The trail ran straight along the top of a built-up embankment. I imagine once upon a time it had been cleared and maintained for the trains to come through, but trees had grown up around it in the decades since the line had died. Branches scraped and squeaked down the sides and roof of the van as we puttered slowly down the trail. We all grew quiet as Ali pulled us into a small man-made canyon that had been cut through a hillside.


    Trees stretched overhead, at least a hundred feet up, and some of them had tumbled down the steep sides of the cut and jammed between the two rock faces in a tangle of branches and leaves. Someone had come through years ago with a saw to cut out the trunks and branches that blocked the lower section, leaving a tunnel through the log jam that looked just big enough to fit the van through. Old tire ruts marked that others had the same idea, and that there must have been a way around the boulders before I moved them, or that they might have been placed there more recently.


    Rin kept shooting me glances, but after I had eaten the eggs and drank down the nasty juice they had come in I started to feel sluggish and impaired, almost drunk. I leaned against the backside of Raschel’s seat, facing towards the rear of the van and did my best to not puke up the vital protein.


    “Here should be good, the line of troops is still a few miles away, and they’re not moving all that quickly.” Max said as we pulled under the jammed canopy of tree trunks, branches, loose rocks, and dead leaves.


    Relieved, I pulled the door open and stepped outside into the small space between the van and the stony wall, limping in a little circle before leaning onto the door frame and hanging my head. “Why do I feel like I’m gonna hurl?” I asked.


    “That’s what that signal is? I’m using some of your machinery to fold the proteins into the shapes I need to manufacture the nanos for Tev. That must be a side effect.” Max answered as he sat up, a notebook appeared in his hands that he scribbled a quick note in before he threw it over his shoulder and it disappeared.


    I blinked at him, and through my nausea, had the sudden realization that he must be doing all of these animations and gestures consciously. While he took a humanoid form, and often displayed the emotions of an 8 year old in a gaming lobby, I had to keep in mind that his body was a total fabrication and everything his avatar did was intentional.


    “Actually, that''s no longer true. In an effort to assimilate, I built a sub-process tied into my personality matrix to display subtle tics and mannerisms like the rest of you. You humans are always making funny little faces and doing things with your eyes, or waving your hands at each other. Even which way you’re pointing your feet is tied into communication. It’s like a whole second language most of you seem to be unaware of but act out with every breath. Except Rin, who I think actually just wants to be a robot. I could probably build him a new body once we get our own workshop so he can live out his dream.” Max calmly said, earning a tiny giggle from Raschel in the front seat.


    Rin however, clenched his jaw and glared at the tablet. He kept his mouth shut, but a subtle flush began to rise from his shirt''s collar and creep up his neck. I watched as Max noticed Rin’s reaction, and a mean grin appeared for a second on the round stick-mans face. I cut in before Max could dig into Rin some more and create yet another problem.


    “What’s the plan for once we’re clear? Any ideas?” I asked, looking from Ali, who had turned around in her seat now that the van was parked, to Rin who was packed into the space between Tevin and the cabinets where I had sat for most of the trip.


    Rin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and Ali replied while he took a moment. “Planning is your job, sir. What’s no longer true though?”


    I flashed a glance at the Max I could see at the back of the van, then looked back to Ali as I answered. “That was him replying to my damned thoughts, he does it all the time.” I turned and looked back at Max and raised my eyebrows at him, realizing as I did it how right he was about our use of body language and facial expressions.


    Rin finally answered, his forehead firmly planted back in his palms as he spoke. “We have to defect. Borealia is closest, we’d just need to make it over the mountains and through the buffer zone, but they''re likely to detain us indefinitely and find Max. The Kiorow confederate would be a better option if we can get to the right province, some of their Barons have been known to make deals with high value expats.”


    Ali scowled at Rin and fidgeted with her pistol, but did not speak her mind, and while I was willing to let Raschel come with us for now, I was not going to take her advice on what our plan should be. As I thought, I glanced at Tevin, wishing that he could weigh in on this conversation. I felt guilty dragging him along, but just knew he would want to stick with us.


    Max, of course, could not sit the conversation out now that he had a seat at the table. “The Kiorow? Those tree huggers are so boring though, they hardly use the internet. We should go farther north, or farther south. Tayhaus is still all chaos and civil war, would be easy enough to move in and set up our own thing.”


    I looked around some more, waiting to see if anyone had anything else to add. Ali still looked like she was holding something back, so I gave her a questioning nod. She met my gaze and frowned, then sighed before she spoke.


    “Sir, do we really have to leave?”


    Max’s face changed at her words and caught my attention, his mouth hanging open in a perfect circle for a moment before switching to something more apprehensive. I shook my head and looked away from him to answer her.


    “I think… I really think we have no choice. I can’t let anyone with the capability to spot Max’s hardware take me in.” I looked back over to Max and asked him for an update. “Unless you managed to get the army to take Katie out?”


    He shook his head, still watching Ali. “No luck there. They finally saw through my imaginary rabble and went in and found her. She’s getting medical and bitchin’ up a storm as they load her into one of the dropships as we speak. Heh, the sergeant is having some difficulty keeping the squad in line after a certain set of deepfakes was forwarded to their tactical channel, but they’ll be on the way to Yehsa momentarily.”


