“Before we go to camp,” Shoan said, “There’s something amazing you need to see.”

  They followed Shoan up the shore to the low-slung prairie scrub. Now Ham saw the detail that at first appeared to be a cloud of buzzing insects. The flowering ground cover reached up in shades of yellow and orange toward the horizon. Millions of butterflies danced.

  Blue wings, red and gold, green, white. Some bigger than a man’s hand, others smaller than a toenail. In and out. Around and through.

  Shoan and Myra reached into the fluttering clusters and drew out a group of butterflies which lit upon their hands.

  “You should see them in the morning,” Shoan said. “They take flight at sunrise. These plants they feed on are called milkweed. There’s at least six varieties, and they bloom nonstop. There are fields of these across the entire ecostem.”

  Myra blew gently at her butterflies, sending them away.

  “Sometimes, we sit between the plants and act like milkweeds. They land on us … it’s so much fun.”

  Ham hadn’t seen these kinds of smiles from ex-Green Sun since they left Hokkaido in a hurry. These two tried to train with the Talons but never caught on, unlike Po and Jai. He thought they looked like children who discovered the world’s greatest toys.

  “Remind me to set a wakeup for sunrise,” he told them.

  Shoan promised.

  “Oh, and one last thing. Stay out of the water. It drops off about two feet in. Straight down for a mile.”

  Kara clutched her arms against her chest.

  “Good to know. Sounds terrifying.”

  “It is. The sunlight doesn’t penetrate the surface more than a few feet. Aldo sent down an aquadrone with beamers on. Trust me. You don’t want to fall off the edge.” Shoan lightened his tone. “C’mon. We’ll introduce the others and get you set up for the night.”

  No one would call the camp rustic. The modules contained all the appointments of Promise life: Independent energy and water supplies, showers, beds, potted flowers, and a kiosk with offerings of snacks, fruits, and premade meals. Kara and Cando shared one, while Ham’s module featured double beds. Perhaps meant for Admiral Kane had the Aeternans arrived on schedule?

  Shoan and Myra introduced the three immortals on Aldo’s team by pulling them out of the lab module. They offered curt, respectful greetings yet lacked the Hokkis’ joy though they were as young. Ham wondered if they had taken on Aldo’s cynicism. They worked with the man far longer. Ham asked after Aldo only to be told he was conducting experiments in the “green zone.” They pointed to the conifer forest and returned to their work.

  “Excuse them,” Myra said. “They’re tired. Some days we work nonstop except for meals. We gather samples, analyze them, and record the data. Aldo has a very strict protocol. He set up base camp here about a year ago. He’s only cataloged ten percent of these ecostems. He hasn’t even started on the mountains.”

  Kara’s grimace matched Ham’s.

  “I don’t mean to question the man’s ability, but that number seems low,” she said. “Doesn’t he have drones and phasic tools for collection and analysis?”

  “He used drones for topographical maps. We collect everything by hand. We have trowels, shovels, clippers. Manual tools. We use phasics in the lab to analyze. Aldo says each ecostem has a terraform source code. He says it explains how the ecostem is able to thrive even if the climatic conditions aren’t right for it.”

  “Source code? As in, part of a programmable matrix?”

  “Something like that. He says the code can’t be found in one place. It’s everywhere. Flora, fauna, soil, rocks, water. He says we’ll find it at the cellular level.”

  “Like piecing together a jigsaw,” Shoan added.

  “To what end?” Ham asked. “We know about the intelligence behind the terraform. What does he hope to gain?”

  They offered a collective shrug.

  “We’ve only been here eight days. We’re not senior enough for the big answers.”

  Aldo Cabrise returned to camp an hour later, riding a rifter on the back of which he sported several metal cases. His team greeted him and carried the cases to the lab module.

  Ham knew Aldo would not resemble the Chancellor Admiral of decades gone by, but he didn’t expect to see this. The man was rail-thin, his features withered by age and the sun. Huge silver brows matched his hair, which fell over his shoulders in wiry strings. He wore a weathered jacket full of pockets, and his tool belt jingled when he jumped off the rifter. He grabbed a handkerchief and blew his nose.

