of a pit mine? And why did you call us here?”

Alice throws her arms out, looking at the ground as she starts walking in dizzy little circles. “Well, where else was I supposed to go? I’m on the Colloquium’s terror watchlist, so most Colloquium worlds are right out. Also, you don’t have to pay rent in the Howler Mines, so that’s a big bonus. It’s practically free real estate! Y’know. If you don’t mind living a mile underground and only seeing the sun for about thirty minutes every day.”

“Mmm, she’s got a point.” Sierra adds, tapping her lollipop against her lips thoughtfully. “Housing market is a nightmare right now. I heard the lower class has been gettin’ killed on rent.”

“Sierra, please. Not helping.” I sigh, watching Alice start to take her dizzy little circles around me. “Alright, so you’re hiding from the Colloquium, and you don’t have to pay rent in a pit mine. But you didn’t answer my last question: why did you call us here?”

“Oh, right! I did do that, didn’t I?” she says, digging around in her baggy hoodie. “It was for a good reason. You’re gonna love this. So that hit on Nova’s shrine over in Grayspur, that was a bit of protest art, but it was also a distraction. Kept all of Grayspur’s security and emergency services tied up so me and my people could hit CURSE while they were resupplying at the ring’s starport. They were trying to sneak something spicy back to their HQ, but I got a tip-off about it and decided I’d relieve them of that terrible, terrible burden.” Pulling her hand out of her hoodie, she holds up what looks like… a black sphere, about the size of an orange.

I stare at the sphere, then at Alice, who’s looking at me with wide, expectant eyes and the grin of a cat that’s very pleased with itself. “Right, so, not to be dense or anything, but… what is that?” I ask, watching as a synchronous pulse of green-blue light flows over the surface in circuit-line patterns.

“No WAY!” Sierra gasps, suddenly lunging forward and reaching for sphere. Alice reacts almost instantly, though, deftly tossing the sphere to her other hand and planting her first hand on Sierra’s face to keep her at arm’s length. “Where’d you get a Dragine artifact?!”

“I literally just told you that I stole it from CURSE, you brainless vampire slut!” Alice huffs. “Were you listening to anything I just said, or did it all go in one ear and out the other?”

“Wait, that’s a Dragine artifact?” I say, staring at the sphere while Sierra makes grabby hands for it, Alice keeping her hand plastered on Sierra’s face. “You’re… you’re joking, right? That’s not an actual Dragine artifact, is it?”

“It is! It is!” Alice says, twisting her hand and Sierra’s face off to the side as steps right up against me, holding the sphere up with both hands. “Take it! Take it! It whispers. It has been waiting for you.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, how about let’s not.” Renchiko interrupts at this point, stepping forward and grabbing my arm. “Aren’t Dragine artifacts dangerous? They give off radiation; we have no idea what it’ll do to you.”

“Hold up, radiation?” Ridge says, taking a couple steps back. “Is it safe for us to be around that thing?”

“It’s not dangerous radiation.” Sierra says, straightening up. “You have to get months or years of constant exposure to Dragine radiation before it’ll do anything to you. Not like it’s a bad thing, either. It usually evolves people beyond what they already are.”

“Yeah, well, I like my boyfriend just the way he is.” Kiwi says, taking my other arm and pulling me back a little.

“No no, you have to take it, you have to take it!” Alice says, following and pushing the artifact up towards me. “It told me you needed to take it. Take it back to the Bastion until the time is right.”

“Okay okay, Alice.” I say, putting my hands up to calm her down. I start to reach up to take the smooth, matte-black sphere, then look at Sierra. “…months or years of constant exposure, you said? So I should be fine hanging onto it for a couple days?”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Sierra says, waving a hand. “Hell, if you’re not comfortable, I’ll carry it for you.”

“No!” Alice hisses at Sierra. “He must take it. That is what the artifact said.”

“That thing was talking to you?” Ridge says, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course. It is alive. Dragine artifacts always are.” Alice says, tilting her head to one side and rolling the black sphere around in her hands. “They speak, for those that will listen… oh!” Her eyes focus suddenly, and her head snaps towards Ridge. “We can help you hear them. Yes. I still have some neuranium left over from the last heist. Let me go get—”

“That’s okay Alice, that’s fine.” I say quickly, closing my hand around the artifact and placing the other one on her shoulder. “I believe you. I’ll take the artifact, no need to dose anyone with neuranium.”

