1: Leaving Home

The Life and Death of Cassandra Nezari.

Content Warning: Realistic panic attacks, mention of dismemberment

STARDATE 55408.79 | EOS RESEARCH OUTPOST, DESIGNATION: BURROW

Cassie spun and swiveled in her chair as she tweaked the holo model projected in front of her. The Climatrol lab was humming with a repetitive lofi beat, and she bobbed her head along as her hands deftly transposed parts across the model. She was so enveloped in her task she didn't even hear the slight hiss of the lab doors opening.

“This is what you listen to when I’m gone? We gotta get you some better taste.”

Cassie dropped everything, the holo model dissolving into pixels before flickering out. She turned towards the voice, her face breaking into a huge smile. Leaning against the door frame was a tall black man, his locs pulled into a messy bun. One had escaped, partially obscuring the amusement on his face. Cassie ran towards him, nearly knocking him backward as she hugged him.

“You’re back!”

They embraced for just a moment before she playfully shoved him away.

“I happen to like this music. It sounds like nothing. I like nothing, it helps me focus.”

“Nothing helps you focus? That sounds right. I’ll have to put you on some real beats. Get some culture in here.”

“Unfortunately we’ve got some culture in here already.” Cassie walked back to her station, raising one hand to reactivate the holo model she had been working on. “I’m designing new UV filters to go around the compressors. They've been getting too wet and growing mildew, I’m trying to kill it off. I’ve literally spent the last week trying to end life on the life support systems.”

“Sounds like you already fixed the problem with water recycling, then?”

“You’ve been gone for a month, Kwan. Yeah, I already fixed that. And recalibrated the particulate distribution to have the correct amount of nitrogen. And lots of stuff.” She glanced sideways at him with a playful smirk. “For some reason, it's so much easier to be productive when you're not around.”

“Sounds like you were just bored, trying to fill the time without me any way you could.” He smiled, his dark eyes reflecting the blue hologram. “Don't worry,” he said, raising his arms dramatically. “I’m back now. You can resume living the good life.”

Zari watched the two of them from the doorframe, trying to hide a smile. It was impossible for anyone to be professional around her brother. She watched Cassie put her hand to the necklace Kwan had given her before they left- an olivine möbius loop mined from the first ground excavation on Eos. He had a matching ring carved from the same stone. Kwan was too charming for his own good, and had gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble with flirting in the past. When he was transferred from the orbital station to the outpost, she worked with HR to find him a lab where he wouldn’t get distracted. It was difficult, but Kwan was too good at his job to fire and too flighty to have a lab to himself. Zari thought they had found the perfect lab partner for him when Cassie’s file came through. Top of her field, fully capable of handling her own, with no relational issues on record. Cassie was quiet, autistic, uninterested in making friends, possibly even aromantic. Surely this no-nonsense woman would ignore his antics?

Yet here they were, acting like teenagers together. Zari couldn't tell if her brother saw Cassie as a challenge, or really just couldn't help himself. Still, she had to admit they made a good team. Together they’d made great strides on the life support systems over the past two years.

Zari cleared her throat. “Knock it off you two, we’re on the clock.”

Her bright yellow windbreaker made a swish noise as she took a seat next to Cassie. A brief glance at the hologram confirmed the new parts should all be printable here, a slight relief. As the head of Logistics and Procurement for the outpost she had a responsibility to travel for parts, but she really hated space. The more that can be made here, the better.

“Zari, I thought you weren’t scheduled to return until next week. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Prince charming here had some paperwork drama come up, so I took my opportunity to come back with him.”

Cassie looked puzzled, scanning her memories for any paperwork issue. “I wasn't informed about that. I’ve been logging everything as usual, as far as I know nothing has changed.”

Kwan shrugged, casually leaning against the table and crossing his legs. “Don't worry about it Cass, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Is it union related, then?”

Kwan tensed, but kept his voice even. “It’s not really a big deal, I just wanted off the station.”

Zari took that as her cue. “I’m not listening to this, if you made up a problem to use company resources I know nothing about it. I’ll be in my office for a while if you need me. But please, don’t need me.” She laughed half heartedly, showing just how tired she was from the journey. “Cass, dinner tonight to catch up? I brought back some eggs from the station.”

They had chickens in the bio-garden, but the outpost wasn’t large enough to sustain a chicken population that could provide endless eggs. Eggs were for kitchen staff use only, for specific recipes. If Zari had brought fresh eggs, they could soft boil them and wouldn’t even have to share. This was a treat.

