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Yet now, she was letting someone else take control. Having Kainan guide the ship to Eden II somehow felt strangely relaxing even though a thread of mystery and menace surrounded his presence, which she was working triple time to ignore.
Eden II loomed in view as the stealth craft drew closer to the notorious lunar scape that glinted diamond-like in the light of the System’s twin suns. It was considered a giant moon in actual size, and its immensity surprised her.
She’d heard all sorts of stories about the place.
Some said it was a den of iniquity. Packed with tunnelled caverns that hid a litany of gambling casinos, gaming arcades, whore houses and seedy hotels catering to every vice in the System. News reports and rumours from all sorts said that above ground, every street corner had its watering hole. Complete with gangs that controlled the distribution of alcohol, the highly coveted synth drug koko and the sale of illicit weapons.
She had no idea what to expect, and for the first time since she and Rina had concocted their plan, she felt a frisson of fear wander up her thigh.
‘Selene?’
The low rumble dragged her away from her thoughts and back into the space she now inhabited.
Kainan jerked his chin in her direction. ‘We’ll be landing in about ten minutes.’
She inclined her head and sat up in readiness.
Looking outside the holo screen, she thought she spotted an orbital space station in the skies, hiding in the moon’s shadow. She also glimpsed silhouettes of gigantic hyperspace cruisers attached to its nodes, but she couldn’t be sure.
Then her screen filled with the vision of the port. She saw a sprawling terminus with plenty of full berths, a myriad of smaller flyers milling about and the general sense of bustling busyness. A multitude of ships, small and large, had called into port. The majority were in the simple, streamlined style favoured by Allorian and Dunian merchants and traders who could not afford the sleek and costly Rhesian yachts.
Porters in space suits scurried into the concourse from the berths and air bridges outside the dome, transferring bulky goods onto smaller flyers, swiftly pushing out toward the moon’s massive dome.
Like Mirage, the port seemed technologically up to date, gleaming and shining like brand spanking new, adding to the mystery of this NOT so rabble-rousing moon.
In the far distance, she spotted a set of secluded yards where a host of dark ships were parked, and she wondered for a moment whether this was where Eden II parked its mercenary armada.Most likely, she thought.
She felt Mirage’s engines power down, easing from their previous high grav push. Thrusters fired in cadence, the ship slowed, and she heard the groan of grapples and felt a slight jolt as Mirage slid into her berth and latched onto the spaceport. Selene sensed the ship matched its gravity force to the port’s standard g’s. She felt the weight of gravity return, anchoring her feet to the floor. A green light flashed throughout the cabin, indicating a successful docking. The engines rumbled softly and then cut off smoothly.
Kainan fluidly stood his feet and jerked his chin at Selene.
‘After me.’
A man of few words,Selene thought, rising to her feet.
They retrieved her duffle bag from storage. Selene flung it over her shoulder while Kainan slid on a jacket and swung a cross-body pack over his broad form. He aloofly led her out of the airlock. It opened onto a climate-controlled air bridge that led down a corridor to an auto gate.
There, Kainan lifted his hand and waved the thick bracelet that encircled his even wider wrist over a scanner on the gate. It beeped green and let them through onto a concourse teeming with life, sounds, smells and colour.
‘Welcome to Eden II, where mortal men walk on streets paved with treasure and reside in palaces of emerald and ivory, dancing in the shadows of the moon, where once immortal gods tread.’
Selene started at the sound of the voice and looked down to see a wizened woman smiling at her, thrusting a tray of baked goods into her face.
‘Oh, hello,’ Selene called out, her stomach lurching as a delicious scent wafted into her nostrils.
The woman grinned, revealing empty gums. She pushed one of her treats into Selene’s hand.
As soon as Selene’s hand wrapped around the baked sugary goodness, the woman’s face turned icy, and she hissed, ‘Two schills, foreigner.’
Kainan stepped forward, gently pulling the bun out of Selene’s hands and handing it back to the hawker. ‘Fili,nada. I’d appreciate it if you left my guest alone. Unless you’re giving her the best of your treats.’
The woman’s eyes widened at the sight of Selene’s large companion. She ducked her head and was about to lower her body as if in a bow when Kainan extended a hand and gently pulled her upright. ‘Give me four of your buns, for they are legendary in all of Eden.’
‘Khosi?’ The woman croaked, confused.
‘Four fresh buns,santeFili,’ he said softly, swiping his comm bracelet in her direction. The hawker woman’s comm tab beeped. She gaped at the screen where she must have seen a transfer of a generous amount of schill, given her wide-eyed reaction.
‘To go,’ Kainan prompted gently.
