Artificial

12 | Reunion

The room is silent as Reyna and I survey the CCTV footage. Her feet are kicked up onto the dash, arms crossed as she lounges in her navigation chair. Across the four screens, and dozens of people milling about, Reyna's eyes never leave Shelly's form from where she's situated on the bottom left hand monitor.

Watching Shelly over the last hour or so has shown me that she's been far too modest. She's sitting at a roulette table, smiling and laughing as she touches one the arm of the man beside her. When the ball finally lands, Shelly's eyes go comically wide, and the man claps her on her back.

No one at the table even seems remotely upset. To them, the stacks of chips overflowing from the table is nothing but spare change. The real prize at the table is Shelly, and she has them all wrapped tightly around her finger.

Reyna's mood sours with every passing minute, her knuckles going white as she stares at the screens. It's not hard to guess that Reyna resents being left behind. Watching the ship is the safest, and easiest aspect of a heist. I can't imagine anyone who would prefer to be in Shelly's position, laughing and talking with men with egos as high as their pockets are deep.

After what feels like hours, Shelly sends a signal back to the ship. And when she steps through the door, all the tension seems to leave Reyna's body.

Shelly says as she collapses against one of the walls. Compared to the Tiara, our current pod is miniscule. One of hundreds of pods, connected to a ship so large it might as well have been a station. She reaches into her dress, and metal keycards clatter to the ground, each one with a unique barcode and pattern.

"Couldn't remember who Sadie told me to go for, so I tried to be as broad as possible." As if on cue, an incoming call from Sadie lights one of the panels, and Reyna clicks accept.

"Found it." Her breaths are shallow and heavy, voice tight with tension. A holographic image of Sadie fills the screens, showing her still crouched in an air vent. As easy as shows and novels made crawling in vents sound, truthfully it's a painful and often terrifying ordeal. "Fourth floor, room 486. Mira was right, there really is Rhodium in here. Around 150 pounds."

Reyna joins Shelly on the floor, and they begin sorting through the cards, looking for room 486. Except all the cards look the same, each one devoid of any numbers or even a barcode. It only takes them a minute, before Shelly pulls out a sheer black card triumphantly.

"How do you know that's room 486?" I ask, leaning down to get a better look at the card.

"I'll show you how to tell later," Shelly dismisses with a wave of her hand. "C'mon, the sooner we get out of here the better."

"You should drink some water before you head back on the ship," Reyna says to Shelly. "It's barely been five minutes." But Shelly refuses, dragging me through the door while she hands me a blaster, which I quickly hide in my left lace-up boot. Her eyes are dilated and bright with excitement, and I know that this is longer just a mission to Shelly. This is what she breathes and lives for.

Per Shelly's request, I have on another short black dress. We weave through the ship halls, passing couples and groups of drunk party goers alike. Tonight's the opening ceremony for a new planet discovered on the outskirts of the milky way. New planets were nothing special, they were discovered daily. But this planet different, not only does it hold life, it holds water. Lots, and lots of water. You'd think after dozens of centuries humans would have solved their water shortage problem by now.

Despite being cold stone sober, Shelly's footsteps are a little crooked, just unsteady enough for her to blend right into the crowd.

"Loosen up a bit," Shelly whispers into my ear as we enter the main hall. Hundreds of people are gathered in this room. Some drinking and socializing, and others sitting at tables playing games. I try to relax my shoulders and smile, and from the look on Shelly's face, I can tell I'm only making things worse.