Chương 60: 2.1 Otherworldly

Hector leaned against the faux mahogany counter, waiting for the bartender—a synth in a railway uniform—to fill his order. He turned to his left, letting his gaze drift over the sparsely populated train car until he was looking at the two booths occupied by his party. Lemon and her kid brother, Kit, sat in one with Sass. The other booth, further on, was occupied by Orin, Grando's top enforcer, and a fighter they'd recruited for added security—a local guy who went by the colorful moniker Demon.

Hector sucked his teeth, looking away before the other fighter felt his gaze. It wasn't that he didn't like the guy; it was more that he was annoyed Grando felt like he had to provide muscle for Orin, especially when the enforcer's job, ostensibly, was to be there in case Hector needed something. Still, Demon seemed like a decent guy—capable and quiet. Hector had met him once before, back on his very first day in his new life.

One of the local tough guys had been trying to start trouble with Hector, and Demon had warned him off. Good instincts. //He may be a respected fighter, but he's not a match for you. // Hector smiled at Evie's intrusion. Relax, I'm not feeling threatened. He's not the one going into the rift, right? //But you feel it's a window into Grando's mind—a reflection of his lack of trust. // He's got a lot of money riding on this venture. Maybe he just wants to make sure someone will be watching my—and Orin's—back.

Hector smirked, realizing that Evie had deftly tricked him into looking at the situation from Grando's perspective. At least it's not Jam. Somehow the thug who'd caused Lemon so much trouble was still alive and kicking, but Grando knew better than to send him off with Hector; there'd be a very real chance he'd never return, regardless of any trouble they did or didn't run into.

"Your order, sir." The synth pushed three glasses toward him—two cherry-flavored colas and a lemonade. Hector scooped the glasses up, clinking them together as he carried them over to his booth. He set them down, and Kit licked his lips, glancing at Lemon, hope in his eyes.

"It's for you," she said, pushing the lemonade toward the kid. Hector smiled, sliding one of the colas to Sass. He lifted the last one and took a long, deep pull, swallowing with a sigh.

"Crisp."

"Gonna sit down?" Lemon asked, watching him sway with the train's rhythmic motion.

"Been doing too much sitting."

"Hope there's a good gym we can use," Sass said, sliding her glass around in a circle of condensation. She saw him staring and lifted the glass.

"Thanks, by the way." Hector grunted.

"We don't need a gym." She frowned but didn't argue.

"Your, um, team get in touch yet? You know your schedule?"

"Ten to four with the team doing drills. You and I will work out before."

"Awesome." Sass grinned, leaning back, tension bleeding out of her shoulders. She's pleased with herself, and she should be—training with me and a paycheck from Grando. //She'll earn it, though. // Hector grunted in the affirmative, both to Sass and Evie. Not that Evie knew exactly what he had in store for Sass's training, but she knew his feelings on the topic, and she was right; Sass was going to be working hard. She deserved to get paid more than Orin or Demon.

Even Lemon would be busier than those two; she'd be working as his assistant, coordinating everything while he focused on training and getting used to his rift team. Speaking of…

"Lemon, what's the story with the townhouse?"

"Fell through, but I have a line on another place—been vacant a while, but it has lots of space." She tapped the device behind her ear, an embedded data port made of black cera-silica that flashed with soft yellow and white lights as it transmitted data. It was a little flashy, but then, so was Lemon, and when Grando made Jam buy her a new port, she hadn't held back; she'd earned a decent little upgrade for her troubles.

"Space is good," Hector replied, sliding onto the bench-seat beside Sass. He took another pull of his cola and realized Orin was trying to make eye contact with him from two booths down.

"Just a minute." He stood smoothly, leaving his drink on the table. A few steps had him in front of the enforcer.

"Something up?" Orin nodded, pointing to the seat across from him—beside Demon. Frowning, Hector sat down, and Orin cleared his throat.

"Grando says he's getting a lot of, uh, back-talk from the rift team manager. Some bullshit about not filing proper registration docs to allow for profit sharing. The guy's trying to say he can only pay out to you for some reason." //He's likely trying to say that Grando doesn't have licensure to qualify for rift profit sharing. The Imperial Rift Commission is very strict about such matters. You'll qualify as an entrant, but if Grando wants his cut, he'll have to get it from you.

// Scowling, Hector connected the dots.

"Grando's trying to go over my head? Trying to get his cut direct from the raid manager?" Orin's eyes widened.

"Nah, it ain't like that, man. He's just trying to get shit organized on his end. What if something happens to you?" Hector continued to scowl, but he had to admit he'd probably be doing the same thing in Grando's shoes.

"I'll mark him as my beneficiary. Anything I earn will go to him if I don't make it out." Orin heaved a heavy sigh, a relieved smile splitting his thick lips.

