Epilogue: Chapter Two
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GUNNER CARRIED ELODIEback to his ship. Cagley had released her into his care as soon as he returned to the room. He paid the doctor a small ransom in credits, knowledge, and various other goods he still had stored on his ship. It was enough to set him back, but he would’ve gone into debt for Elodie’s procedure.
She squirmed in his hold and hooked an arm around his shoulder, hefting herself further against him. Her other hand clasped the side of his neck.
“What’re you looking at?” he asked, looking around at Ghost City himself, trying to see it through her eyes. All he ever saw was a whole lot of the same old shit.
“Why are all the hatches open? All the docked ships have their hatches open and unguarded.”
“It’s law. Ghost City’s captain demands a show of trust. If we’re allowed into the city, the city is allowed into us.”
“So...we can just walk onto any one of these ships and... I don’t know? Steal things, steal them?”
Gunner chuckled. “Only if you want to die. Or worse, be imprisoned. Just because the hatches stay open doesn’t mean others are welcome. But yes, if we were so inclined, we could board one of these other vessels and do what we pleased.”
“My dad would like it here.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” They had found Chesnik, after following his escape pod’s trail to a nearby port after they left the Peace Keeper battlemass. From there, Gunner followed his nose to the slums of the port where Chesnik was hanging out with some of the other escapees from the pirate freighter. They had changed their names and were working off the payment for those new identities.
To his utter horror, Elodie asked her dad to join them and help rebuild his ship. Gunner would’ve suffered it, sufferedhim, if it meant keeping Elodie happy, but the nano gods were on his side that day and Chesnik stoically refused.
Elodie paid off her father’s debt, since she still had access to their funds from her previous job, and got him the best treatment a Cyborg’s ship could afford for his wrenched shoulder. They split ways after Chesnik signed on to another crew, a small mercenary vessel, one that he could manage alone without having to worry about hiding his daughter’s identity in the close proximity of others.
He learned something fundamental about Elodie then. That she wasn’t good with goodbyes. Of any kind. And to his chagrin, he now kept tabs on Chesnik’s whereabouts that brokered onto stalking.
“Why do you say that?” she asked.
“Because there’s nothing for him to do here.”
Elodie looked around. “You’re right. It’s all too perfect. I expected more.”
“Oh?”
“Ghost City... The name seems dreary but also fun? Maybe grungy machines, smoke, and glitz. I didn’t expect it to be so...”
“Ghostly?” He laughed. Several Cyborgs eyed them from a distance, and he flared his eyes.
“So boring.”
“There’s a bar and nightclub,” he argued but he also agreed. “And a gladiatorial pit.”
“There’s also a lot of Cyborgs,” she stammered as they came upon one standing outside his ship. “A lot of male Cyborgs.”
“Yeah. It sucks, doesn’t it?” He stopped and looked down at her. “I received another job.”
“What is it?”