Her head snaps back to me, then down to Renchiko beside me. “What about her? She’s Ratchet’s kid. Learning to pilot Titan mechs. She’s not a psion. We can fix that. Set her up to be an empath pilot.”

“Interesting idea; let’s table that for now. I think she’s doing just fine as a manual control pilot right now.” I say, using an arm to push Renchiko behind me a little bit. I lift the artifact out of Alice’s hands, and nearly drop it, not realizing how heavy it is. It’s not big, but it’s dense. Really dense. “Shit. You’ve been carrying this thing around in your hoodie this entire time?”

“Yeah. The Dragine mine black holes for degenerate matter and use it to make all their ships and structures and weapons and armor. At least that’s what the artifact told me when I asked. Carrying it around makes for really good weight training.” Alice says as I slip the artifact into my jacket. “CURSE wasn’t happy when I took it from them. Had it under control until one of their people popped off and busted out a Spark.”

That grabs my attention. “What did you say?”

Alice nods her head up and down, clasping her hands behind her back as she rocks back and forth on the soles of her feet. “Yup yup. They managed to pick up a Spark somewhere along the line. I would’ve beaten the shit out of them if they hadn’t had that trick up their sleeve. Had everything under control until that came out, and once it did, I decided to beat it. I’d gotten what I’d come there for and wasn’t interested in getting my ass handed to me.”

I glance to Sierra, who shrugs. “We haven’t heard anything about it, so CURSE must be keeping it quiet if they do have one. Do you know who had the Spark, Alice?”

Alice bites her lip, grinning at Sierra as she rocks back and forth. “Yes.”

There’s a moment of silence before Kiwi speaks up. “Well, don’t keep us waiting. Are you gonna tell us who it is?”

Alice twists on the spot, throwing her arms out again as she looks back at the ground and starts walking in dizzy little circles again. “Nope.”

“Well… well why not?” Ridge asks, clearly just as confused as everyone else.

“Because it’s moooore fun that way.” Alice says, swaying her head from side to side.

“It’s more— are you serious?” Renchiko demands. “This isn’t a joke! Sparks are dangerous; we need to know which person in CURSE has it!”

“You’ll find out eventually.” Alice says, taking the ends of one of her locks of hair and sticking it in her mouth to chew on it. “Yup. Yup. It’ll be fun. Wish I could be there to see it. Oh, by the way, you’ve got a spy in your organization. That’s how they knew you were doing the funding conference on Hale’ohe, and when to send the timeskipper to assassinate the donors.”

“How does she know about all this stuff?” Ridge demands, looking at me.

“Saw it while I had the artifact. The artifact reeaaaaaally helped clear up a lot of my dreams. I dream about possible futures pretty often.” Alice says, pausing and balancing on one foot with her arms still out. “Dunno who the spy is. I just know they’ve been passing along info to CURSE.”

“Y’know, this is just me, but… seems like having someone like her on the roster would be pretty useful?” Quincy says at this point. “She seems to know a lot.”

“Dude, we can’t hire her! She’s literally a terrorist!” Renchiko protests. “She’s murdered hundreds of people!”

“Well, to be fair to me, most of those people had it coming.” Alice chides, starting to go through the motions of jumping rope without actually having a rope to do so. “I try to keep my split of guilty to innocent casualties at seventy-thirty, though sometimes it slips to sixty-forty. Never more than fifty-fifty, though.”

“We’re not gonna hire her, because she can’t be controlled.” Sierra says, sticking her lollipop back in her mouth. “She would need a dedicated handler, and we don’t have that in the budget right now.”

“Seriously? That’s your reason for not hiring her?” Ridge says, hitching a hand on his hip. “It’s not because she’s killed hundreds of people, but because there’s no room in the budget?”

“We should be arresting her!” Renchiko says, motioning at Alice. “Who knows what she’ll get up to if we leave her on the loose!”

“Bad, bad manners.” Alice says, jump-roping over to me and then stopping so she can lay her head on my chest, turned sideways so she can stare at Renchiko. “I give you all one of the most valuable objects in the galaxy, free of charge, and you want to arrest me afterwards? That’s no way to treat your allies.”

