A Walking Shadow

5. Pretender

"Parse," spits Ashil. "Oh, I have quite a few things to say about Parse."

"I'd be interested in hearing them," I say.

Ashil doesn't respond immediately. They pace around the room, obviously thinking. Finally, they stand still, antennae twitching in agitation. "Tell me... how much do you know about Parse?"

"I know some things. But I'd like to know more. That's why I've come to you."

They turn around suddenly, eyes fixed on me. "How'd you hear about them? I don't think they're very well known."

"That's true. But they do have a reputation in some circles."

"I suppose they might," Ashil mutters.

"Do you have a story to tell?" I ask. "Or would you rather just discuss Parse?"

"No, no. I have a story. It's about my brother. Waralekka. Well, kind of."

I turn on my recorder. "Whenever you're ready."

*

Waralekka. He was certainly an interesting guy. Very aloof, most of the time. Sometimes passively friendly, sometimes painfully apathetic. The one thing he liked to do was to go to Hacking Club every five days. It was an organization of about twenty people, mostly Hamalians like me, but some other species too. It was also extraordinarily sketchy. Not necessarily the hacking part—I've never had any reason to believe that they ever got up to anything seriously illegal. Well, apart from the time they all tried to program while tripping on acid. But it was mostly the attendees of the Hacking Club that I didn't trust. About half of them ran some kinds of shady businesses. Wonder where they got the acid? One of the guys is a drug dealer. That sort of stuff.

Okay, that's just some background. It'll be important later. Well, some of it. Most of it.

Anyway, the story properly starts on the crowded streets of Vega Prime. That's where Waralekka lived. Not on the streets. On Vega Prime. I was visiting. We'd met up a couple days before, but I hadn't seen him since.

Suddenly, I spotted Waralekka at the end of the street. He looked confused. I noticed smears of dirt on his clothes. He saw me a couple seconds later, and we met up at the corner of the block.

"Funny to see you here," I said.

"I need your starship," he responded.

That was not what I was expecting. "You... have a starship."

"Not anymore, I don't."

"What happened to it? What happened to you?"

"It's not important. Can I borrow yours?"

"To go where?"

"The Hacking Club is having an important off-planet meeting."

Obviously this was a weird situation. But that was one of the weirdest parts. The Hacking Club never had off-planet meetings. It just wasn't something they did.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

Waralekka looked me straight in the eyes. "Trust me."

And that wasn't something he did, either. Unnerved, I directed him away from the main street. "I parked it a couple blocks down. Not saying you can borrow it—"

He pushed past me, heading in the direction I was pointing. I quickly followed.

We got to the ship soon enough. Waralekka made to go inside, but I pulled him back.

"Where is this meeting, anyway? What planet?"

"Tarazed," he said.

"Tarazed! That's lightyears—"