Brave New Worlds

pockets and straps of the trenchcoat, clipped more to his belt and thigh, as well as to holsters under each arm, and then added pieces to his ankles.
    He was now a walking arsenal.
    But only half the pack had been emptied. The mysterious mercenary tossed it at Stanuel. "Besides, you're going to help. "
    Stanuel coughed. "Me?"
    "According to the resistance message, you're a maintenance manager, recently promoted. You still know all the sewer lines, access ducts, and holes required to get me to the tower. How long do you guess we have before it notices your unauthorized use of an airlock?"
    "An hour," Stanuel said. The last time he'd accidentally gone somewhere Pan didn't like, rovers had been in his office within an hour.
    "And can we get to the tower within an hour, Stanuel, without being noticed?"
    Stanuel nodded.
    The large, well-armed man pointed at the airlock door into the corridor. "Well, let's not dally. "
    "Can I ask you something?" Stanuel asked.
    "Yes. "
    "Your name. You know mine. I don't know yours. "
    "Pepper," said the mercenary. "Now can we leave?"

    A single tiny sound ended the secrecy of their venture: the buzz of wings. Pepper's head snapped in the direction of the sound, locks spinning out from his head.
    He slapped his palm against the side of the wall, crushing a butterfly-like machine perfectly flat.
    "A bug," Stanuel said.
    Pepper launched down the corridor, bouncing off the walls until he hit the bulkhead at the far end. He glanced around the corner. "Clear. "
    "Pan knows you're in Haven now. " Stanuel felt fear bloom, an instant explosion of paralysis that left him hanging in the air. "It will mobilize. "
    "Then get me into the tower, quick. Let's go, Stanuel, we're not engaged in something that rewards the slow. "
    But Stanuel remained in place. "they chose me because I had no family," he said. "I had less to lose. I would help them against Pan. But. . . "
    Pepper folded his arms. "It's already seen you. You're already dead. "
    That sunk in. Stanuel had handled emergencies. Breaches, where vacuum flooded in, sucking the air out. He'd survived explosions, dumb mistakes, and even being speared by a piece of rebar. All by keeping cool and doing what needed to be done.
    He hadn't expected, when told that he'd need to let in an assassin, that he'd become this involved. But what did he expect? that he could be part of the resistance and not ever risk his life? He'd risked it the moment one of his coworkers had started whispering to him, talking about overthrowing Pan, and he'd only stood there and listened.
    Stanuel took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry. "
    The space station Haven was a classic wheel, rotating slowly to provide some degree of gravity for its inhabitants so that they did not have to lose bone mass and muscle, the price of living in no gravity.
    At Haven's center lay the hub. Here lay an atrium, the extraordinary no-gravity gardens and play areas for Haven's citizens. Auditoriums and pools and labs and tourist areas and fields, the heart of the community. Dripping down from the hub, docking ports, airlocks, antennae, and spare mass from the original asteroid Haven had taken its metals. This was where they floated now.
    But on the other side of the hub hung a long and spindly structure that had once housed the central command for the station. A bridge, of sorts, with a view of all of Haven, sat at the very tip of the tower. The bridge was duplicated just below in the form of an observation deck and restaurant for visitors and proud citizens and school trips.
    All things the tower existed for in that more innocent time before .
    Now Pan sat in the bridge, looking out at all of them, both through the large portal-like windows up there, and through the network of rovers and insect cams scattered throughout Haven.
    One of which Pepper had just flattened.
    Stanuel knew they no longer had an hour now.

    Pepper squatted in front of the hatch. "It's good I'm not claustrophobic. "
    "This runs all the way to the restaurant at the tower. It's the fastest way there. "
    "If we don't choke on fumes and grease first. " Pepper scraped grease off the inside.
    Stanuel handed him a mask with filters from the tiny utility closet underneath the pipe. He also found a set of headlamps. "Get in, I'll follow, we need to hurry. "
    Pepper hauled himself into the tube and Stanuel followed, worming his way in. When he closed the hatch after them the darkness seemed infinite until Pepper clicked a tiny