“Matt, he hasn’t misled us on a single thing so far,” I said. “Even when we thought this whole thing was a total scam.”

  “Thank you, Ben,” Keep said. “I swear on the honor of my position as Steward of Caprum that the contract is exactly as I’ve described, with no further limitations or hidden clauses. The most important part is that Alter is allowed to stay.”

  Matt looked over at me a final time, struggling to contain his panicked excitement. He stretched a shaky finger to the phone, using it to sign his name on the bill of sale. Keep added his signature under it.

  “A copy will be stored in the ship’s database,” Keep said. “Should you ever need to present proof of ownership to the Royal Guard.” He held out his hand. “Congratulations, Matthew. You just bought a starship.”

  “Yes!” I shouted, jumping off the sofa and rushing over to him as he took Keep’s hand, so nervous he could barely shake it.

  Keep put his hand out to me next, and I shook it vigorously. “This is going to be awesome,” I said. “The adventure of a lifetime.”

  “I wish you both all the best on your journeys from here into the wider universe. I know you’ll make the most of the opportunity presented to you. If you could escort me out?”

  “What?” I said. “You’re leaving?”

  “Of course.”

  It was my turn to go deer-in-headlights. “We haven’t even seen the flight deck. You need to show me how to fly this thing.”

  “It’s simple. Not much different from flying the Star Squadron simulator. Alter can help fill in the gaps.”

  “She’s a pilot?”

  “She’s a lot of things. You’ll see. You’ll be grateful to have her.”

  “I already am if she can help get us off the ground.”

  “We should head for the hangar,” Keep said. “Alter is waiting for us there.”

  “Sure,” Matt replied. “Let’s go.”

  “Matt,” I said, stepping in front of him. “Thank you. I can’t even begin to tell you how much this means to me.”

  “I know,” he answered. “First order of business, we try to find someone who can help make you well. Permanently. Okay?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Second order of business,” Keep said. “First thing you need to do is give her a name. All she has right now is an identifier, which is a mouthful to say.” He tapped on his phone a few times before holding it out to Matt. “This is yours now. It comes with the ship. It allows remote access to pretty much everything. There’s a fancier one on the flight deck, but I couldn’t carry that one around Earth with me. I already entered the screen to put in a name.”

  Matt took the phone. A standard model, except it seemed the OS had been replaced with custom software. A blinking white cursor on a black background and a keyboard sat on the screen.

  “I have no idea what to name the ship,” he said. “Can’t this wait?”

  “It can,” Keep said. “But you should give it some thought.”

  “How about Optimus Prime?” I suggested. “That’s what it looks like. His head, anyway.”

  Matt shook his head. “Not doing it for me.”

  “Mr. Roboto?”

  “Not a robot.”

  “Tardis?”

  “Taken.”

  “Probably not in the Manticore Spiral.”

  “Copyrighted then. Keep thinking while we walk.”

  We headed back down the hallway to the elevator. It was a little disappointing to me that Mr. Keep didn’t have time to finish the tour, but I imagined Alter could make up for whatever he missed.

  When we boarded the elevator, I tried to focus on my senses, trying to notice the change as we were returned to our original size. The whole idea of being shrunken seemed so wacky, I wasn’t convinced Keep hadn’t played us, at least in that one respect. I didn’t feel a thing, and when the elevator opened to the hangar everything looked properly scaled again. If the change was imperceptible, I guess it didn’t matter.

  Alter remained at the open hatch with the larger hangar bay blast doors, standing stiff as a board, hands at her sides as if she was the door. She didn’t move a muscle as we descended the stairs and passed the smaller starfighter, coming up behind her.

  Being almost two heads taller than her, I quickly realized why she hadn’t moved. A dozen more of the uniformed and helmeted Daft Punks stood at the bottom of the ramp, blasters pointed at her. They seemed hesitant to pick a fight, or maybe Alter had promised Keep would come to them.

  “Alter,” he said, drawing a quick glance back from her. “You can step aside.”

