Intergalactic

When Nicodemus turned up at Yezz’s office, or what she used as one, he found her staring into the distance, barely acknowledging his presence. He knocked again, on the door frame, and she seemed to snap out of it, mostly. Her voice was still hollow as she said „Oh hey Nico. I was… errm… just about to come see you.“

He looked at her, squinting his eyes. He slowed down, walked over to the chair opposite hers on the table that was both her desk and negotiation table. He said down and asked: „What’s wrong?“

He had noticed the tablet on the table, but was respectful enough to not steal glances at it.

„I’m afraid“, she said slowly, gathering her thoughts, „the marines are not our worst issue. By far not.“

Nicodemus leaned in a bit, puzzled expression on his face. „Can you be any more cryptic, Yezzania?“

She shot him a quick glance of the „if looks could kill“ variety, then sighed. She found his sarcasm misplaced, but didn’t say so, more important things on her mind: „Nico, I just got some insights into just what Red and her crew lifted off that Xylar freighter. This will put all of us out of business. Here“, she pushed the tablet with the still open report over to Nicodemus.

The governor of Binary Bloom studied the report, his eyes getting bigger as he did. When he was done, Yezz was treated to a rare sight - Nicodemus with his mouth open, lost for words.

„This“, he said after catching himself, „is bad.“

Yezz nodded.

They sat silently together for a while, contemplating the implications of it all.

„Yezz“, Nicodemus started, forgetting for the moment that she was only called by her short-form name when she wasn’t in the room, „This has multiple consequences.“

She looked up, letting the faux pas slip if she had even noticed it, and raised her eyebrows slightly.

Nicodemus continued: „First, it shows that the Xylars are more bothered by our piracy than we had assumed. It makes sense, of course. Sure, they manufacture hyperdrives with ease, but they still aren’t free and it takes resources, time and money to replace them. We thought their lack of reaction for so many years meant it’s a minor nuisance at most. But it wasn’t, they just decided to not answer with military, but innovation. Instead of playing whack-a-mole with us, they spent their time figuring out how to eliminate the problem altogether.“

Yezz nodded solemnly. „Logical conclusion“, she simply stated the obvious.

„It also means,“, Nicodemus continued, „selling to unknowns, which are possibly aliens, risks spreading this tech far and wide. If only the Xylars have it, they might keep it to themselves as a unique advantage over other races, or sell it with a hefty surcharge. I don’t think they’re likely to sell it cheap just to spite us.“

„Hold on!“, Yezz interrupted, her face and gestures becoming more alive again, „That would mean that we can forget about Xylar freighters, but at least for the foreseeable future we could still hit others.“

Nicodemus nodded.

„In that case, all things considered“, Yezz said, „the best thing for us to do is not to take the most lucrative deal, but the one that keeps this tech out of as many alien hands as possible. Which means selling to one of the human planets. Who knows, maybe they can even figure out a countermeasure.“

„So we just call the crew of the Rusty Bolt back and hand over the core to the marines? Sounds too easy.“, Nico pondered.

„Could get us into trouble with the other planets, though I don’t see what they’d gain from going after us after it’s done.“, Yezz wondered.

Nicodemus shook his head: „A few ruffled feathers, but in the end they all need the products we are selling. It won’t be a big deal. Maybe it really is that easy.“

„Except for the pissed-off aliens, of course.“, Yezz added. „Might the Xylars come after us for revenge? They’re not known for that, and they probably have not just one prototype. And even if, they’ll still have the design documents and can build a new one.“

Nicodemus furrowed his brow for a moment, started to speak, then stopped again, then said: „It might be the step too much. We’ve been a nuisance for three decades. They never did anything, but in their minds all the trouble we’ve caused, minor as it may, could accumulate. And now it’s too much.“

„But if so, they’d have struck by now.“

„No“, Nicodemus disagreed, „The Junkstorm is worse for higher-dimensional beings. The more dimensions the worse it gets. Fourers find it troublesome, Fivers already a big problem. Any race home in six or more dimensions avoids it like the plague.“

„For getting in and settling or conquering.“, Yezz pointed out, „They should be capable of a remote strike of some kind. Just wiping us out the way we hit a fly.“

The office around them was quiet. Even the constant background noise of the station felt more distant and quiet. In fact, it was quiet. Nicodemus perked up. In more than a decade on the station, he had never not heard its low rumbling. For a split second, his own breathing and heartbeat were the only sounds he could make out even though he strained his ears.

