Nora paced around her tiny office, wrapped with fervour. Tolly seated herself, staying out of Nora’s way. Corine entered with a fresh bottle of vaske and a fistful of glasses.

  "So, I take it that it didn't go well?" Corine asked, pouring the glasses.

  "He's a self-righteous scab!" Nora spat. "The Director thinks he can manipulate my life like he did and get away with it; he’s not seeing the sheep for the fur."

  "Who's this Director?" Corine asked.

  "You don't know?" Tolly asked.

  "I was hired by a third party. Long time ago, now," she said. “Should we really be discussing this in the open, though?”

  "What difference does all this secrecy matter now? He's the head of our lab, the one pulling strings around here," Nora explained.

  "And we hate this Director– got it," said Corine. "Is he new here, newer than my tenure I mean?"

  "Harold knew him, so he's at least that ancient," said Nora, "Oh gods, Harold..."

  "What's Harold gone and done now?"

  "He’s turn-coated and lit a fire under us with The Director. He kept the damned tablet I told him to destroy, little consequence that was."

  "I never liked him. We Chehalish don't trust our own," Corine said between sips.

  "The Director already knew we were there," said Nora, "So, all Harold's little stunt did was get himself canned."

  "No–" said Corine, shocked, "you're laughing. Harold's gone?"

  "On the next ship out. Back home, I imagine," said Nora, realising that Harold had been on Belltower since his teens. Now, an older man, he was being returned to a world he wouldn't recognize.

  "What do we do about The Director's prisoner?" Tolly asked.

  "What can we do?" said Nora.

  "You'll have to catch me up," Corine pressed. To which Nora proceeded to explain the events of the night, the break into Saturnus, the information they'd gathered on The Rys, the captive man, and the origin of the fluid samples, being careful to leave out any mention of Sam.

  "That's troubling," she said, "really stinks to know who you work for."

  "We have to do something," Tolly pressed. "We can’t just let that man rot in there while he changes into one of those things on Bordeaux."

  "Wait, hold on now. You were on Bordeaux's Folly during that attack?" asked an intrigued Corine.

  Tolly nodded.

  "Trouble just follows you around, then," said Corine. “You said your captive was turning into something?”

  Tolly considered for a moment before answering, “Horrible things– monsters. I’ve never seen anything like it before that day. Then after, they were everywhere.”

  Tolly fell quiet, and Nora could see she was trying to hold back tears. Nora’s anger waned as she watched the young woman shift inward and begin to shut down behind some painful memory.

  “Tolly,” Nora said, kneeling in front of her, “Tolly, you can tell us. All we have here are some weeks-old news bulletins. What happened on that planet?”

  “It was a nightmare,” Tolly said, “People were dying everywhere I went. When my friend Connor and I left the stadium, after watching so many die right across the pitch from us….”

  “You were in that stadium?” Corine gawked, pulling up and brandishing an image on her hand terminal. Nora gestured for her to put it away.

  “I was,” Tolly sobbed, “And after we left it only got worse. I was hunted by those monsters and had to see my sister, Blane, die. Worst of all, after leaving the city, I lost Connor, then after The Matriarch saved Soren and me, I had to watch him get sick.”

  Nora recognized that name, Soren, as the reason Tolly had come here. Her suspicions on the girl had been sound. She had seen a lot– too much for a lifetime.

  “And now you want to fix your friend. Fix Soren,” Nora said.

  “I don’t even know if I’m too late,” Tolly said, “but I can’t sit and watch another fall to the same fate.”

  “Well, what do we do?” Corine asked.

  Nora pat Tolly on the head, attempting to quell the anxiety roiling in her.

  “Can I speak to you outside?” Nora asked Corine, to which she replied with a nod. “We’ll just be right outside, Tolly.”

  After they left the office, Nora looked around the lab to see if any researchers were around.

  “Looking for Harold?” Corine asked. “From what you told me, I don’t expect to see him around here again.”

  “No, Corine,” said Nora, “I have something to tell you.”

  “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to enjoy this?” asked Corine.

  Nora sighed. “It’s about Sam,” she said and could see the moment grief broke through her denial-bricked and liquor-mortared walls.

  Corine nodded for her to continue.

  “His black site, the one that was lost, it was on The Rys.”

  “I knew he was gone, already. Now, what? You think he’s become one of The Captain’s monsters?” Corine said unapologetically.

  “I’m not suggesting anything, Corine. I’m just telling you what I’ve learned.”

  “What am I supposed to do with this? You know how hurt I’ve been; why even tell me?”

