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Six
During her early years in the Wonderland Academy for Girls, the students would often pretend that their parents were among the wealthiest in the Multiplicity and would one day come back for them. Or had fallen on hard times and couldn’t handle an extra mouth to feed. Or were a whole family of assassins and this was how they had been trained for generations going back to the time of the first generation seed ships, centuries before Looking Glass travel. Alice knew this was all bullshit speculation on their part; they had been dropped off at Wonderland’s doorstep as infants, same as her. And at any rate, Alice didn’t give a fuck. If her parents were so callous as to bring her to such a terrible place, where the food was recycled nutrient glop and every day your instructors found new and clever ways to rip you apart under the pretense of making you stronger, she decided at a young age that she didn’t want to know them. Instead, she imagined if the fateful day ever came that the two strangers who were her parents returned for her, she would practice her newfound skills on both of them right in front of Miss Cheshire and the other students. She had never told anyone this, of course. Not even Dodgson, but it was something she thought about from time to time, and it had even gotten her through some of her more darker hours as a student of Wonderland.
She thought about this now as the Reaver ship holding her prisoner dove into Perdition’s upper atmosphere. These were the first people she had seen besides her fellow students and her augmented, post human instructors. She was starting to think that Wonderland was all there was, that everything in existence was limited to the academy’s slate gray walls. Alice knew there were people on other worlds, of course, but she had never met any of them. Now she was out there, among people, humans. They would just as soon shoot her between the eyes as look at her, but she was used to that, and they were people nonetheless. She couldn’t wait to see what awaited her on Perdition. Suddenly she didn’t desire to be rescued quite so much, and her heart fluttered. The thought simultaneously thrilled and terrified her. What if she stayed behind on Perdition? What if she joined this merry Reaver band? So what if she didn’t complete her final test? She was free. No more hellish chores. No more naked survival training. No more harsh stares from Miss Cheshire when she failed to defeat an opponent.
“Free,” she whispered, trying the word out on her tongue. She never understood what it meant until this precise moment, falling toward an alien planet and an uncertain future.
Socket was plugged into a control console again, mumbling something to someone Alice couldn’t see or hear. The Perdition space port probably. Once they had been given landing clearance, the ship touched down and Alice unstrapped, feeling queasy as the planet’s gravity hit her.
Callisto smiled at her. “You’re used to Wonderland gravity. I hear the grav on Crispin’s Menagerie isn’t that different. But Perdition’s a whole other story. You’ll get used to it.” He nodded to the others as Socket unplugged. “Let’s go check on our cargo.”
“He’s gonna be awake and pissed off,” said Razor as they headed for the bay where the Jabberwock was being held prisoner.
“Don’t tranq him again,” said Callisto as he and Alice followed. “We need him bright-eyed and bushy for the arena.”
Alice nodded. So they did want the Jabberwock to fight. “Arena?” she asked, playing dumb.”
Callisto chuckled. “One of the biggest events on Perdition. And there’s a lot of money to be made.”
“Started out with old decommissioned mechs,” said Razor as they moved through a service door. “Then the organizers wanted to ramp things up a notch. Now it’s mechs and monsters.”
“Only monsters are surprisingly hard to come by,” Callisto added. “Even the pickings on Crispin’s Menagerie are pretty slim. And if the Multiplicity catches you, well. You can say goodbye to repeat business. Maybe if a Looking Glass opens up here we can—ah, here we are.”
Razor punched in a code on a faded and dirty diskey, and the heavy titanium door slid up to reveal Alice and the Jabberwock’s joint prison.
“Sorry about the cage earlier,” said Callisto. “But we didn’t know who you were. I guessed you were from Wonderland, but only afterward. We were afraid the Multiplicity sent you.”
Alice ignored the cage and focused on the Jabberwock, now wide awake and pitiful, pushing at its restraints.
“Easy there, big fella,” Callisto soothed.
“What will happen to him?”
Callisto shrugged. “If he wins, nothing.”
“But you don’t even know what he eats.”
“Not our problem,” said Razor. “We were paid to bag him and bring him here, not make him our fucking pet.”
Alice’s eyes narrowed to slits. She wanted another go at him, this time with lethal force. She remembered her weapons and glanced over at where they were being stored.
“Not yet,” said Callisto. “I still don’t trust that you won’t shoot your way out of here. But a girl needs to defend herself. You can have your little sword.”
