Chapter Sixty-Nine - Nice

“Limits? Why would anyone bother with those?”

--Longbow, to the government of New New Mexico, 2054

***

I met Gomorrah on the roof of the hotel the next morning. She had her Fury parked right on the edge of the roof between two of those big vent things and what I suspected was a folded gun emplacement.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi,” she replied as she looked me up and down. “You look strange,” she said.

“Wow, thanks,” I said. “What’s that even mean?”

Gomorrah shrugged. “You’re holding yourself differently than usual. Less cocky. You look less self-assured, I suppose.”

“I’m wearing my armour, you can’t actually tell how I look,” I said. I gestured at her. “You’ve changed a little yourself. New gear?”

“All new, actually. It’s a similar design to my last, but up-armoured a little. Better environmental protections too. I have a catalogue for that kind of thing.”

“That’s neat,” I said. “I still have... honestly, a lot of points to spend. I should look into that.”

“They don’t help you.” I glanced at her, no idea what she meant by that. “The points. If they’re just sitting there, not doing anything, then they’re not helping you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah. I know. It’s just hard to spend them, you know? What if I need something big soon?”

“What if you need it and you don’t have it? Infinite options are nice, but a concrete item

in hand is nicer. This is that whole bird-in-the-hand parable. I suppose there’s no harm in saving the points up for a while, as long as there’s a goal behind the saving.”

I shifted my shoulders uncomfortably. “Fine, fine, I’ll make a point to spend my points. Hah.”

Gomorrah chuckled, then jumped backwards onto an air duct. She started to swing her legs back and forth, a slow ‘thunk-thunk’ beating against the bare metal duct. We both looked up to the grey skies, then back down. At least it wasn’t raining yet.

“So, you and Frannie get it on yet?” I asked.

“Cat,” Gomorrah said. “Stop speculating about my love life.”

“Oh? You have a love life to speculate on, then?” I asked.

She glanced my way, then back down. “No, no I don’t.”

“Ah, that’s rough. Lucy’s plotting some double-date kind of thing.”

“Please don’t get Lucy of all people involved,” Gomorrah said.

“You don’t like Lucy?” I asked. That... genuinely hurt. Gomorrah was probably my best friend, even if we’d only known each other for a couple of days. They’d been long, eventful days.

“Oh, I like her fine. Better than I like you, certainly. She doesn’t explode things in close proximity to me. Or invite me to galas that end in shootouts.” I laughed, and Gomorrah chuckled. “No, I don’t want you to tell Lucy because she is entirely too convincing.”

“Oh!” I stood a bit straighter. “That means that with the right sort of convincing, we could get somewhere,” I said.

Gomorrah sighed and leaned back. “You’re, as the old nuns would say, a bit of a bitch.”

I snorted as I walked over, then sat down with my back against the duct she was using. “A bit, yeah,” I admitted. “Sometimes I try not to be, but then life happens, you know? Still, I’m a bitch with some great friends, so I can’t be doing everything wrong.”

“Oh, Christ,” Gomorrah gasped. “We’re friends, aren’t we? Where did I go wrong?”

“Oh, ha-ha,” I intoned.

We both twitched as a high-pitched keening came from above. Something fast was dropping through the clouds, a grey streak shooting right towards us. That was either our ride, or someone decided to take us out cruise-missile style.

The vehicle slowed down and came to a hover a few metres above before it dropped down at a more reasonable pace. It was a big sucker, maybe fifty metres long, with a sloped front and two long, curved nacelles on its side. It reminded me distinctly of the two big guns that Deus Ex tended to have hovering next to her.

The ship came to a gentle stop even with the edge of the roof, then with a hiss of releasing pressure, a door opened up on its side and slid back into the armour of the hull. The entrance was a good long step past the edge of the building, and no one seemed inclined to lower a gangplank for us.

“Whelp,” I said as I climbed to my feet. “That’s our ride, I’ll bet.”

“I would hope so,” Gomorrah said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that advanced. God, the number of points that thing must cost. All of my scans are just bouncing off of it.”

“Nice,” I said. I walked over to the edge closest to the door, then glanced down. There was a whole lot of nothing below before the pavement started. There was nothing for it, though, so I took a step back, then jumped up and into the ship.

