The Saltwater Express

Her eyes shot open, and her cheeks reddened like the surface of an aging, dying sun. Oh yeah. That had happened. She froze for a moment. Where was Zo? She didn't feel anyone else in the bed with her. Carefully, she looked down to the desk, and found it empty, too. There wasn't much more in the compartment, beside a couch on the wall. Tam slowly looked to it. No one there. There was no one in the room with her.

She was alone, thank the Gods.

Sitting up, she rubbed her aching head and looked around. Her clothes were on the floor, her panties specifically resting on Zo's suitcase. There was a note on the bed, a piece of paper ripped from one of the many notebooks Zo likely had. She reached down and grabbed it, unfolding it, and read: Tam, get your clothing and get out of my room. Be back here tonight at sunset. Don't make me come find you.

Tam was annoyed more than anything, and she furrowed her brow and huffed, before crumpling up the note and sliding the covers off. She kicked her feet over the edge of the bed, and pushed herself up, stretching out in the sunlight. Outside, the sun was hovering over the horizon, fresh and eager, and so was she. She gathered all of her clothing and article by article, got dressed. Once she composed herself, combing her hair with one of Zo's brushes, she slipped out of the compartment.

The hallway was thin - maybe two people could slide side by side in it, with a little space between their shoulders - and each car had three sleeping compartments. She looked out the windows here, to the sea below, and then made the snap decision for where she would take her breakfast.

Yes, she thought.

That would do nicely.

Four cars over, and she was in one of the dining cars. Here, the tables were mostly full, people eating their breakfasts of eggs, toast, sausage, greens, mushrooms - both stuffed and grilled - and so on. The smell made her mouth water. As she walked through the car, carefully darting through the array of tables that dotted the cafe-like floorplan, she noticed Zo in the back of the car. They locked eyes for a moment, and Tam froze up, just for a second, before she broke eye contact, letting her gaze fall. Then, she made her way on through to the next car, where there she got her breakfast, before leaving that one, too.

Then, she made her way to the back of the train, which was quite a trek, but there was the caboose. Quaintly, oddly, it was shaped like a historic caboose from the old days of pre-Federation Earth. It was even painted red. Once she got to its doors, she, holding her plate in her hand, pried open the red doors, and slipped inside.

The first thing she noticed was the quiet.

It was completely silent in here. Most of the train had a quiet to it, when one wasn't in the crowded social and tea cars, but here, it was deafeningly silent. She looked around, but it was incredibly dark, as though the light wasn't making it in through the windows. The only real light came from two windows that were cut into an elevated hole in the ceiling. She looked around for a switch on the wall, but found none.

Well, no matter, she thought. She only needed to get out the back. Carefully she made her way down the middle of the car, step by step, her vision slowly adjusting. Soon she could see the back door, and she carefully opened it too, letting light flood the room. Around her she could see two beds, both empty, and two trunks, along with a multitude of pipes and electronics and other greeble she didn't really understand. Making a mental note of things, she turned, and nearly dropped her plate and screamed when she almost ran into a man standing in the doorway.

She couldn't clearly see his face, but she could see that he didn't look happy. Through the rushing wind that backswept into the car, throwing Tam's hair to and fro, his voice commanded attention.

"What are you doing in here?"

She sputtered for a moment. "Uh, I, I saw, well-"

The man raised an eyebrow, and she got a better look at his face. A strong jaw, covered in a close shaven blonde beard, his shoulder-length blonde hair tied back, his stature tall and wide, he was intimidating to say the least. Tam eyed him up and down, and then looked out past him to the open air and the track that side wound away from them at a rapid pace. It was the only place to get truly fresh air on a train going hundreds of kilometers per hour. And it was definitely off limits.

He sighed, and reached over, flicking on a lightswitch. The inside of the car flipped to life, white fluorescent lighting pouring over every shaded nook and cranny. She finally got a good look at his features now, strong and sturdy, with striking blue eyes. He shook his head at her.

"What's your name, at least?"

"T-Tam," she said, backing up. "My name is Tam."

He nodded to himself and thought for a moment, and then, oddly, a strange gleam in his eye, he said, "Nice to meet you Tam. I'm Isaac, the conductor of this Express."

