“Are you carrying hot weapons like rifles or nukes, anything that could be used as a bio weapon, or the flora of another planet?”
“I am not.”
“Welcome to Titan, Ms.Moth.”
The agent waved her through.
Kira shot one last worried glance at Jin and the rest before following Raider into the station.
Part of her expected to hear alarms sound at any moment.For there to be shouting and the hurried stomp of station security.
Nothing so interesting happened.All too soon, she left customs behind for the much more crowded commercial district.
Seeing Raider waiting for her across the corridor, Kira pushed her way through the press of bodies.
“Nice place.I really love the atmosphere,” Raider snarked as Kira joined him.
“I didn’t think you had standards to live up to.”
“Nixxy, I hate to break it to you, but this place doesn’t know what standards are.We’ve been in a lot of crappy dives, but this has to be one of the worst.”
“It’s not so bad.”
If you closed your eyes and ears and pretended that a slightly metallic, chemical scent didn’t permeate every inch of the station, it could even be considered kind of homey.
Raider gave her a look.
“What do you think the odds are of Jin successfully fooling their systems?”Kira asked, changing the subject.
Raider straightened as Finn and Maksym appeared.“Pretty good I’d say.”
The oshota made their way over to them.
Maksym drew looks from the humans around him as he studied his surroundings.His and Finn’s size were something that couldn’t be disguised.The bright color of their clothing did make them seem slightly less imposing however.
“Interesting place you’ve got here.I can see the draw,” Maksym commented as he and Finn reached them.
Customs spat out Bez and the rest moments later.Arly carried Pye on her back.Az held their things.
Jin and Dylan were last through the door.
Bez showed some aversion as he peered around the commercial district.“How do humans live like this?”
Kira tried to see Titan through his eyes.Corridors that felt cramped and claustrophobic from the press of bodies.Shops encroached on the walkways, spilling out of the bays set aside for their use.Hawkers, mostly down on their luck station dwellers, held up items, calling out to anyone passing by.
It was chaos.
Desperation infected every transaction.The traces of poverty were inescapable and impossible to look past.Worn clothes and a battered look in the eyes of the people around them.Walls that were damp from condensation caused by the station’s life support systems.She was betting it was also the source of the mold she was smelling and the reason a patina of rust had formed in several places.
“Very carefully,” Kira said at last.
And in many cases, they didn’t live long.
Children born in places like this were trapped from the moment they drew their first breath.They lived and died in the same narrow halls, mining pits, or spit of land where they spent the entirety of their days.
The lucky ones developed skills that the criminal underworld found useful.It was one of the few ways to get off station.
Another was to keep your nose and record clean and join the military when you came of age.
