A man of large and clumsy form stood behind them, pointing his police badge and a pistol in traditional Newhope form. His gray coat was too long and dragged on the ground as he approached them. According to his badge he was an investigator from the Newhope police.
“I've got you criminals! Wow, this is so great, finally a good thing to put on my record!” he cheered with a foolish grin.
“What, so you've got a horrible record?” Meeki wondered.
“Hey, don't talk down to me, pal, I'm trying my best!” he whined.
Kinjeur squinted at him for a moment and her uncaring demeanor dissolved.
“Boraks?” she suddenly gasped.
“Kinjy? Are you a criminal now?”
Kinjeur tried recollected herself, but failed.
“A friend of yours?” Braya asked.
“No,” Kinjeur muttered.
“Friend of the family!” he said. “Well, we used to be until a few years ago.”
“Leave me alone, Boraks. We didn't even do anything wrong other than shoot up a pair of your stupid robots. And now we're leaving,” Kinjeur said.
Braya looked between Kinjeur and Boraks and wasn't sure about ignoring the man, but she started guiding Meeki onto the elevator.
“Wait!” Boraks shouted.
Meeki frowned. Of course it wasn't going to be so easy with these Newhope people.
“I can't just let you go, you're all responsible for destroying property owned by both planets. And you broke into a confidential place, too!”
“What are you talking about?” Meeki asked.
“Those guys you took care of on the bus ride? They broke out, pal. Maybe you guys are in league, like they caused a fuss at the police station so you could sneak in here! Good try, but I've got you now!”
His words only served to anger Meeki. She scowled at him. “What the hell? We've got nothing to do with that breakout, and we only came here to talk to someone, not steal your worthless secrets.”
“Shut up,” Kinjeur said.
Meeki only barely complied.
“Look, pals, even if you're telling the entire truth, you're still breaking and entering. I've got to take you in for that.”
“You don't know what we're dealing with so just go away,” Kinjeur begged.
“I can't, Kinjy. Maybe we haven't talked in a while because your parents left you, but I can't just sit by and ignore you. Not when you're doing these kinda things.”
“Don't you dare talk about what happened to me as if you understand anything about it!” she almost shouted. After a moment of silence, she calmed herself. “If you really want to talk, let these two go. If it's just us two, we'll talk all you want.”
Boraks looked to Meeki and Braya with great suspicion, but he eventually eased the gun back into his coat.
“Fine, I'll let your friends go. Only because I owe a favor for not helping you out any sooner.”
Meeki thought it was a joke. This guy had to be completely irresponsible to let suspects go due to favors. But he showed no sign of trickery so she'd definitely take advantage.
“Go on,” Kinjeur said to them.
“Are you going to be alright with him?” Braya asked.
Kinjeur's eyes were devoid of the arrogant passion she usually showed.
“It's fine.”
They stepped on the elevator. Meeki pressed the button and the old elevator screeched its way toward the roof. They looked down over the railing and watched as Kinjeur and Boraks walked to each other, but soon they were out of sight.
“I hope nothing bad happens,” Braya said.
“I doubt it. That cop was silly, he probably wouldn't hurt a fly. I really wonder about Kinjeur, she's like a different person with him.”
“They must be important to each other. I hope they can make up for the lost time.”
Meeki eyed Braya for a moment and suspected that remark was a reminder of their own relationship.
The elevator came to a stop with a heavy bump against the ceiling. They walked off the platform and climbed the stairs to the exit. Braya opened the door and peeked out.
“There's no one out there,” she said.
That was odd. A prison breakout should warrant at least some commotion.
“I don't like the sound of that, but let's get to the bus station so we don't get mixed up with it.”
Braya opened the door and helped Meeki onto the roof. A bright sunset greeted them in the western sky, coating the two towers with a heavy orange. Only a few people were moving through the tunnel from the dock. Other than a gentle evening breeze blowing past their ears, it was entirely quiet.
“Lucky us,” Meeki said.
They walked straight for the tunnel while trying to appear neutral to whoever might be watching. Much to Meeki's relief, it seemed that they would get off the police tower without any problems. But then, when they were only steps away, a chain link fence shot up, blocking their exit.
“Oh, what the hell!” one of the pair in the tunnel shouted.
“Damn it,” Meeki muttered.
“Look.” Braya pointing behind.
A group of armed officers in gray suits emerged from the police station door. They were followed by a man in a white coat. He was a medic according to the red cross stitched onto the breast of the coat..
“Are they coming after us?” Braya wondered.
The disorganized police scurried around and looked everywhere other than the tunnel, but the doctor noticed Braya took immediate interest. He broke off from the rest and approached at a most impatient pace. Meeki became nervous and feared he might find call the police over.