Gomorrah followed after me, bumping into my back into what was clearly a tiny airlock of sorts.

The door slid shut, then another opened, and we moved out into a long corridor. The back had a lounge area, with sofas all around a little table and a door at the rear that led... somewhere. The front had direct access into what looked like a very complicated cockpit, one that was entirely unmanned.

“Nice,” I said again.

My phone app went off, and I blinked to reply. “You’re onboard?” Deus Ex’s voice asked. “Good. Sit down, and hang on. Three Vs is fast.”

“Three Vs?” I asked.

“Veni Vidi Vici. It’s the name of the ship,” she said. “Come on, you’re burning power.”

Gomorrah and I moved over to the couches, which immediately shifted to accommodate our forms better. I kind of wished that I wasn’t wearing so much armour so that I could actually feel the couch as it conformed to my body. I bet that it was damned comfortable.

The ship shifted to the side, rose, then tilted back. And then with a lurch so hard it felt like someone had just shot a pillow against my entire body from a canon, the ship took off. The screens on the sides of the room showed first New Montreal, then the grey clouds above, and in short order, a thinning atmosphere as we rose and rose. The constant pressure had to mean constant acceleration, which was impressive all on its own.

“The ship will auto dock in two minutes. Just... ignore the mess, I haven’t cleaned up in a day or two,” Deus ex said.

I wanted to chuckle, but I was busy being crushed into the padded seat.

Then the acceleration stopped, and I felt myself growing nice and floaty.

We were in space. The gentle curvature of the planet next to us, below, I could see the line where day became night, crawling across the surface.

“Whoa,” I said.

“Yeah,” Gomorrah agreed.

We only stared for what felt like a couple of seconds before gravity reasserted itself. It was wrong though.

I stood up, and it felt as if I was sticking to the ground. The more I raised a limb, the stronger the pull, like playing with two strange magnets close to each other. “Weird,” I said.

Artificial gravity. The ship is from a class three catalogue, it comes standard with a basic artificial gravity system. It’s nothing too impressive.

“Uh-huh,” I said.

We coasted along for a little bit, then the ship started to manoeuvre. If it wasn’t for the sight of Earth moving on the screens, I might not have noticed.

The ship slid forwards, then stopped with just the smallest of lurches. “Welcome to Delenda Est,” Deus’ voice came over hidden coms. “My home away from all the bullshit below.”

The door of the ship hissed open, and Gomorrah and I glanced at each other before heading for the airlock. That had all been... so easy. I had taken train rides that were more complicated than that one hop in a shuttle.

We squeezed into the airlock, waited for it to cycle, then stepped into another airlock that did the same, though this one with a faint mist filling it. “Just disinfectant,” Deus Ex said.

The door opened, and we found ourselves in a corridor, long and painted a matte black and grey, with a few recessed lights along the edges of the ceilings and floors. Deus Ex was standing in the middle of it, unarmoured except for a jumpsuit.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” she replied. “Come on, this way.”

“Did we really have to come all the way here for a talk?” I asked. “It seems like a bit much.”

“It’s a talk about important, secretive things. Trust me, I’d really rather not have you in my home,” Deus Ex said. We took a bend in the corridor, past a bulkhead. The room past that had a wall filled with planters and hanging vines, and across from it a long window that overlooked the planet below, and part of the station. It was far bigger than I imagined, a sort of tube with growths sticking out of it. The Veni Vidi was anchored onto the side, only about a third as long as the rest of the station.

“Do you live up here alone?” I asked.

“Not quite,” Deus Ex said.

She opened another door with a gesture, and we stepped into a wide, circular room. There was another floor above, with rails all around it, and a bridge spanning the gap. In the centre was a large bank of screens and computer-looking things that ran from the floor to the ceiling above.

There were also about four more Deus Ex’s in the room.

“Yo!” One of them said. She was just a pinch different than... herself. A bit chubbier around the cheeks, and a good two inches shorter. She was also wearing flannel pyjamas, unlike all the others in jumpsuits. “Yeah, I’m the meat-me,” she said. “Be amazed on your own time, Stray Cat. We have business to do.”

***