"I'll tell the boss." Hector nodded and glanced at Demon. The man only stared impassively. There wasn't much notable about the guy: short black hair, a lean, angular face with dark eyes. He couldn't have been more than thirty-five, but he had an air about him that gave him gravity. Hector knew why Grando had hired him; he could tell with a glance: Demon was more of a killer than any of Grando's men, and that included Orin. Hector pushed himself up.

"Let me know if he's got any other issues." Orin snorted.

"You know he does."

"I mean ones I can help with." Smirking, Hector glanced back at Lemon and the others, then turned and walked to the spiral stairs leading to the observation deck. He wanted a minute to think. The spiral stair was narrow, and he wound around it, noting how Sass watched him, her eyes speaking as clearly as words might: she wanted to follow, to see where he was going, what he was thinking, but she wasn't sure it was her place. Hector gave it fifty-fifty odds she'd follow him up.

The train that ran from Helios out toward Kessler's Reach traveled on a broad, double-tracked railway. It featured nearly a hundred double-decker passenger cars, but the rear half of the long, mechanical snake was made up of gigantic cargo cars. The dual-track line was a major artery of the Martian economic ecosystem—feeding almost every major city down in the "Trench" or, more properly, the Valles Marineris. Of course, that would be long after Hector and his crew disembarked at Kessler's.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The top part of the lounge car was designed for sight-seeing, and Hector moved to the front bank of diamond-glass windows where he leaned on the brass rail, pondering the vast Martian desert. Oh, there were oases here and there—strips of green around terraformed rivers and lakes, but for the most part, the Martian red remained predominant, especially so far from a city center.

"How far to the station?" He spoke softly, and Evie knew he meant for her to answer. //You chose an opportune moment to sight-see. Kessler's is about an hour away, but according to the tourist info-gram, we'll pass by the rift site in about twenty minutes. I'm sure there will be an announcement. //"Huh." Hector squeezed the rail, enjoying the feel of the cool metal against his rough palms. He stared out the window, unseeing, for several minutes, trying to find a way to relax. He couldn't, though.

His mind was too busy. He wasn't nervous, but he felt a certain kind of tension—something that gnawed at the pit of his stomach. He had so many things going on—so many irons in the fire—that he had a hard time finding the empty, quiet space in his mind where he liked to spend most of his time. As a case in point, Hector released the bar and let his hand rest on the satchel hanging over his shoulder.

Most of the time it was light, but when he let it enter his conscious thoughts, it felt like he was carrying around a black hole. Evie, any luck on a cipher for the drive core? //I've several leads. I was hoping you'd stop by the university at Kessler's Reach. They have an offline library, and many of my inquiries lead to such databases. // Convenient. //It is, but not unusual; you could find similar data repositories in most cities that have research institutions.

I'm sure if we spent enough time looking around, we'd find something in Helio. // Just then, a pleasant, masculine voice came through the hidden PA speakers, "Attention, travelers! We're nearing our stop at Kessler's Reach. The train will arrive on-time at 2: 41 PM local. Before that, though, we'll be passing by the site of the famous Kessler Rift. You'll be able to spy it out of the left-hand windows in just about eight minutes. You won't want to miss it!"

"Sounds cool," Sass said from behind him. Hector turned, nodding. He'd felt her approach, but hadn't consciously acknowledged the fact.

"Ever seen one?"

"A rift?" She came to lean on the railing beside him. Her tattoo was slowly clarifying, becoming more prominent. Feeling defensive—worried. He'd come to recognize her tendency to hide behind the skull when she was angry or nervous. When she was with Lemon's kid brother, you could hardly tell the tattoo existed.

"Yeah, a rift."

"Nope—well, only in vids."

"It's different in person. Even without a system, you're going to feel it." He thumped his index finger against her sternum.

"Right in here."

"Really?" Her skull darkened as she turned to the window, watching the red hills roll by.

"Yeah. Everybody has some potentia in them; you build it up from the moment you're born. It'll respond to the rift."

"I mean, I knew that—about having some potentia. I've done a lot of reading about what to expect when I get a system. Like, I might get an ability right away if I have enough potentia and if the system is smart enough—""Sometimes the smart thing is to sit on the potentia for a little while—wait until you have enough to open up a decent archetype and gain a level or two." Hector smiled and nudged her shoulder.

"Relax. I'll help you decide."

"You think we'll find a decent system in a place like this?" She nodded toward the front of the train, indicating their destination, Kessler's Reach.

"Maybe. It's kind of a strange place—lots of research but also entertainment for the people raiding the rift. There'll be people looking to capitalize on that, though. We'll find weapons and equipment merchants. There might even be a decent secondary market where folks are selling off old gear." Hector nodded; the more he thought about it, the more Kessler's sounded like exactly the kind of place to find a decent beginner's aura system.

