I hated that effect. It was freaky.

  Intricate angular braces supported the portal, giving it an odd appearance. The control panel, full of buttons, was all touch-driven and holographic. When operational, this device created a stable tunnel through space, connecting two distant planets for instantaneous travel.

  “Well, well, well,” Renn said. His attitude was pissy. “If it isn’t Dane Tanner, the quitter.”

  My hands were already clenching into fists at my sides. I wanted to knock that look right off his face, but I knew I couldn’t. They owned me now—at least for one mission.

  “I didn’t quit, Doc,” I said. “We had a falling out.”

  Renn snorted, his eyes flickering over me with contempt. “Yes, and your cock fell out of your pants.” He seemed to think this was super-funny. “You left us high and dry, Tanner. Ran off like a child after a bad dream.”

  “Let’s just do this, Doc. Before one of us needs stitches.”

  “Stitches? Were you injured? I’ll call that new nurse in here…”

  I almost stopped him but thought the better of it. Could he be talking about Tina?

  Dr. Renn made the call to the medical center, then he started to tap at a series of holographic controls. His fingers pumped over the glowing buttons and switches that weren’t really there. I didn’t know why XCU couldn’t afford real, plastic switches.

  The portal machine droned. The tone quickly rose and evened out into a hum. An image appeared in the center of it.

  “Haven-7…” Renn said in a lecturing tone. “A harsh, unforgiving planet. Two factions, the Techborn and the Dusters, locked in a never-ending battle for control. In other words, a real shithole.”

  A holographic globe appeared on one wall. It spun slowly. It looked like a cross between Earth and Mars, with vast deserts and jagged mountain ranges.

  “The Techborn horde all the technology,” Renn continued, his eyes fixed on the globe. “That’s why they call themselves that—Techborn. They think they have some kind of divine right to all the best equipment from Earth. Isn’t that bizarre?”

  “It’s frigging hilarious, Doc. Where’s Tina?”

  “Who?”

  “The nurse you mentioned.”

  “She’s on her way. I hope you’re not attempting to claim you can’t be transmitted for medical reasons, Tanner. That would be highly unethical.”

  I could feel the throb of my gut wound as it continued to heal. My knee could stand an ice pack too, but I decided to keep quiet and continue to walk it off.

  “No, Doc. Just tell me about the planet.”

  “Ah yes… besides the ruling Techborn, there are the Dusters. The peasant class has the numbers—and the foodstuffs...” He shook his head. “They are rather disorderly.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s just say, you don’t want to go for a walk without a weapon on this world.”

  I stared at the globe. My thoughts were unhappy. This place was sounding better and better. What the hell had I gotten myself into? Again?

  Renn droned on about the portal’s inner workings after that, throwing around terms like “quantum entanglement” and “hyperdimensional harmonics.” I tried to look interested, nodding along like I gave a shit—which I didn’t.

  All I cared about was getting this contract over with. I was kind of hoping to see Tina again, too. I wanted to make sure her job was secure. After all, that had been part of the deal I’d struck with Brandt.

  “The portal is a delicate instrument,” Renn said. “It requires precise calibration and constant monitoring. Even the slightest deviation could have catastrophic consequences.”

  Yeah, yeah, I kept saying in my head, fighting the urge to roll my eyes.

  Renn turned to me. His gaze was suddenly sharp. “I know you’re familiar with this process, Tanner. But we’ve changed some of our policies. Only organic matter is now allowed to pass through the portal.”

  I gaped at him. “What? Why the hell is that?”

  “It’s a cost-saving measure. Inorganic materials are far too expensive. You’ll have to leave it all behind. Excessive organics are forbidden as well.”

  “Excessive…? Are you talking about my clothes?”

  “Of course.”

  “Shit… I have to fly naked? Seriously?”

  “No, no it’s not that bad. You can take this.” He unfolded something thin and rattly. It was a suit made of paper—or papery thin cloth. I couldn’t believe it. A trash bag would be more resilient.

  My hand instinctively went to the buzzblade at my hip. “What about weapons?”

