Page 49 of A World Enough

It made Camber feel all the worse that she hadn’t been trying to find Earth, and Brogan’s way back home. But she would, because Brogan deserved it. Brogan had helped her survive and protected her, and Camber felt warmth every time she looked into her blue eyes.

She wanted to make Brogan happy, and home was something that made her happier than anything else.

Brogan touched Camber’s hand, shaking her from her warm thoughts.

“It should be enough to create an approximation. Computer? Can you make a landscape from these details?”

The computer said, “Yes. Please enter when ready.”

Chapter Eleven

Cardo lifted the lapels of his long black leather coat and strode into the dingy bar on the Dinko space station. To call it a space station was generous in the extreme. It was basically a glorified budget mechanic station, with a bar and food establishment.

But almost everyone here had something to sell quickly, or a side gig. One particular side gig was what he was hoping for.

When he walked in, everyone stopped. Nearly everyone who was here was a criminal or on the run. A vampire walking in would strike fear into anyone’s heart here, but a group of Drazani guards backing the vampire made it worse.

But there was one man who looked more frightened than most. The bar manager. He was no better than the rest of them. He had long greasy hair and wore a dirty, oily T-shirt, with a cracked and worn black leather waistcoat over it.

The bar manager gazed at him through one good eye and one basic, cheap, silver mechanical eye. Unnerving to some, but not to Cardo.

“Cardo,” he said with false confidence. “I didn’t think I’d see you so soon. Drink?”

“I don’t think so, Kack.” Cardo leaned on the bar and looked around the downbeat bar with disgust. “I prefer to drink in more…clean environments.”

“How can I help you, then?” Kack asked.

“I want to talk to you about finding someone.”

“I don’t vet people who come into my bar, Cardo. I just serve them.”

Kack’s hand shook as he poured himself a drink. That pleased Cardo. The feeling of power he got from intimidating people was a thrill he never tired of.

“Despite your appearance, I know from personal experience that you have skills, skills that can decode the hardest of signal communications, and you sell them to the highest bidder, either Abnobian empire or the resistance.”

“Yes, I’m just a normal man. I don’t pick sides,” Kack said.

Cardo slammed his hand down on the bar, making Kack jump. “Let’s see if you can help me again.”

“But I have a whole bar full of people.”

“I’m sure they won’t mind waiting, or flee into the night, with Drazani to keep them company,” Cardo said. “Take me to your office.”

Kack turned to his barmaid and said, “Don’t let anyone run up a bar tab.”

Cardo said to the guards, “I’ll take two of you, and the rest can stay here.”

Kack walked out from behind the bar, and Cardo followed him to his office. “I don’t know how you think I can help you. I haven’t heard anything unusual. In fact I haven’t been monitoring much lately.”

“I’m searching for someone. You might know her as the Map Keeper? I know if anyone has picked up her name in transmission, it’s you.”

He just opened his mouth a few times but said nothing.

Cardo shot across the room, put his hand around Kack’s throat, and pushed him hard into the wall. He cried out in pain.

“The Map Keeper?” Kack said.

He looked terrified from the sharp teeth that erupted from Cardo’s gums and the deep red eyes he was no doubt exhibiting.