It was the strangest thing.

I hated telling Tilly and Mills goodbye. Just being around them made me happy.

They were so easy together, fit like two pieces of the same puzzle.

But maybe I had that already.

“Ready, babe?”

I stepped with Xander onto the loading platform for the gondola. Dewitt had been right. It was impossible to ignore. A pair of gleaming silver lines swooped up the mountain side disappearing into the cloud cover above.

A small group of people, some clutching small bags, had filtered in behind us. At the control panel to the side a uniformed official stood, tan and gray pattern declaring him separate from the townsfolk, but not SysSec, either. Probably a guard from Themis lab.

As the gondola broke through the clouds, descending smoothly, yelps and muttering started behind us, then got louder, angrier.

“What the -” Jostled to the side, I stumbled but Xander pulled me in, searching the crowd for the threat.

It didn’t take much effort to find the problem.

Two men shoved their way to the front. Not long ago I would’ve called them big guys, broad, tough looking. But then I’d met Xander and his brothers. These didn’t seem so big anymore. They looked close enough to be related. Same squashed looking features, one with slightly darker close cropped hair than the other. But between them, not much to choose.

They stood in front of the bored looking guard. “Come on, man. We always work together.”

The guard didn’t even shake his head. “If you’re not on the list, you don’t go up. It’s really very simple.”

“I’m off the list because of a scuffle,” snapped the blonder one. “Stupid rule.”

“You were both sent down for fighting during your work shift,” the official commented mildly. “It was decided only one of you was entirely to blame. So the other can resume work. But not both.”

The dark man spun, swearing. “Seriously, you’re hiring these idiots. Look at them, they won’t last a week. What the hell good is that one going to be, anyway?”

With a jolt I realized he was pointing at me, piggy eyes narrowed.

Xander’s arms tightened around me.

“Not worth it,” I reminded him. “We’ve got a job to do.”

His brother, cousin, whatever snorted, socking the other’s shoulder. “I can think of some uses for her.” They both gave off a nasty, leering laugh.

Void.

I saw the man fall before I fully processed the crunching sound that must’ve been his nose.

“She’s a hell of a lot more useful than you are. Smarter too, I’d wager,” Xander said.

The guard consulted his list again. “It’s a good thing none of you are on the gondola yet. I’ll remind you one more time, fighting during your contract is strictly forbidden.”

As he spoke the standing brother roared and charged Xander, fists raised.

Xander stepped to the side, whipping his opponents arms into a painful looking lock behind his back. “Could you let me know when that starts exactly?” he asked the official. “I really don’t want to give a bad impression on my first day.”

The official chuckled. “Madden,” he struck the man struggling in Xander’s grip lightly with his tablet. “If you want on this shift, you’ll stop right now.”

“But he, but...” The man gasped.

“Yes, I know. You’re very upset. Are you too upset to work this rotation?” The man consulted the tablet, but I could tell from where I stood he was just biding his time, waiting to see if Madden would lose control or pull it together.

“I’ll work.” He straightened up and shook himself as Xander released him and stepped back. “This bastard better stay out of my way.”

“Better not mouth off about this bastard’s wife,” Xander said. “Or I’ll let her take you down next time.” He showed his teeth in a disturbing parody of a smile. “I’m the nice one.”

The gondola finished its descent towards the platform. Nearly the size of Mills and Tilly’s freight hauler, it dangled from the cables above, weighted to stay level all the way down until it came to a gentle stop on the platform.

“You really think that thing is going to hold me?” Xander’s brow furrowed.

“We’ll be fine.” I squeezed his hand.

Two more uniformed men stepped out of the gondola, spoke briefly with the guard at the platform, then hauled the fallen brother off to the side.

Walkway cleared, one guard rechecked our retinas against the list before we were allowed to board.

“They’re really taking security seriously,” one of the men behind us muttered. “What are they doing up there?”

Along with the rest of the passengers and guards we distributed our weight as evenly as possible. No doubt the gondola was engineered to cope even with an unequal load distribution, but why risk it?

I glanced out the windows at the mountainside quickly passing by as we glided upward.