  She smiled, raising her hands into a clawed position and growling at the punks before hopping backward. the Duke’s minions flinched at the threat, drawing an amused giggle from her as she slipped in between Matt and me.

  Keep replaced her in the doorway, hands raised in surrender. “Which one of you is in charge?”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  One of the helmeted individuals stepped forward. “That would be me,” he said, his voice stiff and robotic. Was that the reason for the helmets? Keep had said they weren’t people. Were they robots? “Duke Sedaya sends his greetings, Avelus Keeper. He demands your forfeiture of this vessel and all property within it under threat of death.”

  “Of course he does,” Keep said. “Bad news. You’re too late. This vessel is under new ownership and all property within has also been transferred with it. The contract is binding and legal in accordance with the Hegemony Code of Law.”

  The punk didn’t have a face, so I couldn’t see his reaction. He didn’t move at all for nearly five full seconds before responding. “And I assume you have proof?”

  Keep looked back at Matt. “Can you help me out, Sherlock? I need to show this asshat the contract.”

  Matt seemed hesitant to move into the line of fire.

  “I can do it,” I said.

  “No, I’ve got it,” he replied, stepping up to the doorway and handing the phone back to Keep.

  “I’m transmitting the contract now. It’s already filed in both the ship’s log and with the Hegemony.”

  The punk remained stiff for a few more seconds. “Contract received.” He paused again. “It appears the contract is as you say.” His helmet shifted slightly, indicating he was looking at Matt. “You are the new owner?”

  “Yeah,” Matt said. “Co-owner, with my friend.”

  “An original Earthian, no less. You’ve always been a sly one, Keeper. You may have outdone yourself this time.”

  “What does he mean?” I whispered to Alter.

  She glanced at me and smiled cutely, but didn’t provide any additional information. The reaction sent a wave of anxiety through me. She was supposed to help me fly the ship?

  “Maybe if it hadn’t taken you so long to catch up to me,” Keep replied. “I’m sure Duke Sedaya will be pleased with your complete incompetence and failure to achieve his goals.”

  The lead punk growled under his breath, proving he probably wasn’t a robot, though I still couldn’t be sure. For all I knew, the guy looked like Pumpkinhead under there. He definitely seemed to have emotions though.

  “This isn’t over,” he said. “As for you, Earthian. The Duke has no quarrel with you. I’m sure he would be willing to pay you exorbitantly for your vessel, or at the very least the star that powers it. I can easily arrange a personal meeting.”

  Matt looked back at me, and I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to just hand over the keys to the kingdom before we had even taken the ship out for a joyride.

  “We’ll get back to you on that,” Matt answered.

  “Very well. I’m transmitting the Duke’s personal hypercom identifier to you. I suggest you use it. The Spiral isn’t kind to those unfamiliar with its ways, and Master Sedaya can be a powerful friend.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Very well. You have forty-eight hours, Earthian. After that, all bets are off.”

  The lead punk spun on his heel and raised his arm, a signal to the others. They lowered their blasters as one, turning and marching back to their cars behind him. Keep didn’t move while they left, so neither did I.

  “I hope you can explain all that to me later,” I said, glancing over at Alter again. I flinched when I realized she was gone. How had she slipped away without me noticing? A chill ran down my spine when I remembered what Keep had said about her. She wasn’t just an assassin. She was the most infamous assassin in her galaxy.

  And she lived on my starship. Crazy.

  Keep returned to the hangar once the Duke’s forces left the scene. “Well, that was a smooth shave,” he said, exhaling sharply and reaching for a cigarette. “A few more minutes and I think they might have tried to blast their way in.”

  Another chill ran down my back in response to the statement. “I didn’t get the impression that the Duke’s lackeys plan to leave us be. At least, not unless we sell the Star to him.”

  “It’s out of my hands, kid,” Keep said. “It’s your property, you can do with it what you will.”

