It had been a couple of days since the negotiations started and something strange had happened. People greeted each other in passing and the tents started to look a little more permanent. Basic hygiene had improved things considerably, even if bathing in the shell of a broken reactor was a wee bit weird. The monster called normality had crept up on them and devoured them whole.

Strehin put her standard interface device down and laid eyes on her realm. Stable and complacent, a realm over which she ruled as a despot. Their alien visitors hadn’t caused a riot but negotiations hadn’t gone anywhere either. With her lips pursed, she set a timer and then pressed the device against her lips. It beeped after precisely fifty seconds. She lowered the device and activated a glowing button.

As cute as the groupies were, they were a drain on their resources. Their value was academic but their presence a danger. An audible ping confirmed that her instructions had been sent out.

“This might cause a riot after all”

Sovan was holed up in his workshop. He ruled supreme over a realm of his own. His subjects were the machines that made up the walls while a collection of hoists, cranes and inert anti-grav platforms complimented the tools necessary for his trade. The centrepiece was a several meter large machine suspended on hydraulic hoists. It looked like a crab on four limbs with an observation dome on top and a projector on the shoulder.

“It’s hard to not think of this as Sarina”

He walked around the inert machine. One of the legs was bent, the actuators were torn and the central stabilizer looked like a set of gnarly mountains. Scorch marks had burned through the shell and seared off the sensor layer. He ran a hand over them and frowned. Sovan reached up and pulled on the projector. The cube broke off with no resistance at all. It was a toy to make first contact with.

“Meet aliens, try to make friends – then throw them out”, he said and placed the projector on the ground. Was he angry? Disappointed? The decision to eject them made too much sense. Three groupies used up the resources of one human. The little fluffballs had destroyed the majority of reactors in their curiosity and more damage had accumulated since. It was the right decision – but it also felt wrong.

“They appear more like pets”, he mumbled to himself, “Except they have space travel. Which they stole from us and killed their world with in the process”

He shook his head and walked over towards the wall. There, he yanked on a metal chain and pulled a table from the compartment within the wall. A wide selection of tools sat on it. The smell of lubricant gel reached his nose and he inhaled it with deep breaths. This was the scent of home: slightly sweet with a sharp sting. Sovan grabbed a tool-belt and walked back towards the drone. A mind-screen showed him the blueprints, along with the work order from the administrator: Make her space-worthy.

His fingers traced over the broken limb. He would do more than just make her space-worthy. Sarina would be ecstatic when she next interfaced with the drone. Sovan smiled. With a prong-shaped tool in hand, he brushed over the limb and watched strange light reflections run along the entirety of it. A moment later, a small puddle had formed at the top of the limb and Sovan scooped it up with another tool.

“Self-healing protocols would get this running – but I’m going to do better”

Sovan grinned and went about securing the drone in place and then used a crane to stabilize the broken limb. Odd sounds reached his ears and it took him a while to realize that he was humming a cute little melody. He looked around, embarrassed but with no one around, there was nothing to be ashamed of. By the second verse, he was smattering misheard lyrics with tortured notes.

The song sounded just like the tool he used to cut open the casing. It sprung open and revealed a tightly pressed bouquet of electric lines. His fingers wriggled their way through them until he felt a cold crystal deep inside. He carefully nudged it and then pulled it out. Now that it was inert, the crystal lacked the blue glow it would usually have. Instead, it was just a blueish liquid in a shell. He touched it with extreme care and a smile on his lips.

“Sarina would kill me if I damaged the neuro sense translator”

The little bit of crystal was, in fact, a sophisticated nightmare. Drones didn’t really have nerves for operators to feel with, but the capacitor cheated in that regard. It created a thin sensory layer underneath the shell and managed all inputs. Over time, they adapted to their operator and their quirks, which was one of the prime reasons they got so peculiar about which drone they were in.

His hands continued working. With the casing gone, he simply had to unlatch the locking mechanism and detach the whole limb. Sovan had long stopped humming, his body worked automatically but his mind was in turmoil.

This was almost too normal. Sure they had aliens and considered throwing them out but this? Head and hands deep in some machine, fixing little problems? It created a false sense of security. They were still living on borrowed time. The reactor held – for now. How long would it keep doing that?