  Then he walked past his three new guests without a word.

  Ham shared a quizzical moment with Kara and Cando, but the silence did not last long. Aldo wiped his brow with the handkerchief and turned on a dime.

  “What d’ya want me to say? Hello? There. I said it.”

  He waved them off and started for the lab. Ham noticed a limp.

  “We don’t intend to interfere with your work, Mr. Cabrise.”

  He didn’t look back.

  “Already have.”

  “But we’d love to know more, all the same. Perhaps over dinner?”

  Aldo pivoted. He stared down Ham, eyes wide with familiarity.

  “I know that accent. Haven’t heard it in nine years.” He pointed to Ham. “How are you still alive?”

  “I’m sorry. Perhaps you’re confusing me with someone. I am Ham Cortez. I …”

  “You’re a Chancellor. This planet eats Chancellors. I’ve seen it.”

  6

  C HI BAEK THOUGHT SHE KNEW how to have a good time. Huh. She had nothing on the Aeternans. When night fell on Promise, immortals took to the streets like there’d never be another. They laughed and danced, then danced as they laughed. They swigged from bottles in one hand and pulled on their pipes with the other. And the music … oh, the music everywhere. From the open markets to the audio clouds erupting from immortals with glowing irises, they filled the streets with a galactic playlist.

  They held nothing back. They kissed, rubbed, and groped. Pairs and triples. Whole groups took to the side avenues between the loaf-shaped habitats and shared their bodies. They wore the bare minimum for polite company, drawn to each other by finely carved physiques. The four Hokkis – Chi, Po, Jai, and Hiro – agreed on one thing about themselves: They were overdressed.

  Yet it didn’t seem to matter to the locals. They treated their visitors with kindness and at times, a deep curiosity. They offered subtle propositions. After more than a few drinks, Chi threw off her jacket and left it … she’d forgotten where. Po followed suit.

  She wore a half-dozen necklaces she picked up at a market and shared a pipe with Po before they ever thought about food. This wasn’t traditional poltash, which she’d never found the taste for back in Pinchon. The leaf was sweeter, the smoke was white, and it was everywhere. She thought it heightened her senses and for a few moments, made even the lanky Po Wynn seem sexually appealing.

  They stumbled into seats at an open bar, where food passed by on a carousel. Nobody objected if she took one of everything. The few workers inside the carousel seemed as easygoing and party-ready as the customers. She’d been told Aeterna didn’t have currency, but this seemed unnatural. Eat, drink, smoke to your delight without a price tag. Chi witnessed debauchery in the wild teen night clubs of elite Pinchon, but Hokkis still had to abide by rules of proprietary. Their parents set limits; they knew when to stop. She saw no evidence of such rules in Promise.

  At some point, Chi separated from the foursome. She remembered walking along the main avenue while Hiro, who kept his drinks to a minimum, pointed out specific technological or architectural features. He explained about the Walkers, which resembled door frames. Immortals used them as instant portals to other spots around the city.

  “Captain says they’re built off modified jumpgate tech. Apparently, it was the same tech that allowed the Chancellors to invade the city nine years ago. This will change everything if it gets off-world.”

  She thought it was interesting … for about two seconds.

  Then a hand grabbed hold and spun her around.

  A wild-eyed, blue-haired man with a crab tattooed to his face greeted Chi with a shout.

  “Hey, I thought it was you. Chi. Right? Platoon 1.”

  He didn’t look familiar, but he also wasn’t dressed in black armor.

  “Yes. Chi Baek. You were …?”

  “I was two slots away on the Crowfoot. Col. Woolsey talked to you during review. I hear you survived the raid on Scylla. I never made it inside the landing bay. Damn tracer beacons.”

  “Yeah. That was the wildest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “Sorry. Stupid me. I’m Den Kwo. I love meeting fellow Hokkis.”

  “You’re Hokki? You don’t look …” She cursed her stupidity. This man wasn’t the first Hokki immortal she’d known without the native features. “Apologies. It’s hard to tell you Aeternans apart.”

