Chrome Symphony - Chapter 4

Renk helped Elise carry some luggage cases out of the shuttle. They were walking along the streets of the colony, looking around at the various sights.

"Have you ever been to space before," asked Elise.

"Yeah, several times, but only to work at military outposts. I've never been to a resort-style colony before," replied Renk.

Renk looked at the buildings and noticed the beaches. "Wow... it's like a true Eden out here," he exclaimed. "I can see why people planet-side are so desperate to find a way to these places."

The colony was cleaner, less congested, and overall more hospitable than the crowded ghettos of the cities on Earth. He didn't see any homeless people or gang members anywhere. Renk could hardly believe such places could exist.

Renk's sense of amazement was quickly dampened as he remembered the current circumstances. In all of the confusion during the fight at the EMA facility on Earth, Renk had been accused of working with the Herei Mob Army - or some other terrorist group - and was actually on the run from the same military he had served up until yesterday. With the exception of a few of his comrades that hadn't been present in the EMA headquarters tragedy, he had very few people within the military he could trust.

"Elise, while you were taking care of the commotion back at the Velvet Room last night, I took a little stroll to get some fresh air and call in a favor from one of my trusted comrades," said Renk.

"Yeah, what of it," asked Elise, not being sure of what he was trying to say.

"He brought me Jess's sword. It was confiscated after they took siege of the EMA facility. He didn't want to tell me over the communicators but the military managed to identify you, Atlas, and the deckers. They also presumed that Jess was dead."

Elise shrugged. "What are you getting at?"

"They couldn't track us last night. That's the only reason we're alive right now."

Elise gave an annoyed sigh. "You say that but..."

Renk shook his head. "No, I'm serious. We're going to have the whole goddamned military on our asses the second we get planet side again."

Renk then noticed Jess, Duncan, Atlas, and Shell walking toward them. "Over here!" yelled Renk.

Atlas ran over to Renk and Elise. "Elise?!" shouted Atlas, somewhat confused. "How the hell did you get here?"

Renk laughed. "Never mind the details. She brought us some goodies!"

Atlas looked at the suitcases and then at Renk. He could tell from Renk's expression that Elise had gotten them some rather nice supplies.

The rest of the group caught up to them. "We turned over Dr. Heimborem and Camay said our transportation was arranged for the trip to NEA726," Atlas told Renk and Elise. "The deal is, though, if it gets ugly out there, we might get stranded. The colony's got to cover its own ass, after all."

Atlas stretched and took a deep breath. It had been a while since he breathed truly clean air. He was so used to the thick smog of the slums that he'd forgotten what it was like. Even the air in the countryside, where they had been at Duncan's farm house, had some level of pollution.

"Man!" Atlas exclaimed. "I really wish we could be here under better circumstances."

Atlas looked over at the beach. There were some people sitting around eating ice cream and others messing around on surf boards in the lake.

He wasn't really in the mood to play around. After escaping into space, Atlas felt a deep guilt as he remembered the people he had inadvertently killed. They had been desperate to escape to this paradise and his actions cut their lives short in the attempt. The guilt crawled up his spine and gave him a sick feeling.

Then he suddenly began to crave some ice cream.

Shell noticed Atlas looking at the beach. She then looked at Jess, who appeared very tense. Renk was laughing very nervously, as if he were trying to force himself not to break down from stress. In fact, Renk was really yucking it up over there next to Elise.

"Elise!" shouted Shell. "You weren't on the shuttle, were you?"

There was a moment of awkward silence, partially brought about by Renk's... unusual behavior.

Shell looked over at the beach. "You know, most of the beaches on Earth are so polluted that they're unusable," she said. "I've never been able to go to a nice beach in my entire life."

Duncan nodded. "Despite everything that was done to use clean energy sources, there were quite a few ecological disasters in my lifetime that sealed the fate of many of the world's beaches, I'm afraid," he said.

Shell sighed. "When this is all over with and we rescue Mr. Price..." Shell looked over at Jess. "Well, afterward, how about we relax on the beach and enjoy ourselves?"

Atlas walked back over to the group. He had an ice cream cone and began eating it with a somber look on his face. It was almost as awkward as Renk's laughing fit.

Shell looked back at Jess. "Some of us REALLY need a chance to unwind."

"Hey guys," Elise shouted, by way of greeting. "Good to see you all made it up here, too!" She inclined her head slightly to Jess. "And congratulations on your recovery, Lazarus. This is a hell of a way to celebrate getting out of the hospital."

"Of course I was on the shuttle," Elise answered Shell's question. "Just not in the cabin with you guys. There wasn't enough time for me to try sneaking on up and pulling a stewardess routine, sadly."

"Glad to hear the job's done and we've got the next leg of the trip lined up, but I can't really hand out any of the luggage I brought here." she lifts a finger to her lips and winks.

"Honestly...after getting so used to the s***ty air and acid rain, a place like this with such a thoroughly-scrubbed atmosphere just feels wrong." It wouldn't kill her, but the air was rather...sterile, compared to the usual perfume in a good zone of urban sprawl.

She pondered the next job for a bit. "I'm not sure we can avoid it getting ugly, although there are a few ways to remedy that problem." She left the obvious solution of "kill 'em all" unsaid.

"If we've got a bit of a layover, we ought to make the most of it, though. Hm...I think I forgot to pack a swimsuit..." She did take a moment to pull up some menus in her neutral interface, and set her hair to a nice shade of iridescent blue, shot through with darker streaks and fading to the same darker shade near the tips.

"First things first, we should probably find a couple hotel rooms."

"Hmmm... the beach sounds nice," Duncan replied to Shell. "I'm not much of swimmer but I could use some ice cream like what Atlas has there..." Duncan started at Atlas for a few seconds. "Hey, Atlas, you okay, buddy," he asked.

Atlas kept eating his ice cream, presumably off in his own world at the moment.

"Anyway," Duncan continued, "We're not out of the woods yet, even if we can rescue Mr. Price."

Duncan started walking toward the hotel. In response to Elise, he said, "Let's get a couple of hotel rooms so we can at least set up a base of operations. Once we're settled in and everything, we can get something to eat and work out a general plan of attack."

Looking at Shell, Duncan added, "I suppose we could find time for swim suit shopping, as well. Personally, I'm going to make sure that I'm very well rested before tomorrow."