“I’ve got her,” Kevin said, and abruptly the old woman halted in her approach, her blood-moistened body revolving slowly in space. Judy and Saskia allowed themselves to settle onto the frost-covered hull. It felt cold and brittle beneath their feet. A blue octopoid drifted nearby, its shape picked out in eerie turquoise highlights. Judy reached out and stroked it with her active suit’s senses: she felt her hand go numb.
Saskia was trying not to cry. Her body was shaking as she held back the tears. Judy came closer and held her, feeling warm skin through the active suits’ interfaces. Saskia held herself still, not accepting Judy’s embrace and not rejecting it.
“Let it all go,” Judy said. “Saskia, you can’t keep bottling it all up.”
“How did it come to this?” Saskia sobbed. “Twenty minutes ago we had a ship and a mission. Now we’re just slaves to this Kevin. What the hell has happened?”
“Shhh.”
“It’s okay for you, you’ll be going to Earth. We’ll be left here with that mad AI. What the fuck is going on anyway? Where is the Watcher? I thought he was supposed to look after us?”
“Shhh.”
But Saskia wouldn’t unbend: she continued to shake, barely holding back the tears.
“Saskia, what’s going on here?” Edward sounded confused. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“Follow my orders,” Kevin said. “You all work for me now.”
“No,” said Edward, “we work for ourselves. That’s the whole point of Fair Exchange. We’re going to Earth.”
“That’s to be decided,” Kevin said in a brisk voice. “I do have a Warp-equipped shuttle at my disposal. I might send it to Earth with you on board.”
“No,” said Edward, “we made a Fair Exchange. We cannot go back on it. You cannot go back on it. You’re our property now.”
Saskia spoke up, and Judy felt her body shaking as the other woman snapped at Edward. “Edward, you stupid gimp. Our ship has gone! Turned into thousands of little VNMs. There is no ship anymore, Edward, no more FE. All deals are off!” She sobbed. “You fucking dummy, what are you going to do here? You poor idiot! You don’t even know how bad things are!”
“Easy, Saskia,” Maurice called. “We’re all upset. Come on, Edward.” There was a moment’s pause, and Judy imagined Maurice touching Edward on the arm. She heard him clear his throat and picked up on the strain in his voice as he spoke: “Judy, we can see you properly now. We’ve been heading in the wrong direction, tricked by these stealth things. We’re coming back now. Be there in five or ten minutes.”
“Stay where you are, Maurice,” Kevin said. “I’m fetching the shuttle inside the hull. I’ll get it to pick you up first.”
“Okay, Kevin. Easy now, Edward.”
“I’m not worried,” Edward said. “I told you, we made a Fair Exchange. You can’t fool FE.”
A sad smile escaped onto Judy’s lips at Edward’s words. She looked at Miss Rose spinning slowly nearby. She was still alive, just. The meta-intelligence could see her essence, weak as a dying firefly, flickering inside Miss Rose’s skull. All around it, the lights of the VNMs could be seen burrowing closer. Saskia was gazing upwards, her thoughts somewhere in the pale blue distance, lost amongst the Dark VNMs.
Something arrived around the curve of the wall, and a dark shape slid into view. The shuttle. It resembled a blunt arrowhead, a matte grey lifting body design from the last century.
“That looks like an Earth model,” said Judy.
“It is,” said Kevin. “Its crew used to work for me.”
“What happened to them?” asked Saskia.
“That’s between me and them,” replied Kevin.
The shuttle sailed across the pale blue interior of the ship as easily as a cast stone.
“Okay,” said Kevin, “I’ll pick up Maurice first. There is a hatch located to the rear of the ship.”