  Nora wasn’t expecting that. Sure, she knew it would be painful to hear, but she couldn’t imagine not wanting to know herself.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “You aren’t,” said Corine, “I know what goes on in your head. You heard some tasty bit of knowledge, and you what– dump it on me regardless of the damage it would cause? You and your damned curious mind!”

  “Corine, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” Corine spat. She was building up to yelling now. “You didn’t know because you only care about knowledge. It’s why I admired you at first. Now, I can see you are just as damaged as I am.”

  Corine, fuming as she tried to leave her emotions in check, walked a dozen feet away only to turn back. Whether it was due to the stress of losing Sam or to some latent feelings regarding his displacement by her, Nora could see the animosity in her boiling to the surface. Hatred was baked on her face.

  “You are a real bastard, Doctor Gaul,” Corine said, “you know that? I hope you and your Captain enjoy your little detective squad. I sure as hell don’t want any more part of it.”

  “Corine, please,” Nora called after her in vain as Doctor Corine Lann blew through the double doors behind her.

  It would be several days before Nora became convinced Corine was not coming back. Despite Tolly’s objections to returning to the status quo, she had resumed work, hoping that through dedication to the project it would convince Corine to return. But, after several days of coyly waiting for her friend to return, she decided to check the passenger manifests leaving Belltower. Sure enough, a Doctor Corine Lann was listed on a ship that departed two days prior and bound for Chehalis.

  The news feeds on the wallscreens of the concourse had resumed their regular programming, the people were back in the park playing with their children, and it seemed to Nora that everything outside of her bubble was returning to normal.

  Despite her own outrage, and Tolly’s persistent objections, Doctor Gaul and what remained of her team continued their work. That was until, just as The Director had promised, new recruits began to show up in droves.

  In the course of a week, her team went from the handful it had been to nearly forty bodies. Each of them filled the labs, running test after exhaustive test on the samples that seemed to flow with evermore fervour.

  Quickly, however, the equipment, which was once shiny and new during her early days, now showed signs of rapid decline and degradation as they were subject to the eager hands of the new recruits. It was soon after that Nora realised upon checking the camera feeds over the past several months, then years, that Harold had been the one maintaining it all. He had been coming in, well after hours, as he cleaned and repaired each of the pieces of equipment. Even the spectrometer that he himself had turned into a brick was tended to and restored on camera, which was now wheeled off into the backroom somewhere. He really didn’t like throwing anything out, Nora thought.

  Nora realised that Harold’s knack for technology and his innate need to fix the unfixable is why he was able to restore The Director’s terminal and use it to blow the lid on her and Tolly. He had been an ingenious man, dedicated to his work. Nora, blind to everything that kept her from gathering knowledge, was responsible for his exile from everything he had loved. It was this that finally broke her.

  Thinking of Corine returning to her homeworld, she briefly felt a similar pull to Pedi Mond; to escape back to what was friendly and safe. Nora knew that wasn’t going to cut it.

  Coming to Tolly’s quarters one night, Nora was convinced she had some things that she needed to fix. Having spent her life in pursuit of her career and having waited endlessly for an opportunity like the one she had found with Saturnus, Nora now found herself with other priorities. She had been trained as a professional to ‘do no harm,’ and she was damned if she was going to sit and let Smythe dictate terms.

  Leaving straight from the lab, Nora destroyed most of the remaining fluid and tissue samples. She kept only a few vials of the fluid, as well as the foot. After sealing the foot in vacuum plastic, Nora placed the bag into another larger bag filled to the brim with waste matter she had diverted from the lab’s lavatory, which she hoped would confuse any of the station's biosensors. She unceremoniously tossed the layered horror in her day bag. Nora didn’t even return home, knowing she had nothing really there that held any meaning for her anymore. Her job, and the status that came along with it, were now and forever forfeit.

  “Doctor Gaul?” a sleepy-eyed Tolly had said when answering her door well past midnight, “what’s wrong?”

  “Pack your bags. Pack everything,” Nora said, “we’re leaving.”

  Tolly didn’t protest. It only took a few minutes for Tolly to grab everything she had and stuff it into an old battered duffle and join Nora in the concourse outside. The concourse was empty, the families gone to their homes, the carts closed and locked, except for one stall. Nora and Tolly moved over to where Oseto was opening his kiosk for the day.

  “Did you enjoy your swim, Oseto?” Nora asked as they approached in the dim lighting.

  “Dear Doctor– and Captain,” Oseto remarked, his brambles still wet with moisture from his morning swim. It dripped a path on the floor plating back to the elevator he came in from.