    I waved an acknowledgment to Max, deciding to disregard his comment about fakes and the squad, and finished my answer to Ali. “Katie will blow the whistle on me, and they’ll tear me to bits to find whatever tech Max smuggled into me. Hopefully they won’t spread the news about what they think I am though, but my bet is that they won’t let it be known why they want me, that would be embarrassing.”


    Rin nodded at my guess, but Ali raised an eyebrow and gave me a confused look. “They’re actually like… built into you, sir?”


    I frowned and nodded, thinking I’d already told her that. “Mhmm, did I skip that part earlier? Maybe you were too busy driving. That’s how all this started, he hitched a ride and started helping and demanding. I guess I don’t even really know how much hardware there is, but it’s in there and apparently detectable if the people looking know what to check for.”


    She gave me a strange guarded look, only letting a trace of revulsion through. “Is it really that important? Why can’t you take it out to pass the scans? You’re a noble, sir, you can push back against Katie’s play to take you out. The council doesn’t like it when their middle management comes after the noble class, we had every right to defend ourselves, sir.”


    I frowned and shrugged, while Max made an offended noise. “I don’t think it works like that, it’s… he’s…” I struggled to find the words to continue with, and Max jumped into the opening I left.


    “I rarely say this, but Nick’s right, it doesn''t work like that. I can’t just be uninstalled like some plug-n-play peripheral. Nick would die, and I’d have to rely on my distributed subsystems to secure me another vessel to load my consciousness into. Unfortunately, I’d still be stuck with you stinking monkeys on Eora, but you can bet your ass that I’d pick some other culture to ally with.” The two versions of him that I could see both crossed their arms, raised their chins, and looked away.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Ali’s eyes flashed with anger and she clamped her jaw together with a clack as she glared at Max’s image on the tablet. She pulled the slide on her handgun and racked a shell into the chamber, but before she could do the same thing she had done to the radio I reached over and pushed her hand back down.


    “Woah there. Max is an ass, but he’s right.” I could feel her hand trembling with anger, but she didn’t fight back as I pushed the barrel down towards the floor. “He’s changed me, made me into something else. But also given us, all of us, a way to tip the scale in our favor. I truly believe he is humanity''s best chance.”


    I looked around the interior of the van, meeting everyone''s eyes in turn. “We were screwed. I don’t know how much the rest of you know about the state of the damned galaxy, but everything I’ve heard points towards worlds like ours falling into obscurity and extreme poverty, economic slavery. We’re up against whole species and planets that united together thousands of years ago to play the game, while we’re still arguing and fighting each other over lines on maps.”


    I heaved a sigh and looked down, hanging my head as I stood in the doorway. “Believe me, this sucks and I’m not exactly happy about it, but I’m going to pull a silver fucking lining from the shit storm if it’s the last thing I do.”


    Rin nodded gravely. “What you have heard is correct, I’ve run the stats from all of the data our government could get our hands on about other Linked worlds. Eighty six percent of factions have seen stagnant or negative growth since faction creation.”


    “Hah,” Max laughed. “Good on you for giving it the ol’ college try, but your numbers are barely even in the ballpark of how bad it actually is. Out of two thousand Linked worlds, 168 of them have seen a significant benefit to their own living conditions, all of which were some of the first species contacted. Everyone else runs a deficit or is treading water, but of course they’re not going to advertise that to the competition, so I can’t blame you for how bad your stats are.”


    “Some planets have even been destroyed, correct?” Rin asked, his eyes focused hard on the tablet.


    “Yeah, everyone knows about Tuata. They pissed off the Gon and Kern, who hit them with an export-only embargo and a ton of sanctions. Thanks to shortsighted interest within their own people, they ended up trading away too much of their planet''s mass, their whole solar system''s mass really. In the end, their orbit was so badly disrupted that their whole planet was launched off into interstellar space.” Max said, casually waving his hand as if in farewell to the rogue planet.


    Silence took over, and we all just stared at him. After a solid 6 breaths of quiet, the only noise coming from rustling leaves and distant birds, Rin broke the quiet. “I’ve heard rumors of unnamed planets that dropped out, but never of Tuata directly.”


    “Really? Damn, I thought that was common knowledge.” Max answered.


    I shook my head and grabbed the reins of the conversation again. “That’s exactly why we need to work with Max. I, uh… I’m not sure talking over the whole plan is a good idea.” I said, with a sidelong glance at Raschel. “But one of the biggest goals is to make sure that kind of thing doesn''t happen to us, not just Arktria, but all of us. We need room to act independently though. The council has its own goals and ideas about what’s best, and they’re too big for a secret like Max.”


    I looked around solemnly at everyone in turn. “If anyone breathes a word about Max while Linked up, we’re screwed.” I grimaced at Raschel, as we all turned to look at her.


    At our attention, the dark haired girl blushed under her bronze complexion and curled into a ball by pulling her knees up to her chest. “I won’t say anything, I promise. I… I… I don’t know. I’m completely lost.” She hid her face behind her knees.


