Starbourne, page 16
She had long neon purple hair, swept over the left side of her head. The right side of her scalp was bare, exposing a printed barcode on the side of her head. Several technological add-ons decorated her face.
She was wearing a tight black shirt, with a brass zipper running up the center. Over that, she wore a sleeveless puffy bright blue vest which was decorated with neon pink lettering. Sleek black gloves ran from her fingertips to her shoulders.
Jaeden furrowed his brow as he studied her face. Her jaw seemed to be mechanical, which led to her equally robotic neck. He could see hydraulics and wires running the length of her throat from her jaw and disappearing underneath her black shirt.
Awestruck, Jaeden examined the woman closer. He had seen robotic arms and legs before, but never anything like this. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense but still; the sight was curious.
Lost in his thoughts, Jaeden soon realized that he had been staring at the woman while contemplating her components. Meeting her eyes, he saw that she recognized that he was looking at her.
He felt his face flush with heat. Clearing his throat and quickly looking away, Jaeden tried to focus on something else. Anything else.
Jaeden honed in on an arcade on the other side of the busy street. What kind of games do they have in there? When was the last time he played a game? Are the games he played still popular?
In his peripheral vision, Jaeden could see the woman had changed her course and was walking directly towards him. He cringed to himself and looked further in the opposite direction.
Clackity footsteps grew louder, and Jaeden knew the woman was just about on him. He clenched his jaw and formed an apology in his mind. The footsteps finally stopped; she must have stood directly beside him now.
With a soft sigh, Jaeden looked up at the woman. She stood in front of Jaeden, with one leg crossed in front of the other and a hand perched on her waist. She raised an eyebrow high and studied Jaeden closely.
Before Jaeden could get the words out, she held up a hand up to her neck and pressed her fingers against a device-installed throat. A robotic voice started to speak in a language Jaeden was unfamiliar with.
“Sorry?” Jaeden replied, raising his eyebrows, and loosening his arms across his chest.
Again, the woman touched her throat and repeated the statement. This time she looked over her shoulders, as if on the lookout for someone. Satisfied with what she saw around her, she then pulled open her vest. Inside, several syringes in plastic sleeves hung on small hooks.
“Oh shaz, no. Sorry, I don’t…” Jaeden stumbled, putting his hands up. “I’m good. Thanks.”
The woman took a step towards Jaeden and gestured inside the other side of her coat. There, he saw vials of red dust and other narcotics.
“I’m alright, thank you.” He waved back. Panic took hold of him, and he looked around the street to see if anyone was watching the transaction.
The woman removed a vial of red dust and extended it out to Jaeden. While he didn’t understand the words she was using, he knew she was trying to sell him drugs.
“Sorry no, I’m not interested,” Jaeden said, standing to his feet. Looking for an excuse, he reached into his pockets and pulled the insides of his pockets out. He had hoped that the gesture would at least imply he had no credits, and she would move on from him.
She clearly understood the message, but as a pushy salesperson would, persisted. She pointed at the ring on his finger. He glanced down at it and understood she meant to barter with him.
Jaeden wrapped his hand around the ring and shook his head. “Sorry, no thank you.”
Now the woman looked offended. She planted her leg out and crossed her arms. Her brow furrowed tightly, and she said something in the unfamiliar language. Whatever she said, the tone sounded accusatory.
“Listen, lady, I don’t want anything. Just leave me alone.” Jaeden said, taking a step back and holding his palms up. “Where the hades are you, Hoss.” He whispered to himself.
In the distance, Jaeden could hear a sputtering engine and knew exactly what the familiar sound was. He looked away from the woman, and into the flying motorway above him and saw Hoss’ old beat-up hovercar. The vehicle dropped in elevation and drifted up to Jaeden and the woman.
“Ayo, boy-o,” Hoss said through the rolled-down passenger window.
Jaeden looked from the vehicle to the woman and pointed to his friend. “Sorry, this is my ride.”
Hoss leaned over into the passenger seat of the hovercar. “Who’s your friend? She comes with us?”
