Do you still dream of halcyon days

Chapter 1: Yearning Link copied

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Faux leather boots gleamed in the dim golden electrical lighting. Sharp clicks emanated on every step as the heels met the cold, flawless stone steps. Soundlessly, a hand in a thin, black silk glove slid down the burgundy wood railing, lacquered impossibly glossy and smooth.

Hours’ worth of accumulated cigarette smoke remained in the air as a thin fog, softening the lamplight in the tall hall. Voices from tens of concurrent exchanges all melted into one soft background noise track. There was no music, but you wouldn’t notice its absence for the hypnotic murmur of the mass of guests occupying every corner of the hall.

A bottle popped open somewhere in the room. The click of the heels ended as the man reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped.

He was just brushing aside a stubborn strand of dark hair from his face as a woman tapped him on the shoulder.

“So you made it in time, Felix,” she said and smiled.

Felix promptly turned around and returned the smile.

“Hey, Theresa, I didn’t see you. Thought I was early. ”

They exchanged a quick hug. Felix recognized Theresa was in her charm mode, but also genuinely happy to see him. She wore a sharp-looking navy blue suit and a welcoming smile.

“I see you’re getting used to high collars,” Theresa said. Felix instinctively touched the collar of his properly buttoned up red jacket.

“Still prefer more practical clothes,” he laughed. “Been years since we started doing this and I still can’t wait to get back each night and change.”

“I’m sure these pompous bastards do that, too,” Theresa whispered and smirked.

“Yeah, bet they’ve all got a wardrobe full of baggy shirts and overalls just like the rest of us. Just, expensive.”

They tried not to stand out too much from the crowd. Even though it wasn’t like they were crashing the party—both had proper invitations and actually some respect among the finer folks of Byzantium. In the last few years, many had adopted advocating rights of the lower classes as a fashionable hobby, a pet project of sorts. People like Felix and Theresa were perfect proxies for the poor; high-profile activists coming from humble beginnings, but recently made wealthy enough so that the rich could avoid interacting with the less aesthetically pleasing members of the working class.

That rubbed Felix way worse than the high collars or the laborious buttons of his carefully tailored wardrobe.

Theresa had noticed the sudden disdain on his face.

“It’s okay. We’ll get this over with, get drinks and catch some serials, alright?” Theresa asked and patted him on the back.

Felix hesitated.

“I don’t care for the newer stuff. They’re too real. Makes me think, and I don’t want to when I’m trying to wind down.”

“Don’t worry,” Theresa smiled. “I’ve got a collection of oldies just for that.”

Felix was just about to thank her when a loud rumble unlike anything he had ever heard drowned the low murmur of the party. The floor started to shake, just barely noticeably at first, but soon intensifying to the point where Felix started to worry if the building was going to collapse on them.

He looked at Theresa. She looked as puzzled as the rest of the crowd. The tremor soon died down, but gone was the relaxed chatter from just moments ago. People glanced around, trying to make sense of what had happened, as if at any point some eccentric would jump up and reveal this was their magnificent party trick. Fair enough, but as moments passed, nothing happened.

“Huh,” Felix summed up.

“Yes, weird. But come, we’ve got things to do,” Theresa reminded him. Felix nodded and followed her into the crowd.

A gust of wind raised a cloud of dust. Max held up his arm to shield his face and squinted.

One, two… Three.

“I can see them,” he said and pointed at three barely visible figures in the distance. An anxious young man with worn-out spectacles looked at the distance with desperation. Max felt bad for the man clearly in need of better glasses.

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them,” Max replied patiently.

“Thank Law, Armas would have killed me if I lost his horses. Or worse—fired me!” The young man sat down in relief. Max wanted to console him and remind him that getting fired wasn’t the end of the world around these parts, but there were more pressing issues at hand.

“We still need to get them back, Johann,” he reminded the young man whose relieved smile quickly turned back into a terrified frown.

“Oh, no, right…”

“Don’t worry. All we need is to get someone they trust more than either of us and they’ll let them approach and escort them back,” Max said.

“Right, someone like… Oh.” Johann’s face was pale. “You mean we get Armas.”

“He will scold you, no doubt. But there’s really no harm done now that we know the horses are safe,” Max consoled him. He took a sniper rifle from his back and handed it to Johann.

“Use this in only if you see big predators approach the horses. Smaller creatures can’t hurt them, but shooting will no doubt scare them even further away,” Max explained and mounted the large, six-legged animal behind him.

“Wait, you’re leaving me alone here? I—”

“—will be fine. There’s more than plenty of ammo in the bag. I’ll come back with Armas and we’ll all return together once we get the horses back. Just a minute, alright?” Max reassured Johann.

As Max rode alone with their horse away from Johann, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the kid. A migrant from a Board-owned town, Johann’s priorities were at complete odds with the remote, independent Monarch town’s folks’. It wasn’t about looking busy and productive anymore; it was about everyone doing their best and remembering what was best for the community. And sometimes “best” meant having to bother the tough-as-nails, tall-as-a-house saloonkeeper-slash-stableman.

Yes, Max could see why Johann was intimidated by Armas. Everyone was, until they got to know him.

