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The ship broke atmosphere over a huge swath of patchwork gold and green. The fields swayed beneath her as Cori set about twisting knobs and flipping switches in an attempt to guide the ship into the least rocky landing she could manage. It creaked and groaned with every adjustment, but held steady on its descent. Cori felt the engine stutter beneath her and the ship billowed out thick white clouds of steam, or more likely smoke, obscuring Cori’s vision of the ground and forcing her to rely on her scanners to pinpoint the coordinates as she prepared for landing.
It was an old ship, old enough that Cori hadn’t even known what to do with it when she first sat down in the cockpit a few weeks ago. She’d stolen it from a junkyard on a planet much like this one, although several systems away, and then spent three days hunkered down in the forest there where she’d crash landed it after a narrow escape from one of Present’s scouts.
She managed some shoddy repairs with minimal supplies and read through the faded pages of the manual a few times until she was sure she could get herself off the ground. But even then, she was limping along in a ship that could barely fly, running low on fuel and supplies, and recovering from a fight that she hadn’t been prepared for. She decided it was time to use the lifeline that the Captain had given her just before they parted ways. They had slipped her a piece of paper with a scribbled set of coordinates and a name and told her it was for if she ever needed a safe place to land.
After her latest narrow escape from Present, she was very careful to make sure she wasn’t followed. First managing to slip off planet unnoticed, and then using all her remaining fuel to circle around and double back enough times that she was sure her pursuant Divine’s ships were not on her tail. Now she found herself descending on an unfamiliar and seemingly hardly occupied planet with only enough fuel to get to the ground.
A loud beeping warned her that she was approaching the ground. She pulled a lever and sent up a prayer to Perennial that the landing gear was still functional. The beeping picked up pace and the landing equipment unfolded with a high pitched whine. The ship jerked violently as it made impact with the ground, Cori nearly doubled over as the straps keeping her in her chair pressed against the bruises they had left the last time she hit the ground.
Then everything was still. It was only quiet for a moment before all the noise on the ship was replaced with a loud hissing as the vents flooded the ship with cold air. The smoke started to clear around the ship and Cori unbuckled herself from her seat and stood to look out the front window. As the haze dissipated, Cori looked down at the field she had landed in to see an Apostolosian with a shotgun pointed up through the window at her.
Cori hit the button to open the door and release the ramp and took a deep breath.
“Don't shoot! I’m unarmed and I’m coming out.” Cori called as she stepped her way down the ramp with her arms in the air.
“I’m gonna need a better reason not to shoot you. Who are you and how did you find me?” The woman called back.
“Coriolis Sunset, I’m with Millenium Break.” Cori continued to take slow deliberate steps forward until her boots hit the dirt. The woman stood only a few yards away watching her down the barrel of the gun. She had long blue hair in a thick braid that matched her iridescent scales and a crooked smirk on her face that made Cori think that she really wouldn’t mind a reason to use that gun.
“Millenium Break?” She said. Cori thought she saw her shoulders relax a bit, but the shotgun was still firmly aimed at her head.
“I was a member of the Blue Channel. Captain Brnine sent me. Are you Ver’million Blue?”
“Captain Brnine.” She laughed, a bright quick sound. “My friends call me Millie. Are you a friend, then?”
“Any friend of the Captain’s is a friend of mine.” Cori smiled and tried to stand as straight as she could. “How about I call you Millie and you can call me Cori?”
Millie dropped the gun a fraction of an inch, her finger moving to hover beside the trigger instead of over it.
“What do you want then, Cori?”
“I need a resupply. Food, fuel, some time to make repairs.”
“And Brnine sent you here for that? There are better places to fuel up.” Millie shifted the barrel down another few inches, holding it in both hands, but pointed down into the dirt between them now.
“They said I’d be safe here.” Cori couldn’t help but look away as Millie’s discerning eyes raked over her. Cori suddenly felt very exposed. Being appraised made her nervous in a way that the gun pointed at her never could. But after only a few moments, Millie slung the gun up and over her shoulder and beckoned Cori forward with her free hand.
“Follow me then,” Millie turned on her heel and started heading back through the field towards a small house on the other side. Cori stood stunned as Millie cut through the tall grass away from her before she started down the trodden path to catch up.