“We never said you were our ally.” Kiwi says, glaring at Alice.

“Just because no one said it doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Alice says, grabbing one of my hands so she can start counting my fingers. “We both hate CURSE. We’re both doing what we can to defeat them, to curtail their power. We have different ways of doing it, but that is the common goal. You won’t arrest me; it’d be like shooting the dog that fetched. You’d be depriving yourself of a perfectly good hunting dog.”

“And we don’t need you to hunt for us, or on our behalf. We’re handling CURSE just fine on our own.” Kiwi says, not yielding an inch.

“Sure, sure. If that’s what you wanna tell yourself. I get it.” Alice says, grabbing my other hand so she can count the fingers on that hand. “If I’m not on the roster, that’s plausible deniability. You won’t have to worry about my reputation dragging down the Valiant’s, but you’ll still reap the benefits of having another party weaken CURSE.”

“Alice.” I say, taking her shoulders and holding her at a slight distance. “We’re not going to arrest you, and we appreciate that you share a goal with us. But this, the Valiant… our goal is to protect people. To help people that can’t help themselves. And collateral damage, especially when it involves innocents, is the opposite of what we’re trying to do here, what we’re trying to achieve.” I give that a moment to let that sink in, staring into her eyes. “I need you to avoid that. We need you to avoid that. Reckless collateral damage is why the public lost faith in the Challengers; it’s the reason CURSE was formed in the first place. I don’t want us to repeat that.”

Alice’s face cycles through a range of emotions: reticence, regret, resignation, resentment, and then settling on indignation. Reaching up, she pushes one of my hands off her shoulder. “The public. The public. What does public know about our jobs as Challengers? The Challengers spent a century serving the public, doing hard work and living hard lives that the public will never understand. Always traveling around the galaxy, putting our lives on the line to make a difference in places where governments couldn’t or wouldn’t protect their own people from threats. And then they complained when there was a little too much ruckus for their liking. Who did they think we were, their maids? Expecting us to come in and clean up pirates and dictators and ancient evils without leaving so much as a scratch on the paint? It wasn’t right, what they did to us. What they did to you. They don’t understand sacrifice. They don’t understand that the work we do has a cost, and most of the time we were paying it for them. That it’s messy and ugly sometimes, and that freedom and safety are purchased with blood and tears, because they sure as hell weren’t paying for it in credits.”

She swats my other hand off her shoulder, and starts pacing back and forth, her hands opening and closing like she wants to get them around someone’s neck as she continues ranting. “You say the galaxy lost faith in the Challengers, as if that faith meant anything to begin with. Faith doesn’t pay the bills or the travel costs or the hospital care or the price of equipment. They were happy to take our services for free, but the moment things went wrong and the chips were down, you found out who really believed in the Challengers, and who the weaselly, sniveling rats were. And we let them do it. We let the galactic public take advantage of us and our kindness.” She turns back to me, grabbing the edges of my jacket and pulling me down a little. “And if you’re not careful, they’re gonna do the same thing to the Valiant. Hop on for the free ride, and then jump off when it doesn’t suit them anymore. And when they do, I’ll be there to remind them how bad it could really be if the Valiant weren’t there to help them.”

I open my mouth to say something back, but nothing comes out. I realize after a moment that I don’t have anything to say back. I realize that I agree with Alice; that deep down, I agree with everything she’s said, and so does every Challenger that was present when things were starting to fall apart. The resentment, the anger, the sense of betrayal we’d felt when the public turned on us. Decades of selfless service cast aside like it was nothing.

In the silence, I realize that Ridge and Renchiko and Quincy are all watching, waiting for my response to Alice’s tirade. I realize that my answer may define how they view their recruitment with the Valiant, and their future within it. Reaching up, I take Alice’s hands, and gently pry them off my jacket so I can stand straight again.

“We do what we do, not because it is easy, but because it is the right thing to do.” I say, putting her hands together and curling them around each other. “The public may not know how difficult and dangerous it is. They may not understand. But we do it anyway. Even when we are treated poorly, and don’t receive the recognition or the respect that our service deserves. We do it because you don’t put a price tag on a better galaxy, and you don’t put a price tag on it because only a few people will be able to afford it. And there’s already enough of that going around without us contributing to the problem. So please.” I cup my hands around hers. “Keep the killing to a minimum?”