It took them a good while, but in the end, Armas got the horses back, Johann only got a firm lecture on double-checking the leash and Max got back to his usual business.

“Thanks for the help. And sorry for dragging you into this,” Johann apologized to him when Max was about to leave the stables. “I still don’t know many people around here and you’ve been so kind to help me in all kinds of things although you must be so busy with all the… Uh…”

Max chuckled at the kid gently.

“I always have time to help with the folk living in the orphanage. Especially when Felix is away,” he had reassured Johann.

Truth be told, the amount of work was already eating away the amount of sleep he could afford each night. He had been busy before, then Felix had left the orphanage to him, too.

Compared to the teachers’ and older children’s role in the day-to-day of the orphanage, he was a mere helper. Yet, there was still work that fell into his hands and he hadn’t been able to find anyone else to handle the workload Felix had left behind.

Made the effort to find, really, because he knew a handful of townsfolk who would be much better fits for the role than himself.

Max stopped to count the days in his head. He was mature enough to admit to himself that in truth, he just didn’t want to give up the task because it reminded him of Felix. And he missed Felix.

Max opened the door to the last apartment in a one-story row house built from clay, debris and cottontop fiber. Despite looking humble, Max rather preferred the unique, natural feel of the building to the more common standard prefab domicile found around the colony. The plumbing left much to desire, but the apartment was roomy enough to fit a nice bed, a proper kitchen with a table, a living area and on top of that a working area.

Max took a seat in his desk chair to resume working his way through a never-ending flood of messages. Bridging the two worlds—those born in wealth and power, and those doing their hardest just to get by—was an ultimately rewarding, but at times like this, incredibly frustrating task. By each answer he picked up the pace and soon enough got to the point where he just went through the messages without having to think too much. An invitation to speak? Check the calendar. If it’s on Monarch, sure. Video link works even better. Someone asking for money? Well, despite getting plenty of gifts from the wealthy in Byzantium, none of that could be converted back to bits, which the rich didn’t either understand or care about, or possibly both. An underage asker? Check if there’s room at the orphanage.

The bell at the community house tolled, inviting those in need for spiritual guidance or simply a word with a fellow citizen to come together. To Max, it meant he should be finishing up his work here and get ready to provide the said spiritual guidance. While Max wasn’t entirely comfortable—for personal reasons—with the hierarchical religious scaffolding that was rapidly building up, the kind of grassroots level help he could offer felt more meaningful than the avalanche of faceless askers in his message inbox. Shame he couldn’t afford the luxury of ignoring them. The colony couldn’t.

Max thought of Felix. His cursor hovered over the new message button for a moment before he closed the terminal.

“Ain’t looking good,” Felix murmured to Theresa as the crowd was thinning out. His half-empty flute of sparkling wine had gone stale and warm in his hand. Fitting into this type of crowd already demanded constant focus from Felix; he feared that acting casually and pretending to have fun while having a secret agenda on top of that was just impossible for him to pull off convincingly.

Would have been easier with Max.

Theresa gently pried the glass from his sweaty palms and abandoned it on a sideboard.

“You need to relax. Let’s go get some fresh air and re-evaluate this whole thing,” she said and put her hand on his shoulder.

“What if we miss him?” Felix worried.

“We’ve been looking for him all night. He’s not here.”

“Did I button my jacket all the way up for nothing,” Felix exaggerated a dramatic sigh and then smiled. “Sure, yeah, let’s take a break.”

Felix pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Theresa responded with a pout.

“Oh, fine,” Felix sighed and tucked the pack back, despite wanting to argue that one more cigarette wouldn’t make any difference in a room thick with smoke.

Casual wastefulness didn’t sit right with Felix, so he drank down the remainder of his now flat sparkling wine before following Theresa out to the balcony. To their disappointment, they weren’t the only ones wishing to catch a whiff of the cool evening air.

“Let’s try something else,” Felix said and nodded towards the staff only door.

He’d known Theresa long enough to read the internal struggle behind her poker face; part of her wanting to liven up things and sneak around for nothing but fun; and the part of her wanting to keep fun out of the work side of things.

“You’re right about him not prancing in at this point, and these people half-expect the outsiders to do something outrageous they can gossip about. Got nothing to lose here,” Felix nudged. Theresa rolled her eyes in defeat. After years of working together, Felix knew exactly which strings to pull to tease out the more mischievous side of her.

“Fine. As long as you don’t steal anything,” she said.

“Swear they just leave their knickknacks out for me to steal so they can brag about it,” Felix argued.

Theresa shot him a dirty look.

“But yeah, no stealing. Let’s go.”

The architectural intricacies of the mansion didn’t extend one fraction beyond the staff-only door. The corridor Felix and Theresa found a hiding spot in was as industrial and cheap as the ran-down buildings in any working-class company town. Most importantly, it was quiet and absent of the cacophony of smells and bad air and cigarette smoke and prying eyes. Although he joked about being the rebel pet outsider for the upper class socialites, Felix knew painfully well he had a very strict frame within which he could move, or otherwise they’d either lose interest in or become hostile towards him. Which, on a personal level, he couldn’t have cared less about, but in the grand scheme of things, he had no choice but to care. Care as much as he cared for the future of the entire colony.