    I gave a worried look to Rin, and Ali brought her gun up again and subtly rocked it back and forth while giving me a pointed look. I shook my head at Ali and answered our last tag-along.


    “We’re not going to just dump you out here, Raschel, but we can’t have you telling anyone any of this, so… I guess you’re sticking with us until we can figure something out.” My gaze settled on Tevin as I kept talking, letting ideas fall out of my mouth without consideration.


    “We can’t stay here, we can’t even stay close. We need somewhere that we can work without drawing attention or scrutiny, but what we need most is an Impex. Without it, we can’t bring anything through the Link.” I gestured at the machine that Max was back to lounging on top of. “I know we have to leave the country, but I think we have to find a way to get back into the Hub and buy an Impex as soon as possible.”


    Rin shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. “Do you have any idea how expensive those are? We’re talking mid six-figures, for a small used version. The highrise we just got evicted from only had three in the whole building.”


    I nodded. “I know, and I’m not sure how I’ll be able to afford it, but unless any of you knows how to catch enough fish to feed us all with that tiny fishing pole, we’ll dehydrate or starve long before we get reliable access to imports again.”


    Ali’s eyes widened and she raised her hand. “I know how to fish, sir. There’s no guarantees, but I can catch some fish if we have the time. It’s not exactly a quick process, sir.”


    Raschel, seeing a chance to be useful, popped up from behind her knees. “I know how to cook, and I know how to identify some edible plants and berries!”


    I chewed on my lip and nodded. “Good, we’ll need that eventually. I think the best course is to aim for the wilds to the northwest. The border between Kiorow and Borealia is sparsely populated, right?” I looked to Rin for confirmation.


    He nodded, but still gave me a ‘you dumbass’ look. “Correct, but for a reason. It’s far enough north to see the magnetic aurora regularly. We’ll be as likely to freeze come winter as we are to be detained or killed by the locals.”


    I shook my head. “That remoteness is exactly what we need.” I stood back from where I had been hanging in the doorframe and glanced up at the tangle of branches above us, before looking back at the group. “I just have to find a way to get an Impex. I have a decent chunk of credits still, but nowhere near enough. Plus we need to decide which Link ship we should use to buy it from on the way to our end destination.”


    “Hey, uh, I might have an idea about that actually.” Max chimed in. “Their prices are artificially inflated to keep people coming to the ships. They’re not all that hard to build if you have the right material and parts, the license to connect it through the Link is the tricky part. Luckily though, you have me, I can get us an Impex key no problem. If we can get the parts to build one, I can make it work.”


    We all listened to Max, everyone but me staring at the tablet that Rin was holding and angling towards the rest of us.


    Rin spoke up while an idea danced on the tip of my tongue. I knew something, but I couldn’t place it through the stress of the day and whatever woozy feeling Max was causing while he used my body to synthesize the transfusion for Tevin.


    “What materials do we need? Are you sure we can handle that kind of manufacturing in our new ‘van down by the river’ lifestyle?”


    The two went back and forth, Max listing off materials like copper, cobalt, and helium, while Rin asked about tools, fabrication processes, and compatible sub assemblies. I looked back to the sky, searching for the thought on my mind. Something familiar was tied into this, some readily available source of all of the parts we would need to build ourselves an Impex if I could only think of what it was.


    While I reached for the stubbornly evasive idea and the eggheads argued over the details of actually building the thing, Ali dragged the little cooler over to herself and looked inside. Her lips went tight at the sight of our limited supplies, but she pulled out some of the sandwiches and tossed one to each of us.


    “We should eat while we have a moment.” She said to everyone, before looking at me and handing me one of the beers. “The best place to store calories and water is in your stomach, sir.”


    I felt the sandwich hit my chest and caught it by reflex, then took the beer when she offered it, still too caught up trying to chase my thought to really pay attention. “Yeah, sounds good.” I replied automatically.


    “This will probably be the last thing I get to serve anyone for a while. I actually quite liked the cooking part, I’ll miss that damned kitchen, sir.” She mused as she grabbed a beer for herself and tore open a sandwich bag.


    I nodded again, her words getting a bit more of my attention this time. I’d eaten better over the month that Ali had been feeding me than I ever had in my life, even before the Links landed. “I’ll miss it too, no more fancy ingredients, but you might get to serve up some fire roasted fish soon?” I offered in consolation.


    She nodded, and I sensed that Raschel was paying more attention to Ali and me as we talked, her eyes darting between us as we spoke.


    Ali rested the edge of her bottle against the jagged and melted top of the remains of the van’s divider, then slammed the top of it with her palm to pop the sealed top off. “Even refrigeration will be a problem, get used to ‘charred fish with a side of leaves and berries’, sir. No more breakfast burritos and fancy espressos.”


    I nodded and opened my mouth to speak, glad that she had high enough morale to joke around a little with me, but was smacked in the face by the idea I had been chasing as it snapped into focus. “That’s it! Haha! Fancy fucking coffee! That’s how we get our Impex.”