Endling by Kit Walker

Author:Kit Walker [Walker, Kit]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kit Walker
Published: 2016-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Episode 4: Liberty

An incessant beeping noise invades Asha's pleasant, sleepy haze. Her comm is going off.

Asha struggles to emerge from the poofy marshmallow hell of the bed and paws blindly at the nightstand until she locates the evil little device. "What?"

"Good morning." Kadar's artificially cheerful tone sounds more strained than usual. "Where are you?"

"Uh." Asha sits up and squints around the one-room apartment. That's no help. "Hang on a second," she says, and gently prods the lump in the covers next to her.

There's a responding grunt.

"Where are we?" Asha asks.

"My apartment."

"I know. Where's that?"

The lump mumbles an address, which Asha relays to Kadar.

"Okay," Kadar says. "Put some pants on. We'll be there soon."

Instead, Asha burrows under the covers and goes back to sleep.

She's awoken an indeterminate amount of time later by a knock on the door. Asha groans, rolls out of bed, and yanks her clothes back on.

She opens the door to reveal Kadar and Vaz, waiting on the doorstep. If the rumpled clothes and bloodshot eyes are any indication, neither of them slept last night. Vaz has a livid black eye, and Kadar's nose looks like it might have been broken and reset sometime in the last few hours.

Asha stares at them. "What the hell happened to you guys?"

•

20 Hours Earlier

For someone who has so much difficulty moving around, Laela — who, as captain of the Wayfarer, is responsible for clearing all crew departures from the ship — is surprisingly difficult to sneak up on.

She sees Asha and Kadar coming, says, "Oh, fuck," turns on her heel, and starts walking in the opposite direction.

Asha jogs down the hall to catch up. "So—"

"No," Laela says.

"Would you at least let me ask first?"

"Whatever it is, it involves him." Laela jerks a thumb over her shoulder at Kadar. "The answer is 'no.'"

The door to the starboard observation deck opens as they pass. Ysal sai-Vysri steps out, with the ship's doctor, Vaz, on xir heels.

Laela stumbles to avoid the sudden obstacle. "What are you doing up here?"

Ysal looks pointedly at the sign above the door and says, "Observing."

"I've never seen Tacenda from orbit before," Vaz explains, a little bashfully. He notices Asha and Kadar and adds, "Is there a meeting I don't know about?"

"Too many people on this damn ship," Laela grumbles, and stalks off in the direction of the command deck.

Asha follows, dragging Kadar in her wake. "Laela, I promise you'll like this idea."

"No."

"It gets Kadar off the boat."

Laela pauses at the door to the command deck. "I'm listening."

Asha nudges Kadar. "Tell her the thing."

Reluctantly, Kadar says, "So you know that information leak from the Sentinel archives? About ten years ago?"

"I remember," Laela says. "Someone 'accidentally' dumped a bunch of files onto the public datanet, right? But they were all encrypted."

"'Were' being the operative word," Kadar says. "There's a collective that's been slowly decrypting the files for years now. I have a friend in that collective, and she lives on Tacenda."

Laela keys in the access code for the command deck; she started locking the door immediately after Asha convinced her to let Kadar stay aboard.

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