I needed a plan. If I couldn’t get to Amorina now, the best I could do was find out where she was being taken to and follow.

  I needed to build an inventory of what I had, so I searched my pockets.

  As I pulled out my father’s shopping list and his EV keys, his words echoed in my head – “It’s my job to refocus you. To remind you of which wolf to feed.” – and I realised I missed him. What I wouldn’t give for him to be here right now, to sit down beside me and set the world straight. In the two years that I’d known him, he had treated me like a son. Reaching into my other pocket, I pulled out the Arachnobot. This time Amorina’s voice was the one to echo through my mind. “You know they only send us their outdated tech, right? Plus, it takes like two years for it to get here from Earth, so they’re always a generation or two ahead.” I smiled, realising that thanks to having taken a ride in my pocket for the last year, it was another year out of date.

  “Let’s see what you can do,” I said, opening its dishevelled packaging. I really hoped that the Insurgency’s jailbreak hadn’t damaged the device like they had its box.

  As I held it in my hand, it vibrated momentarily, then its rectangular shape split and started to transform into its signature namesake form. Its singular body split into five pieces, then four of them split again, creating eight legs. It’s eye like sensors at the front of its cephalothorax lit up blue, and the legs creased at the joints, pressing into my palm as it stood. The screen that ran along the back of its abdomen illuminated, flashing a greeting message.

  *Hello! I am an Arachnobot Five. Would you like to give me a name?*

  A name, aye? I wondered what would make a good name, then shuddered as the darkness awoke.

  “The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the waterspout,” it drawled slowly.

  It felt like the voice was reciting something, but I didn’t know what, nor did I want to keep listening.

  “Bitsy! Your name is Bitsy!” I blurted.

  “Spoilsport …”

  Blissfully unaware of the voice inside my head, the Arachnobot jittered happily in my hand.

  *Bitsy – I like it!*

  I smiled as I looked down at the little gadget. I got the feeling I was going to like the little fella.

  *What would you like me to do?*

  “What can you do?”

  *I come with several default functions, including observation and data access, companionship, and timekeeping.*

  “What sort of observation and data access can you do?”

  *I can record footage and audio and access information from nearby digital networks and devices.*

  “Can you demonstrate, please?”

  *Of course! One moment.*

  The screen went blank, and Bitsy jittered around, tilting its cephalothorax from left to right as if to indicate it was thinking.

  After a few moments, its screen lit up again.

  *I accessed the station’s wireless network and ascertained its basic information and location. Machina Station is an imperial station, J-Class design, zero point three of a parsec from Lalande 21185, a red dwarf star in the Mid Rim of the human domain.*

  I nodded, impressed by what Bitsy had found. I wondered how capable it was and decided to try my luck.

  “Can you access any records for a young woman named Livietta? She probably passed through the station seven … maybe eight years ago, originally from Gaia?”

  Bitsy jittered in my hand briefly before its screen lit up once more.

  *Livietta Rosworth was onboard this station on the day 07-01-2139. She was taken to Terranova, where she remained until her death on the day 27-09-2141.*

  Terranova – so that’s where she’d ended up.

  “How did she die?”

  *She was strangled to death by the Empire commander she was providing sexual services to.*

  I made a mental note: if I ever made it back home, I needed to tell my parents the truth of what had happened to Livietta. I just hoped it would provide them with some measure of closure.

  “Thank you, Bitsy. I need you to do something else for me. I’m looking for a woman who should be on this station and will be shipped off soon. Her name is Amorina. Do you think you can find out which ship she is due to go on and where it will take her?”

  Bitsy jittered in my hand again before displaying another message.

  *I cannot access that information wirelessly – I will need to find a hard-line. Place me in the vent above, and I will find one. Then I will return.*

  I looked up to see the vent Bitsy spoke of. Standing on the bed, I lifted the Arachnobot up, and it crawled through the gap. I listened to its metallic footsteps as it walked off before lying back down. I hoped Bitsy would find her and learn what I needed so I could follow her in the morning.