—
The house was a small yellow cottage with a pillar of smoke billowing out of the chimney and a large hound dog laying across the front step. Millie whistled as they approached and the dog came bounding over towards them.
“Cori, this is Gus, Gus, this is Cori.” The hound fell into step beside Millie and nudged at her hand as they walked the last few paces up to the house. “Keep an eye on her,” Millie stage whispered to him.
Millie swung the door open and hung the shotgun on a rack just beside the door. Gus wandered in behind her and laid down under the table while Millie kicked off her boots and motioned Cori inside. Cori toed off her own boots and slumped into one of the chairs at the table. The room was small, but warm. The dining table took up most of the space. There was a fireplace on one wall and a kitchen on the other that was really just a stove and a sink. There was another door that led out to the back of the house and a hallway leading back to what looked like the bedroom.
“I was cooking dinner when you decided to drop out of the sky unannounced, so stew should be ready in an hour or so.”
“Oh. Thank you.” Cori tried to swallow down the guilt of intruding, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth. “I’ll try to get out of your hair as fast as I can. I really do appreciate the help.”
Millie was already in the kitchen stirring a large steaming pot on the stove. “The bathroom is down the hall to the right if you want to clean up. There’s first aid in there too if you need it.” Cori relaxed a bit now that she seemed to be out of her crosshairs. Millie carried on with her cooking, barely sparing a glance at Cori as she worked.
“Uh, thanks.” Cori was too tired to try and figure Millie out any further, so she gave up and headed in the direction Millie had pointed.
She closed the door to the bathroom behind her and pressed the lock until it clicked. Then she turned on the sink and bent over to stick her whole face under the faucet. She closed her eyes and let the cool water run down her cheeks.
The mirror was dusty and covered in water marks, but Cori could see her face reflected back at her more clearly than she had in a long time. She was skinnier than she remembered. Thin cheeks and dark bags under her eyes. She was staring, a bit hypnotically, at the prominent pulse of the vein in her thin neck when she heard a shuffling on the other side of the door.
“There’s a change of clothes outside the door if you want them. Feel free to tear them up or whatever you need to do to make them fit.” Millie called as she retreated back down the hall.
Cori opened the door and pulled in the small bundle of fabric. She closed and latched the door just as she had before, and turned back to her task. She undressed slowly, having to reach back around and in between the wings on her back to reach the clasp that held her flight suit closed. When it was hanging loose around her waist Cori glanced up at herself in the mirror again. Long stripes of bruising littered her torso where the seatbelts had dug deep into her skin. The blood bloomed purple just under the surface. She winced as she prodded at the ache.
She hadn’t lost much blood, although she reminded herself she didn't need to worry about leaving a bit of blood unaccounted for anymore. Her fingers settled against the base of her neck to feel the familiar beat of her pulse, a different ache.
The shower was hot enough to leave her flushed and lightheaded, and she stayed under the spray until it started to cool. Then she sat on the edge of the tub to dry her hair and preen her wings until she felt the pieces of herself fall a little more into place.
She emerged from the bathroom to the smell of spices she didn’t recognize. Millie was still hovered over the stove, so Cori found her seat at the table again. Gus had not moved from his place under the table except to lift his head and watch her with wary eyes.
Cori murmured another series of thank yous to Millie, but couldn’t come up with anything more to say. The two of them sat for a long minute with just the sound of a wooden spoon against the metal pot as she stirred before Millie spoke up.
“So what's the news from the front? Assuming that's where you came from.”
“I'm actually not entirely sure. Coming here was more of a last resort than a first pick. I’ve been on the run for a while.”
Millie just nodded and brushed her braid back behind her shoulder. She brought the pot of stew over and set it on the table. She ladled out three bowls and set the first in front of Cori, the second on the ground for Gus and cradled the third in her lap as she sat down and kicked her feet up on the spare chair between them and leaned back on the back two legs of her own chair.
Cori tried to force herself to eat slowly at first, but Millie and Gus both dug in with fervor so Cori followed suit. Soon enough they were scraping the last remnants of broth from the bottoms of the bowls.
“We can get your supplies sorted and see about repairs tomorrow.” Millie said as she cleared the dishes.
“Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”
Another silence stretched out in front of them and Cori gave in to her curiosity.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“Why did you agree to help me?” Cori rubbed at the ache in her collarbone, pressing into the bruise just under the bone. "Not that you shouldn’t have,” she added quickly.
“Because even if you are lying, and I don’t think you are,” Millie paused with another one of her long discerning looks. She shrugged. “I know I can take you.” She smirked and pulled a knife from somewhere, Cori wasn’t entirely sure where, to pick her teeth. “And those sad puppy dog eyes are pretty effective.”
Cori could feel a laugh bubbling in her chest and she tried to let it rise to the surface.
With the tension eased between them, conversation flowed a little easier and the sun dipped under the horizon behind them as they talked about how the weather had been lately on this planet and how bad Cori's last batch of rations had been and precisely nothing at all.
“The bed is yours if you want to get some sleep.” Millie said after Cori failed to hide a particularly big yawn.
“What about you?” Cori said as she stood.
“I’ve got a cot in the shed, don’t worry about me.”
Cori conceded easily and slumped towards the bedroom. She flopped face down on the soft mattress, asleep in seconds.
—
When Cori woke she knew it had only been a couple hours. Jolted out of an incomprehensible nightmare that left her shaking and cold. She flipped onto her back and took a couple slow breaths. Through the window she could see the flickering shadows of fire light in the backyard. Cori slid out of bed and headed for the door.
She tiptoed past a sleeping Gus sprawled out on the rug by the back door. The door was ajar and the sky outside was pin pricked with bright stars. Millie was facing away from her, sitting on a chair she had dragged down onto the lawn. She was lit by the small fire she was stoking in front of her. The smoke billowed up thick and gray, blurring the night sky above her. Whatever she was burning smelled sickly sweet
“Can't sleep?” Cori called quietly from the porch. If Millie was surprised, she didn’t show it. She just turned halfway in her chair to face Cori and tossed the stick in her hand back behind her into the flames.
“Something like that. Did you need something?”
“Can I sit for a while?”
Millie nodded. Cori pulled the other porch chair down the stairs behind her and pulled it up next to Millie. She sat and watched the fire lick over the dry branches it was consuming.
“You can stay here as long as you'd like, as long as you don't bring any trouble.” Millie said.
Cori ran her fingers along the exposed skin on the inside of her wrist, pressing lightly over the vein. It was an old habit, an empty gesture, but it soothed her nonetheless. “I won't stay long.”
“Would you stay here, if you knew no one would find you?” Millie asked.
“I’m not just running, I’m chasing someone too.” Cori admitted.
“Well who's after you?” Millie's voice was a bit rough with smoke and she spoke softly, just loud enough to be heard over the crack of the smoldering embers.
“Present.”
“The Divine Present?” Millie asked, rhetorically.
“I killed Gallica.” Cori said, simply.
Cori waited for the judgement that she knew should be coming. The shadows from the light of the fire cast Millie’s face in contrast, but Cori didn't know her well enough to read her stoic expression.
After a beat of unbearable silence, Millie's face broke into a wide smile, her sharp teeth glinting in the flickering light.
“Badass. Brnine taught you well.” Millie punched her arm lightly. Cori would have bit her tongue over the truth, but she didn't think Brnine would want the false credit for it. Brnine didn't like taking credit for their own kills.
“Brnine is a great captain, the best even, but they didn't have to teach me how to kill.”
“Fair enough.” Millie conceded easily, but she raised her eyebrow in question and waited.
“I was raised as a pilot of the Church of Devotion.”
“Never heard of them.”
“They told me I was a sword. A shield. A light that would shed the glory of Devotion on everything I touched. They showed me how to spill blood, and then took aim, with me as the weapon.” Cori shook her head a bit, the blood rushing in her ears. “I’m not with them anymore, but with Millenium Break, I suppose you could say the skills were transferable.”
Millie threw another branch on the fire and leaned back in her chair to look up into the sky.
Cori took a deep breath, letting the smoke sit heavy and cloying in her lungs. Perennial had been quiet lately, but she felt a hum in the back of her mind. It seemed to be reeling her in and setting her loose all at the same time. She didn’t know what to make of it.