Her jaw dropped. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed, like a child who'd been caught snooping around somewhere they shouldn't be. Which, she supposed, was exactly what she was doing. There had to be an excuse to get her out of this. All she had to do was think.

"Ah. I'm, uh, here to deliver you breakfast-"

"No you're not," he said, his eyes cool and even. Then, he smiled. "Not everyday someone gets this bold. Welcome to the conductor's quarters."

She stared at him for a moment. "The... wait, you're not angry?"

He chortled. "No, not really. You know every once in a while you scientist types will do something like this, but you've never just... done this, before." He gestured to her. "I'm a little impressed at the gall."

Tam nodded slightly and evaluated that statement for a moment. "Okay," she said. "Well, can I stay here?"

The conductor eyed her for a moment. "You wanna stare out the back, don't you?"

She nodded sheepishly.

"Alright. Come on then, it's one of my favorite things about the train, it'll be nice to have some company to share it with."

With that, he turned and stepped out the back. Tam poked her head out, and took a look around. The back of the train had a platform that was encompassed by a large overhang that reached down on both sides, giving it a tunnel-like feeling that shielded it from the vacuum left behind the train. A railing stretched from side to side at the end of the steel platform, as red as the rest of the train car. Behind the train, steel maglev track twisted away like a great snake, elevated on Y-shaped concrete pylons over the shallow, sparkling oceans below. It smelled of the sea.

She stepped out, and joined the conductor. Then, she sat on the floor, and finally began to eat. He watched her for a moment, and then said, "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

Tam shrugged, and continued to eat. In between bites, she said, "Maybe a bit. I feel like everyone attracted to the sciences is, at least a little bit."

Seeming to consider that, he said, "Well, tell me about your egghead brain. What are you going to Morgwana for?"

"Molecular superstructures," she said, shoveling a fork-full of eggs into her mouth. Then, swallowing that, she said, "What about you?"

"What about me?"

She shrugged. "How'd you get to be the conductor of the Saltwater Express. That's gotta be a highly coveted job, right?"

"It is," he said, "And it isn't. You're away from your family for a long time. My family doesn't even live on Zaphoriazos, they live on Ethero's moon. We're here for two years, and then home for a year, and we rotate within that. So sure, it's a cool job. But not many people actually want it."

He stepped forward and leaned on the railing. "Suppose you would know something about being away from home, huh?"

Something about that took her by surprise. "How did you know?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Tam. It's short for Tamika, Tamatha, or Tamly, right? A common name on Lullalamon. My family and I vacation to Lullalamon sometimes, beautiful islands." He vaguely nodded. "Name gave it away."

She stared at the sea. "Ohh, I see," she said, before wryly turning up to him with a wistful grin. "Favorite spot on Lullalamon?"

"Amborini Island," he said, flashing a smile. His conductor's coat flapped in the wind for a moment, and she thought he looked like some ancient hero. "My family has family there, so we vacation there from time to time."

"The beaches are truly something there, huh?" Tam said.

He nodded. "They are." Then, he thought for a moment, and added: "What made you leave?"

"Home?" she asked, giving him a quizzical look. She thought for a moment. "The sciences. I mean, I wanted to make groundbreaking discoveries, be on the forefront of new technologies, and really make a name for myself."

A deep, soft chuckle escaped from him. "That's it?"

She shot him a glare. "What do you mean?"

"I have a daughter in the sciences," he said, shrugging, and leaning over the railing to face the fleeing morning. "She did it because she loves science."

Tam scoffed. "I love the sciences, too. I just... I dunno. They aren't for me. It's a highly competitive field, and my rival has really made things tricky... honestly, it's my last year here because of that."

"Your rival?" he asked, looking over at her, his hair being tossed by the breeze. "Is that common? To have a rival in your field?"

"Well, no, but this just kind of happened," Tam said, looking down.

"Tell me about it, I'm interested."

She shrugged. "Not much to tell. She solved my equation, and ever since then I've been trying to get back at her."

"Sounds more one sided than anything," said the conductor. "Are you sure she sees you as a rival?"

My sweet, stupid rival...

The words echoed in her mind, bringing a blush to her cheeks. "Yes, I'm sure."

A moment of silence passed between them.

"Interesting," said the conductor. "And this rival of yours, she's here on the train, isn't she?"

Tam froze. "H-How did you know that?"

