Her eyes drifted to the painting that hung from one wall. It was one of two virtual decorations she had applied to the cargo hold, for her eyes only. Created by a fan, it showed her perched atop a stack of dead Hydras, amid the flattened lean-tos and crushed cargo containers of Rust Town in the aftermath of the bioweapon attack. Her painted representation pointed the sparking blade of the X2-59 toward the walls of Aradne in defiance.
It reminded her of what she was capable of when she really put her mind to it. She had rallied an entire city to defend against the bioweapons sent to kill them all. She’d become their “Warden” in the process.
The second augmentation was a window. Beyond it resided a beach lit by a perpetual sunset. Originally mottled clouds had streaked the horizon, but she’d replaced the sky entirely, substituting the stars just as they would appear from the surface of Ganymede. Jupiter’s ball floated in the sky, the great storm of its red spot seeming so calm when viewed from afar. The sun’s rays still cast the water and sand in lovely shades: the waves were probably too small, considering the tidal forces Jupiter would evoke, but she liked the scene as it was. Near the horizon, she could see the outline of the geodesic dome that enveloped everything, and beyond it, the icy crust of Ganymede’s surface.
Of course, when she arrived, she would find nothing like this. The Ganymede that once was, the Ganymede from the historical videos, was no more.
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could rebuild it and restore Ganymede to its former glory. There had to be others like her, scattered throughout the solar system, former citizens of Ganymede who had escaped the persecution. Will was wrong.
She also wondered if her people could have a home once more. If she put her mind to it…
“Why do you keep looking at that wall?” Will said, snapping her out of her trance. “Care to share your augmented reality overlays with us?”
Rhea shook her head and looked down.
After a moment, Will added: “You know, it’s probably a good thing you didn’t tell any of your Wardenites the real reason you were going to Ganymede. If they knew their precious Warden was a member of the hated people who destroyed half of Earth….”
She cringed at those words. She hated that notion. Hated it to the core.
“You’re assuming Miles and Brinks held their tongues,” Horatio said.
“They wouldn’t tell anyone,” Rhea said.
Will glanced at her. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because they were loyal,” Rhea stated.
Will tapped his chin. “Even if they did spill the news, it probably wouldn’t change anything. The Wardenites are devoted to you with a capital D.”
“Not all of them,” Rhea said. “News would leak, and once it got out onto the Net, it’d spread like wildfire: the much-vaunted Warden is a murderous Ganymedean, one of those responsible for killing half of Earth.”
“Except you weren’t responsible, and you know it,” Will said.
She was about to agree, and a part of her wanted to, but another part buried its head in shame.
“How do you know?” Rhea finally said. “In my memories, the few I have, I’m some kind of elite, crack warrior. Maybe I was one of those sent to Earth to set in motion the Great Calming. Maybe I even planted some of the hidden warheads responsible for destroying entire cities.”
“I doubt it,” Will said.
Rhea gazed at her cyborg hands. She wasn’t so sure.
These fingers could have been responsible for the deaths of billions.
She looked at the heroic virtual painting once more and, overcome by a surge of self-disgust, she deactivated the overlay.
“I bet Khrusos knows,” she said finally. “I’m going to have to see him, one day.”
“If you think your visit with the mayor was eventful,” Horatio said. “You can imagine how much more… lively… your social call with the President of the United Settlements will be.”
“He’ll see me without issue,” Rhea said. “He knows me. I sat at his table.”
Will laughed. “Sometimes, Dude, you’re so naive. He’ll arrest you on sight. He has to. Peace was never declared with Ganymede. As far as he’s concerned, we’re still at war and you’re an enemy. He’ll definitely make you a prisoner. You avoided being chipped once, you really think you’ll avoid it again? That’s what probably happened to you, you know. You weren’t a guest at the president’s table, like the mayor told you. You were his slave.”
“If that’s true, then he will pay,” Rhea said. “And he won’t succeed in chipping me again.”
Will chuckled. “Okay. Keep believing that. Sure, you have some skills, but also, you’ve been lucky a lot of the time. You have to admit that.”
She frowned at him. “You were the one encouraging me to visit Khrusos before we left…”
“I didn’t say that in as many words…” Will said.
Her voice became stern. “Yes, but you implied it.”
“Yeah, that was a mistake,” Will said. “I realize that now. Should have kept my big mouth shut. I only brought up Khrusos at the time because I wanted to stop you from coming to Ganymede. But it’s a bit too late for that now, isn’t it?”
The door to the cargo bay slid open, and a man with a generous girth jetted inside. It was Targon, the trader. He originally hailed from Mars but called interplanetary space his home. He dressed in long, flowing silk robes; a brown belt tightly clasped his waist, and some of his ample girth tumbled over it, partially concealing the gold buckle. He wore a jetpack, which constantly vented stabilizing propellant to keep him from drifting into any of the crates. That jetpack probably contributed to his size, because it meant the man scarcely did any exercise. Then again, living in the weightlessness of space wasn’t all that conducive to exercise in the first place.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Targon smiled down at her.
Rhea sat up and gave the merchant a