He sat down on the floor and unbuttoned his collar. Instinctively, his hand tugged towards the pack of cigarettes, but he stopped just in time. Unlike Felix who was happy just to get away from the crowd, Theresa probably needed the literal fresh air. The staff probably wasn’t allowed to smoke here anyway, and he didn’t want to cause trouble for them, either.

Felix closed his eyes for a minute or two.

“So, about the—”

“Shh,” Theresa said. She was listening to something.

“Someone’s coming,” she whispered.

“Better get back then,” Felix said and was about to get up when Theresa grabbed at his jacket and pulled him back down.

“I think I heard him talking just a second ago,” Theresa breathed so quiet Felix almost couldn’t hear her.

“Him? You mean Garrett? So he was here all along?” Felix wasn’t sure what was going on, but he matched Theresa’s volume. She dry-swallowed.

“Yes, him… Shit, someone’s coming.”

“Garrett?”

“No, I—”

A door opened. Felix didn’t think, she grabbed Theresa and clutched her in a forceful embrace. From the corner of his eye, he saw a servant glance at them, then walk past them quickly.

Theresa pushed him away as soon as the servant had disappeared from the view.

“Come up with something else next time, will you,” she hissed.

“Only thing that came to mind,” Felix shrugged.

“Is this the kind of gossip you want to feed them?” Fair enough. No way the kid would keep their mouth shut. Rebel Felix making out in the staff area was sure to earn them an extra cigarette break or two.

Felix felt a sting. Not that he usually cared what rumors they spread.

But this particular possibility hit different.

“No one I care about believes in that crap anyway,” Felix muttered, but Theresa had already moved on, intently listening again.

“I need to make sure…” Theresa trailed off as she pulled a small device out of her breast pocket.

“Put that on,” she said and handed Felix an earplug connected to the device. She pointed a pen-shaped microphone over the crate they were hiding behind and tried to pinpoint the right angle.

“You’re…………………did I…………last week…”

Fragments of what sounded like a phone conversation ringed from the earphone until Theresa found the sweet spot. It was Clive Garrett, alright. Where had he been hiding all this time while Felix had been nervously reciting his introduction all evening?

“…be frank with you since you’re a bit slow. It’s all for show. You get it now? I can’t fund something that substantial. Yes… No, I know I do. Yes… Yes… But it’s small enough that it won’t do any difference. These dumbasses are happy to get the donations anyway and the youngsters love me for ‘helping the poor’. They don’t care to investigate or anything. …mm-hmm… Yes… Oh, but I do. It’s easy to hide that money. Those folks only care about how they look, and it’s not like the commoners have any way of investigating that deep.”

What the hell was he listening in to? Felix’s heart sank, and Theresa didn’t look any better.

“Gotta go. Yes… No, been mostly sitting it out in my private cabinet with some friends… Haha… No, I can’t stand this crowd. They couldn’t stand me if they knew… Ha! Exactly. We’ll talk later. My food is getting cold.”

“What an ass,” Felix whispered and was about to yank the earplug off when he heard Garrett continue.

“Wait, one more thing………about……………tion…” The sound was starting to disappear as Garrett was apparently moving away from them.

“…et rid of the………already………………Yes, I know he’s……a vicar anymore, whatever, just……………look like an accident………………speak at an event. It’s on Stellar Bay, he’s not gonna say no… Of course it’s a hellhole, just………”

Color was quickly escaping Felix’s face. Surely the known philanthropist he’d come here to pitch a policy change to wasn’t evil. Okay, so he was a scam, turned out. But that evil? Surely he didn’t just order someone to kill a person. Surely that person wasn’t…

“………fucking DeSoto. Don’t want to see his face………………after……………Mon………Bay………event……”

The sound cut off entirely.

Felix needed to get out, now.

Max poured a finger of whiskey and sat at his desk. He wanted to wind down and get to bed, but checking his inbox nightly had become a bad habit he hadn’t been able to break free from.

He scanned the list like he was waiting to find something in particular. When that something didn’t turn up, he sank in his chair and opened a promising invitation that had arrived while he was away.

“We are delighted to invite you to speak at our prestigious event in Stellar Bay. It would be of our utmost honor to hear about your life work. We’re terribly sorry about the tight schedule, but we hope you’ll be able to attend.”

The schedule was tight. The event was only two days from now. Max sighed and scrolled through the rest of the message. The list of other guests was impressive, if one was to measure a person’s worth by their power and fame. Max didn’t have much choice these days. These were the kind of people who could make a difference. Mostly, they valued nodding along with someone doing the hard work and then forgetting about it until the next event, but even if one of them would do something substantial…

Max wrote a quick reply, drank down the rest of the whiskey and fell on the bed.

Chapter 2: Pull Link copied

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Felix shoved people out of his way as he plowed through the party crowd. He paid no attention to the sound of glass shattering on the hard marble floor behind him. Nothing could cut through the ringing in his ears, distract him from getting to Max before they did.

Someone grabbed his wrist, but he yanked himself free and marched on. Another grab. Felix struggled and pulled, but the grip only tightened around his arm. Someone pushed him. Guards emerged from the crowd and surrounded him.

