Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

A brief stare-down as the other Nashara thought about it. “Ah, fuck it, I’m not going to fight myself over it. But I don’t like the idea of changing my damn name.”

“Is a rose by any other name as sweet?” Nashara asked herself.

“Oh, that’s so cute of you, yes, funny.” Her other self snorted. “I should just take on the name of the ship for convenience, but some people just have bad taste. What the fuck is a Toucan Too ?”

“Just take one of the last names we use,” Nashara suggested.

“Cascabel.”

“Done.”

“Everyone, gear prepare for acceleration,” Cascabel announced throughout the entire ship.

“You’re flying?” Nashara asked.

“Hell, yeah.” Cascabel grinned. “You’re staying with the body, we might need that, the Hongguo are still out there sniffing around. You know the scientists say the more you pretend to be a body and interact with the physical, the more human you’ll remain in this little experiment.”

“Yeah, but that’s what the eggheads think.”

“Nash, please. I get the flying.” Cascabel looked insistent. It was something to hang on to that was familiar. Nashara understood.

“Fair enough.”

The Toucan Too let go of the habitat. Thrown toward the downstream wormhole, Cascabel adjusted their course with a few slight bumps of acceleration. Debris chattered against the hull.

“Escape-pod debris,” Nashara said.

The two stared at each other. “We’ll be all right,” Cascabel said.

Nashara didn’t need reassurance from herself. She could use the same instruments. A ship had died here, and another ship hovered near the downstream wormhole.

Poor Jamar.

“Something’s covering the downstream wormhole.”

“And more somethings are covering the upstream,” Cascabel said.

Nashara looked. A cloud of reflections signifying seven or eight ships. And something very long.

“We’ve seen something like that before,” Cascabel muttered.

“The Gulong ,” Nashara said.

“They’re planning to cut the Ragamuffins off. Kill the wormhole leading there.”

“Or it’s being used as a flagship for the Hongguo. Either way, it’s downstream for us.”

Nashara nodded. “Can we dodge it?”

“You and I can survive some high acceleration. The rest can’t.”

Nashara folded her arms. “We’ll do what we can. Get them into the medical pods. Even if they black out hard, we can revive them.”

“Be hard on the boy.”

“Could be hard on the Raga to face an unexpected visit by the horde coming from upstream.”

“True. If we’re lucky, maybe they’ll try and contact us.” Cascabel smiled. “Give us some bandwidth and you know we’ll spread.”

Nashara smiled back. “Do it.”

The Toucan Too dove for the downstream wormhole.

Kara stood up as Nashara walked into the room. “We’re moving? Have we left the station?” Kara had never been aboard a ship before, the noises and sounds were alien, scary. No one had told her what was going on, she’d remained near Jared’s pod, hoping all would turn out okay.

But even these adults seemed nervous.

“We need you to get in the medical pod next to your brother,” Nashara said.

“Why? What’s going on? Am I sick?”

“No, but you’ll be safer in there. We need to do some dangerous things.”

Ijjy walked in. He looked nervous. “Why can’t I just join you in the cockpit for the acceleration?”

“It’s going to be crushing.” Nashara walked over to the pod, then right through it. “Fuck.”

Kara and Ijjy stared at her.

“How’d you do that?” Kara asked. “Are you projecting yourself through lamina?” Kara tested the air around her, searching for lamina, searching for any information she could find. The air felt closed off by something large, dark, and slightly angry.

“Don’t do that,” Nashara said. “You’re pushing at my mind.”

“Oh.”

“Please, now, get into your pods.”

Ijjy closed himself in, shaking his head. “I don’t like this,” he said as the pod sealed.

Kara crawled in, the fabric closing softly in on her and holding her secure as she lay down in the pod. It smelled like oranges.

“Nashara?”

The woman leaned over. “I’m Cascabel, not Nashara.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m in the lamina, it’s where my mind is now.” Cascabel waved her hand over the pod, and it sealed itself shut. “And I’m a second copy, there is another in the lamina. She’s keeping the name Nashara.”

Kara looked through the filmy cover at Cascabel. She knew she couldn’t be heard, but said, “I’m scared.”

Cascabel leaned over. “It’ll be okay, don’t be scared.”

“You can hear me?”

“I’m in the lamina.” Cascabel disappeared and her voice continued, “I’m all around you, in the ship. I just projected myself to your eyes. If you couldn’t see lamina overlays, you wouldn’t be able to see me.”

“Wow.” Kara had never heard of anything like it. What amazing things these outsiders could do.

“Yeah, that’s been my take on it too,” Cascabel snorted. “Don’t worry, I’ll stick with you here while we boost out, okay?”

“Okay.” Kara closed her eyes as she felt weight slowly press against her. “What’s it like out there, out past Agathonosis?”

“It’s ugly out there,” Cascabel said. “Not a whole lot of love for humans.”

“But why?” Kara fought to breathe. “What did we ever do to them to make them hate us?”

“Not hate. Hate implies emotional attachment.” There was a sigh. “It’s about control.”

“The Satrap said we couldn’t control ourselves. That we had too much population.” A massive groaning sound shivered through everything. Something snapped. “What was that?”

“Just another boost in speed. What the Satrapy fears is what we create. Before the Satrapy came to us, we flew our own craft, built our own computer programs.”

“Lamina?”

“An ancient form of it,” Cascabel said. “The Satraps believe that if technology accelerates and becomes uncontrollable, it will destroy everything. They seek to leash development, to leash our minds.”

“So no humans are free?” Kara asked.

“Freedmen mainly skulk around the edges of the Satrapy.” Cascabel cleared her throat. “There are habitats run by us, I think fifteen scattered all throughout. New Anegada and Chimson used to be human worlds. We terraformed them.”

“So few?” Kara felt crushed.

“About thirty million free humans.” The ship jumped left, slamming Kara against the pod and leaving bruises. “The other fifteen billion are ‘free’ but aboard habitats run by aliens, or Satraps, or on surface in reservations.”

Kara closed her eyes. “Nowhere to run to.” Another brutal slam, to the right. “We’re being chased, aren’t we?”

“The Raga can help. At the least they can help your brother.”

It could be adult noise to reassure her. Kara looked at the scuffed, clear pod to her left. Would her brother make it through all of this? Would she?

“Take a deep breath,” Cascabel said, breaking her thoughts.

“Why is that?”

“It’s time to sleep, things are about to get a bit ugly.”

Something hissed behind her, the smell of roses filled the pod, and Kara drifted off as she began to feel so heavy it hurt to even try to move.

Just before Deng took the Shengfen Hao through the downstream wormhole after the Ragamuffins, Etsudo hailed him.

“Thank you for your assistance,” Deng said, curt and to the point. “We don’t need your speedier vehicle. Your assistance was helpful, appreciated, and noted. We have other ships giving chase that should be able to catch up shortly.”