Ghosts of the Past by John Wilker

Author:John Wilker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781951964061
Publisher: Rogue Publishing

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As Tycho station grew, facilities moved from place to place, keeping up with renovations. While station operations had moved to the command towers at the top of the hub, public-facing facilities mostly remained where they had been installed. Deck 19 was one such section: lodging, rentable by the hour; restrooms, complete with showers, free for anyone to use; more quick eats stalls than could be easily counted. And in the center of the deck, a sea of rentable lockers, from units small enough to hold only a gPhone to units that Jax was pretty sure he could squeeze into. They filled concentric, circular rows covering the entire center of the deck. There were hundreds of them. A tween deck mezzanine had hundreds more.

They only needed to find one.

“I feel like an idiot. Are these in some order I don’t understand?” Jax groused. He was scanning up and down the columns of lockers with his finger.

From the other side of the aisle, Naomi said, “Just look at the top row. It should be in the top row.”

Jax blushed. “Oh. How do you know that?” He adjusted his approach.

They got to the end of the aisle and Jax slowed down just enough so that Naomi would lead the way to the next row. She looked over her shoulder and smirked as he followed.

Halfway down the next aisle, Jax shouted, “Hey, I got it!” He looked around, hunching over a bit. He waved Naomi over. The locker was one of the smaller ones, barely big enough for a tablet.

Jax stepped aside as Naomi put her hand on the locking mechanism. These lockers were holdovers from the days when smugglers, and worse, would leave dead drops for associates. When the Empire took over the station, and the more illicit trades moved on, there was no reason to remove the vast sea of lockers. Spacers still used the inexpensive storage as a way to keep a few pairs of clean clothes in different stations without the burden of renting a living space.

A moment later, the locking mechanism beeped, and the small door swung open. Jax leaned in to get a look and was shoved back by Naomi. She reached in and removed a folded piece of paper. She held the paper out to Jax, who took it. “I swear to God, I hate scavenger hunts,” Naomi ground out.

Jax shrugged. “At least it’s not another encrypted data module.” She looked at him flatly. He looked past her. “There’s some seating over there by the boba joint.”

By the time Naomi sat down, Jax was drumming his fingers on the tabletop. He had the folded paper in the middle of the table. He glared as she sat. “What?” she demanded. “I wanted a drink.” She sat the milky white and brown drink down on the table, tapioca balls swishing gently at the bottom. Two hot dogs joined the drink. “And I was hungry.” She slid one of the hot dogs over to Jax.

“Whatever,” Jax said, grabbing one of the hot dogs.

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