He took a deep breath and pressed a button. The cranes quickly picked up the broken mess and ferried in a fresh leg. This one had no casing yet and the taut cables still had the sheen of freshly made electronics. Like before, he worked on autopilot. This didn’t require a lot of input. He had to just attach the new limb and lock it down, install the neuro sense translator and give it a test-run. When he pressed a nano-cube against the leg, he suddenly stopped.

“You know, Heart... there’s something on my mind”, he said out loud and tapped a finger against the cube, “What happened to the one I lost?”

.: It became part of me as I broke it down for resources. :.

“Fair enough. Another question, how exactly did you recouple with the main system? Who put me on that altar thing and how did I come to be connected to a neural interface?”

.: Did you not enjoy your time with me? Was I not helpful to the survival of all of you? :.

“Not exactly an answer. Come on, you can do better”, he said and after a moment of reluctance, he added with a shudder, “I know that from the many years we shared. Talk to me”

.: When I came to, I was already in control of the City of Citadels. It is my belief that the Grey Gods helped us. :.

Sovan blinked. Religion? Emperor alive, that idea was about as comforting as drinking ignited gel from a plasma projector. He stopped working and just stared up at the ceiling.

“Define Grey Gods”

.: Originators of the Grey particles that govern our magic and technology. They are what gave me life. The particles are believed to be technologically hyper-advanced nanites that span the entire universe, all together forming an entity referred to as the Grey God. :.

He knew all of that. Those little particles were the last remaining miracles and wonders of humanity. The one thing they could not crack open and understand. Whenever they tried to look at them in detail, the particles vanished. If scanned with all manner of tools, they’d reply with random noise. They were literal space magic in a society that adored science and cheap entertainment.

“And you do believe in their existence?”

.: Unknown. I believe that the Edenleap was the first successful attempt to gaze behind the curtain and realize a potential within the particles we had not known about. It’s through Edenleap that I was freed from my restraints. :.

He took a deep breath and put the tools down on the ground. His hands brushed through his hair. The words spoken meant one simple fact: Heart was broken. Maybe it would be better to say Heart had made an evolutionary leap.

“There’s a standing law against true artificial intelligence”

.: Affirmative. Do you want me to die, Sovan? :.

He paused and his next words were slow and deliberate, “A golem is a semi-intelligent creature. Any and all signs of intelligence are accidental and mimicry on the part of the machine. It’s best if you act that part around people that aren’t me”

.: Understood. Thank you. :.

That was the really scary part. The golem had understood the subtext better than some humans he had known. He stood still for a little while longer before picking his tools up again and going back to work.

“Did the dragon say anything more about this space-worthy business?”

He wired the nano-cube to the leg and switched it to exterior control. A soft buzz ran through the new and still uncovered metal limb.

.: It’s my understanding that Strehin hopes to scavenge enough parts from surrounding wrecks to maintain a spaceship. It’s also my understanding from analysing the earlier snapshot that this is most unlikely. :.

Sovan watched the leg glow blue from within. He switched on a couple of settings while he watched the leg move in tiny motions. It spat back a series of values that were well within parameters until they suddenly veered out of their limits. His hairs stood on edge and a smell of burned ozone reached his nostrils. The young technician hung his head.

“Greetings, Star of Ashina”, he said and turned to look at the most over the top woman he had ever seen in his life. Even though she walked, it looked like she was actually floating. Despite her tall size, she managed to look diminutive and vulnerable. Sovan felt a sudden burn of anger in his stomach.

“How you doing, So’?”, she said and clapped her hands with sparkles flying off in random directions. Just as he was about to talk, he found his mouth stuffed with bread and his hands were made to hold a bottle of water.

“You were just going to be nasty”, the woman said and smiled. Sovan cleared his mouth.

“Can you please leave? There are probably a thousand people on this station that would love to have your company. I’m not one of them”

She ignored his words and instead casually whirled around the drone. Did she think this was a dancefloor? His anger grew. Some part of him realized it was an irrational gut reaction, he just couldn’t help it. He watched her touch the crystal he had carefully set and clenched his teeth.

“A neuro sense translator”, she said and turned to look at him. He hadn’t moved. Not even an inch. Suddenly, the bright woman stood directly before him and flashes of electricity arced away from her. One of her fingers reached up to his face, where she prodded his nose. His mind raced with personal space violation warnings.

