“We have the space,” Gloria said.

  “I wouldn’t know how much to ask for,” George added. “I never thought about renting the barn out before.”

  “How about two thousand per month?” Keep offered. “If you think that’s fair.”

  “That sounds downright generous,” Gloria said, clearly excited by the prospect of earning some extra money. “Ben, give me your hand.”

  I turned it over and put it out on the table, gritting my teeth when it started shaking uncontrollably. I clamped my other hand down on my wrist, trying to keep it steady.

  “Are you okay?” Gloria asked.

  “Sorry,” I replied. “Yes. And no. I'm in the early stages of the same condition Dad has. It's hereditary. Comes and goes.”

  “And you fly an experimental airplane with it?”

  “It only affects my one hand at this point.. I think my nerves are adding to it right now.” My hand calmed down some, and Gloria took it in a calloused grip that reminded me of Mom’s.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Honestly, it depends on the day. I do the best I can.”

  “That’s all any of us can do,” George said.

  “He’ll be okay,” Keep said. “He’s a fighter.” He paused. “So, about the barn.”

  “It sounds good to me,” Gloria said.

  “I’m not going to argue with the CFO,” George added with a laugh. “If it’s okay with her, it’s okay with me.”

  “Maybe you can take me for a ride in your plane when it’s all fixed,” Kyrie suggested, placing the first of the plates in front of me.

  “Maybe we will,” Keep replied.

  George finished the second batch of chicken by the time Gloria finished with my hand and Kyrie completed the table setting. George put the bowl in the middle of the table before retrieving a big pitcher of iced tea and pouring everyone a glass.

  “It smells incredible,” I said. “It looks awesome too.”

  “Ditto,” Keep said.

  “Well, don’t just sit there and look at it. Dig in.”

  “Thank you again for your hospitality,” I said as Keep went for the chicken and chips. “You truly are lifesavers.”

  “You never know,” George replied. “This could be the start of a great new friendship.”

  CHAPTER 10

  The chicken was even better than it smelled. The conversation flowed relatively freely, and I discovered that Keep and I were pretty good at making up a shared history that had nothing to do with a galaxy far, far away. As far as the Frasiers were concerned, we lived just outside of Los Angeles, close enough to commute to SpaceX. I was going to school to become an AI engineer, and my mother was an attorney. I also had a brother named Matt and a dog named Shaq.

  As for the Frasiers, they were good people. Down to earth farmers more concerned about drought than world problems. They weren’t rich, but they had enough, and the simplicity of their happiness left me a little envious of their life.

  We ate and talked for nearly two hours, after which George let me raid his closet to get out of my clothes so Gloria could wash them. I declined at first, still not wanting them to see the damage to my pants, but the pain had subsided considerably and closer inspection revealed the material hadn’t been punctured after all. Of course, when I finished swapping out my clothes for a black t-shirt and an older pair of George’s jeans, Gloria asked what everything was made from. I made up a story about how I liked to do Star Wars larping and Keep had gotten hold of some experimental materials from the SpaceX labs to fashion the one-of-a-kind coat. Thankfully, my boxers were Asshole-made cotton, nothing fancy, which helped ground the whole outfit back to Earth.

  On one hand, it felt good to be back on Earth. To wear normal clothes and eat amazing food that didn’t come from a molecular assembler. Being on solid ground with fresh air and nobody chasing me had quickly become unfamiliar, and experiencing it now allowed me to unwind almost as quickly. On the other hand, I was worried about Matt, Alter, and the others no matter what Keep claimed. He hadn’t known about the Grimoire or Sedaya’s pursuit of sigiltech. Or at least, he said he hadn’t. If that were true, than how sure could he be that my friends were safe?

  Then again, I knew Alter could take care of herself. I decided that even if I didn’t completely trust Keep’s reassurance, I did trust her experience and abilities.

  George brought his truck to a stop a few feet away from Flippy. We jumped down from the flatbed, joining him at the winch mounted to the back of the vehicle.

  “Where’s a good place to hook it up?” he asked.

  “I think our best option is to loop it around the front skid,” Keep replied, motioning to the short lander extended from beneath the front edge of the cockpit.

  “No wheels,” George commented. “This thing is VTOL?”

  “It sure is,” Keep answered, glancing at me. “When it’s working correctly. I assume it failed since we slid halfway across your farm.”

  “The whole flight control system failed,” I said. “You’re lucky I got us down alive.”

  “Talk about bad luck,” George said. “First you have a seizure, then your truck breaks down. And then your plane has engine trouble?”

  “It sounds impossible,” I said.

  “They say truth is stranger than fiction,” George agreed. “I forgot about the part where you were mugged. You two really are having a shit week.” He crouched down, looking at the hull. “I don’t see a fan or anything that would push it off the ground. How does it work?”

  Keep seemed surprised George had noticed the ship’s exterior didn’t match known Earth technology. “I’m not really at liberty to say. I signed an NDA.”

  “Oh. I thought this was a personal project?”

  “It is, but I’m using proof-of-concept components owned by the business.”

