Valiant: Tales From The Archive

[CURSEd #23: Laughing Matters]

Log Date: 10/30/12764

Data Sources: Darrow Bennion

Intercepted Communications

Grayspur Ring, private text thread, 2 participants

C3G: they turned it into a tourist trap. unbelievable

RW: Are you surprised?

C3G: surprised, no. disappointed, yes. it’s just disgusting how many come here to pay their respects, like she was some kind of martyr or something

RW: That’s how CURSE sold it. They paid for the memorial site, you know.

C3G: seriously

RW: Part of the whole martyrdom spin. They bought the whole building just to get that rooftop so they could put their little memorial shrine on it. Expensive, but it was an investment in anti-Challenger messaging, and one that’s lasted for a lot longer than a few news cycles, so it seems like it’s paid off for them. They say tens of thousands of people visit every year.

C3G: brainwashed little shits

RW: So you’re one of true believers, then?

C3G: i knew songbird and nova. if i had to pick someone to believe i know who i’d pick

RW: You and everyone else that’s got an opinion about the Songbird Incident.

C3G: yeah well my opinion is actually valid, since i knew the people involved

C3G: instead of, y’know, being some sweaty plonker on the galaxynet doing armchair detectiving

RW: Did he ever tell you he wasn’t guilty?

C3G: no

C3G: but I knew

RW: Just like everyone else that’s got an opinion about the Songbird Incident.

C3G: look here u fuzzy little shit

RW: Was there anything else you needed? I have matters to tend to.

C3G: oh ho, look who’s high and mighty now that he’s one of the four ravens

C3G: he’s got things to do, can’t waste time catching up with old coworkers

RW: Just because we were both part of the program doesn’t make us coworkers. And even if it did, that was back then. Things are different now.

C3G: loyalty don’t count for nothin’ anymore, does it

RW: Loyalty doesn’t pay the bills. Was there anything else you needed?

C3G: yeah, do the rest of the galaxy a favor and take that stick outta your ass

RW: I’m starting to see now why you were such a liability for the program.

C3G: sez the guy that abandoned it

RW: I’m closing this thread now.

C3G: i’ll hit u up next time i want to put my middle finger up curse’s ass

RW: Please don’t.

C3G: i know where u live

RW: I’m leaving now.

C3G: weak shit

[RW has left the thread]

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Grayspur Ring: Tutuhmorai Starport

5:42pm SGT

“Daaaaaaaaare!”

I know what’s coming, so I hold my arms out so Whisper can jump onto me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “What’s the big deal? We were on an assignment together, like, two weeks ago.” I grunt as she hugs me.

“Hush. I missed you.” she says, still hanging on my neck. “Are you just gonna stand there? You’re supposed to swing me around and stuff!”

I roll my eyes, adjusting my stance so I can spin around in place a couple times with Whisper hanging off my neck. “Like that?”

“It would’ve been better if you had done it when I first jumped you, but I’ll settle.” she says, still hanging onto my neck.

“Okay. Are you going to let go, or…?”

“No.”

“How long are you going to hang on?”

“Until I feel like letting go.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me when that’s gonna be.”

“Nope.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s before my spine telescopes.” I say, hitching my hands on my hips and leaning back a little to try and lessen the strain of Whisper’s weight hanging on my neck. I look past her to the disembarkation ramp, where Kwyn’s making her way off the Mediator. “Hey there, Junior! How’s it doin’?”

She smiles and waves — a genuine, amused smile when she sees how Whisper’s hanging off my neck. “Glad to see you, although probably not as much as Whisper. How’d the media piece go?”

“Same stuff as usual. Rehearsed lines in front of a green screen. Put some enthusiasm into it, give ‘em a smile, and then let the marketing department cut the footage together and clean it up.” I say as she makes her way over. “I hear you and Whisper had a way more exciting time, though.”

“Yeah yeah, we can talk about that later.” Whisper says. “Bring it in, Junior! Join the hug!”

Kwyn glances at me and Whisper. “You want me to hug both of you?”

“Yeah. Group hug.” Whisper says, loosing one of her arms from my neck so she can hold it out to Kwyn.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I say, adjusting my footing to account for Whisper’s one-armed hold. “Whisper’s more touchy-feely than most other people.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Kwyn says, then surprises me when she moves in to wrap her arms around both of us. “Sure. I’ll take a group hug.”

“Yaaaaasss that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Whisper says, slipping her arm around Kwyn and pulling her in. “Aw yee. This is nice, isn’t it? Group hug.”

“What’s all this? Where’s my group hug?” Surge says, walking up behind us. “I would’ve been first in line if I knew this was what we were lining up for!”

“Shut up, Surge, you only go looking for hugs because you’re starvin’ to feel a pair of tits.” Whisper barks over my shoulder at him.

“You say that like you’re not hanging there trying to feel up Dare’s pecs.” Surge smirks, walking around beside us and folding his arms.

“Aren’t you and Headache a thing?” I ask Surge as Kwyn lets go, and Whisper finally lets go of my neck and drops back to the ground.

“It’s complicated. She sends a lot of mixed signals. And dating a psion is… well, it’s complicated.” Surge says as we turn together and start migrating towards the cargo loading bay where supply trucks are coming and going, carting off waste or bringing in fresh supplies for the Mediator. “Sometimes she’s interested, sometimes she isn’t, something I think she’s playing hard to get, but it’s hard to tell. Still, I haven’t seen her telegraphing interest in anyone else, so…” He ends with a shrug, as if that was answer enough.

“So you’re gonna keep trying.” Whisper says as we enter the supply area, and make for the stairs that will take us up into the starport proper.

“Well, I wish you luck with it. Psions can be tough to date.” I say as we start clomping our way up the stairs.

“Sounds like you know a little bit about it.” Whisper says, glancing at me.

“Grandfather was a psion. Didn’t get many of those genes, not enough to have psi abilities, but I do know a fair amount about it.” I explain. “Even natural-born psions tend to be a bit… quirky. It’s just a side effect of being able to sense other minds during your formative years. Honestly, Headache’s always struck me as a remarkably normal. You wouldn’t know she was a psion if she didn’t tell you.”

“I know she struggles with it sometimes, but hey, that’s life. Everyone’s got their battles.” Surge says, opening the door into the starport terminal. “Anyway, from what I understand, this is just a pit stop? Fuel up, resupply, and get back on our way once it's done?”

“Pretty much. The stop is only supposed to last twelve hours.” Whisper says, a wave of cool air washing over us as we step into the terminal, making our way over to the main thoroughfare that leads to the starport’s hub. “So this is our only chance to get out, stretch our legs, and walk off some of the cabin fever before we have to go back into the Mediator for the next week or so.”

“Interesting. What’s the big rush?” Surge asks. “A twelve-hour pit stop is the kind of thing you only see on a tight timetable. I’d get it if we were hauling ass out to an assignment, but we’re returning to the HQ. I can understand wanting to get home, but burnin’ rubber like this seems a little excessive, yeah?”

I notice the way that Whisper and Kwyn exchange looks, and I know that something’s up. “There’s a reason for that. We can talk about it more when we’re back on the Mediator.” Whisper says, and in a tone that makes it clear that’s all she’s going to say about it. “Tell us more about what you had planned for today. We were going to do some sightseeing, right?”

Surge can tell something’s up as well, but with Whisper’s tone, he knows better than to pry. “Dare and I figured you two would like that. It’s not everyday that you get to visit a ringworld, after all — especially one as famous as this one.”

“Famous?” Kwyn asks as we join the loose trickle of travelers disembarking from their flights and heading to the starport’s main hub. “What’s Grayspur famous for?”

Surge glances incredulously at Kwyn. “Seriously? You don’t know?”

“She was only ten when it happened, Surge.” I point out, then explain to Kwyn. “Grayspur Ring is where the Songbird Incident happened.”

“Oh. That happened here?” Kwyn says, looking surprised.

“When most people remember the Songbird Incident, they remember the who, not the where.” Whisper says, tucking her hands in her jacket pockets. “But yeah, this is where it happened.”

“Well, this can only mean one thing: we need to go visit the Shrine while we’re here.” Surge declares, pulling his phone out. “I mean, it’s practically a piece of CURSE history at this point. We can’t visit Grayspur and not visit the Shrine.”

Kwyn still appears a little lost. “The Shrine…?”

“CURSE set up a shrine to Nova on the rooftop where she died.” Whisper explains. “Diehards, Nova fans, and history buffs still visit it to pay their respects to her.”

