There was a lot to think about after dinner. Of course, with my new obligation finished, the very first thing I wanted to do was get back in the core module, where I belonged. But Aisling wanted to discuss the matter of network masking up at the helm.

  We walked in together, and she sat down at her desk, letting out a satisfied sigh. “Ray’s a miracle worker. I love that stuff. Great flavor, right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, she’s great.” I smiled, then looked away from Aisling, realizing what I’d just said. “A-At c-c...cooking, you know?”

  Aisling snickered, “Meryll, you know you’re allowed to fraternize, right? Like, I don’t have rules against that. You don’t have to pretend you can sneak around behind my back about it.”

  I must have been blushing by then. “W-What? I don’t... I mean...” I sighed. Aisling could read me better than anyone. I could only ask, “I-Is it that ob...vious?”

  “Meryll, I must have walked in on you two literally cuddling with each other while she was cooking, like, a dozen times.” She smiled as I felt my face heat up even more. She was enjoying this. “Honestly, you two must want to show off when you do that. It’s not like I’ve caught you two in each others’ quarters yet.”

  There was a long pause where I tried to search for the right words to say next, too embarrassed to come up with anything on the fly, then she opened her eyes wide and leaned forward. “Seriously? You haven’t... not at all?” She asked curiously.

  “No! I-I mean... I haven’t ex...actly talked to her about... a-any of that, yet.” I stammered out, folding my arms in an attempt to wrap myself into a ball and escape this conversation.

  Aisling stared at me for a long time, trying to puzzle something together in her head, then leaned back into her chair and hummed thoughtfully. “I honestly thought you two were a couple by now. You know, she’s waiting for you to make the first move.”

  “Huh?” I blinked at her a few times, unsure what she meant. Why would Ray wait on me? I figured she was just humoring me when she let me hold her. My affectionate interactions with her were just something friendly to her, right?

  “I’ve known Ray a long time, and I know she thinks she’s intimidating, and not just to people she’s fighting. She doesn’t think someone’s gonna go for her like that. You know, being a Mammon and all. The chemistry between you two is pretty obvious, but she probably just thinks you’re that weirdly affectionate with everyone in private.”

  “Oh.” That was all I could think to say. She thought I was scared of being intimate with her because of what she was? I mean, when I thought about it, the logistics might be a little different at first, but I’d definitely be into it. I shook my head. This wasn’t what I needed to be putting through my head right then. “I don’t th...ink you b-brought me up here to-to talk about my...” I spoke the next words quietly, afraid to admit what it was, “my l-love life.”

  She chuckled again, “Whatever. Yeah, we need to discuss how this obfuscation of yours works.”

  Glad for the change in subject, I nodded to her and cleared my throat. “Right. The re...lay transmits data throughout th-the system by connecting n-nodes through laser broad...c-cast. If... you send d-data in a cir...circui... indirect route through the network, a-and trim the meta-data co-correctly, you can m-make it seem like it’s coming f...rom somewhere else.”

  Aisling nodded along, waiting patiently as I tripped over my words, then asked, “So can you make a transmission seem like it’s coming from... say, Phobos, rather than here?”

  I nodded. “I-I’d actually looked into the th-theory behind this, and did a few tests on it within the co...lony. If you do it right, it’ll m...mask the source origin en...tirely. No trace of Io on the d-data packets. Downside is lag. It’ll phys...physically take the data longer t-to travel. Th-There would be more packet loss, too, bu...but not enough to be a p-problem.”

  “Would that make it possible to trace where the signal really came from?” She asked.

  I shook my head. “N-No, not unless they’re watching the-the intermediary nodes di...rectly, looking for the sig...nal as it comes through. They’d h-have to know it was happ...ening already. Worst case, they look really c-close and figure out the transmission’s been t-tampered with, but not from where. Th-That’d maybe take them weeks, and only if we stayed in the s...same place that whole time.”

  Aisling let out a satisfied hum. “Alright, I get the theory, I think. Think you can pull it off?”

  I gave a quick laugh. “Easy. Al...ready have the program ready f-for it. Just n-need to route everything th-through me. A l-little tinkering with all our devices is a-all I’d need.”

  “You’ve been productive, I see.” Aisling leaned forward and asked seriously, “You haven’t been sneaking around the comms lockdown with this, have you?”

  “What? No! I’m not giving Foun...dation any excuse to t-track me down. I-If we’re leaving soon any...way, we should be perf...perfectly safe, but I-I wasn’t going to risk drawing that k-kind of attention...”

  Aisling lightened up a little, smiling again. “I’m just checking. Now, how soon can you get this set up?”

  I shrugged and closed my eyes, moving a few things around in digital space, opening the complex routing system I’d constructed, and injecting it into Theseus’s network. “Ph-Phobos, you said?”

  “Yeah. We don’t want their fleet turning around to check Venus, Earth, or Luna, but we don’t want them to think we’re in the outer colonies. Mars is a good compromise.”

