Infestation

Chapter 4

Chapter 4After leaving the Church, Jules took another car further downspin to the council housing district. He left the pod at the station and entered the crowds of people coming and going through the station’s wide corridors.

He went with the flow and left the transit station for the streets. The main streets were wide, designed to handle many people of all sorts of species. Frequent roundabouts offered places to rest or gather. The first floor of the buildings rising on each side of the street were shops, various dining options, service businesses, and entertainment companies. The next six floors up were housing units which finally ended some distance above with the glowing panels of the sky.

It did resemble a city on a planet–if one ignored the inverted curve of the of street. Look far enough ahead and you could see the street curving up, plants, people, and buildings rising higher until the upward curve met the sky panels in the distance. The architecture of the buildings varied by the designer–not all human–except for the general height being the same. Some places had balconies, others didn’t. The Pledian-designed buildings were covered with hexagonal landing portals from which they came and went a bit like puffy insects, each individual radiating their own unique bioluminescent patterns along their bodies and trailing tentacles. An inoffensive species that improved the decor with their colorful displays.

It was home. Not only for him, but for tens of thousands of other people of all species. The council housing was a public utility, like the air, water, power, and data connections. Residents were supplied with a basic income, medical care, and education. Those employed received a supplemental income from their employer. Or were self-employed. Jules had seen worlds where that basic shared care of individuals wasn’t practiced and had seen the suffering it caused.

Not that they didn’t have problems here, but there was a safety net for all beings. In an environment like the station, and even more so on a spaceship, that was important.

If Bri and her family had docked, and couldn’t pay the docking fees, they could have lost their ship and would have ended up here, in council housing.

Wealthier individuals could afford housing in other districts where the station charged a housing tax. Or even, in the wealthiest districts, individuals could purchase station shares and become part of the council.

Spacers like Bri, though, valued their independence and their ability to go anywhere they wanted. Who wouldn’t? Jules had lived that life for a long time, but that was in the past.

He brought his attention back to where he was and away from thoughts that remained painful. He was thinking about it, he knew, because he had said he would go with Bri. Leave the station. He hadn’t done that in a long time either. There was plenty here for him to focus on.

But he needed to get some things from his place. And he needed to find MAR-A. He didn’t work alone. He hadn’t brought it up with Bri, but he needed to have MAR-A with him. It’d be easier to show up ready to leave with MAR-A then take time to explain.

He sent a quick text to MAR-A. “What’re you doing? Can you meet me at my place? I’ve been offered a job.”

MAR-A replied instantly. “On my way. You accepted without asking me. Again. Did you tell them you had a partner?”

“No,” he said.

“Didn’t want to scare them off with the combat droid?”

Yes. But Jules didn’t send that. MAR-A already knew the answer. And knew that many people weren’t that comfortable around the tall combat droid. Too much history in that reaperish silhouette. People who knew MAR-A had accepted the droid. Even cared about them. Those who didn’t know MAR-A sometimes ran screaming in the opposite direction.

“I’m almost home,” he sent instead.

“Already there. I let myself in.”

“Make yourself at home,” Jules sent.

Which MAR-A would do, in their own way.

Jules reached his building a couple of minutes later. The resident entrance recognized him and let him in. He crossed the lobby and took the elevator up to the top floor. He exited and went down the bright corridor to his door. MAR-A hadn’t broken it to get in. Not that they wouldn’t if they thought it was necessary. Knowing MAR-A, it had been able to access the residence’s systems and convinced it to let MAR-A enter. The building was, in its own way, as much of an artificial intelligence as MAR-A. He suspected that all of the AIs worked together when it suited them. He’d considered adding a primitive mechanical lock–but it wouldn’t stop anyone determined about getting in. Especially not someone like MAR-A. And for the most part, break-ins were rare in council housing. Aside from the building security systems, no one really had anything that someone else would want. Basic levels of support helped more than policing at reducing crime. He knew that first hand, having seen places that didn’t have that foundational safety net for residents. It didn’t make sense, but that didn’t seem to always matter.

The door opened for Jules, and he walked into a dim apartment. A tall shape loomed out of the shadows as the door closed. Dim metal reflections gleamed beneath the deep black cowl like coins placed over the eyes of the dead. A dark sleeve raised, metallic bony fingers clicked as they uncurled, pointing at him.

“Hey MAR-A,” Jules said, looking up. “It doesn’t work as well when I already knew you were here.”

The apartment’s light panels glowed to life and dispelled the shadows. MAR-A reached up with two long-fingered hands, and pulled back the cowl. The metal skull gleamed beneath the lights, complex etchings in the dark material created a pattern across their head. MAR-A’s eyes pulsed with a faint blue light around the rim. From within the nightmarish figure came the dry, rattling sound of MAR-A’s laughter. It was like fingers scratching in the grave of someone buried alive.

Terrifying, if you didn’t know what it was.

“I scared you,” MAR-A said in a raspy voice tinged with humor and a hint of hysteria.

Jules continued on into the room. “You didn’t.”