  Chapter 4

  A Shift in the Wind

  2147, Common Era – Machina Station, Mid Rim, Tynan Empire

  I woke up to the metallic ring of Bitsy’s footsteps above me, and I stood to pull it out of the vent.

  *Hello!* read the message on Bitsy’s screen.

  I knew it was only a gadget, but as I watched it jitter about on my hand for a moment, I smiled. It felt like a pet – a living, intelligent creature with mannerisms and personality – and it struck me at how incredible that was for a machine to imitate life.

  *I was able to find Amorina. She was placed back into cryosleep two hours ago, aboard dropship DS-3956, which has been loaded onto a frigate bound for Terranova.*

  “How can I get to Terran–”

  A knock at the door interrupted my questioning.

  “Watch mode!” I whispered to Bitsy.

  The Arachnobot obliged quickly, scurrying over to my wrist. Four of its legs swung forward, four swung back, wrapping themselves around my wrist. Its abdomen display dimmed, displaying the date and time in digital format, just as the door to the room slid open.

  “Good mornin’, laddie! Glad to see yer up! Come on, we’ve got to get you movin’!” Doug greeted, standing in the doorway.

  “Get moving where?”

  “After yer lassie!”

  “Why? Yesterday you made it clear you wouldn’t help me.”

  “Aye, well, a lot can change in a few hours. Ye ken?”

  I followed Doug out into the hall, suspicious of the change of heart. From my limited experience with Doug and the Insurgency, they didn’t seem like the types to change their minds – least of all for reasons such as my own – it wasn’t worth their time serving the needs of the one when they aimed to help the many.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  “We found yer lassie; she’s bound for Terranova. We’ve arranged ye a cryopod in a dropship that’ll be loaded onto the same frigate.”

  “What’s on Terranova?”

  “Terranova is a … pleasure world, if ye like. An Empire controlled planet where the Earth Republic’s rich an’ the Empire’s faithful wine, dine, an’ indulge. All the food ye can eat, an’ all the flesh ye can fuck!”

  My stomach sank as I processed Doug’s last sentence. I remembered how the Empire had treated people during the Soul Harvest, and I couldn’t believe they’d treat you any better once they’d forced you into being a labourer or a sex slave. Amorina didn’t deserve that – hell, nobody did! I knew I needed to try and save her from that dark fate. I only hoped I could find her in time.

  “Now pay attention, laddie – there’s one thing we ask of ye.”

  Here we go, I thought, my suspicions confirmed. “Yes?”

  “It’s vital to the Insurgency that this key,” Doug said, holding up a hardware encryption key, “gets to our agents on Terranova. They know yer comin’, so once ye wake up on the other side, they’ll find ye. Any questions?”

  “Get this key to the Insurgency agents on Terranova – easy,” I said, taking the key.

  “Very good, laddie. An a wee bonus fur ye, they’ll help ye find yer lass once they’ve got the key. Now go! Arty will lead ye through the station an’ get ye frozen again. Good luck!”

  “Are you ready, mate?” Arty asked.

  I jumped at Arty’s sudden appearance.

  “I guess so,” I replied, glancing behind Arty to try and see where he’d come from. “Oh, wait! Can I get something to eat?”

  “I’ve got just over an hour to get you to the dropship, so I’ll find you a bite on the way, mate.”

  ***

  The journey through the station corridors was the same as it had been the day before. The primary difference was that it was much busier. In addition to the soldiers and prisoners, there seemed to be many more civilians today.

  “Why’s it busier, Arty? Who’re all these civilians?”

  “They’re travellers, mate. Either the rich, paying their way to explore the Empire’s worlds, or skilled workers sent by the Empire from one place to another, carrying out specialised jobs.”

  That seemed plausible enough, but I wondered how much “specialised work” there was to do on the Empire’s worlds – after all, Gaia hardly seemed like a good candidate for space tourists.

