Chain of Starlight: Starlight by Lon E. Varnadore

Author:Lon E. Varnadore [Varnadore, Lon E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

13

Qith

Jonica quirked an eyebrow. “Are you insane? There is no way to stop her.” She watched as Meph started to walk back to their shared apartment. “Look,” she called out, not even caring if people caught her talking to a cat at the moment. “I’m not disagreeing with you. Maybe once we get ourselves a bit more established, get a few credits to our name, we can revisit that notion.”

Meph turned and looked at her as he waited at the bottom of the stack. “Open the door, then go do what you need to do. We will discuss this later, I promise.”

Jonica’s heart hammered in her chest for a moment. He didn’t say he’s leaving. You’re still good. You’re still free, she told herself. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She quickly made her way up the ladder and found Meph waiting at the unit’s stoop. “Jerk,” she sent while palming the card into the lock. She let Meph inside. “Talk soon, Meph.”

“I am sure we will,” Meph said as he trotted in without a backwards glance.

She felt a moment of calm, then looked over to see a Nexus dweller two stacks over, their face covered partially by dark goggles and a scarf around their face, which canted at Jonica oddly. The only skin Jonica could see was pale Terran pink. She was sure they were giving her a strange look. In the pit of her stomach, she realized she had been seen talking to a cat as it went into the small space, and then closed the door for it like she was a servant letting their master into their private home.

“Cats—always think they have staff,” she said with a quick forced laugh.

The dweller cocked their head to the unit door and back, shrugged, and shook their head while turning away to descend their own ladder.

Like it matters. You’re not staying here long, she told herself. Blowing out a breath, which caught one of her pale locks and pushed it from her eyes for a moment. “Might as well go see Mer. See what jobs he’s got,” she mumbled to herself. “If he doesn’t bite me first.”

Soon, Jonica found herself in the massive market levels of the North Nexus Merchant District. The district was one of the main reasons that the Nexus was created: to give the races of the system a place to peddle their wares, find passage on a ship, find a distributor for goods, or even find the “other” markets. Jonica knew for a fact that most of the Nexus guards on this station—and the other Nexus platforms in the galaxy—loved to have those black markets here as much as the gray and white ones. If not more so.

All three would bring in money to the station, each paying their own version of protection money to Nexus Corps. White—completely legal—markets would give more credits to keep their stalls clean, steering clear of inspectors and tariffs. The grey markets were the ones that

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