Alice sighs, looking away. “I guess. Maybe. I’ll try. You can’t avoid it sometimes; there are some people that just need to die. You could never get that through your head, and Kaiser hated that.”

“I’m sure he did. There were a lot of things he didn’t like about me.” I say, releasing her hands. “I hate to cut this short, but the sun’s going down on the surface, and we didn’t want to be caught out there after dark. Is there anything else that you needed to tell us before we go?”

Alice reaches up, placing her thumbs on her forehead and running them through her hair. “Something happened on Balmorrah two days ago. Not sure if anything will come out of it, but just a heads up, things might get real interesting soon. Also, your old church buddy, the uh, the Anayan with the salvation complex?”

I hate to admit it, but I think I know exactly who she’s talking about. “Prophet?”

“Yeah, him. He’s a corrupted, genocidal maniac. You need to kill him next time you see him. Trust me, you’ll be saving a lot of lives.” Alice looks to Kiwi. “If he can’t bring himself to do it, you need to do it for him, even if he tells you not to.”

Kiwi’s eyes flick to me, then back to Alice. “I’ll take it under advisement.” she says. “Is that all? Can we go now that we got what we came here for?”

“Yeah, yeah, get outta here, Blueberry Bubblegum.” Alice says, making shooing motions and waving to the Guide. “He’ll show you back out, unless you want to stay for dinner. We’ve got mouldywarp steaks tonight; it’s good eatin’.”

“Nope, nope, hard pass. We’re good.” Kiwi says, holding a hand up. “Just show us back to the elevator and we’ll get on our way.”

Alice shrugs. “Your loss.” She turns and starts back towards the psi crystal at the center of the hollow, waving over shoulder as she does so. “Tell Boaris I said hi when you go to recruit him and his interns!”

“How did she know about that?” Renchiko mutters as the Guide starts moving back to the entrance we’d arrived from.

“She’s a psion, she probably read our minds.” Ridge says, glancing over his shoulder as we start to follow the Guide. “Also, what’s a mouldywarp?”

“You don’t want to know.” Kiwi says, taking a stiff pace towards the exit. “Let’s get out of here. I hate it underground.”

We begin migrating to the exit with that, but I can’t help glancing over my shoulder a last time. Alice is back to walking dizzy little circles in the middle of the cavern, arms held out to balance as she hums to herself. It’s different than the way that she used to be when we were back in the program, but in many ways it’s the same. Odd, eccentric, cutesy behavior that seemed harmless on the surface.

Meant to mask the fact that she was unstable, and dangerous.

Intercepted Communications

Accatria Ship Network, local thread, 2 participants

8:07pm SGT

Kiwi: i just didnt like the way she was acting around him

Pixie Sticks: weird. you almost never get worked up over stuff like that

Kiwi: weird pretty much describes how she was acting

Kiwi: it was like she couldnt keep her hands off him

Pixie Sticks: oh my god, you’re jealous

Kiwi: of course im jealous, there was a psychic cave tramp getting handsy with my boyfriend

Pixie Sticks: was she trying to get frisky, or what?

Kiwi: i dunno. she just wouldnt stop touching him

Pixie Sticks: how did he react to it?

Kiwi: he didnt react to it, not much, i guess. like he ignored most of it. didnt tell her to stop, but didnt really acknowledge any of the touchy stuff

Pixie Sticks: so what’s the big deal, then?

Kiwi: i just didnt like it

Kiwi: boundaries and all that

Kiwi: she knew i was his girlfriend but she kept touching him anyway

Kiwi: and the way she looked at me when she figured out i was his girlfriend was CREEPY

Kiwi: she did one of those rusty head turns you see in horror movies

Pixie Sticks: I mean, considering it’s Laughing Alice

Pixie Sticks: no surprises there, I heard she’s always had a screw loose. Several of them, actually. Even before the Challenger program shut down, she had a reputation as a crazy bitch