“What the hell!” He yelled. “Let me go!”

“I’m afraid I can’t.” One of the guards stepped forward and spoke to Felix. “I need you to come with us and answer some questions.”

“Fucking ask away right now then. I’m in a hurry,” Felix sizzled. He had no time for this.

“Please step aside.”

“Go to hell. Where’s Theresa?” Felix tried to look for Theresa but saw nothing but a curious crowd gathering around him. At least this would upstage his alleged romantic affairs. Not that he gave a sprat’s ass anyway, especially if he didn’t get to Max in time.

“Fine. You’re under arrest. Sorry, I’ll need to cuff you,” the guard said and nodded. The other guards pulled Felix’s arms back. Felix struggled against them, if only for his stubbornness.

“Wait, what the hell did I do?” Felix asked as he felt the restraints tighten around his wrists.

“We can talk about that later.”

“Thanks, but now’s a perfect time. The hell I’m getting cuffed for?”

The guard sighed.

“Fine, have it your way.”

He listed years’ worth of petty crime while the crowd settled down to listen in complete silence. Landing violations. Disrespect against an officer. Shoplifting.

“—and, lastly, an accusation of trespassing. From tonight, no less.”

“Trespassing? Are you out of your mind? All we did was—” For once Felix wised up enough to shut up, if only to keep the list from getting even longer. This was a setup. No amount of brawn or talk would land him out of this. He saw Garrett walk behind the crowd. The bastard had hid the entire evening, and now he made his appearance? He knew Felix knew something. How much? How much more was there to know? Even Felix could put together his timing to show up was no accident. And how come they just happened to have a whole list of minor misdemeanors ready at hand?

He had to get the word to Max somehow, but if Garrett was behind this abrupt arrest, there was no way Felix would have any contact with the outside world before it was too late. Felix wanted to throw up. Maybe Theresa was still out there. Maybe she’d escaped somehow. But if not, maybe someone in the crowd—

“Listen, someone contact Maximi—”

A painful jolt to his side left him paralyzed from head to toe and he could only watch his legs drag along as the guards dragged his limp body away before passing out completely. The crowd behind him filled with excited whispers. That’s all they cared about, in the end. About another spectacle.

Max brushed the last stubborn grains of sand off of his black velvet jacket and fixed his collar. He checked his reflection in the mirror. Was all black a tad on the dramatic side? Nevertheless, it would have to do. The dress code was rather strict, and Max didn’t want to spend a second longer going through his wardrobe.

Max closed his suitcase and checked his hair. More grays than not nowadays. Felix used to tease him about it, then run his hand through Max’s graying hair and kiss him.

Max increased his mental counter of days since he’d last seen Felix by one. At first, it was supposed to be for a couple of days. Then, five more. Double that. Triple that. And so on. Tasks kept piling up. People to meet, friends to make, pitches to pitch. Making a breakthrough was always just one signature or donation away.

They had a goal. It required a lot of work. Being apart every now and then was a part of that. That’s what Max recited to himself every time his heart ached, when he wanted nothing more than to delete every last message in his inbox without reading them and tell Felix to come home to him.

Exchanging love letters and casual messages didn’t come to them naturally and they’d never bothered to take the effort to learn. Felix kept a journal, and between that and the occasional book Max had encouraged him to read, Felix barely had enough words to spare to reply to the letters from his long-distance friends.

Max, on the other hand, had never had any long-distance friends, let alone a lover he truly cared about, to get into the habit of exchanging mail. Furthermore, he’d lately grown to despise the office corner as a symbol of the necessary evils robbing him of his time with the people he cared about.

Right now, he would have happily put that grudge aside for a moment to hear from Felix. After all, they had never been separated for this long before. But even if Max wanted to, it felt awkward to start messaging Felix now, and with every day gone by, the hurdle grew harder to pass.

Hourly click of the humidifier self-check reminded Max of the passing time. The event organizer was providing accommodation and the trip there and back, and Max’s ride would be here soon. He was ready to leave, yet his eyes stayed glued to the terminal. Something urged him to finally overcome that hurdle now.

“I’m off to Stellar Bay for a couple days. I doubt you’ll be home before that, but I wanted you to know just in case,” Max wrote. He knew Felix wasn’t coming back, and Max hadn’t informed him on any brief trips this far, so the message would appear very out of the blue. He hesitated.

“I just wanted to say,” he wrote, then deleted.

“I miss you.”

What a miserable understatement it was. How much longer before they could retire or even only take time off? Wake up late, stay in bed all day, live their lives like the townspeople around them. Watch the kids in the orphanage grow up and have a happier life than their parents who had their lives cut short or just couldn’t stay with them.

That, he didn’t write. But after a struggle, he added,

“Let’s take some time off once we’re both back home.”

He sent the message before he could change his mind again and left the apartment. As alluring as it was to imagine Felix waiting for him there when he was to return in a few days, he half hoped Felix wouldn’t come back while he was gone. Under normal circumstances, Max was the more organized of the two; Felix often left dishes and laundry around the floor, while Max had the habit of putting things back in the right place right away. But, lately he hadn’t had neither the motivation nor the time to keep the space tidy. Empty glasses towered in the sink, and the bed was littered with books. Cleaning felt futile at best, procrastination at worst. A luxury he had no desire to pay for with his limited hours awake each day.

