“Tell me that isn’t another enforcer corpse that you expect me to deal with.”

She kicks the body. It flinches. “No. I wanted you to put him back together so I can keep up my ... persuasion.”

“This wasn’t part of our arrangement, Fezah.”

“Pretty sure I own your little clinic so you’ll fix whoever I tell you to fix.”

“People aren’t things to be fixed. And my clinic is only here because I want it to be. You don’t own it.”

Her eyes darken. “Okay, I’ll put it this way: you will attend to my patients or I’ll drag you back screaming into the family business.”

I don’t have to weigh my options. We’ve been through this enough times already. “Give me a day and a guarantee of more monthly funding so I can finally afford a nurse.”

“I’ll send someone to pick the enforcer up tomorrow.”

Fezah leaves without a goodbye. I haul the enforcer body onto the operating table and start the preliminary scan. The machine stutters to life. Its light flickers, until I slam it, bathing the room purple. I should’ve asked for a complete equipment upgrade. I should’ve asked for enough doctors and beds to host the whole inner ing. I should’ve asked for anything that would cripple the power hold Fezah has over Midas Station. Of course she wouldn’t give it to me, but maybe she’d at least stop treating me like a pesky little brother that she’s being forced to take care of.

And maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t expect me to bring an enforcer back from the brink of death so she can go back to torturing him. I don’t blame our cousins for running away to that mess of a planet Earth once they had a chance. It’s one thing to find out that your extended family are a bunch of criminals, outcast from the rest of the galaxy. It’s another to be born into them and have your future planned out for you before you learn to say ‘no’. I wish I’d left with them. But then who would look out for others trapped here?

That’s the only thing keeping me here. And Fezah knows it. She’s probably orchestrated more illness and injuries for the innocent here just to keep me in reach. I’m the only one in the galaxy with any medical training that’ll risk entering this part of Midas Station, let alone live in it. Sure the core has some questionable folks who can handle a scalpel well, but Fezah knows better than to trust someone who likes the stench of blood and constant screams of the black market. It’s why it’ll cost me so much to hire some help. Either I train someone already stuck here or I pay a small fortune for someone to willingly leave the middle rings instead of hoping on the next transport off Midas Station.

The purple light flickers off and the machine makes some clunking noises that started up a year ago. That smoke probably isn’t a good sign either. It’s not like I can afford to repair or replace it. Hopefully this enforcer pulls through and Fezah follows through on that extra funding. He’s not as bad as I first thought. Those arms will need to be amputated. And that leg too. Depending on where he’s stationed, he might even be able to afford a cheap robotic limb or two. His jacket should have his rank and...

That’s an outer ring insignia. Crap. No wonder Fezah put him through the ringer. There’s no good reason an enforcer of this class should be anywhere near here, unless he was a part of a strike team. And there’s only two points of interest this far in: Fezah and the core. But after that mercenary blowing things up last month, this guy showing up is bound to set off all kinds of alarms. I almost feel sorry for him. Fezah doesn’t play around with torture on a good day; an actual risk to her operation would most definitely make it a very bad day.

But this enforcer doesn’t earn my sympathies. His type doesn’t care about collateral damage when fighting Fezah and others like her. They never have. I don’t agree with what my sister will do to him once I’ve put him back together again, but it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. What was he expecting when marching down from the glamorous outer ring into the squalor of the inner ring? I wouldn’t be surprised if an inner ring enforcer turned him in themselves. At least they see firsthand what things are like here. They know the kind of help it needs, and understand why I’m stuck here until someone takes down my sister the right way.

But if I can heal this guy, and Fezah eventually realises that the inner ring has no more secrets from her, then maybe he’ll go back to where he belongs. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll send him back with a message. Because I do know how to crumble the family business. If I strike the right bargain, then perhaps the rest of Midas Station will help me clean up the inner ring. I could finally help the people here and... What am I thinking? If they wanted to help us then they already would have. Nobody wants to acknowledge our existence. The only reason this stupid enforcer ended up here was because he got caught in an expressway or something.

This is my home, whether I like it or not. And it’s not changing anytime soon.