“You two,” the doctor greeted with a coarse indifference. Up close, a sense of overall distaste radiated from his entire being, though it wasn't directed to Meeki or Braya in particular.
“Did you see any criminals go by? Or just anyone using the tunnel?”
“Just those people who are coming this way. What happened?” Braya asked.
He leaned aside to study the pair trapped behind the fence, but they didn't hold his interest for long.
“There was a total break out thanks to our stupid police force. Some moron said that the doors in holding unlocked themselves.”
“Oh. We just stepped out a little while ago, nobody's used the tunnels other than those two,” Braya said.
The doctor frowned, and then his head jerked over to see Meeki's arm. A small stream of blood was traveling down.
“What happened? Show me that arm,” he said.
Meeki felt it was a risk, but there was no avoiding it. She undid Braya's bandaging to show him the wound.
“Gunshot. How did this happen?” he asked, becoming suspicious.
“I got it from fighting two guys who hijacked the bus from Aster,” Meeki said.
“And you're still walking around with the injury after all this time?” He rolled his eyes. “Such an awful bandage, too. People these days just want to get infected and have a limb amputated, don't they? Come along to the medical office and I'll treat you.”
“It's really alright, we've got—”
“I said come with me. Now.”
Meeki wrapped the bandage up and followed him down into the police station.
* * *
The treatment of Meeki's arm took forty minutes thanks to the doctor's attention to detail. Most of the visible damage on the arm was gone by the time he applied a new bandage, but she still had an annoying ache that would linger for some days according to his prediction. He berated her for not getting treatment any sooner, but there isn't much one can say against a doctor giving expensive operations without charge.
Meeki and Braya emerged from the police station to see that night already arrived. The door slid to a close, leaving them to the calm night sky.
“That was nice of the doctor. You didn't have to pay for it,” Braya mused.
“Yeah. Let's get out of here.”
The fence blocking the tunnel was gone, so they hurried ahead to board. As they waited Braya turned to watch over the cities once again.
“This was my first time on Newhope,” Braya said. “Too bad it had to be for business, it looks interesting from here.”
Meeki studied the surface below. There were many colorful lights saturating the cityscape, but very few people were enjoying the atmosphere. Unlike Asterians, Newhope's populace usually shied away from the streets at night.
“Aster's better at night. We've always got great people on the streets to celebrate. The people down there don't care about the value of their lives.”
Braya looked to Meeki, her ears fall and it looked as if something very unfortunate came to her mind. She looked over the cities in silence for the rest of the ride.
Kinjeur was waiting for them at the docking tower. She seemed inattentive and didn't have that arrogant look on her face anymore. When Meeki and Braya stepped off, she barely turned her head to greet them. Meeki saw that the girl's eyes were red, and she cried recently.
“I saw you come from the station,” she said.
“We tried to come here first, but some doctor wouldn't leave me alone about the arm. He didn't bother us about anything else,” Meeki said.
“Okay.”
They boarded the next bus to Aster and settled into the last remaining cabin. The bus took to space after a quick system check. Braya removed her cloak and rubbed her ears a little before leaning back against the wall. She looked to Kinjeur and posed a question. “Are you okay? What happened with that man?”
Kinjeur stared back for a while and took a deep breath. Braya's ears shifted down.
“You don't have to tell me, it's alright,” Braya said.
“Boraks knew my parents when they lived on Newhope, and he visited me on Aster when I was a kid. He's a nice guy, but my damn parents abandoned me and we never saw each other after that.”
“Oh.”
Kinjeur's head lowered and her face darkened while she contemplated. She gripped at her bench and became incredibly fierce.
“He wanted to get me back with my parents. I just laughed at him, it's never going to happen. They had plenty of chances to take me back and they never did! They're just a pair of fucking idiots for all I care. I survived on the streets, and now I'm with Kiluana. I don't need those shit heads anymore!”
Kinjeur's face contained a pure malevolence.
“Sorry I asked,” Braya said.
Meeki watched Kinjeur closely and felt sorry for the girl. She couldn't imagine who in their right mind would abandon a child, even one in the teenage years. It made sense that Kinjeur would be so angry, Meeki also felt that way to the thought of such people.
“What the hell are you looking at?!” Kinjeur shouted at her.
Meeki shrunk back into her seat and stammered an incoherent response to the outburst.
“Just shut up,” Kinjeur said as she laid down on her side of the cabin, facing away from them.
“Freakin' Kiluana and her stupid obsession over you,” she mumbled.
She was back to her old, irritable self. Meeki leaned against the wall and watched the stars. The flight would be long, giving her plenty of time to dwell on what she learned of Payne's warnings.