A small unmanned craft was already waiting for Max outside. He climbed in with his suitcase. He noted the craft creaked as he entered; nothing he wasn’t used to, certainly not something he cared about one way or another, but curious all the same for an event of such caliber. Then again, he was a last-moment addition to the roster. He must have not been very high on the priority list compared to the other guests.

The craft took off. Maybe he should try to sleep. The lack of sleep was starting to show on his face, and while a few hours of sleep would not cure it, at least he wasn’t making it worse.

Max dozed off. The noises the craft made and the rather uncomfortable seat had nothing on months of sleep deprivation.

A loud bang woke him up what could have been a minute or an hour into sleep; Max couldn’t tell. He wasn’t entirely sure whether the noise itself was real or in his head, but he didn’t have to wonder for long. Another loud noise pierced the craft, and a puff of black smoke covered the small window to Max’s left. Max jumped up. All the dials had died. He had no idea what altitude he was at.

No visible hatches anywhere. Max grabbed the edge of his seat and tried to pull it up. It didn’t budge. There had to be a parachute somewhere. Max peered out of the right-hand window. Never mind the parachute, the craft was close enough to the ground that with enough luck, he might get away with just some broken bones.

That was, if he could get out of the vehicle before crashing.

The side doors were sealed tight. Max spotted an emergency exit door on the floor. A release lever…

Max froze. The lever was welded in place.

This was no accident.

Desperately, Max scanned his surroundings again and spotted something that resembled a seam on the front wall. Max grabbed his suitcase and started hammering on what he hoped was a weak spot.

Smoke was getting thicker and finally found its way inside the craft. Max coughed and smashed the suitcase on the wall for the one final time with all his strength. The wall gave in and exposed a dozen tangled wires.

Max looked at the mess in desperation. Nothing was labeled, and the colors made no sense. He had no time for this. He started pulling and reconnecting the wires haphazardly until—

Crrreaakk

One of the doors unlocked and slowly opened just enough for Max to squeeze through the opening. He didn’t have time to evaluate the fall waiting for him—he jumped, and hoped for the best.

How long had it been already?

Felix couldn’t tell when he had nodded off. His dreams had been restless and anxious, and he felt little relief when he woke up in his small holding cell.

When he had come to, he was already behind the bars with no one there to hear him screaming about Max being in danger. Sleep had come against his will; the taser had left his body weak. At least now he felt better. Felix dreaded to think about how many hours he had lost already.

To his great surprise, a guard casually walked in.

“Aaand… Felix DeSoto, is it?”

Felix opened his mouth, and for a split second, he forgot how to speak.

“…yes! Listen, I need you to—”

“There was apparently a mixup of some sort. We’ve got no grounds to keep you here locked up,” the guard said while opening the door.

“I’m actually your fan, so—”

Felix didn’t bother questioning what was happening. He ignored the guard and dashed out of the jail. He didn’t have time for this. Where was Theresa?

Felix saw a box with his things on a desk and grabbed them. Among them was a small cylinder with one single button on it. Felix pressed the button with way too much force, as if that would make the signal louder. Please, please reach Theresa.

He heard a faint beep from somewhere inside the building. Felix kept hammering the button like his life depended on it—for all he knew, Max’s did. The sound grew louder as Felix made his way to another cell block. The temporary relief almost dropped him from his feet when he saw another guard letting Theresa out.

“Felix! Thank Law,” she cried. Felix gathered her things and tossed them to her.

“We need to get to the ship ASAP,” Felix said, as if Theresa didn’t know it already.

Felix’s ship wasn’t far away from the station, but the trip back felt like an eternity. Felix rushed to the comms as soon as they entered the ship, while Theresa started up the engines. The old ship wasn’t the fastest out there, but a lot had been replaced since Lawrence’s days, so at least Felix didn’t have to fear for any more delays.

As they took off, Felix opened his mail and found a message from Max.

Max couldn’t remember ever hitting the ground. In fact, he couldn’t remember anything past pushing through the jammed aircraft door.

He knew he should have opened his eyes and get to safety. But he didn’t want to. He was certain his spine was shattered. There was no other explanation as to why his every instinct said he was lying on a cool, flat floor.

Could he even see? Maybe his eyes were already open and he’d completely lost his sight, but whatever the case, it was dark all around. No light whatsoever. The scorching desert light should have burned his face and colored his vision bright red through his eyelids.

He should have written a proper letter to Felix.

“…Max?”

A familiar voice. Not the one he expected to hallucinate at death’s door.

“Parvati?” He replied. With ease, to his surprise. A cold light pierced his—indeed closed—eyes. He opened to find himself aboard—

“—The Unreliable?” Max asked. He looked at the thoroughly spooked Parvati. He sat up. Nothing wrong with his body. His clothes, the same in which he had left for Stellar Bay, smelled of smoke but didn’t seem damaged at all.

“Why are you here? Why am I here?” Max asked and looked around in the empty cargo hold.