“Most beings would expel liquid waste if they saw me like that,” MAR-A said.

“Some,” Jules said, “are easily frightened.”

MAR-A followed him. “What is this job you accepted without asking me?”

He sat the case with the blessed water down on the worktop, then went around to the refrigerator. He opened it and took out a juice.

When he turned around, MAR-A stood right behind him in his space. The big droid could move soundlessly when they wanted. Jules c****d his head to the side, looking up as he opened the juice.

MAR-A stepped back. “Scared you again.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Jules tipped the bottle in their direction, then walked past to perch on one of the stools by the worktop.

He took a sip. It didn’t have bounce, but it tasted sweet and quenched his thirst.

He said, “It’s a family. Briana–goes by Bri– and Teegan Makkar. They have daughters, I don’t have their names. According to Bri they are terrified by something haunting their ship.”

“There’s no docking registration with those names,” MAR-A said, obviously having just searched, “but there is an entrance record for Briana Makkar. She has a ticket on an in-system transport leaving tomorrow.”

Jules nodded. “They didn’t bring their ship in. We have to meet it.”

“I’ve secured passage for us on the same transport,” MAR-A said.

“Forward–”

“I already shared the information with Briana Makkar using your codes.”

“Thank you,” Jules said. “It’s nice that we work so well together.”

“My modeling allows an 85% accuracy in predicting your general behavior. Anticipation of your decisions rises to over 90% in many circumstances.”

“That’s great for your modeling. Why do you keep trying to scare me if you can model that accurately?”

MAR-A’s head lowered as it studied him. “It is an anomaly in the model.”

Good. Jules sipped his juice and fought back a yawn. It was late, he was tired. He wanted to get some sleep before they ended up leaving tomorrow, but there was more work to be done. He took another sip and regretted that it lacked bounce.

Even caffeine would have been an acceptable substitute at this point.

MAR-A made a sound like claws in a boiling pot of water and straightened. “It should have worked.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Jules said. “What do you have on the Makkar’s ship?”

“Do I look like a library terminal?”

Jules raised an eyebrow and didn’t answer.

MAR-A made a sound like metal being sharpened before saying, “Minimal details in the station’s registry. Only what is required for ships within the station’s space. They stay out in the periphery, comet harvesters according to the registration. They aren’t the original crew of the Olympia. They purchased it recently on a Station Association contract. Standard spacer records, for all the good that does.”

“Spotty, huh?”

“Like blood splatters,” MAR-A said. “Likely from out of the system, likely sank everything into the deal to buy the Olympia.”

“How did the Station Association end up with the papers on the ship?”

“Bought from a salvage crew that reported the ship adrift and unoccupied. The Station Association made the usual attempts to track any relatives without results.” MAR-A flexed their hands, making cracking noises. “It’s likely that they didn’t try too hard. The Olympia is a comet harvester ship. Could have drifted from the nearest system.”

“Which is uninhabited.”

MAR-A’s dry, rattling laugh made it clear what the droid thought of that statement.

Jules shrugged. “Okay. So an independent comet harvester ship runs into trouble. Accidents happen. If it was bad enough that the crew died or evacuated, that could explain the haunting. Ship drifts and is caught in this system where a salvage crew finds it. Failing to find anyone to inherit, the Station Association sells it to the Makkar’s, who probably think that this is their chance to live independnt of other spacers or the stations.”

“Delusion humans,” MAR-A said. “Inevitably, they must seek others with some pretext or another.”

“Maybe,” Jules said. He drained the juice and stood up. “I’ve got to get sleep before we ship out tomorrow. See you in the morning.”

MAR-A stomped, making noise to show their displeasure, away from the worktop. They stood beside the couch for a moment, then folded down sitting back in the cushions. MAR-A’s knees jutted up like two bony stakes. They crossed their arms and leaned back, eyes dimming to faint circles.

It was normal enough for MAR-A to behave that way. Jules put the juice bottle in the recycler and went to bed.

He woke suddenly in the dark. He still wore his prosthetic face. He hadn’t heard anything, but he knew he was being watched. He didn’t move, didn’t need to move, as he looked at the time on his dim wall clock. Only two hours had passed. He looked into the dark shadows in the corner of his bedroom. Deep within the shadows was something darker, a shadow within a shadow. He was just able to make out the gleam of the eyes beneath the cowl.

“Are you going to watch me sleep?” Jules said.

“I scared you,” gasped MAR-A’s deathly voice from the shadows. “Scared you awake.”

“Absolutely,” Jules said. “And if you keep it up, I won’t get any sleep tonight.”

He rolled over, punching the pillow into shape. His ears detected the faintest rustle of robes as MAR-A stalked out of the room.

The droid mumbled in displeasure. “Anomalous human. Should be scared.”

He couldn’t be safer than with the big combat droid watching over him. Far from being scary, it was reassuring. Jules permitted himself a small smile and then let himself drift back off to sleep.

The Makkars might not find MAR-A as reassuring, at least at first.