"Yeah, I think we might find something here. Just keep saving those bits Grando's paying you." Sass nodded.

"Hoping to earn some on the side, too. Hoping there's a fight scene." Hector arched an eyebrow at her.

"I'm sure you'll find something. Gonna be some big personalities in that place. Rift raiders are another breed." She looked at him sideways.

"You always talk like you've been around for a thousand years. I suppose your mentor told you all about rifts, too, huh?" Hector narrowed his eyes at her. My story's starting to ring hollow to her. //Why not just tell her the truth—or a part of it? // Hector figured he'd do just that, but he wasn't in the mood for it. He'd already talked more than he liked.

"Something like that," he said instead. Sass sucked her teeth and turned back to the glass. After a minute or two, she pointed and, breathless, asked, "Is that it?" Hector squinted toward the hazy horizon and, sure enough, caught the telltale violet shimmer of the rift. At that distance, it was just a flicker of light.

"Sure is."

"Are they always that color? It's beautiful!"

"Rifts are cyclical—some more stable than others. This is one of the more predictable ones." Sass nodded.

"Rift cycles, right—like that's how you get breaches." Hector narrowed one eye, wondering if he felt like explaining. Hadn't he done enough talking? For some reason, where Sass was concerned, his tongue had a mind of its own.

"Sort of. When it's purple-tinted, that means it's inactive here. We can't go in, and things won't come out. When it shifts toward red, that means it's open—we can go in, and as people do, they'll keep the rift-denizen population down enough so there won't be a breach."

"What do you mean by inactive here?" Hector shrugged.

"They're called rifts for a reason. It opens to other places."

"Huh? But I thought there was, like, a world inside the rift?" Hector sighed.

"There is, but the rift doesn't just go between our world and the one on the other side. It opens to other places, too; that's where a lot of the rift denizens come from, those other places."

"So how long's the cycle?" Sass's eyes were fixated on the slowly growing purple shimmer.

"For this one? It's open for about eighty hours and closed for something like a month." Evie was quick to confirm: //That's right. It's a ten to one cycle—three-point-three days open and thirty-three days closed. //"Oh," Sass said, glancing at him, "so you won't be in there very long at all." Hector nodded, watching the rift approach.

"That's the plan." It would be a hell of a three days, though, of that he was sure. When he'd done rifts for the Empire, he'd been with a team of other Invicti, and even then there'd been occasional casualties. He was nowhere near as strong as he'd been back then, so he damn-well hoped the team he was joining was up to the task.

"Is that it?" a new voice inquired. Hector turned to see Lemon approaching with Kit hanging onto her hand.

"That's it," Sass replied, stooping to haul Kit up onto her hip, giving the kid a better view out the window. Small for his age, isn't he? //Small and, if I'm not mistaken, a little behind developmentally. // Hector shifted to the side a little, making room for Lemon to stand close, then he watched out the window as the strange, alien rip in the fabric of the universe slowly grew.

By the time they were about a mile from the thing, it dominated the horizon, making it near-impossible to look away—a great pulsating fissure into nothing. Waves of purple light rolled inward, toward an aperture that looked like a gulf into a black abyss. In its current state, walking into that towering rift would result in a person's body being ripped apart, reduced to component molecules that became part of the rift's otherworldly material.

When it shifted open, and the purple tinted toward red, the black abyss at its center would also change, turning almost translucent and reflective—a mirror into another world. Only then would it be safe to approach and—if one were foolish enough—enter.

"My tummy tickles, Lemon," Kit said, looking at his big sister.

"Mine too, sweetie." Lemon looked at Hector, eyes equal parts worried and eager. He knew what they were experiencing was a fraction of the roiling waves of tingling energy coursing through his body. The sensation originated at the center of his chest, rolling outward in time to the pulsating rhythm of the rift. His hands were white-knuckled where they gripped the brass railing. Still, he forced a smile and nodded.

"Been a while since I felt that. It's just the rift calling to the potentia in you. It won't hurt." Lemon licked her lips as they curled into a relieved smile. She leaned close to Sass, kissing the top of Kit's head.

"Hear that? Nothing to worry about." By then, the train was rushing past the concrete platform the Empire had built around the rift, past the staging buildings and the massive turrets that encircled the compound. The rift threw everything into a purple-tinged light and, as they rushed past it, they all got a good sense of its actual size—ten stories tall and half as wide at its center. Hector had seen bigger ones, but not many. It was a damn good size. Perfect for gaining some levels and gathering some wealth.

After a beat, his darker, more cynical voice responded: Perfect for getting yourself killed, jumping in with a bunch of inexperienced civilians.