“Why are you… Old?” Parvati managed and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, I just mean… Uh…”

“It’s the hair, probably…” Max said absent-mindedly and turned back to Parvati. He squinted. True, it had been a couple years since he had last met her, but…

“Be kind, tell me the date. I fear I may be experiencing amnesia,” Max said as calmly as he could. He didn’t want to spook Parvati any further.

“S-sure, it’s—”

Parvati’s date was eight years ago.

Max took a moment to gather himself and spoke softly to Parvati, as much for her sake as for his own.

“Can you get your—err, the captain, please?”

“Yeah. Alright. Will do.” Parvati scrambled to her feet, still looking like she’d seen a ghost. Soon enough, he heard her returning.

“—check the engine room after that rumble and somehow Max lay there and he’s all—” Parvati lowered her voice, but not enough so that Max couldn’t still hear her with ease. “—old-looking. Gray and all. And wearing some strange clothes I don’t reckon ever seeing.”

Max braced himself to see his old captain. Instead, Parvati brought in a complete stranger.

“Max? Are you okay?” They asked.

“I—Who are you?” Max managed in his bewilderment.

“He wasn’t kidding ‘bout the amnesia, was he,” the unfamiliar person said to Parvati. They walked down to Max and took a stern look at him.

“Okay, what’s going on here? Who are you and what’d you do with our Max?”

Max was rapidly putting together the little pieces he had.

“I don’t know. But I think,” he swallowed. “I think I’ve switched places with ‘your Max’ somehow. That, and traveled eight years back in time.”

“Did we hit a wormhole? What happened?” Felix shouted as he hopped down the stairs.

“No idea, I—I just noticed the rumbling and then everything went haywire,” Theresa replied while frantically running diagnostics. “I don’t think anything else broke, but the navigation is all messed up.”

Felix popped a hatch open and started going through the electronics. Nothing wrong there.

“What’s it say, then?” He asked.

“Everything’s just conflicting! The planets, the satellites, positions are all off, I can’t find half the beacons… It just doesn’t match at all.”

“Where are we?”

“I think we’re still en route to Monarch, only Monarch is no longer where it was supposed to be… Nothing is. Could it be we got somehow held back?” Theresa suggested.

“Held back? What?”

Theresa looked desperate.

“Lost time. How else do celestial objects just be all over the place like this?”

“Like someone froze both the ship and us in place? How’s that even work? Does that even work?”

Theresa tapped the keyboard.

“If I got the numbers right, a week has passed since we left. Although none of the beacons line up, anyway.”

Felix’s stomach turned. A week? A whole week had passed. Was there any chance of Max still being alive?

The messages. He’d sent messages to everyone he could think of who had any chance of keeping Max safe. He ran to the terminal. Most messages showed as being sent, some had failed to deliver. None had been replied to.

“I’ll redo the route. I have no idea what’s going on, but we need to get to Stellar Bay,” Theresa said when Felix returned.

“Yeah,” Felix said absently.

Theresa punched in the route, and in a couple of seconds they were moving again.

“Let’s take some time off once we’re back together.”

Yeah, if only.

Chapter 3: Past Link copied

& on AO3

“This place ain’t how I remember it.”

Felix turned to look at Theresa, who was still staring straight ahead, speechless.

“Right?”

After significant trouble, Theresa had successfully landed the ship in Stellar Bay. On top of the location system weirding out, they’d had to use a decades-old navkey from Lawrence’s stash. Good thing the old man had saved every single key, even the obsolete ones for places he had got the updated key to. The theory Felix and Theresa had at the time was that a maintenance worker had accidentally reverted the landing pad identifiers, but that theory, along with the one about them having been frozen in place for a week, was quickly evaporating as they examined their surroundings.

Stellar Bay was bustling. Ships from every corporation out there were coming in and out, and crates upon crates of saltuna made their way around the town. The smell of sulfur and fish was still dominating the air, but other smells, good and bad, occasionally punched through the wall of Stellar Bay signature stench. No crumbling facades or abandoned premises were in sight—in fact, new prefabs were being set up right next to the landing pad.

Felix’s throat tightened.

“Where the hell are we?”

“This… Is unmistakably Stellar Bay, right?” Theresa replied in total disbelief.

“Since when?”

Theresa opened her mouth silently.

“I think the real question is until when,” she said quietly.

Felix mulled over the words for a good while.

“Seriously?”

Theresa hurried back inside the ship.

“You said a week has passed—” Felix started as he followed her.

“—but some parameters were off. That all would make a lot more sense if we went the other way instead,” Theresa said and sat in front of the computer.

“Would it? Is that even possible?”

“No idea, but look.”

A list of partially matching dates populated the screen one by one. Then, one perfect match.

“You know what that would suggest?” Theresa said.

Felix stared at the highlighted date in silence.

“We’ve traveled one hundred years back in time.” The words passing his lips sounded unreal.

After the initial shock—or maybe he was still experiencing it, Felix wasn’t sure—Theresa and Felix had decided to go out and try to figure out what was going on. Felix’s insides were in a twist, but Theresa had insisted they could use this time travel business for their advantage if they found a way to return. That was a big if, but then again Felix was an optimist at heart, so he decided to run with it. Theresa was right; who the hell knew how time travel worked, but maybe they could return to the moment before the party and not get arrested.

