The Fringe Wars

5.7

Charred Ruminations

Tulan Port, Playa

Reyne kicked a melted bot across the blackened floor. Around him, everything that'd been in his office was either ashes or charred clumps of debris. The stone walls, covered in soot, were otherwise fine. Durability of infrastructure was one of the few nice things about living in Playa's underground tunnels. A consistent temperature was another nice thing, but at the moment Reyne wasn't paying much attention to that.

Sixx tsked. "What a perfectly good waste of Terran whiskey."

Reyne rubbed a burn near his elbow. "Better it than me."

Boden did a three-sixty, taking in the room. He walked over to the vent, knelt, and examined it.

Bree picked up a scorched spider bot and juggled it in her hands. "I can't believe someone's trying to kill you."

"But I've been saying it all along," Sixx said.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, but you always think someone's out to kill us."

Sixx lifted his chin. "And have I ever been wrong?"

"You really want me to start a list?" she countered.

Boden returned and faced Reyne. "Are you sure the bots were sent to kill you? Maybe they were sent into your office to steal something, and you were there."

"Not a chance," Reyne said. "Those little bastards came right at me. They weren't acting erratic like wires got crossed somewhere. Those things were programmed to come into my office and kill me. You should've seen them. They were like tiny maniacal killers on eight legs."

Sixx cocked his head. "If these were the same bots we saw working the Collective wing, it narrows down our list of suspects. I haven't seen any other groups around here supplement their workforce with spider bots."

"Agreed," Reyne said. "I'd bet my life that these bots were Legacy Star bots, which means I need to talk with the two Collective representatives here in Tulan Port."

Sixx mused. "Simon? I could see that. Hadley? She seems too nice."

"Those are the ones to watch out for the most," Bree said.

Reyne frowned, neither liking the idea nor discounting it. "We have to assume it could be either or both of them, or anyone on their staff."

"It could be an attempt at a coup," Sixx said. "The best time for the Collective to take control of Tulan Port is before we have our defenses in place."

"Or, it could be someone trying to make it look like a citizen is trying to kill you," Bree said. "No one would think twice about a citizen doing something like that, so it'd be a perfect cover if it was a colonist."

"Why would a colonist try to kill Reyne?" Boden asked.

Bree shrugged.

"There are plenty of reasons," Sixx said. "Someone blames you because their kid died during the war,someone doesn't want you as a stationmaster, someone craves your job, someone simply doesn't like you—"

Reyne feigned disgruntlement. "Who wouldn't like me?"

Sixx eyed him. "Maybe it's not even personal. The war's over, but the Alliance is new. Maybe it's just someone trying to make a statement by taking out a stationmaster."

"That sounds very personal to me," Reyne said.

Bree sighed. "Instead of sitting around and talking about who tried to kill our friend, how about we start asking around to see if anyone saw or heard anything."