“Is that something you’d like to see, Kwyn?” I ask as we step onto one of the moving walkways leading to the starport’s central hub.

“I mean, if you guys are okay with it, I wouldn’t mind going.” Kwyn says.

“Perfect! So we’ll stop and get some dinner on the way there, then visit the Shrine.” Surge says, scrolling through his phone. “There’s some pretty good places to eat around here, although it’s mostly all humie food. I’ve had a craving for Begnionese mac n’ cheese recently, and I don’t know any places you can get it here on Grayspur. Prolly because it’s a Ranter dish, and you don’t see a ton of Ranter stuff on Mercurial worlds…”

“Ringworld.” I correct him.

“Ah, pish posh.” Surge scoffs. “Sphere, ring, it’s a world all the same.”

“It is very definitely not the same.” Whisper says, giving him a look. “For one, ringworlds are much rarer than normal worlds. There’s, what, less than a dozen ringworlds in Myrrdicato?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, with how many resources it takes to create one.” I say as we start to come up on the end of the moving walkway. “You basically have to take apart a planet or two just to get enough material to create a ring big enough to fit around a white dwarf. Although, given that mining makes up over half of the Mercurial economy…”

“The Mercurial Consortium’s one of the only nations that’s managed it, right?” Kwyn asks. “None of the other nations have created ringworlds.”

“The Wereckanan Alliance has made a couple. Mostly to test their ability to do so.” Whisper says. “Like Dare said, it’s extremely resource-intensive. You basically have to take apart a couple planets to get enough material to do it. And it takes hundreds of years to fully construct the ring and get it into place.”

“Hasn’t the Confederacy been working on a ringworld for a while now?” Surge asks.

“In the Losinadae Nebula, around the white dwarf there.” Whisper says as we step off the moving walkway. “They’ve been working on it for the last six hundred years, although the Consortium is the one providing the material, and the Cyber Meritocracy are providing the assembly of the materials. The Confederacy doesn’t have the kind of large-scale construction infrastructure needed to source and assemble that much material, so they’re just paying the Consortium to do the sourcing and the Meritocracy to do the assembly.”

“So they’re not actually building it themselves.” Kwyn surmises. “They’re just paying other nations to build it for them.”

“Yeah, more or less.” I confirm. “I think the ring structure itself is already in place around the white dwarf, but now they have to start doing the work of…” I give a wave to one of the panes of glass in the ceiling above us, which provides a view of the interior of the Grayspur Ring. “…all this, basically. Making sure that the ring’s absorption panels are in place, sealing the ring section by section and filling the interior with atmosphere, getting the gravity rings installed, actually building all the infrastructure and buildings that are supposed to be in the ring, and pretty much everything else that will actually make it livable. That’ll probably take another century or two, if I had to guess. It probably won’t be fully completed until we’re dead.”

“Well. Most of us.” Surge says, giving Whisper a look.

“I’ll prolly be around to see it finished, assuming this job doesn’t kill me first.” Whisper says, puffing a lock of black hair out of her eyes. “Remind me about it in two hundred years and I’ll go visit it.”

“Uh, guys?” Kwyn asks, slowing down. “Are they allowed to be selling that?”

“Selling what?” I ask, slowing with her and looking in the direction she’s staring. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…”

In one of the alcove kiosks to our right, the vendor has all sorts of touristy merch on display, stacked on display tables, hanging from racks, folded on shelves. A lot of it is hats, hoodies, t-shirts; there’s also a fair number of spinner displays with keychains, stylized phone cases, sunglasses… you get the idea. Tourist junk. But there’s one section of the kiosk, next to the wall, that has merch with the Valiant logo on it.

“What is it?” Whisper asks, stopping and glancing.

“They’re puttin’ out merch now?” Surge complains, glaring at the kiosk. “C’mon, man, you can’t be serious…”

I puff an irritated breath. “I mean, it makes sense… CURSE sells branded merch as well, it’s one of our revenue streams. But still…”

“Aren’t the Valiant supposed to be blacklisted by the Colloquium?” Kwyn asks. “It should be illegal to sell anything that a blacklisted group would profit from, right?”

“The Dussel Mercforce was blacklisted for collaborating with resurgent Challengers. I’m guessing the resurgent Challengers got around that by forming the Valiant as an entirely new organization.” Whisper says, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “I don’t think that they’ve been blacklisted yet. Ever since the Valiant got ahold of one the Bastions, a lot of Colloquium senators have been reversing their positions, and resisting the pressure that CURSE lobbyists have been putting on them. Voting to blacklist a group is a good way to get on a group’s bad side, and none of the major nations want to be on the bad side of a group that’s got access to a Bastion.”

Surge blows a raspberry. “Politics, man. Well, since we’re here, we might as well see what kind of crap they’re putting out. How much you wanna bet they’re just churning out cheap, overpriced junk for their simps to throw their money at?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. Honestly I wonder how they had the money to survive to this point.” Whisper says as we follow Surge over to the kiosk to check out the Valiant merch.

“Let’s see what we have here.” Surge says, starting to thumb through one of the racks of hoodies. “Hmm… fabric’s not bad, not sure how it’ll hold up after a wash cycle… oh. The interior’s really soft, is that’s fuzzy stuff that’ll keep you warm.”

I pick up one of the folded t-shirts, looking it over. The front has a stylized, spraypaint stencil design of Songbird’s face, with the intent, driving stare that seems to look into you. I don’t really want to give it the time of day, but… “…mm. I don’t… like… saying it, but some of these designs really clean up.” I admit reluctantly.

“I know, right?” Surge says, trying on one of the hoodies. “Why can’t we get slick merch like this? All of the CURSE products are like. Sports team jerseys or letterman jackets or boring stuff that middle-aged guys wear on the weekends.”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Whisper groans from one of the cubbies by the spinner racks.

“What is it?” Kwyn says, looking up from one of the shirts she was looking at.

“Nightmare fuel.” Whisper mutters, shoving something back into a half-empty cubby. “They did a swimsuit calendar for Nympho.”

“Wait, a what?” Surge says, glancing around the hoodie rack.

“No.” Whisper says, glaring at him. “We can’t have you being horny for the enemy.”

“Please. My allegiance doesn’t take orders from my dick.” Surge scoffs, shrugging the hoodie off and hanging it back up. “Oh hey, look! They got a Junko pop machine over here!”

“A what?” Kwyn asks, folding the shirt she’d been looking at and putting it back.

“Are you kidding me? You don’t know what Junko orbs are?” Surge says, scooting up to the machine in the wall beside the kiosk. “These are like the primo collectible in the galaxy. Little hologram spheres of celebrities and public figures and sports stars.”

“What he’s leaving out is that Junko pop machines are basically slot machines.” Whisper says as we join Surge at the machine. “The Junko Corporation produces the holospheres, but some of them have extra perks and features. The more perks and features a Junko orb has, the more valuable is — and the rarer, because they make a lot fewer of those. They’ve got a whole rating system with hundreds of tiers, running from ‘common’ to ‘ultra osmiridium rare’ or some silly shit like that.”

“And the thing is that you don’t control what you get from a Junko machine.” I add. “You can select the series you want, but outside of that, you just pay the price up front, pull the lever, and hope you get what you want. Or something valuable.”

“That… sounds like gambling.” Kwyn says, watching Surge flick through the selection screen on the machine.

“Yup.” Whisper, myself, and Surge all say at the same time.

“Except you don’t get money if you get lucky, you just get a… really rare collectible holosphere?” she asks, sounding perplexed.

“The really rare Junkos are worth a lot of money.” Surge says. “People collect these things like you would not believe. It’s obscene, what some people will pay to complete their collections, or get the ultra-rare stuff. The rarest ones go for thousands or tens of thousands of credits.”

“Are you kidding me? Thousands of credits for a little holosphere?” Kwyn says incredulously. “That’s just crazy.”

“Some people got problems, some people got money to burn, and some people got both.” Surge says, pausing as he flicks through the screen, then suddenly shoves away from the machine. “What? No! You gotta be kidding me!”

“What is it?” Whisper asks, leaning in to stare at the screen.

“They’ve got a Valiant series of Junko orbs!” Surge seethes, gesturing at the screen. “How in god’s good galaxy did the Valiant get a partnership with Junko? They’re like, outlaws, and rebels, and rogue Challengers!”

“I mean, they’re former Challengers, and the Challenger series used to be Junko’s most profitable series, and one of its largest. Hell, it probably still is the most profitable series. Even after all these years, there are still some people trying to get the complete Challenger collection.” Whisper points out.