  “A bit early to open shop, isn’t it?” asked Tolly.

  “You humans and your sleeping,” he said, “another oddity I just cannot get used to. Come now, what is it Oseto Oteso can do for you on this day?”

  “I need to get a message to someone,” said Nora.

  “Is that all?” he asked, his fronds chittering.

  “First, I need you to find them.”

  “You will need to do something for me first,” he said, “as is the custom.”

  “What is it, Oseto?” asked Nora. Having had such a difficult time fulfilling his wishes the first time, Nora couldn’t imagine what asinine favour he was about to ask of her.

  “I have grown weary of this station, these people,” he said. “I had thought that repairing my pool, swimming again, would rid me of my discontent. I know now that shallow, sterile waters cannot substitute from the depths of a true ocean. I yearn to feel the sea within me again.”

  “And how am I to do that? I’m not about to bring an ocean here to Belltower.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Take me with you,” he rattled, “buy me passage to Vass, to my home. I cannot afford it on my own.”

  The simplicity of it surprised her. Without a moment’s thought, however, she agreed. Nora booked the three of them transfers aboard Mobius Charters, a fledgling shipping and cargo transfer company based out of Moby, a world Nora had never heard of which would place it far outside The Sovereignty’s and Saturnus’ purview. She also made sure to book space for a shipment of eighty kilos of what she labelled as luggage. The shuttle departure, set for twenty-four hours from her time of purchase, should give Nora, Tolly, and Oseto enough time to escape The Director’s clutches with his prize.

  Pulling out all the stops and brandishing every connection, favour, and bribe all while draining the remainder of Nora’s once laughably flush bank accounts, Oseto set out his webs to uncover the location of The Director’s alien prisoner.

  "He's where?" asked Nora, suddenly faced with a wall of indecision.

  "My contact tells me that the one you seek is three levels down under the concourse," said Oseto.

  "What's he doing there?" asked Tolly, to which Oseto only shrugged.

  "Another black site. Figures they’d have more than one on Belltower," said Nora. "Bound to be heavily guarded."

  "What is more,” Oseto added, “I have a man on the inside, as your kind might say. He’s not the most reputable, but he wants to get away from here even more than I.”

  “Who is this man– what’s the catch?” asked Nora.

  “Findlay Chikore – an investigator of sorts. He was the one who convinced me to leave my homeland and come to this desolate place. In fact, he is responsible for the hiring of many of your underlings to their current posts. He may have had a hand in your recruitment as well.”

  “So he’s a corporate headhunter?” Tolly asked. “What good will he do us?”

  “I must insist that you speak to him yourself. If anything, it’s his insistence that may convince you to trust him,” Oseto insisted.

  “What makes you think he will help us– and on such short notice?” asked Nora, sceptical.

  “In his own words one night while we drank, ‘Oseto, I need to get the hell out of here,’” Oseto said, mimicking perfectly the supposed voice of Findlay.

  Nora considered this and how flimsy the whole situation was working itself out to be. She realised, however, that the time to turn back was several dozen destroyed samples ago and her own self-sacking. For now, she would have to trust him.

  “Set it up,” she said, to which Oseto waved his fronds in a nodding gesture. Then with another wave, gestured for them to turn around.

  Behind them across the concourse was a man seated at a table sipping a cup and trying his best not to look conspicuous. He had done an excellent job, and aside from the out-of-place pair of sunglasses on his face, Nora wouldn’t have even noticed him if not for Oseto.

  Oseto waved, and the man stood, pacing his way over to them.

  “Findlay Chikore,” he said from behind his sunglasses, “I take it you are Nora?”

  “You work for Saturnus?” Nora asked, shaking Findlay’s hand, “how is it I’m just hearing about you now?”

  “You must be familiar with Saturnus’ secrecy,” he said, “and besides, I was never officially employed by them. In fact, Doctor Nora Gaul, if memory serves, neither were you.”

  The two of them inspected each other, all while keeping a firm grip on the other’s hand. Sensing the tenseness of the situation, Tolly intervened.

  “Mr. Chikore,” said Tolly, “Oseto says you can help us. Can I ask how?”

  “I’m sorry,” Findlay said, breaking his hold on Nora, “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your file, Miss?”

  “Tolly,” she said, and Nora noted she had opted not to shake the man’s hand. “Captain Tolly Ignacio.”

  “I thought so. I would remember a face like yours had I brought you into the fold. That accent,” Findlay said, “you are not from The Sovereignty?”

