“Remember, Riza. The life you choose to live will define you.” Mama said as she prepared a meal in their thatch hut.
Riza played with a small, wooden Bafari that her father had sculpted for her. The Bafari was her favourite creature, a beast that roamed the plains as the most dominant creature there was. Four-legged and muscular with a row of horns down the spine of its furless body. The wind outside was intense, beating against the clay and mud hut as the thatch ceiling clapped.
“So what must I choose, Mama?” She asked, somewhat uninterested in the conversation because she didn’t really know what it meant.
Her Mother giggled, “I cannot answer that for you, dear.”
“Why not?”
“Because it is your life. I cannot tell you how to live it.”
“But… What if I want to live it like you?” She answered, somewhat grasping the topic now.
Mama smiled with endearing eyes, “You want to live like me?”
“Mhmm,” Riza nodded her head.
“Then watch me live,” She said. “And decide for yourself if it is something you want to follow.”
Riza slowly awoke in her quarters, the vivid dream of her old life still ringing in her mind. There was a longing within her that she couldn’t shake. A life that she never got to live. Instead, she was here, in a world she never chose that now moulded her into a prop of its desires. The thought of the Soldier she’d killed returned to her like a wound in the back of her mind, and even though two days had passed, it was as if she was grieving. His death? Or the death of the old me? She wasn’t sure.
She didn’t really want to think about it and opted to take a shower instead. The cargo ship was rather cosy, she’d noticed over her depressive phase the last two days, there was something about the cool air-conditioned space that kept her comfortable. Not too hot, not too cold and rummaging around it aimlessly exposed her to just how large the interior was. It had three levels; at the very top was the Cockpit and Crew quarters, which housed up to eight crew members.
On the main deck was a dining compartment with a kitchen, a living room, a mini garden and two more rooms that were empty, ready to be designated. She’d considered turning one into a research room, but she also hated the thought of considering the ship her new home. The base level was where the large storage space was, the size of a miniature warehouse. She wondered what need she could have for such space, or what it was used for by its previous owners.
The engine room was also on this level, with an elevator to a small storage compartment that sat between the base level and the main deck– it seemed to be for storing a remote or small vehicle, like a pod or a land roamer, but she wasn’t exactly sure. Her favourite room was the garden, and when she’d first found it two days ago, it became a mini project for her to nurse the neglected plants back to health.
Since they had no idea it was there, they’d been starved for water, but they made a quick recovery. Watering plants would have been the last thing on her mind anyway, considering everything that’d happened lately. To add fuel to the fire, she was dizzy– and knew that when sudden dizziness arose, she needed to refuel her DNA resequencer.
_DNA RESEQUENCER: 28%
_STATUS: CRITICAL
_NOTE: Urgently Refill Capsule
The problem was that she only had one capsule left and needed to make more, but she didn’t have what she needed on the cargo ship. All of her equipment was on the Skipper, and she doubted she’d be getting a chance to board it again. It was a good thing she always kept one on her person in case of an emergency.
It’d last her a few days, depending on how active or busy she was, and considering the stress she’d been under lately, she didn’t think this capsule would last too long. Before heading to the cockpit, she removed the top of the capsule, revealing a finger-length needle that she slowly inserted into the implanted unit at the base of her neck and shoulder. She could always feel the needle as she slowly inserted it, avoiding the urge to shrug her shoulders or else the injection would cause an immense, internal pain.
Once done, she’d safely dispose of the capsule. It’d be dangerous for anyone else to get pricked by it accidentally, as is the case with any needle. It didn’t take long for her to feel the effects; her vision cleared up, she could think clearly again as her balance realigned, and she could stand up without worrying about toppling over or passing out.
_DNA RESEQUENCER: 100%
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
_STATUS: STABLE
“Hey,” She greeted Pilo as she entered the cockpit.
“Hey, Boss, you feeling better?”
She wiggled her hand, “So-so,”
“Well, I’ve got some good news, if you’d like to hear it.”
“Yeah? I could use some of that.”
“I went through the data you picked up on Liveria. As you suspected, they scrubbed almost all of the data, and they’d specifically removed the case from E-Seven.’
“Yeah, that’s what I saw with Dr Kanni,”
“Right, but why would they remove the information about the breach if it's their best bet to frame us?”
