I wanted to ask exactly what Lily had said to Mouse. I wanted as much information as I could about my sister right then. I wanted to know if this had something to do with the vision she’d received yesterday. I wanted to know if this was some kind of manipulation of the timeline to reach a desired end, like she’d told me about before. I wanted to know if breakfast always led people to fall into self-reflective depressive states. I wanted to know a lot of things, and they haunted me all day.

  Mouse needed some time alone after our talk, and I had to wait for dinner to learn what exactly we were planning to do, and to be allowed back in the core module, so I tried to take my mind off all the happenings around my ship and played Horizon for most of the afternoon. It had been a while since I just had a lazy day where I sat back and did nothing productive.

  Even if we left that night, it would probably be another month before I got the chance to open comms and see if Agatha wanted to play again, but I figured if I had nothing else to do, I may as well keep myself sharp on that front.

  At least video games offered a novel way to completely dominate a computer. It was enough to keep me occupied until I felt movement in the mess and smiled at the thought of Ray starting up dinner. It wouldn’t be long now, so I put the appropriate sensor to the side as I closed the game and spent a while searching my personal local network, seeing if I could dig up any interesting opportunities for us while we were on our way out.

  Extending my influence beyond Theseus was an interesting exercise on Io. It wasn’t hard to compromise most any simple machine with networking capabilities, the problem was keeping them that way. The colony was still constantly shifting infrastructure around, companies trading assets frequently, so the networked electronics also moved and reset a lot. I only bothered maintaining surveillance out to the main commercial hub and a couple neighborhoods of interest unless I had a specific target.

  It was a bit bizarre, sitting safely inside my shell, entirely aware of nearly every inch of it inside and out, while my virtual presence, as I imagined it, floated out in the distance, experiencing the world through a smattering of low fidelity security cameras and file-based maps. An out of body experience to a less clear world.

  It made me wonder why Aisling had sprung for such good equipment even before she had a living starship at her disposal. Perhaps it was the same reason she’d decided to get me a psychic damper despite it’s cost: A hard-earned lesson that certain things shouldn’t be cheaped out on.

  I pondered the idea of some past tragedy on the ship that could have been avoided if not for the core being unable to provide clear pictures of something happening in the cargo bay.

  I found myself slightly annoyed that a small web of nodes had been cut off in the middle of the town, but smirked when I noticed it was through a building a skeevy loan-shark had been squatting in above a bar. I may have occasionally misplaced a few of the worst of his accounts from his records while passing through. I knew he’d just moved on rather than been ruined by my ‘sloppy’ bookkeeping, but part of me hoped I’d at least helped a few people down on their luck. Why wouldn’t I use my superhuman abilities as a biocomputer to help others when I had the chance?

  I had grown bolder in how I dominated computers the past few months. I didn’t see any reason not to. I casually built large personal networks out of public and private electronics alike. Even though I ostensibly only understood the theory of what I was doing, it all still worked if I just applied what I knew about computers. And I found that the more complex tasks I pushed myself to do... there were never really any consequences, at least on the network end. I always found simple ways to leave no trace of my presence, I never seemed to trip alarms by accident, and so long as the system wasn’t already governed by another machine core, I had absolute control.

  I was a ghost in a dynamic network, floating through whatever ‘walls’ had been raised against intrusion with ease.

  I pinged across the nodes to an old woman’s house I’d stumbled into two months ago, accessing her emails and deleting a collection that had accumulated since I last checked. I first noticed her when I happened to catch a conversation between her and some botnet where she was starting to buy into one of the newer money transfer frauds that took advantage of the less technologically-inclined. I’d been taking a personal approach, but I figured I should automate it since I was leaving soon, dropping a script of my own to intercept some keywords would have to do. I left an anonymous ‘PSA’ about scams in general and figured I’d done the best I could.

  Backing up, I happened to catch an exchange happening at a cafe across two temporary nodes. A couple suits making some sort of deal. A quick check on their personal terminals didn’t give me any nature on what they were doing, exactly, but just to mess with them, I interrupted the transfer, put an ‘insufficient funds’ message on both their screens, and watched them trade looks of annoyance and embarrassment before moving on to using different accounts. I wasn’t going to be able to actually hinder them, but a little mischief at their expense made me feel a little better.

