I shut my eyes and asked for the room’s lights to be dimmed and the temperature knocked down a few degrees. I was so wired from my conversation with Wallace, I didn’t think I could fall asleep—even with pharmaceutical assistance and even though I had not slept since the night of my birthday. But after a while I began to fall into that no man’s land between being awake and being asleep. And I felt myself thinking of Preity Kapoor.
I figured that it was around noon standard galactic time. Even if she and Lir had hit it hard last night, there was a chance that she might be conscious.
What the hell. I activated my overlay and focused on Preity, trying to make a comm-connect. As I interfaced with the room’s AV system, I almost chickened out and aborted the video call, but before I could, Preity’s face appeared in the overlay. At least I hoped it was Preity. She looked different. Her hair was shorter and blonde, twisted into the current style of Terpsichore curls. And all her jewelry was gone.
“Preity?”
“Jannigan, hey. We missed you last night.”
“Yeah, sorry. I got called in for work.”
“So, what do you think?” She fluffed her hair and pouted for me.
“I recognize Lir’s handiwork for sure.”
“Do you like it?”
“Absolutely.” I tried to sound enthusiastic. “You look really nice.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure I like it, but we’ll see. It’s new, at least. And change is good, isn’t it?”
“Yes, definitely. I’m all for change. I have been steadfastly for change all my life.” I smiled.
She rolled her eyes at my attempt at humor. “Well, you want to talk to Lir? I can go see if she’s awake.”
“Uh, no. That’s okay.”
I was kind of caught off guard by the fact that Preity was over at the Windsing estate and I felt a surprising pang of jealousy—although I couldn’t really tell you who exactly I was jealous of. Things got kind of strange around Lir, that was for sure.
“I was actually calling for you,” I said. “To apologize,”
“Apologize? For what?”
“I was being weird when you asked me about my dad.”
“What? No.” She made a face. “I was the one who was being weird. I should have respected your privacy.”
“Privacy is overrated. Anyway, sorry.” I tried to change the subject. “So did you guys end up at Cavershams last night?”
“Yeah, it was pretty wild.”
“Did you go in the mausoleum? With the tingle vines?” Cavershams was an ancient monastery that had been turned into a private club a few years ago. It had all sorts of crypts and secret rooms filled with various pleasures of the flesh. Lir was the unofficial Dark Princess of Cavershams and liked to lord it over all her friends there—especially the new ones.
“Not something I’ve ever experienced before, I have to say.”
Even on the overlay I could see Preity blush a bit.
“Definitely some acquired tastes.”
“That is for sure.”
“But, hey, change is good. New is good.”
“Dwarves and bots are good.” She smiled.
“And dwarf bots. Don’t forget the dwarf bots.”
“How could I?”
We ended up talking for over two hours. Joking around. Telling each other about our lives. I heard about Preity’s childhood on Amravadi and her six older sisters, who she was very close with. All except for the middle one, Sarika, who sounded like a bitch. It was definitely a different culture than ours. Much more traditional and family-oriented. Their society was even more rigid than ours on Anglad. And the Amravadians were definitely more connected to traditions and the past. Even the way past back on Earth.
I told her about my own childhood. Being the only kid in the house. Living on six different worlds before I was fourteen. My mom passing away during my first year at Highton.
Preity was a good listener; a skill not shared by any of my friends—even Kane. But even still I glossed over the past seven years. I didn’t mention my dad’s death at all. Just told her that we had kind of a strained relationship and that I didn’t see him much.
“But you work together, don’t you?”
“Not really. I mean, I work for the company. Beck Salvage. But we don’t really work together.” I changed the subject and asked how it was going at her aunt’s ranch. So we ended up talking about horses for a while.
“You want to see them?” Preity asked. “When you get back, I mean?”
“Sure.” I definitely did not want to see any horses. I was not really a big fan of them and, besides, I was all horsed out from Lirala. But I wouldn’t mind seeing Preity again. She was so easy to talk to, I felt that we had known each other all our lives.
“So when do you get back?” she asked.
“I’m not really sure. I’m waiting on something here. And then it will be a few days after that. But I’ll be in touch.”
She smiled at me. “Bye, then.”
“Bye.”
5
I tried to nap again, but my mind was racing. Maybe I dozed off, or maybe not. At some point I got the call that the Rhya had announced the opening of the Fountain.
It would be another eight or ten hours before any non-Rhya ships were allowed through, but the clock was now officially ticking and everyone began to scramble. First on the agenda was the crew briefing.
I rode with Hendrik Lim and Goard, who was one of his ops guys, through the access tunnels of Tor-Betree. We skirted the public terminal and drove past the massive freight warehouses to the private hangars. I had actually never been to Beck Salvage’s hangars before, since I was never involved with an actual mission before. Despite myself, I was curious.
As I exited the coach, I got a lung-full of that
