Hyejin was lost. Morrian Starport was by far larger than any other starport she had frequented in the past. Typically, she would have a private vessel, but small spacecraft weren’t designed to withstand the immense pressure of a jump gate. Getting to a border world required a commercial or military shuttle.

To avoid centuries of travelling through space, portal-like technology was developed by NexTech using the dimensional collision six hundred years ago as a blueprint. By tearing holes in space, it was possible to travel through galactic distances in a matter of minutes. The idea of it made her nervous. Hyejin had never been so far from home before. She’d spent her whole life among the three core planets, like most rich families. The sights and the sounds of the starport were already a new experience on their own.

People scurried about with purpose, trying to look as busy as possible. Security was out in full force. Rumours from NexTech employees suggested Yesterday’s Children disabled the live feed in all the patrol drones in Morrian recently. She found it hard to believe. It wasn’t like the network was easy to break into. If it had been, she wouldn’t have had to hire some lowlives to do it for her. Still, the increase in security measures had everyone on edge. Herself included.

Wherever NexTech went, her father’s eyes followed. That was going to make it a lot harder to get off-world without being noticed, not to mention getting back home again. The starport was crawling with law enforcement and Sentinels. No matter which way she ducked or turned, there always seemed to be one nearby. That meant whatever had them spooked was a very real threat.

Hyejin stopped abruptly when she turned a corner, eyes locking onto a Sentinel immediately. It was standing with a police officer, talking to an old man in a wheelchair. Ducking slightly, she used a fake tree nearby as cover. Avoiding them was starting to get on her nerves. Her father probably already knew she was there. He probably already knew where she was going, too. She glanced up at a security camera. He could even be watching me now.

She gasped when a shadow suddenly loomed over her out of nowhere. “Ma’am, I need to scan your ID chip,” a security officer told her in a gruff tone. He was obviously suspicious of her. Rightfully so. Why would you hide from Sentinels if you weren’t guilty? She’d been so busy avoiding the robots that she’d completely neglected the human staff.

Rolling her eyes, Hyejin unfolded her right arm, snapping off her DataCuff to hold out her exposed wrist. The scanner was a small cylindrical rod, much like a pen in size. The officer hovered it over the implant until the top end of it produced a small holodisplay with her ID card. She watched the blood drain from the man’s face.

Where her personal information should have been listed was the word [REDACTED] and the NexTech logo. The only information he had access to was her name, which was common on the core planets. Her entire existence was information deliberately kept from the public. Her security clearance was well above his own. If he so much as laid a hand on her, he would be the one the Sentinels targeted.

“O-oh… I am so sorry, Ms Choi. I-it’s protocol. Can’t be too safe,” he stammered awkwardly. The man cleared his throat and bowed his head ever so slightly. “C-can I get you anything? Please, Ma’am, I would like to make sure you are as comfortable as possible for your journey.” 

Despite being the daughter of the richest man on Oryx, she was also conveniently left out of the limelight. Her face wasn’t known to the public. NexTech made sure of that. This man didn’t know who she was, just that she was important. It made her uncomfortable to see his attitude change so quickly. There was nothing she hated more than a suck-up. This one didn’t even know who or what he was sucking up to. At least the criminals she hired didn’t seem to care who she was.

“Thank you,” Hyejin began, examining his name tag, “Hendrik. Do you know where I can find Terminal Orange 812?”

Hendrik looked confused for a moment. “Ma’am, that is on the other side of the starport. You’re in the wrong area entirely.”

Of course I am. She sighed and held her thumb and index finger to her forehead. Hyejin had been so focused on avoiding security that she’d gotten herself turned around more times than she could count. After all that effort, her chip was scanned anyway. So much for covert operations. 

“Lead on,” Hyejin instructed, waving her hand in the man’s face. There was no point in hiding anymore. The scan had already geotagged her presence at the starport.

“Pardon?”

“Orange 812, Hendrik. I don’t have all day.” 

“O-oh. Right, of course.” He nodded profusely and cleared his throat. “Please follow me.”

Hyejin hummed in response, taking the chance to really see the building. It was huge. Most of the windows were glass, with a clear view of ships in various shapes and sizes hovering outside. There were eight levels to the building above ground, each one filled with kiosks for souvenirs and duty-free goods. It was almost like a shopping mall, but smaller.

It took nearly ten minutes to reach the orange section of Morrian starport. There was no way she would have been able to navigate there by herself. It really was all the way at the other end of the building. At least that was a positive side to getting caught.

“There you are.” A familiar voice spoke from behind her. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

She turned to see Dion standing there, his eyebrow lifted.

“Here I am.” Hyejin agreed, crossing her arms. If he was going to give her that kind of attitude, she would give it right back to him. 

Atticus was next to him, but his attention was on one of the Sentinels patrolling nearby. She could understand how jumpy they could make a person who didn’t want to get found. Before they met, she had done some digging on Atticus and couldn’t find anything noteworthy. Apart from moving around, there was almost no record of him existing at all. Cleaner than a Sentinel in a decontamination chamber. She wasn’t sure if his record was actually clean, or if he somehow wiped it clean while hacking into the NexTech systems.

“Sirs, please back away,” Hendrick commanded, stepping between Hyejin and the brothers.

“It’s fine, Hendrick. They’re my travel companions,” Hyejin assured him with a sweet smile.