That was the easier part. The harder one was to figure out where to start looking for a time machine.

“Reckon we should ask around if someone has seen others who look out of place, err, out of time,” Felix suggested as they walked through the lively street.

“Good idea.” She looked around. “Fashion hasn’t changed much, though. Just the… feel.”

Felix knew what she meant. The workers were dirty, some malnourished, some missing a limb, but it was as if they were missing a century’s worth of generational fatigue. Despite everything, there was a sense of hope in the air.

“Poor bastards,” Felix muttered. They probably believed things would get better if only they worked their jobs hard enough.

Felix and Theresa stopped at a tobacco stall. Felix bought a pack despite not really needing to and asked:

“Some folks were supposed to be waiting for us, but I ain’t got the faintest what they look like. Long shot, but have you seen anyone who looks kinda…” Felix struggled for words. “Lost? Maybe new around here?”

The vendor raised his eyebrow lazily and examined Felix, then went back to polishing a silver lighter.

“Lots of new folks come and go past here. Why you think I set up a shop in this corner? And if this is some of that secret society crap, my policy’s ‘don’t want to hear about it, don’t want no part in it’, so scram.”

Felix’s mouth was already open, about to ask what was that about a secret society, when Theresa elbowed him to shut up.

“We neither, I assure. But maybe there’s something else…”

Another customer was approaching the stall, and the vendor actively ignored Felix and Theresa. They looked at each other, wordlessly agreeing it would be better not to stir up any trouble. Not yet, anyway, Felix thought.

“Secret society? Bet this geezer knows something,” Felix said as they walked away.

Theresa tilted her head. “Mm… Reckon he really just gets a lot of questions and doesn’t want to get involved. If there even is a secret society.”

Felix hadn’t thought of that. He’d almost been excited about the idea. Nothing felt real, and the thought of an adventure was alluring.

“But, I mean, that is what ‘out of place’ translated into for him, so let’s keep our ears open,” Theresa comforted him.

They agreed to split up to speed up their searches and meet back at the ship later. Their tracking beepers seemed to work spotty at best, but both agreed looking into that wasn’t the priority.

After setting the course to Stellar Bay back in the present day, Felix had changed his inconvenient formalwear into a sturdy leather vest and a pair of pants made of thick fabric. Something to allow easy movement and give him some protection against possible attackers.

In his practical and boring outfit, Felix blended in with the crowd perfectly, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing. The locals were happy to talk to him, but if he didn’t stand out, how could he hope to notice anyone else from his time?

Felix noticed the bar he’d once had drinks with Max a long time ago. He had to start asking somewhere, so might as well start it there.

Being aboard The Unreliable again was a mix of emotions. In the present day, Max and Felix had kept in touch with Parvati after her moving to Groundbreaker and finding love there, but Max had not seen Nyoka or Ellie in a long time, and only knew what Felix had told him after running into them a few times, and it was nice seeing them after such a long time. But what he—or Felix, really—had previously had to endure from their captain was something he’d rather not be reminded of.

But then, this wasn’t his old captain. They couldn’t be more different—personality, looks, stature, even their voices were polar opposites.

Max noticed he was staring at the captain and quickly looked away before they became uncomfortable. Not that his mere presence wasn’t probably enough to do so.

Ellie and Parvati carried a big pot of coffee and some cups to the table where Max, the captain and Nyoka were already sitting at.

“Thank you,” Max said and glimpsed at the corridor discreetly.

“Felix is sleeping in his cabin. Had a rough night,” Nyoka said. Max shifted in his seat before catching himself doing so.

“And then, there’s you. Captain asked you to handle some stuff in the city. You’ve been there since this morning, but we lost all contact a while ago. Happen to remember what happened to you eight years ago?” Ellie asked.

Max thought for a second, trying to remember what business he had in Stellar Bay eight years ago, then furrowed his brow. None of this had happened to him. Did that mean…?

“I’m afraid I don’t. This will sound strange, captain, but can you tell me if you agreed to help me, erm, run some errands?” It all seemed a bit silly now to Max. Him being so eager to mix others in his pointless pursuit. At least it led him to a better place in the end.

The captain snorted. “Can’t remember how I had to talk you out of killing that poor man in Fallbrook? Well, I guess you can’t remember me, though. Scylla’s our next stop once we leave Monarch. Felix has some business there, too.”

“Interesting,” Max hummed. That definitely did not happen under his old captain. He bombarded the crew with questions about everything he could think of from his days aboard The Unreliable and before that, from the smallest details to the colony-defining historic events. Once he couldn’t think of anything else, the room fell silent.

“I think,” Max started slowly. “Our timelines must have diverged around the time Phineas Welles picked a Hope colonist to revive.”

“Huh,” Nyoka responded.

The captain crossed their arms. “He’d never give me a straight answer, but I’m fairly sure Welles has run some experiments on that front.”

“Oh?” Max raised his eyebrow.

“Can’t slip anything past me,” the captain said and tapped their forehead. “They called me nosy before I was frozen, and now everything around me happens in slo-mo. I observe everything.”

“What? How?” Parvati gasped.