Kiwi: i dont like her

Kiwi: i think she spent the entire time skimming our minds. she knew way too much stuff that we never told her. she somehow knew i was songbird’s gf even though i didnt say anything about it, knew that renchiko was ratchet’s kid, knew that were were going to be visiting boaris after this

Pixie Sticks: well, she is a psion

Kiwi: she could at least be polite about it, most psions dont try to skim your brain while youre having a conversation with them

Pixie Sticks: I mean, she’s a Challenger

Pixie Sticks: that’s probably, literally, exactly what she was trained to do as an elite operative

Kiwi: yeah, for targets or enemies

Kiwi: we’re not that

Pixie Sticks: well, we’re probably not gonna see her again anytime soon, so you can relax. She won’t be stealing your man, and even if she tried, I doubt she’d succeed. Songbird grew up Anayan, remember? He’s probably got fidelity hardcoded into his personality

Kiwi: meh. i guess

Pixie Sticks: at any rate, you should probably stop being a mopey little bitch and write up your mission report for Forecast. A Dragine artifact is a big deal, he’s gonna want to know about that

Kiwi: yeah yeah, i’ll get on it

Pixie Sticks: if you’re still worried about your boyfriend, give him a snug tonight once he’s done securing the artifact

Pixie Sticks: remind him why he’s tangled with you

Kiwi: …

Kiwi: and here i thought i was supposed to be the bad influence

Pixie Sticks: you’re welcome~

Event Log: Kiwi

V.V. Accatria: Songbird and Kiwi’s Quarters

9:52pm SGT

When the door to our room slides open, I look up from my phone to see Songbird stepping in, already pulling off his jacket as he taps the door shut behind him.

“Took you long enough.” I say from where I’m reclined on our bed. “Did you get lost on the way back from the storage room?”

“S’been a while since I’ve put a siren ward on anything. I had to do a dry run and iron out some of the kinks.” he says, sitting on the end of the bed and hunching over to unlatch his boots. “But the artifact should be well-protected now. Anyone that tries to steal it or take it is probably going to end up mesmerized and will report themselves.”

“Do we even know if it’s a real artifact?” I ask, setting my phone to the side. “Dragine artifacts are rare. Like, so rare that nations and gigacorps will burn resources just to get their hands on one. No one in their right mind would hand over a real Dragine artifact for free.”

“Alice is a lot of things, but a right mind is something she’s never had.” he says, pulling his feet out of his boots and setting them to the side. “She wouldn’t hesitate to give away a real Dragine artifact if she felt like it served some sort of higher purpose. Money doesn’t mean anything to her; neither does prestige. Power, maybe, but harnessing the power of a Dragine artifact isn’t a straightforward affair, I’ve heard.”

“Are you sure we can trust her?” I ask.

“We can trust that she’ll stand against CURSE. But I doubt we’d be able to control her, which is most of the reason we’re not trying to recruit her.” he says, scooting back across the bed so he can throw himself back against one of the pillows, letting out a long, weary sigh. “I wouldn’t say she’s on our side, but she’s working towards the same goal we are. If she can be a thorn in CURSE’s side without racking up civilian casualties, I don’t mind letting her stay free for now.”

“Really.” I say, folding my arms. “Despite the fact that she’s a terrorist that has killed hundreds of people?”

He grimaces. “Alice is… complicated. I don’t approve of the things she’s done. But I know she’s just trying to do what she thinks is right. She wants a better galaxy for everyone. She’s just more… violent about it. More willing to take drastic measures to fix the things she sees as problems.” He puffs out a breath. “Not too different from Prophet, comes to think of it. Except he’s a hardcore traditionalist, and Alice is probably a hardcore futurist.”

I don’t say anything to that. Seems like he’s not reading the flags, so I guess I’m being too subtle about it. “She was all over you today.” I say after a moment.

That tone must’ve caught his attention, because he looks at me and finally seems to process the folded-arms posture. “Ah. You didn’t like that, did you.”

I give him a flat side-eyed look.

He blows out a long breath, running a hand through his tropical-blue hair. “Alice is… like I said earlier, she’s complicated. She doesn’t mean anything by it, by being touchy. It’s just that she’s… she’s always been a very tactile person, and she struggles with impulse control. I don’t think she was ever diagnosed, because she’s got SO many other problems, but I think she may have some kind of high-functioning social disorder. And maybe some obsessive-compulsive tendencies; that’s really common for people that aren’t natural psions. Getting dosed with neuranium as a kid will screw you up six ways to Sunday and back again.”