Cringing, Jaeden moved towards the hovercar and pulled open the door. He shoved Hoss back into the driver's seat to make room. “Just go, man.”
“She’s cute, you sure you don’t–” Hoss started.
“Just go!” Jaeden exclaimed, slamming the passenger door behind him.
Hoss leaned over in front of Jaeden to look at the woman. “Sorry hun, my friend isn’t all that sociable. Me on the other hand–”
The woman touched her hand to her throat and said something in the strange language.
“Hey!” Hoss exclaimed, his face contorting with fury. “Leave my mom out of this!”
With that final remark, the woman began walking down the street in her original path before stopping to talk with Jaeden.
Jaeden pulled Hoss back and pushed him into the driver's seat. “You understood that?” Jaeden asked.
“Yeah man, I’m not an idiot,” Hoss replied, settling back into his seat. “I know what she meant by street cleaner, she was way out–”
“No, I mean the language.” Jaeden interrupted.
“Oh,” Hoss started, checking the vehicle's side monitors as he elevated into the motorway. “Yeah, it was cobra. What, you can’t speak cobra?”
“No,” Jaeden said, furrowing his brow.
“Oh well shaz, my guy. We gotta hook you up!” Hoss exclaimed. “Don’t worry, I know a place nearby.
“Alright, aces,” Jaeden said, sinking into his seat. He only knew one language, but the system was filled with hundreds. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to know how to speak a few others.
“Sorry I’m late by the way,” Hoss said, breaking the silence. “After I finished helping Nellie with the stock, I ate some lunch and watched a movie. You ever see Citizens and Foreigners?”
“You watched an entire movie while I was waiting for you?” Jaeden scoffed, looking at Hoss in disbelief.
Hoss looked back at Jaeden and shrugged. “You seen it though?”
“Ah,” Jaeden said, thinking about the name, “I don’t think so. Who’s in it?”
“Oh man, it’s great!” Hoss said excitedly, sitting up straight in his seat. “Evan Jardine, Andrea Withers, Lochlan Reid, friggin Lewis Mitchell. It’s a star-studded cast, I’m telling you. I’ve seen it like six times.”
“Yeah, no. Definitely never seen it. What’s it about?”
“Okay, so this kid Leon, that’s Evan Jardine in the movie, he and his father just landed on this planet to start a new life and—”
“Which planet?” Jaeden interjected.
“Ah, I don’t remember,” Hoss said while squinting.
“You don’t remember what planet?”
“No, anyway—”
“How do you not remember where it takes place?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Hoss cried out.
Smirking, Jaeden pressed the topic. “The location is a pretty big detail.”
“Jae, it doesn’t matter. Venus. I think it was Venus.”
“I’m just saying if you liked the movie that much, you think you’d remember—”
“Anyway, so Leon and his dad get to Venus, right? And Leon’s dad is like a straight-cut guy. He tries the whole eight-to-six job thing, like all the other schmucks, but it’s hard for him because nobody will give him a chance. Because he’s from off-world. So anyway, Leon, that’s Evan—”
“Yeah, Evan Jardine, just call him Leon,” Jaeden said quickly.
“Yeah, so Leon gets mixed up in all these street gangs. He’s doin’ small fry stuff for them, and then they give him more and more. You know how it is. So then he gets to work right under the crime lord of the city, but Leon is a smart man. He starts doin’ stuff the boss never thought of, and he’s making some good money. Now suddenly he’s all successful and the boss is pissed at him.”
“What happened to the dad?”
“The dad?” Hoss repeated the question, looking over his shoulder to merge lanes.
“Yeah, the dude working a regular job. Straight cut guy, at the beginning.”
“Oh yeah! Uh, I think he had a heart attack or something. He died before this part; it doesn’t matter. Anyway, the boss is pissed at Leon, so they get into a fight and Leon kills the boss. Now he’s the boss! Then he picks up this hot chick that he’s been talking to since the start. Man, it’s a wild movie; you gotta’ check it out.”
“Well, how does it end?” Jaeden asked.
“No, no, I can’t tell you. I don’t want to spoil it; it’s so good.”