Surge grumbles over that, his foot tapping against the tile floor. After a moment, he mumbles “…I’m kinda curious.” and moves back towards the pop machine.

“Don’t do it, Surge.” I caution. “You’re goin’ down the rabbit hole, man.”

“No, no, it’s like a morbid curiosity, you know?” he says defensively, tapping the Valiant series on the screen so he can get a preview of the different orbs he might get. “Like, I wanna see what they’ve got going on. Just to have an idea of how they’re trying to spin the whole outlaw thing into something marketable.”

“That’s how it always starts.” Whisper says, leaning against the wall with a smirk. “Just a peek, they say. Next thing you know, your arms are full and your bank account’s empty.”

“Oh, hush.” Surge blows her off. “Let’s see what they have…”

“You really didn’t know what Junko orbs were?” I ask Kwyn while Surge goes back to squinting at the machine’s screen.

Kwyn shakes her head. “I grew up on an icy moonworld in a poor community. Nobody got paid enough to have a gambling problem.”

“Hmm.” I say, looking to Surge. “So how much are they charging for a pull from that series, Surge?”

“Ehhh… twenty credits?”

“What?” I say incredulously. “Hell no! You know they’re hitting you with the starport upcharge.”

“I know what you’re thinking, don’t do it.” Whisper says at the same time. “Your curiosity isn’t worth that much, Surge.”

“Starport upcharge?” Kwyn asks me.

“Everything’s more expensive in starports.” I explain. “Food, water, souvenirs — anything and everything. If you get it in a starport, it’ll be about twenty percent more expensive than if you had gotten it outside the starport.”

“I mean, it’s just twenty credits…” Surge starts to rationalize.

“Dude, no!” Whisper insists. “You do realize that if you buy one, the Valiant are going to get a cut of that, right? If they’ve got a partnership with Junko, that means they’re gonna get a percentage of the sale price. Buying one of those means you are giving the Valiant your money.”

“Oh, c’mon. They can’t be getting more than, what? Five credits off of it, max?” Surge says, pulling out his phone. “What are they gonna do with that, go buy themselves a burger? It’ll be fine.”

“C’mon, man, don’t buy their merch.” I say. “Like, that’s wrong on so many levels.”

Surge shakes his phone at me. “I’m doing opposition research. In order to defeat your enemy, you must first know your enemy.”

Whisper snorts. “Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?” she says as Surge taps his phone to the payment pad.

“Keep pushing it, Whisper, and I’ll go do some ‘opposition research’ on that swimsuit calendar you mentioned earlier.” Surge says, grabbing a handle built into the pop machine and giving it a firm tug. Per the usual with these machines, there’s a satisfying clunk, then the sound of something rolling through tubes, thunking into a recyclable box, a click as that box is closed, and the shfff of the box sliding along a flat chute until it clacks into the pickup area on the side of the machine. Picking it up, Surge pops the lid and pulls out a black sphere with a matte surface, about the size of a plum. “Alright. Anyone wanna take bets on who I pulled?”

“We don’t even know who’s in the series, Surge.” I point out.

He shrugs. “It’s not too hard, the Valiant series only has four entries so far — Nympho, Jackrabbit, Songbird, obviously, and someone else called Kiwi. So you got a one in four chance of guessing right.”

Whisper rolls her eyes. “Just open it, dude. You’re not on a game show; you don’t have to make an ordeal out of it.”

“Well excuse me for wantin’ to have some fun with it.” Surge says, clicking the button on the side. The top half of the sphere slides back, revealing a small, glassy, holoprojector that thrums to life, projecting a crisp, six-inch, three-dimensional image of a woman in a stylish black jacket that has triangular cutouts filled with orange light. Her green hair is pulled into a messy ponytail that leaves some locks to frame her face, and her posture and smirk practically radiates saucy confidence as she lifts a hand and beckons with two fingers.

We’re all silent, watching as she smoothly switches poses, tucking a hand into her pocket while she uses her other one to blow a sidelong kiss — but rather than being coy or flirty, it’s devious, smug, and dismissive. Surge sucks in a deep breath, then hits the button on the side, the lid of the holosphere sliding back over and abruptly cutting off the projection.

“That made me feel things, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” Surge says, staring at the Junko orb like it’s some sort of cursed relic.

I inhale sharply, turning away and rubbing my jaw, before looking back to the others and saying what’s on everyone’s mind. “Why. Why is their merch this good? This should be illegal. They can’t— this— no. No!”

“She had the moves.” Whisper says, shaking her head. “That's the epitome of attractive confidence. She looks good and she knows it.”

“That was a really slick outfit.” Kwyn mumbles. “The glowy parts were really cool…”

“Do you think CURSE knows about this?” I ask as Surge tucks the Junko orb back in its box and closes the lid. “Because if they don’t, then we need to tell them—”

“What, that we need to shut it down?” Whisper says, raising an eyebrow at me. “It ain’t happening, Dare.”

I grumble, turning and trudging away from the Junko pop machine. “It should be illegal.” I repeat as the others start to follow. “C’mon, let’s go get dinner.”

“Y’know.” Surge muses thoughtfully. “I wonder if the other orbs in the Valiant series—”

“Don’t you dare, Surge.”

“I’m just sayin’, I’m curious about whether Nympho’s orb has any tie-in functionality with her swimsuit calendar…”

“Whisper, punch him.”

“Admit it, Dare, you’ve gotta be at least a little cu— OW! What was that for?!”

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Grayspur Ring: Tutuhmorai Monorail

6:53pm SGT

“So what do people do at this Shrine?” I ask as we stand in the railcar, gliding along the track on the way to the shrine. Low-volume pop music is humming along in the background; based on what I can hear, it sounds like it might be an old cover by Blueberry Bubblegum from a few years back.

“Bring offerings, take pictures, and I think that’s about it.” Surge answers. “From what I understand, it used to just be the Shrine itself, but with as many visitors as they were getting, they eventually put in benches, and then a little information kiosk, and then bathrooms, and then other kiosks where they’d sell souvenirs, and now the entire rooftop’s basically just a tourist spot.”

“Do people really still come, after all these years?” Kwyn asks, hanging on one of the handle straps dangling from the ceiling.

“Not as many as it used to be.” Whisper says. She’s sitting, instead of standing. “In the years after she died, the Shrine would get a ton of visitors. It’s petered off over the years, but there’s still a decent number of people that visit. Mostly people that wanna mark it off their bucket list. Sometimes true believers that make the visit so they can see the place where their idol bit the dust.”

“They’ve got a safety railing installed, right? To keep people from going over the edge the way Nova did?” I ask.

“Yeah. They put one up, in additional to a static fence, after the first few suicides.” Whisper says.

“Suicides?” Kwyn repeats, her brows furrowing.

“Yeah, people were coming to the Shrine and some were jumping.” Whisper explains. “Don’t ask me why, I couldn’t tell you. I guess some people just thought it was a good place to die, since it was where someone famous had died. I know that at least a few of the jumpers were Nova superfans that couldn’t stand the thought of living in the galaxy without their idol and would rather follow her to death than live in a galaxy without her. The suicides basically went back to zero once they installed the safety railing and the static fence.”

I puff out a breath. “That’s pretty grim.”

“Just goes to show you how dangerous idol worship is. People will kill themselves on your behalf if you’re popular or pretty enough.” Whisper says. “It’s also why the CURSE media office keeps such a short leash on Peacekeepers in public. They learned from the mistakes that the Challenger program made when it came to controlling public perception of their elite soldiers.”

“Basically, don’t let them run their own show?” Surge guesses.

“Pretty much.” Whisper says, leaning back in her seat. “There were some Challengers that could probably get away with murder because they were so popular and had a massive fan following. Sometimes even the administration struggled to control those Challengers because they had so much social clout.”

“And CURSE didn’t want that happening with the Peacekeepers, which is why Personnel Resources has dedicated teams to manage our fan followings.” I surmise.

“Yup.” Whisper nods, lacing her fingers behind her head. “That’s why you always have handlers for public appearances and official events in uniform. They’re there to keep you from going off the rails, and moderating the space between you and the general public. It’s also why CURSE’s socmed policy is so damn strict.”

“Guh, don’t even get me started on that.” Surge groans. “At this point I wonder why I even have a profile on any of the major socmed sites. Literally every post I make has to be vetted by my team in the media office. It’s gotten to the point where it’s not even worth it.”