  Renn shook his head. “No weapons. No gear. Just this.”

  He rattled the “garment” at me.

  My fingers tightening around the buzzblade’s handle. More bullshit—already. I didn’t like the idea of going in unarmed.

  “Fine,” I growled. “But I’m going to look like a fool wandering some colony world in this paper suit.”

  “No, you won’t. The field will be very tight. The suit is designed to burn away on transmission, see? It has a double-purpose of—”

  “So, I do have to fly naked?” I repeated.

  Renn shrugged and pursed his lips. “Not on the way out—only upon arrival.”

  “Holy…”

  I set aside the absurd outfit. I’d worn hospital gowns that were more substantial. I wasn’t putting it on until it was go-time.

  Removing the buzzblade and its strap, I set the weapon on a nearby table. It felt wrong, like I was leaving a part of myself behind.

  Renn was satisfied. “Very good. Now, let’s talk more about Haven-7. It’s an odd culture…”

  I half-listened as Renn rambled on about the planet’s history and politics. I gave zero shits. I didn’t need to know the details. All I needed was a target and a way to get back home.

  I wanted to yawn sooo bad, but I held it back. Just point me in the right direction, Doc. I’ll take care of the rest.

  I was ready to hang myself from boredom by the time Renn finally left the lab. His footsteps echoed down the hallway.

  The door soon slid open again, and Tina walked in, her eyes wide with concern. She was wearing her nurse’s uniform. The white fabric clung to her curves, and I tried not to stare.

  “Tina…?”

  Speak of devils, and you’ll meet one. At least, that’s what my batty grandma used to say...

  “Dane?” she said softly. “Are you okay?”

  “Never better!”

  Tina came near. She smiled at me. “Did you get a job here, too?”

  “I sure did. You must have put in the good word for me.”

  She shook her head, making her hair bounce. She smiled at my arms as she took my blood pressure and the rest. It was nice to have kind hands touching me again. It had been awhile…

  “I didn’t even know you’d applied,” she said. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

  Then, she glanced up at the rift. It was shimmering and showing an alien planet. She frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re going out… there.”

  “Guilty.”

  “But you only just got hired! What the hell kind of a training regimen is this?”

  I forced a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ll be back tomorrow, they say.”

  “Your vitals are stable,” Tina said, studying the readout. “But you’re still healing. You shouldn’t be exerting yourself so soon.”

  I shook my head, pushing myself off the exam table. “It’s a job, you know? Colonists need some help. That’s what they hired me to do. Get myself torn up by alien bugs. Someone has to do it.”

  Tina winced and looked at me. Her eyes were all squinty. “Dane… it seems unfair. You already saved my butt a dozen times back at the labs.”

  At her words, I couldn’t help but visualize that butt of hers she’d mentioned… I wouldn’t mind saving it a few more times. That was the part that was about to suck—to suck hard. I was going off-world through some portal to some backwater colony world. By the time I came home, she’d probably be parked in some other clown’s bed.

  But I didn’t let on what I was thinking.

  “Hey,” I said, forcing a smile. “You know me. I’m too stubborn to die.”

  She threw her arms around me suddenly, squeezing tight. I patted her back awkwardly.

  Tina pulled away, her eyes shining. “I just wanted to thank you. For getting me out of the Complex. For everything that happened... and for recommending me for this job. I know you did.”

  I frowned. “Tina, I didn’t—”

  But she was already backing away, waving. “Your vitals are all good—perfect. I’ve got to run. They want me in the med center ASAP.”

  “But we’ll catch up later—when I get back, right?” I asked.

  Tina nodded, but I got the impression she was upset. She didn’t want me to go off to some alien world, I guess. I couldn’t blame her for that. I wasn’t too keen on it, either.

  And then she was gone, disappearing into the depths of the command center.

  Dom appeared as she exited. He followed her with his eyes. I could tell he liked what he saw as much as I did—maybe more.