  Playing god with the digital world of an entire colony was a fun distraction from my real problems, but it made me think... I really wasn’t a typical biocomputer. No normal core could do this, or the whole information network would be in permanent chaos. It couldn’t be done with the ease that I did.

  It had me thinking about Lily again. Was she really on the right track? Was my talent related to my almost supernatural affinity with computers? Was the tech in my brain just a helpful throughway that I didn’t actually need? Or was the wonder of what I could do still just a disconnect between my simulated life experiences and my real life knowledge that I didn’t understand how to bridge except in practical application, like I originally thought?

  My concentration unraveled for a moment as a revelation dawned. Since I wasn’t breaking into these systems using any known conventional method...

  What was I actually... doing to these computers?

  The thought was interrupted by the clack of the intercom being used for its actual intended purpose, tearing me back to awareness in my human body as I opened my eyes. Ray called through, “Hey, where is everyone? Dinner’s ready! Barbecue pork, get down here!”

  I’d wonder about it later. For now, I had to admit, I was hungrier than I thought I’d be. I had spent most of the day out of the core module, after all. I still thought it was ridiculous to make me eat every single day, once I did sync my checkups with meal times, but today it wasn’t wrong.

  I blinked the light sensitivity from my eyes, stretched myself out, and hopped up from my chair. Reacclimation was so much easier when you didn’t have to jumpstart every sense you had.

  I did look forward to ‘taste’ in particular right then, though...

  —

  The food was delicious as always, when we had actual food for Ray to cook. It wasn’t real pork, of course, but Ray could make it taste close enough that there certainly weren’t going to be any complaints.

  We’d all gathered as usual in the mess, and the mood was mostly relaxed and upbeat, if not for Lily and Mouse.

  Mouse, I understood. He stared into his meal with a look of dull contemplation. His eyes didn’t look red, so maybe I imagined him tearing up, or maybe he’d just bothered to clean himself up before joining us.

  Lily, however, just seemed anxious. Had she realized that she’d put Mouse on edge and regretted it? Or was she still nervous about whatever she’d seen yesterday? I wasn’t about to make a scene asking, knowing that Aisling would want to take the lead on the conversation in a bit, but I took note of it for later. Even if I couldn’t ask her about her vision, I could at least try to be there for her, emotionally.

  I ended up focusing on the meal, quietly wrapping the shredded meat into a tortilla and chewing it slowly while Doc watched with an unnerving attention to me. I think he might have finally reached his limit on allowing me to not care about my body, but the attention was a bit much for me.

  He’d already brought a plate up for Collins to enjoy. She didn’t have the strength to come downstairs without monumental effort on someone’s part, and besides, we needed to discuss our next step without her overhearing.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  After everyone had settled in, Aisling set down the nearly-finished sandwich she’d put together for herself and spoke up, “Thanks, Ray. Great job as always. Alright, everyone. Strategy meeting. Shaw?”

  Shaw looked up from his plate in surprise, apparently not knowing he would be up first. He shrugged and reached for a tablet off his belt, placing it on the table for everyone to see. “Alright, if we’re getting straight into it, then. You have three considerations on the table at the moment. One is of course, the misplaced captain upstairs. As most of you know, we’ve decided to go with a more light-handed approach and try to convince her that we’re grifting her.”

  “She’ll be joining us until she leaves of her own volition,” Aisling added. “The end goal is to take her to Mars on our way back to Luna, but if she jumps ship before then, that’s fine too. Our goal is to convince her that we’re trying to get funding for Meryll’s cover story. She knows what Meryll is, but if we nudge her just right, we should be able to convince her that this is all an elaborate scam, and she’ll write Meryll off as a part of it.”

