As comfortable as the armor was, it was still armor, and substantially bulkier than the lightweight engineering frame he’d built; so he left it with his gear, carefully stepping back into the engineering frame before heading back up the lift.

  He checked his comm for a moment, noticing that they’d synced up with the Ash system network while he was out, and he had a few messages waiting on the messenger service, as well as a couple of more official ones. He checked the quick ones first.

  ~Kyle, this is Thor. We’re on a raid right now, so I only have a sec, but you have fun on your first trip out! If you find something cool, name it after me!~

  ~Big double M! There’s a girl, still bio, who you should meet! Totally kick-ass, training to be a combat medic. Heavy-grav augment. Run me a line when you get back in-system.~

  ~I swear to god, you’re trying to avoid us. You left without sending a message? Not cool, killer. Not cool at all. Call when you get back.~

  ~Thor again, Kyle. Did you seriously tell all of us but Sherry? Ooof. You should apologize.~

  There were dozens more. A long string of messages from his former… well. Not former friends. Formerly living friends? Fuck.

  He closed his eyes. Someday, he’d be just like them. Only a digital presence, no more flesh and blood. But… someday. It wasn’t supposed to happen while you were a goddamned teenager.

  He posted a quick response on the group chat. ~This is MasterMind. Back in-system, planning to stay for a while; mostly out in the salvage yards again, got some ideas for some improvements and need some repairs. Currently out-system, will dive in once I get closer to chat for a bit.~

  He sighed… and then switched to the official messages. They were a light-minute or so out and it’d be some time before he got a response anyway.

  He sighed, shaking his head. He didn’t want to, but honestly, working for BSE was good money, and normally fairly safe. This job was definitely an outlier.

  They paid for system surveys, they paid for colony escorts, pirate killing, eradicating hostile alien life… What was the other one?

  Kyle stared at it for a moment.

  The company worked for the Alliance sometimes; when actual pirates operated in Alliance space, the Skulls had nothing against intervening. The company was, first and foremost, about making money, and had nothing against employing enough people with the right genotypes to operate safely in Alliance space.

  It was always a bit of a careful balance, though. Fighting pirates was one thing, but Anti-Slavery Union forces were an entirely different ball of wax, that the Skulls avoiding interfering with if at all possible.

  That…. Could be a lucrative contact, in all sorts of ways.

  He could talk to the dubs, become a double-agent. Help fuck with the Alliance. But if he ever got caught? Even if he didn’t get killed, he probably couldn’t work for the family business later, since it would mess with their Alliance contracts.

  He could just take it at face value. Do a few jobs, depending on the pay. Likely not gonna be too difficult.

  None of it really appealed. Any way he handled that job would be a problem. Maybe he should talk to his uncle about it. Anyway. The lift had stopped at the bridge while he was thinking about it, and a guard was staring at him like he was an idiot.

  When he stepped out on the bridge, he gave a quick nod, and pointed at one of the seats. Kyle’s mother was sitting there, being her usual asshole self, negotiating with the Empire rep who had come to pick up their people; though it seemed to be wrapping up. The man seemed older, just starting to grey; which was clearly deliberate, wanting to have the ‘elder statesman’ look.

  She glanced up at him, and smiled, before turning back. “Well then. It looks like my son has recovered from the surgery he had to go through because of your former agent. If you’d like, I could have him give you our standard procedure for dealing with people who cause harm to our family members.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The official on the other side looked up and grimaced. Apparently he could see where Kyle was through the holographic display. “...We would request the return of the remaining implants other than that one. We will pay an additional fifteen thousand credits for those you are willing to return.”

  “Done. Already packaged up. If you want to dock you can get them in person, otherwise we’ll simply hook them to one of the comm buoys we nabbed from the wreckage and send them your way.”

  He blinked. “You… have the comm buoys working?”

  “We have everything working. And fully functional samples already off-site. I’d like to warn you that if you think you’re the best at everything… the only thing I’ve found thats better than the dubs is the hull. The heat resistance of that stuff is impressive. Some of it is lagging significantly behind. Especially the computers and implants.”

  “...I will take that under advisement. Thank you.” The Empire official seemed nonplussed, and gave a short bow… and then vanished.

  Kyle turned to her. “Was that serious? Those computers are pretty impressive.”

  She glanced back at the display, confirmed it was off… and then chuckled. “The only impressive thing is the organic nature, the way they reproduce and heal if fed. Top-of-the-line Dub gear? Much better. If you ever see a genuine dub pilot in action, the reaction times they get…. Its crazy.”

  “...This stuff is faster than what I used in the Sapper.”

  His mother looked at him for a moment. “They’re also better than what we’ve got in most of the Skulls ships. We’ve only got one carrier and a handful of fighters in each task force that outmatch them. We’re gonna use em, its just… not on the Harbinger. She’s already got better processors than that destroyer did.”

  Kyle slowly nodded. “...I was planning on using some of the guns and stuff from the wreckage for the next version of the Sapper.”

  “Hmm. Not a bad idea. Something you need to understand. Those plasma weapons, and the hull? Best in the galaxy. But. The Directorate has shield emitters that nobody else can compare to. The dubs have computers and implants that make fighting one of their elite fighters an absolute pain in the ass. Everybody went in different directions with their tech, but while they’ve got a few fields they stand out in, bits of it bleed out, and eventually the independent worlds make cheap rip-offs. So…”

  She gestured down at the deck. “The stuff on there is better than ninety percent of what you’ll find in the galaxy. You use it, you’ll do great. But before you do, you should stop in on Ash. You don’t want to go out without someone you don’t trust, so I figured I’d arrange something. Especially after this… incident.”

