The cool water of the shower worked wonders for the many aches over my body. Upon inspection, the laceration on my chest was shallower than I expected, fortunately. In the days passing, it had already begun knitting itself together. The swelling in my eye had faded as well, leaving a blueish tint in its wake. My hair was still stubble on the sides, with a longer section in the middle. I wouldn't need to groom it for some time. That's good enough. Satisfied that my wounds were superficial, I dried and started digging through a container for clothes.

I settled for stiff green-brown pants we scavenged from a bunker. The rough fabric itched my legs as they jammed in. military made. With no plan of leaving, I avoided a shirt in favor of letting the cool martian air dry the remaining water droplets from my skin. Padding across my sleeping room into the dining area, I grabbed a food wrap and climbed a narrow ladder to the roof of my dwelling to eat.

Jazz was nowhere to be found when I had returned. Not to my surprise. He would likely brood for days to come. Not only had we not been paid, but I also orchestrated a one-man rebellion against Owls, and was invited to the sacred market. He despised all things in the faith and the market was particularly irritating to him. Which to me made little sense. The very nature of working for 'payment' was a farce. Exiles faced a few extra dangers as opposed to those living in the settlements. But anyone could have the sustenance of life for free. Which is part of what I hated about the status quo.

The camp was quiet, like always. There were only 5 dwellings here in a tight square. All made of the native brown, orange stone of the planet. Ours were substantially better built than others. Knowledge was the greatest strength of outsiders and Jazz was a wellspring of the stuff.

Usually, it was only he and I, but occasionally another outcast, unaffiliated with the heathen gangs, would stop and stay briefly. In my early orbits, I had dreamed that we would get a visitor from beyond the sacred land, but it had never happened. "There is nothing outside of the terraforming but beasts and empty mearth." That's what they all would say. I still refused to believe it.

"Yo, what you doing up here half naked kid," Jazz asked, giving me a slap on the back as he approached. Silent as always. His calm demeanor caught me off guard as he plopped down.

"I'm just looking out, trying to clear my mind. It has been a long few days."

"Yeah, man, we have definitely seen plenty of action. Guessing you don't have your prisoner locked down in the hut?" I narrowed my eyes and shook my head with a sigh.

"Well kid, here's to hoping," Jazz tipped a cylindrical shaped bottle to his lips, his neck bobbing in quick successions. He held it out to me, "Want some?"

I took the jug and gulped the liquid, the burn causing me to cough. "Holy, where did you get this from," I asked, still gasping.

"I swung over to Craggs camp on the way back. Dude had just finished making it. Oh, and it looks like your friend from the road escaped. Tried to steal a Humvee. Craggs group has him and are debating on-."

"On killing him," I finished, tossing the bottle to Jazz. Of course, the idiot would go after someone else. Heathens always revert to violent theft. It was why groups like ours and Craggs considered ourselves outcast rather than heathens. Though Jazz was born out of the faith, we still tried to live humane as much as we could. Murder for survival was part of being outside the settlements, but we didn't go out of our way looking for a fight. I almost regretted leaving the man a way to cut his binds, but he would have died still, eaten by a beast of the wild.

"Yep, that." Jazz said, gulping more of the drink. His head tilted. "The Solarr is visible tonight."

I spotted the glistening point left of the moon, Phobos. According to the ancient records, the Solarr was an interplanetary space station, or Star Ark, as history called them. It had been one of four that transported the masses from earth to mars. A sky bound reminder that despite what the faith believed, man didn't start here.

"You really think there are people on that thing?" Jazz asked. He tossed the drink back to me.

"There has to be. Why else would it still be in orbit?" I swallowed more of the sour hot liquid. Returning it to Jazz.

"So, they live in a big metal bucket in the sky like gods? Watching us scurry about this planet? And for at least a thousand years? You should spend more time with Owls kid, ya both looney," He drank as he spoke then passed to me.

"And what do you think then? They just left it? Or is it a captive of the mighty Phobos?" I said, sarcasm filling my tone. "They're designed to live on long term, right? I gulped, then passed.

"It's literally impossible for anyone to be on it. They damaged the damn thing during the war. Rather than dying, people got off and came back down here. Simple as that." Multiple heavy chugs, then passed.

"Then why, when they got down here, did they worship the moons? Where would that come from? You can see the earth from here. How do you forget that's home?" I said, jerking a finger at a small bluish flicker in the sky that was the distant planet. I matched the dark man's glare and drank four heavy swallows, stifled a cough, then hurled the canister to him. Some contents splashing over the charred blue vest.

"What does that have to do with the Solarr? You waisted already? Couldn't go back to Earth even if it wasn't a plagued rock, Ex. Yo, you read the records. And there ain't interplanetary ships around. They got destroyed when the war started.

"It still doesn't explain why this stupid cult formed. People knew better,"

"That was a thousand years ago, ya know that. I understand it's hard, but this world has been stagnant since nobody knows. And it will stay that way until the providers break, like the one on Ascraeus, and we all die. Nothing gonna change it."

I could feel the heat building in my neck as I clamped my teeth. This was a tired argument. But I could see a shine to my friend's eyes that meant he had drunk plenty of Cragg's brew. The slight spin in my vision told me that my intake of the stuff had hit a critical point. Probably shouldn't escalate this. But I'm sick of him talking down. "It doesn't matter. None of it really matters. I'll learn soon enough what else is on this damn rock. And if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. Nothing lost, right?"

