Code Enforcement: Wetware

As I step out of Pirate Bay, I have to admit I'm tense. The lapping, undulating waves of blue-green foxfire running the length of the station barely distract me anymore. Even the beautiful silver threads and knots rolling through my overlay seem muted and dull. Not so much about of some dead corpos on Earth as it is about the silver-haired woman leaning over a hydroponics setup in an open, well-lit bay. The park is less green than it used to be, with bins of rich earth and small seedlings and mist-nozzles. Lucy is wrestling with a polymer watering-line in one hand and muttering something likely profanity-laden under her breath.

Her other arm is tied against her chest in a black mesh sling. No augments, temporary or permanent, and no networked controls for the Park. All the controls are manual; old school and malware proof. But not terrorist-proof. I swallow hard, giving my girlfriend's mother a weak smile as I approach. "Hi Lucy. Would you like a hand?"

"Sure Mel, if you spare me the jokes." The older woman looks over at me, giving me a grunt and a nod. "You look like you've seen better days."

"I had a rough night in lockup," I admit, reaching up to touch the bridge of my nose; it's still tender and bruised. "I sort of beat the silicon out of a saboteur and got arrested for my trouble."

Lucy snorts. "You angry about the sabotage case?"

My fingers twitch at those words. "Yeah, angry at Gruder, and angrier at myself." I take a deep breath, trying to let some tension drain from my shoulders. "I'm sorry, Lucy."

Lucy grunts, looping the line around and over a rack, reaching for a tie. "No need to apologize. You didn't do shit to me."

"About the bomber, I mean," I say quickly, reaching out to hold the line in place as she ties it to the rack. It's one of a dozen stacks loaded with bins of rich brown dirt, with sprigs of mint and oregano, and something that tastes like soap to me. "He was right in front of me, practically confessing his sins. But I fucked up and made things a lot more complicated."

"Sparrow told me," Lucy huffs, pulling up another loop of the polymer hose. "You lost your temper, threw him to the deck? Oh well, shit happens."

I shake my head quickly. "I was there, with his neck under my knee," I admit, hands shaking as I hold the next tie in place for her. I take a deep breath, inhaling the scent of earth and trying to forget the taste of that crowded bay. "I had the chance; I should have driven my leg down hard enough to break it. I could have snuffed that piece of shit and left the solar system a better place."

"Heh. Maybe," the wiry woman muses, dusting her hand on her pants. The grey-haired woman's tight lips quirk up into a smile before meeting my eyes. "Would it have made Sparrow any safer?"

My mouth works for a moment. "I mean... Not really."

She nods. "How about you?"

I tilt my head, trying to parse that. "That's not the point."

Lucy sighs, finishing the tie and dropping the rest of the line. "You seem real determined to fight for other people, Mel. But not for yourself."

I roll my eyes, hunching my shoulders. "Ugh, well, you know how it is. It's different when you're doing it for someone else."

Lucy gives me a skeptical glance. "Oh? Do tell."

I lean back, blinking at her. "Um, like, if I'm doing it for myself, I'm just a selfish asshole."

Her eyes don't leave me face. She's a hand shorter than me, but I feel small under her gaze. "But if you kill for Sparrow, or someone else, it's fine?"

I lower my gaze, looking around the bay. Wonder if she's planted any coffee beans? "I mean, I'm not laying the grid out that way," I mutter.

There's a moment of silence between us before she shrugs. "If I may share a thought? I don't think you want to kill Lenny Gruder for Sparrow. Or me."

"I mean... well... I dunno," I murmur, trailing off. Lucy stays silent, a special skill of hers, and I squirm in place. "Maybe it was really for me."

Lucy reach out with a gnarled hand, gripping my shoulder with strong fingers. "Mel, I get it. And honestly, I won't ask you forget about it for my sake," she says softly. She takes a step closer. "But can you let it go, for Sparrow's sake?"

My jaw falls open. "What? Is that a fucking joke?" I ask indignantly, my eyes bulging. "After what he did? After he tried to kill her, and nearly killed you?

I get another sigh in response. "Mel, I lived. My daughter lived. The League is broken and fleeing," she says softly. Lucy's eyes search mine calmly. "I don't care about payback. Neither does Sparrow."

My fingers clench. "It's not just Gruder. He's just a hired gun. They could come back."

"The Gaians?" Lucy asks, shaking her head. "Doubt it, there's no point now. Damage done."

As she turns back to the racks, I growl. "It's not that simple!" I snap, slamming a fist into the bulkhead, the sound echoing through the bay. "The League doesn't just fly off and forget. They remember; there are loose ends."

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"Hah, can't be more than what's already out there," she says, looking over her shoulder at me. As she picks up a length of power cable, she gestures outside the bay. "But that's my point. If they come, we'll throw down. But they aren't, not anymore."

As she begins to string the lighting cable, I reach for the edge, helping loop it over the rack again. "Doesn't mean it's all peaches and cream, or that people should be able to walk away from murder."

We work in silence for a moment. Even the scent of the park doesn't seem to erase the taste in my memory. As Lucy connects the line to the bulkhead's power-channel, a new silver thread blooms in my overlay, and the UV light flickers on. Wiping her brow, she leans against the wall. "Mel... you're hurt. You're angry. You want to make someone pay."

My lips peel back in a sneer. "Fucking right I do!"

Lucy nods, giving me a concerned look. "Have you considered that's what's fucking you over?"

"Heh, once or twice," I admit, feeling a flush creep up my face. "But if that fucks me over, at least I chose that transit myself."

She nods. "And if it fucks my daughter over too?"

"I..." The tension makes my belly roil, and I cross my arms in front of myself. "I would never hurt her," I say quickly.

"Not deliberately, I know," she adds. Her tone is cool, but her eyes are hard. Piercing eyes that give me goosebumps. "Who's Rabi?"