"Your blush," he said, grinning and pointing a teasing finger at her. Her scarlet cheeks reddened further. "Can I tell you something? I had a rival too, once."

"Did you?"

"Yes," he said, nodding. "When I was first getting my pilot license, only two of us were going to be selected to move on to become conductors, and my old rival - Jerika - and I, we fought tooth and nail for those slots, oftentimes at each other's throats. I would ace my maneuver tests, and he'd be so furious he'd try to outdo me. I'd excel at the written exams, he'd study all night just to get caught up with me. You know why?"

"Why?"

"Because he felt inferior to me. You see, on the first day of us actually being behind the flight console, I outmaneuvered him and got a score that was nearly twice his. We'd been friends up until this point, but for some reason, he took it incredibly personally. I didn't see it as such, but he did."

The conductor waved his hand as if to brush off an accusation. "Ever since then, it was like he was trying to 'get' me, catch me fail, get me to drop. Well, fast forward to our final exams. He was falling behind, and I was excelling. That's when he came to me with a proposition. An apology, and an offer to work together. I'd help tutor him, and we'd shoot for those two slots, together."

Tam cocked her head. "Did you take him up on that?"

The conductor laughed. "Hell no. He'd been a thorn in my side ever since that day I outdid him."

"Oh..." said Tam.

Isaac shrugged. "That's not where this ends, though. You see, when I finally graduated, and got some distance from him, I realized something. The reason I didn't want to help wasn't because he was a pain in my ass. It was because he wouldn't buckle down and do the work required to earn that slot. And no amount of me trying to help him would get him there; it would only drag me down."

"So," he continued, "I went back to Ethero and hunted him down, just to check on him. Turns out he was living a simple life as a mechanic, caught in regret and anger that he didn't make the slot with me. When he saw me, he just about fought me!"

He laughed. "But after a while, we actually ended up getting a coffee together, and he apologized for it all. Turns out he'd been working pretty hard in his newfound life, studying, practicing where he could. He wasn't happy that he'd left his dream behind, when it got to be too much. And that man now?"

Tam raised an eyebrow, and he grinned.

"He's my engineer, aboard this very train as we speak."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Wow," she muttered. "Really?"

He nodded. "M-hm, he's up at the front right now. We switch off shifts."

The conductor pushed off the railing and walked over to Tam. "Moral of the story is, if you want something bad enough, consider what you can learn from your competition, not how you can outdo them. Who knows? Along the way, you might make a friend or two."

With that, he gave her a little two finger salute, and stepped into the caboose, leaving her alone with her half eaten breakfast, thinking.

~Five Hours Later~

A V-wing swooped down overhead, darting off into the distance as explosions rained down around her. She ducked, sliding into one of the trenches, gripping her black caster rifle tightly. All around her, bullets flew, whizzing past her and whining as they flew by overhead. She breathed heavily. Sweaty, and with tenacity, she roared, and popped her head up over the muddy wall of the trench.

The battlefield before her was a barren, pock-marked wasteland, littered with corpses and burnt out hovertanks and unexploded munitions. She looked around, searching for enemies, training her sights down the barrel of the rifle. Her heart pounded, but her head pounded worse. The sky overhead was a dusty orange, and shadows crept into every crevice that wasn't touched by the obscured sun.

Ah! Someone was rushing her with a dagger!

She raised her rifle, trained it. He'd popped up from a nearby trench and was charging across the thin strip of no-man's land before her, the shiny steel glimmering in the hazy light. He screamed. She screamed.

Then, she fired.

Pink bolts of plasma erupted from her weapon, spraying out at the man and hitting him directly in the chest. Tam pelted him with bullets, and in seconds, he dropped to the floor, a burnt out husk, the plasma eating away at his flesh. She took a shaky breath and examined her handiwork. The corpse twitched, and then, the plasma ate it completely, leaving a melting skeleton in her wake.

Giving the battlefield one last glance, and making sure it was safe, she bolted up from behind cover, throwing her legs up and over the trench walls and rushing to a trench that lay about half a kilometer away. Her boots sank in the mud, but she pushed on, running, running for her life. She breathed heavily, a stitch forming in her side, but she pushed past it. She couldn't be caught here on the field. It would mean certain death.

Boom!