Jazz worked his jaw muscles and breathed loudly through his nose. Not ready to let it go. "You know what does matter, kid? Not getting paid for a job, that matters. Getting shot in the chest, that matters. Watching you blast our loot with that big ass pistol, that matters,"

This is what I was expecting from the start.

"What else was I supposed to do?"

"Shoot who ever shoots at us, fool!"

"We took her down. That is a win. Why does it matter how?"

"No, it's not a win, man! We didn't get paid and after yo little stunt with Owls all mighty, he aint gonna reach out to me to work. What are we going to do?"

"You can literally sneak up to a perpetual harvester and take a crate of food, or continue to trade at Star Light Rise. We don't actually need a payment any ways, so what's the issue?"

"Exactly! You could feed that bracelet and your big mouth the same way. So I don't get it. What you hoping to get at the market, Ex?"

We had stopped passing the canister. With each exchange, our volume increased to full shouting. "Nothing, I don't lack the food. Or the clothes or anything else. I want-," Trailing off, I shook my head. My words were tangling. I'm not explaining this to him. Trying to stand, a firm grasp at my elbow pulled me down to my seat with a thump. I could feel stinging in the back of my eyes as Jazz stared fiercely.

"You want to see them?" It wasn't a question. His expression flattened.

Giving in, "It's been 14 orbits. Just would like to know if they are even still alive before I leave. Or at least, I want them to see that I'M alive." I was staring down now, avoiding his gaze.

"Kid, I get it. But you stupid." I jerked my head up and Jazz's features froze. "They threw you away, tossed you like garbage to an incinerator, and they let pontifex Grail burn your sister. All because of this thing," Jazz rapped his knuckles against the device on my right arm. I moved it behind my back out of habit.

The fire is everywhere.

She's burning.

"Please help her, please!" I cry. But no one will look at me. Or speak to me.

So much pain.

Tears streamed unrestricted. The time at starlight rise had raw memories at the fore front of my mind, ready to ambush.

"What else were they supposed to do? They didn't have a choice." I said through gritted teeth, not sounding fully convinced. Our parents had to do it, didn't they? It was the faith's fault? My mind was fogging and the logic I had been using to make plans for the last weeks crumbled. The thought of the older sister I had lost to a rapture plagued me, all because we went somewhere we shouldn't have. Oh, hell with this. I wiped the back of my hand against my face, forcing my way free of Jazz's grip and stood wadding my fingers into fists.

The sound of a metal against stone rang out as the canister of brew mashed down to the roof. Jazz was on his feet breathing hard as the bitter smell filled the air. "Look, I-," He cut me off with the wave of his hand. His dark eyes bored into me.

"I have taken care of you for fourteen orbits. I've shown you how to fight, how to live. You've learned things those fools in settlements haven't known in a thousand years. And yet here we are, you're ignoring it all, you still convinced there is something out in the red. Letting killers go because of some weird moral thing that's left over from your days as a moon lover! You ungrateful punk! Heathens will kill ya if you don't kill them! There is nothing besides beasts that can survive outside the terraforming. I've taught you this!" Jazz staggered away, shaking his head and waving his arms. Then a few rapid steps and a finger jammed awkwardly into my chest. "Your parents do not care! As long as they think the moons are smiling upon them, they would kill you as fast as that sister of yours! You don't owe them sh-."

Crack! The sound filled the night. I threw a wobbly punch, connecting hard against my friend's cheek, toppling him, eyes wide with surprise. I stumbled backward, bringing my fist to my chin, ready for the retaliation. Jazz darted forward and I swung again. He easily avoided with a crouch. A solid jab landed in my stomach, then massive arms wrapped around my waist, and we both crashed to the ground. My head rang as it smacked the stone. Jazz was up and driving unsteady kicks to my side. Tucking my elbows to block and rolling away gave me enough distance to scramble to my feet.

"HAG, combat-," a soft wurr halted my words. The blaster pistol inches from my face caused me to swallow hard against my wheezing.

"Don't you dare Ex, I swear, I'll shoot you dead where you stand." Jazz lost his usual slang dialect. He swayed slightly and blood trickled from his nose. I could feel my share of wounds weeping the hot fluid. "Your so set to die, may as well be right here where I can bury you proper. No need to let sluth or gray chew you to bones."

"Fuck'n shoot me then." I said, dropping my hands from their ready position. My head was swimming from the fall and likely doubled by the drink. I knew this was a bluff. But I could see I had crossed a line, and now so had my mentor.

"When you leave, don't you dare come back, understand?"

There was a sense if finality in Jazz's voice that I had never heard before. We often bickered about plans we were to do. That usually led to threats of terminating our partnership. But this was the most serious I had ever seen him. Fine, I don't plan on coming back any ways. Point a gun at me. I puffed my chest up, my head craned to meet his eyes.

"Your proposal is acceptable. I won't come here again. And as far as your cut of the job goes, you take it up with Owls. The way I see it, I saved your, and that heathen lady's ass! We are even." Spinning on my heels as I finished, deliberately stomping away until I stumbled and fell. Righting myself with extra effort, Jazz stood still, pistol pointed at where I had been. His face unreadable. He can hop his drunk ass down from there. I thought. I could feel the heat in my ears and neck. Sleep wouldn't come for a while.