“It’s to keep you from saying something stupid, which, let’s be honest: you absolutely would say something stupid if they weren’t vetting your posts.” Whisper says. “At least you’re allowed to have socmed accounts. As a covert Peacekeeper, I’m not allowed to have any.”

I give Whisper a flat look. “We all know you have socmed accounts.”

“No idea what you’re talking about. And even if I did, good luck finding them.” Whisper says primly. “What about you, Kwyn? Got any socmed accounts?”

“I mean, I had a couple. Wasn’t really a big thing for me, though.” Kwyn says. “I handed them over to my team in the media office when I got promoted to Peacekeeper. Haven’t really bothered with it since then. Every now and then they’ll ask me if I want to make a post, and I just give them something about how my training’s going well, or how it was nice to visit some of the worlds I’ve gone to on assignments.”

“Oh really?” Surge says, pulling his phone out and unlocking it. “What site, and what’s your handle? I could send in a request to follow you; I’m pretty sure the media offi—”

As Surge is talking, there’s a green flash through the dingy windows behind him. I glance towards it, seeing the initial surge of light has shrunken to a viridian flare on a rooftop not far from here, and a second later, I feel it.

And it doesn’t feel good.

The best way I can describe it is as if someone smacked your brain with the flat side of a briefcase. There’s no physical impact, but you can definitely feel what direction it came from, and it originated from the fading spike of green light. Surge suddenly stops talking at the same time that I wince, and I can see Whisper jerk forward where she’s sitting, her hands reflexively coming up towards her head. Kwyn does a half turn, blinking twice and looking up at me as blood starts to drip out of her nose.

And then she folds forward as the rest of the people in the rail car start to collapse and topple over.

I immediately let go of my hang strap, reaching forward to catch her as Whisper fumbles to do the same with Surge. Lowering her to the ground, I try to focus past the throbbing headache that’s started up. “Kwyn?” I demand when I see she’s passed out, then checking her pulse as her head lolls against my arm. It’s thready and erratic, but it’s still there. Looking over, I can see Whisper’s doing the same with Surge. “Is he okay?”

“He’s alive; pulse is erratic.” Whisper says through gritted teeth, pressing a palm to her forehead. “Ghh. Are you okay? My head is pounding.”

“My head hurts too.” I say, looking around the railcar. It looks like everyone has just keeled over; as far as I can tell, they’re all still alive, but there are a lot of bloody noses, and I feel a sense of dread starting to creep up in my chest. “Whisper, do you…”

“Yeah. Looks like a psi bombing to me.” she grunts, pulling Surge into a sitting position against the side of the car’s benches. “Surprised it didn’t drop you like everyone else.”

“I’ve got some psi genetics. Little bit of resistance.” I say, doing the same with Kwyn and making sure her head’s tilted forward so her nosebleed isn’t clotting down her throat. “What’s your excuse?”

“Wereckanan. We’re built different.” she huffs, looking around. “Who would detonate a psi bomb in a railcar? Is there someone in here trying to kill us?”

I stare at her. “Whisper… the psiwave didn’t originate in the car. It came from out there.” I say, pointing out the window. “There was a flash, like something detonated. It came from the roof of one of the buildings.

She looks over her shoulder. “Shit.” Clambering back up on the bench, she stares through the window. “Where? Point it out to me.”

I stand up a little, staring through the window. “Out there. The building that looks like it’s got a gate arch on the edge.”

Whisper slides down in the bench. “That’s the Shrine.”

I’m quiet for a moment. “If that’s where the detonation was, and it’s dropping people this far out…”

“People are gonna be dead closer to the epicenter. A lot of them.” Whisper concludes, running a hand through her hair. “Structures will dampen some of the psiwave, reduce the area of effect, but it’ll still go through buildings. The rail line is above most buildings, so we maybe took it harder than people in the buildings below did… but still. The range, the area of effect… the location…”

“I know.” It’s the conclusion we’re both arriving to with the evidence we’ve got. A device this powerful, detonated at a public location like the Shrine, demonstrated an understanding of how to send a message while maximizing damage. This was a terror attack — deliberate, calculated, premeditated. “We need to call triple zero. They’re going to need to mobilize a lot of emergency services to deal with this, and seconds could be a matter of life or death for people that were on the edge of the kill zone.”

“I’ll call.” Whisper says, pulling out her phone. “Can you start checking everyone else in the car? I’m pretty they’re all alive, but…”

“Yeah. I’ll check ‘em.” I say, moving away from Kwyn and Surge as Whisper starts dialing. Moving down the aisle, I start checking everyone that’s fallen over, and once I’ve confirmed they’re alive, I tug them back upright so they’re leaning back against one of the benches or seats.

“They’ve got me on hold; I can’t get through.” Whisper calls back to me as I finish clearing my fourth person. “They’re probably getting a flood of calls from other people that were outside the kill zone and the knockout ring.”

“Yeah, makes sense.” I say, setting another person upright against the wall of the rail car. Glancing up, I check the screen that gives us the next stop, and our time to it. “What are we gonna do? The trains are still running, but they’re on a schedule, right? We only get so much time at each stop — there’s no way we can offload everyone at the next stop before the doors close. And there’s rail cars ahead of and behind this one that probably have unconscious people as well…”

“We’re just gonna have to leave ‘em and let the trains keep running.” Whisper says, lowering her phone. “We can’t pull the emergency brake. There’s scheduled trains behind us; if we stop this one on the tracks, it’s gonna snarl the whole rail system within minutes. We might be doing more damage that way.” She looks up at the screen as well. “We get off at the next stop, bring Kwyn and Surge with us, and assess from there. It may be—” She glances back down at her phone again. “Just a sec. I’m getting a call from SCION.”

I want to wait and hear what SCION’s telling her, but I know the time would be better spent checking on the remainder of the passengers in this car. So I do precisely that, moving to check the ones that remain and set them upright while Whisper takes SCION’s call. I can hear her in the background, though she isn’t saying much.

“Okay… okay. ‘Kay… we’ll get back there as soon as we can, but we can’t promise much. There was a psi bombing. Dare and I both have pounding headaches, and Kwyn and Surge passed out. I don’t know if they’ll be awake and functional by the time we get back. Mm. Okay… understood. We’ll get off at the next stop and catch the next train back.”

I finish setting a guy in a suit and a tie up against one of the benches, then look at her as she ends the call. “What’s going on?”

Whisper’s lips press together, as if she was still processing. “Power to the starport has been sabotaged by an unknown party. The Mediator has been breached by an unknown group. We’re getting on a train heading back that way at the next stop.”

I stare at her. “But… the bombing, there’s gonna be people—”

“This supersedes that, Dare.” Whisper says, pulling back the sleeves of her jacket and checking her wrist pistols. “Whoever planned the psi bombing coordinated it with the power sabotage at the starport. They’re tying up Grayspur’s emergency services on purpose, so that no one will be able to respond to the attack on the Mediator. There will be plenty of first response crews helping the people here. We need to get back to the starport.”

“Whisper, the Mediator has at least two teams of CURSE operatives that have access to armor, weapons, and SCION, on top of all the ship crew that at least have basic combat training.” I point out. “They’ll be able to handle an attack on the ship, especially with SCION’s help. We can help with the first response here—”

“This isn’t up for discussion, Dare!” Whisper snaps at me.

I stare at her in a bit of shock. It’s been a while since she’s snapped at me like that. “What is going on?” I demand. “Why is it so important that we get back to the starport?”

She grits her teeth, looking around as she runs a hand through her hair, then steps over the unconscious passengers and crouches near me. “There is a Dragine artifact on the Mediator.” she hisses quietly. “It’s what Kwyn found during the last assignment; it’s why you and Surge are here. The administration wanted extra insurance that the artifact would make it back to the HQ safely.”

I gape at her. “When were you going to tell us this?”

“I wanted to, but you can’t talk about this stuff in public!” Whisper hisses, looking around again, and this time I realize she’s checking the rail car for security cameras, and keeping her voice low for precisely that reason. “And I wasn’t going to text it to you over an unsecured line. These things are extremely valuable, Dare. Nations will break galactic laws to get their hands on one if they think it’s feasible, and the damage that these artifacts can do if you can even partially harness them — it makes a psi bombing look like a pool party. Protecting the artifact supersedes everything else — do you understand?”

I press a knuckle to the bridge of my nose. “Khhh. Why did we leave the ship at all if we had something so valuable on board? If you knew about it, we should’ve just stayed there and protected it!”