  I opened my eyes and gave her a surprised look. “Th-This isn’t an obfuscation... You w-want them to see this. It’s a di...version.”

  Aisling nodded, still smiling wide as I figured out that bit of her plan. “Exactly. If they think they know where we are, they won’t expect us to be on Europa, and their attention will be on Mars.”

  I felt uneasy about that part of the plan. “Won’t that cause trouble for the revo...revolu...tionaries?”

  Aisling let out a quiet sigh, and leaned back in her seat again. “Maybe... but they’re going to figure out we masked the signal anyway, once we drop in on Europa. They shouldn’t be able to cause too much trouble before they realize they’ve been duped. Besides, I can’t think of a better place to mask the signal to. It’s not like there’s a relay in the asteroid belt.”

  “Th-There’s a series of intermediary nodes on b-both sides of its orbit, a-actually,” I offered. There had to be to make sure signals got through the field. That would send them between the planets instead.

  “Really?” I couldn’t help but smile a little about being more knowledgeable on the subject than Aisling was. “Harder to search the belt, too. Alright, sounds good. Send our signal to the outer edge of it, then.”

  I closed my eyes again, leaning back against the wall for a moment as I triple checked the target node in all of my calculations, then finalized the program, activating the mask. “I-I’ll need to con...figure any devices that w-want to broadcast, but th-that won’t be hard. It’s basically ready.” I opened my eyes and smiled at her.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  She gave me an incredulous look and muttered “I swear, you are some kind of wizard.”

  Frankly, I wasn’t entirely sure if that wasn’t so far off the mark anymore. Maybe Ray’s shaman comparison wasn’t as outlandish as I’d originally thought. What I did may as well have been magic, by everything I understood about computer science theory.

  I pushed myself away from the wall, starting to move to the door as I spoke, “I-I’ll monitor it closely f-for a while, make sure any devi...ces that try to connect are confi...gured.”

  “Sounds good. Let me know if anything unexpected goes down.” She lifted her own tablet, and I felt it ping against the network protocol. Invalid key.

  I closed my eyes as I walked, watching myself navigate the hall as I made sure Aisling’s tablet behaved correctly for the mask, then allowed it through.

  It wasn’t a moment after I hit the stairs that a local message was sent to all ship terminals, except for the one given to Collins. ‘Attention crew. The communications lockdown has been lightened. You may now use the relay for personal business within the ship. Outgoing messages will be monitored and transmitted through Meryll. Note that all transmissions will appear to be coming from a pirate source in the region between Mars and Jupiter, and the content of any messaging should reflect this. Captain Morgan Collins is not to be informed of the change in protocol.’

  And of course, I wasn’t finished climbing down to the second floor before the access requests came flooding in. Shaw first, then Mouse. Lily didn’t seem to have much interest, at least at the moment, but I was surprised to see Ray’s come so quickly. She never seemed as keen on computers as some of the others, but I supposed that mostly being confined to the ship those past six months had given her a healthy excuse to get more involved with tech.

  I wasn’t paying attention, and on the last few steps, I misplaced my footing. Tumbling forward and trying to catch myself on the railing, I slammed into something that halted my fall softly, leaving me shaking at the near-accident in the landing.

  Joel had his arms held out to catch me. He had just wandered into the stairwell and had been in just the right place for me to fall into his chest. Thankfully, he was a wall of a person and didn’t come toppling down with me. I looked up uneasily at him, staring down at me judgmentally. “Quit walking around with your eyes closed,” he mumbled as he pushed me back to my feet and walked past me up the stairs, calling back down to me from the next flight up, “And give my terminal relay access, would you?”

  That was embarrassing. I probably would have just leaned awkwardly into the wall and taken a little bruise at most if he weren’t there, but I’d rather not have had that interaction. I put my hand to my face when I realized this was probably what Lily had warned me about the other day.

  Lily... I needed to make sure that she’d be okay. She seemed really tense at dinner, and I figured she would appreciate me dropping in face to face rather than ship to face. Forgetting my brief struggle with gravity, I headed down the hall to her quarters, and almost opened up to walk in before I stopped and opted to knock.

  Practically by definition, there was no privacy on Theseus, given that I was constantly aware of everything that happened on board. It was an extension of my own body, after all. But I wanted to make sure Lily felt safe, so I was going to respect boundaries.

  There was no immediate response to my knock. I knew she was in there because I could see her on my sensors, but she seemed to be standing still, like she was hoping I’d think she was out.

  Sighing, I physically stayed in the hall and sent a request to her implant, which she thankfully opened after a few tense moments. ‘Hey. Can we talk?’ I asked immediately.

  There was a short delay before I read back, ‘I can’t tell you more. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Not about that.’ As much as I wanted answers, my sister didn’t deserve to suffer over this. ‘I just want you to be okay. If you need to keep quiet about something, I won’t push you. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to avoid me.’