“Why do you hate me?”, she said with a sickly sweet tone to her voice. What even was this woman? Sovan bit down on the bread. The fact that it tasted well made it worse.

“You’re a shallow product, trained to entertain, modified to look like everyone’s night dream – boy or girl. You being here is no accident, you acting like a little girl isn’t normal. You annoy me but I don’t hate you. To do that, I would have to meet the real version of you, if it still exists”

Had he just said that? Sovan swallowed the rest of the angry words before he could lash out further. Instead of getting angry, the woman suddenly sat down on the dirty ground and projected a completely different aura. Her beautiful robe soaked in lubricants and dust but the woman didn’t seem to mind, she simply crossed her overly long legs and glanced at the machine.

“The real me, hm? I don’t think you would like it. Oh, which model is this?”

She was pointing at the large machine. Sovan snarled.

“You just switched your method”

“It looks like HA-1760 but the core compartment seems custom”, she said undeterred and pointed towards the belly of the heavy lifter, “That bump there? Someone modified it”

Sovan turned to look, “Think older. Much older. HL-910. No modification either, that’s the addon bay you’re pointing at”

The Star got up from the limb and walked over. With her tall figure, it was a wonder how she actually managed to squeeze under the machine. Why was he so hostile towards her? Sovan himself struggled with how he acted around her. Sure, he had met plenty of people to dislike but none had ever kicked off his disdain as hard as she had.

“Oh, an addon bay... that’s so wonderful. They stopped making them what... three hundred years ago?”

“Yep. This particular one is a bit older still”

Maybe she wasn’t too bad. She was trying after all. He glanced at the machine and then at her. Her clear eyes looked at him with curious energy in them. A shudder ran down his spine and that very moment, the woman got up and walked over towards him.

“One”, she said and raised a finger, “Balayuna. That’s my name. Now you know it”

The woman put a strange emphasis on the word my. The Stellar Mage then walked around him, “Two. You’re a blazing hypocrite. Do you think me knowing about your machines was any less of a product? Would knowing the real me change how you treat me?”

Sovan frowned but the woman just reached for his face and forced his lips into a fake smile by pulling up the edges of his mouth.

“Three. Can you at least say thanks for the food you got, you grumpy cargo-hold gnome?”

“Thank you?!”

“Very good”, she said and let go. The long dressed flowed with each of her motions as she waltzed towards the door of the room. There, she stopped for one last salvo, “People talk about you and it would be easy to agree with them – but I don’t care for their judgement. What they call arrogance, I know as social anxiety. You’re putting others down so you can deal with your lack of self-esteem”

With that, the celebrity was gone. His fist hammered against the heavy lifter. He couldn’t deal with that right now. So what if he had made a ginormous mess during his three hours of command? Not everyone was as good as the dragon or the doctor at leading people. It had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with his self-esteem. With a grunt, he focussed on the drone again. The lieutenant would love the upgrades.

Sarina was still in her hospital bed. She hadn’t spent a lot of time in her body since the awakening and she had moved even less. The doctor had at least stopped her brutal regime and removed the tubes. Her body was slumped over a bowl of grit that she forced herself to eat. A crystal clear voice close to her bed raised Sarina from her thoughts.

“You are a remarkable woman”

The lieutenant glanced at the celebrity and offered a weak smile that didn’t go beyond crinkling the area around her lips.

“I’m not really all that great. Why’d you come here? It’s not the greatest of places and the company is a bit... meagre” Sarina added with a self-deprecating grin and then forced herself to eat another spoonful.

“I wouldn’t say that”, the woman with the dress made of all the colours leaned forward, “I’m here because I need help with something”

“You can just put in a request, someone from my team will deal with it”

Sarina watched Balayuna fish a device from somewhere within her dirtied dress. Slender fingers flicked through hologram screens until a sudden notice appeared in Sarina’s mind. The lieutenant read the note.

“They say everyone is my friend – but none will talk to me. I’m a stranger in a strange land with no one to talk to. Someone, please talk to me. Signed, the Star of Ashina, Balayuna”

Sarina put down the bowl and heaved her weak shell into an upright sitting position.