Cori stared out into the darkness, there were no lights in the distance besides the stars.
“Where do you even get supplies on this planet?” Cori mused, changing the subject. “It seems like there’s no one else here.”
“There's a couple settlements within communication distance. Very little comes in and out from off planet, but it’s possible. Rations are easy, farm land is about the only thing we have here. Fuel will be expensive, but not too difficult to get our hands on. Ship parts are harder, but we can source some scrap and make do with what we can get. Is there anything else you need?”
“I just need to be able to keep moving.”
“We'll go to the scrapyard. I'll put a call in about fuel and rations tomorrow and we should be able to pick it up the day after.”
Two days. At least. Cori didn't know if it was Perennial anymore, but her mind was buzzing at the idea of sitting still for so long.
“Do you want my help with anything while we wait?”
“Sure, I'll let you earn your keep.”
—
Cori woke late the next day and by the time she made her way outside, Millie was already in the garden wearing a wide brimmed straw hat carrying a bucket and a pair of heavy metal shears. She looked up when Cori came out and waved.
“I’d offer you a hat, but I don’t think I have any that would work with your wings.” Millie motioned to the top of her own head, her hand flapping like a wing. Cori laughed.
“Oh it's okay, I don’t mind a little natural light. Nothing like space travel to make you appreciate the warmth of a nearby sun.” Cori walked through the gate of the garden.
“I called in this morning, we can pick up all your gear tomorrow.”
“That's great, thanks.”
Millie dropped the bucket she was carrying next to the fence and pulled out another pair of metal shears to toss to Cori.
“Ready to get to work?”
They walked down the fence to the start of one of the rows of plants. The vines were thick and yellow, running up the fence and tied up on stakes in barely contained rows. There were deep purple fruits growing on the vines, the size of Cori’s palm and shaped like hearts.
Millie explained how to tell if the fruit was ripe, where to cut the stems to harvest, and how to prune the vines after the fruits had been picked. Cori nodded along, watching closely with one hand held over her eyes to shield her from the bright daylight.
Cori spent the day taking short steps down the row of plants, kneeling to test the fruits, and plucking only the ripest before shuffling a little further down. Millie worked much faster than her, starting on the opposite side of the row and working her way down to the end before Cori had made it halfway. She insisted Cori was doing well, and left her to continue as she moved on to a large tree filled with tiny green berries.
The sun wandered across the sky as the hours passed easily and a now familiar crisp breeze washed over Cori. She was hot and tired and sweaty, but the breeze was refreshing and the work felt good. The bucket was overflowing with plump purple fruits by the time she finished and Millie gave her a big thumbs up from the limb of the tree she had climbed up on to shake the green berries loose onto the tarp she had placed below her.
“Worked up an appetite?” Millie asked as she jumped down from the tree, flinging herself outwards to avoid the berries she had collected below her and landing on one knee in the soft dirt. Cori nodded and hauled the bucket up to the house.
Millie ground up the berries and collected the juice into a large pitcher. She poured them each a glass and took a long sip of her own. The berry juice was tart and strong, and although there was no ice in the drink it felt cool and tingly on her tongue, almost numbing. Cori tried to savor it, but after sweating in the sun all afternoon she found herself gulping down two glasses.
Millie held one of the large purple fruits in her hand and began cutting off thick slices. The skin gave way to a deep red marbled flesh. She offered Cori a slice, which she accepted readily. It was chewy and meaty and the thick juice that dripped down her chin had a bit of a metallic tinge. Cori loved it.
Millie filled both their glasses with juice again and continued to carve pieces of fruit, alternating between eating one herself and handing one over to Cori.
“It's so peaceful out here. Is this what every day is like for you?” Cori said.
“My days depend on the season, but it is always this quiet.”
Cori listened for a moment and only heard the rustle of the grass in the wind and the distant chirp of insects.
“You don't get lonely?” Cori scuffed her boot along the floorboards.
“I have Gus to keep me company.” Millie scratched under his chin and he laid his head gently in her lap.
“Right, yeah,” Cori said. Millie handed her another slice of fruit. “But don't you miss all the people you left behind.” Cori winced. “Not like, left behind, just like. Y'know. They're out there. You're here. I'm guessing you don't see them much.”
