The next day, after breakfast, Leiyu input some coordinates into the dashboard and put the spacecraft into hyperdrive.

“The Labyrinth is a giant city that floats in space,” Leiyu said.  “It’s literally a maze.  There are streets and alleys that go nowhere, and the buildings are constructed haphazardly and don’t follow any regulations.  The Imperiat doesn’t want to deal with all the chaos and lawlessness, so they pretty much leave it alone.”

“And what are we delivering?” Thallios asked.

“Depends.  I don’t know beforehand.  Usually it’s essentials like food or medicine.  We get the package at the pickup point and then just drop it off at its destination.”

“What if it’s something shady?”

Leiyu laughed.  “That could happen, although the group that posts these jobs is generally legitimate.  I haven’t had any issues yet.”

“So why do they need freelancers to do the deliveries?  Can’t they hire their own delivery people?”

“Probably because the delivery requests are so random that it makes more sense to just hire someone to complete each task as they come in, rather than keep a bunch of idle delivery people on payroll.  Also, most of The Labyrinth runs on an informal economy.  I’m certainly not complaining since it’s easy money.”

“How do you know so much about this place?”

“I actually lived there for many years.”

“Oh?”

“My parents placed me on the last refugee ship leaving Anenderra’s moon before the Imperiat took over everything.  Our ship floated around space for a while before it ended up at The Labyrinth.  Since the Imperiat never goes to The Labyrinth, it was a safe place to stay.  Well, ‘safe’ is relative, since The Labyrinth is pretty lawless.  It’s just that there were no Imperiat soldiers.”

“How old were you?”

“Seven.”

Thallios’ eyes widened.

“There were other kids on the refugee ship.  They adults weren’t quite sure what to do with us kids with no parents so they just found an empty dwelling in The Labyrinth and housed us there.  A group of volunteers took turns watching over us and gave us a basic education.  There was an old retired Rebel soldier named Zhang who taught us how to fight.  He passed away a few years ago, but he was a good mentor.”

“Ah, that’s good you had people watch over you.  What was life like in The Labyrinth?”

“Pretty unstructured.  We just focused on day-to-day survival.  Get food, stay out of trouble. Me and the other guys just ran around the streets and alleyways, exploring all the nooks and crannies.”

“And how did you end up leaving The Labyrinth?”

“Before Old Zhang passed on, he told us that we should make our way out there and see the galaxy.  You can survive in The Labyrinth but you can’t really thrive.  There were two guys I hung out the most with in the group home, Jianyi and Anying.  We were close as kids, but drifted apart as we got older.  Jianyi started getting involved with some of the gangs in The Labyrinth since he wanted to make money faster.  He’s kinda bad-tempered so his personality fits with them.  That’s sort of why we drifted apart.  

Anying’s not like that, but he follows Jianyi everywhere.  They’re like brothers.  I haven’t seen them in years.  I just signed up for the freelancer network so I could earn some coin without resorting to anything I’d regret.  It’s a slower process and I took on as many jobs as I could and lived frugally.  Eventually saved enough to get this ship and the hovercraft.  Now I can travel from planet to planet.”

“That’s pretty impressive.”

Leiyu smiled.  “Yeah?  What about you?”

Thallios frowned and hesitated before speaking.  “My story’s not so impressive.  I was living comfortably and then the Imperiat came.  I’m just trying to get by.  I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing.”

“Well, like I said before, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.  I’m certainly not going to turn away a fellow refugee.”

“Thank you.  Won’t it be an imposition in the long run?”

“Not at all.  Being a freelancer is a pretty solitary lifestyle so I don’t mind the company.  As long as you want to stay, I mean.”

“Well, I can’t go anywhere anyway, without my own ship.”

“True.  Is there any place you’d like to go?”

“Not sure.  Just explore I guess.  I never really left my home planet before the Imperiat came.”

They exited hyperdrive.  A large behemoth of a structure was floating in the distance.  It looked like an amalgamation of old starships and space debris.  It was very dark and shadowy, with only a few dim lights on the surface to guide incoming spacecraft towards the docking station.

“Looks like we made it,” Leiyu said.

***

Leiyu and Thallios left the spacecraft in the docking bay with a robot attendant.  They were now in a dark alleyway in front of a kiosk with flickering neon lights.  A man stood behind the counter.  He wore a heavy gas mask with breathing tubes that snaked all the way to the contraption strapped to his back.