The low scrubby trees thinned out as we moved higher, until almost nothing remained but sand colored rocks and boulders. Tiny shadows flicked from one to the other. Some sort of rodent? Birds? As we passed through the cloud layer, streams of water rolled down the windows.

“Ow!” I rubbed my ears, startled by the sudden pain.

“Try swallowing,” Xander advised. “Should help. It’s just the change in altitude. Being planetside is weird.”

“Not sure if I’m anxious to repeat the experience.”

Apparently everyone decided the gondola was safe enough, because as soon as we broke through the clouds, every passenger crowded forward to try catch a glimpse of Themis through the wide curved windows at the front of the gondola car.

Well, almost everyone.

The guards didn’t move from their posts.

Madden didn’t, just stared at the ceiling, with a look of either boredom or anger. Hard to tell.

We didn’t, because I realized there wouldn’t be much to see.

Gasps and whispers ran through the group as they saw our destination. The cables of the gondola car ran into the underside of a massive disc jutting out from the mountain. From our position below we couldn’t see anything else, just the gaping black waiting for us.

As the gondola entered the space the sudden darkness enclosing us brought small goosebumps up on my arms. From the sudden chill or nerves, I couldn’t say.

With a clang the gondola reached its mooring and giant clamps on either side of the car held us firmly in place.

The door slid open and the guards ushered us to the platform. My gut clinched as we stepped out and we got our first look at our new home. Finally, here was SysSec, waiting for us.

But no. They held up retinal scanners to everyone departing the gondola car.

A portly older man in the tan uniform of the research station leaned against a wall. “For Void’s sake. You know they were scanned before they boarded. Do you think someone snuck in from the cables?”

The two SysSec agents ignored him. One grabbed my arm, pulled me forward. Xander growled but I brushed his hand at my side, hoping beyond hope he’d understand.

The hacked files and mod’d appearances had gotten us this far. We had to keep trusting them.

Tearing the agent apart wouldn’t do us a bit of good.

With a nod, the agent pushed me along.

I held my breath, waiting for Xander to pass. But nothing happened. No crisis, just a curt push to move along.

Finally our entire group had clustered around the man who’d watched the process.

“Welcome to Themis Laboratory,” he started. “Sorry about the extra welcome but they’re here, and cranky without their toys. Not much to be done about them other than work around them.” He pushed from the wall and headed away, trusting we’d follow. “I’m Coordinator Boehm. I’m in charge of maintenance here. Which means, my little darlings, I’m in charge of you.”

He led us from the gondola bay deeper inside the station.

For all his soft words, Boehm’s eyes were sharp, appraising as we filtered into the next room. “Line up over here, please. Here’s the ground rules. Do as you’re told. Don’t start trouble.” He stared at Madden pointedly.

“As long as you keep those things in mind, you can make the work rotation fairly profitable one. When you forget those things, not only will you be sent back to Bartrowe, but your wages here are forfeit.”

No one said anything, but Madden kicked the wall behind him with his heel.

Boehm rolled his eyes and continued. “First order of business. You’ll need one of these to get around.” He raised his arm to show the band metal around his left wrist. “It will keep you out of the research areas that we don’t work in, give you access to your assigned areas for the day, and provide you with access to the mess hall and your sleeping quarters.”

Xander tensed beside me, his jaw grim. Whatever the band was, he didn’t want it. But I couldn’t see a way to avoid taking one from Boehm, sliding it on my arm. I bit back a squeal as the metal squirmed tightening around my wrist.

“Didn’t expect that,” I muttered. “Don’t think I like it.”

“You’ll get used to it. More useful than weird.”

He handed one to Xander then stopped. “That’s not going to fit, is it?”

Xander shoved his fingers through the band but couldn’t even get it near his knuckles.

“Sorry about that, boss. I’ll use hers to help me get around.”

“You planning to eat her rations, too?” Boehm said flatly.

“No,” Xander scowled.

He could, I’d let him, but honestly he could eat both of our portions and still be hungry.

“Can we just tie it to his sleeve?” I asked.