“Totally! Come to my unit, I’ll make ramen.”

Kwan pushed himself away from the table and stood up to his full height, a foot taller than Cassie. “I gotta go handle this thing, Cass. I’ll see you around.”

“Will you be at dinner? If not, maybe we could meet up after work at the conservatory and just catch up for a minute? I missed you.”

Kwan’s smile never left his face, but something in his eyes changed. Sadness. “I can’t, Cass. Not today. Just…just stay here and I’ll swing by when I can.”

Sirens.

The emergency lights flashed red in every corridor, with alarms blaring in between emergency updates over the comms.

“THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REMAIN IN YOUR UNITS. THE OUTPOST IS ON LOCKDOWN. FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, REMAIN IN YOUR UNITS.”

Cassie huddled behind a tall plant in a hallway alcove, trying to catch her breath. She didn’t know where to go. She couldn’t go to her housing unit, she definitely couldn't stay in the Life Support node.

“BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR CASSANDRA NEZARI. 5’5”, RED HAIR, LAST SEEN IN CLIMATROLE. POSSIBLY ARMED, EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT ENGAGE.”

Her own face flashed across her databand as the alert played, she covered it with her hand to hide the glow. Dangerous? Armed? This was a mistake, this was all a mistake. She wanted to run to admin and clear things up but she knew that was the wrong move. She had to run. But where? She was on a rocky, lifeless planet with half-finished terraforming equipment. There wasn’t anywhere else to go.

She pulled out her badge, freezing just before the biometric lock on a nearby door. Any competent security would be monitoring her badge. Rookie mistake.

Footsteps.

She looked around in panic, trying to find somewhere to hide. The outpost corridors were utilitarian, there wasn’t much to work with. Back to the plant alcove. Poking out from behind the planter was a grate, a small maintenance entrance to the plumbing and electrical running beneath the floor. It wouldn’t go far, but it was better than being in the open. She climbed down under the hall, hearing footsteps run over her head.

“Forget the lab, she badged on 1. Let’s move!”

They must be looking for someone else, too. Vesper looked down at her badge, relieved she didn’t use it. It was a simple little thing; a pane of laminated glass with her face laser-etched into it. The glass protruded from a metal bezel, concealing the RFID chip that cataloged usage. A small red light from the bezel illuminated the glass from within.

Cassie had worked hard for years to earn this badge. She winced a little as she snapped it in half, cracks in the glass creating a spider web over her face. She pulled the pane out and dug around for the chip. The light went out as it crunched under her boot. There was no going back now.

She paused, realizing the absurdity of what she just thought. This was the point of no return? Not the sirens and her picture on the security screens? She shook her head, now was not the time for introspection.

“THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REMAIN IN YOUR UNITS. THE OUTPOST IS ON LOCKDOWN. FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, REMAIN IN YOUR UNITS.”

She woke the databand on her wrist and swiped to the outpost info screen. Usually it had the day's diagnostics, news, and some nonsense company propaganda from Ebon Relics. Right now it showed images of smoke and rubble in…the terraforming labs? She pushed the holo to get a bigger view. Half of the equipment in there was just gone. Even from this low-res video she could tell the custom parts would need to be refabricated from scratch. There was no saving this, the terraforming equipment was completely destroyed. She stared at the scene in disbelief. They think she did this? Her stomach flipped. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, and a tingling sensation started spreading through her lips and fingertips.

“BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR CASSANDRA NEZARI. 5’5”, RED HAIR, LAST SEEN IN CLIMATROLE. POSSIBLY ARMED, EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT ENGAGE.”

No. Focus. There’s no time to panic.

The screen switched camera angles. It had to have been an explosion, there were scorch marks and smoke. And…blood.

There was blood.

The screen cut again, this time to a close up of a hand, wearing an olivine ring. Kwan’s employee picture came up on the screen.

All the muscles in her chest contracted involuntarily, and Cassie fell to the ground in a tight ball. She could hear footsteps again, she had to get up.

She couldn’t get up. Her legs were all pins and needles, and she felt like she was losing control of her muscles. Too bad, she thought. If I have to drag myself, I will. She crawled onto her knees first, willing the muscles in her legs to respond. She had to get out.

The next few minutes were a blur, she had no clue how she got off level 3 towards the surface. Any competent security would have locked down the doors, right? She was in a domed glass corridor between nodes. She could see the bio-garden node to the west, living quarters in the hub, and the flight deck node to the north. She stared at the deck where Kwan and Zari had landed just a few hours earlier. It was protected by a semipermeable matrix, a patchwork of hexagons that emitted slight orange pulses every few seconds. The electro-magnetic blast shield wasn’t up. Any competent security would have immediately raised the shield.

