The Elder Ledas

On the Storage ring, Simonee flexed away the memory, her fingers clenching the golden rings of the weapon; the spikes were retracted and locked now—no use dulling them. She was going to get through this door no matter what it took. Dalia was still in danger—all of this was to keep her safe. Rearing back with a yell, she punched the hatch with everything she had.

Metal clanged on metal, the sound shrinking down the ribs of the corridor. That hurt.

Gingerly, she slid the weapon off her hand, shook it out, and inspected the red divots under her knuckles.

Nothing changed; the echoes died and the hatch didn’t budge.

“Fuck,” she hissed, sliding the brass back over her hand with a wince.

But as she pulled back for another blow, the hatch groaned and sank inward with a screech. Whir, click, click, clack—the door rolled open. Darkness greeted her in the opening. Bluish light flickered from the corridor, pushing back the shadows at the threshold, but nothing could be seen beyond that subtle intrusion.

“Come in,” a low, feminine voice echoed out from the darkness.

This was, distinctly, not Mason.

A cold draft whistled out into the corridor and Simonee shivered, edging up to the opening.

“Don’t be afraid, girl. I don’t bite. You have something for me, I think,” the voice lilted, sing-song and menacing.

Simonee crept inside, stepping past the glow from the corridor and into the full throw of shadow. Her organic eye drank in what light it could while her implant registered a heat signature a dozen paces ahead.

When her vision finally adjusted to the gloom, a dim, warm glow appeared in the center of the room like an island on a forever black sea. Light gleamed off a mahogany standing desk with a glass display; behind it stood a tall woman, platinum hair in a tight bun. She wore a dark pantsuit and looked like a businesswoman, but held her head like a queen.

Simonee hovered just outside the glow. “I’m—uhm, I’m looking for Mason. He sent me this location.”

The echoes outlined a huge chamber—big enough to fit an entire freighter, yet occupied only by this strange diorama, an empty amphitheater around a poorly lit stage.

The woman looked up and grinned, then deactivated the display. “Mason works for me, dear.”

Simonee kept tabs on the underground, but never heard of a woman like this, nor that Mason answered to anyone but himself. Yet she seemed familiar. Something about her hawk nose, or the set of her shoulders—utterly intimidating, yet strangely attractive.

Regardless, she had a job to do.

09:55:32 [System] ⏱ 00:00:30 to Drop-off

Hurriedly, she fumbled with her satchel and pulled out the keycard and tablet. “I have the keycard.”

Simonee rested the tablet on the desk but the woman reached out and took hold of the card directly. Simonee held it tight, glaring into the woman’s silver eyes. “This means Dalia is safe?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Dalia has always been safe, dear. I had no intention of having my favorite niece killed.”

Simonee let go of the card.

09:55:32 [System] ⏱ 00:00:00 — Drop-off starting now.

Gawking at the older woman, she saw it: the resemblance. “She looks like you—except the eyes. You’re Karalius Ledas’s… sister?”

The woman nodded, scowling. “Her filthy mother gave her those eyes.” She shook her head. “Blue—so common. It’s family tradition to have that color corrected, but my brother is a sentimental fool.”

Simonee shook her head. “But, Ragana Ledas died thirty years ago.”

“So says the history,” Ragana snapped. “A convenient half-truth. It’s true that my brother tried to kill me, I was the eldest after all, destined for governorship. He almost succeeded.”

She gripped the edge of the desk and leaned in. “When our father, Stato, built this station, he intended for the eldest of his children to rule.”

Her eyes drifted into the space above Simonee’s head. “But Karalius was always jealous of his big sister. He sabotaged my private yacht, and I crashed through the icy crust of Enceladus. Weeks felt like an eternity in that cold, dark ocean, barely kept warm by my fusion core.”

Straightening her shoulders, she looked at Simonee again. “By the time my allies found me, Karalius had pronounced me dead and taken control of the station.”

She leaned back and stepped away from the desk, rolling the keycard from one hand to the other. “We waited in the shadows, and I took over the underworld: the dark markets, the overlooked corridors. It’s remarkable who will follow a dead woman when they feel they’ve been forgotten by those in charge.”

