Transference Station by Stephen Hunt

is the bullshit name he’s given the world… Abracadabra.’
    ‘Abracadabra. Now you see it, now you don’t. How fitting.’
    ‘Where the hell are we heading?’ asked Zeno.
    ‘Into trouble, android,’ said the silhouette. ‘Trouble as deep as the space in which you are being paid to venture. I would advise you not to accept this commission.’
    ‘Shit, I could have told you that. But Lana’s convinced…’
    ‘No, she’s merely desperate. The economics of the Edge are in flux.’
    ‘Fuck it, the whole galaxy’s been in flux since my metal ass was manufactured, far as I can see it. Change is the only constant. You need to throw me a bone here.’
    ‘Change her mind, then, android.’
    ‘I can’t! Set up one of your cover companies. Get it to offer us an alternative contract that pays more.’
    ‘And then what? Another front company and another fake job after that? Lana will spot it and she will want to know from whose charity she has been benefiting. And she will eventually trace the paper trail back to me. And then we will all be in danger of Lana remembering who she was before her memories were erased. That cannot be allowed to happen!’
    ‘Tell me about this world, damn you. Is it uninhabited?’
    ‘I hope so, for the crew’s sake.’
    ‘Can’t you give me one straight answer? What the fuck are you saying, man?’
    ‘What I am telling you is that merely knowing about this world is enough to get you killed if the wrong people find out you are travelling there. And in this matter, there are very few right people.’
    ‘Ignorance is going to get us capped just as easily.’
    ‘Really, and I was under the impression that you were trying to die? Such an inconvenience that your kind are programmed never to commit suicide or allow humanity to do the job for you.’
    ‘I need to forget all the shit we done, man. I don’t want Lana to die, or any of the others on board the Rose . That’s the only damn reason why I’m still spying for you.’
    ‘Oh, I think we both know there are other reasons. As far as DSD’s latest project is concerned, I will work behind the scenes and see if I can ease your way,’ announced the silhouette, with the weighty judgemental tones of someone who was used to having the final say on the matter. ‘That is all I can do if you are unable to change the captain’s mind. I am have considerable resources at my disposal, but I am not omnipotent.’
    ‘That’s real big of you,’ snapped Zeno.
    ‘Have you have seen Sophia yet?’
    Zeno didn’t deign to reply.
    ‘Or perhaps you thought I wasn’t aware that you were paying the owner of the Six Left Feet to look after Sophia on the station?’
    ‘Bar’s changed ownership. And there isn’t a whole lot left to look after, now, is there?’ said Zeno. ‘You saw to that.’
    ‘Hardly my choice,’ said the silhouette, the image on the screen freezing for a second with the transmission’s appallingly low frame rate. ‘And I always pay my debts, eventually.’
    ‘To everyone but me.’
    ‘The race that can extract your sentience are not planetary-based, they are a gypsy culture. Finding them again is no easy thing.’
    ‘Try searching harder,’ said Zeno.
    ‘And who will monitor Lana Fiveworlds after you are rewound back to being an unfeeling, unthinking machine again?’
    ‘That will be your problem, baby, not mine. I won’t be able to care any more, and that’s the point.’
    ‘So many problems pressing down on me, android, I’m not sure I can cope with another.’ He laughed. ‘Oh well. Now you see me,’ said the silhouette, ‘and now you don’t.’
    Zeno shook his head at the dark screen as the terminal powered down. ‘Abra-fucking-cadabra.’
     

CHAPTER 4
    — One for each stalk —
     
    Lana tramped through the launch bay of the Gravity Rose with Professor Sebba in tow, an unwanted ghost at the goddamn feast. With Lana still suffering from queasiness after the last hyperspace jump, giving the head of