Jello

Reyna's the only one I don't have to tuck in that night and I'm reminded once again why I don't drink or indulge in revelry.Illuminated by the soft blue light of the comms screen, I spin in Reyna's swivel chair, examining my nails as I wait for my downloads to complete. The progress bar crawls forward at a snail's pace, each pixel seeming to take hours to load. It's currently 5:45 in the morning, and despite my pounding head and heavy eyelids, I can't sleep. My fathers words replay in my head, contrasting with my earlier interaction with Elias.I think back to how he looked at me in the club, the way his eyes roamed over my body, and an almost reverent look reflected in his expression. I think back to his visceral reaction when I had touched him. It's unfair, how someone so beautiful can be so evil. And Elias is beautiful, no matter how much I want to pretend he isn't. That only makes me hate him more.By the time the others awaken, I have a full stack of papers and graphs covering the navigation table. Shelly pops a few hangover pills into her mouth, and Sadie brings over two steaming cups of coffee while I recount what transpired the night before. Reyna stands at the back, leaning against the dorm frame while she listens."So you're telling me, we have a creepy artificial intelligence tailing us?" Shelly looks like she's on the brink of hysteria. "And he was in our cameras?""That's not possible," Sadie says, moving to sit in one of the seats. "Sentient AI research is strictly prohibited. Plus, if there really was a rogue robot running round, don't you think we would have heard about it?""There's information about him publicly online," I say, pulling up the files I had found during my pod ride to Andromida. Except the files are gone, in fact, the entirety of the websites and databases I had pulled the information from were gone. Like they had never existed to begin with.The only information that seems to be available is information about his company and ship. Is it possible Elias monitors and controls the internet's information flow? Sadie comes to the realization the same time I do, and her eyes go wide."I guess that would explain why no one snapped pictures of us carrying those vaults onto our ships." Or they had taken pictures, and Elias had just deleted them afterwards."That's some crazy witchcraft shit," Shelly says, coming in to join us at the table. "So what do we do now?""What we do," Reyna grinds out from behind us. "Is we eject the person that the crazy maniac is after. Before the said maniac kills all of us.""And you said you tried to kill him?" Sadie begins rocking back and forth in her seat. "Holy shit, Mira.""He's loaded though, right?" Shelly brings one of the papers to her face, examining the numbers carefully. "Then you're far from the first person who's tried to kill him. Plus he owns a bil-" Shelly's voice dies when she sees the number of zeros on the paper. "What I'm trying to say is that he must be a very busy man. Isn't it a little narcissistic to believe he's going to drop everything, just to chase you? He has an empire to run.""Does that really matter right now?" Reyna hisses, wrings her hands in the air. "Is no one listening to me? Whatever is chasing us right now, is chasing her. Not us. What does this have to do with us at all?""Reyna." Shelly's voice slices through the room, cutting and harsh against her previously light tone. It's clear Reyna wants to say more, but she doesn't, turning on her heel and slamming the door on her way out.Sadie sighs loudly, bringing her knees up to her chest. Even though I'm the topic of discourse, I can't help feeling as if I'm intruding on a long standing argument that goes beyond just Reyna's dislike of me."I guess–" Shelly says after several beats of silence. "Obviously, I want you as a part of our crew. I've had my fair share of crazy stalkers, I'm not going to eject you from the ship. The Tiara is always a place you can go, if you don't have anywhere else to go. But if not, we'll drop you off at the nearest station. No questions asked."It's a greater kindness than I deserve, and I wait for Shelly's catch, for her to continue with terms and conditions."Did I tell you that I found Reyna in a literal dumpster?" She laughs, though it holds no mirth. "Trust me, no one on this ship will gawk at whatever skeletons you have in your closet.""You're also not the only one being pursued," Sadie says from across the table. "I'll have to show you our individual bounties some time, the photos are hilarious.""Maybe don't tell the mercenary that we have bounties on our head," Shelly chides at Sadie, thwacking her across the back of her head. I sit forward to gather papers while they continue to bicker across the table."Speaking of bounties, I have something I've wanted to discuss with you," I say."Oh?" Shelly pauses from where she's ruffling Sadies hair. I toss her the pile of papers I had been rifling with. Sadie leans over her shoulder, eyes widening as she quickly surveys all I've laid out."Are these warehouse and drop off locations? Did you seriously spend all night finding coordinate points?" Shelly wrinkles her nose. "For a gun manufacturer?""I believe our goals intersect," I say, moving to stand beside them. "You guys like stealing, and I want a specific person to be stolen