Psycho Electric by Randolph Lalonde

Author:Randolph Lalonde [Lalonde, Randolph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781988175379
Publisher: Randolph Lalonde

19

The Steel Garden

* * *

Sleep came easily to everyone but Rafe. Jack rested on a frame built for his rig. Erda was behind a thin cabin door on the only bed, snoring just loudly enough for the sound to reach his ears, and Liam was curled up on a hammock. Everyone must be really tired, Rafe thought to himself. His guilt over Niranda’s death was still fresh, but after Erda shared her thoughts, moping over it felt more like self-pity.

Maybe there was nothing he’d be able to do to make up for what happened with Niranda, but he would accomplish nothing if he didn’t start working on it. As everyone else settled down to sleep, he pretended to do the same, but he was wide awake behind his closed eyelids. The only thing to connect to was the network in Jack’s ship. There were private files which were hidden behind a password, the basic systems which were running on software that made managing the ship as easy as possible, and a few games that were a little outdated. There was absolutely no way to contact the rest of the galaxy unless he was willing to connect to an old, slow relay that wouldn’t work for live content.

After reviewing his new systems and tweaking a few connections to his torso and legs, he ran out of things to do without moving around. Rafe’s mind kept wandering back to Niranda, or how there was an artificial intelligence out there who may have already stolen every bit of platinum he had. He was probably in the Cyberscape using his Avatar to collect more money, maybe even streaming to his viewers. Mixing frustration with restlessness was starting to turn his thoughts dark and toxic so he quietly stood up straight then left the rear section.

Exploration was a good distraction, especially after he closed the thick curtain that separated the rearmost area from the rest of the vessel. It was a recreational planet hopper. He started looking around the middle of the ship. The interior had its scars and scrapes, but it was fairly clean. The old kitchen was cyborg-centric. It had been roughly modified. There was a sink without a faucet, a tiny refrigerator, a few mismatched food dispensers that had been stolen from somewhere and a little counter space. He tapped the cherry button on the Forma dispenser and jumped as it ground and sputtered loudly. “Oh, shit! Not so loud, shush-shush!” he whispered urgently as he searched for an off switch. It stopped finally, and a pellet of food made for cyborgs dropped into the shallow cup at the bottom of the dispenser with a punctuating plink!

Rafe looked around, listened for signs that he’d woken someone up, didn’t hear any, then popped the shiny red pellet in his mouth. It was more intense than he was used to by far, filling his mouth with a rude artificial cherry flavour that was sweet and sour at the same time. “Oh, he’s tinkered with that,” Rafe muttered to himself as his eyes watered.

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