//
Author's Note:
Huge thanks to my good friends KatieTay and SkullTitti for their help in translations and tone! This story could not have been possible without their patience and assistance!//
"Huh," Wren said, repeating herself and breaking the long silence. The picture of her, attached to the bottom of the wanted notification, was an old one. Her hair had been longer then, and Wren couldn't recall how long it had been since she'd styled it like that.
"Oh my god," Bonnie said. "Fuck. Fuck!"
"What?"
"I'm sorry!"
"For what?"
"I..." She put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I was just trying to get away."
"It's not the end of the world," Wren said with a shrug.
"That is not a joke," Bonnie cried. "These people will ruin your life!"
"Yeah, but that's where I have them beat!" Wren smiled and gestured around. "What are they gonna do?"
"They'll cut you off from everything and everyone you love!"
Wren laughed. "Do I strike you as the kind of woman who keeps a big social circle?"
Bonnie raked her fingers back through her hair and shook her head, fretting wordlessly.
"I live a really small life by design. I go out, I get rocks, and I bring them back. If Jyi Bao doesn't want to buy what I'm selling, then I'll just sell it to someone else!"
"But they'll block you!"
"From what?" Wren laughed. "Flying through space?" Her smile widened. "On a related note, I would love it if you were naked all the time."
"You need to take this seriously!" Bonnie shouted, wrapping her arms more tightly over her nude form.
"The galaxy always needs more materials." Wren bounced out of her chair and stretched. "If I have to sell to someone who can't afford the prices I was getting before then so be it. I was overcharging Jyi Bao anyway."
Bonnie backed out of the way as Wren made for the door, but she continued to follow when Wren headed upstairs. "I don't know how to make you understand that this is a big deal."
"You can't," Wren said over her shoulder, "because it's not."
"They'll hunt you!"
"The galaxy is a big place." Wren bounced up the stairs, gripping at the railing to launch herself just that much faster up to the upper deck. "Oh, shit, and I haven't even told you about my pet project."
"Wren!" Bonnie said, grabbing her by the shoulder and spinning her around. "They will take
everything
from you."
"They'd have to find me first." Wren tried to turn and continue on her way, but the redhead held her shoulder.
"我只在这旧飞船上待了一个星期, and
I
already know you're motivated by money. Do they?"
Wren blinked, and a pit started to form in her stomach.
"Because that's what they'll do.
They will take
...
what you love
."
"Um... hey listen," she said, looking down and taking a step back. "Apropos of nothing, I need to go and check on something real fast. Can you wait here?"
Bonnie gave her a stone-faced look as Wren turned and jogged through the galley. The pit grew larger and larger. It was all she could do to keep her composure as she tried to connect to the local system's comm buoy. Even though they'd been drifting at sublight speeds for hours near the edge of the system, it only took a few seconds before Wren was hurriedly attempting to access her bank records.
"Oh fuck," she whispered hoarsely, as she stared in horror at the vaguely-worded error message. "
They've been frozen.
" She attempted to access a different account with a nearly identical number, hoping to mask her original failed login, but her fingers were on automatic, doing just enough to get her through the moment without thinking too far ahead. Even a minute into the future lay ugly truths she was not ready for.
Her entire adult life had been focused on making money so she could retire from it all. The faster the better. She'd bent her considerable skills toward finding a niche need and supplying it in a legitimate way. Not for the money for its own sake, but for what it could afford her: true freedom. An existence outside the rat race. To have that dream dashed in front of her, crushed by a blinking red paragraph of corporate double talk about the importance of her business, was surreal. Disconcerting, dissociating, and also, buried deep down, hilariously ironic.
Appreciation of the irony would come much later. Wren tilted her head as she turned toward the control layout on her left and killed the grav generator.
"Hey," Bonnie shouted, from deeper in the ship. "
Hey, what the hell!
"
Wren planted her feet on the front of the console and launched herself backwards through the ship. Movement shifted her spatial understanding of the grunting she was hearing and it became clear, as she floated, that Bonnie was in Wren's quarters. She grabbed the bulkhead door and swung herself around the corner, shunting her momentum while losing very little. There, spinning slowly in the middle of the room, with her upper body lost inside of a shirt she couldn't figure out how to put on in null grav, was the object of her vitriol.