“You're right. I don't get to see them.” Millie's tone was clipped. Cori flushed, and clamped her mouth shut. “But maybe someday.” Millie sighed.
Millie offered her another slice of fruit and Cori crushed it in between her teeth.
“I do. Miss them.” Millie was staring intently at her hands as she worked. “It's the not knowing that bothers me. It can take a long time for news to make it all the way out here.”
“Is there something you want to know about?”
Millie chewed slowly, and swallowed, “you said you were on the Blue Channel.” Cori nodded. “Were you there for the combustors then?”
Cori steeled herself against memory. Flashes of the horrors she saw on the moon and the nightmares of the red sun.
“We were split up.”
“I heard Phrygian.” Millie said. “I got their message.”
“Did you know them?” Cori hadn’t given it much thought to it before, but if Millie knew Brnine, she probably knew the others too.
“We worked together, at the beginning of all the Millenium Break stuff.” Millie had finished slicing away the fruit from the pit she was holding and she was whittling away at the pit itself. “They were one of the only people who really understood that the point of all the fighting was that one day we wouldn’t have to anymore.” Millie tossed half of the mangled pit aside and it bounced down off the porch and into the dirt.
“We thought they were a ghost at first.” Millie said. “It didn’t occur to anyone that the deck of the ship might just be like that.”
Cori laughed and let the grief wash over her in waves. It used to feel like she was drowning underneath it, but now she could catch her breath as it came and went. And in the low tides there were bright pools of happier memories.
“That does sound like them.” Cori fixed her gaze on the horizon. “On the Blue Channel they were a studio apartment. I used to go in there on the nights when I couldn't sleep. They had the softest pillows and the room was always exactly the right temperature. They would play music, or be music? It was like some kind of lullaby. And then in the morning they would have breakfast waiting for me. It was just cereal, but there was always a toy at the bottom of the box.”
Cori had lined up all the toys on one of Phrygian’s bookshelves, and every time she went inside they were all lined up exactly as she had left them. She wished she had kept one.
The light was fading in the sky and the brightest stars were poking through the lavender sunset. Cori tried to be grateful that all those stars were out there, safe, because of what Phrygian did.
They went back and forth for a while, trading battle stories and complaints about Millenium Break politics. Millie regaled Cori with a loosely embellished Exeter Leap adventure and Cori attempted to relay her version of what she called Brnine’s “situationships” which required a poorly drawn diagram carved into the dirt with a stick.
—
The next morning Millie loaded up her trailer with supplies for barter and hooked it to the back of her hover bike. They rode across miles of fields until they reached a scrapyard with tall walls of corrugated metal and piles of rusting machine parts scattered all around. Several robots that looked to be made of the same scrap were scattered all around doing various jobs.
Millie handled all the bargaining. She spoke animatedly with a lanky robot that had two entirely different legs while Cori idled by the bike. In the end they got all the fuel and rations and were able to add on some of the parts they needed for the repair for free as long as they hauled them out themselves. Once it was done Cori asked for the cost, but Millie refused her attempt to pay.
The drive back was slower now that they were loaded down with all the gear. Cori just closed her eyes and opened her wings and let the wind whip against them.
Back at the ship, Cori insisted on unloading everything herself, a poor attempt at evening the score since Millie had refused to let her pay. Millie obliged and took Gus out into the fields to play fetch.
Cori hauled each box up the ramp one by one. The strain in her muscles felt good and she worked without stopping until everything was loaded onto the ship. With the supplies all packed away, Cori sat down on the ground and pulled out the ship manual again. She pulled off the metal sheets obscuring the wiring under the control panel and shimmied under it to check the original repairs she had done.
The afternoon did not move as quickly as the day before. Cori unwound the two wires in her hands and pulled herself further under the control panel to try and tease out which input went to what. Cori's previous mechs had been made of mirage and divine tech that existed almost entirely in code and on displays, the wires themselves had been immaterial.
Buttons and levers and cables were all new to her. She pulled out another tangled coil and tried to map them to the faded diagram. She let out a frustrated sigh and pushed herself out from under the panel.
“Hey!” Millie cried out in protest, tripping over Cori's legs as they slid out from under the panel. She stumbled a step further and dropped the metal box she was holding onto the ground beside Cori with a loud clatter.