“We left the ship because I’ve been cooped up on that tiny-ass frigate for the last seven days and I wanted to see something other than the inside of that tin can for the next seven days!” Whisper growls. “I wanted to stretch my legs and get some fresh air and not develop claustrophobia! And SCION let us, so I figured it’d be okay!”

“Well, if SCION let you, clearly he thought it’d be safe as well.” I sigh, looking back up at the screen for the next stop as the rail car starts to slow down. “But a coordinated attack like this, coinciding with our arrival — that’s not something you plan on the fly. Someone knew we had the artifact; someone knew we’d be refueling here; someone arranged to have a psi bomb prepared and ready to go, and to sabotage the starport’s power, and to have a team ready to attack the Mediator when the power went out and emergency services were tied up. These things don’t just happen on the turn of a dime; somebody knew, and leaked the information. There is a mole somewhere in CURSE — possibly several.”

“Oh undoubtedly.” Whisper says, starting to stand as the notification for the next stop rings over the speakers. “You don’t get to be as big as CURSE is without having a few moles crop up in the organization. But they’re not supposed to go this deep. Technically speaking, only SCION, myself, and Kwyn knew what was in the box in the vault on the Mediator. I don’t think even the captain of the ship knew. SCION would’ve told the administration, and I dunno… maybe the administration would’ve told told the intelligence department, so maybe it was someone in the intelligence department that leaked it… I dunno. Honestly at this point it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we get back to the Mediator and secure the artifact. Tracking down the leak can wait for later.”

“Yeah.” I agree reluctantly, looking at Surge and Kwyn. “We better get them up. We’ll be reaching the next stop soon. If you can get Kwyn, I’ll carry Surge.”

Whisper gives me a look.

“Is that not a good plan?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Just wondering why you’re offloading Kwyn on me.”

I furrow my brow at that. “I mean, Surge is heavier, you’re smaller, and I figure it’d be easier for you to maneuver with Kwyn…”

“All I’m sayin’ is that I figured you’d want to be the one carrying your precious prodigy to safety.” she says, kneeling beside Kwyn and starting to get her arms under her. “So when she wakes up, it’s in the arms of her doting mentor…”

I scowl at her as I start to get my arms under Surge to pick him up. “Seriously? You razzin’ me at a time like this?”

Whisper grins. “My day’s already ruined. Figured I may as well enjoy the little things.”

“Unbelievable.” I grunt, starting to stand with Surge. “C’mon. We’ve got places to be.”

“If you wanna trade, just let me know. She smells good.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

Intercepted Communications

Grayspur Ring, encrypted thread, 2 participants

Whisper: any updates?

SCION: We have ascertained that the assailants are psions. They are highly coordinated and seem to have already dealt with starport security, as they are not responding to my summons. There have been several casualties on the Mediator and we are presently working to contain the invaders.

W: son of a bitch. it isn’t the viralix, is it?

SCION: It is not the Viralix. They do not appear to a professional outfit, as they are mostly dressed in civilian attire, but I suspect this was a tactical decision made in the interest of a covert operation. From what I have ascertained, they are mostly humanoid. Presently they are fighting their way towards the ship’s vault.

W: shit

W: they know where it is

W: how did they find out?

SCION: That is not clear. It is possible that particularly sensitive psions could sense the Dragine radiation even through the vault shielding, which is why they may know where it is. We will need to assess it later. For now, we need to focus on securing the vault and repelling the assailants.

W: well, we’re on our way

W: coming back on the rail as fast as we can. should probably be there in a few minutes. surge and kwyn are waking up but they’re really out of it. dunno if they’ll be recovered enough to help by the time we get there

W: where did the psions breach the ship?

W: scion u still there?

W: dunno if you can see this but we’re on our way. just hang in there

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Grayspur Ring: Tutuhmorai Starport

7:11pm SGT

“And you two are sure you’re ready for this?” I ask, flashing my CURSE ID to the staff at the security checkpoint. “I need you to be honest with me. If you’re still feeling like you might topple over, it’ll be more dangerous to bring you along than it will be to leave you here.”

“Dude, we’re all Peacekeepers. This is what we do.” Surge grunts, flashing his ID to the checkpoint personnel. “A little blackout and a headache isn’t going to keep us down.”

“Besides, you need us.” Kwyn adds as we stride along the darkened halls of the starport. Though people are a little confused by the power outage, most of them are still going their way, if they know where they’re going. Those that don’t know where their terminals are have started to gather around the concierge desks. “Whisper has her wrist pistols; Surge and I both have powers. You’re the only one that’s unarmed; if anything, you should be the one staying behind.”

I glance back at Kwyn to find her yellow eyes glowing dimly at me, then look ahead to Whisper, who shrugs. “She’s got a point.” she shrugs.

“I’m not staying behind. Not with something this important.” I say, pulling out my phone and checking it. “Whisper said that SCION said that the group that attacked the ship were comprised of psions, which goes hand in hand with the bombing at the Shrine. I’ve got more resistance to that than the two of you, so you need me in the group. Once we’re on the Mediator, I can grab a gun from the armory and I should be able to contribute just as much as the rest of you.”

Surge quirks a brow. “I’ve never seen you step into combat without your Axiom suit. Aside from the time that, you know, Little Wolf kicked your ass during the Challenges.”

“Oh, that was, uhm. I got lucky.” Kwyn says hastily.

“That’s because Little Wolf is good at what she does. It’s why she’s a Peacekeeper. And it may come as a surprise to you, Surge, but I do not, in fact, need a giant suit of power armor to do my job.” I reply as we pass by the moving walkways, which are now dead and dormant in the absence of power. “I am perfectly capable of fighting without it. It certainly has its benefits, but I am far from helpless without it.”

“He can hold his own.” Whisper says from the front. “But Kwyn is right, Dare. You’re not armed. Until we get onto the ship and get you a gun, you stay at the back of the pack. There’s no sense in putting you out front right now.”

I can’t argue with that. “Fine.” I say, slowing up to drop behind Kwyn and Surge. “Have we heard anything from SCION yet?”

“Nothing since he went dark five minutes ago.” Whisper says as we start to near the terminal where the Mediator is docked. “Either he’s busy coordinating the defense, or something happened to him. In either case, we need to get on the ship and secure the vault. We can sort out the rest after that.”

“Yeah, about that.” Surge says. “You guys picked up a Dragi—”

“Surge.” I interrupt before he can finish. “Hold it until we’re out on the tarmac. This is an unsecured area.”

His head twists this way and that as he glances at the few people that are in the darkened concourse, sighing as he does so. “Okay, fine. Whatever.”

From there, we continue in silence until we reach the door leading out into the stairwell, down into the loading bay where the Mediator had been getting her resupply from. Unlike before, there’s no movement here, and this is where we start slowing down. Pallet jacks and freight carts have been abandoned; starport staff are sprawled across the ground or slumped over in the seats of the freight carts. We fan out a little, each of us moving to a downed individual and checking them.

“This one’s alive.” Whisper says, from the one she’s kneeling beside. “What about you guys?”

“This one’s good, yeah. Just unconscious.” I say, starting to stand back up.

“Same here.” Kwyn says.

“Seems like they’ve all been stunned.” Surge ways, scouting through the rest of the bay. “Dropping this many people with stunner guns would’ve required a lot of hands. Some of them would’ve had time to run and get out, but it looks like most of them were dropped on the spot. I think the psions deployed stun pulse grenades here. Would’ve achieved the same thing without having to aim too much.”

“If they had any left over, they could’ve used them to clear resistance when breaching the Mediator.” Whisper says, moving to the open door of the loading bay. “Kwyn, can you get a wolf up and use it to scout ahead?”

“I can.” Kwyn says, moving after her as Surge and I follow. Her outline glows as a translucent wolf splits off of it, and goes loping across the tarmac to the disembarkation ramp of the Mediator. It disappears up into the ship as we come to a stop near the edge of the loading bay, and Kwyn relays what she’s seeing. “Crew members are down. Dunno if they’re dead or knocked out. Some of them are definitely injured. But I’m not seeing any sign of the intruders at the entry point. We’re good to enter.”

“Alright, let’s move.” Whisper says, loping forward. We follow behind her, crossing the distance to the frigate, and up the ramp, stepping over downed members of the Mediator’s crew as we come inside. Kwyn’s wolf is waiting for us inside, standing watch.