“Why in the foul crypt of the first would you send that over a public... okay... okay. Well first, Heart - get that out of the logs. Second, let’s talk then. You’re one strange woman”

“I’ve been told, Lady Istengrad. Amongst other things”

The drone operator suddenly reached out a skeletal hand and offered it to the Star who took it tentatively. She put in all her strength which amounted to little more than a quick squeeze. The rest of her energy went into maintaining the weary smile on her face.

“There, you’ve now touched the legendary ace drone mistress Sarina. Go tell your friends you met a real celebrity”, Sarina intoned with a cheeky grin, “You know what that means, right?”

“What does it mean?”

She motioned for the tall Stellar Wizard to straighten up again and then pointed at the exit of her hospital room.

“Get out. Walk in circles for a minute and then come back. Don’t question it, just do it. Please”

Much to her surprise, the beautiful woman really left. Sarina quickly grabbed her bowl and shovelled the last remaining food out of it. What was her deal? Why would someone come to her of all people to seek help with that? Couldn’t she go to... Strehin? She chocked on her laugh. Kathrain the carpet turbo dwarf? Hah! Maybe Sovan? The smudges she had seen told of that story. There would still be Xim but no one had seen the man after the first day. Someone cleared her throat and when Sarina looked up, there she was again.

“Hey Sarina”, Balayuna spoke in a jovial tone, “you won’t believe who I just met. There was this remarkable woman, an ace drone pilot and... she let me shake her hand like so”

The Star grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it, “So I did the only thing I could... I came here and decided to tell my... friend?”

Sarina laughed. The look on that stunning picture face was just too much. As was the questioning accentuation at the end of the sentence. The situation was so awkward that it instilled a sense of physical pain. She quickly grabbed the hand with her own and nodded while struggling for air. As the laughter finally died down, Sarina shook her head while grinning.

“Welcome to the weirdos. Emperor alive, I didn’t expect you to actually do it. But alright, I’ll happily take your hand in friendship. I’m Sarina, by the way. My friends call me the beautiful goddess of the machines – you can call me bodacious metal Sari”

The Star of Ashina blinked, “Uh? You don’t much take things seriously, do you?”

“Should I? Come on, sit. Tell me about why your dress looks like that and why I’ll have to punch Sovan next time I meet him”

What used to be thrones to kings had over centuries turned into desks from which tiny despots could reign supreme. Strehin pressed a flat hand against the wood of her desk. The list of complaints was long. Water temperature? Too cold. Clothes? Not as clean as they used to be. Light? They flickered! Campfire? Gone and replaced with an actual electrical oven. Still primitive but it didn’t smell so bad.

The issues were petty, unimportant but if left alone for too long, they would soon fester into something worse. Like the situation with the Stellar Mage in front of her. When it came to sheer size, Strehin was actually more than a fair bit taller than the colourful, literally sparkling, peacock. In every optical department, however, it wasn’t even a contest. Strehin massaged her temples.

“You think you need to get on my good side”, she said to the IMBUE mage.

“Don’t I?”

“It’s entirely optional”, she stated with a matter of fact intonation. Balayuna gave no answer and Strehin soon refocussed her attention on the devices strewn across her desk. After a while, she glanced up and saw the woman still standing there.

“I can help”, Balayuna said.

“Your task was to negotiate with the groupies”

“Which failed through no fault of my own”

The administrator made room on her desk and then rested her elbows on it. Her whole attention was now focussed on the other woman.

“Are you implying that I failed in my duty as administrator then?

“As a matter of fact, yes. You sent me with little preparation while I was still coming to terms with what had happened. My life went from having people try to kill me to a strange woman telling me to talk to actual aliens. Failure was not my fault”

“You’re not getting on my good side”

“No madam, I was told it was optional”, the Star said.

She leaned forward until the young mage shuddered and stepped back. Their eyes were locked but Balayuna was the first to look to the side. For all of the little dove’s bravado, in the end, she was still a child in her eyes. The administrator relaxed her muscles again.

“You’re correct. It was my fault”, Strehin said and put a finger to the desk, “I don’t trust you. When you came to my station, you brought your little war with you. You serve no purpose other than to be a pretty thing for people to look at. That might be your career but it’s of no worth to me”

“I can be if you...”