“Sorry!” Cori sat up and pulled her legs underneath her. “I can't tell what anything is under there. It’s a mess, and I'm not even sure if I'm fixing the problem or just making new ones.”
“Well lucky for you, I've come to the rescue. This is an old Apostolosian model. These units were still in service when I started my training. It's what we first practiced our combat repairs on. Let me take a look.” Millie pulled Cori up to her feet.
“This is a really old model, are you sure?” Cori had read the date on the manual, and she hadn't thought Millie was that much older than her.
“Are you calling me old?”
“No, of course not. I'm just surprised Apostolos held onto these for so long”
“They replace these every couple years. Apostolos would never be caught with out of date rigs.”
Cori must not have done a good job hiding the look on her face as she did the math.
“I'm not that old,” Millie insisted. “I just went through my training fifteen years before most people do.”
“Oh!”
“Oh?” Millie crossed her arms, the gills in the sides of her neck ruffled in annoyance.
“No, I just mean, me too. Being raised in the Church means being raised to fight for the Church. I set foot in my first cockpit at eleven.”
“I don’t remember my first time. I don't think there was a time before I was a soldier.” Millie kicked the sole of her boot against the edge of the metal box beneath her. “I wasn't just born for it, they built me in a lab, I was never going to be anything else.”
“But you are.” Cori said. Millie looked down at her with big sad eyes and smiled.
“Yeah, I guess you're right. It’s just that when you’re a kid, and it’s the only thing you’ve ever known and they tell you who you are, you believe them. It’s hard to shake.”
“I bled myself dry over and over again worshipping a false god. So believe me when I say I know what you mean.”
“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I think that I’m still there. And I wonder if I had just been better, if I’d just been what they wanted me to be, would I be happier?” Millie asked.
“Maybe. If I had stayed, I could be with my family. I could have all the power I ever wanted. But that doesn’t make it right. And I’m not bad for being the person I am. And neither are you.”
“You’re very wise, Cori.” Millie shook her head a bit and then crouched down to look at the panel that Cori had all but dismantled. “Alright enough of that. Open up that box for me and see if you can find a washer about this big,” she held up her hand to approximate the size, “a square peg, a zip tie, and the coil of copper wire.”
Cori sat down in front of the box and set to work.
—
“Go ahead and try the ignition?” Millie yelled from her position under the ship. Cori gave it a few tries, the metal panels shuddering all around her.
“A little more!” Millie called even louder over the engine.
Cori cranked the dial all the way up and flipped the switches in the order that Millie had shown her. The engine roared even louder, but the shaking leveled off to a low vibration. Millie ran up the ramp and hauled it closed behind her. She fell into the copilot chair as the ship rumbled steadily. She had a smear of grease across her forehead and a wild glint in her eye.
“It works!” Millie whooped.
The ship was already loaded and now that it was running, Cori was loath to shut it back down.
“I guess it’s time then.” Cori said.
Millie’s face fell a little. “You don’t have to rush off.”
“I wish that were true.”
“Right. Well, you should have enough rations for a couple months. The fuel will get you at least two systems over with some to spare. And the repairs should get you at least that far, there’s no major damage to any of the internals and I was able to fix all the controls. If it gives you any trouble, I wrote some notes,” Millie produced a notebook filled with diagrams and addendums to the original manual, “so you should be able to take care of it yourself.”
“Is there anyone you want me to get a message to?” Cori asked.
“Nah. Leap and I have our ways of staying in touch. But, just like I told Brnine, if someone needs a place to crash,” Millie winked and gestured back towards the house, “you can send them my way.”
Millie stood and swung her arms at her sides. Cori jumped up and wrapped her arms around Millie. “See you again someday.” Cori whispered.
“Someday.” Millie echoed. She headed down the ramp and back towards the house with Gus.
Cori watched them through the front window as the ship rose up through the clouds and out of the atmosphere. She set to work inputting the coordinates for her next destination and deleted all of the data in the ship logs about the planet she left behind. For good measure she also reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper with the coordinates, and after checking that she had them memorized, she grabbed a lighter. The ashes drifted lazily onto the floor of the cockpit as Cori settled in for a long flight.