“Well shaz, Hoss, you just told me the dad dies, the dude kills his boss and becomes the boss, and gets the girl. What’s left to spoil?” Jaeden laughed. “How does it end?”
“Well, it kind of takes a turn at the end… Leon gets a bit greedy and overextends, and this other gang does a drive-by and messes him up bad and kills his girlfriend. But then Leon goes on this revenge killing spree and wipes out the other gang. He kills the last guy and then the movie fades out on Leon’s face as he’s panting for air. Then I guess it’s this whole thing of ‘Did he die? Did he live?’, but he’s dead for sure. Dude took like five hundred shots to the chest. I don’t care if you’re ‘Ultraman’ from another system; you ain’t surviving that.”
“That’s kind of messed up. So, the whole thing ends with the main guy and his family dying?”
“Yeah, but the fight scene at the end is incredible. Lochlan Reid plays the bad guy there, and he’s doing all these crazy martial arts. It’s a wild ride.
“Sounds like it. I’ll keep my eye out for it.”
“I’ll send you the link. Plus, man, you gotta’ see Andrea Withers in this. She’s a rocket, and she has this crazy scene—” Hoss let out a high-pitched whistle. “You just gotta’ see it.”
Thinking back to his conversation with Teagen, Jaeden looked to change the topic. “How’s everything been with Teagen?”
“Ah, man, T. These under-the-table procedures aren’t great, man. I know she wants to be this awesome Technologist, but it’s getting harder to manage.”
“In what way?”
“It’s like… What’s that saying? Building a shed on rubble? ‘Cause the last house fell over or something. It’s like that.”
“Don’t build on sand because the sand will wash away.” Jaeden corrected.
“Yeah man, it’s like building a shed on sand. The more upgrades she gets, they’re all based on this mishmash of tech in the middle. The stuff isn’t all compatible, but it’s like her core pieces. The more we stack on top, the more unstable the other systems get.” Hoss shifted his weight in his seat uncomfortably. “I didn’t tell you, but a few months back, she got this new memory bank installed. Something didn’t hook up right and it wiped out certain memories…”
“No shaz, like what?”
“She didn’t know who I was,” Hoss said quietly. “She knew Nellie, Cyrus, Alina, even that little brat that lives in our building, Carl. But she didn’t know anything about me.”
“Looks like she remembers you now. How did you fix that?”
“I got Nellie to help me convince Teagen to go back to the splicer that installed the memory bank, put a gun to his head, and told him to fix it. She still doesn’t remember everything, and maybe she never will. The guy said that he rerouted the memory files, and more might unlock as time goes on but maybe not.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, man, for both of you. That’s gotta’ be rough on Teagen too. Does she know she’s missing memories?”
“Kinda. Someone explained it to me like a phantom limb sensation. Like her brain still tries to remind her of these memories but can’t find them because they’re on this internal hard drive in her head, but her brain can’t find the root extension to get to them.”
“Sheesh,” Jaeden said while sliding back in his seat and running a hand through his hair. “Honestly, I don’t know if that’s all worth the risk. Like, personally, I don’t think I’d do it.”
“Do what?”
“Get all those head implants.
“It’s a tough call. But at the end of the day, she can electrocute people by hacking their implants and has all these, like, superpowers.”
Hoss had a point; getting all those implants does offer the person a lot of incredible abilities that would come in handy. The more Jaeden thought about it, the more interested he was in them. But the squeamish side of Jaeden couldn’t stand the thought of being laid out on an operating table and having someone mess around in his skull.
Hoss slowed the vehicle down and focused on the street below them. He carefully pulled out of the laneway and scanned for a parking spot along the main strip. Jaeden looked around the neighborhood and recognized it as an upscale side of the town. This wasn’t an area he was too familiar with; you needed to be someone of importance to live and shop around here.
Hoss had found a spot and gingerly maneuvered his old hovercar into position. The vehicle swung into the spot perfectly, and Hoss looked out the windows to confirm. Satisfied, he nodded and turned off the engine. The vehicle sputtered loudly and fell to the ground in a crash.