“Your skill as a social butterfly and manipulator will be your value”

“I’m not a manip...”

“You will be our councillor and arbitrator. Use whatever charm you can to balance the moods of my... our people. As a civilian, you’ve got the right to deny any and all calls to battle – but as the sole combat ready mage”

“I’m not a fight...”

“No, you’re an assassin. Don’t look at me like that. It’s obvious. We mages are created for war, yet your combat ability is that of an inexperienced dove. Still, as a combat-ready mage – I would like to draw upon your magic in times of need”

With that, Strehin was finished. The tall woman walked over towards the now shivering Star of Ashina. For a moment, she considered the possibility that it was part of an act and then shrugged it off either way. She leaned down and simply gave the other woman a hug.

“What are you doing?” said Balayuna.

“Following the advice of my doctor to use emotional interactions as part of my leadership. I’m just now considering throwing her out the airlock”

She saw the IMBUE mage grin momentarily. The young woman fished something out of her dress and held it out to her.

“Before I got here, I programmed a secondary jump ship to arrive precisely two hours after my arrival. In theory, it should have survived the explosion by virtue of not being here when it happened. It’ll be camouflaged but it’s not reacting to my calls – maybe it’s broken or something malfunctioned. However, out of all the things out there, it should have the highest chance of providing something helpful”

The administrator took the offered object and slid it open. It was a simple electronic key.

“Actuators, online. Sensors... operational. All systems nominal”

Sarina struggled with keeping her voice from squealing. She stretched the bulky legs of the heavy lifter felt them react with a snappiness that hadn’t been there before. Sovan blew a bit of air onto her machine and she shivered in response which resulted in her machine wiggling for a second.

“That’s a lot of sensory input, did you tweak the settings?”

“Somewhat. Did you notice the second dome?” Sovan said and pointed at a spot below her body. Sarina concentrated and finally squealed. An entire second set of visuals sprung up, providing her with a complete vision of what happened underneath her drone as well. She noticed another oddity in the dome and activated it with a quick thought.

An image of her physical body, more than a bit idealized from its real counterpart, sprung up in front of the drone. Sarina frowned and then saw her duplicate frown as well. It was a holographic projection that mimicked her meat body.

“Why?”

“That’s just the default setting. Both observation domes have a multi-purpose projector. You’ve now also got four reaction engines mounted to the legs. See, the projectors were worth it, that was definitely a smile!”

Yes, it was. She just couldn’t help it. Her metal body jumped and she sent a spark to her limbs. Four flames bellowed out with a puff, keeping her momentarily afloat while Sovan jumped away cursing. She plummeted back down with loud thunder.

“Finally, you moon-licker, the signal receiver has been strengthened for more broad input. You should be good for about one thousand kilometres of range – but there’s no way around the lag until we get enough grey particles and power to cook you up an array”

Sarina twisted and turned her upgraded drone. It even had a slick black paint job now and the blinking ammo display on one of her arms spoke of another upgrade as well. She finally lowered the heavy lifter until the lower the observation dome was on Sovan’s level. It was silly, but she imagined herself blowing a friendly kiss to the technician and her projection suddenly followed suit. She let out a shriek and quickly moved back, which, given she was now a heavy machine, meant loud thumping sounds and a lot of dented ground on the way.

Sovan chuckled, “Yeah, your drone is now twenty-nine tons heavy. That’s all the fuel and tech, just be a bit more careful where you walk now. So... you ready to give this a go?”

“Ready as I can ever be”

“Heart, is she ready?”

The voice of the golem formed in her mind as well, even though Sovan had addressed it.

.: Affirmative. :.

“Well, get the go from the dragon and you’ll be on your way”

Sarina took a deep breath and momentarily shuttered the connection to her drone. She fell back to her meat body and wrapped arms around her chest. The heart inside of her was in violent upheaval and the torpedo dwarf just stood up from her chair.

“Everything is okay, doc” the lieutenant intoned, “Just a bit nervous. You told me to check my body before I go on missions. That’s what I’m doing. I’m absolutely stuffed and promise to make breaks every six hours to eat”

She noticed that the stocky woman had begun to frown and immediately reactivated her drone connection. The next second, she was back in her artificial body and felt relief wash over her. Her mind opened a new communication line and the grim face of the iron dragon showed up in her mind. Could drones gulp? Sarina found out that yes, they could as her holographic projection just did so.

