This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #1048 - Owed Explanation
Enjoy !
"I should have known I'd find you somewhere as insane as this, Sara."
"I was hoping you wouldn't find me at all, Kalen."
She didn't turn to face him. Not surprising really. Their parting, five years or more ago, had hardly been on good terms. She hadn't exactly hidden from him, but she'd run to distant places. Run hard and fast. She'd hoped to be far enough away that he'd either not look, or give up.
This, now, was the most distant place yet. An asteroid belt around a star crowded with gas giant planets, where moons and rocks collided far too frequently for comfort or life. Just beyond the end of a spiral arm of Galaxy 14, almost into intergalactic space. But not our Galaxy 14. No, it was an analogue, forty three dimensions up and twenty three planes forward. The laws of nature were different here. Space didn't play nice.
But perhaps the reward would be worth it. If Kalen didn't interfere, although it looked like he would. Towering over both of them was a massive metal structure. A dead machine. Well, maybe dead. The Einheriar hadn't evolved in this reality.... maybe evolved was the wrong word. Been created. Allowed to become self aware and improve themselves.
This monstrous machine, assembled in a form that looked like an oversized steel Allosaurus, was what this universe had thrown up. Build as a war machine, but never given the chance to turn into something both greater and more terrifying. Sara wondered if it had been so devastating that it won some ancient war before it needed to become self-aware. Or perhaps lost the war before it learned to survive the end if it's fleshy creators.
It didn't matter; if she could get it back to Imperial Space, she knew the reward would be worth it. Imperial Infomancers would give their right arm - or preferably someone else's right arm - for the information it would give on the origins of the Einheriar.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Kalen. Annoying man.
"Damn it Sara, you shot me !" His voice was filled with self-righteous indignation.
"Too right I did. It's what you needed. Be glad I didn't aim six inches lower."
"If you hadn't done that, we'd both be rich. We'd still be partners, living a life of luxury. I had that deal all sewn up tight."
She shook her head sadly. "Oh, you poor, poor man. The only thing sewn up tight was you. There was no deal. Your contact, the biggest zwilnik on Debris ? The guy you thought was going to sell you enough cheap happy pills to set you up for life ? I cloaked up and stealthed after him. He was no zwilnik, he was a Slaver agent."
She was glad she'd splashed out and bought a helmet with a rear-facing camera. Kalen was behind her, but she could see him trembling with rage and frustration, his hand slowly edging to the plasma pistol clipped to his thigh.
"Yes, I shot you. Nothing fatal, but it had to be serious. Enough for your crew to drag you back to The Purple Hotwheel. The Slaver knew you'd be in the heal-pod for weeks. Too long for him. If he'd been able to grab you quicker, he'd have taken your ship, your cash, and your crew. Then he'd have stripped your brain with a memory imager to rip out anything useful you knew. You'd have spent the rest of your miserable life as a zombie on a farm world digging whatever the Slavers' nearest thing to potatoes is. I saved you, your ship and your crew."
She turned to him. "Look, I'm sorry, okay. I really am. I know you're pissed with me. You've been pissed with me for five years. I get it. You didn't spend that time looking for me just so we could jump back in the sack together."
Sara saw how close his hand was to his plasma weapon, and her hand drifted downwards as well, although she only had her trusty and very worn needle pistol, the same one she'd shot him with all those years ago.
"Damn it, Kalen, you know I'm still way faster than you. If I had a problem with you, I'd have filled you with needles already. So let the past be the past, and let's get rich together after all."
"See that... thing..." she indicated the dead war machine towering over both of them, "It's worth a fortune, easily enough to set us both up for life. Together or apart, your call. Help me salvage it and we'll split it fifty-fifty. What do you say ?"