The woman took a moment to notice Light, before she realized he was speaking to her. She looked up at him, initially confused, before replying. She sounded different from Jess. “Hmm? Oh, apologies. There is just a misunderstanding…”

A shout in a much more familiar voice interrupted from nearby. “Becca!? What the hell are you doing here!?”

Jess kicked off of the nearest wall to float over to the group, catching herself on the crates, though her attention was quite firmly on the other Human. Despite Jess’ shouting, the other woman kept entirely composed. “Taking the cargo, like we planned…”

“No, what are you doing here, Becca? Others could have handled it. There is absolutely no reason for you to be out on this rock. Such a stupid...moronic, unnecessary risk!” Jess shouted.

The other woman crossed her arms, seeming to stand her ground. “As if you have any right to tell me that. Risk is not just for you, Jess, and I am not just going to stay cooped up in an office for this. Besides, the operation always moves much more efficiently with my personal touch.”

With them standing face-to-face, even an alien could see that those faces were near identical. Senjen stayed silent through the whole exchange and just looked over at Light with a confused shrug.

Light was shocked when it became clear this wasn’t the Jess they knew. Jagged concentric lines emanated along his suit from his headpiece to his tail, and he shot behind Senjen’s bulky frame. After a second he poked his head out over the Utaysi’s shoulder, mouth opening and closing rapidly. From behind, you could see Senjen was now wearing the gelsuit like a large amorphous rucksack.

“What is happening? I don’t understand.” When Senjen shrugged Light did his best to emulate it. He did not want to intervene - he had promised to be quiet - but they were dreadfully exposed now. He needed to know if they were heading for a shootout.

“Hey! Jessica! What is happening!?” He shouted.

Senjen found himself just as lost looking at Jess’ doppelganger, though he did not end up assuming danger like Light. He noticed that Jess called her by name: Becca. So, they knew each other? It definitely felt like they were more than just business associates.

With a glance over at Light, Jess let out a heavy sigh as she shook her head and ran her hand down her face. “What’s happening, Light, is that Becca is my twin sister who definitely shouldn’t be here.” She turned back to Becca. “I hadn’t even told them about you, Becca.”

Becca adopted a slightly accusatory tone. “What, did you bring someone here who isn’t trustworthy?”

“It’s called ‘operational security’, Becca. It don’t matter who is and isn’t trustworthy; you share dangerous info to people only if they absolutely need to know.” Jess snapped back.

It felt like Becca was being a bit aloof and dismissive. “Is that what it’s called, or are you just wanting to sound smart? I say it doesn’t matter, since it’s already done. No going back now.”

Again, Jess sighed. “Guess that’s technically the smartest thing you’ve said today. Look, Light, Sen, nothing’s really changed. You’re still getting paid the same, and we’re still selling this in the end to that other group I mentioned. Becca is just going to be taking a look at the product first. They’ll handle the hand-off, so we don’t got to worry ‘bout that.”

Light crept out from behind Senjen’s bulky frame when it became clear the two very similar looking Humans weren’t about to try and kill each other. His watery lens hopped from one visage to the other a dozen times as he tried to comprehend their situation. QV were all supposed to look unique by design - their outward appearance was a large part of their personality. So the concept of two people looking essentially identical was daunting.

So daunting in fact, that he totally forgot he wasn’t supposed to run his mouth. “With how hot these gadgets are, you might want a few more guns.” He pointed over their heads at the assembled guards. “We could always lend a hand, you know, for a fee. Senjen was just saying he wants to test out his new suit.”

Becca looked mildly confused for a moment, but she kept a calm, composed attitude. “We are perfectly capable of handling the sale on our own. We know what the cargo is, and how to deal with it.”

Jess, meanwhile, was far more expressive with her annoyance towards Light. “Just leave it be, Light. The job’s done for you. Both of you. Get your pay, go home, stop worrying about it.”

“That’s fine.” Senjen chimed in, raising up his hands. “I’m sure I’ll get plenty of chances to use my new frame, and I’m sure you know what you’re doing here. So you’re Jess’ sister...that means you both had the same parents, right? It’s not often that Utaysi parents decide to have multiple children. Not at the same time, at least. What’s it like growing up with a sister? I’m wondering if…”

“NOPE!” Jess shouted, grabbing a hold of Senjen’s arm the moment she realized he was going to start asking her sister about her. Becca had a slightly mischievous smile already, but Jess was not about to let her indulge. Through, trying to pull on Senjen in zero-G mostly just ended up with her pulling herself towards Senjen. “We don’t need your help out here anymore. You can just...head back in the ship while I sort the payment. I’ll tell you what you need to know about me and Becca later.”