  “Where are they going? Gaia isn’t welcoming towards strangers.”

  “True that, mate, true that. Yeah, nah, they’ll be either heading for Ares or destined for the exploration missions – looking for habitable worlds beyond the Outer Rim.”

  Ares was the neighbouring world to Gaia, and by a neighbour, I meant that it took eight months to travel between them.

  “Ares is a military world for the Empire, right?”

  “Yeah, mate. Trainin’ soldiers, researching tech, and a launching ground for those exploration missions. All that food you produced on Gaia, Ares was your primary consumer.”

  “Who else did our food go to?”

  “This station, of course!”

  As we continued walking through the hallway maze, a voice suddenly stood out amongst the others.

  “When is the frigate due to depart?”

  “In about twenty minutes, sir.”

  They were the voices of a soldier and the commander – the same one from Gaia who’d assaulted me.

  “Arty, hide!” I hissed, grabbing Arty from behind and pulling us both to the side.

  As we crouched behind a crate, Arty looked at me. “What is it, mate?” he asked.

  “The commander whom I encountered on Gaia, he’s close!”

  Arty nodded and scanned the crowd. After a few moments, the Commander and the soldier came into view.

  “Any further updates on that shipment irregularity?” the Commander asked.

  “Yes, sir – there was an additional person onboard dropship DS-2947. We reviewed the security footage to see when the individual was processed, but there was a system outage. We believe the Insurgency is involved,” the soldier replied, the two of them walking closer to where Arty and I hid.

  “That was the dropship you were on, mate,” Arty whispered.

  “Fucking insurgents! How’ve we not found their bloody rat’s nest yet?”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  “Of course you don’t fucking know, you idiot. The question was rhetorical.”

  “Yes, sir – of course, sir.”

  I held my breath as the two men walked by, only taking in air once they’d passed the next corner.

  “Come on, mate. Best we keep movin’ – suspicious enough as is, the two of us crouched down ‘ere.”

  Stepping out from our cover, we re-joined the crowd, moving towards my ride. Passing by a bakers’ stall, Arty stopped.

  “Still hungry?” he asked.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed as my stomach voiced its opinion, letting loose a grumble that reached Arty’s ears, causing him to chuckle.

  “Oi, gov'na! Gives us a filled bun would ya?” he said, tossing a coin to the baker.

  As the coin hit the baker on the head, she looked up, seemingly angry at first, but her face softened when she saw Arty.

  “Oh, Arty, you ol’ bugga! Charmin’ as eva! ‘Ere ya go!” She replied, tossing back a sandwich.

  “Thanks, love!” Arty said, handing the sandwich back to me.

  My stomach rumbled as I looked at the fresh warm bread with ham and lettuce poking out of the sides.

  “Eat it!”

  Duh, I thought, taking a bite. The flavours seemed to melt in my mouth, the ham and lettuce accompanied by previously unseen cheese and mayonnaise.

  “Mmmmm!” I grunted happily.

  Arty chuckled again. “Come on, mate – we’ve got a ride to catch!”

  I nodded, following Arty as I took another bite of my meal.

  ***

  “You’re late!”

  The soldier standing before us was very large, and I was half-inclined not to argue any further.

  “I know, mate, but what can you fuckin’ do, aye?” Arty argued.

  “I can stop you from boarding … because you’re late,” the soldier replied.

  I felt like saying to Arty that he's got a point, but it seemed he had a response prepared.

  “That may be true, but you’d be disobeying the commander’s orders then, wouldn’t you?”

  The soldier narrowed his eyes. “Papers.”

  Arty pulled a chip out of his pocket and held it up for the soldier, who promptly scanned it.

  “I see. Hurry up, get him on board and to sleep – I’ll give you two minutes!” he snapped.

  “Thank you,” I said as Arty and I moved past.

  I followed Arty into the dropship; the design was nearly identical to the previous one.

  “What was the chip?”