  Shaw nodded. “That’s the biggest complication on the trip itself. That leaves us with two outside factors.” He tapped the tablet and showed two news clippings. One was from a financial media site with an announcement of an open conference called by Foundation, advertised as a valuable opportunity for investors. The other was a less advertisement-filled page from Firefall Press, the largest news aggregate group on Luna, with practical discussions regarding the apparent preparation for the corporate retreat from Luna. There was an update at the top declaring that almost all ground forces had left the surface.

  “Alright, we can go back to the inner colonies, then.” Joel sounded satisfied, but then leaned forward to look at the other article, sounding skeptical. “But what’s this conference got to do with us?”

  “That’s the big ticket I wanted to discuss tonight,” Aisling leaned forward and tented her hands in front of her face. “I hadn’t considered it until Shaw brought it to my attention yesterday, but... we are in a fairly unique position. Foundation is about to broadcast something big, and we happen to be in the region, right where they least expect us, or any independent criminal opposing force, to be. We can just go home and resume our normal operations, but... Foundation’s largest force is a month out from here, and that conference will have important research, potentially prototype machinery, and a number of VIPs on site.”

  Aisling let the silence hang in the air around us for several moments before Joel finally broke it. “Are you suggesting we raid a convention center on fucking Europa?”

  “Covert ops. Nothing flashy.” Aisling nodded. “Not saying we should look for a fight-”

  “Well, a fight’s gonna find us.” Joel growled.

  “Told you they wouldn’t go for it.” Shaw rolled his eyes at Aisling.

  Aisling cleared her throat and continued, “For now, this is just a discussion. I wanted to see what everyone’s feelings on the idea were.”

  I knew Shaw had mentioned the convention yesterday, I wouldn’t have thought Aisling would even consider doing something like that, though. She wasn’t wrong, this was a fairly unique opportunity. We were likely the only well-organized pirate crew capable of even reaching Europa before this event started, and they certainly wouldn’t be expecting Lunar pirates to swoop in and try to swipe something of value on Europa. But it was more than just bold, it felt reckless. “Do we have a-any intel to work w...with?” I needed to know if she had an actual plan here, yet.

  Shaw spoke up again, “Well, I didn’t want to draw attention to us by eyeing the building itself up on the relay, but I do happen to have some connections in the port authority on Europa, as well as some airspace... loopholes shall we say. I know how to get us in and out of the colony without going through the usual security corridors.” He clenched his teeth slightly and gave an uncertain smile before he continued, “Once. As for getting us access to the mission site itself, I thought I might have a word with you on the matter, miss computer wizard.”

  “Us?” Mouse asked flatly, not looking up from his meal. “Thought you were leaving.”

  Shaw shrugged. “Well, I certainly will if you’re not going to Europa, I’m throwing my own hand into this whether its poking around in the outskirts by myself or infiltrating a corporate colony with a band of mercenary pirates. I just figured it would be far more lucrative to have a team of competent people by my side to actually get in there and take something, rather than just greasing the bigwigs with some drinks after hours to get a few tidbits.”

  “Ahh, so this is Shaw’s operation,” Joel grumbled.

  “We’ve certainly got our own agenda here, too, Joel.” Aisling glanced my way for a moment. “Not only might we be able to get some information from insiders on Meryll, but we could steal valuable research that may help blunt the edge they’re about to gain against Lunar and Martian forces. We’ve seen first-hand what those new engines can do, and not everyone has a living core to outmaneuver them with.”

  “I imagine technical information would also sell well and get us quite the bump in reputation back on Luna.” Doc nodded along thoughtfully. “It’s certainly a tempting prize. Are we sure that’s what we’d be getting into?”

  Aisling hummed, “Well, no. We can’t guarantee the subject of the conference at the moment, but if it is about the engine, there’s going to be something there. If not, then we’d still want to make off with whatever they were going to show off. It’s not like they’re putting this thing together for nothing.”

  “So we’re going to risk our necks jumping into a big corpo colony, and we don’t even know what we’re going to get out of it?” Joel grimaced.

  Aisling nodded. “It’s why I’m taking a vote on this one. It’s a risky maneuver with a risky payoff if we pull it off. I wanted to see where everyone stands on it. If a simple majority says no, we’ll forget about it and head on back to Luna right away.”