Simonee took a step back as Ragana held up the blue keycard, inspecting it as if something was written there. “This little trinket, however, ought to take the wind out of my brother’s sails. I could have taken it by force of course, but couldn’t bring myself to jeopardize my niece. She is so crucial to this entire operation, after all.”

Simonee looked down at her feet. “You made me betray her.” She looked up, her brow cinched. “She caught me, you know. She’s going to report me to security any minute now.”

Ragana raised an eyebrow. “Did she now? Just as well. Dalia will be governor one day. The last thing she needs is a street-rat like you distracting her from her responsibility.”

Tapping the card against her palm, she sneered. “It takes a cold heart to rule the ice trade, dear. The Ledas family has been at the helm since the dawn of the twenty-second century, when my grandfather, Tyrėjas, first staked his claim on Enceladus and defended it with an iron fist. This,” She held up the keycard again, “will guarantee that his legacy continues.”

Simonee shuffled her feet. She’d made a bigger mistake than she thought. Now she just wanted to escape this woman’s gaze; find Dalia; hit the reset button, and undo everything. But nothing was ever that simple. Security would be out there looking for her. She needed to warn Dalia, but now she needed Ragana.

“She hasn’t reported me yet, but she will. Can you hide me? If security catches me, they’ll realize I don’t have the card, they’ll want to know where I put it.”

Ragana pouted her lips and tilted her head in mock pity. “Oh, dear-dear-dear, that won’t do. You see, Dalia already reported you. My contacts in the security force are running interference, but soon she’ll wonder why she isn’t getting a response. Now that we have what we need, I’ve just ordered them to issue a station-wide alert.”

“But-” Simonee choked. Dalia did it—she actually reported her. Simonee’s chest shuddered.

Ragana grinned, teeth flashing. “Did you think I was done with you? No, I need the chaos of a good chase to cover the next phase of our operation and you’re resourceful. You should keep them guessing for a few hours at least, and when they do catch you, you’ll have to explain all the money I just deposited into your public accounts. I’m sure they’ve already frozen them by now.”

Simonee’s mouth dropped and her stomach went cold. She was more than a hired thief, she was a patsy, a rube, the sacrificial lamb for a power play between rich siblings. Ragana was her enemy as much as anyone on this station. And Dalia... Dalia hated her now but she had to know. Simonee couldn’t run forever, but she could make things right.

Wiping a tear from her eye, she glared at Ragana. “I’ll turn myself in. I’ll tell them everything. They might not believe me but I’ll make them tell Dalia. I’ll bring them right back here, I’ll-”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort.”

Ragana leveled a gaze at Simonee, brow furrowed but lips curled.

“I have your blood; I know what you are.”

Simonee’s eyes popped; she grabbed her arm and remembered the morning after Mason’s visit, waking at her table in a puddle of cold tea and drool. Her head throbbed and her arm ached but it didn’t register then: Mason had taken a blood sample.

Ragana smiled and stepped back, reaching under the desk. “When you are inevitably arrested, you will say you sold the card on the black market to an anonymous buyer. If you deviate from that story—and I will know if you do—I’ll send your DNA to SynBio, who will file a claim with Enceladus Station Security to return their intellectual property.

What is it they do again to your kind when you go rogue? Mash you into an organic slurry for their growth tanks?”

And now she couldn’t breathe, but it wasn’t panic. A low fog had rolled into the light and was creeping up her legs. Ragana pulled a small face mask from under the desk and fixed it over her head as Simonee collapsed to her knees. The older woman stepped around the desk, put a hand on Simonee’s head, and yanked it back by the hair as she glared down into her eyes.

“Now, I’m not entirely sure you won’t try to ruin my plans anyway. Your profile lists you high in loyalty, and that’s a problem. So you’re going to sleep now, for a little while. Just remember, I hold all the cards. Even if you do somehow manage to bring anyone here, this will all be gone, and you will be destined for the grinder.”

Ragana let her go and Simonee slumped over. She lay there gasping in the chemical fog as the click-click of Ragana’s heels faded away from her. Her eyelids drooped and tears fell to the dark floor in little puddles. Her last thought as the world disappeared was that she didn’t have a single friend left in the entire universe.

But, as luck would have it, she was wrong.