“These injuries are consistent with what you’d expect from a psiblade or psi lightning.” I say, crouching down next to one of the injured crew members and looking them over, gingerly touching the burns on their uniform. “High temperatures, burn damage… these psions are capable. They don’t just play mind tricks.”

“We’re gonna have to track them down and neutralize them.” Surge says, glancing down the two halls that lead off in either direction. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover without SCION to guide us, so we’ll need to split up. Two and two?”

“Two and two, yeah. One mage to each team.” Whisper says, moving to the hall to the right. “Kwyn, you’re with me. We’ll go to the vault and make sure the artifact is secured. Surge, you’re with Axiom. You two check the bridge, hit up the armory, and pick up any combat-capable survivors along the way.”

“Understood.” Surge says, starting for the hall on the left. “C’mon, big guy. You can stay behind me until we get you a gun.”

“You’re too generous.” I say, standing up and following Surge as he rubs his hands together, electricity beginning to crackle between his fingers. “If we come up against anything, we’ll shoot you a text or call you.” I call to Kwyn and Whisper.

“Same here.” Kwyn replies as another spirit wolf splits off her, so there’s one on each side. “Be careful.”

Silence takes over after that, broken only by the fizzing crackle of electricity around Surge’s hands, and the sound of our footsteps. As we make our way through the halls of the Mediator, we come across more crew slumping on the floor, presumably unconscious and unmoving. After seeing more and more of them, I can’t help but remark on it.

“This is a lot of people to have incapacitated.” I observe, keeping my voice low. “And you figure that after the ramp was breached, someone would’ve gotten the alarm out so the others could run or mount a defense…”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Surge says, keeping his attention forward as he checks around a corner. We’re starting to near the fore of the ship, and the bridge should be down the hall just ahead. “I noticed the way they’ve falling as well; it looks like most of them just collapsed where they stood. If they’d been running from someone coming down the hall, they’d all have fallen pointing in the same direction, but they’re not.”

“I don’t like this.” I mutter as we reach the point where two halls join into one, leading towards the door of the forward bridge. “Feels like we’re flying blind here.”

“Well, that’s basically because we are.” Surge says, slinking down the hall and checking both of the corridors that divide around the bridge room. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not SCION’s biggest fan, but not having the dude there to give us tactical updates is making me nervous. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and in this case, not having him around to tell me exactly what we’re up against and where we’re going to run into problems is making me miss him a lot more than I thought I would.” Reaching the bridge’s blast door, he looks back at me. “Ready for this?”

I sidle to the other side of the door, lifting my bracelet so that I’m ready to swipe it past the access pad. “Ready.”

He nods, and I swipe it down; the door unbolts, the blast panels retracting before the actual door spirals open. Within the bridge is the captain and bridge crew — all of them slumped in their chairs, out cold.

Surge steps in quickly, crackling hands up as he checks for signs of intruders, then lowers them. “Not seeing any hostiles in here, but… damn.”

“Yeah.” I say, stepping in after him. “I’m starting to think that the entire ship got dropped by something. This would’ve had to been a hella big stun pulse to cover the front half of the ship.”

“Maybe we can get some answers while we’re here.” Surge says, the electricity fading from his hands as he moves to one of the stash closets, pulling out a plasma rifle and tossing it to me. “Internal sensors can be accessed from the bridge. We can get an idea of where people are within the ship.”

“Agreed.” I say, catching the rifle, then digging in my pocket when I feel my phone vibrating. Pulling it out, I see a call from Kwyn; unlocking the screen, answer it. “Hey Kwyn, talk to me.”

“We found SCION. And a couple other things.” she says. “It’s not looking good. Let me put you on speaker.”

“Alright.” I say. “Is he okay, or…?”

“He won’t be able to help us. We found his frame; it looks like someone put it through a trash compactor.” Whisper says. “Obviously he’s not dead, since he’s an angelnet and exists on a bunch of different servers across the galaxy, but his point of contact here on the Mediator is basically junk metal now. I dunno if he had a copy of himself backed up to the Mediator’s onboard server, but if he had, I think we would’ve heard from him by now.”

“Digital intelligences are big, they take up a ton of server space.” I reply. “Unless he was supposed to have a long-term presence on the Mediator, I don’t think there’d be a backup of him on her servers. Do we have any idea of what destroyed his frame?”

“Like I said, it looks like this thing got stuffed in a trash compactor. Either another Cyber with a bigger frame came in and balled him up like a paper napkin, or one of these psions that were attacking the ship came in here and balled him up like a paper napkin. Regardless of which one it is, we’re up against something that’s dangerously strong.”

“Let’s hope it’s a Cyber. A psion that can crush a combat frame with just their mind would be ungodly powerful and I don’t think we’re prepared to deal with that right now.” I reply, looking around. “Surge and I are on the bridge, he’s currently trying to get a map of the ship up with the internal sensors so we can see where people are on the ship. Bridge crew is out cold and so was everyone else we came across on the way here. Is that what you guys are seeing as well?”

“Yeah, that’s one of the things we wanted to mention. Everyone’s knocked out.” Kwyn says. “And the other thing is that the vault’s been breached. They found and took the artifact.”

“It looks like they cut through the door with something really hot. Breaching lance or maybe a really spicy psiblade. Didn’t bother trying to hack it or force someone to open it for them; they just cut a messy hole and kicked it in.” Whisper adds.

“Crap.” I puff, looking around. “Surge, how we coming on that sensor map?”

“Working on it.”

“I’ve got my wolves scouting the ship as well.” Kwyn adds.

“What are we going to do if we find them, though?” I ask, tilting the phone so I can put it to speaker in case they need to hear Surge as well. “Assuming they’re still on the ship.”

“Lethal force authorized.” Whisper answers immediately. “No warnings, no questions. You shoot to kill.”

“Damn, Whisper. You didn’t even hesitate.” Surge says.

“The damage that artifact could do in the wrong hands could be massive.” Whisper replies. “You don’t play around with Dragine artifacts and Shyl-tari relics. If there’s even a chance we can recover it, we need to do whatever is required to recover it.”

“Well, we might have something.” Surge says as I power on the plasma rifle and start checking the settings. “I’ve got the infrared sensor map up. The ship is littered with signatures, but only a few of them are moving, and they’re headed to the hangar at the back of the ship. That’s probably our thieves.”

“Hangar, got it. We’re headed there now.” Whisper replies immediately.

“We’ll be there as well.” I reply, starting back towards the door of bridge. “Be careful, okay? If you can wait, then wait for us to get there!”

“We’ll wait if we can, but if it looks like they’re going to get away, we’ll have to do something whether you’re here or not.” Kwyn replies. “I’m ending the call now. We’ll see you there.”

With that, the line goes dead. “C’mon, Surge. We gotta get down there, I’m worried—”

“Yeah, I hear ya.” Surge says, running to the stash closet and grabbing a plasma pistol and then sprinting to catch up with me as I lope back into the ship’s hallways.

Nothing else is said after that; we save our breath for running as we pelt down the corridors on our way to the rear of the ship, moving as fast as we can when we’re having to jump over the bodies of unconscious crew. Surge powers on his pistol as we run, only sparing the breath to ask “Is yours set to max?” as we go.

I feel my way along the side of my rifle, finding the variable switch, unlocking it, and shoving it all the way forward before locking it back in place. “It is now.” I say, tilting around a curve in the hall on our way to the rear of the ship.

It’s less than a minute before we’re at one of the access doors to the hangar, keying our way in. As the doors slide open, we’re greeted by hissing echo of plasma bolts, and a shrieking cackle that bounces off the walls. “Shit.” I hiss, bolting out onto the platform and taking the stairs down three at a time. “They didn’t wait for us.”

“Whoa! Axe, slow down man, you ain’t got your suit!” Surge calls, rushing to catch up with me.

I don’t slow down, focused on getting to the bottom of the stairs. Once I’m there, I start running, moving towards the sounds of shots. Unconscious crew members are scattered across the floor of the bay, many of them near supply pallets that it looks like they were in the middle of moving through the hangar towards the cold storage rooms. The source of the noise comes into view as I dodge around the last of the pallets: Whisper and Kwyn are trying to cage a redhead and a scruffy guy near one of the skipper transports parked against the wall of the hangar. Kwyn’s using her wolves to bog down the scruffy guy, while Whisper’s getting up on the redhead for close-quarters combat. Behind them, a third intruder is inside the skipper, getting the engines powered on.