“Hmm,” Riza scratched her scar, and glowing white dust fell from it like snow. “I don’t know,”
“Right!” He said, pulling up the data, “So it got me thinking, what else might they have removed?” He shuffled through different documents, sharing his chip feed with her as he rummaged through the files.
“Not only did I sort the data in order of events, I also sorted it by type, too, and check this out.”
He brought up a file for the day they were working on the repairs, specifically the E-seven breach, but there was nothing. No data under any category– Crew names, logs, mining reports, nothing.
“They scrubbed the entire day?” She asked, perplexed.
“Yup, the entire day.”
“Why?”
“No idea, but I think they weren’t concerned about the E-seven breach at all. I think something else happened that day. Something that would prove our innocence.”
“But… What could that possibly be?”
“I don’t know,” He shrugged, “If I’m honest, it took all of my brain power to organise this stuff. Violet was way better with data than me.”
“She was better than all of us,” Riza felt her chest tighten, and sighed the thought away. “So, you think there was evidence on that day that could prove our innocence?”
“I do.” He said confidently, “Why else would they erase an entire day's worth of records?”
Riza took a moment to think. This was good to hear because she wasn’t certain the E-Seven breach would have proved their innocence to begin with if the claim was that they were part of the rebellion– she just believed that’d be the incident Kythera would’ve used to claim they’d sabotaged the rig.
“Where could we get the data?” Pilo asked. “Another facility?”
“Nah, it’d likely be erased from there too; they access the same servers… But maybe the head offices would still have them. I know there are records kept there that the main servers don’t have access to.”
“The one on Silic? But, why would it have its own servers?”
“The executives work out of those offices. There’s information they consider ‘classified’ that even I couldn’t get access to at the time.”
“Okay… So we need to get to Silic?” He asked.
“Yeah, but if I’m honest, I don’t want to use another Jump Port.” She shuddered at the thought.
“We’ll need an AG drive if we want to make jumps independently. Those things aren’t cheap, Boss.”
“Well… What if we stole one?” She blushed, knowing it was a rather ridiculous idea.
“Steal a–” Pilo paused, and Riza could see the cogs turning in his head, “You know what, that might not be a bad idea.”
“Really?”
“I heard from a few engineers at Montoya racing that they’d developed one, small, designed for a drop ship, but would probably work on the cargo ship… We’re in Banta, and Cath is just a day or two away. The Montoya racing labs are there.”
“So… How do we steal it?”
“We’d need entry. Maybe I could fabricate an ID, but it’s risky… Might not work.”
“You need the ID so we can dock the ship, right?”
“Yeah, if we dock the ship in their labs, we can install it without any issues.”
“We’ll need to do it overnight or something, though? If the labs are busy, it’ll be rather obvious that we aren’t meant to be there.”
“That’s just it, the Drop Racing Centre is in Cath. Most of their engineers are aboard the ship during race weekend.”
Riza smiled, “We get to see a Drop Race live?”
“Uhhh, I hate to disappoint you, but we should probably focus on stealing the–”
“No, no.” She interrupted him, chuckling, “I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to watch Izzy crash out.”
“Well, it's unlikely that she would, I mean… She’s the bes–”
She’ll crash,” Riza rolled her eyes, “But you’re right. The priority is the AG drive; we’ll watch the race if we have time.”
“If we aren’t running from Atlas soldiers, maybe…”
“How about I steal an ID then. What do we need to do to get it?”
“We’ll need to get on board the Drop Racing Centre first, and nick one off an engineer.”
“So, we board as tourists. Racing fans, which we are, and find an engineer.”
“Yeah, but how do we get to an engineer?”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult.” She nodded, “They engineer the vehicles in the Public access ring so people can see the ships. Behind the scenes and all that,”
“Right!” His back straightened as the plan came together, “Then we head down to the city and ‘break in’ to the labs.”
“Looks like we’ve got a plan,” Riza smiled. “Then we can go anywhere in the galaxy without exposing ourselves to The Atlas every damn time,”
“Okay,” He said, standing up in excitement, “I’m going to head to the engine room and make some layout changes to accommodate the Drive.”
“Got it, I’ll set our heading to Cath,”
Cath City is an orbital city that hovered above the planet Cath, the name referred to both the planet and the city, where Riza and Pilo planned to steal an AG drive that could take them to the planet Silic, which was located in a star system, Veltus, much further away. Both Cath and Silic were business districts, housing some of the wealthiest people in the galaxy. Most major corporations had head offices at one or both of these centres.