  “I get it,” George replied. “What if I promise I won’t tell anybody?” He grinned, walking along the side of the starfighter, still trying to figure it out.

  “Sorry, George,” Keep replied. “If it were up to me, I would tell you. But my lawyers…” He trailed off as George laughed.

  Keep’s entire personality had changed since he had come back out of the guest room in George’s clothes, taking on a new persona so smoothly that it made me wonder if he was secretly an Aleal too. While Alter’s ego and appearance changed completely, I could still see the Keep I knew simmering underneath in his body language and movements. Everything about him right now was an act meant to better ingratiate us with George and his family so we could use them and their farm as a temporary home for our only means back to the Spiral.

  It was both impressive and chilling at the same time. If he could do that so easily here, how did I know anything he said to me was true? Or that he was who he claimed to be? Just the fact that we had gone from Furion to Earth faster than I could snap my fingers proved that at a minimum the sigiltech was real. Seeing what it could do left no doubt in my mind that Sedaya wanted it. Those two bits of information added together was enough to keep me convinced Head Case was a target. In the end, nothing else mattered.

  George pulled the wire out from the winch and wrapped it around the front skid, clipping it back on itself.

  “Ben, would you mind running on up to the barn and opening the doors for me?” he said.

  “No problem,” I replied. I left him and Keep, jogging the short distance to the barn. I removed the open padlock from the doors and pulled them open one side at a time as the smell of hay and mulch drifted out of the interior.

  George and Keep had already returned to the truck by then. The engine purred as they dragged Flippy along the dirt road, kicking up a cloud behind the ship in the process. The truck pulled into the garage less than a minute later, continuing toward a second set of doors on the back side. He stopped about halfway in, shutting off the engine as he and Keep climbed out.

  “That should do it,” George said. “You can leave her here for as long as you need. I don’t mind collecting two grand a month for the use of the space.”

  “Even so, I hope to have her fixed up sooner than later,” Keep said. “I’m going to run some diagnostics right away, to get an idea what we’re up against.”

  “Do you mind if I stick around?” George asked.

  “I personally don’t mind,” Keep answered. “But the NDA won’t allow it.”

  George nodded. “In that case, I’ll just unhook you and head out the other end of the barn. Ben, can you get those doors for me too? They’re locked with a crossbar on the outside.”

  “Sure,” I replied. I headed out of the barn, circling the exterior. By the time I got the back doors open George had unhitched Flippy and pulled out right away. He paused beside me, window open.

  “I’ll be out tending to the horses on the other side of that hill there. Come get me if you need anything, or head on back to the house and ask Gloria. There’s a couple of ATVs in the corner of the barn you can use to get around on, too.”

  “Okay. Thank you again, George.”

  “My pleasure, Ben.” He stuck his hand out through the window. I shook it before heading back inside, closing the doors behind me as I went.

  “Bennie, can you find a light switch?” Keep asked. “And shut the front doors too.”

  “How long will the diagnostic take?”

  “Not long. I’ll check the damage report and run a few basic tests.”

  I ran across the barn. The light switch was by the front doors. Flipping it on turned on big overhead lights hanging from their wires, reminding me of Head Case. I closed the barn doors to give us full privacy and returned to Flippy as Keep settled in the cockpit.

  “Are you feeling okay?” I asked.

  “Thanks for the concern. I’m doing a lot better. That chicken was something else, wasn’t it? Better than the Colonel’s. Badabing badaboom!” He pulled the helmet over his head and reached forward to tap the power button. Instead of the normal whoom of the reactor, Flippy greeted him with a soft click. The power in the cockpit came on, but it didn’t seem like anything else did. “That’s not good,” he said.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The PSC kicked directly to backup power. The reactor’s offline.”

  “I told you it was complaining about the core overheating.”

  “It’s been three hours. The core should have cooled enough to restart by now.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means if we’re going to get off this rock and back to the Spiral, we probably aren’t doing it in Flippy, but let me run the tests.” He motioned in the air, using the augmented reality menus I couldn’t see without a helmet. He shook his head and tsked a few times without sharing his concerns until he finally took the helmet off.

  And threw it across the barn.

  It hit the cement floor and bounced into the back doors, smacking off them and coming to a rest. Keep climbed out of the cockpit, remaining silent until his feet hit the floor.

  “It’s official,” he growled. “Flying Purple People Eater is dead as a doornail.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “The diagnostic log and testing both suggest a crack in the containment shell. I also checked the flight data. You were about four degrees away from a meltdown when you cut the power.”

  “I assume a meltdown wouldn’t have just been bad for us?”

  “That depends on your opinion on setting off a detonation similar to a small nuclear device within a half-mile of any other living thing,” Keep replied.

  “Not preferable,” I said, shaking a little at the understanding of how close we had come to not only dying, but killing George and his family as well. “What do we do now?”

  “Hope the Frasiers have a car we can borrow. We need to go shopping.”

