Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Author:Jacqueline Koyanagi
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, novel
ISBN: 9781607014003
Publisher: Prime Books
Published: 2013-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Thanks to our collective criminal status, we couldn’t dock at one of Spin’s legal ports. Marre kept the ship a safe distance from the planet until we located an abandoned orbital shipyard just far enough away to avoid being detected.

Tev decided to leave Marre, Ovie, Nova, and the powered-down Tangled Axon to drift in the shipyard in silence, safely hidden by the surrounding dead vessels; a Gartik would have been flagged for screening immediately. The rest of us would take a shuttle and, we hoped, not be noticed in the usual heavy incoming traffic. At least the device wouldn’t give us away for another hour, hour and a half tops at Marre’s best guess.

“Bell Fisher,” Tev said to me as we were on our way to the surface with Slip. “That’s the name you want to pass around. You’re looking for a Heliodoran woman, average in height—well, maybe a little on the tall side, but just barely—darker than you, short hair, definitely carrying some kind of sidearm.”

Spin glittered beneath us, as if the lust and ecstatic release of so many bodies had ignited a million tiny fires across its twisting coastlines. Even at night, the albacite roofs and domes seemed naturally illuminated, pale and bright as white flames.

“How did you meet her?” I asked. “Bell, I mean.”

Tev pressed the activation button on her biter a couple of times, testing its charge. Snaps of electricity arced across its teeth as she quirked her mouth in a half-smile. “You really want to know?”

The shuttle actually made me motion sick, bringing on more Mel’s pain than I’d expected. Shit. This could complicate things. I did my best to hide my discomfort and just hoped I hadn’t added a tinge of green to my usual brown.

“People are allowed to have weapons on Spin?” I said, trying to distract myself.

“No.” She smiled fully this time. “Anyway, finding Bell is going to be tough, so even though I want you two to keep your eyes peeled just in case you happen to see her in passing, you’re just going to have to ask around. Problem is, with system enforcers looking for us, you can’t mention me or the Tangled Axon. If anyone asks who’s looking for Bell, tell them ‘Alia.’ Should be enough.”

“Alia?”

“My middle name.”

Tev landed the shuttle in an abandoned lot near a repair shop that had long since closed, hiding it between two tall mounds of scrap. We’d have to hope scavengers wouldn’t find the shuttle and pick it clean while we were gone. There were no other whole ships there. Just skeletons that once knew the sky, probably replaced by othersider vessels issued from Transliminal. Parts rusted over, useless to all but the most desperate machinists and copper-mongers. Pilot seats torn apart by rain and rodents. Engines with coil and wire pouring from their bellies like spilled entrails. As we left the lot, sticking to shadows and unlit paths, the emptiness of all those lost ships tugged at my chest.

“Come on,” Slip said, urging me forward with her hands.

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