An explosion rocked her, a mortar shell going off right to her right. She tripped and, with the explosion and debris, tumbled into the trench she was running for. She fell head first in and if not for her helmet, she most certainly would've died. As it were, as she lay in the mud, she blinked and oriented herself, the ringing in her ears subsiding somewhat.

Everything was blurry for a moment, but she could make out someone offering her a hand. She took it. The person yanked her up, and she stumbled for a moment, righting herself, before her vision cleared. When she could finally see, she saw Tamika standing there, smiling at her with her brilliant smile. Tam cocked her head.

"Tamika?" she asked.

Tamika nodded. "Yeah! I saw what you were doing and joined the match!"

Tam slung her rifle over her shoulder and laughed. "Are you good at FPS's?"

"Somewhat," Tamika said, shrugging. "I've never played this game before though. Not really why I came to find you, but let's have some fun while we're here!"

"Wait. Why did you actually join?"

Tamika pulled her gun out from its holster. It was the standard M-956 starting pistol. The girl cocked it, and said, "Zo told me to tell you something."

Just then, another explosion pummeled their location, sending mud and debris flying. They both ducked, and then Tam said, "C'mon. We'll talk more about this over there."

She pointed to a burnt out bunker on a hill, just over yonder. Although it was burnt, its concrete shell still stood, and it would be as safe a place to talk as any. Carefully, the pair made their way through the trenches, weaving in and out, occasionally blasting an enemy soldier to pieces with either Tam's plasma gun or Tamika's little pistol. She wasn't half bad, Tam noted.

Eventually, they made it to the rectangular doorway to the concrete structure. Slipping in, and stepping over debris and corpses, they made their way to the bunker lookout window, and slid down on the wall. Outside, the battle raged, with over two hundred players on the server. It was a mess out there. In here, however, with the sounds of war muffled, they could talk.

Tam turned to Tamika. "So, what did she say?"

"She said she expects your thesis on her desk by tonight, and wants you to bring it with you," Tamika said, grinning.

Tam blushed. "Oh, I see... fuck."

Tamika raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"She's gonna rip it apart."

Tam rubbed her eyes. "Okay, well," she said. "That kind of ends this for me. I need to go edit my thesis or some boring nerd shit like that. Sorry, Tam. You wanna keep playing?"

Tamika nodded eagerly. "I've never really had access to neural link VR, this is really cool."

Tam laughed. "Here, then take this," she said, slinging the rifle from over her shoulder and handing it to Tamika. "Should keep you alive for a bit longer."

Taking the gun, Tamika looked over its sleek black chrome finish, and said, "Whoa, thank you. I won't let you down!"

Then, she stood up, gave a little salute, and darted out of the bunker and onto the battlefield. With that, Tam sighed, and reached up to her right temple and clicked a button there, and all at once the battlefield fell away and she found herself sitting in a comfortable rotating chair in a dimly lit train car. Around her, a few others were engrossed in their games. Tamika sat beside her, seemingly dead to the world, but on the screen before her, Tam could see how she was fairing in the game. Seemingly alright, she thought with an approving nod.

Tam then turned and headed down the length of the car, before slipping out of it quietly, closing the door behind her and stepping into the next leisure car, and then the next, and onward to the sleeping cars, where she would sit and work on her thesis for the next few hours, music her only company. All the while, she thought of Zo, and of the night before, and the night to come.

She shivered.

~Nine Hours Later~

The sunsets were magnificent, she thought as she stared out the window of the sleeping car. But the thought only lasted for a moment, before she turned her attention to the door before her. Laptop in hand, thesis ready for presentation - she'd worked for hours and nearly cried at one point - she raised her free hand to knock.

Before she could, though, the door swung open, and Zo stood on the other side of it, towering over Tam, watching her expectantly. Tam shrunk.

"Hi, Zo."

"Tam."

Zo stepped aside, and let Tam into her room. Tam stepped in carefully, and sat on the bed as Zo shut the door behind her and latched it close. As Tam heard the latch click, she gulped, fidgeting restlessly. Outside, orange light gave way to purples and blues as the sun slipped below the horizon on the other side of the train.

Zo then walked over to her desk, sat down, and turned to face Tam. She crossed her legs and her arms, and sat back, turning her head and squinting at Tam.