Biddy spilled the tea right down her front.
Chapter 6
Lu Tang was the only member of the starfreighter to alight at the next fuel stop.
“It’s a shit-hole of a space station,” one of the other engineers explained. “It’s owned by an extreme offshoot of the Pilgrims. They call it the Temple. Seriously, you’d be better staying on board. It’s mega weird.”
“I need to go see an old friend,” Lu Tang said, not that he owed the man an explanation. Still, it was better to pretend to observe the social niceties.
He put on his spacesuit and helmet. The helmet was largely precautionary as there should be breathable air even on a small space station like this. But Lu Tang had been around for a very long time and he knew how often people would forget a crucial seal or airlock. Nobody knew for sure if augmented biology could survive the vacuum of space, and he had no intention of being the first person to find out.
The space station was big but empty. From the architecture it looked like it had been built during the last big spaceflight boom around fifty years ago. Every so often humanity became obsessed with moving to better star systems in the hopes of finding something to replace Earth. It never quite worked out and the galaxy was littered with places like this, once busy travel hubs, now largely derelict.
But the station did have some permanent residents. Big neon signs marked the way to the Temple. Their flashing lights and missing letters threatened to give him a migraine. Soon enough he approached a big metal door and pushed a button to get in.
Cold. That was the first thing that Lu Tang noticed about the Temple of the Goddess. It was so cold that even his augmented nervous system was struggling to regulate the temperature.
A servant dressed in white showed him into a large hangar. There were half a dozen other humans there, all shivering and staring at their feet.
“Why are you here?” The servant asked, his eyes dull.
Lu Tang knew how this sort of thing went. “I came seeking the Goddess.”
“Did you come to supplicate yourself?”
Lu Tang grinned. “Of course.”
“Then you must wait with the rest of the devotees. The Goddess is very busy.”
Lu Tang looked around the room. The plastic covering on the chairs where the few devotees sat was worn and ripped. There was moisture collecting on the walls around an ancient air purifier. The whole place smelt of stale air.
“I shall wait,” he said, taking a seat.
The servant paused, then scratched at his arm. Lu Tang spotted some marks that suggested the man was injecting whatever this century’s favorite drug might be. The weak and the vulnerable. They had always been drawn to the Faith.
It took nearly an hour before Lu Tang’s turn. He had watched each member of the Faithful go out through the ornate double doors at the end of the room. They returned looking comforted, and no doubt considerably financially worse off.
The door opened and he was led into a smaller room with a raised stage on one end. On the stage was a massive ornate chair occupied by a small figure cloaked in black. The person in the chair wore a mask and kept their head bent low. Eerie music played from a hidden speaker.
Lu Tang suppressed a chuckle.
The white-clad servant made a deep bow then exited the room. Lu Tang walked quickly towards the stage. There was a small cushion situated below the stage, but the Augment chose to remain standing.
“You may make your supplication,” the figure on stage said in a voice that was cracked with age.
“I would rather not if it’s all the same with you.”
The head of the figure snapped up. “What do you mean?”
“Take a look at me, Goddess. Take a good look.”
The figure trembled a little as it leaned forward.
“Is it… I thought you’d been left to rot?”
Lu Tang’s expression darkened. “And you didn’t think to come to my aid?”
“No. What the hell are you doing here?”
The mask she wore was silver and formed the face of a beautiful woman. What did she really look like below it? Lu Tang knew he would never find out.
“I came to worship the Goddess.”
“Don’t be clever, traitor. You would only come here if you wanted something. What is it?”
Lu Tang shrugged. He looked over at the porthole window. The stars were beginning to come out.
“I want the item that you have been looking after for me.”
The mask began to shake. Behind it’s metal shield Lu Tang knew that the so-called-Goddess’s face would be a rictus of fury.
“You dare to ask me for that! One of the last relics of our kind! You did not give it away. It was taken from you because you could not be trusted with it. Because you would use it to betray the very people that gave you life. You, the traitor of the Augments –”
Lu Tang had had enough. “Me, traitor?” He said, his body moving closer to the stage. “And what are you, Goddess? What have you done to the once noble name of Augment by creating this freak-show? What have you done to yourself? Living off the scraps of the Faithful like a vampire. You are the traitor, in being and in spirit.”
“Get out!” The Mask screamed.
“Not without my relic,” Lu Tang replied. Truth be told he pitied this figure in front of him. Once she had been as strong as any Augment that lived. Now look at her. Pathetic.
The masked woman leaned to one side and picked up a small silver bell. It tinkled merrily and the servant entered once more.
“Bring me the casket,”