  “It sounds like we have two days to decide,” Matt said. “Assuming forty-eight hours means the same thing to him that it does to us?”

  “It does,” Keep confirmed. “Since the original human settlers of the Spiral were from your future, they normalized everything based on Earth values. Hours in a standard day, the metric system for measurement, and English as the primary language.”

  “How convenient for us,” I said.

  “Of course, that bunch prefers to speak Niflin, their native tongue, and let the translators do the work. They think their mouths are too good to make such nasty sounds.” He craned his neck. “Where’d Alter go? I had hoped to say goodbye to her.”

  “I don’t know. She disappeared while the Duke’s guy was busy being condescending,” I said. “I guess you can call her?”

  He held up the phone, handing it back to Matt. “No dice. She probably high-tailed it out of here so she wouldn’t have to see me go. I’ll get in touch with her once I have a new PHD.”

  “Let me guess. Personal Hypercom Device?”

  “Bingo! Good call, kid. Anyway, now that this bit of business is done, I have other important matters that have been on hold for a long time. Namely, catching up to the Duchess. Congratulations again on your purchase. And thank you for hanging in there with me through the turbulence. You won’t regret your decision.” He thrust his hand out at me again. We shook for a second time.

  “Will we see you again, Mister Keep?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Who knows? It’s a small universe.” He turned to Matt. “You’re a good friend. I know how much you sacrificed. There’s a lot of power in putting others before yourself.”

  Matt shook Keep’s hand too. “Thank you, sir. Best of luck to you, wherever you go next.”

  “You too, kid.” He returned to the doorway, pausing there. He paused. “Oh. I almost forgot.” He retrieved our cells from his pockets and handed them back. “One more thing. I highly recommend you lift off as soon as possible. This place charges per hour, and it’s your tab now.” He turned to leave, reaching the doorway.

  “Mister Keep, wait,” I said, stopping him. “How do we get from Earth to the Manticore Spiral? Come to think of it, how did Sedaya’s mercenaries get from the Spiral to Earth?”

  “Elementary, my dear Watson,” Keep replied. “You haven’t been on Earth for about three hours now. Welcome to Caprum, in the Fertile Quadrant of the Manticore Spiral. The last place the Duke ever thought to look for me was right under his ugly little nose.” He put up his hand in a wave. “I’ll see you two around. Try to stay out of trouble.”

  He walked down the ramp, leaving Matt and I staring at him, frozen and speechless.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “I think we should go up to the flight deck,” I said after nearly a minute had passed. “We need to get off the ground and stop paying for parking. Especially since you just spent everything you had on this baby.”

  Matt glanced my way, still dumbstruck by Keep’s last words. Somehow, we had traversed the universe within a few hours riding in the back of a limousine. I knew what he was thinking because I couldn’t stop thinking about it too.

  Impossible!

  And yet, here we were, though I couldn’t guess why Keep’s homeworld had so many shipping containers from Earth or why it smelled like low tide out there. It was another of a million questions I had for Alter once she turned up again.

  “Yeah,” he finally said, breaking out of his stupor. “Let’s go up to the flight deck.”

  “I want to thank you again,” I added. “I still can’t believe this is really happening. No matter what happens to me from here forward, you’ve made my whole life.”

  He smiled sheepishly, embarrassed by my praise. “It’s no problem. I’m happy to do it.” He looked back at the doorway. “Do you have any idea how to close the hatch?”

  I scanned the wall beside the larger hangar door, looking for a switch or a button. “Maybe the controls are on the phone?” We looked at the main screen together. It surprised me that the layout wasn’t that different from a modern smartphone, with screens of labeled icons that handled different functions. Could it be that Keep had modified the original program to make it easier for us Earthians to use?

  “That one, maybe?” I said, pointing to a lock icon that read security.

  He tapped on it, opening a list of settings. We scanned it together, not finding anything that fit our purposes exactly, though it seemed we could lock every hatch on the ship by switching a single toggle. I imagined that would include the elevator, which we needed to get to the flight deck.

