Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

“Well that’s just great,” Aurora blurted, stomping her feet and clutching her fists beside her.

“I know! It’s been one of those days,” Gus added.

“Okay, everyone stay calm. It’s probably nothing. Let’s not assume the worst. They could be circling around, having to make way for some other delivery or something similar.”

“No, it is bad as you expect,” a voice whispered into Gus’ ear.

“Gaaa!” Gus swat reflexively at the disembodied voice as Grimdark phased into view. The ghostly voice elicited a squeak from Aurora at his sudden appearance which quickly transformed into anger.

“You do that on purpose, you creep! You know everyone hates it!” Aurora fumed.

Grimdark just smiled sardonically and shrugged.

“Transport had to leave. Competitors found us and were very mad. They arrive and offer disappeared, being marked fulfilled. Since Crew parked right outside the doorstep, you see. I vanish while they fled, leading others away. Almost one hour ago and no communication since.”

“Damn you, Leto! This whole job sucks. We can’t win for losing!” Aurora griped.

“Do not kill messenger,” Grimdark remarked, shrugging again.

“Well, what do we do? Fly on our own?” Gus suggested, stepping between Aurora and Grimdark.

Grimdark raised a finger. “I slow you down, so will stay here.”

“Anyone have any better ideas?”

“Waiting isn’t really a great option, as we are once again on a time limit. I’d say rent another car, but I don’t know how we’d do that without Yuki’s help. Or how we’d pay for it.” Gus put his hands on his hips and looked up into the ever-present fog, trying to think of what to do next.

“Where are we even going, Gus?”

Gus took a closer look at the item in his hands. Gus followed the prompts and found another entry next to the Quorian cube. Opening it, he found the drive the ape steward had given him had a single file with map coordinates. He slid the nav-point to his companions. “I don’t know what Kenway is, but that’s the next stop on the tour.”

“How do we get there though? We can’t fly and maintain any kind of stealth,” Aurora added.

“We walk,” Tempest replied without emotion. “Look at the coordinates, we can make it from here.”

Gus looked at the dark alleys ahead of them, and a rumble of thunder mirrored what he was feeling inside.

“Let’s go.” Tempest began walking down a gangway leading off into the gloom. Aurora looked at Gus, grimaced, and then followed. Another rumble of thunder followed by almost instantaneous rain was the cherry on top as Gus blinked and shook his head.

“Okay, I guess we’re doing this,” he muttered as he stepped past the others. He clicked the coordinates on his display and blue chevrons appeared along the path to indicate where to travel. The small size of the number indicating the destination further dampened his mood.

The group began traversing narrow alleyways that provided dubious support, as they were connected to the adjoining walls with rusty plates. Every once in a while, Gus would peek between the gap between the ground and the buildings and see a glimpse of something zipping by below, illuminating the mists as whatever it was sped by. The gap was a good six inches, maybe not enough to fall through, but one could easily lose something if they were careless.

Despite the aged and weathered walls, there was no rubbish to be found littering the alleyways. Either it was washed away by the ever-present rains or there were stiff penalties for dropping trash into the void, as it could hit someone or something. Maybe they have their own version of the beachcomber robots.

Besides there being no trash in the alleys and passageways they snaked through on the way to their destination, they were relatively abandoned. Perhaps they were at a high enough level in Hinansho that the powers that be had “managed” the homeless population, forcing them to a more suitable level where they would be out of sight and out of mind.

With the amount of rain that was constantly falling on their path, he doubted anyone would stay in this particular stretch of alleyways for long unless they had an established shelter. As if in response to his thoughts, the rain began to fall harder, rattling off the sheet metal roofs like a sustained paradiddle.

The trip soon became monotonous, tall buildings blocking anything but the narrow path ahead, then splitting and continuing. Occasionally, they would be moving upwards, other times they were making a series of labyrinthine turns, trusting the directions to lead them to their destination. While the rain let up on occasion, at times a drain emptied in the center of the path, and it was impossible to avoid as the drainage water from above hit the path and splashed everything in a large radius. One just had to embrace the fact that they were going to be wet and miserable as long as they traveled these alleys and walkways.

Gus rubbed his tongue along his front teeth, wishing he could at least use some shielding to keep the rain from constantly falling and pulling his hair into his eyes. Whether it was the foul weather or the cold, his headache returned. It started at the base of his skull and began to creep up over his head, turning the driving rain into a unique variation of Chinese water torture. As it progressed, he began to feel crushing pressure from his temples.

He shook his head to flick off some rainwater and the pain flared, driving deeper into his head.

“Gus, your neurotransmitters are taking a huge dip,” Nick advised.

“Of all times.” Gus sighed as he swiped water off his face, wary of moving his head too much.

“Evaluating the feedback from the Mandrite core event, I have been trying to determine what alleviates and what exacerbates the effects. Using the Telepathy skill provided the most significant benefits. Perhaps this allows your brain to sync to a normal baseline somehow and reset, to an extent. Thus allowing you a reprieve from the psychic stress