Information: Dark Matter Volume 1

Chapter 3

Ari stood at the railing of her friend Nireet's 12th floor balcony and stared out across the harbor while the sun set. Nireet was great. She was currently on the road and more than happy to let Ari crash at need. The view was amazing today. No grey overhanging clouds. Instead purple sky over purple mountains, then in the growing dark of the harbour: ships, cranes, gantries. Lights like jewels. Vancouver's harbor was amazing. Ships from across the Pacific mingled with starships, floating, waiting their turns to load or unload. One of the largest ports in all of human habitation, goods moving on and off planet, and from here around the world by ship and rail. A great spot to think—and not like her tiny apartment with its view of an alley.

She'd met Nireet at the gym. They'd swapped turns spotting while the other went up the climbing wall. Ari had given her some pointers and they'd gone out for drinks after. Now she saw Nireet more or less whenever her friend was in town, which wasn't a lot. Not a good friend, but about as close as she got to anyone. That seemed to suit Nireet as well. And it meant she had a decent place to crash whenever her apartment got to be too much for her. Or, for times like now when she wanted to get out from observation. Nireet's family had money and that meant top security on the place. So at the moment it was the perfect place to think. Strange things were happening, and she didn't want to wonder about who might be looking at her.

She ran over the scenario the spacer had given her; it made no sense. He'd bought an artifact in an off-world curio shop. There had been some sort of accident on the flight here and when he woke up an alien thing had taken up occupancy in his head. Now he wanted to find out what happened and get the alien ghost thing out of his head.

If there was information out there, she could find it. But it really made no sense. There were no aliens. Everyone knew this. Humanity had been looking for a couple of centuries. It had been one of the priorities from the beginning of space flight. Everyone had gone looking. Some were looking still. But there had been no sign of anything. Nothing. Evidence for alien creatures or civilizations was zero. So far humans were all the civilization there was, not that she was sure humans were very civilized.

So, not a lot of clues to guide a search. Alien artifacts—zero. Alien life forms, nothing significant. Except for a spacer with the belief that he had an alien in his head. Plus, a pretty weird bronze bowl in his bag.

She pulled up the photos she'd taken of the artifact: a metal bowl, bronze in colour, about three-quarters of a sphere. The really interesting stuff was the pattern stamped or cut into the inside, almost in what looked like a pattern of words. The shapes were angular, everything with sharp corners, so close together that there was no real sense of breaks like words. Some of the symbols were regularly repeated. Others might have been unique, or repeated far enough away that she couldn't see the repetition.

He told her he hadn't thought much about the bowl when he bought it. He'd known it was 'different.' His side glance as he said it told her he was holding something back. There was more, but so what. He seemed clear that alien artifact was not the first thought that went through his mind.

She had agreed that perhaps it was alien. It certainly was 'off' in a way that felt disturbing. But she wasn't sure it wasn't just a clever work of art. But that wasn't her problem. He was a paying client, a paying client who had something. And other people with real resources were tracking him. Right now that was important, particularly after she had had to blow her front. Too much interest in this and it was going to stick with her. They would be all over her as long as she was on this case and that would poison her future. WISO took its job seriously. Terrorism was real and lived through information. They would be persistent and flag everything she did. And who were the others she had detected? This guy had lots of people following him. Her clients paid for complete confidentiality and maybe she could give that, but it would take time and distance to be sure. So she was burned for now. That hurt. Fuck, she was angry! She had enjoyed Vancouver. This was a great city to work in. Now she would have to leave and set up somewhere else. Till she did, she had this case to solve. But the problems... She listed them off.