  “Not that,” he replied, backing out of the screens. “I don’t see one labeled hatch control.”

  “It can’t be that hard,” I said, scanning the wall again. “Maybe the manual control is upstairs.”

  “Maybe.”

  We ascended to the overhang, where I checked the wall next to the elevator for additional controls. The ordeal reminded me of when Mom moved us from the Section 8 apartment to a small house just outside of the city. It took nearly a week before I knew where all the wall switches were, and close to two months before I hit the right one every time.

  “Oh shit,” I said out loud, reacting to the memory. “Mom.”

  I picked my phone from my pocket and turned on the screen. Of course the cell had no service. The nearest tower was some non-zero number of light years away. Though it seemed Levi had texted me again before we left Earth.

  If you changed your mind you should just be honest. It isn’t cool to ghost. Loser.

  I cringed at the words. Now she thought I was just another asshole. It was probably better that way, since I couldn’t write her back now even if I wanted to. I couldn’t write to my mother either, which bothered me a lot more. She would worry about me when I didn’t get in touch with her.

  “Damn,” Matt said, recognizing the situation. “You didn’t get a chance to explain anything or say goodbye.”

  “You didn’t either. With your Dad, I mean.”

  “It’ll be a couple of weeks before he notices I’m gone. Maybe longer. He spends most of his time at his girlfriend’s place these days.”

  I exhaled my frustration. “Keep got us here somehow. There must be some way to send a message back to her. I just want her to know I’m okay.”

  “If there is a way, we’ll find it.”

  “I don’t know why Keep had to hurry off like that. We’re fish out of water here. We can’t even close the hatch.”

  A soft, echoing thunk sounded from the front of the hangar. Both our heads swiveled to the smaller door, which had slid closed.

  “Huh, it worked,” Matt said.

  “What did?” I asked.

  He held up the phone. “I found a setting for voice control. Keep had it disabled.”

  “Like Alexa?”

  “Yeah, but I guess you don’t need to say anything first?”

  “That’s dangerous. Are there more settings?”

  Matt tapped on the screen a few times. “It looks like you can enter a custom trigger. What do you think? Should I make it Alexa?”

  “No way. That’s boring. And common. We should personalize it.”

  “Do you have any ideas?”

  “It’s your ship.”

  “No,” Matt said forcefully. “I put the money in. I signed the contract. But this is our ship. Fifty-fifty. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”

  I grinned at the response. “I’m grateful for you.”

  “You already said that. Enough sap for one day.”

  I laughed. “Fine.”

  We stared at one another, trying to come up with a trigger word.

  “Honestly, I think it’s too soon,” Matt said. “We haven’t really bonded with this place yet. Like when I first got the Mustang, it took time for it to earn a nickname.”

  “Big Stang Theory,” I said. “You’re probably right. Let’s leave the trigger word off for now. It probably doesn’t matter while it’s just the three of us onboard.”

  “So weird to suddenly be living with a woman,” Matt said as I tapped the elevator control.

  “So weird to suddenly be living with a trained assassin,” I replied. “At least she’s on our side.” The elevator doors opened and we stepped inside.

  “I don’t think she’s on our side. I think she’s on the ship’s side.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Not really. What if we decide to give Duke Sedaya a call and sell him the ship? We probably have to include her living situation in the bill of sale like Keep did. She won’t come with us. She’ll stay here.”

  “I don’t know, Keep said the Duke was the one who dumped her on Demitrus. She probably wouldn’t want to stick around if he dropped in. Not that it matters. We aren’t going to sell the ship or the Star to him. Right?” Matt looked at me. I didn’t like his face. “Right?” I repeated.

  He shrugged. “Probably not. But I don’t think we should just dismiss the possibility outright. According to Keep the guy has a lot of power, and a lot of money. Maybe we could trade her in for something better and have enough cheddar to live like kings in the Spiral. Maybe he could even set us up with our own planet. Make us nobles. That could be cool.”