  “No worries. We all had to be somewhere.”

  “And you were?”

  “Hooshan. You probably never heard of it. A mining collective outside Puratoon. And you?”

  “Pinchon.”

  His eyes ballooned.

  “Damn. You must have lived the high life.”

  “It wasn’t awful. Hey, if you like meeting Hokkis, I’m with three others who …”

  When she swung about, Chi couldn’t find Po, Jai, or Hiro. Had they even noticed she stopped?

  “I saw them. Don’t worry about those guys. They’ll be fine. So, uh, have you had chance to see the city?”

  “Fair bit. We had guides, but they left us alone after sunset.”

  “Have you been to The Goliath?”

  “What is it?”

  “A little taste of Hokkaido. Do you like drifting opera?”

  “What? They have it here?”

  “The booster dome isn’t as high, but it’s catching on.”

  “I haven’t done the drift in two years.”

  He grabbed both her hands as if they were old friends.

  “Then you are so ready to grind. You’ll love it.”

  Chi hesitated long enough to realize she didn’t need the others.

  “Let’s grind.”

  He led her by the hand, racing through crowds two blocks east on the grid. The Goliath looked like a spaceship without a bow or Carbedyne nacelles. A glass dome flashing a kaleidoscope of colors rose from the center. Its name flashed in neon on the starboard bulwark. The ground shook beneath them before they entered.

  “This used to be a Chancellor troop transport,” he shouted over the bedlam. “They say it was captured in the Last Day’s War and gutted. Now immortals come here to sing and dance.”

  “It’s OK for a mere mortal to go inside?”

  “If you’re here, it’s because the Minister wants you to be. That’s good enough for the rest of us.”

  The Goliath raged with Aeternans all but cheek to cheek. The crowd swayed to the rifle-shot beat that felt appropriate to accompany a dramatic chase. At the center, rising above the masses, pairs of dancers with legs intertwined held tight to each other as robotic cages around their torsos flipped, swayed, and twirled. The cages’ tubes flashed neon when they bumped each other. Inside, the pairs grinded and pumped, as if in full intercourse.

  Den led her through the forest of humans until they reached a kiosk, where a scanner recorded his retina signature and flashed their order in the queue. They had a wait of twenty minutes.

  Chi had forgotten about nights out in Pinchon, when all the pressure of being a Haansu elite went away for a few short hours. When she always had enough Dims to buy her way into any club. Loud, frenzied, and ever so brief.

  The reprisals and social refinery took it all away. It was never the same with Kara. They weren’t equals.

  This is what it might have been. They were all so happy here. So cudfrucking free to cut loose, to live uninhibited. Yesterday, she and Den flew through space as soldiers attacking an enemy warship. Now, it was playtime. As far as she could discern tonight, they had one rule: There were no rules.

  He led her into a lounge at what used to be the transport’s stern. Though the place shook with heavy bass, the walls buffered most of the insanity. They chose drinks from the kiosk and found a corner table. Den pulled his chair in beside Chi and draped an arm over her. She didn’t mind.

  “What do you think, Chi? Amazing, right?”

  She sipped a green liquor with twice the heat of sanque.

  “My ears are still vibrating. But yeah.”

  “There of three us here. Hokki immortals. We got together a couple years ago when we realized we missed the drift. Goliath’s curator tries to integrate music from all the places we’ve lived. She didn’t have anything from Hokkaido. Now it’s half the program. Aeternans love it.”

  “I had no idea. I thought Aeternans tried to put the colonies behind them.”

  “What? Where’d you hear that rubbish? Yeah, sure. A lot of us had shitty lives on the colonies, but they weren’t all bad. We brought along a few traditions. Most of us kept our adopted names.”

  “Do you miss your family? Or ever want to visit?”

  Den pulled hard on his pipe.

  “The Minister’s people found me four years ago. Nobody’s homesick after a day in Promise.”

  “I can tell everyone loves it here.”

  “We’ll fight to the death for it. And then die a few more times, if we have to.”

  “Before the Games, my best friend said you Aeternans could die in space and get a second chance. She reminded me how I didn’t have the same luxury.”