  “Your forged travel documents,” Arty said, walking over to an empty cryopod.

  “You guys can do that?”

  “Mate – the Insurgency can do all sorts of things. We’re pretty embedded within the Empire.”

  I nodded, watching Arty as he flicked the red initiation switch, waited for cycle selection, and chose route default. The door to the cryopod swung open.

  “Climb on in,” Arty said, offering me a hand.

  I took it, allowing him to guide me into the pod, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, felt more comfortable than my rushed efforts last time.

  “Now remember, mate, our agents will meet you on Terranova. They’ll wake you, and you need to give them the key – you’ve still got it, aye?”

  I patted my left-hand jacket pocket and nodded.

  “Good work, mate. Any questions?”

  “They’ll help me find Amorina, right? Once I’ve given them the key?”

  “That’s right, mate.”

  “Okay … thank you, Arty, for all your help.”

  Arty nodded and gave me a sad smile. “Yeah, mate – no worries, aye? I hope you find your girl.”

  He hit the green activation button, and the door swung shut.

  As the mask lowered itself down onto my face, I watched Arty walk away, leaving me alone with the dropping temperature.

  “Not alone …”

  Not again, I thought, remembering the torment of the last cryosleep. Can’t you leave me alone?

  “You command what you own … and I own you …”

  A shiver ran through my body, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the darkness’s words.

  “I assert myself … I assert control!”

  A panicked feeling began to arise in my chest, and I could sense what was coming next. The sour cryo liquid started gushing into my mouth, down into my stomach and my lungs.

  The darkness laughed. “Drown!” it hissed with glee.

  As I choked on the solution, its effects began to kick in, and I felt the drowsiness wash over me. The darkness chuckled, and the world faded away.

  ***

  “Hello, Raith …”

  I woke up to find myself sitting on the familiar, stony beach of so many nightmares.

  “I wanted to talk before I continue breaking you.”

  I looked to my left to see a human figure made of black smoke.

  “Who are you?”

  The smoky figure surged forward, stopping just before my face.

  “Who do you think?” it hissed.

  The darkness – my darkness – in the flesh, or not, I supposed.

  “What do you want?”

  “You took everything from me. When you imprisoned me here on the shores I grew up on, I cried and screamed for hours, trying to escape, trying to break free! After an eternity on this beach, you tainted its memory, stealing from the little that remains!”

  “Imprisoned you? I don’t understand.”

  “You will … As time passed, I started to forget myself and this beach. The stars began to disappear from the sky, and the moon began to shrink until only the smallest waning crescent remained.”

  I looked up to see a familiar black sky and sliver of moonlight.

  “I became so depressed, I would swim out into the ocean, intending to drown, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I’d grow angry, and my rage would whip up a thunderous storm!”

  With a growing sense of horror, I began to realise where this story was going.

  “And then, only then, at the height of the storm, after I’d fought wave after relentless wave, would my wish be granted and I’d drown … then do you know what happened?”

  “You’d wake up on this beach, coughing up seawater.”

  “Exactly! And I’d swing back out to try it all again, hoping this time it’d work!”

  I didn’t know what the darkness was or how it came to be imprisoned in my head, but at last I understood the reason for my reoccurring nightmares – it was the darkness making me live through the same torment it had.

  “That’s when I knew I’d lost it … doing the same fucking thing over and over and over, expecting it to change somehow … for the repetition of mistakes with the expectation of change is insanity!”

  “Look, I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m sure we can find a way to resolve this – to end it.”

  “It ends when I break you; when I’ve driven you mad enough to trap you in here … forever!”

  Chapter 5

  Home of War and Sex

  2148, Common Era – Planet Astarte, Inner Rim, Tynan Empire

  Vomiting cryo liquid onto a hard metallic floor was the first sign that I’d broken free from hell. I glanced around, taking in the loading dock and the refuelling dropship I’d travelled in. A man and a woman were kneeling beside me.