Road to Anywhere

Cyber Witch

Story written for "Gloves Up | A Multi-Genre Smackdown Contest", Round 4.3 (December 2022). Genre: Any.

Story word count = 3947

Life as a dangerous fugitive sucks. And how unfortunate was I to have my own personal bounty hunter chasing me across the galaxy? How had I earned such obsession? It's a hard road for an introverted girl like me.

Should have known better than to pass through a busy place like Meridian Station, a central hub for starships going almost everywhere. There was way too much security, especially facial recognition systems and genetic scanners, that I could not find and hack them all to hide my presence. But how did Zach even know I would be here?

The bustling crowd within the arrival hall represented a cross-section of the Sol Federation worlds. Clothing varied from flashy to drab, and from revealing to modest. There were families traveling to new colonies, business people visiting clients, miners hoping to strike it rich, and tourists off to see new wonders. Each followed their own dream within a moving tapestry of countless humanity. Actually, they were counted — the station security AI put the current number at eight-hundred-and-twelve souls.

Suspended screens and holographic displays provided traveler information or hawked products, but mostly, the rushing horde paid little attention. Since the Meridian Station was owned by Omni-Corp, a huge interstellar conglomerate, they commanded the prime advertizing position at the very top of the domed space.

Across the way, separated by the surging sea of humanity, I spotted Zach, and he gazed directly at me with those deep mossy-green eyes. A thousand sparks crawled down my spine, settling in my gut. As I held my breath, wishing myself invisible, a hint of a grin ripened on his face. He made a small nod and a mock two-finger salute. Was that a sign of respect, or a promise that he would catch me? Regardless, with my life at stake, he came much too close.

With a directed thought through my cybernetic implants, I accessed the station AI and scrolled through the control matrix. The code flashed across my inner eye - there it is. They really should update their firewall. With a mental toggle, I shut off the local power, plunging the hall into darkness, and locked closed all the local isolation doors, then set a one-hour timer to automatically reverse the changes. Also, I scrambled all the com nodes in the area. That should stir things up.

Sure enough, startled gasps and cries rose from the agitated throng. After a tense moment, small lights flickered on from hand-held com-viewers like countless fireflies. I mentally flipped through the station schematics, then re-powered an overhead security camera in infrared mode, using it to guide me to a chosen maintenance access door.

"Sorry," I muttered to a frantic woman as we bumped into each other.

Within the narrow service alley, wall mounted lights provided dim illumination while foul-smelling water dripped on my arm from the grimy pipes that lined the walls and low ceiling. Eventually, I came to another door that deposited me in a transit corridor, away from the action. The rounded metal portal squealed as I pushed it open.

"Excuse me," I said to the startled traveler as he veered around the swinging door.

Now to figure a way off this station. Mentally accessing the ship departure schedules, I found the small inter-system shuttle, Corinth, soon bound for Hephaestus Outpost, a small mining colony in the outer ring, and purchased a ticket under a fake name. With a simple hack, I backdated it and created a false travel itinerary, sort of a backstory to cover my tracks. Zach was smart enough that he would screen for recent ticket sales. I had already hacked all the gate genetic scanners so that they wouldn't record my passing.