  My eyes filled with dark suspicion about the way Dom had brought up Tina to me. He’d used her to lever me into this job—as had Brandt. Now, I was hearing that Tina thought I’d brought up her name to Dom.

  Something was at the heart of this tangled, stinking mess. It went by the name of Dom Serrano.

  “What the hell, Dom? I never recommended her for anything.”

  He shrugged, that infuriating smirk still plastered on his face. “No, you didn’t. But I knew you’d want her here. And XCU needed a nurse. Our medical people tend to quit often.”

  I took a step forward, my fists clenched at my sides. “So you lied to her? Made her think I vouched for her?”

  Dom held up his hands, palms out. “Easy, Tanner. It’s not a lie. Not really. You would have recommended her if I’d asked. We both know that.”

  I wanted to argue. To tell him he was full of shit. But I couldn’t. Because he was right. I would have recommended Tina in a heartbeat.

  I forced myself to take a deep breath. To unclench my fists. “Fine. But if anything happens to her...”

  Dom’s smirk widened. “Relax, Tanner. She’s not the one to worry about. Her pretty ass will be safe and sound here on Earth. You’re the one who’s shipping out to some pile of rocks in the vicinity of Spica.”

  “All right. But I’m holding you personally responsible for her safety.”

  Dom clapped me on the shoulder. “Of course. You have my word.”

  After Dom left, I eyed the portal. It was kind of freaky to think I could just step out and vanish to another world. It wasn’t time yet, of course. Getting ready, prepping everything just right for a transmission—it always seemed to take forever.

  Eventually, another guy from my past showed up. The door slid open again and Phil Jenkins walked in. His eyes fixed on a datapad in his hands. He looked up and grinned when he saw me.

  “Dane! Seriously? They said you were back, but… I didn’t expect to see you on the launchpad tonight!”

  “Good to see you too, man.” Phil was one of the few people in this place I actually liked. Kid was smart as a whip and had a heart of gold. He was the kind that didn’t belong in a viper pit like XCU.

  Phil set the datapad down on the table. “Same old, same old. Just making sure everything’s ready for your jump.”

  I nodded, watching as he moved around the lab, checking readings and making adjustments. Phil was the only one I actually trusted to make sure the equipment was up to snuff. He actually gave a damn.

  “Remember that time that Capellan beast got in here?” I asked, the memory suddenly surfacing.

  Phil chuckled, shaking his head. “How could I forget? We were almost bug chow.”

  I grinned, remembering the look on his face when he’d burst into the room, pulse rifle blazing. He missed, sure… but the kid had balls.

  “Hook me up, and don’t cross the wires this time,” I told him.

  Waving a hand, he dismissed the comment. “I haven’t done that since Wednesday.”

  Would I call Phil a friend…? Yeah, I guess so.

  Friends. The word felt foreign on my tongue. I didn’t have many of those these days. But Phil was definitely on that short list.

  He pointed at my flimsy paper suit, the material crinkled when you touched it. “You know about that get-up, right? It’s designed to burn away during transmission.”

  I raised an eyebrow, eyeing the suit skeptically. “Am I getting burned, too? I’m not an overly sensitive, guy, but…”

  Phil grinned, patting me on the shoulder. “Trust me, it’ll do the job. The lab-gadget boys downstairs did a good job. This way we can get the field envelope much tighter, which reduces the transmission costs by almost half.”

  Budgets. Everything was about budgets.

  “Time to put on the monkey-suit, Dane,” he said, “We’re doing this.”

  Grumbling, I stripped down and slipped into the paper outfit. The material was clingy. It adhered to my skin like a second layer. It felt strange, almost like I was wearing nothing at all. I could tell it wasn’t really paper—paper would have been rougher and thicker.

  “All right,” Phil said, handing me a small armband next. “This will monitor your vitals and make sure everything goes smoothly.”

  I slipped the armband on. It pulsated with tiny vibrations on my bicep.

  Phil walked away, then. He hid behind a radiation shield. I didn’t get anything like that, nothing protective. I had to wonder how many rads I was getting when I took one of these tours to the stars. They’d never wanted to give me a number—but the dose had to be high.