Light dropped his head when Jess reprimanded him. An abstract approximation of a frowning human face flashed across the front of his suit for a moment – noticeable if one were paying close attention. It was a free suit mod he’d added on a whim a couple of months ago and promptly forgotten about.

“Come on, Senjen. We’re not wanted here.” He slapped a manipular against his metal frame and led him back up the ramp. Light then went to sulk in the engine room. He rested a tentacle on the ancient Tindrel engine block as it hummed stolidly, glowing yellow in the dark through rents along its bulbous mass.

He loved his ship, but it was mostly a sentimental feeling. It was wildly impractical and not easy to maintain. The thing he admired the most was this beating heart; such raw power. Light wondered if he could transplant the engine into another ship if he managed to save up enough money.

Senjen did have a hard time understanding what had Jess so riled up, but whatever it might be, he did not want to risk stirring up problems after how well things had gone so far. They were so close to having this job go off without a hitch. He did not have much else to do, so after pacing around the halls for a short while, he just waited while watching the ship’s external cameras. From what he could see, some of the guards took away the crates while Jess lingered around talking with Becca for about ten minutes. Despite all of the shouting, and the rather fervent insistence on getting him and Light away from Becca, the two of them eventually parted with a hug.

When Jess returned to the ship, she shouted through the halls, mostly to get Light’s attention. “Alright, hangar’s opening up. Time to get us out of here!”

Jess did not have much else to say until they were away from the hidden outpost. She had strapped herself into a seat in the cockpit, while Senjen had secured himself elsewhere. Though, once they were out in space and moving at a steady velocity, he floated up to the cockpit as well, bracing himself on the door frame. “So...are we all done?”

“Yeah, mostly. Just one last thing.” Jess said as she pulled out a tablet and started tapping away. “Payment went through, so...there. Your shares, paid in full...plus a ten percent bonus from me, for a job well done. And for listening to my orders. I assume I can trust that you will not breathe a word about any of this to anyone, and especially not about my sister. As far as you are concerned, I don’t have a sister. Understood?”

Light reluctantly dragged himself out of the engine room. His suit rippled with pleasure on seeing his new bank balance. The colours said he was deeply intrigued by Jess’ ask but willing to temporarily forego the unpleasantness on account of her generosity.

“Alright. Back home now?” He began plotting a course to take them back.

“Any new thoughts on what you might spend your share on?” He asked Senjen.

Senjen did not have to take any time to think on what his answer would be. “Oh, I’m going to be getting to work on paying off this body. No question on that. With that much debt, I was to be very responsible and everything about paying it off.”

“Well, maybe you can be smart sometimes?” Jess chuckled.

As much as Jess might have wanted to move on from the topic, Senjen was still feeling curious. Now that they knew about her sister, there were parts of this job that were not quite making sense. They had been told that Jess wanted to use the cargo to get an “in” with a smuggling outfit on Korit, but he doubted that anyone they had seen on that outpost was a part of that. Why did her sister need to take a look at them first.

“Anyways...we’ll obviously keep the secret about your sister,but...can we at least know why? I mean, it just seems weird to me why it was so important for them to look at the cargo. Is there some doubt that they are what we thought they were? And well...you got the full payment from your sister, not the buyer. What if that smuggling outfit doesn’t end up buying them?”

Jess sighed, leaning back in her seat while pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “Okay...fine. I can tell you’re not going to stop wondering, and you already know about her, so I might as well tell you. My sister and I, our parents own a...certain company. Not one you would have heard of; it’s more local to our homeworld, but it is a tech company. One that has been having problems our parents are too proud to solve. Major interstellar corporations out-compete us, not only in scale, but in the dirty tricks they use in business. They don’t hesitate to engage in a little corporate espionage to learn what their competitors are up to, and maybe reverse engineer their products. They do it to us, but we don’t do it in return. My sister and I don’t want to see the company just die out, so we want to even the playing field.”

Light considered this for a moment. “Family is important, so I’m told…Does this mean there are no more similar jobs after this? I thought we had gotten into a rhythm.” It seemed to him that Jess had alluded to a relationship she was trying to establish with the organisation that wanted the devices.