  There was another long pause, but after a moment, I heard movement beyond the door, of the motor in her chair quietly humming. The door clicked, and she pulled it open, staring down at the ground. She didn’t say anything.

  “Lily...” I started. “I-I may not exact...ly understand what’s going on w-with you right now, but... I’m here for you as m-much as I can be, okay?”

  She nodded slowly. “I know.” Her hands fidgeted nervously at the hem of her shirt. “That’s what makes it so hard. I wanna tell you everything so badly. I want to share this with you, but then...” she stopped and shook her head. She couldn’t say.

  “Hey. I underst...stand that you can’t talk about e-everything you see. But you’re not alone anymore, and your s-sister’s going to see things through with y...you, okay? I’m not m-mad at you.”

  She still looked downtrodden as I spoke, mulling something over in her head. Finally, she mumbled something even more worrying, “What if... something I had to do did make you mad at me?”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Would something she had to do for some upcoming future cause a misunderstanding between us? I know she wouldn’t do something that would hurt us. Not anymore. She wasn’t that unstable anymore, and I knew she loved me as much as I loved her.

  “Well... can you answer m-me this, at least?” I started, “Whatever y-you saw... do we make it th...through together?” She turned her head up to look at me, and the look of tired concern in her eyes was heartbreaking. This was weighing heavy on her. “If n-not, then we’ll find another way. We don’t have to follow that future. We c...can do anything toge...ther, sis.”

  A sad smile slowly grew on her face at that. “Yeah. We can. And we do.”

  “Pro...Promise?” I asked to be sure.

  She nodded, her expression unchanged. “Yeah. We... get a happy ending in all this. I promise.”

  I stared at her for a few moments. I wasn’t great at reading people, but Lily wasn’t great at hiding her emotions. She was on the verge of tears. She was hiding something very important. I desperately hoped that I was wrong that she was deceiving me. But whether she was lying or not, I knew she had our best interest at hear. I knew that there was something she needed to hear most in that moment.

  I leaned over and wrapped my arms over her shoulders. “I tr-trust you,” I told her. And I did. Despite the rocky start to our relationship in my new life, I now trusted her with my life. “Do what’s b-best for us. And if you do someth...ing I don’t understand, I’ll just assume that y-you know how to guide us to a good fu-future.”

  She stayed still in my arms, her shoulders tensed against my hug. What sounded like a sob escaped her lips, and I felt her push at my chest. I relented and backed up, standing up straight again to see her avoiding my eyes again. “How did you end up so strong...? You...” She gave another sigh and wiped the moisture from her eyes. “I never expected, when we were younger, you’d be the one consoling me so much.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Maybe amne...amnesiacs just don’t know enough to b-be scared.”

  That made her chortle, a smile showing on her face despite the sadness still in her eyes. “Meryll... thanks. For the trust. Reassurance. I-I feel a little better. But I still need some space, okay? I need to think about a lot of stuff.”

  “Are you s-sure you don’t wanna just... hang out? For a l-little bit? Forget that stuff. Just for a b-bit?”

  She looked sad again, taking a moment to contemplate the offer before she shook her head. “Maybe... tomorrow? I just... I want to make sure I don’t mess something up. If there’s an opportunity I forget about...”

  “Then w-we’ll find our way back on track aft...afterward,” I told her with a wide smile. “Remember? We can d-do anything. What do we say ab...about your visions again?”

  She looked up at me again and took a deep breath, reciting the line I’d come up with to calm her whenever her powers frightened her. “Just because I see something doesn’t mean it has to come true that way. I don’t have to force it one way or the other.”

  “Right.” I nodded and patted her on the head. I didn’t get much opportunity to do something like that with anyone else, short as I was, so I didn’t waste the opportunity. “We’ll find a way, v-vision or not.”

  Lily still seemed distant. “I’ll... think about it. We can hang out tomorrow. Promise.”

  I supposed I wasn’t going to get much more than that, so I gave a quiet sigh and backed up a step. “Alright. I’ll give you some sp...space, sis. Just remember, I’m always h-here for you. No matter what. And I t-trust you to do what’s best.”

  She nodded, her chair backing away from me, while she gave me another sad smile. I closed the door for her, turned around, and leaned against the door with a sigh. If only I knew the depth of what she’d seen that made her suddenly turn so fragile again. I wanted to help her as best as I could, but she seemed adamant about letting her talent guide her.

  I hoped that maybe after a good night’s rest, she’d either let go of the strand of fate she’d so tightly grasped, or at least stop agonizing over it.

  Great. I was the one getting tense now. I certainly wasn’t going to let Lily see me getting all worked up when she had enough on her plate already, but I shouldn’t keep things bottled up myself. I had to face my problems, after all.

  “You alright out there?” I heard a voice from further down the hall. Looking up, I saw Ray peeking out from one of her doors, a curious look on her face.

  Maybe I needed to vent. “Act...ually, I could use someone to talk s-some stuff over with... if you’re w-willing to listen.”

  She smiled at me and motioned toward her room.

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  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.