Then, the lights went out. Not just the room lighting. All the lights. Not a single indicator light of a device remained. Yezz’s office was a backroom and had no windows, which were a rare luxury on the station in any case. So from one moment to the next, it was plunged into perfect darkness that not even the eyes of an owl could see anything in, much less a hundred times less light-sensitive eyes of a human.

Two seconds later, a new noise appeared in the darkness. Faint. Humans shouting, muffled by walls and bulkheads. An occasional sound of panic, but even though Yezz and Nicodemus could not make out the words, it was clear that most of the voices were alarmed but controlled. The shouts were people coordinating in the darkness. Underneath it was the barely perceptible murmur of other people doing the same at normal talking volume.

The two did the same. „What the …? Erm. Nico?“, Yezz said, and Nicodemus answered: „Not a power outage. Your tablet and my watch have internal batteries.“

„Right.“, Yezz answered, then continued: „If we move around, we should keep talking for position info.“

Nicodemus agreed. „Can the door be opened mechanically?“, he said, but he sounded absent-minded.

Yezz nodded out of habit, then added verbal confirmation. „Yes, lever at the right. Keep sitting, I know the room and won’t bump into stuff.“

A shuffling sound indicated that Yezz had stood up and was moving towards the door, keeping her feet placed on the floor at all times, shifting them forwards instead of lifting them up. As she had suggested, she kept talking. For lack of better content, she simply repeated „moving, moving, moving“ over and over again. Her voice sounded steady but there was a small tremble in it showing that she was calm, but under pressure.

„EMP“, Nicodemus suddenly exclaimed, „They hit us with an EMP burst. Smaller devices aren’t usually shielded, so they’ll be fried. The main station electronics are shorted out, but once the crew gets there they should be able to restart them. Though without electrical tools that’ll take a while.“

His voice had the sound of someone rambling, putting out a stream of consciousness. He was speaking the thoughts as they occurred to him, without refining them. He went on: „Life support is offline. There’s enough air for a couple hours before it gets stale, a day or so before CO2 levels become toxic.“

Yezz continued her shuffling steps, now slower and more careful. A barely audible bumping sound indicated that one of her feet had found the wall or the door. „I’m here.“, she said, mostly to say anything other than „moving“. She switched to repeating „looking for the lever“ while the tapping sounds of her fingers probing the wall and door faintly echoed through the room.

Outside, most of the voices had calmed down to normal volume, which was all but too low to hear inside the room. What little panic had been there for a minute had subsided. The outlaws were not unfamiliar with surprises and having to improvise.

„No Nico, you dumbhead.“, the governor said to himself, „It won’t be that long. People need light to function. There are plenty of chemical torches on the station, and there will be good old fires soon. That’ll use up the oxygen much faster. I should really be…“, he said, trailing of, „…but what for? The control center is useless now. No, no. The market. People will go to the market. I should get there.“, then slightly louder he said „Yezzania, door?“

The sound of metal grinding came as a response. „Just found the lever. It’ll be open in a sec.“

A scraping sound indicated that Nicodemus was standing up out of his chair, then a loud thumb drowned out all other noises for a split second. The chair had fallen over. Another shuffling sound, this one with soft squeaking noises, someone carefully walking forward on rubber soles that couldn’t easily slide over the floor. „Coming“, Nicodemus repeated with each step, copying Yezz. She answered „here“, also repeatedly, to guide him towards the door.

Another metal scratching sound indicated that the door was opening while Nicodemus was walking forward. The outside corridor was pitch-black just like the room. The noises from outside were a sliver more loud now, with one less obstacle between them and the two.

With a soft „thud“, Nicodemus bumped into Yezz. „Easy“, she said, „Wait. I’ll grab your hand. So we don’t have to holler all the time.“

They stepped outside into the corridor, Yezz shifting her feet over the floor, Nicodemus lifting them up slightly because his rubber soles didn’t allow for easy sliding.

„Yezzania“, he said, „We need to get to the market. What’s the shortest way from here that we can reliably find in the dark?“

The shuffling stopped for a second, half a step later the squeaking, as Yezz stopped and then Nicodemus. She thought. For a moment, the darkness engulfed them aided by silence. In this moment, they could have stood in the middle of giant hall, or inside a tiny room, it would have been impossible to make out the difference.

Then she simply said: „Follow me.“, and their careful footsteps started anew.