  “That’s why I love what you did. You volunteered for aerial combat. Hokki mortals don’t usually have that spirit. At least not the ones I knew in Hooshan.”

  “It surprised me more than anybody. But I …”

  She didn’t have a chance to finish. Den came in for a gentle kiss at first then lingered. Chi didn’t fight it.

  She hadn’t allowed herself even this much tenderness since Yusef Matook. They might still be lovers if she never joined the Talons and became his subordinate.

  “It’s OK,” Den whispered. “You can trust me. This is our way.”

  She set down her drink and allowed her heart to take over.

  Chi never saw it coming. Yet now it made sense. Sexual engagement among the immortals was akin to breathing. It wasn’t the weed or the liquor. These people simply refused to compromise.

  His eyes told the rest of the story. Maybe they’d dance at their scheduled time, or maybe not. Den had a goal, and Chi liked his goal.

  What was the harm in behaving like an immortal for one night?

  They left The Goliath without bouncing around and grinding inside the dome.

  “Did they give you a place all to yourself?” He asked.

  “I have to share.”

  “Good thing I don’t.”

  He led her to a Walker and double-blinked. His irises glowed yellow. In seconds, a blue signal flashed on the overhead frame.

  “What did you do?”

  “Confirmed my address. I live on the north end of the grid. Hold my hand, and we’ll jump.”

  They stepped out onto a quiet avenue. Den pointed to his habitat.

  “I had a girlfriend in Hooshan. She was beautiful, but nothing like you, Chi.”

  He said nothing else until they undressed and fell into bed.

  “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the Crowfoot. You can trust me, Chi. This is our way.”

  The next two hours surpassed anything prior. Not once did Chi think of Yusef or care whether the other Hokkis were worried about her. Someday, she’d have a long, beautiful story to tell Kara.

  For now, tonight’s adventure was her secret prize.

  Which is how she felt until Den sat up on the edge of the bed afterward and reached into his nightstand. He gripped a serrated blade in his right fist and stared at her with a beatific smile.

  “There’s one more thing I want you to do.”

  7

  H AM GAVE CREDIT WHERE DUE: Food tasted better on Aeterna, even when dispensed from a kiosk. He didn’t recognize half of what sat on his plate, but all tasted fresh from the harvest. The fish rivaled the best Kohlna. Kara and Cando agreed as they ate together outside Ham’s module.

  “I’d love to know the immortals’ secret,” Kara said.

  Ham wiped his lips and downed a glass of ice-cold water.

  “One of many, I’m sure. I don’t think all the credit goes to them.”

  “Then who?”

  He looked around. The stars created a blanket. The Milky Way broke up as it cascaded behind the craggy mountains.

  “It’s the planet. Everything’s new. The soil, the air, the entire climate has been reengineered. They did it in less than forty years. This sort of terraform should have taken several millennia. Add in all the ecostems from different planets, and you have one enormous, impossible concoction. It’s no wonder they protect it.”

  A figure emerged into the dim light of the table’s glow lamp.

  “What do you know of it?”

  Aldo Cabrise crossed his arms.

  Ham finished his water.

  “Our host returns. I hoped you might save me the trouble of knocking on your door, Mr. Cabrise.”

  “I don’t owe you a damn thing, Hamilton Cortez.”

  “I’ll beg to disagree. An hour ago, you said I should be dead, and this planet eats Chancellors. Then you scurried off and demanded to be left alone. You care to explain the remark?”

  “No. I’ll take it up with Cooper. Another of that asshole’s broken promises. When you finish your meal, clean up. I run a tidy camp.”

  He waved off Ham and turned away, but Kara stepped into the fray.

  “Mr. Cabrise,” she said. “May I call you Aldo? It’s a beautiful name.”

  “What in ten hells would you know of it? You’re Hokki.”

  “OK, yes. I’m sorry. I was trying to lend a softer hand. I do wish you’d sit with us for a while. There’s so much we’d love to know about this place and your work.”

  “Why? From the sound of it, Cortez over here has it all figured out.”