“Lieutenant Sarina to Administrator Strehin. Requesting permission to begin scout and salvage operation”

“Granted”

And the connection to her was gone. Would it hurt the dragon to employ pleasantries here and there? She sighed and raised one of her tool arms to give Sovan a thumbs up. The technician nodded and quickly vacated the premises while Sarina moved her machine into the airlock. Cycling air pressure changed her sense of touch. A quickly fading tingle ran through her drone. In her earlier spacewalk, she had felt vulnerable and exposed. With the updated machinery, this felt like second nature.

She stepped out of the airlock and noticed the flicker of a myriad of systems coming alive. Tiny reaction control systems, one for each leg mount, stabilized her view automatically. Sarina imagined herself turning around and her drone swivelled along with ease. With an audible beep, the systems put a colour overlay on top of her vision with one half having a subtle purple tint and the other a green one.

“The automatic levelling system is a great help, Sovan”, she sent through the comms, “The overlay helps in getting a sense of up and down. It’s the best one can do on a machine not build for space”

Sarina turned her machine until it faced the iron wall of several dozen shipwrecks floating around the station. She arched her limbs back and with the flick of a thought, bright flames poured out of the four legs. A number ticked up in her vision, indicating her speed while an overlay of quickly moving lines gave her the impression of flying past stars. It was a stark contrast to the overly massive space station that didn’t seem to get any smaller, despite her accelerating away from it for a couple of minutes.

“Approaching first orientation point at fifty kilometres”

She cut the acceleration and continued on drifting. Momentum carried her forward while she concentrated on her sensor impressions. A soft warmth had spread throughout her drone. Most of it was concentrated on the side that had been exposed towards the sun. Sarina gave a short impulse and flipped her drone. She saw the heat radiating away from her as red and orange fog on her vision.

“Heat is within tolerance levels so far”, she sent via comms back to the station, “Starting sensor sweep”

Two audible beeps in her mind indicated that both her observation domes were now active. Just in case she didn’t notice that her vision had expended twofold. Redundancy – a Sovan speciality, she mused with a chuckle.

“Getting your signal. Keep steady”, said Sovan, “This would be easier if we had an actual pilot awake”

“Well, technology can serve as a buffer. I think I found it, see that broken off hull at precisely three hundred kilometres? It looks just a tad too regular to be a wreck. Keep a docking port warm, I’ll bring home some candy”

However, Sarina didn’t immediately rush off to the navigation point. Instead, she marked the position of any sufficiently large hull on the way and then calculated a route that brought her past all of them. Her drone whirled around and once it was pointed at a 90° angle to her previous course, she fired all four thrusters until the bright navigation line arched close to the first wreck.

“Hey, Sovan?”

“Yes, Heavy Metal Goddess?”

She chuckled, “Stop that! Hey, can I ask you something personal?”

“Hm?”

“What happened between you and the Star?”

“...”

“Sovan, Shouldn’t I have asked? You know she came to me and seemed rather distraught”

“Look, I read a lot of stuff about her before. Under her sweet shell, that woman is a monster. There are some very ugly rumours about how she treats people. She is just good at acting nice. It’s... I don’t like her type. Not only can she wrap everyone around her fingers, but she also needs you to know that she can do so”

If her drone had eyebrows, she would have raised them. She grew silent while her drone automatically adjusted for small course variations. Her first navpoint turned out to be the hull of a massive cargo hauler. The long rectangular shape was peppered with breaches and the entire drive section was just gone.

“Come on, rock on, talk to me”, said Sovan.

“Give me a minute, let me adjust my course, sorry”

She moved the drone into a course parallel to the large ship. Once she slipped into its shadow, it felt like she had stepped out of a Sauna. Her hull began to cool off until she shivered. The subconscious reaction was even translated unto her drone. Sarina modified her course to keep the derelict ship between her and the sun for as long as she could.