“Sure that’s a good idea, Sarge?” barked Razor.
Callisto shot him a look that said he’d best shut his yap if he knew what was good for him. To Alice he said, “Go ahead.”
Alice went to the rack and slid her vorpal sword from the webbing and stuck it to her back.
“Don’t come cryin to ole Razor when she runs ya through.”
“Shut up and get this thing unloaded so we can get paid,” said Callisto. To Alice he said, “Besides, you might like it here. There’s plenty of work for a girl with your talents.” The he turned and began unfastening the Jabberwock’s restraint rig from the ship’s deck plating.
Tell me you didn’t just look at my breasts when you said that, Alice thought. Now she imagined impaling Callisto in his smug face with her vorpal sword. She went to the wall and retrieved her weapons, checking their loads. She even depressed the kill button on her sword, the blade making a pleasing hum as it vibrated in her hand. There would be time for restitution later, when she had a way out of here. When she got out of earshot she would call Dodgson.
“So who financed this little excursion?” she asked.
“He calls himself the Artful Dodger,” said Callisto. “Ugly mother too. Try not to look terrified. You’ve been around post humans before?”
Alice remembered her first meeting with Miss Cheshire. “Yes.”
“Good. Walk around like you own the place, and you’ll fit right in. The only rule here is that there are no rules. Everything illegal elsewhere in the Multiplicity is perfectly acceptable here. So watch your ass.”
Razor slammed his fist into a big red button, and the entire rear wall of the room fell down with a muffled concussion, a loading door. Outside was red twilight and makeshift metallic structures.
“Air’s breathable,” said Callisto. “Stinks to high heaven, but it’s breathable.”
The air did indeed smell foul, full of hydrocarbon exhaust, machine lubricant and stale human sweat. Alice wrinkled her nose. “Where are the others?”
“They stayed aboard to prep the ship. They’ll be along for the big show.”
Callisto helped Razor push the contraption restraining the Jabberwock down the walkway and out onto the planet’s surface. The rig was mag-lev enabled, so it made pushing it along easy. The Jabberwock struggled, rocking the thing from side to side. Razor slapped its translucent hide. “Stop that!”
“Don’t do that,” said Alice, running up to the beast’s face. She looked into its huge yellow eyes and felt sympathy for it. She touched it on the nose. It snuffled, smelling her. This seemed to have a calming effect.
“Whatever you’re doing,” said Callisto, “keep doing it. We’re almost to the proving yard.”
Alice cooed at the creature until they reached a wide open area walled off by piles of junked spaceships of every model and description. It wound around in a gigantic circle. Here and there Alice could see people climbing up the pile to stand as close to the top as they dared, arranged so they could look down into the center, which held a vast dirt field. Many of them gawked at the captured Jabberwock. A few of them placed hasty bets on battered data slates.
“We need to see the Dodger,” said Callisto, flashing a holographic chit at a short fellow in a cracked and dusty Multiplicity enforcer helmet and dirty gray smock. He nodded and pointed toward a dingy freighter at the bottom of the pile. The outer door was open, and a pale yellow glow came from within. Callisto ordered Razor to stand guard over their prize. “You can come too if you want,” he said to Alice, who shrugged and followed him into the freighter.
The old ship had seen better days. Its hull was rusted and pitted with ancient micrometeorite impacts. The walls lining the interior had been scrawled with obscenities. In a huge central area sat what looked for all the worlds like a giant blue caterpillar sitting atop a mushroom-shaped dais. It was fat and plump, and held the mouthpiece of an enormous hookah in one of its many tiny appendages. Dense, aromatic smoke puffed from the contraption, the smell of which made Alice dizzy.
“What have you brought me, Callisto?” barked the caterpillar. “Whatever it is, it had better be good.” He was looking at Alice as he said this, and she gave him a dirty look.
“A Jabberwock, as ordered,” said Callisto. “He’s ready to fight for you.”
“And who’s this?” he gestured toward Alice with a lower leg.
“Just some hitchhiker we picked up.”
“Is she for sale?” asked the Artful Dodger.
Callisto looked at her, as if considering it. Alice glared at him, her hand on her pulse pistol.
“No. She’s a free agent, I’m afraid. The deal was for the Jabberwock. You want him or not?”
