Flying through the next few undercities affords me time to rest. And to calm my temper. 

If I show up where we’re scheduled to meet Lalia and Zane—Undercity 39, I finally got the computer to look up the location—in this foul of a mood, they’ll both interrogate me within an inch of my life. I’m tolerating them as it is, but that run in with the hospital thieves has soured any good-will I’d been extending toward the siblings. 

Maybe that’s not fair to them, I consider, then ignore the thought. They might be related to me. We haven’t proved it yet, so I don’t have to be so nice. Maybe they won’t be so nosy if I’m a little crustier. 

“You might wanna work on the lasers trying to shoot from your eyes,” Bat says. He’s perched on the control panel, little fingers taking apart the hearing aids I filched, trying to make sure he understands the new models in full before yanking the old ones out of my head and attaching these. I’m not sure he’ll be done with them by the time we hit Undercity 39, but I’d rather deal with my old ones a while longer than risk messing with all the delicate surgery it took to ensure I could hear again. 

As if to annoy me on cue, my ears give a soft crackle. I jiggle with the volume until it fixes itself.

Hopefully, I’m not dealing with these old ones too much longer. Now that the opportunity of new ears has presented itself, I’m impatient. 

“Still lasers,” Bat mutters again. 

I work on smoothing my expression, realizing how tensely I was scowling only after I force the muscles around my eyes to relax. Next, I work on my shoulders, and stop bouncing my foot against the echoing metal floor. Throbbing pains still arise here and there after I downed some pain pills, including where that stupid security number kneed me in the balls, but it’s fading to the back of my thoughts. My hands are aching the worst, a few hours of rest not doing much for the shredded injuries I got back on that little jungle rock of a planet, especially not after the strain I put them through in the hospital. It’s only afternoon now. Unconsciously, I’m clenching them in my lap as well, so I unbend them, slowly, imagining I can feel the joints grinding though I know it doesn’t work that way anymore. 

For something to do, I unbolt the trapdoor in the floor leading to the engine, giving it a look over from a distance. Heat rolls off it while it runs, but I can get a good look at the crystal shimmering pale blue in the center. It still looks healthy. But I’ve had this one near a decade, and it’s small to begin with. Conscious of how expensive they are, I’ve been nursing this one along, never pushing the engine to a breaking point unless death would be involved otherwise. The whole ordeal with the thieving humans trying to steal a crystal from the hospital power room put this whole thing back on my mind. Maybe I should have stolen one too. I smirk to myself, entertaining the idea. But I’m not a thief unless necessary. And this crystal still looks nice and strong. I kick the paneling back in place, lock it down, and pace in a circle around the room. It’s only a few dozen steps all the way around.

Bat eyeballs me. “Will ya sit back down? You’re making me twitchy.”

I sit. Check the stats on the ship. Everything’s in working order. At least, everything I can fix at the moment. Some of the paneling on the wings could use new bolts. The cooling pipes on the engine need replacing, which is expensive as hell. Some of the landing gear is stuck open, which usually isn’t a problem, but it’s annoying in a tight space like these tunnels.

Bounty. Finding my tablet, I search the list—nothing new of any value has cropped up in the last few hours—until the huge, lovely, mouth-watering number of 3,000,000 credits slides into my vision.

I’m going to spiff this heap of trash right up. Buy lots of parts. Find a deserted planet where no one will find us. Go to town. Stay the hell away from everyone except Bat for a solid few months.

We’re already on Amethyst, heading for the city where the bounty was last seen, so we have a leg up there. 

Well, we’re heading toward the undercity beneath the city where she was last seen. That may present a problem. But there are criminals crawling in the shadows of every planet. Someone will get Bat and I to the surface. Hopefully, my little dumbass stint at the hospital didn’t give the rest of the quadrant too much time to notice the bounty and head for Amethyst. On a planet like this, dripping in money, I’m willing to bet there are at least a few dozen hunters swarming about. They’ll have converged on the place we’re heading, but hopefully we’re ahead of everyone off-planet.

“Think Zane’ll jump in on the bounty?” Bat asks, frowning at a wire from the hearing aid as if it’s offended him.

“Absolutely. At least Lalia still needs to kick her heels up for a while to let her leg to heal. We won’t have to deal with both of them at once.”

He pauses, eyes narrowing. “You’re not going to dump her on me, are you?”

“Jeez, Bat, I’m not a monster.”

He snickers. 

“She can just stay in their ship,” I say, not feeling too confident in the next half of the sentence. “She’s an adult, she should be able to look after herself for a few hours while we go hunting.”

“Her bounty is still up, ya know.”

I sigh. “Yeah. I know.”

“His too.”

“I know.”

“And?” 

“And not all of this is my problem all the time.”

He goes back to work, chuckling to himself again. Well, at least one of us isn’t in a foul mood.