“Nothing goes past them but they sure know how to keep a secret,” Ellie muttered. “Anyway, what’s your timeline like, then?”

Max sipped his coffee. It was already lukewarm.

“It’s similar to this. Our captain was entirely different. Some of the details are different, but… it seems like everything up to the moment our captains were thawed remains the same,” Max said.

“So the geezer grabbed a different pod and that’s when things started going differently for you and us,” Ellie nodded along.

“Both captains still found the same crew,” Parvati said.

“Yes. Although, in my case, that didn’t last. The captain…” Max corrected himself before slipping out the part about firing. “I mean, Felix and I left the crew.”

Max wasn’t sure how much he should talk about the events of his own time. Felix would already be fired if that particular event would have been to happen, and the captain seemed fond of their crew overall. But talking about other crewmates’ futures in too much detail was likely not a good idea.

“Parvati found a home elsewhere, too,” Max said, keeping it vague. “I believe my old captain is now—meaning, in my present day—deceased, and I heard Ellie and Nyoka still work together, just not under the same captain, of course.” He couldn’t help but glance at how they would react. From what Max knew, they were more or less a couple at this point, but he didn’t want to mess anything up by saying too much. To Max’s relief, they didn’t seem to think anything more of the revelation.

“What a mess,” the captain sighed. Max heard a door slide open in the distance, followed by a familiar sound of footsteps. His heart leaped. He fixed his eyes on his half-empty cup of cold coffee.

“What are you all looking at,” Felix’s voice rang from the corridor. “Hey, Vic’s back. Did you get those cigs I asked for?”

Max was frozen in his seat. He didn’t dare to lift his gaze.

“Huh. Did you get a new dye or have you always been that gray?” Felix said. Max’s chest tightened. Kidding. I love you. Felix’s fingers running through his hair, lips on his. Bright Monarch sky behind them.

“Who cares. So, got the smokes?”

“Actually, this ain’t Max. Well, he’s a Max but not our Max,” Parvati tried to explain. “He’s somehow got here from a parallel universe and a different time, it seems.”

“What?”

“Time travel,” Ellie offered.

“Like in that comic,” Felix said, pleased to catch on.

The captain quickly explained the situation in more detail to Felix.

“Right. Can’t say I needed another Vic in my life,” Felix said coolly. Max finally looked at him. Full lips, beautiful brown eyes; dark, unruly hair beckoning Max to bury his face in. A tad more awkward than in his thirties. He was just as Max remembered him being eight years ago.

“But good to meet you, anyway.” Felix extended his hand out to Max.

Max wanted to draw him in a tight embrace, but fought back the urge, instead just grabbing his hand modestly.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Max said. It probably was. He tightened his grip on Felix’s palm. Then, before Felix could read anything into it, he let go. Max looked Felix straight in the eye. He wanted to get lost in them for even a fraction of a second. He missed Felix, his Felix, so much. The man in front of him wasn’t his Felix, his husband, his one true love if such a thing existed, but Max allowed himself the fleeting comfort for this short moment.

After several hours of running aimlessly around Stellar Bay, Felix was drained. He’d had to strike up a conversation after conversation and seem not blatantly suspicious, both while keeping an eye on every passer-by in case one of them looked as suspicious and lost as he was. In the end, he had little to show for all the effort, but at least he was now convinced something weird was going on behind the scenes. The ‘secret society’ the tobacco vendor had talked about went by many names, probably none of them what they themselves called their little club, but the key details were consistent; a group of seemingly affluent folks had appeared in Stellar Bay some weeks ago, causing all kinds of annoyance to the locals, but no one knew who they were, where they stayed, or what they did when they weren’t making absurd demands for goods no simple working class general store would carry.

“That’s what I heard, too,” Theresa said after Felix finished sharing his intel, lying in his bunk. “I even saw one harassing some poor soul trying to get home after their shift. Tried to talk to him, but he slipped away and I lost him into the crowd. At least the worker was happy to get away from him. But I do get why they stand out amidst these workers if all they ever wear is black formalwear.”

“Could’ve been the upper class fashion back then. Back now,” Felix suggested.

“Who knows. Still, makes them easier to spot. I don’t think other rich folks go around these parts.”

“Why do you think that one guy didn’t want to talk to you?”

Theresa sighed.

“They’re a secret society, supposedly. Maybe they have some shady business? The locals seem to want as little as possible to do with them, so they probably just try to get rid of them and not ask too many questions, and he got spooked by me actually wanting to talk to him.”

“Reckon it’s worth looking into?” Felix asked.

“Until we come across something better, sure. No one else seems to stand out to anyone I asked, and it’s not like we can post a bulleting calling out for, um, time travelers.”

Felix hopped down from his bunk and grabbed a water bottle.

“Gotta sneak after them, then. Should be easy enough now that we know they’re skittish,” he said and drank down what was left in the bottle.

“Yeah. Maybe we’ll find out something once we at least know where they stay.”

Felix looked out. In truth, Felix had hoped to run into Max by some miracle. Then at least his only problem would be getting back to their own time, and even that’d be somewhat less of a pressing issue. But this wasn’t nothing. Coincidence or not, at the very least he had something to occupy his mind with.