“All right, you gotta keep the package cold,” said the man in a muffled voice.  “And don’t drop it.  The contents are fragile.”

“Sure thing,” Leiyu replied.

“Air quality is pretty bad near the core,” the man added.  “Mask up if you want to breathe properly.  If you need to buy some, I can give you a discount.”

“No need, got my own,” said Leiyu.  He pushed the small black air filter mask wrapped around his neck upward so that it covered his nose and mouth.  He turned to Thallios.  “Do you need one?”

“I can use my helmet,” Thallios replied.  "It has an air filter.”  They tied their hair up in a loose bun and put two circular metal earpieces on their ears.  After pressing a button on the earpieces, metal plates and dark glass radiated outward and surrounded their head.

“All right, don’t take too long,” the man said.  “Just drop it off at the coordinates written on the label.  Upload a photo showing where you dropped it off before you close out the job.”  

Leiyu used his kom to scan the delivery label.  A map window popped up on his screen.  The blinking cursor indicated where they currently were.  He zoomed out and saw a square on the screen that indicated the delivery point.  He held the package closely.

“Let’s go,” he said to Thallios.  They started walking.  Their footsteps echoed eerily down the alleyway.  Flickering lights lined the walls and gave off a faint hum.  A mess of wires hung like vines above them.  Even further up was a matrix of rusty pipes.  There was a pervasive dank odor hanging in the air, like something had died and was just left to rot in the darkness.  Even their gas masks could not completely filter it out.

“Can you see?” Leiyu asked.  “It’s pretty dark.”

“I can see okay,” Thallios replied.  “What do you think is in the package?”

“Dunno.  We can’t open it.  We’re just going to deliver it and go.”

“What is the ‘core’ that man was talking about?”

“It’s the center of The Labyrinth and the oldest part of this structure.  As more people moved to The Labyrinth over the years, they kept building more layers.”

An unidentifiable creature dashed out in front of them and splashed through a puddle of dirty water.  Droplets dripped from the rusty pipes overhead.  There was a low whirring sound coming from the wall.

“Ah, watch out,” Leiyu said as he held out his free arm in front of Thallios.  A section of the wall slid in front of them and merged into a gap on the opposite side of the alleyway.

“What’s going on?” Thallios asked.

“I never figured it out even after years of living here,” Leiyu said.  “The walls shift around like that sometimes.”

They kept walking.  There was a dim light up ahead.  As they approached, Thallios peered into a perpendicular alleyway.  Shadowy figures sat on low stools, hunched over a basin.  They were washing clothes, wringing them out, and hanging them on wires stretched overhead.  There was a staccato series of chopping sounds.  Thallios turned their attention towards the person squatting in front of a cutting board with a kitchen blade in one hand and a pile of drab-looking vegetables at their feet.

“People live in every empty space they can find,” Leiyu explained as they kept walking.

“Did you live in an alleyway like that?” Thallios asked.

“Pretty close to it.”

“Oh…”

“It’s okay, we all survived.”

The light faded away behind them.  They heard some sloshing as they trudged forward.

“Careful, there are a lot of puddles here,” Leiyu said.  He reached into his clothes and took out a small flashlight.  He flicked it on.  “Watch your step too, there is a lot of debris on the ground.”  They stepped over fallen bricks and random pipes.  They saw more dim light up ahead.  As they approached it, Leiyu paused.

“Stay behind me,” he said to Thallios.  As he reached for the blaster at his waist, the walls burst open.  A group of people in body armor surrounded them, aiming long metal blasters directly at their faces.

During all this commotion, Leiyu had whipped out his own blaster.  He was now aiming it right back at them.  His heart was pounding and his breathing was strained through the mask.  His gaze swept over the group and stopped at one of them.  His eyes widened.

“Jianyi?”

The person before him narrowed his eyes.  He had black hair tied up in a bun and thin braided strands falling to the sides.  Though wearing body armor like the others, he also donned decorative flourishes like thin silver chains and a dangling waist sash.  Since half of Leiyu’s face was obscured by the mask, this person took a long look at Leiyu’s eyes.  He then raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“Leiyu, welcome back!  Looks like you weren’t too good for this place.”