  “The Herd, actually,” Tolly answered.

  “The Federation. Interesting. Come now, tell me how you came to be on Belltower.”

  “Can we skip the preamble?” Nora interrupted, “the task we have before us is increasingly time-sensitive.”

  “Of course, you are the boss after all,” said Findlay. “Did Oseto fill you in on my expertise?”

  Oseto nodded, adamant that he had. Nora and Tolly shook their heads, unsatisfied with Oseto’s esoteric introduction.

  “Well then, where do I begin? I am an investigator by trade when, in reality, much of my talents are wasted here on this station performing menial recruitment fulfilment.”

  “If you don’t mind, can we speed this along?” pressed Nora.

  “Yeah, what does an investigator do?” asked Tolly, misreading Nora’s insistence.

  “An investigator serves many purposes. From procurement of lost goods to tracking any manner of people to discovery of the unknown. You can liken us to the explorers of old, striking out into places most people better not ought to.”

  “You might consider me an investigator, then. For it's goods I procure!” Oseto trilled.

  “Not quite, my old friend. Though I can appreciate your line of work and its monotony,” said Findlay. From the man’s tone, his matter-of-factness might have offended anyone else, but Oseto seemed unperturbed.

  “How very vague,” Nora said.

  “What brings you to Belltower, then?” asked Tolly.

  “Money,” Findlay admitted, “and perhaps a warrant on my life or two. But that’s far from important way out here on the edge of civilization.”

  “So you’re a criminal,” said Nora, bluntly. “Oseto, you better not be wasting our time with this.”

  “I assure you, my time is of no waste to your’s. I can and will produce the man you seek from his confinement. The Director, be damned.”

  “Fine. Then, when do we start?” asked Nora.

  “What can we do to help?” asked Tolly.

  “Do I have time for one last swim?” asked Oseto.

  “Your fronds will have to wait, Oseto,” said Findlay, “We have already begun. I have many contacts, many of them owing me favours. And, if my timing were crystal, and it always is, we can expect the station alarms to sound in three… two...”

  With that, alarms blared throughout the Alpha level concourse, causing each of the cart operators and the families in the park to cover their ears and look around in confusion. Nora and her companions followed suit, cupping their ears and feigning ignorance not to draw any suspicion. By now, Nora knew that The Director and all of Saturnus would know something was amiss, and the whole station would be going into lockdown.

  “This is your plan?” she asked at the top of her lungs between alarm sounds, “to trap us on this station?”

  “It was my understanding that you were in charge of our escape plan, Doctor,” said Findlay unapologetically. “Oseto said as much.”

  “I had a way, yes. But chances are they aren’t going to be boarding shuttles during a lockdown.”

  “What about the prisoner? How do we get him out?” asked Tolly.

  “The subject you speak of has been sprung,” Findlay said, tracing something on his terminal. Nora didn’t know what he was planning, nor did she care. All she could think of now were the walls closing in on her. Had she given up her prestige all for a chance to live out her days in a cell?

  That’s when she felt it, a certain eeriness creeping in as if it were approaching from all sides. Tolly felt it, too, her head suddenly darting around. Oseto could sense something and began rustling his brambles like a tree in a gust of wind.

  “What have you done?” Nora pleaded to Findlay, demanding answers.

  “I did as I was asked,” Findlay said, “nothing more.”

  Just as Findlay’s fingers finished tracing a line on his terminal, a pair of double doors burst open from the far end of the concourse. Out of the doors, a dozen guards wearing Saturnus-branded body armour paced out with their backs to Nora and their guns pointed from where they came. The guards took long, deliberate strides backwards with enough precaution not to break so much as an errant twig. After them, a silhouette of an industrial-grade environment suit emerged, its blast shield fully sealed. The suited individual had their arms raised and inches away from the suit’s helmet as if threatening to unseal it.

  “I take it you’re Doctor Nora Gaul?” the suited individual said in the heavily synthesised voice of the suit’s intercom.

  “I am,” Nora said, confused. “Are you the test subject?”

  “Please, ma’am, it’s not safe. You have to evacuate the area!” one of the guards barked at her. The suited man jostled his hands in a renewed threat towards his helmet, silencing the guard.

  “You mean torture victim?” he said, his thick and strange accent making his words difficult to track, “I am. My name’s Oscar.”

  “What are you doing to these guards?” Nora asked, “They seem a little on edge.”

  “With the kind of help you sent for me, I take it you know a little about what I am,” said Oscar, “I do not wish to harm any more. I simply explained to these fine men and women of the guard that should I remove this helmet of mine, and unseal my vacsuit, that I might unleash a plague upon them.”

