Author's Note: This is a sequel series to Amy, Captured. For the full experience, please read through that one first.
Hello, readers! Sorry it's been so long between drinks, here! I've been working on my Halloween story... among other things. The release schedule will be much tighter from this point onward, I promise. Anyway, many thanks to LogicalDreamer and Allyourbase for beta reading this chapter, and I truly appreciate your votes, feedback or comments, guys. They are the reason I continue. Enjoy!
-Kurokami
*****************
'Sander, I'm starting to have serious doubts about your judgment here,' Ren frowned, as the remainder of the crew filtered into the airlock. 'Maybe you've forgotten, but what we're doing isn't exactly legal.'
'So, yeah, what Ren said,' Tsugi continued. 'Perhaps bringing us to one of the only places in the universe that
still
enforces old Earth law wasn't such a great idea.'
'Guys, why is it you still have so little faith in me?' Sander threw up his hands and leaned back against the wall. 'I dunno, I think warping the laws of time and space with a machine the size of a planet would have netted me a little credibility, but whatever...'
'
So, what? We just hide Amy and the others? Cover up the Command Collars?
' Dulcimer sent, causing Mara to jump. As usual, the Dullahan had a talent for moving silently.
'
No
,' Sander frowned. 'Goddamn it, guys... Just
look
, okay?'
With a frustrated sigh, he keyed in the command to open the airlock, the door pulling open with surprising ease now that the exterior sensors had ascertained they were in a habitable environment. Beyond, there was the kind of uncomfortable silence that tended to develop around the more upscale spaceports. Sander stepped outside.
'Welcome to the Selestene Arcology,' He said smugly. 'That answer your questions?'
'How could you possibly get us into Selestene?' Ren found herself jogging down the runway just to confirm it. 'It's completely privatized, the entry fees alone would cost-'
'I'm still technically classed as a resident,' Sander shrugged. 'I grew up here.'
'You're a Selestene brat?' Mara grinned, giving a low whistle as she looked up at the sky above. 'Did not know that.'
'Lucky bastard!' Ren shook her head. '
Rich boys
, I swear to god...'
'Some people have all the luck,' Lysithea agreed quietly. '
I
grew up in a hive...'
'Hey, don't bitch, you're all here
now
. If I hadn't grown up here, you'd have no way in,' Sander said. 'Damn, I'd forgotten how the filters make the air smell here.'
'And what, pray, is Selestene supposed to be?' Christina asked, the labors of earlier apparently having left no effect on her natural archness. Even so, she kept an edgy, wide berth from the loader robots that clacked their way around the steel-lined walkways of the spaceport. She may have a noble bearing, but Christina's line was all but forgotten in the centuries that had passed between her native present and the current one.
'Well, most importantly, it's
that
,' Ren nudged the noblewoman in the ribs, before casting a gesture skyward. Christina's gaze followed, seeing nothing but an expanse of cloudy sky, threaded with blue. Ren's arm fell over her shoulders, causing her to flinch quite noticeably, though the Half's action only served to bring her in closer, 'Come on, look
hard
. Maybe you'll see a dead pixel...'
'It's a dome,' Lorna said flatly, without breaking stride as she walked down to the planet's surface. Ren pouted, disengaging from Christina as her fun was promptly spoiled.
Amy made her way down the walkway, followed closely by Sally. She felt oddly buoyed by the presence of the brunette, like whatever she faced on this new planet, she at least had one person at her back. Almost as one, both girls craned their necks skyward to view this apparently strange sky. With a little effort, one could see into the middle distance, and realize that the sky was in fact a solid surface. A screen upon which the sky was being projected.
'That's... awfully retro,' Christina deadpanned.
'It's
necessary
,' Sander snapped back. 'This whole area is pretty much uninhabitable, if it wasn't for the dome we'd all be freezing in the dark right now.'
'And if that happens to result in a rich man's holiday home, well, that
has
to be a coincidence,' Mara said smoothly.
'Hey, rich people got here first!' Sander began to sound defensive, his inner wealth coming out. 'Do you know how much it'd cost the Terran government to maintain this place, let alone build it? So what if this is private property? Besides, what are you all bitching about? You get to come to a lawless goddamn paradise completely free!'