Phantom Song by Kate Sheeran Swed

Author:Kate Sheeran Swed [Swed, Kate Sheeran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spells & Spaceships Press
Published: 2019-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

14

Claire

Claire’s introduction to her SATIS sister was not off to a brilliant start. At least as far as she could tell, given that she was currently half eavesdropping on Iz’s conversation with Astra while standing wedged between the spaceship and the rickety garage door of the dock. So far, all she’d heard was “you made a deal without me?” followed by the rise and fall of explanations.

She could have turned up her sound sensors, but she figured some arguments were best left unheard.

The pod was barely big enough to fit three people for a flight, let alone double as accommodations. Although, a cyborg living in a moldy underground cabin was perhaps not one to talk.

Claire had changed into her undercover diva uniform so they could make their way here using regular old streets rather than tunnels. The sparkly-masked vigilante thing wasn’t going to cut it in the daylight, even the early dawn, so she’d traded that costume for soft flowing pants, long sleeves, and lace gloves that itched her biological hand like crazy, topped with one of her signature layered veils.

Ever since half the women in Landry City started copying the veil thing, strolling the streets unrecognized had become much easier. If they suspected what hid behind all that fabric, they’d be less inclined to imitate her.

It was a complicated feeling, to love a place that would shun her if it knew what she really was. Sometimes she imagined what it would be like to reveal her machinery in the middle of a performance and have the city embrace her with love and open arms instead of revulsion and horror.

Landry City was the symbol of light and progress in the system, the artistic capital. If hope didn’t exist here, it didn’t exist anywhere. The odds might be slim, but she had to believe it was possible.

Maybe one day she’d risk it.

Maybe.

Dawn lit the open sky above the dock, the last of Landry’s satellites blinking out of sight in the glare of Toccata’s morning arrival. Claire let herself close her eyes for a moment, allowing the rays to warm her face as the voices inside the pod dipped to whispers and rose back up again.

It wasn’t exactly how she’d pictured reuniting with Iz, battling an evil cyborg before escaping to her damp little cabin, but Iz hadn’t seemed to mind. She was either too polite or too captivated to comment on the strangeness of it.

Claire wasn’t sure which she’d have preferred.

“Fine,” Astra’s voice said from inside the pod, responding to something Claire hadn’t caught. “I’ll hear her out.”

Claire grinned. That sounded like her cue. She pushed away from the door and hopped up the short ladder into the pod.

Claire still wasn’t big on spaceships. She was a Landry girl, through and through. The last time she’d left here had ended in…well, computerized parts and a murderous AI guardian, not to put too fine a point on it. She’d dealt with space travel over the last five years, but she still didn’t like hurtling through a deadly vacuum while protected by a tin can.

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