  Joel looked like he was about to say something, but then went quiet. It wasn’t often that Aisling left major operations decisions like this to the crew, and I think he understood the gravity of the situation if she was doing it then. It wasn’t the time for brash declarations.

  Aisling regarded him with a nod. “I do have a plan. At least, I have a plan to make a plan. And if in that process, I find that there’s any unacceptable gambles involved, I won’t hesitate to pull the plug, even if we’re already in orbit around the moon. But this is a big opportunity. If we pass it up from the start, we might find ourselves at a disadvantage later.”

  It made sense. Applying her own message of caution to me back at her wasn’t hard in this situation. If she knew not to commit if too many complications came up, then maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed right now. I trusted Aisling’s judgement more than anyone else’s. “W-Well... I su...ppose it can’t hurt to take a look i-into it, right?” I asked around.

  Aisling gave me a small smile while I heard uncertain grumbling around the table as everyone else mulled it over.

  “I don’t like it...” Ray mumbled. “Something feels off about this. What if it’s a trap?”

  “If they knew where we were, they’d just swoop in and take us now,” Shaw argued. “Last they knew, we were in wild space between the Mars and Jupiter. They probably think we’ve found a hidey-hole in the asteroid belt. Even if they knew we were in the outer colonies proper, we could be closing in on Neptune for all they know by now, and we wouldn’t have time to get to Europa.”

  “A trap’s very unlikely.” Aisling nodded. “Not without already knowing where we are, and as Shaw said, Io would already be surrounded.”

  The table went silent again for a moment. There was one voice that was notably silent. “Lily?” I asked. “Any in...sight?”

  Flinching at the sound of her name, Lily looked up from her meal and seemed to consider something for a few moments. I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at it. She wasn’t normally this careful with her words. She finally nodded slightly, “Well... I can’t say for certain, but... I haven’t had any especially bad visions about Europa...” She shook her head. “I can’t say too much if we’re going there, but on the path we’re on now, I’m almost certain no one on the crew... dies.”

  I probably would have missed it if I weren’t scrutinizing my sister’s words carefully at the moment, but that was a strange qualifier. The whole crew was in the room. She could have said ‘no one here’ or ‘none of us’. Of course, not everyone here was part of the crew. I glanced to Shaw and saw a bare uncertainty on his face that betrayed his calm demeanor. He understood, too.

  “Well, if the precog is certain... and I guess Meryll’s got a point too,” Joel sighed. “It can’t hurt to look into, at least, right? I want to know just exactly what risks are on the table, though. We plan this one out together or I’m out.”

  “Don’t trust me?” Aisling smirked, watching Joel give her an incredulous look back and continuing before he could retort, “I don’t see a point to keeping anything about it from the rest of the crew, especially since I’ll need our biggest security threat’s help on this one, anyway.”

  Lily’s dour mood broke for a moment and she gave a quiet giggle. I also noticed Doc smirk into his food before I realized she was talking about me. “H-Hey! I’m not going to go bro...broadcasting our plans around!”

  “You weren’t going to go broadcasting your nature around, either,” Aisling teased. “So. We in on at least going to the planning stage?”

  Well, she had me there. I didn’t have to be happy about it, though. “Yeah, s-sure. Let’s take a look,” I grumbled.

  “Fine by me,” Mouse said, returning to his meal.

  “Still don’t like it,” Ray sighed, “But fine. If the rest of the crew’s in, I’m with you.”

  “... I trust you, captain,” Joel nodded, his expression softening again. “Just nervous.”

  Aisling clapped her hands together and smiled wide at the crew, “Well then, good to see you’ve all still got a sense of adventure.” She picked up her sandwich again and ended with, “By the way, Meryll, you told me you can obfuscate the origin of our signals through the relay, right? If we’re doing this, then I’m ending the comms lockdown.”

  Discord

  The Nothing Child. It's an urban fantasy about three reluctant college students and a shapeshifting alien monster thrust into a campaign to defeat an all-consuming horror from another world that they accidentally unleashed upon their city.