“Kwyn! Keep him there!” I shout, changing tack and running at the angle so I can get a clear shot at the scruffy guy without risking hitting Kwyn or Whisper. She doesn’t look back at me, but her three wolves yank and tug at him, sinking their teeth deeper into his arms as they hold him in place. Once I’ve moved far enough that Kwyn and Whisper are out of the line of fire, I squeeze off two shots at center of mass, one nailing him in the torso and the other in the shoulder. He goes down, a scorch mark marring his chest and the front of his shirt catching fire.

After that, I start moving in, but Whisper and the redhead are too close together, and moving too fast, for me to get a clean lock on the redhead. I’m surprised the redhead can keep up with Whisper — she’s blocking every punch, jab, and kick Whisper throws at her, and returning them just as fast. Neither of them look to be getting any hits in, but it doesn’t keep them from going at it, and eventually Whisper pulls her signature: a haymaker punch that also coincides with firing a shot from a wrist pistol.

But the redhead already has her hands up, crackling with crimson psi energy as she catches both the plasma bolt and the punch following it.

“Sneaky sneaky, little kitty.” the redhead snickers, shoving both the bolt and Whisper’s fist away. Arcs of crimson electricity start to wind along her body, and without warning, she discharges a pulse that tears through the hangar. It knocks Whisper on her back; Kwyn repositions her wolves in front of me and her, but we still get pushed back several feet, and Surge is knocked flat as well. I get my rifle up as soon as I can to squeeze off a pair of shots at her, but her hand has come up before I’ve even started to pull the trigger. Both bolts splash against a psi shield, the crimson curve flaring to life in front of her hand. Then I can sense an immense force yanking at me — yanking at all of us — and I find myself skidding along the floor, lifted in the air alongside Kwyn, Surge, and Whisper. A roaring of white noise is starting to fill my head, and it feels like there’s a massive fist has closed around me. Judging by how Kwyn’s wolves flicker and wink out, I’m not the only one feeling it.

“Is this it?” the redhead demands, her fevered green eyes bouncing between us as arcs of red lightning do the same. “Is this really it? This was easy! I was expecting more! Fifteen years, and this is the best CURSE can do?”

“Let us go get our gear and we’ll show you exactly what we can do.” Whisper grunts through gritted teeth. She sounds just as strained as I feel; I’ve tried to bring my rifle up to squeeze a shot off at the redhead, but the crushing force isn’t letting me move an inch.

“You need gear to get on my level? That’s just tragic.” the redhead says, the corner of her mouth twitching to reveal yellowed teeth. She starts moving us through the air to rotate around her at equal intervals, like moons orbiting a planet. “Fifteen years. Fifteen years you’ve been in control, with the galaxy all to yourself. Plenty of time to establish your dominion, to prepare for the return of the Challengers, and when we come back, this is what we come back to? Four Peacekeepers, CURSE’s elite, hanging in the air like helpless little dolls, unable to take down a single Challenger.” She yanks a fist down, and that force gripping us slams us down against the floor of the hangar, forcing us to fold to our knees with grunts of pain. “This is so far beyond pathetic that I almost pity you.”

“You mind telling us which one you are, so we know what name to put on the arrest warrant?” Surge growls. Electricity is crackling around his fingers, but not getting anywhere — it looks like it’s being stifled by the ring of red lightning starting to form around him, similar to the rings that are starting to circle the rest of us. 

“Surge.” Whisper grunts. A warning, but I think it’s too late, because the redhead is already walking over to crouch down in front of him, teeth bared in a grin.

“You want to know which one I am?” she says. With her back to me, I can see the pink hoodie she’s wearing has jagged text across the back in navy blue that reads GET REKT. “Are you really that dense? Pretty face like yours, it wouldn’t surprise me…”

“You better give us that artifact back, Alice, or you’ll regret it.” Whisper snaps.

Kwyn glances to me at that point, and I can see the realization is dawning on her at the same time it’s coming to me. The red hair, the obscenely strong psi powers, the Challenger background…

This is Laughing Alice.

“Oh, you mean this artifact?” Alice says, turning to Whisper, reaching into her hoodie pocket and pulling out a matte black sphere about the size of an orange. “Neat, isn’t it? Dragine artifacts are funky little thangs. I wonder what this one does.”

“The CURSE administration knows about it. You take it, they’re gonna hound you to the ends of the galaxy. You will not be walking away from this.” Whisper growls. “Put it down, and we’ll let you walk away.”

“It took CURSE seven years to catch me last time. I think I’ll be fine.” Alice says, tucking the artifact back in her hoodie pocket.

“Who are you working for?” I demand at this point. “Did the Valiant break you out and set you loose on the galaxy?”

Alice snorts, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I’m not doin’ that again. I broke myself out, thank you very much. Taking orders when I was a Challenger was bad enough; I’d rather be the one giving the orders.” She pivots on her toes to face me, and I grit my teeth as I feel a presence pressing against my mind, poking intrusive fingers in like it was trying to peek through the blinds in a window. “At least you have an excuse for being this weak. Human. No powers. Coming out here to fight me with just a plasma rifle; now that’s brave. Or suicidal. Suppose it depends on what kind of spin you want to put on it. But you’re rather attached…” Her eyes slide towards Kwyn. “…to this one.”

“Alice.” Whisper hisses as Alice stands and moves towards Kwyn. “Stop playing games. You have the artifact already, there’s no more reason for you to keep hurting people!”

“I’m not hurting people.” Alice replies as Kwyn grits her teeth. She’s glowing, and I can see her spirit wolves straining to peel away from her outline, but the ring of psi lightning around her tightens, forcing them back into her. “I just like… reeducating them.”

My heart rate starts to pick up as she moves towards Kwyn. I don’t know what Alice is doing, but it can’t be anything good, and the mention of ‘reeducating’ a person is not reassuring, coming from a psion. I strain as much as I can against the crushing force keeping me on my knees and my arms clamped to my sides, but pushing against it only worsens the headache I have. With the little bit of movement I do manage, I find that brushing up against the ring of red lightning sends a burst of pain along my nerves, forcing me to twitch away from it. “Whisper! I can’t move!”

“Yeah, no shit, Axe!” Whisper snaps back at me. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the last sixty seconds?”

“This one has potential.” Alice muses, standing above Kwyn, who’s still trying to struggle free. Her teeth are gritted, and blood’s starting to drip from her nose again as she strains against the force holding her in place, her wolves roiling in the light limning her outline. “I can feel a lot of power coming off her. A real catch; this is more like it… she might actually be a problem if she hadn’t been weakened by that psi bomb we set off earlier. Poor little thing, so full of creeping terror, straining to get free.” Alice reaches down, tucking her fingers under Kwyn’s chin and tilting it up. “You and the human Durasell battery over there would be worth taking with us. Both of you have potential, and if we’re stealing from CURSE, we might as well take some of their Peacekeepers while we’re at it.”

“You’ve been huffing too much neuranium if you think that you can break any of us.” Surge seethes. “Go ahead and try it. I’ll laugh my ass off when the rest of the Peacekeepers come down on you like a sack of rocks.”

Alice’s lips peel back to reveal that yellowed smile again. “Oh. Well, since you’ve so courteously invited me to, I think I’ll give it a shot.” With that, her hand moves out from under Kwyn’s chin to grab her face instead. Kwyn tenses up, seizing in place as psi lightning arcs down Alice’s arm to dance over Kwyn’s head and shoulders.

“Wha— no! NO! Stop it!” I shout, my heart jumping into my throat as I see Kwyn’s eyes go wide, her pupils shrinking down to pinpricks. Even if it makes the pounding in my head worse, I start struggling again, twisting and twitching against the massive force holding me in place.

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait, stop!” Surge says, his defiance switching to horror. “What are you— I’d thought you meant you’d do it later, not right now!”

“Goddammit, Surge!” Whisper snarls. She’s twisting and trying to wriggle her way free, jerking and twitching every time she brushes up against the ring of crimson lightning around her. “Alice! Quit it! I swear to Sylak, if you don’t let her go right the hell now—”

“Bit too late for that. Pick your words more carefully next time.” Alice trills, her fingers tugging at Kwyn’s head as she tilts it further back. “Let’s see what secrets you’re hiding in that pretty liddl’ head of yours, sweet thang.”

Surge and Whisper keep on shouting at Alice, but I can’t bring myself to do the same. I feel breathless, even though my heart is hammering in my chest, and I can feel a numb tingling in my fingers, which feel cold. It’s like there’s something big and dark in my ribcage, blocking everything else else, making it hard to think and move. While it’s been a while since I felt this, I still recognize the onset of a panic attack. It’s like a sleep paralysis, stuck in place, unable to move, forced to watch as my nightmare unfolds in from of me. I don’t know how much of this I can take.

