I know.Torian’s voice was distant.
You’re worth moreto me,Amelia had clarified.
Her lips were so close to Torian’s in that moment. They were alluring, slightly chapped with the dry air, barely an inch from Torian’s own lips.Can I kiss you?she’d asked, bleary with medicine and wholly convinced this was the right move.
Amelia had responded by crashing her lips to Torian’s.
And then, just as Torian’s heart soared and all the unspoken near-touches that had ignited her in the last few months became reality, and this wasreal, she was kissing Amelia, and holy shit it wasso, so good—Amelia had pulled away.
And Torian spent six months wondering why.
“You never got to know me,” Amelia said now. The words would be cruel in a vacuum, but her tone was distant, regretful, her posture almost… sad. She set her jaw, moved on before Torian could analyze that. “If your time with my crew was just a means to an end, then I guess we’ve reached the end. Enjoy your means,CaptainRazner.”
Amelia turned swiftly on her heel and walked away.
IDENTITY: Mechanical Operations and Support Systems
→SUB-IDENTITY: Moss
TIME/DATE: 17:56/Januous 9, Year 90113 [System U2Ab Universal]
LOCATION: Colony 13 [human]
Ugh. Torian Razner had a human lover. If I’d learned one thing watching entertainment pods withhim, it was that “love” equaled “complications,” especially for sentient species like humans or nylarians.
My systems still had access to the impound lot’s control panel. The maintenance human there hadn’t realized my moss had grown over part of it, and thus, I was easily able to reconnect with Colony 13’s system.
Human AIs were a pathetic excuse for sentience, useful only for data management. I ignored its query input and slid around it, sifting through records to gain more information about this new human, Amelia Perrosk.
[She would not threaten my freedom.]
While they argued, I collected data.
Name: Amelia Perrosk
Pronouns: she/her
Starship: UNNAMED, Model 89K, Cruiser Class, ID: FJL999202–31130459LXXY12
Employer: the Fleet, smuggling syndicate
Active employment: 9 years
Title: Captain (5 years)
Curiously, I found little aside from that. Unlike Torian’s records, this smuggling pilot human’s appeared to have been wiped fromColony 13’s database. Any video I found was glimpses that erased as I watched.
Curious.
I slid past the videos, into the program embedded into this colony’s AI. It was a sleeper code that highlighted Fleet members of note and erased data on them. There were at least fifteen other members who were attached to this code. I discarded their information easily, instead prying the code open to identify its hidden archives.
This took several minutes, during which Torian and her lover concluded their discussion. Torian turned to my starship, which meant I was out of time.
The code reluctantly revealed the archives, which included footage from inside the smuggling pilot human’s own starship, the one where Torian had previously resided.
Torian faced theDestitute.
I copied this information and stored it for later analysis.