My thought process derails, and my heart beats a rapid staccato rhythm as I see a flash of dark skin and brown eyes, with a brilliant white spike in her skull. "Wh... What?" I sputter, eyes wide.

Lucy's eyes remain focused on me. "Rabi. She's someone who hurt you?

"How do you..." I ask, feeling my legs tremble under me. I lick my lips, feeling too warm. "Did Sparrow tell you?"

"No," the woman says softly. "She's been searching that name on the exonet, but she won't tell me why. So, I'm asking you."

I feel my throat tighten, and I part my lips to speak. It takes me a few moments to get anything out. "Rabi is a former Code Enforcement Captain. The head of forensics on Ursa Miner... but she's also a mad scientist," I say, voice tight and breaking with a squeak. I take a few breathes to steady myself. The bulkheads seem to press in on me, but I barrel through. "She's someone who... violated me. She's playing god, or close enough. She's crazy, she's fucking dangerous, and she needs to die," I spit venomously.

Lucy nods. "It's hard. When someone hurts you, and you can't do anything about it. Knowing they're still out there. Feeling so helpless," she says, reaching out with her good hand.

I slap it away before she can touch me. "What the fuck do you know about it?!"

"Considering a bomber left me in the ICU, quite a bit," she adds, a silver eyebrow rising.

"That's..." I trail off again. There's no anger in her eyes. Just concern. And empathy. I feel the rage boiling up in my belly, but I clamp down tight, steadying my breathing. "Lucy, I'm sorry. It's just..." I want to leave that all behind me. I don't want it to rule me. I don't want HER to own me.

I fumble at the words, and she grunts. "Mel, spit it out. You want control of your life, right?"

"I..." I squeeze my eyes shut. Damn, no wonder she needs mist sprays. This bay is so dry, my eyes are watering. I take a shaky breath. "I want to not spend my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. I want to move on... but I can't. Not yet," I say, rubbing my face, scrubbing the wetness away.

Lucy's hand reaches my shoulder, resting gently on it. "You can. It's a choice."

I shake my head urgently. "No, it's not just trauma. Rabi's out there, right now," I explain heatedly. "She could pop up tomorrow and tear down my world."

Finally, her lip quirks up in a smile again. "If she does, you know Sparrow will be right there beside you. And so will I."

"That's what I'm afraid of," I admit, my voice barely above a whimper. "I'm afraid Sparrow's going to get hurt because of me, or for me. I'm afraid she'll die and I won't be able to stop it, and it'll be all my fault, just like Alex. Just like Brent." My heart hammers in my chest, and I bite my tongue to stop myself from going on.

Lucy takes a deep breath herself. "Yeah. Maybe."

My jaw drops and I stare at her, flabbergasted. "What, you're green across the board with that?"

The woman's eyes are pained. "It's not my choice Mel. It's my daughter's. And yours," she adds, frown lines crossing her wrinkles. "So, what's it going to be? Are you going to live in fear?"

"You don't understand," I protest, exasperated and throwing my hands up. "This isn't a hypothetical. Rabi's coming, someday. Probably soon."

She nods, placing her hand on her hip. "Fine. But if you can't do anything about it now, then stop worrying about it. Don't give her the power. And help me rig this damn hydroponics line," she adds, pointing to another cable.

After another twenty minutes, the new lines are attached and neatly pinned, and Lucy gently but emphatically shoes me towards her home next door. And with no other options, I step inside, giving the blue-haired woman in the kitchen a hesitant wave. "Hey Sparrow."

She looks over, pushing the bangs out of her eyes and cleaning some sort of leafy green vegetable at the sink. "Hi Melody. Did you get your shopping done?" Her tone barely carries a hint of tension.

Unlike my own, as I fail to keep it out of my voice. "Oh, mostly. And had a talk with Lucy."

"I'm glad to hear it," she says, giving me a brief smile. "And to be blunt... I kind of asked her too."

My mouth opens, but I pause. "You... did?"

I get a nod. The tattoo's spiral along her limbs seems to increase in speed, turning to rippling waves that interfere. "Melody, I know you're afraid. Of a lot of things, but I think mostly of losing me."

"It's..." I look around the habitat, not wanting to meet her eyes. "You're the only family I have left."

She nods, putting the vegetables aside and biting her lip. "You never talk about your family."

I blink at that, putting the bag with my dampeners aside. "What's to say? I'm an only child; my parents died when I was twenty."

Sparrow chews on her lip a moment. "But you never talk about them. Or Earth. Or your life before the academy."

It's so counter to the conversation I've just finished with Lucy that it takes me a moment to come to grips with the subject. "It's ancient history. I've dealt with that a long time ago," I say evenly.

"Melody..." I get a skeptical glance in return. "If you'd dealt with it, you'd be able to talk about it."

My fingers dig into my palms. "I don't talk about it because it's painful, and it doesn't matter anymore."

Sparrow takes a few steps towards me, reaching out with one hand to take my fingers in her palm. "It's part of your life. It matters."

"My life is here, now," I say, shaking my head. I feel her fingers against my skin. Fingers with pads of callus, cracked at the edges, but a warm palm. Mechanic's hands. "I don't have a connection to Luna anymore. I've got a great-aunt on Earth somewhere, but I never met her. Nothing back there matters to me anymore."

Sparrow's expression darkens, her eyes falling. "I'm really sad to hear you say that."

I pull my hand away, gritting my teeth. "Holy void spawned fuck, Sparrow! What do you want from me?"

"I want you to talk to me," she says quietly. "Please. For once, no jokes, no evasions, no walls. What are you really afraid of?"

For better or worse, before I can respond, the naval station's combat alarm blares deafeningly through the corridors as the shooting begins.