Pax Novis

Chapter One

Riston

Terra-Sol date 3814.237

Riston hadn't thought optimism was something ze'd been burdened with much of. Clearly, ze'd been wrong. Some part of zem had been convinced ze'd find the perfect gift in the markets of Ahngi-te, the largest city on Nea-gi, even though ze only had one hundred twenty credits to zir name and no way to earn, beg, borrow, or steal more. And ze needed a lot more.

For six thousand credits, ze could get a pair of twentieth-century Earth pistols in a display case. Ze leaned closer to the window and zir eyebrows rose. They came with an authenticity holo. Most didn't anymore. Earth wasn't talking to the rest of the systems these days, like a parent who'd decided to wash their hands of their unmanageable children.

For twenty-five hundred credits in the civilian defense shop next to the antique dealer, there was the new StunSheath. It covered the arm from elbow to the middle of the palm, was flexible enough to not restrict movement, was able to integrate with other personal tech, and could deliver a shock so powerful it would, according to the manufacturer, singe the ends of your assailant's hair. That part sounded like bullshit to Riston, but the rest? Definitely useful.

For eleven hundred credits, there was a brand new skinprinter that included a kit of inks in hundreds of colors, shades, and types, and could even create holo-tats. All it needed was an uploaded design.

Cira would love any of those things, but unless Riston came up with a foolproof plan to steal them in the next, oh...five minutes, then ze would be walking away empty-handed.

Not like it mattered. It was an important anniversary, sure, but only to zem. Ze was delusional if ze thought Cira Antares would remember why tomorrow was more important than any other day they'd survived. Bringing her a present would probably only confuse her.

Sighing, ze stepped into an alcove between shops and looked out over Nea-gi. The system's twin suns beamed cheerily through the latticed glass roof, but the clouds spread out below the floating city roiled like a dark, endless, stormy sea. They were char black and only lit by the lightning spreading like a neural network across the sky. Frequent electrical storms were one of the reasons no one lived permanently below the cloud cover on Nea-gi. Ahngi-te floated safely between the dangers of the clouds and the vacuum of space. All the lightning did was create a pretty show for those who had the time to peer down and watch it.

Knowing zir own time here was running out, ze slipped zir hands into zir pockets, rolled zir shoulders back, and forced zirself into the saunter of a young PCCS officer. Ze knew the stride because ze'd watched it hundreds of times. Lived on the same ship as plenty of those officers, too, though they didn't know that.

Mentally shaking zirself out of that particular sinkhole, Riston turned zir attention to the market itself. Ahngi-te looked almost the same as it had on Riston's last visit. The floors were made of a pale mottled-green recycled composite. The walls alternated between tall windows, giving shoppers views of their distant planet, and white trellised pillars covered with greenery that added spots of brilliant color to the otherwise pale city. Small ponds sat at the base of the pillars, and their tops supported the domed glass roof of the market's main thoroughfare. Under the scents of food and perfume was the unmistakable smell of a hydroponics bay—recycled water and growing things. Everything else was gleaming white, all of it shined up and polished so brightly Riston was always wary of touching anything.

A casual observer might claim Ahngi-te hadn't changed. Riston wasn't a casual observer.

The two other times Riston had visited Nea-gi, ze'd been able to forget the war every occupied system in the quadrant had been fighting for the last five-hundred-fifty-plus Terra-Sol cycles. Now, a peacekeeper was stationed at every corner, each wearing a helmet Riston knew was equipped with a camera. Behind their face shields, their eyes tracked both the information on the embedded screens and the shoppers meandering through the market. Extra screens had been installed above the shop marquees, their displays rotating between news feeds, advertisements, and government propaganda. However, like the peacekeepers' helmets, these units included cameras and microphones equipped for facial and vocal recognition. Both screens and peacekeepers were not only monitoring for outside threats and serious violence, but also for hints of civil unrest. According to the PCGC's latest update, anyway.