The enormous caterpillar took a long drag on his hookah, held it for several seconds before blowing a wreath of pink smoke around his misshapen head. His cherubic features almost made him seem jolly, but there was menace behind the dark, beady eyes. Alice didn’t like him.
With a lower appendage he manipulated a slate mounted onto a plastic stand. A screen set in the wall behind him showed a view outside the freighter, Razor standing beside the restrained Jabberwock smoking a cigarette.
“Ah,” said the Dodger. “A fine specimen. Is it true that it can turn invisible?”
“And fool event the most sophisticated EM peepers,” said Callisto. “It almost got the drop on us.”
The enormous caterpillar chuckled. “Splendid. We have a deal.”
Callisto walked over to the slate, punched in a code, and placed his thumb against it. “They’re quite rare. I’d advise you to be careful with it. There might not be any more.”
The caterpillar quivered, which Alice took to be his attempt at a shrug, and went back to sucking on his pipe. Water in the bottom of the hooka gurgled.
“And that’s that,” said Callisto to Alice with a smile. “Nice doing business with you, Dodge.”
Alice followed him from the freighter. “What’s the plan now, boss?”
Socket and Plex sauntered up to Callisto, expectant grins on their faces.
“Now I’m going to get drunk. Plex and Socket here will keep you company for the big show.”
Socket and Plex scowled at Callisto, then the girl. They stuck their thumbs in the air.
“Here you go, you deadbeats,” Callisto said with mock annoyance. He touched his thumb to each of theirs. Alice heard a chirp as their personal area networks received their cut of the Jabberwock’s bounty. Next he went up to Razor and did the same thing before mumbling something in his ear. Razor scowled, but nodded and moved toward them.
“So what are you?” Alice said. “My babysitters?”
“I don’t like it any better than you, girlie,” said Razor. “If I had my druthers I’d feed you to that beastie.” He jerked a thumb toward the Jabberwock, who was being hauled away by a group of scruffy-looking attendants in rebreather masks.
“Just move,” said Socket, giving Alice a little shove. “You’ll like the fights.”
Alice considered dropping her on her ass, then thought better of it. She was outnumbered and outgunned. She could take them in a hand-to-hand fight, but they’d shoot her before she got the chance. Everyone on this planet was either an outlaw, a thief, a killer, or all three. She needed to wait until Dodgson arrived.
“Fine,” she said. “After you.”
Socket took point, while Razor and Plex fell in behind Alice. The four of them marched through the entrance of the junkyard arena.
“I suppose being Callisto’s lackey pays well,” Alice quipped.
Razor shoved her from behind.
“Better than being shoved out an airlock,” Plex muttered.
“Reed’s not so bad,” said Socket. “Just his upbringing. He’s ex military.”
Alice nodded. She wasn’t that surprised by this revelation. Something about his stern bearing. But she wondered what could have happened that turned him into a mercenary.
“What happened to him?”
“Life happened,” said Razor. “Keep walkin’”
They were inside the arena. Alice followed Socket around to the left to stand behind a worn and pitted plasticrete barricade that would be no protection at all should one of the combatants fall on top of it. The baleful red sun was dipping below the far horizon, disappearing behind a stack of spindly condenser towers.
“Almost show time!” said Razor, rubbing his hands together. “Everyone place their bets?”
“I’ve got two hundred on Artemis Jobe,” said Socket.
“Shit,” said Plex. “I’ll take that action.”
The Reavers tapped at their wrist slates while Alice inspected the field. Her cochlear implant chimed.
“Alice. Are you there?”
It was Dodgson. Alice mumbled a subtle um hm.
“All right,” said Dodgson. “You aren’t alone? Very well. I will be there within one hour. I just had the most horrid conversation with a rude suborbital defense platform, but I received clearance to land. Can you reach me when I do?”
“Um hm,” Alice said again, still watching renegades from all over the Multiplicity gather in the arena. They were climbing the hulls of junk spaceships to find the best seats.
“Very well. I will contact you when I land.”
The ship broke contact. Alice turned toward Socket to find her staring.
“What?”
Socket opened her mouth as if to speak, but turned away and said nothing.
She’s onto me, Alice thought. She stared at a tall, wide opening at the far end of the arena, wondering when the Jabberwock would be out. She felt sorry for the poor beast, and once more thought how much better it would be if she had gotten to it first and killed it, saving it from this misery.
Then a thought occurred to her. Maybe she could still save it from this torment. But how? She only had an hour to figure it out.
