When a ghost hates a ghost

Chapter 1: Hello, Failsafe

"Remember, we're only checking on a distress signal," Jayesh told his ghost as he climbed out of his ship. "Stay phased, all right?"

"I know how this works, sheesh," his ghost replied from where he was phased inside Jayesh's armor. "I don't want to be caught by the Vex any more than you do."

Nessus was a strange little world. It was a planetoid called a centaur, neither asteroid nor comet not planet, but a little of each. The Vex, a race of alien time-traveling robots, had terraformed it into a habitable world with a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, liquid water, and forests of strange plants with red leaves. Calculations also showed that the Vex had stabilized its orbit, keeping the amount of sunlight it received stable.

The Vex were up to something, as usual. An AI called Failsafe had called for help. As Nessus had been very quiet since the Traveler's awakening at the end of the Red War, the Vanguard had dispatched a light team of two warlocks to check it out. Warlocks were fast and quiet, and two of them could handle most moderate threats. It was Jayesh's first real mission, and he was jittery with nerves.

As Jayesh stood there, gazing around the strange landscape, his partner's ship descended from the sky, landing gear extended. It set down near his ship on a little plateau above the red forest. Jayesh hadn't met her yet--he'd been on orbital patrol when he received his assignment. He and the other warlock had spoken over the radio, but that was all.

The other warlock phased out of her ship with a flourish. Jayesh flinched, glad his helmet hid his face. Every inch of her gear was more expensive than his--better robe, better gauntlets, better boots. Her belt alone cost upwards of ten thousand glimmer. Jayesh wanted one, himself, and had been saving up.

"What's wrong?" Ghost said in his head. Although ghosts resembled a little flying robot with four star-like segments, they shared a symbiotic bond with their Guardian, letting them know when their Guardian was hurt or upset. Sometimes it got awkward, like now.

"Nothing," Jayesh muttered. He strode forward and shook hands with the other warlock. "Hey there! I'm Jayesh."

"Kari," said the woman. She hesitated and peered at him. "Jayesh? Are you the one who got locked into the Traveler during the Red War?"

"That's me," Jayesh said, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. The experience remained so raw, so personal, that Jayesh didn't talk about it much. After all, he and the Traveler had argued together about Ghaul and mourned the death of the Speaker. It wasn't easy to talk about such things--especially when people accused him of making it up. Sometimes, he wondered if they were right and it had been some sort of fantastic dream.

But Kari didn't ask. She gazed at him through her face plate. He dimly saw the outline of her cheek and left eye, studying him with a quizzical expression. Then she shook her head, as if brushing away her own questions. Instead, she held out a hand and displayed her ghost.

Even her ghost wore an expensive custom shell. Jayesh swallowed.

"This is Neko," Kari said. "He's practically team lead on this mission."

"Don't flatter me," Neko said, rolling his single eye. "Just because I downloaded all the Tower's files on Nessus doesn't mean I know it very well."

Jayesh summoned his own ghost, who looked very plain in his basic shell. "Here's my ghost. I just call him Ghost, though."

"You'll name him eventually," Kari said with a flash of humor. "Most Guardians do."

Ghost and Neko stared at each other balefully.

"Don't expect my Guardian to follow your orders," Ghost said. "He's not yours."

"Then you'd better make sure he follows Kari's," Neko snapped.