  “Oh,” Nora said, “Is that all?”

  Nora didn’t know whether that was even possible, having such meagre contact with the samples taken from Oscar, but she supposed at this point his plan seemed to be the one showing measurable progress, and he might as well be telling the truth. Tolly was nervously grasping at Nora’s sleeve, just as unsure how to handle it.

  “You asked, and so here he is,” said Findlay, “shall we go?”

  “What about the guards– the alarm?” Nora asked. The alarm sirens were starting to beat into the back of her skull.

  “Oh, right,” said Findlay. Turning away, he opened a bulletin on his terminal. “Okay,” he said, “shut it down.”

  Seconds later, the alarms stopped, along with the lights and the ever-present roaring of the station’s fans. Bystanders far into the concourse’s park, bundled together, screamed and fled to any exit they could find in the emergency lighting. Several guards shifted positions in the tumult as their commander barked orders, all until Oscar reminded them of his threat.

  “Hold your fire!” screamed the guard commander as he waved the others back.

  “No one needs to get hurt!” Oscar roared. “My compatriots and I are going to take that elevator and go.”

  The guards, who up until now hadn’t considered Nora and her group a threat, now turned their guns back and forth towards them and Oscar.

  “Do you have a plan to deal with these guards?” Nora asked Findlay.

  “I do,” he said before tapping a command on his terminal. Several of the guards twitched and dropped their guns to the floor before falling down in unison. Confusion spread throughout the rest of their ranks, forcing them to shift around erratically as they searched for a hidden enemy. The commander’s shouts for order went unheeded.

  “Exciting,” said Oseto.

  “How was that?” Findlay asked.

  “Nice trick,” Nora admitted.

  “There’s still a few of them,” said Tolly.

  The guards finished reforming in their ranks after having dragged several of their number off to the sidewalls. The commander stepped forward and urged his men to lower their rifles.

  “I can’t just let you all go,” he said.

  “You don’t have a choice,” said Oscar as he crossed the space over to Nora and her group, being careful to keep his hands in position. Tolly gestured for the man in the suit to follow her, along with Oseto, over to the lift. The crowds had long since left the concourse, leaving Nora alone as she stood between the disgruntled guardsmen and their escaped prisoner.

  Findlay and Oseto had entered the lift, followed closely behind by Tolly and Oscar. The guards were still slowly inching towards them, cautious for another attack from within their ranks. The guard commander’s gaze was fixated on Nora, and she knew deep in herself that she had just made a decision that she could never revoke, something that would follow her for the rest of her life.

  Nora took one last look out at the concourse. Now empty and darkened, she could still smell the rich food from the carts and even swore she heard a faint whisper of an echo of families playing in the park. No matter what was about to happen to her, she would never forget this place.

  As the lift doors closed and the imminent threat from the guards dissipated, Oscar lowered his arms.

  “Well, now, that was exciting,” said Oscar.

  “You got our message then I see, ” said Findlay, his face still buried in his terminal. “Good.”

  “Nice to make your acquaintance, Mister Oscar,” said Oseto as he held out a bundle of brambles in greeting. Oscar flinched at this, noticeably shocked at Oseto’s presence.

  “I am sorry, Oseto was it?” said Oscar, “I have not encountered one of your kind before.”

  “I had the same reaction,” said Nora, as she slammed on the shutdown button for the lift, disabling it. Just outside the lift doors, the guards were shouting to one another in an attempt to yell the doors open.

  “Shouldn’t we be getting the hell out of here?” asked Tolly.

  “I have questions. Questions that need addressing,” said Nora. She turned to Oscar and asked, “What the hell are you?”

  “I am Oscar,” he said obtusely.

  “Well, you’re not human, Oscar. And you sure as shit aren’t vass like our friend here,” Nora spat. “Speak.”

  “You have a right to be suspicious, Doctor Gaul. And, while I count myself in your debt for rescuing me, I insist that we must wait for safer waters. Assuredly you can see that time has worn thin,” Oscar insisted.

  After several ineffective shots were fired off, the guards outside on the concourse now resorted to using their rifles as sledgehammers against the outer doors.

  Nora was torn between continuing on the blunder she had started and just quitting now and opening the doors herself. Oscar was stonewalling her. Findlay and Oseto were outright using her, damned of the consequences. It wasn’t until she looked over to Tolly and the knowing look the young woman had in her eyes that Nora knew what she had to do. Nora slammed the button to re-engage the lift, sending it up and away from the noise generated by the struggling guardsmen.

