Chapter 2

The Base was a mobile home of sorts, about 240 cubic feet, with a fold up desk, 3 fold up cots, a fold up table and, yes, a fold up sink. Map and Gadget were waiting for Jet as he entered the cozy room. The Base shook as he jumped through the opening and rolled slightly due to the faulty parking brakes.

“Did you get it?” Gadget spun his wheelchair around to face Jet, eyes hopeful.

Jet cast his eyes down and knocked his feet together, biting his lip. Gadget’s face turned white.

“Wait… you don’t mean…” Gadget looked horrified.

“Come on Jet, stop messing with him.” Map punched him in the arm and pulled the package out from his sack. “It’s right here Gadget.” She shook her head at Jet and tossed the package onto the desk.

Gadget immediately smiled. So did Jet.

“Got me good Jet, nice one.” Gadget turned to examine the strange object, pulling on his goggles as he did so.

“Nice watch.” He said distractedly, reading the scan info in the top right section of his lenses.

The package was made of opaque plastic, square in shape. Gadget stared at it for a minute, completely focused. After a while he found a small seam in the side and, to Jet’s surprise, pulled it apart to reveal a small blue square with a bit of exposed metal.

Gadget turned it in every direction and remarked, “Well it’s electronic,” he frowned, “but I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s very basic, I’m not sure I’ll be able to find out what’s on it with my equipment.”

“Well that hardly matters.” Jet removed his gloves and goggles. “We only need to know that it’s authentic.”

He nodded, “It’s authentic alright. Very old. And rare.”

Gadget closed the plastic case and put it on the shelf with the other artifact. Jet smiled again. Two down, one to go.

Jet had come across the first artifact by chance, a few months before Map and Jet had first met Gadget. Jet had known Map his whole life, they traveled between SafeHouses together, surviving in the network of safe havens made by the community for children under the age of 13. Map had been able to get away with staying in some places for another year or so, because she looked young for her age. Jet however, looked suspiciously like a teenager a few months before his 13th birthday. Once they could no longer leech off the system, they set up camp in an abandoned cabin by the river (there were a lot of nicer houses in the City, but Map had decided that they should live away from the main population). At first, they stole only basic things: food, clothes, and eventually a laptop for Map. But even then, Jet had an aptitude for stealth. He could pickpocket, pick locks, crack safes, and run faster than anyone else they had come across. The few times a target had felt a small hand take their wallet from a coat pocket, they would only get a glimpse of dark hair, pushing through the crowd- if they were lucky. Soon they went on to bigger and better schemes, and they came up with a plan to get off the wretched planet they called home.

Every three months, there was a shuttle that led off the planet to the Main Terminal. The shuttle was expensive, the only people who could afford it were the ones who were here because they were outlawed everywhere else. Criminals swarmed to this planet to buy, sell, and steal goods, or to hide from any number of governments. This was the only populated planet that refused to answer to any kind of organization. The only rule was that there were no rules.

The toll for the shuttle was never paid in regular money, it had to be paid with rare artifacts. One artifact per ticket, one ticket per person. A one way ticket out of what Jet called The Ghettos of the Galaxy (or just The Ghettos for short).

Within the first few months that they were on their own, Map had discovered an artifact. She and Jet were walking down the Market (where people could trade items- mostly stolen goods) when Map saw it, a gleaming steel rapier with an opal encrusted hilt, perfectly balanced. It was exotic enough, and wonderfully made. It had to be accepted by the toll-man. It was resting inside a rectangular wooden box, surrounded by rich blue fabric, on display in a stand. The owner was standing a few feet away, looking around suspiciously and nervously rubbing his hands together. He was so jumpy that he would’ve fallen for anything.

Once Map pointed the rapier out to Jet, they had the sword- box and all- and were a block away before the seller had even gathered up all the coins that had miraculously appeared at his feet.

Back at the cabin, Map had done some research on their newly acquired possession. The artifact had belonged to a long dead noble of Greater Jolorus, and it had been circulating the galaxy for the past 50 years, building a bloody history as it went. It would definitely get a person of the planet, but they still needed a second one.

Soon they realized that getting a second artifact would not be so easy as the first- they had been incredibly lucky with that one. It had been months and they hadn’t gotten even a glimpse of anything more than the usual black market goods. The search was hopeless. They could only sit back and wait for something to turn up. In the meantime, Jet and Map started to do more and more jobs, and they had gathered enough to lay low for a while.

That was around the time they met Gadget. Jet was walking down the twisted alleyways that ran throughout the city, returning home from a supply run when he saw the dusty orange of flames against the night sky. In a city like this, with all of the houses so close together, a fire could be catastrophic. It would spread throughout the whole block, not relenting until it reached the wide main streets where there was nothing left to burn. At least 50 buildings would be turned to ash. Jet had to leave- and fast. However, as Jet turned to run, he heard a weak voice cry out. Shaking his head, he went to investigate the sound.

A boy was trapped under a fallen piece of rubble. Amazingly, that piece of rubble hadn’t quite caught fire yet. He looked to be about 14- Jet’s age- and was fruitlessly trying to push the slab off of him. He was a very thin boy, and not very strong. But Jet could see he was smart. The boy was balancing a thin metal pole on top of a rock that had come from the surrounding debris. He had the pole wedged under the wooden beam that was crushing his legs, creating a sort of lever. He had lifted it about an inch before his hand slipped and it came crashing back down onto his legs. With a yelp, he weakly reached for the metal again.

Jet was already running towards the determined boy, he grabbed the pole and- Jet was strong for his age- lifted it up enough for the boy to shuffle out of the way. Jet dropped the wood and knelt beside him. His legs were badly injured, his left leg was almost crushed completely. Without a biomechanic limb (and there were no hospitals in The Ghettos), he would never walk again.

The boy was barely conscious, and in quite a lot of pain, as Jet picked him up and ran back to the cabin, smoke melting into the city smog behind him.