Something was wrong, but she didn’t care about that right now. She had part of a plan, and that was enough.

Zari was pacing across the deck, full of nervous energy and with nowhere to go. She could only hope Cassie made it here soon. Just then she saw a flash of bright red among the crates still left unpacked from the station. Prox, Cass was a brilliant engineer but she wasn’t a great sneak.

Cass knelt down behind the metal crates, just peeking her head around the side when someone jerked her back by her arm. She jumped, ripping her arm away in surprise and turning to see a black woman in a yellow windbreaker. Zari. She exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding.

“Zari, I didn't do this. I didn’t do anything! Did you see? The lab, everything is- Kwan! His hand, Zari. He-”

“He’s alive, Cass. Alive but gone. This isn’t your fault.”

Cassie opened and closed her mouth, trying to find words, trying to process anything that had happened in the last hour. Zari took her hand, pulling something small from her back pocket.

“You have to go, Cassie. And I can’t go with you, I’m so sorry. I can’t. But I can at least get you out of here. I want you to take the ship and go. Find Kwan, start a new life somewhere else, whatever. Just go. Promise me you’ll take the cargo to Janus. Get it to Arvus, and then the ship is yours. Take it wherever you want, sell it, I don't care. Promise me, Cass.”

She opened her hand, revealing a hexagonal talisman made of pure silver, blank except for a seam down the center. It was an Oath.

Zari twisted the coin, breaking the seam with a long fingernail and revealing a small piece of conductive paper inside. She put her thumb on one side of it.

“Cass, promise me you will deliver this cargo to Arvus Sato on Janus, then I promise the Eclipse is yours.”

The Oath reflected her face in the silver, distorted and warped. It didn’t make sense, in order to fulfill an oath to another person you had to return to them and restore the coin, there was no way-

“Cassie.”

Cassie put her thumb on the other side of the conductive paper. The two of them closed the circuit, electricity searing their fingerprints into the conductive paper. The silver instantly got hot, etching an exact replica of their two prints into the sides of the coin. Zari pocketed the side with Cassie’s print, and handed Cassie the side with her own.

“The ship manifest is wiped clean, history and crew removed. Once you scan your biometrics you’re the captain, you’ll have full admin access. You have the bridge. Take it.”

It had taken an eternity to get the ship out of orbit. Everyone on the station had to pass mandatory escape pod training, but Cassie had completed hers years ago and this ship was no escape pod. Just getting the ship off the ground, out of atmo, and out of sight of the orbital station was a feat. She didn’t even bother with coordinates, she just set the autopilot on and let it go.

It was quiet on the ship. The consoles made a low hum, and there was a buzzing from the back of the ship, but it was almost silence compared to the blaring alarms of the outpost. Cassie wandered the halls, checking rooms and trying to get her bearings. The empty ship was surreal, like playing a game on the holodeck. She found herself reaching to turn the holo off, another wave of sadness washing over her as she realized that this was real.

She left the cockpit, down a ladder to avionics and the sensor array. She found a room filled with junk. The tables and shelving looked promising for a workshop, and she made a note to poke around later. Cargo bay, full of crates she was too exhausted and overwhelmed to inspect. She ignored them. Up a ladder to what looked like a vehicle bay, but there was nothing in it. Down the hall to a gunnery turret, she didn’t even go in there. Finally, crew quarters. There were two rooms, one with a few bunks and closet storage, the other a private room. The captain’s quarters. Her room, she supposed.

She sat on the bed. It was cold, and the lights cast an uncomfortable green hue around. She huddled, tucking her knees under her arms. A screen on the wall projected surrounding space, giving the illusion she had a porthole in the room. She looked out at the fake stars, watching Eos slowly shrink into the distance.

She realized her life as she knew it was really over. She’d left her family back on the orbital station over a year ago. Hours ago she left her friends, her career, her goals and aspirations, and her home. But if she was going to survive, she’d have to give up everything. Cassandra Nezari was a wanted criminal. In a way, Cassandra, the woman she used to be, was already dead. That somehow made it easier to put the name away, to bury it with the life she could no longer have.

This new person, whoever she was going to be, needed to live in the shadows. She chuckled to herself, a small noise that sounded cacophonous in the quiet.

Cassie had walked into this room. Now Vesper walked out, headed back to the cockpit to keep her oath.