“Normally I’d say yes. But with those SysSec goons here, everybody’s a stickler for protocol.” He rummaged through the box of bands. “Try this one. Looks a little bigger.”

Xander gritted his teeth and forced it over his hand, not without losing a bit of skin.

“It’s not going to cut off your circulation, is it?” Boehm didn’t look that worried, but at least he asked. “Not going to get much work down with only one hand.”

“It will be fine,” Xander grunted.

“If you say so.”

Once he finished handing out the cuffs to the rest of the work party he tapped the wall and a schematic drawing of a section of the station appeared. “Next, you may have heard about the upcoming Imperial visit. The bad news: Prince Vandalar arrived early, because royal people don’t have to be polite.”

Laughter ran through the room, but Boehm ignored it. “The good news: He’s been sick and hasn’t left his quarters in the three days since they arrived, so we’re still running more or less on schedule. However, because of our visitor, we’ve got extra people on station. More guards, more maintenance crew to keep everything pretty. So sleeping quarters are two to a room. Pair up quickly and come get your assignments.”

Xander and I stepped forward immediately.

“Right then.” He tapped one of the sleeping quarters outlined on the schematic and then held his stylus against each of our cuffs. “You’ve got an hour to stow your personal belongings, get scanned for uniforms and meet back in the mess hall for a meal. We’ll go over orientation and assignments then.”

My bewilderment must’ve shown.

“Don’t worry. Your cuff is a pretty good guide.”

As odd as it was, he was right. At the turn of every intersection, the cuff either blinked green or red.

A proper map would’ve been more useful, but this would work for now.

As we passed through a hallway lined with doors one slid open.

“Think that’s ours?”

I shrugged. “It’ll blink at us if we’re wrong.”

But it was right. A cube with bunk beds to one side, a tiny privacy booth and a shower tube that looked like it doubled as a body scanner, all with just enough space to turn around, if we did it slowly. And Xander didn’t mind sitting on the bed while I moved.

“Well hopefully, we’ll figure out-” I started then Xander pulled me on his lap, kissing me thoroughly.

He moved up my jaw, to my ear while I caught my breath.

“Don’t say anything while we’re inside,” he whispered. “The whole place is probably bugged.”

Well. That put a fast dampener on the mood.

“Let’s hurry up and get scanned ,”I said, rolling off his lap to the head of the bunk. “I want plenty of time to find the mess hall if we’re playing guessing games with these things.” I tapped the cuff.

As Xander stripped down and stepped into the scanner I dragged my eyes away from his body. It would be ideal if I could get a connection out on the tablet. But as tight as security was, I was doubtful any of my regular tricks would work.

“Trying to get a message to Mom?” Xander asked, eyebrows raised as his gaze flicked down to the tablet. He stood, bare and delicious in front of me. My belly heated until I remembered. Bugs everywhere. And while I wasn’t particularly modest, I didn’t like the idea of someone listening in. Void. Or watching.

Then my brain finished catching up with his words. Mom. Doc. Of course.

“I tried, but I can’t connect out.” I tossed the cracked tablet back down. “We’ll have to check with Boehm, see if there’s a public comm unit I can use.”

I pulled off my clothes and stepped in to the scanner, wondering how much time was left. An actual shower sounded fantastic, but it didn’t look like this unit could handle both functions at the same time. Priorities.

By the time I got out, the fabricator had generated a set of coveralls for Xander, quickly followed by a set for me, and boots for us both.

I sealed the high boots over the legs of my coveralls. “I don’t think we’re going to be setting any fashion trends in this.”

“We’ll go out for another night on the town later.” Xander sealed his own boots, stood and glared at his cuff. “I promise.” Back half turned to me, he slipped something small and sharp from the pocket of his old pants into the coveralls. A weapon of some kind, I figured. Good.

I tied my hair back into a high ponytail, fingered the scrap of fabric from our last night out. “Maybe we could dial up that dress again.”

Xander’s eyes darkened with heat.

“I think we should leave now,” I said hastily. I was going to remember about the bugs, even if he forgot.