Wren reached out to grab the edge of the frame of her closet with the tip of her finger, and spun herself in the air. She put all of her momentum, and all of the force she could muster, into kicking Bonnie square in her ribs and sending the redhead squealing across the room. One tattooed arm finally emerged from a sleeve hole just before she impacted hard with the bulkhead on the other side of the room.
"
Wren!
" Bonnie shouted. "
Stop it!
"
The counterforce of the kick sent her rebounding against the deck, though with a bit more grace. Wren was well practiced at finding all the useful handholds in her ship and propelling herself with ease, and after only a few seconds she'd gotten into the corner of the room and launched herself like a blue-haired torpedo. This time, she landed both feet just above Bonnie's center of gravity, and sent the other woman cartwheeling across the room.
Bonnie heaved between words Wren did not understand. Some in Chinese, but most in English and delivered intelligibly; that wasn't the problem. Wren was simply not in a place where she could hear. Nothing registered except the dull thud of contact. Bonnie had finally gotten both of her arms through her sleeves and her head through the neck of her shirt, but couldn't control her rotation. Wren came soaring in and kicked her again directly between the shoulder blades.
Complete numbness. Wren barely felt anything.
That is, until Bonnie grabbed her ankle. For a moment the screaming and shouting became real, but Wren kicked her feet alternately, one and then the other like she was trying to put out a fire, until she broke free. Bonnie continued to clumsily bounce around in the upper corners of the room, eyes rolling wildly, as Wren effortlessly pulled herself out into the hall. To the locker where her maglock boots were.
Tchnk. Tchnk.
Every step rang through the ship in a way Wren appreciated. Her ship. Her property.
Hers
. And this woman had carelessly jeopardized it all with her mere presence. There was murder in Wren's eyes as she stumped back into her quarters. Bonnie had tried to grab hold of the lamp by the side of her bed, but it hadn't been bolted down very tightly. The frame had been ripped free of the bulkhead and was now floating across the room. Wren casually batted it to the side as she approached.
Bonnie lashed out at her, with arms and with legs, but Wren was careful to stay out of reach. She knew that grappling would not go her way. Bonnie's specific military training had not been a subject of their conversations but it had been strongly implied. Wren's vengeance would be had, and so she was patient. She waited while Bonnie twisted and spun and clawed in vain, until she could get a good angle, and shoved Bonnie head-first into the wall. The sound of the impact was jarring, but distant. Unprocessed.
Wren grabbed the motionless Bonnie by her hair and dragged her, a task made infinitely easier in null grav, through to the small bathroom attached to the cabin. She shut the door and locked it, with the redhead inside, and stumped angrily to the pilot's chair. Her systems were still linked to the comm buoy, and the call only took a fraction of a second to connect.
"Hello Julien."
Julien blinked at her, and when he smiled a moment later, it was thin. Measured. "
Hello Wren. This is a surprise.
"
Words died on her tongue, and Wren tilted her head slightly as she changed tactics. "Is it?"
"
Well you don't... you don't... normally call until you're back in system. Right?
"
Wren wet her lips and smiled mirthlessly. "Where is my money, Julien?"
"
You haven't returned yet. We don't pay on spec. You know that.
"
"Don't joke with me, Julien. Where is my fucking
money
."
"
I don't know what you're talking about,
Wren
.
"
"There are only two people that know where I go hunting for asteroids. I'm one, and I'm looking at the other one."
"
What does that have to do with—
"
"What did you tell them?"
"
Tell who? What are you talking about?
"
Wren took a long, slow breath through her nostrils, and smiled. "Do you know why I've never worried that you're close to copying my scanner?" She paused, waiting to see if he answered, and then continued when he said nothing. "Because every time I dock at Luna 2, I spend
hours
scanning your station. My scanner is so advanced that nobody knows I'm doing it. No alarms are triggered."
Julien's brow creased.
"Six doors, Julien.
Six doors
are all that stand between you and the void. Do you know how easy it would be for me to hack into that station and open six little doors? Right now?"
His eyes opened wider with every word. "
What?!