  Kyle was beginning to get an idea of what she meant. She wasn’t sure which method she picked… but no matter what, it must have been absurd.

  “...Fine. I need to pickup some more parts. Probably get them shipped to the same station I’ve been living out of the past few months… and get right back to work.”

  “Yeah. Space combat is like that. Months of repairs, of moving, of preparing. Then a quick fight. And its over, back to fixing, moving…. I’ll be back in-system in a few weeks. I picked out a contract to give me an excuse to be around here, now we get to actually go do it. They might wonder why it took so long… but given the number of ships I’m bringing, they won’t be too upset.”

  “Well.” He sighed… and stepped forward… embracing her. She enthusiastically wrapped her arms back around him, and kissed him on the forehead.

  “Love you, mom. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Love you too, my little troublemaker. Do something more stupid than normal. Live a little.”

  As if he could ever be as much of a troublemaker as his mom.

  ***

  In the cold outer depths of the Ash system sat the largest field of junk in known space. With the exception of a tiny handful of civilian megafreighters, every ship ever made had the ability to drag more mass through Darkspace than just its own hull; and as a result, most non-navy vessels had a habit of grabbing any easily available scrap to haul with them if their destination included a place that would pay for it.

  One of the largest battles of the second galactic war had been fought here, as the Directorate assaulted a United Worlds AI research facility… and that had only been the beginning.

  The dubs still had a research facility here, which went over everything that was dropped off; they would pay for anything whatsoever, and a premium for interesting, valuable, finds. On top of having training facilities for new crew, manufacturing facilities for new weapons, and markets that sold just about everything….

  Mercenaries, pirates, and corporate types loved making a stop-off here to deliver the results of a salvage expedition or a fight.

  For Kyle, that meant that, despite having only recently left here, it was the perfect place to search for parts; both new and used; to get the Sapper fixed up, and to repair the damage from the dragon attack… and from the Empire missile that had subdued her.

  But first… he had some things to take care of. Leaving the mostly wrecked hulk of the Sapper attached to the same salvage yard it had been weeks before… in the same slot, even… Kyle rented a shuttle back to Ash, and started checking over his data.

  Over one thousand piloted hours with either direct recording or signed affidavit, preferably both? Check. Confirmed passage of both duty hours and training courses for each of the other required positions? Check.

  Whatever surprise was in store for him on Ash, he could handle it after he finally got his captain’s license.

  Boarding the shuttle, he looked around the tiny passenger cabin. Two rows of seats, five on each side, facing a central area where cargo could be strapped down… and a bored-looking man in a green skinsuit with an odd scaled pattern sitting in the pilot’s seat, glancing back.

  “Where we headed? Ticket’s for the Admin station, but its got five separate docks, and I can get you to any of them.”

  “The board. Just gotta go wait in line to get them to stamp the right forms and finally get a captain’s license.”

  “Very nice.” The shuttle pulled away from the station, and started floating in-system. “Gonna celebrate with your friends? Pretty big milestone in a career, even if most don’t actually get to use it for a while after.”

  “Ehhh. Not really. Most of my friends have been dead for a while, but I do have a few class-mates and co-workers I might call up.”

  He could see the man nod as he deftly adjusted the controls. He was still far too distant to be aiming at the docks, but different ones were best approached from different directions.

  “On the one hand, that might be true. On the other hand, you know the old saying… death aint what it used to be.”

  Kyle chuckled. “Funny story. One of my friends used to use that saying, though he used it in a different context.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “Back when we played this one fantasy game, I was usually a necromancer. Used skeleton minions, zombies, that sort of thing, to soak up damage for the party while we worked. Also revive teammates. Every time they got brought back, they’d start off with ‘Death aint what it used to be’... and then start off on some nonsense about..”

  “They used to give you a funeral. Nowadays its all, back to work, stop lazing about.”

  Kyle blinked. “...Yeah. That’s… exactly what he said.” He studied the man, frowning. It vaguely looked like him. But… was it?

  “What, seeing ghosts, Mastermind?”

  “...Thor, you fucker. Could you at least have gotten the new body looking vaguely like the old one?” He unstrapped himself, heading forward, and sliding into the empty co-pilot’s seat, getting a closer look.

  Add about five years, fifty pounds of muscle, and get rid of all the defects, and Thor might pray to grow up looking like this powerful, tanned, blonde-haired figure before him.

  “What do you mean? I was always gonna look like this. I had absolutely zero work done, its just a clone. Now you gotta tell me… what the hell happened on that job? Your mom refused to give me any details, just told me you could probably use a familiar face about now.”

  Kyle leaned back in the chair, shaking his head… “..Nah. I was gonna tell all of you at once when I got to Ash. Even if one of you turned himself back into a flesh-and-blood friend instead of a digital one, that doesn’t change things.”

  “Come on, its gonna be over an hour. You gonna make me wait the whole trip?”

  “How about you tell me what the team’s been up to?”

  “What, you mean Bjorn and the Bolts?”

  “No way they accepted that name.”

  “No, but a man can dream. Anyways, they recently released an update to the faction war mechanics, and…”