Unbothered by the parking job, Hoss turned to Jaeden. “Do you still have memory problems?”
Jaeden looked over at Hoss and studied his face for a moment before responding. “Yeah, I still can’t remember anything from before.”
"Is that what those red pills are for?” Hoss asked, eyeing Jaeden carefully.
“Oh, that.” Jaeden started, opening the vehicle door, and stepping onto the sidewalk. “Nah, that’s nothing.”
"If you say so, my guy,” Hoss said, shrugging to himself.
Hoss exited the vehicle and started down the street. Jaeden quickly fell in line and the two made their way to the busy sidewalk. He looked at each of the people they passed on the street and noticed their clothing.
Sharp business suits. Sleek and fashionable clothing that Jaeden had seen in datazines and advertisements. It was an entirely different scene from the downtown area he had just been in. Looking down at his clothing, he once again cringed.
Jaeden noticed more than a few glances from passersby who also felt that he and his friend did not belong in this part of town. If Hoss too had noticed their attention, he didn’t show it as he walked forward unabashedly.
“Is it like that ‘phantom limb’ sensation thing for you too when you try to think back?” Hoss asked as he walked.
“No, not really. It doesn’t feel like anything. If I try to think and focus on anything before waking up, it just feels like I’m focusing on black, y’know? I guess like, opening a door and seeing only pitch-black outside. Just nothing there.”
“That sounds trippy,” Hoss said, almost as if he didn’t entirely hear what Jaeden had just said. “We’re here!”
Jaeden looked up at the sign above the entrance of the storefront. “The Origin? Isn’t this some fancy pants place for the rich to get their tech updates?”
“That’s right, my guy. And all those zeros in your credit account are your membership to this rich person store,” Hoss said, a mischievous grin creeping across his face. “Let’s go, I’ve always wanted to see what one of these places looked like.”
Hoss approached the front door enthusiastically. He stepped in front of the entryway and stopped abruptly before walking into the glass door. He stood awkwardly for a moment, face nearly touching the door. He stomped his foot on the floor a few times and then sighed heavily. Jaeden walked up to Hoss and crossed his arms, watching his friend stew in frustration over the door.
“What are you doing?” Jaeden laughed.
“Stupid thing is busted.” Hoss snapped. He then sighed deeply and took a step back before waving his hands frantically over his head.
Jaeden shook his head and approached the door, pushing on the handle and swinging the door open. He stepped through the entryway and held the door open behind him, looking back over his shoulder at Hoss.
His friend furrowed his brow and pressed his lips together in disgust. Jaeden laughed and used his foot to prop open the door. He used both hands to dramatically gesture his angry associate to enter the building.
“Are you coming?” Jaeden asked jovially.
“The hades is this? You’ve got to manually push the door open?” Hoss spat.
Jaeden laughed, “Yeah, is that so weird?” He said, shaking his head.
“I would have thought the rich people would have had automatic doors and lights and shaz on everything.”
“It’s a retro style. It’s very chic,” Jaeden said, wobbling his head back and forth and extending a pinky.
“It’s very dumb,” Hoss said bitterly as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and walked through the door. “When I’m about to drop thousands of credits, I expect the damn door to open for me.”
As the two friends stepped into the store, a bell rang above their heads to notify staff that customers had entered. Jaeden scanned the room thoughtfully as Hoss attempted to make himself look more imposing. Hoss squared his shoulders and planted his feet firmly. He raised an eyebrow, clenched his jaw, and jutted out his bottom lip. Hoss began nodding slowly and surveyed the store from left to right. Jaeden regarded him, scoffed quietly, and walked away to leave his friend to his posing.
The store was brightly lit and modernly styled. Glass displays were lining the walls, with a few counters in the center of the room. Monitors and holograms played various adverts and infomercials detailing the products available for purchase. Soft electronic music played throughout the store, and the air carried a slight scent of eucalyptus; the whole environment was inviting. The sales floor was smaller than what Jaeden expected, but he assumed that all the product was kept safely in a stockroom in the back of the store. There were a few other customers on the far side of the store being attended to by an employee.
