Bound to a Single Sun by Stephen W. Leigh

Author:Stephen W. Leigh [LEIGH, STEPHEN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Published: 2022-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

30

Kris, Venera Cloud, AU .723

Above him were curving, naked, and glistening ceramic struts. A low, constant drone echoed in the air and sweat rolled from his body with the sauna-like temperatures. Kris groaned and attempted to sit up. He barely managed that much.

“No further,” someone said, and Kris blinked in the voice’s direction. Through his blurred vision, he could see a man sitting a few yards away, a zapgun cradled in his lap and pointed lazily in Kris’ direction. He was the same indie who’d been with Illian, the one who’d shot him outside the docking bay. “Just stay where you are unless want me to dart you again, I understand the experience is painful.”

“Where . . . ?” Kris started to say. His skin tingled. Sharp electric pains shot through his limbs when he moved, like trying to lift an arm that had fallen asleep under him.

“You’re in Purgatory. At least that’s what we call it—where the demons allow us indies to live, in the skin between the Cloud and their own hell.”

“How?”

“There are a thousand entrances into Purgatory and a million lost spaces within it. I don’t believe even the demons know them all. But we indies do.”

Kris licked dry lips—even that hurt. “You know they’ll be looking for me. The two people I came down here with will already know I’m gone.” He tongued the mouth-studs, waiting for the inner click that would tell him he’d connected to the network and Oceanus. They could track him, home in on his signal . . .

But there was no click.

The indie chuckled, shaking his head. “Didn’t work, did it? Feel your neck.” Kris lifted his hand, felt a smooth collar of metal there. “Biowired or not, you won’t be contacting anyone that way. Now, we have to move. Can you walk yet?”

“I don’t know,” Kris answered honestly. “Even if I can, why should I? I know who you’re taking me to.”

The man shrugged. “Walk, don’t walk. I don’t much care. I can just shoot you again and pay a friend to help me drag you—but I can assure you that won’t be pleasant.”

“Whatever the ecomod’s paying you, I can beat it. That’s the truth.”

A laugh. “And that’s exactly what I’d say, if I were you. But I have to look at it this way: even if you have the money, you’re in a ship that’s left Earth illegally, one they’re trying to get back, while my other friend . . . well, let’s call him a ‘sponsor’—from what I’ve seen, he doesn’t much like people who cross him. If I have to choose, I’d rather have you as my enemy, not him.” He rose slowly to his feet, the beams a bare few feet above his head. He pointed the gun at Kris. “Walk, or be dragged?”

“You know what he’s going to do to me. Illian’s a sadist.”

A look almost of sympathy crossed the indie’s thin, drawn face, then he hid it away again, gripping the handle of his weapon tighter and waving it to his left.

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