  The warning lights flashed as the portal whirred to life. It took a long time to warm up. Dr. Renn finally showed up, his face twisted in a scowl. He rushed over to the control panel, his fingers flying over imaginary buttons.

  Great… I hoped I wasn’t in line for another lecture from Dr. Know-It-All.

  “Tanner!” Renn shouted over the growing whirring sound coming from the machinery. “The portal is about to open. Get yourself into position! The portal will be very brief, you must not hesitate!”

  More budget cuts?

  “Just don’t fry me,” I said, forcing a grin.

  “Do not let your fears grip you,” Renn said, making me frown all over again. “This is a normal procedure. Pretend I’m your X-ray tech—or maybe your gynecologist. Someone you trust implicitly.”

  My face scrunched up. “I’d rather not.”

  I stepped up to what we called “home plate.” It was a triangular pad directly in front of the growing rift. One big step—that was all it would take to launch myself into the portal. The key was to keep a steady, natural pace of forward movement. You didn’t want to dive through or step through slowly. You wanted to keep the speed even. You also didn’t want to try to go backward once you were partway in. That would lead to a big red stain all over the tiles.

  The portal pulsed and throbbed, the light growing so bright it hurt my squinting eyes. It looked like a high-tech blender, ready to chop me into tiny pieces.

  This is insane, I kept thinking. I must be out of my goddamn mind…

  I always thought that. Every time. You couldn’t not think that.

  Phil appeared at my side then, surprising me. He’d stepped out from behind his protective shield. What the hell had gone wrong?

  He handed me something heavy and metal, pressing it into my palm.

  “You’re going to need this.” His whisper was barely audible over the roar of the machine. “Things are worse out there than they’re letting on. Just don’t be an asshole and tell anyone how you got it.”

  I looked down. It was my buzzblade, the weapon I’d been directed to leave behind. I glanced back up at Phil, but he had raced away, slipping behind his big blocky shield again.

  My fingers tightened around the hilt of the blade. Damn, I liked the kid better than ever, now. He had just risked his job, and maybe even irradiated his balls, to give me a better fighting chance.

  “The rift is opening…” Renn shouted. “It is stable… now!”

  Turning back to the rift, I hesitated. I hate to admit it. I’ve done this a dozen times in the past, going out to other, distant worlds. Bypassing all the nonsense about starships and years in frozen sleep-tanks. This was the only way Earth could quickly interact with her colonies—too bad it cost enough power to run a city for a year to send out a single, naked man.

  “Tanner!” Dr. Renn shouted again, almost howling with desperation. “We’re burning money, man! Get your posterior into that portal!”

  Steeling myself, I lifted my right foot off the pad. I began the forward motion. Once I made contact with the field, there was no turning back. It was like diving off a cliff—a drop that reached all the way across the blackness of interstellar space.

  My foot made contact with the field. It was tangible, like a soap bubble made of static electricity. Committed now, I moved forward. The light of the portal washed over me. It felt like I was stepping into the sun.

  And then I was gone, swallowed up by the universe.

  Chapter 7

  Heat hit me like a physical blow. First, it hit my hand, so I dropped my buzzblade. I was left shaking my fingers. Transmission between star systems with metal objects didn’t go well. The knife hadn’t quite gotten glowing hot, but it was more than uncomfortable. Like when you lit a match and held onto it for too long until it got down to your fingertips.

  I quickly became aware of more heat. Haven-7 was like a blast furnace already. I squinted up into the harsh glaring sun. It was a K-class orangey dwarf, closer than our own sun, but slightly dimmer.

  The sky matched the sun. It was a sickly yellow, and the bloated orange ball hanging low on the horizon looked too big. Everything looked… wrong…

  My eyes were slowly adjusting to the alien landscape. The ground was a patchwork of rust-colored sand and jagged rocks.

  I looked in the opposite direction, over my shoulder. Yep, I’d guessed it. More rocks. What a surprise. They stretched out as far as the eye could see.