With no objection to returning home, he locked in the jump sequence and pulled the ship into FTL space, leaving the barren rock behind. Satisfied autopilot was engaged, he left the cockpit and went to lay down in the crew area.

“Quite the opposite, actually.” Jess answered. Though, she waited and joined him in the crew area once they made the jump to FTL. “There’s a certain organization on Korit I’m trying to establish a working relationship with. My sister is going to pass on the cargo to them, under my name as my ‘employees’. Our plan, in general, is to try and use that connection with this organization to get access to some of the more prime pieces of tech they traffic in. Maybe we use them for information to find them on our own. Maybe we skim a few samples if the product’s quantity isn’t known. Maybe my sister just gets a good look at it first before we pass it on. Regardless, our company will always pay you the difference on the cargo if we take anything before the final sale, plus a premium for your discretion. Mention this to no one.”

“It sounds like a fair deal to me.” Senjen shrugged, looking down at Light. “Especially if it pays even better than smuggling contracts. I mean...it does sound risky, though. I don’t imagine this other ‘organization’ would be happy to hear of your plan.”

“Yeah, they’d be pissed, so don’t tell ‘em.” Jess replied, bluntly. “Smuggling in general is risky, but you already agreed to that. You'd be doing all the same things you signed up for. I just need some people I can trust on these jobs, then you can stand to make a lot more money just like today. Agreed?”

“It all sounds risky, yes. But it seems surviving the hospital has changed my perspective on risk vs reward.” Light mused. “I want to really live the time I have left. I can’t do it without you now though, Senjen. If you want to try our hand at something completely different too, I’d be open to it.”

Light still did not know what to spend his ill-gotten gains on. Speaking of the hospital reminded him of the thriving augmentation and medical mod market on Korit. A QV could dramatically extend their lifespan with the judicious investment of funds and steady replacement of squidgy body parts.

“The money is good…” Senjen said, stopping to put some more thought into it. “It would be really nice to be able to pay off this frame quickly. And if I’m going to enter this line of work...I guess I’d rather it be working for a friend. Yeah, I think we can take more jobs like this. And I won’t speak a word about it. I don’t necessarily want to stop working for FGC completely though…”

Jess gave a nod. “You won’t have to. The jobs I’ll have for you won’t be quite so consistent. Just try to keep your schedule flexible with anything else you’re doing so you’ll be able to jump on the opportunities as they come.”

“Alright, it’s a deal.” Senjen said, going out of his way to give Jess a handshake. “Now, just to pass the time back to Korit. Anyone bring any good movies?”

---

Considering what they had just been doing, the return to Korit seemed positively mundane. They were not actually carrying anything illicit, so there was no trouble in customs. They were able to just head right down to the surface, back to Light’s usual landing pad. Jess went back to her shop, and for everything else, they could just...go back to normal for now. Jess would contact them whenever an opportunity for a new job came up.

Light and Senjen were sitting outside the ship, just taking a moment to relax. It was late, and the sun was just starting to set over the horizon. Light would probably be heading to sleep soon, so Senjen would need to go find something else to do soon enough. “So...all-in-all, that wasn’t too bad. I mean, you did more than me, if we’re being honest, but I think we might be moving up now.”

“That was very…not bad.” Light concluded, pouring beer from the vending machine onto a porous exterior patch of his suit. The ubiquitous tumbling weed ball returned, rattling against the unused folding chair opposite them. Other ships were returning for the evening now too.

“We do seem to be having a long overdue spell of good fortune. How long it lasts though, who can say? For most of my life, I have scrimped and saved, barely able to get by. And now I have more credits from one job than i’ve made in some whole years…And I want to spend it. Well, or invest it in something. How perspectives change!”

“The question is, on what? Shipgrades? A new suit? Advertising our services? Korit is not short on ways of taking your money…”

“Hmm, maybe be patient with it, I would say? I mean, you don’t have anything rushing you to spend it, so you can take some time to think about it. I know I had been planning this upgrade for a while.” Senjen said, tapping a hand against his chest. “But, that said, I do like upgrades. The better your suit, the tougher jobs you can do, and the safer you’ll be doing them. I feel like this frame is an investment that will make me more money in the long run.”

