August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White

Author:Alex White [WHITE, ALEX]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2022-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

Ardent gets Dahlia into the main bedroom, watching over her while she sleeps. The guilt of her injury gnaws at them, and they can’t stop thinking of how close they came to losing her. They give her a chemical cocktail for the pain, then remain at her side, a careful eye on her vitals for any changes.

It’s hard to listen to the Ghost tapping all over the hull while it fixes the engines. As the only noise in an ultraquiet ship, hovering in the vacuum of space, the click-click of claws is maddening. Ardent queues up a couple of songs to pass the time—some of Gus’s original catalog with the Gus Kitko Trio.

Truth be told, his music is impenetrable, almost totally lacking in any clear hooks. The talent is obvious, but without panache. He needs some swagger. Still, there’s a lot of musicality in some of his bold decisions, and even a seasoned instrumentalist would have trouble guessing the next turn of the song.

After a few hours, the engines come online. Firenze Habitat awaits, just a fold away.

Ardent isn’t sure what Falchion will do when it sees them, but the odds are bad. It’s accustomed to slaughter, so it’s unlikely to stop and chat. That means Ardent needs to be mobile if they want to make the musical case to become a Conduit.

They need armor for this. Nothing will save them from a Vanguard, but it’d be nice to have protection from the environment. Time to take stock of their provisions.

Ardent slides open the main closet, expecting to find a collection of immaculately preserved clothes. Instead, they find Dahlia’s many different black outfits, all neatly suspended on racks.

“What’re you doing in my closet?” Dahlia slurs.

“Your closet? Where are all my old costumes?”

Her arm flops in a weak pointing gesture toward the next room over. “Moved them to the guest room a few months ago.”

“Why?”

“I was thinking of stealing the Corsa and trying my luck against the ship hunters.”

“You’re not serious.”

But Dahlia just laughs.

Ardent goes to the guest room and finds their attire strewn across the bed, the floor, and the furniture. It looks like the clothes might’ve been piled up before the Violet Shift’s lean fold. These priceless couture keepsakes from the beginning of Ardent’s career lie on the carpet like dormitory laundry.

“Dahlia!”

“What?” she asks, walking up behind Ardent.

“Ah! Go lie down. You’re not supposed to be out of bed!”

She gives Ardent a dreamy smile. “I’m high as fuck right now, so I’m good.”

“No, you’re not good!” Ardent says, pawing over her torso to see how her wound is doing.

It’s not oozing, so the healing grafts work fast. When a Ghost fixed Ardent’s ribs in Monaco, they were almost good the next day. Maybe there’s no internal bleeding, but it’s impossible to tell without a real medical scan.

“It’s first aid time,” Ardent says, taking Dahlia’s arm and leading her through the lounge to the galley.

They sit her down and pull out the aid kit before placing it on the table and booting it.

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