Warden

She supposed it was another renter and sat down on the bed next to the shaft.
The noise stopped entirely a moment later. She didn’t think the climber had gone farther than Will’s door, but she had no access to any of the shaft’s cameras to verify that. She glanced at her overhead map instead and confirmed that it wasn’t Horatio—the robot’s indicator flashed steadily in the chamber below hers. She tried to access the newcomer’s public profile through the hatch and got a hit. It was a woman. Ms. Merith Myers. Twenty-two years old. No occupation was listed, but she was pretty, at least according to the picture included with the profile.
Rhea heard the muffled sound of a hatch opening and closing, and then very soft, muted voices. A short time later she heard a steady banging sound, as of a headboard repeatedly striking a wall. She also heard muffled screams. A woman’s.
Fearing the worst, Rhea leaped off the bed and went to the central shaft. She acted completely on instinct: she didn’t know what she was going to do, but she would confront Will and somehow stop him from harming the woman.
Before she could open the hatch, the screams became more distinct: “Yes! Yes!”
She backed away from the shaft, feeling embarrassed, and the back of her legs hit the bed. She sat back down and ran a quick Net search on the keywords: human mating.
That took her down the porn rabbit hole, and she ended up watching more than a few videos, partially to distract herself, but also in the hopes they would jog some sort of memory. No such luck. Nor did she experience anything close to arousal, not that her current body was equipped to satisfy such feelings even if she did.
Eventually the screaming subsided, and after a moment’s respite, she heard the muted sound of the overhead hatch opening, followed by the rising and falling clangs from the shaft as the woman departed.
Rhea closed her eyes and slept.
The heavy-lidded man known as Kator stood in the dark alleyway, wearing his usual black vest and brown pants. He disliked the darkness, because it meant his face was harder to see; that face helped him intimidate those he dealt with, courtesy of the scars crisscrossing his features, and the uneven nose. His extensive build also helped, but that wasn’t really visible either at the moment, save in silhouette.
Before him, seated on the ledge with her legs hanging down, resided Veil, Scourge of the North. She wore a black robe that covered her entire body, so that only her face was visible. A beautiful face. Synthetic. The light from a nearby lamp glinted off her chiseled features.
“Harringer sends his regards,” Kator told Veil. He opened up an encrypted transfer window on his HUD and sent her the required cut from the casino’s profits.
“Thank you.” Veil stood to go, balancing on the ledge. Multiple broad protrusions beneath the robe hinted at a form that wasn’t entirely human.
Kator turned to go, but then hesitated. Glancing over his shoulder at Veil, he said: “By the way, the Dagger of Khrusos is back.”
Veil paused. “Is she now?”
Kator nodded. “I spotted her outside a curio shop in Bright Row. You might want to hack into the security camera logs of that neighborhood.”
“Thank you.” Veil inclined her head.
Kator received a cred alert on his HUD from an anonymous donor: Veil had deposited a small amount in his account. A reward for the news.
“When I saw her,” Kator continued. “I figured I’d present myself and offer my usual services, but she just stared at me with fear in her eyes. I couldn’t believe it. The Dagger of Khrusos, afraid of me? Unbelievable. And get this: she’s sanded off her mark. Is there something I should know?”
Veil didn’t answer.
“You’re going to kill her, aren’t you?” Kator pressed.
Veil smiled. Her face was partially turned from him, so that the nearby glow lamp only illuminated half of it; her smile trailed off into the darkness, making it seem more twisted and vile than perhaps it should have.
“Not me,” Veil said. “I’ll leave that to the Scorpion.”

7
Rhea resumed her training the next morning. Horatio escorted her to Bardain’s cargo container, and then left Gizmo to watch over her while he did whatever it was robots did when they visited settlements.
Bardain emerged, and activated the vaulted ceiling overlay on her HUD, blotting out the sky.
“Today I’m going to teach you tactics to use against the most common foes you’ll encounter in the Outlands: the bioweapons,” he said. “Kargs, Werangs, and Tasins are the three main types. There are others, but in general, they’re all close enough to one of the three main types that you can use the same strategies to deal with them. We’ll focus on the Kargs first.”
A creature appeared in the center of the street, courtesy of her HUD overlay. At first glance the entity was vaguely similar to a giant, clawed hand, but the more she studied it, the more alien it seemed. Hued a dark crimson, it was roughly twice as tall as she was, those thin, talon-like legs connected to a body that was more carapace than anything else. Though it currently stood on all fours, the hind legs were thicker and less claw-like than the forelegs, hinting at the ability to rear back at the very least, if not stand up outright. At the front resided a head that looked like a pineapple carved from cherry wood. Thin lines formed petal-like indentations in the segmented skin of the head, giving Rhea the impression it could unfurl like a flower, no doubt to reveal a deadly maw within.
Between the four legs, several tentacles hung from the creature’s underbelly, their tips dangling a few centimeters above the ground. Those tentacles rose and fell as the creature’s carapace expanded and contracted in what appeared to be respiration. Rhea caught the occasional glint of white amid those hanging limbs—teeth?
“Can you believe these creatures were originally