  “Well, then. It would seem our ride is waiting for us,” Nora said. Oscar nodded through his suit a sigh of relief.

  “You said they would lockdown boarding,” Tolly questioned. “How do we get to our charter?”

  “Yes, do tell. I have an unending desire to not end up in prison,” said Findlay.

  “The Director will have been notified by now, and our faces will be on every bulletin in Belltower,” said Nora. “Our only hope is we can get to the shuttle bays before Saturnus does. I can’t say anything for what we do once we get there– take a shuttle at gunpoint, I suppose.” Nora scoffed to herself, realising how insane that sounded coming from her own mouth.

  “We don’t have any guns, Doctor,” said Tolly.

  “We have him,” said Nora as she pointed towards Oscar. “His little bioweapon threat worked once already. You can’t really release a pathogen into the station, can you?”

  “Most assuredly not,” said Oscar, “It is an invention of fiction, though I must admit it helped that the guards had not seen my kind before.”

  “None of us have, Oscar. You are an enigma; one I would very much like to figure out once this is all over,” said Nora.

  “You have my word,” Oscar promised.

  “You’re not a monster under that suit, are you?” asked Tolly apprehensively.

  “I don’t know this word – monster?” asked Oscar.

  “We’re here,” warned Findlay, finally looking up from his terminal, “and I have a surprise in store.”

  “What now, Findlay?” asked Nora. As the lift slowed, a growing clamour of voices and moving feet could be heard. On the other side of the door, Nora could feel something was waiting for them.

  “More guards?” asked Tolly.

  “Some. Maybe. Though that is not the gift I promised,” said Findlay.

  The lift stopped, and the doors opened to reveal a melee of bodies pushing and roaring each other. The guards that had been dispatched to head off Nora and her troupe were there but unable to reach them through the bedlam. Dockworkers, young and old, formed a line on either side of the lift, parting the guards like a great sea, and threatened to turn the situation into a true-to-form riot.

  “What did you do?” Nora yelled to Findlay over the wailing voices as the group stepped off the lift and skirted the fray.

  “I simply released the payroll records,” he yelled back to her. “I thought it prudent to let these proud dockworkers know of the payscales the guardsmen are paid versus theirs; nearly double, sometimes triple their own. Though, I assure you, that was my last chip to play.”

  “I appreciate it!” Nora yelled.

  “You people are mad– I love it!” said Oscar as he hurried ahead. Before he did, he took Tolly’s hand in his environment suit’s and said, “Come, Captain Ignacio, let me see you to the shuttle.”

  “Shall we?” asked Nora to Findlay. They moved along the slim path formed by writhing bodies. Of the guardsmen that did recognize them as they passed, they had already been disarmed and had only words to yell in protest. Nora felt untouchable, almost as if this was somehow vindication of her actions.

  “Nora, let’s go!” Tolly yelled from ahead of her, “Mobius Charters is up here!”

  “Dear Doctor, I do believe it is time we left,” said Oseto, urging her from behind.

  As Nora neared the kiosk for Mobius Charters, a frightened clerk was already getting a mouthful from Tolly. As Nora walked up with Oseto in tow, however, it only seemed to increase the woman’s unease.

  “She’s insisting we not board until the riot is contained,” said Tolly.

  Nora let out a deep breath. “My name’s Nora,” she said to the clerk, “and you are?”

  “Kara,” said the clerk.

  “Hi, Kara,” said Nora, “Can you see what is happening all around us?”

  Kara nodded.

  “All of this is for us. That means if we don’t get on this shuttle right now, things may get worse,” Nora explained. “Can you agree that might be a possibility?”

  Kara nodded. “I would let you board if I could, but I am not allowed to admit criminals…” said Kara, as delicately as she was able.

  Nora was about to rebut when Findlay spoke up.

  “Kara... Karalai Hanjou. That is you, isn’t it?” he asked. Kara nodded.

  “Kara, I’ve just deposited several months of your salary worth of credits into your personal account,” he said, “If you would please open the gate and let my friends and I board?”

  “I thought you said you were out of tricks?” Nora nudged. Findlay shrugged.

  Checking her terminal, Kara looked back up seconds later with a grin.

  “I’ve also booked passage under an alias for you aboard this very shuttle,” said Findlay.

  Kara, wide-eyed now, tapped a command to unbatten the gate. Findlay extended a hand forward, and the group of them followed in as Kara led the way off Belltower station and onto a better life.