Seeming

By Nicole Luttrell

Station 86 is shocked when a Khloe assassin begins killing members of the all powerful council. Officer Sennett Montgomery and Councilman Godfrey Anders swear to find the assassin after Godfrey's wife is falsely accused. But the killer, and the council itself, are not what they seem. Neither, as it turns out, is Sennett's daughter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicole Luttrell
• Release date: Sep 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463354889

Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction author. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

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Copyright © 2018, 2016 by Nicole C. Luttrell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Art by Jeremy McClimans, 2018, 2016

Books in the Station 86 series

Seeming

You Can't Trust The AI

Virus

Station Central (Coming in 2019)

Other books by Nicole C. Luttrell

Woven

Broken Patterns

Starting Chains

Missing Stitches (Coming soon from Solstice Publishing)

Days and Other Stories, a short story collection

Spook, a short story collection

Deciding To Start

Twelve Little Christmas Tales (Coming November, 2018)

Dedicated to my loving and wonderful husband, who never stops supporting me, laughing with me, sharing a life with me.

Also to every member of NASA, past, present and future. The human race will always look to the stars.

Episode 1

In the year 2099, a company called Galitech launched the first space station meant for recreational use. They shipped up food, sand, sea water, a whole lot of booze and somewhere around a thousand employees. What they created was called Station Center. It floated just beyond the moon and was advertised at the ultimate vacation destination.

Once everyone was convinced that the whole thing wasn't going to devolve into some terrifying human behavior experiment, the overcrowded Earth started looking skyward. In 2104, what was later called the Summer of The Stations, 99 space stations intended for residential use were launched.

At first, they were populated by the brave and the bored. Celebrities thought it was posh to move off planet. Eventually, moving to space was the equivalent of moving to another country.

In 2117, something happened that mankind had pretty much assumed was an inevitability. We made First Contact. A race of people called the Khloe found a random station, Station 86. The thing that surprised people most was that they weren't really all that different from us. While it was true that their skin was red and their hair hard and crystal-like, they were a far cry from the 'alien' everyone had in mind. Even so, it was a day that no one would forget, least of all the children on the station, including a little girl named Sennett.

The Khloe people weren't the last to find us. A few years later they were joined by a race called the Ma'sheed. They caused quite a sensation because they glowed. They sent envoys to stations and lost no time becoming friends. Finally, the Toth quietly made contact. A tall and exceptionally calm race, it was sometimes hard to tell them apart from an Earthian. The only real difference was that their nails and eyes were black.

Over time the four races got along with varying degrees of success. Because Earth was too far away, Station 86 became the political outpost for inter humanoid relations.

These are the stories of Station 86

Godfrey Anders leaned across the counter of his food district booth, scowling at the tablet in his hand. He'd been trying to write this letter for twenty minutes, and so far all he had was 'Dear Dad'. He took a deep breath and shook his mane of dark curls out of his face, then tried again.

I know we haven't really talked since Ki and I got married, but...

No, what the hell would that do? It was his dad that wasn't talking. He backspaced, and tried again.

I miss you, and Ki would love to come meet you.

That was a lie. As much as Ki would love to see Earth, she had no desire to meet a man that she called, 'that racist asshole.' No sense starting this out with false expectations.

I've just found out that I'm terminally ill, and...

No, that would just make him think he'd been right all along. It wasn't bad enough that his only son had run off to space to open a glorified food truck, but then he'd gone and married an alien. In the mind of Matthew Anders, a terminal illness was exactly what Godfrey deserved.

He wished people were in the habit of writing letters on paper still. Hitting the delete button wasn't nearly as satisfying as crumpling up a page when writing became difficult.

Across the aisle from him was a screen, on which the news was playing. With no customers to distract him, Godfrey turned his attention to it.

The station is all geared up for the homecoming of Head Councilwoman Montgomery this afternoon, the news anchor said, a large grin on his face. Down here at level one, security has been tripled due to recent anti-council protests. But that's not going to stop anyone from having a good time! There are no less than 15 hospitality stands, where citizens can buy drinks, frozen yogurt, klav and a vast collection of other treats.

Excuse me, said an older woman at the other side of his counter. Godfrey turned to her with a smile. She pointed to the sign above his head. Do you really have fresh fruit from Earth?

The seeds are from Earth, Godfrey said, and the soil is. But the fruit was grown right here on Station 86, in my own little greenhouse.

But it's real? the woman asked, It's not simulated?

Nope, not simulated, Godfrey said.

The woman raised an eyebrow at him. How do I know it's real? she asked.

Godfrey laughed. He took a yellow apple from a basket next to him and grabbed a small knife. You can tell by the taste. He cut a wedge of the apple for the woman. Try this, and tell me it's not real.

The woman took the slice, still giving him a distrustful look. All around them, people were milling around on the market level of the station. It was right in between the lunch and dinner hour, so no one was particularly interested in the food isles. Instead, they passed by, mostly men laden with shopping bags, running errands while the kids were at school.

The woman took a bite of the apple slice. As soon as she did, her eyes lit up. I haven't had an apple like this since I was a kid, she said.

I told you, Godfrey said with a chuckle. Simulators just can't reproduce that taste.

The woman started to reply but was interrupted by shouting.

They turned to see a young girl, her hand partway in the pocket of a man's jacket. Holding her arm was a police officer that Godfrey recognized, Sennett Montgomery.

Godfrey guessed that some might have found Sennett attractive. She kept her long hair set in thousands of small braids, corralled in a metal band. She was tall, with dark brown skin and brown eyes. He, however, was too put off by the amount of tech she wore to find her very attractive at all. She had the three circular circles on her temple that indicated a virtual screen. On her wrist, she wore the receiver, a thick silver band that reached nearly halfway to her elbow.

Let me go! the girl cried, as the man moved away, looking disgusted. I didn't do anything.

Don't lie to me, Sennett snapped, giving her arm a shake. The girl wrenched left and right, trying to get out of Sennett's grip.

Sennett shook her head and pulled the girl along with her. As they passed Godfrey's stall, the girl thrashed, kicked the front and knocked his tablet to the ground.

Hey! Godfrey cried. "Can't you keep your prisoner's under control, Officer?"

Sennett scooped the tablet off of the ground, and looked at it, still holding the girl by one hand.

It's not bad enough you've been poisoning my plants, you've got to let pickpockets smash up the front of my stall? he snapped, I'd like that back now.

You made your complaint about me, it was looked into, and no evidence was found, Sennett said, So you can shut up about your greenhouse, I haven't touched it.

She took a step, just outside of his outstretched hands. Well, what's this? she asked, "Are you applying to the council?"

She held the tablet up to show him the application form. Apparently, it had opened when the tablet fell.

"That is really none