Senjen turned his head back, looking up at the ship behind them. His thoughts went back to the job, and especially what had happened near the end. “Although...if we’re going to keep using this ship, maybe it would be a good idea to arm it? I know you handled it this time, but this ship isn’t good at running away either, so if that had not worked...well, I don’t want to think about it. I was afraid, I’ll admit. We were in danger and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t fight back; just had to wait and hope. Hate that feeling.”

“I suppose you’re right. I guess part of me just wants to make up for lost time…” He looked at Senjen’s new body appreciatively. It still had hardly a scratch on it.

“Did you check that job board that came with the suit yet? Be a shame not to capitalise on the Myrmidon brand when you’re paying so much for it.”

Light soaked more beer, scratched his undercarriage with a tentacle. “Hmm, well that’d add a whole lotta complexity to the spaghetti wiring situation we have currently. But maybe a simple gun of some kind might be alright? Way I see it, we got two options. Either we go back to the Tindrel who sold me the ship in the first place. It’ll be cheaper, but they always want you to do something for them. Orrrr, we go to the Humans who fitted the cargo bay. They always charge more, but I like their gear. Very reliable. What do you think?”

“I definitely think it’s worth the effort to add.” Senjen answered. “We might not be so lucky next time. We need to be able to protect ourselves. As for which one, well...I don’t think we need to skip out on this. If we end up needing it, then we need it to work well. I say you pick the one that gives us the better, more reliable weapon. I don’t care which one costs more. If we have to do favors for it, or just pay, either is fine, but I want the weapon to work well. When it comes down to it, we’re not going to be caring about much else when it actually matters.” He said, confident in his reasoning.

Senjen looked out over the city and mimicked as if he were stretching his muscles. “Anyway, I guess I’ll look into the job board too. If I can make decent money, then it will help me get this paid off quicker. I’ll have to be careful about the kind of jobs I take, but...progress is progress. I’ll also need to make sure to do that ad this month. Probably with my FGC work; that kind of thing is good PR for any company, so I’m sure they’ll love that.

With another look over to Light, Senjen changed the subject again. “Do you think I should ask Ruknar on a date?”

“Ok, that settles it. We go to see the Humans. Rodion’s Retrofits, I think it was called? It's not too far from here actually; we can check it out in the morning.”

The tumbleweed bounced over and Light picked it up, toyed with it before setting it back down. “I should be careful not to let you become famous. Before I know it you won’t want to be seen dead with an old trucker like me.”

He looked surprised at Senjen when he talked about dating Ruknar. “Where has this come from? I didn’t realise you…thought like that. Light thought of Symphony, the scintillating Myrmidon sales rep. “Maybe I should date Jess too? Then we can double date.”

“You mean about her, or in general?” Senjen asked, though he supposed the answer did not really matter. Neither would be surprising. It did not seem that many other species expected machines to have any thoughts towards romance. Admittedly, he had thought that Light would know better, but he could not remember if he had ever told light about that aspect of his people. “Our minds came from organics, remember? We’re not just programs any more than you are.” He stopped and thought for a moment. “Or maybe we are, and you’re all just organic programs too? Either way, I’m perfectly capable of thinking Ruk is...the best. I figure I can at least ask, right?”

The thought of Light trying to date Jess actually made Senjen laugh for a moment. “But, uh, Jess...I doubt it. Always felt like the greatest love in her life was her business.” Senjen leaned back a bit and looked up towards the sky, trying to imagine which direction it was that last job had taken them. “Hmm, guess we know why now, though.”

“Yes, you are, aren’t you? I still forget that sometimes. Yours is an interesting history. It is a shame I could not meet the Organic Senjen. I wonder if he’d have been so smitten.” Light chortled. An overloaded cargo lifter rumbled past. The driver was asleep at the wheel; autopilot was taking care of things. “My people have an expression. Love doesn’t live inside people, but as a string held between them. We are all buffeted by the waves of creation, and staying close to those you love is a way to avoid your string going taut and being severed on the reef. I…don’t know if that translated. What I think I’m trying to say is that distance between people can make dating…hard You have to consider our line of work.”

Light laughed along with Senjen at the thought of Jess dating. “That business with her twin was strange right? Anyway, I’m all for defending the little guy, but we need to be careful. Large corporates run this sector, more or less. They’re happy to take our money…But if they catch us taking theirs, they’ll kill us without a qualm.” Light placed the empty bottle down and got up from the chair, ready to go and sleep.