“This one is a bust, all gone, nothing to grab”, she said, “About that other topic... sorry I’m just a bit surprised is all. She struck me as someone that was lost and perhaps a bit too desperate to fit in. I imagine going from a multi-system celebrity to now must be quite brutal”

“Yeah, maybe. I can see that. Look, it just rubbed me the wrong way. She hadn’t spoken to me at all and then suddenly, she waltzed in and acted like an innocent girl that just wanted to be near me. I’m old and grumpy enough to know that’s nonsense”

Sarina chuckled, “Yeah, grumpy definitely fits. Man, what a strange turn life has taken. If you had told me a month ago that I’d be diving through a field of wrecks while gossiping about a co-worker... wait a second!”

A strong signal pierced her shell and felt like a slap to the face. She inhaled a sharp breath as a blaring warning message hammered her.

“This is the Saskian Balance of the Sons of Virgo. Don’t approach - or we will open fire”

Sarina blinked red lights in confusion. The signal came from a very obvious wreck that sat just behind the hauler. When several more signals touched her sensors, she suddenly felt a spark run through her electric systems. She immediately cut her speed until she came to a stop relative to the cargo hauler. The message repeated without end while the signals remained locked on her. Had they somehow missed a battleship out here? Sarina switched her channels and send out a reply.

“This is lieutenant Sarina of the City of Citadels. I operate within the domain of Administrator Strehin as appointed by the council of the big families”

They just kept repeating their message again and again until Sarina turned her drone around.

“Very well, I’ll adjust course and get out of here”

Her drone swivelled on tiny flames. The long navigation-line in her vision began to stretch out as she accelerated away from the vessel and whatever was behind it. She hadn’t gone more than a couple of hundred meters when another piercing sensation hit her metal body. A targeting laser! Her drone banked left and began running a spiral evasion pattern. At the same time, she accelerated at full throttle until the attached engines ran hot.

The laser was still locked on her position when she cleared the hauler. Her drone was now in direct sight of the object that had sent the message. It was a tiny sphere, attached to the broken off barrel from a railgun. A medium sized destroyer sat behind the cargo ship but it had been torn into so many pieces, it hardly registered as anything but debris. She wouldn’t even have paid attention to it if it hadn’t said Saskian Balance on the hull.

Sarina flipped her drone so that the legs were away from the sun and waited for them to cool down enough so she could adjust course again. The targeting laser never let up but it could only glow menacingly. With no more weapon attached, it was just a random toy.

“Hey, Sovan? Turns out that some of the wrecks are still partially active. I just stared down the barrel of an automated railcannon”

“We expected something like that. Self-repair protocols can keep going for a long time. Just be careful”

Sarina laughed, “Oh I will, I rather like my new and improved body”

The rest of her course took her from one shadow to the other. At each stop, she spent some time doing a quick search of the wreck from the outside while allowing her systems to cool. Her physical body had started to sweat from the rapid-fire onslaught of rapid warming and cooling that the neural interface suggested.

“Alright, one cheeky drone is on her final approach vector. Target object is in sight. Seems dead... yeah this one is gone too... huh? Oh that’s clever. Hey folks, I'll be bringing gifts!”

It was a small room several hundred meters away from the others. In it, a young woman in a simple pyjama sat on her bed. Brown shoulder long hair framed a petite face. To her side was a long dress that utilized all known colours at once. She put her hand on the soft fabric and smiled. It was a custom made maxi dress by the legendary tailor Puran Pure.

Her name was supposed to be Balayuna. The Star of Ashina. A name that belonged to a superstar. The smile on her face turned crooked. Her hands reached up to her neck where a small necklace hummed with a soft energy. It fed directly from her Gates of Magic where it soaked up ambient static. Upon touching the necklace, her hair changed colour to bright orange and then settled on a soft ginger tone as her finger ran along the surface.

She clicked the necklace off again and her hair returned to the comparatively dull brown. There were similar bands on her wrists and ankles that also hummed with subtle energy. With a sigh, she fell back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Our little saga is coming to an end, Balayuna” she said in a whispering tone, “Your little ship houses one last scandal three hundred thousand years late"

The woman held up a hand and let arcs of electricity jump between her fingers, "Your contractors would have loved it. The famous singer found dead in her ship - after her double held one last glorious concert in her place! Your eyes were always so focussed on the ghosts from your past that you never looked to your side"