Undercity 39 looks much the same as the others, perhaps a bit larger. It’s under Amethyst’s capital city, after all—Raal is the name, apparently, I looked it up—makes sense the wealth would flow directly into it. Lots of glass buildings catching the filtering purple light from above. Like Undercity 13, a gap exits in the ceiling of the cavern, greenery hanging down, letting in much of the daylight above. Artificial light makes up for the rest, built into the forcefield of the cavern walls. More flocks of birds circle the open space.

For a moment, I consider trying to fly up the opening, but even without looking it up, I’d bet there’s a forcefield that’ll slap us back down like a gnat.

We hadn’t set up a particular meeting spot with the siblings. I need to call them.

Sighing, I drop my forehead dramatically onto the control panel, flicking on the comm and letting the computer search for their signal. Bat got in touch with them once before while I was dealing with the hospital drama, it shouldn’t be difficult to get a hold of them.

“Do you ever just think about the fact you could’ve left Lalia with Captain and we’d be on our own right now?” Bat muses.

“Don’t remind me,” I mutter. 

I wouldn’t say any of this in front of the siblings. Bat wouldn’t either. It would be cruel. And really, I knew as soon as Audra told me Captain’s plans I was going to head back and rescue Lalia’s stupid human ass. Deep down, I know I did the right—if stupid—thing. As annoying as they both are, they don’t deserve the treatment of nasty criminals. 

Still, it’s satisfying to think about.

“Aaron?” Zane’s voice crackles in. 

Seems like longer than a few hours since he was following me around the hospital. I should’ve napped.

“Yeah, where are you?”

“There’s some sort of park on the south wall, before the main city. Very nice, we’re landed in the trees, no one’s bothered us—”

While he yammers, I pull up the city info on the computer, finding a map. There’s a relatively large, empty space nearby, everywhere else is either buildings of jungle marked in pink blocks meant to show the wildlife isn’t too friendly. Unfriendly for humans and unfriendly for cyborgs is too separate things. I wonder if the jungle Zane and I were wandering in Undercity 13 was dangerous. I spent an hour jogging through it and nothing tried to eat me. 

“—How’d the whole thing with the hospital go—?” Zane starts to ask, but I shut off the comm. Neither of them are all that bad when I can simply turn them off. Wouldn’t that be nice.

For a moment, I vividly remember Audra once having a number’s voice box shut off for a day because he made an inappropriate remark. She never did tell me what he said, but seemed pleased with herself. Well, as pleased as Audra ever looked.

As promised, circling the ship along the southern wall brings us to a slice of grass surrounded by trees, maybe no larger than an acre. People wander the open space, casting our ship a glance but seeming unbothered. There’s even a fountain.

How quaint. I scowl.

Landing in the trees scrapes the hull, but it isn’t like the paint’s pristine. The siblings’ ship is nearby, a flash of blue in the purple vegetation. Packing up my tablet and both guns, and checking my electric knife is still in my pocket, I slip back into my coat, grab my gloves and backpack—tucking more pain pills and gel for my hands into a pocket—and drop out the airlock without bothering with the gangplank.

Zane comes trotting through the trees before I have a chance to think about taking off without him.

I could’ve landed somewhere else, I think, then wonder why I didn’t.

Instead, I stomp past him toward their ship. Lalia won’t be coming along, not with her leg still in a cast. Sure, she could, walking on casts is acceptable enough, but I really don’t want her to.

Hopefully, after the past few hours, she won’t be so loopy on drugs.

I lean in the gangplank of their ship while Zane hovers, trying to ask me how I’m doing in a soft tone I ignore. Their ship is small as mine and more homey, with similar padded chairs and a couch as well, the walls hung with pictures and other random items I’ve no idea the meaning of. Lots of old guns too—someone likes to collect. As snippily as I stomped over, I lean out a little, suddenly self-conscious to be sticking my head in their space. Their home.

Grumpily, I mutter, “Lalia, you in here?”

Her head pops out from another room, maybe a bunkroom, maybe a washroom. “Hi!”

Too happy. “You’re staying here. You’ll slow us way down. And just stay in the ship, your bounty is still up. If there’s an emergency, get off-planet, I can always follow out with the idiot here.”

“Hey,” Zane mutters. “Who stuck a meteor up your ass?”

Lalia just rolls her eyes, limping over to lean on the airlock. “Believe it or not, Mr. Cyborg, I know how to keep my head down from the law.”

“Sorry if my confidence isn’t fantastic,” I mutter, turning before she can try to reel me in with cheerfulness and questions. “You’re welcome to stay with her, Zane, I don’t need your help.”

“I am not letting you have all the fun without me.” He takes a pack of his own from the ship’s floor, already prepped to go, scrolling a small, palm-sized tablet. For a moment, I wonder what he’s doing, then remind myself I don’t care. 

He’s not letting me head off planet without him. 

I promised I’d meet them here, I didn’t promise not to ditch him afterwards.

“You boys have fun,” Lalia says. She’s not nearly old enough to sound so motherly about the whole thing.

Bat just glares between the three of us with sour eyes. I see the siblings exchange a glance. I try not to let it bother me. I want them to be uncomfortable about my attitude. Without bothering to see if Zane follows, I head for the park and a path toward the city.