Dreamsmith's Forge - The Assassin Chronicles: Showdown on New Haven (Part I)

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The Assassin Chronicles:

Showdown on New Haven (Part I)

Twilight.

It is a time of transition, from the darkness to the light... or from the light, to the darkness.

In ancient times, either the sun or the stars ruled the sky. Twilight was the brief time when they changed places, at dawn or especially at dusk.

But look out the viewport now. The sun and the stars share the sky together. The sun shines brightly, but the blackness of night remains.

In space, there is no day or night. Twilight is eternal...

She awoke to noise and vibration. The roar of the retrorockets fire filled the cabin, and their vibration was punctuated by the turbulence of atmospheric winds as the cheap passenger liner descended. She rested her head back against the barely comfortable seat and listened to the creaking metal.

The passengers across the aisle, a young married couple, looked concerned. She resisted the urge to smile. She remembered her first time making planetfall. She looked across the aisle into the huge, frightened eyes of the young woman with whom she had exchanged the occasional pleasantry during the trip. "Don't worry," she said, "it's perfectly normal. We'll be safely on the ground in a minute."

The woman looked both relieved and grateful, although still a bit nervous. "Thank you. I guess you're an old hand at this, huh?"

Suzuka looked out the viewport as the last of the wispy clouds streaked by, and the planet's surface rose up to greet the new arrival. "Yes. In my line of work, you never stay in one place long."

One could easily cut hours off the length of most interplanetary journeys. It would not require faster thrusters, or better Munchausen drives, or any other technological improvements. It wouldn't require better pilots or fancy navigation, either. If it was that simple, it would already have been done.

To cut the length of interplanetary journeys would require something far more difficult, she mused as she waited in line at customs. One would have to cut the red tape.

On most jobs, she didn't bother with it. She slipped into and out of spaceports without notice, never leaving any trace of her passage. But sometimes deception is better than stealth. A fake passport establishes a fake identity on most planets, far better than any other form of documentation. But it's useless if there's no record of it ever having gone through customs. Those records can be faked, but why bother when it's so easy to simply walk through customs and get the officials to do the work for you?

After a short eternity, she arrived at the head of the line and handed her passport to a bored looking young man in what passed for an official uniform on New Haven Prime. He barely glanced at it as he swiped it through the scanner.

"Khan, Susan. First time on New Haven, Ms. Khan?"

"Yes, it is." This information was on the passport, of course. Why customs agents across the galaxy felt the need to parrot the information of the screen in front of them was beyond her. As if someone presenting a fake passport wouldn't know what it said. Maybe they caught the occasional amateur this way. She'd never seen it happen, though, and she'd been in lots of spaceports.

"Business or pleasure?"

"Pleasure. I'm on vacation." New Haven was the tourist mecca of the sector. Among other things...

"How long will you be staying?"

"Two weeks, maybe less if I get bored."

"That's not likely here, ma'am. We're the Vacation Destination," he said, in a sad parody of the commercials played before holovids across the sector. It was probably in a script somewhere, so that each customs agent managed to slip the Tourist Bureau's slogan into each conversation with each person who ever arrived on the planet, to beat an already overdone ad campaign even further into their skulls. However, unlike the cheery and bubbly actors in the holovids, from him it sounded like a sad fact of life. In a way, she supposed it was.

"I'm sure," she said, and gave him a sympathetic smile.

He somehow managed a smile in return. "Enjoy your stay on New Haven, Ms. Khan."

"Thank you," she said. Not likely, she thought as she left.

A young boy played with two toy spaceships, running up and down the aisles of the subway car, making whooshing noises and explosions as the battle raged for control of the spaceways. Every once in a while, his mother would look up from the fashion magazine she was reading to tell him to settle down. Why, Suzuka wasn't sure, since it didn't seem to have any effect on his behavior.

She wondered how old the boy was. He seemed about the same age as another young boy she'd known, many years ago. But that little boy had had no time for play. He'd been forced to grow up young. Much like herself. By now, he'd be nearly 20, a young man who'd never really been a little boy. How would he be different if he'd had a real childhood? For that matter, how would she?

The subway car lurched as it began to quickly decelerate to subsonic speeds. They'd be emerging from the tunnels into Paradise City, New Haven's capital, in a minute. The sudden change in speed caught the boy off guard, and he fell down, toy spaceships skittering across the floor of the subway car. One of them came to rest at Suzuka's feet. She picked it up and, smiling, offered it to the boy.

"Thank you, lady," he said as he took it from her.

Her smile faltered for a moment. Lady? So I'm an old lady now, am I? She resisted the urge to strangle the child. "You're welcome."

The subway car came to a rest, and everyone began filing out. "Bye-bye lady!" the boy said as departed.

She looked at her reflection in the window. She didn't look that old, did she? It occurred to her that she'd never really considered the possibility before. She'd always assumed that she'd never live to see thirty. Assassins don't worry about retirement plans.

There was a thought. Maybe it was time to retire, to get out of the business. Settle down somewhere and... and... what? She sighed. This was the only life she knew. She'd spent her childhood perfecting her techniques, to be the best assassin she could be, in hopes of one day avenging her parents' deaths. During all those years, she never once considered what she'd do with her life after accomplishing that goal.

She accomplished her goal nine years ago, and she still hadn't come up with a better idea of what to do with her life afterwards...

She checked into the hotel, and set the door computer to "Do Not Disturb" mode. She'd told the bellhop she was tired from her journey and would probably go straight to bed. But she had no intention of doing that.

She slipped out of her young-business-executive-on-vacation outfit and into her more traditional garb. Five minutes later, she was out on the street. She was sure no one had seen her leave. Nor would anyone see her return. As far as anyone was concerned, "Susan Khan" was asleep in her room. And that wasn't too far off. It was Twilight Suzuka that roamed the streets of Paradise City.

She headed towards the seedier part of town. The more down to earth city, where the real working New Haveners could be found, away from the prying eyes of the ubiquitous tourists. "Susan Khan" may have never been to New Haven, but Suzuka was all too familiar with the back-alleys of Paradise City.

She entered the part of town known to the locals as "Little Tokyo", after some ancient Japanese city no one had never seen but everyone thought they knew all about. She recognized an old street vendor, a small, grey-haired man with a large belly and a talent for cooking.

"Konban wa," he said as Suzuka approached.

Suzuka's eyebrows furrowed. She looked up at the early afternoon sun. "A bit early for that, I think."

"Normally, I would agree, but I see Twilight approaching as I speak."

She smiled. "It's good to see you again, Kamura-san. How is the tempura today?"

"You tell me," he said, handing her a plate full.

She closed her eyes and smiled as she tasted it. "Excellent, as always. Thank the kami you're still here. What would we do without you?"

"Eat healthier food, if somewhat less enjoyable, I imagine. You always had a weakness for the fried foods."

"Shh," she cautioned. "We can't let my weaknesses be known on the street."

When he didn't laugh, she looked up from her plate. A serious expression had displaced his normal jovial look. "What is it, old friend?" she asked.

"What trouble have you gotten yourself into, Suzuka?"

"Nothing, so far. I've only just arrived. I'm going to be seeing Gold-Eye later, but I haven't accepted his job yet. I haven't even heard what it is."

"Who else knew you were coming?"

"No one, as far as I know. Why?"

"Someone was asking around about you the other day. She seemed to think you were on this planet already."

Suzuka's eyes narrowed. "Describe her."

"It was a Ctarl-Ctarl woman. Beyond that, it's hard to say. She had audaciously colored hair and wore red face-paint, with black stripes like a tiger."

Suzuka hissed.

"You know her, then."

She nodded. "Striper."