And when I see Kwyn gasp for breath, one of her eyes welling with tears beneath Alice’s hand, I snap.

Something cracks in my chest, and my eyes feel like they’re starting to burn. Everything starts to slow down, and an orange haze starts to tint the edges of my vision.

You need to protect the girl?

It’s a man’s voice. I don’t know where it’s coming from, and I don’t know how to answer it; all I know is that all of me responds at once, bent towards a single overwhelming affirmation. Kwyn is in pain, and I need to do something to make it stop.

Harness these emotions. Convert them into energy. It’s a woman’s voice this time. We will show you how. You are powerful in the height of your distress; use it to break free.

I’m not given a chance to respond, because suddenly it is there. The knowledge is there in my mind; I know what they are talking about. Emotion, as a force that could be converted into energy, and bent towards a specific action or purpose. A fundamental equation that was the foundation for certain breeds of magic.

I don’t have magic, and I’m not capable of it, and yet I find myself moving through the motions anyway. Fixating on that rising panic in my chest, taking and converting it into raw power, and shoving it outwards. I can feel the crushing force around me start to weaken as it’s shoved away, the ring of red lightning bending and torquing before it finally snaps and dissipates.

I’m up on my feet in an instant, Alice twisting around when she senses me tear free. I’m raising my rifle towards her, but she reacts on reflex, her eyes glowing a hot green as the rifle’s torn from my hands and thrown across the hangar. Yet I don’t stop, lunging at her while I curl my hand into a fist, a clementine nimbus gathering around it.

Letting go of Kwyn, Alice throws both hands up to block the punch, her psi shield shattering as the impact shunts her back. And still, I don’t stop, bolting after her with my arm ratcheted back for another punch. She dodges around that one, jabbing hard under my guard and nailing me in the kidney, then spins under the next swing I send her way, igniting a crimson psiblade along her forearm and slashing it across my back as she ducks past me.

Ignore the pain. Foot here. Pivot; twist around, hand out, ready to grab.

I don’t even think about it, letting the voice guide me through that half second as I slam a foot to the floor, twisting on the spot with my hand coming around. Behind me, Alice was diving in for an attack from behind, and tries to rear back as I wheel on her. But she’s got too much momentum, and I’m moving too fast — I catch her by the throat and latch on, hauling her into the air. Her psiblade winks out as she wheezes, grabbing my forearm.

“Oh shit.” she rasps, staring down at me with wide eyes. “They managed… to get their hands… on a Spark…”

“You don’t TOUCH my trainee!” I roar at her.

“Oh… hrrrk… papa tiger, are ya?” she coughs, struggling to breathe as she lifts a hand crackling with crimson lightning, and grins. “You mean… this trainee?” And with that, she slings her hand backwards, flinging a crackling arc towards Kwyn, who’s still trying to get to her hands and knees. I feel time slow down again, or maybe it’s me speeding up — but whatever it is, everything around me is slowing to a crawl, giving me time to think and react.

You can’t outrun lightning. Bend and twist space; warp your way through it. This is how you do it.

Any other day, any other situation, I’d be questioning voices in my head, questioning the sudden bursts of knowledge filling my mind, the power surging through me and allowing me to do things I’ve never been capable of. But not here; not today. Not while Kwyn’s in danger. I don’t question any of it; I just follow the instinctive knowledge being shoveled into my head, following it on reflex. Don’t think; just act.

I don’t bother letting go of Alice; there’s no time for that. Instead, I bend all that energy coursing through me, using it warp and twist space, bridging the spot where I’m standing and the spot just in front of Kwyn. And all the sudden I’m there, no longer holding Alice — instead rising up on my toes, arching my spine as that red lightning hammers into my back, spreading a cataract of pain through my nerves and forcing me to my knees.

As I curl my fingers against the hangar floor, muscles locking up, I can hear Alice shrieking and cackling with crazed delight. “HAHAHAHA! Oh my GOD, did you see that? He teleported! He TELEPORTED! He is down bad for her, oh my god! I haven’t had this kind of drama since the Challenger days! You’d seriously take a bolt of psi lightning for that cute little thing? HAAAAHAHAHA! Oh god that’s just delicious!”

Gritting my teeth, I fight past the pain and look over my shoulder. Alice is bouncing on her feet, giggling and wiggling in a rictus of sadistic delight, easily using her psi shield to block plasma bolts from Surge and Whisper. She whips her head back and forth, red hair splaying through the air with wild joy as she jumps up and down on her toes.

Getting one of my feet under me, I plant a hand on my knee and start to push myself up, still glaring at her. Seeing movement, she looks towards me, the childish glee immediately evaporating when she sees I’m getting back up.

“Oh shit.” Twisting on the spot, she bolts towards the skipper transport. “Yeah, I’m not dumb enough to stay and fight a Spark. I’m out! Peace!”

“Don’t let her get away!” Whisper shouts, sprinting after her as Alice tears around the side of the skipper, loping up the stairs and closing them after her. In the time that we’ve had our fight, Alice’s minion has had time to warm up the skipper, the rotating thrusters along the sides starting to roar as Alice shoves him out of the pilot’s seat and takes the controls.

She’s a bad pilot.

It’s a weird thing to hear the voices say, compared to everything else they’ve said so far but it comes across as a warning. In an instant I understand what’s being said: Alice is now in the driver’s seat for a massive hunk of flying machinery that weighs at least a few dozen tons and can move at respectable speeds.

And we’re standing right in front of it.

“Whisper, get clear!” I shout when I see Alice’s manic grin through the windshield. I turn, grabbing Kwyn up unceremoniously as the roar of those thrusters fills the hangar, and start running as the skipper wobbles out of its parking zone. Sparks go flying as its landing gear scrapes over the floor of the hangar, and it swings drunkenly out into the middle of the hangar, slamming into some of the supply pallets that never made it to the cold storage room. The jet blast of air from one of the thrusters sends Surge flying, and I have to dive out of the way to avoid getting clobbered by the corner of the skipper as it skids around, pivoting towards the open hangar doors. Kwyn grunts when we hit the ground, and both of us get shoved across the floor of the hangar as the skipper’s thrusters rev up, sending it out of the hangar and to the starport beyond. We only stop because the blasting wind from the thrusters shoves us up against one of the pallets, thankfully not too hard.

And just like that, the hangar is silent, with the only sound being the fading roar of the skipper.

Grimacing, I get back to my feet, standing just little unsteadily. The hangar’s a mess; this situation is a mess; hell, everything’s a mess. Walking a couple steps, I look around, seeing Whisper jogging over to us, while Surge works on getting back to his feet from where he landed after he was blown away. Turning around, I look back at Kwyn, who’s still slumped against the pallet, looking exhausted and dazed, but still conscious. “You okay, Junior?” I ask.

She just stares at me. “Dare… your eyes…”

I blink a couple times. “It feels like they’re burning.” I grunt, reaching up to press my palms against them. The sensation starts to fade, though only slowly.

“Dare! What the hell are you doing, standing around with that gash across your back!” Whisper’s shout comes from behind me, quickly followed by one of her hands grabbing my elbow and turning me around. “Jesu christi, I’m surprised you’re still conscious. We need to get you…”

She trails off when I lower my hands from my face, just staring at me. I blink a couple times as the last of the burning sensation fades away, the orange tint leaving the edges of my vision — but quickly being replaced by the beginnings of what feels like it’s gonna be a massive headache. “Oh right.” I say faintly. “She did catch me a good one across the back, didn’t she.”

“Dare. Are you okay?” Whisper demands, keeping a hand on my elbow as I sway a bit.

“Yeah.” I say, starting to feel out of breath and lightheaded. It feels like everything is starting to catch up to me; that raw power, that electric feeling, is no longer surging through me, and my body’s starting to feel everything that I just went through. My legs are weak, my head is pounding, the slash across my back is throbbing, and I think the dizziness might be due to blood loss. I’m not sure. I can’t see my own back, so I don’t know how bad it is. “Yeah, I’m fine…”

I take a step to prove it, and my leg immediately gives beneath me. The collapse happens a lot faster than I thought it would; suddenly I’m lying on the ground, and everything seems really distorted as darkness threatens my vision in spreading spots. The last thing I feel is Whisper rolling me over, shouting at me; the last thing I see is Kwyn trying to crawl towards me.

And then nothing.