  CHAPTER 11

  I wasn’t all that comfortable asking the Frasiers to borrow a car, especially after everything they had already done for us. Keep had no such qualms. He put his best slimy salesman moves on Gloria while she was taking care of our laundry, using charm he had never displayed when pitching Head Case to Matt and me. He turned her initial hesitation into a yes by promising to top off the tank and bring back donuts.

  Within an hour, we were pulling off the farm’s gravel driveway in a fifteen year-old green Toyota Prius that smelled like it had spent most of its life on a farm. We turned west onto the single-lane main road and spent the first twenty miles in silence. I stared out the window trying to overcome the overwhelming surrealness of something as mundane as riding in a car. A month in the Spiral had already spoiled me to such a simple activity, and after seeing new planets and new intelligent life forms, the landscape I would have appreciated before was just so unbelievably ordinary.

  “So, you said you need to go shopping,” I said, breaking the silence. “How exactly are we going to do that without any money? You told Gloria you had an ATM card and just needed to stop at the bank, but we both know that isn’t true. I’m already a wanted felon in the Spiral. I’m not going to help you rob a bank or something and become one here, too.”

  “Relax, kid,” Keep replied. “What I told Gloria is true. I just left out some of the interim details she didn’t need to know.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like we’re not stopping when we get to Fresno. Not when my apartment is in Modesto.”

  “You have an apartment here?”

  “Why wouldn’t I have an apartment here? It’s hard to sell a starship to an Earthian if you aren’t on Earth.”

  “I always thought you were watching all the gameplay from Head Case.”

  “We have pretty good communication systems in the Spiral. They aren’t that good.”

  “And your place is in Modesto?”

  “Yup. Why is that a surprise?”

  “VR Awesome! is in Modesto.”

  “Again, why is that a surprise? It’s easier to sell a starship to someone like you living near a place where I hope to find someone like you.”

  “Yeah, but that’s my point. How did you know you would find what you were looking for in Modesto? Why not New York or Miami? Or even Shanghai or Delhi for that matter?”

  “Why do you think it took so long to make the sale?”

  “You hyper localized your search around a single small city in California? I don’t believe it.”

  “Why not? It worked.” He glanced over at me, trying to sell the answer for a few more seconds before cracking a smile. “I’m just messing with you, Bennie. I settled in Modesto for the weather. It’s just a coincidence that you happened to live nearby.”

  “Seriously?” I questioned.

  “Dead serious. Cross my heart. I had a potential buyer in Singapore about three years back, but he never answered my inquiry.”

  “He probably thought it was a scam. Like I did.”

  “You followed through when nobody else had the guts. That says something about you.”

  “I seem to recall you questioning my moxie back on Sedaya’s ship.”

  “I seem to recall you pouting like a spoiled brat.”

  I didn’t argue with the comment. He wasn’t wrong. “I have another question.”

  “I’m not surprised. What is it?”

  “Twenty years is a long time to search for a so-called hero to help you stop Sedaya from moving against the Empress. How did you know you could afford to wait?”

  “I couldn’t afford not to wait. Coming here, setting everything up, that was a big investment. I was determined to see a return, and I trusted the process. I’ll admit, in the beginning it was all about getting revenge against Sedaya and returning Ninaya to her rightful place as Duchess. I wasn’t looking for a hero back then. Just someone to take ownership of the ship and keep the Star out of his hands while also raising money for the war effort. But time passes, things change, and here we are.”

  “Here we are,” I said. “Still, the odds of finding the person you’re looking for right on your doorstep…”

  “One in a million,” Keep agreed. “That’s what you are, kid. A rare bird. I don’t believe in fate, but it was fate that brought us together. We’re going to do great things, Bennie. I know it.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to do great things, Keep.”

  “You’ll live for a few more months at least. That should be long enough. And if it isn’t, your contribution will be remembered.”

  “What?” I complained, surprised by the comment.

  He glanced over at me. “If I train you to become an archon and we still can’t stop him, we never will. Your loss won’t mean a hill of beans at that point.”

  “That’s harsh.“

  “Harsh but true. Sorry, kid. I tell it like it is. You want sugarcoating, try a candy store. Anyway, I don’t think that’s what’ll happen. I believe in you.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  “Anytime.”

  “So, Modesto,” I said after a couple of minutes of awkward silence. “That’s got to be at least a hundred miles from Fresno, which is fifty miles from the Frasier’s farm. You told Gloria we would be back in a couple of hours. You also told me you can’t use your sigil sleeve to teleport locally.”

  “I told you the truth. I might have lied to her a little.”

  “After they were so nice to us? Why didn’t you just tell her we needed to go to Modesto.”

  “Because she wouldn’t have given me the car. She was already on the fence and only agreed to it if we had it back in time for her overnight shift at the animal hospital.”

  “Which we won’t because we’re going to Modesto. We’ll be lucky if we’re back by morning.”

  “I’ve got her number. I’ll give her a call once we get to my apartment, let her know we’ve been delayed but her car is fine, and Paypal her some cash to cover the barn rental and then some. That should smooth things over until we return.” He glanced at me. “We needed the car. Sometimes good people need to do bad things for good reasons.”

  “Are you lumping yourself in with good people now?”