from. The average heist value of each one of these locations is around 8-14 million." At that, Sadies eyes bug."From stealing weapons? Are they really worth that much?"I slide several of the papers aside, pointing at a couple of them at the bottom."Not just weapons. Jewels, precious metals, and even artwork." It seems Elias had delved his fingers into almost every market, for god knows what reason. Shelly lets out a low breath, and I can see the wheels turning in her head."Does this somehow have to do something with the guy who chased you onto our ship?" Shelly's immediate connection is startling, and Sadie looks horrified at the prospect. "Is this some sort of revenge plot?""Not that I think it really matters," Sadie interrupts. "Shelly, are you seeing these numbers?"To my surprise, Shelly throws her head back and starts cackling."My gods, if there's anything I enjoy more than stealing, it's stealing from scumbag pieces of shits. I love a good revenge scheme!" Shelly grabs me by the arms, pulling me into a tailspin across the room. "I knew I made the right decision bringing you on! Can we go for the jewels first?"And as I look into Shelly's excited face, and Sadie's concentration as she scans my documents, I'm convinced Elias' fortune will be halved within the month's end.We're out of bolts again. I toss my wrench back onto my workbench, running a frustrated hand through my hair, as I examine my work thus far. The inner compartment glows ever so slightly in the room's dim lighting, anti-matter and other nuclear substances boiling and raging to be released from their glass confines.Closing the missile hatch, I carefully set my unfinished project against the wall, before heading out into the disinfectant chamber connecting my workroom with the rest of the ship. Cool mist envelopes the room, stripping the last of the radioactive materials off my body. When the airlock door on the other side slides open, I'm met with Tristen, leaning against the door with an expression of discontent on his face."We need to talk.""Then talk," I say, striding past him. I hear Tristen sigh, followed by his footsteps a couple of seconds later."Over the last couple of weeks, we've suffered four different warehouse breaks. One on Asteroid Casanova, two on a nearby mining planet, and another on Station Arcadia." I don't have to ask who is responsible for the breaks, we both know."Is that all you came to talk to me about?" I pause in the hallway, then turn to open one of the hidden compartments, pulling out a bag of cat food. Tristen pauses too, a look of disbelief crossing his angular face."Elias, with all due respect, we've lost 42 million dollars in damages.""My point stands," I say, turning to open the door leading to our ship's main sitting room. Immediately, a cacophony of loud meows assaults my ears, along with a couple of hisses. My four cats look unhappy, even though I had fed them just this morning. They weave in and out of my feet, and I walk slower, careful not to step on any of them."Based on their previous trajectory, there's a high chance they'll be arriving on Planet Tessaric within the week. I suggest we increase security and tighten-"Tristen's words are cut off by the clatter of cat food being poured into each cat's bowl. Jello, a short-haired tabby, moves to sit in my lap, purring loudly as I hand feed her. Jello must have caught a respiratory infection during my excursion to Station Andromida, which would explain her facial congestion and decreased appetite. Using a handkerchief, I carefully wipe the drool and eye-fluid from the kitten's face. Jello meows loudly, pawing at the strands in my cashmere overcoat."You're not even listening, are you?""No, I am," I respond absentmindedly. "Continue.""I've directed our ship to Tessaric," Tristen says with a scowl on his usually pristine face. "And I've notified our personnel along with the clients who were set to meet there.""Perfect, Tristen. Thank you."When Tristen doesn't leave the room, I glance up from where I'm hand feeding Jello. Her tiny kitten's claws scratch at my fingers with impatience, and I pat her head affectionately while I wait for Tristen to spit out whatever he has to say."The thieves left something behind on their most recent heist," Tristen says after a deliberate pause. He reaches into his pocket, then pulls out a note.I take it without saying anything, unfurling the crinkled paper to read the words etched angrily in black pen.For the tab you left me with at the club. xoxoI smile, folding the paper up again. It had never been my intention to leave her with the tab, but with a gun pressed to my stomach, I couldn't very well pull out my credit card. I'd make it up to Mira, and I could only hope our next interaction would be better.Talking to a woman, I had learned on Andromida, is very different in practice than in theory. Talking to people in general has taken me years to get right. There was always something I was doing wrong, a social cue not picked up, or a joke missed. There were quantum level formulations more simplistic than keeping genuine conversations with a human.Done with their food, the rest of my cats, Lychee, Rosie, and Chester swarm my legs in contented fondness. Tristen leaves the room, the door clicking silently behind him, leaving me once again alone with my thoughts.