“You’re really quick to defend her, despite everything she’s done.”

“Well yeah, Kiwi. She was one of my friends, and someone that I trained for a little while when I was a Challenger.” he says defensively. “She’s not just a terrorist to me. I know her. I’ve seen her struggle. She got dealt a bad hand, and she’s doing the best she can with it. It doesn’t mean I don’t blame her for the things she’s done; she’s killed people she shouldn’t have. She’s done things she shouldn’t have done. But I understand that there are factors that have contributed to the way she is now, things that weren’t her fault. She’s very much a product of her circumstances, and of what other people have done to her.”

I tap my fingers along my arm, then glance at him. “So there’s no past history there?”

“What? God, no.” he says, looking put off by the insinuation. “I mean, did you see her? Alice is the textbook definition of ‘don’t stick your dick in crazy’. She’s got enough crazy for an entire psych ward. No, no no no. No one with an ounce of common sense would try to get in bed with that.”

“So she was just touching you and feeling you up because…”

“Because she’s got a tactile compulsion, Kiwi.” he says patiently. “She has an obsession with touching and counting things. You probably didn’t catch it, but a lot of what she was doing was pattern cognition and recognition. She walked in repeating circles. She was doing imaginary jump rope. She put her head on my chest, probably because she was expecting to hear a heartbeat, and then when she remembered I’m a vampire and I don’t have one, that’s when she grabbed my hands and started counting my fingers. She wasn’t doing any of that to cozy up to me; she was doing it because she had a pattern compulsion and I’m the only one in our group that would humor it.”

I blow a lock of hair out of my face. “Still don’t like that she was so touchy with you.”

He opens his mouth like he’s about to issue a retort, then closes it. After a moment, he seems to drop it and takes a different approach. “You thought you had competition, didn’t you.” he says, smirking a little.

“What? No.” I scoff. “Why would I be threatened by some cave-dwelling psion at the bottom of a pit mine in a pirate system? Please.”

He rolls on his side to face me, propping his head up on one hand. “You thought someone was trying to steal me, didn’t you?” he grins.

“No, I didn’t. And stop grinning at me like an idiot.” I grumble, looking away from him.

“Mhmm. Sounds like my Starfreckle is feeling a little possessive.” I can feel the mattress shift a bit as he shuffles a little closer to me.

I turn my head back towards him. “I will bite you.”

He just smiles lazily, reaching out with his free hand to trace my jaw, brushing a thumb over my lips. “Yeah? Is that how you mark your territory?”

I narrow my eyes at that. The comeback was far smoother than I was expecting. After a moment, I part my lips and gently bite his thumb, staring at him the entire time.

“That settles that, then.” he says, settling up against me. As I let go of his thumb, he slides that arm around me when I roll on my side to face him, unfolding my arms. “What I have with you makes me happy, Kiwi. I don’t need anything else.”

I rest my forehead against his. “I know. I’m just not used to seeing other people touch you, get that friendly with you. I guess I didn’t realize until now that I wanted you all to myself.” After a moment of reflection, I reluctantly admit, “And this was probably how you felt when I was messing around with Cahriu last year.”

“Hey, you’re learning.” he says encouragingly. “So you understand why I decked you in the face when I did?”

I squirm a little at the reminder of that. “Mmm. I guess I kinda earned that, didn’t I?”

“Indeed.”

“It took me a year, but lesson learned.” I sigh.

He tilts his head up a little, kissing the tip of my nose. “It’s okay. Everybody does stupid shit now and again.”

“Mm. That’s my entire resumé.” I run my fingers through his hair, up over one ear and around the back of his neck. “I’m glad I’m not competing with someone else for your love.”

He smiles. “I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.”

“Good.” I close my eyes, hooking one of my legs around his and pulling him a little closer as I get comfortable. “We should probably get into our pajamas, but I don’t wanna get up right now.”

“Mmm.” he agrees. “Wake up at midnight, then fumble out of our clothes in a drowsy haze and get under the covers?”

“That sounds awful. Let’s do it.”

“Awesome.”