The security officer examined them incredulously. The look on his face said all it needed to about his low opinion of her ‘companions’. “Your IDs,” he stated, glaring at them both.

“Hendrik!”

“I’m sorry, Ma’am. I must insist. It’s protocol.”

The brothers didn’t argue; they just held their arms out and let the security officer scan their ID chips one at a time. When Hendrik looked over Dion’s information, he suddenly seemed even more confused. “Ma’am, are they threatening you?” he asked so sincerely that Hyejin was taken aback.

“What do you mean?” She asked, leaning over to see what the officer was seeing. Nothing she hadn’t seen before in Atticus’ profile. They were border-born, orphaned, uneducated and— Mother Earth! Hyejin’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw how many felonies were listed under Dion’s name. She didn’t know it was humanly possible to break the law so frequently and still walk free. They were only petty crimes, but there were so many! 

“These people… I mean…” The look Hyejin gave Hendrick told him to shut up, so he did. He nodded quickly and gestured to the massive holodisplay beside them. “We’ve arrived at terminal Orange 812,” he informed her before he scurried away awkwardly.

“You didn’t answer my call,” she said, examining Dion's face. The bruising was gone and he had a much healthier glow in his complexion than the last time she saw him. Almost a shame. She kind of liked the bad boy look. Then again, it probably wasn’t a ‘look’, given his record. I wonder whose nerves he stood on to get beaten so badly.

Dion tossed something small to her and Hyejin nearly dropped it when she fumbled the catch. She flipped it over a few times before giving him a puzzled look. She had no idea what she was holding. It was small and round, with only two buttons. There was a piece missing that exposed the inner workings and a small manacell that powered it. 

Atticus smirked. “It’s Dion’s DataCuff.”

The surprise hit Hyejin so hard that she didn’t have words. She examined it again, and sure enough, a tiny worn-out engraving of the NexTech logo was stamped onto the back. The screen was cracked, it looked like it was being held together with glue and the wristband was literally a piece of string.

“And this… works?”

“Not anymore,” Dion responded, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets. “Died this morning. I don’t have time to get it fixed.”

Hyejin had to take a moment to fill her lungs and blink away the ridiculousness of the situation. She should have tried harder to find someone else. These were the people she was trusting to break into the company that ran the galaxy. Earth, save her. If the recommendation had come from anyone but E.Mortal, she wouldn’t have so much as remembered their names before she passed over them for someone else.

“Okay, so give me Atticus’ number.” She sighed, holding her head with her thumb and index finger again. What should have been a simple trip was becoming more tedious by the hour.

“No chance,” Dion replied. His tone was so serious. It sounded like she’d done something wrong.

She looked to Atticus, who shrugged half-heartedly. “It’s not you. Dion doesn’t like me talking to strangers.”

“What? Then how am I supposed to call you?”

Dion nodded in a direction, silently gesturing for their group to start moving. “You don’t. Tollindo is not a place you want to get separated. No matter what happens, we need to stay together.”

Hyejin scoffed. “What makes you think you get to make decisions like that? You’re working for me. I should be the one who decides what we do.”

“Not dressed like that, you’re not.”

“What?” Hyejin blinked. Was that a joke? The look on his face said it wasn’t. She stopped and scowled. “How dare you!” The white jumpsuit flattered her figure, but she wasn’t scantily clad or dressed promiscuously.

“You’re advertising your money. Only the rich wear white; too hard to keep clean. That makes you a target. You don’t want to stand out on Agafra alone, trust me.”

Hyejin huffed, crossed her arms and stormed past him to walk beside Atticus instead. Who does he think he is, telling me how I can and can’t dress? Just because I am going to the border doesn’t mean I need to dress like a ruffian like them.

They came to an elevator in the middle of the building. It was a large glass tube that stretched to the ceiling through a cutout in the floor above. The elevator platform lowered with a loud ‘koosh’ and a crowd of people entered at the same time, crammed in like sardines. Unlike traditional elevators, this one didn’t have ‘floors’ to select. They were only connected to the dock to take passengers directly to their transport.

“Why do we need to pick them up?” Atticus asked, looking around at the other people on the elevator.

Hyejin cleared her throat and leaned in a little closer so that, ideally, only Atticus and Dion could hear her. “They’re unregistered.”

“What?” Dion shouted. “You’re going to trust unregistered to–”

Hyejin’s hand slapped over Dion’s mouth to shut him up. 

His lips were chapped but warm against the palm of Hyejin’s right hand. She glared up into his brown eyes. The moving lights of the elevator caught in them, shining like stars. She stared a little too long. Long enough that the anger disappeared and was replaced with something… else.

She cleared her throat again and awkwardly withdrew her hand. “Let’s talk when we get to our cabin.” Hyejin swallowed. She could still feel Dion’s eyes burning a hole into her soul, even when avoiding his gaze. Heat welled up in Hyejin’s face and she tried to shrink into her clothes to try and obscure the fierce blush. As the elevator stopped, she caught Dion’s sly smirk before he turned away from her to follow Atticus to the main hold.

Hyejin took a deep breath and followed them at a distance. She hated herself for being so obvious. Sure, he was attractive, but Dion was a criminal. How could she let herself be manipulated by some common thug? She was Hyejin Choi, for Earth’s sake.