You Give Love a Bad Name

The magenta-lit streets of LeCythi were a slow crawl of hardened steel and high-resistant glass flyers.

Each was equipped with extra armoured protection from the rocks and lava that showered the surface daily.

For the first time in years, Katya was travelling in one such craft with all three of her brothers, heading back to House D'Hanna.

Their family home.

The atmosphere in the flyer was tense as fokk.

Katya raged, fuming at the audacity of her siblings.

She stared at their ineffectual faces.

‘How can you even live with yourselves?' she spat at them.

The eldest brother, Korin, shot her a menacing glare before snarling at her. ‘You abandoned us, Katya. You left us to fend for ourselves while you ran off to your fancy high life on Enia. We had to endure without you and did what we had to survive.'

Katya scoffed, her eyes flashing with anger. ‘Survive? Is that what you call kidnapping innocent children and using them as leverage? You're no better than the scum stuck on the heels.'

Kiros, the hacker of the group, chuckled darkly. ‘Oh, spare us your holier-than-thou attitude, sister. You were always the golden child who could do no wrong in Father's eyes. Yet the most wily one of us. Well, guess what? We've moved on without you.'

‘Until you needed me so hard,' she snapped back, dragging her eyes from the trio, unable to stand the sight of them.

K'Zito's cold eyes fixed on Katya with an intensity that sent shivers down her spine.

His bristling energy spoke volumes, his readiness to unleash destruction evident in the tight grip on his weapon.

He was a wild card, given he'd held a firearm to her head with such casual disregard.

When had he become so sour and hateful?

Her loathing for her father at how he'd destroyed their family only grew with every passing mile.

As the flyer approached House D'Hanna, Katya's heart raced. She was unwilling to confront her former life and the monster she had once called a parent.

The man who'd set her on her criminal path in the past and who had since ripped her children and mother from her.

The flyer landed on the grounds of House D'Hanna, the sprawling mansion looming like an ominous presence.

Katya stepped out of the flyer. Her brothers flanked her on either side, their menacing aura casting a shadow over her.

Memories of happier times as young kids clashed with the present reality of their betrayal and deceit.

‘After you,' Korin grunted, pushing open the front door.

Katya marched beyond him, leading the siblings as their footsteps echoed in the now dusty, once grand courtyard.

The mansion's interior was opulent and still foreboding, with cobwebs dancing on the roof and walls. It needed the mother of the house.

Katya's mum was an immaculate house-proud woman, and to see her home in shambles cut deep.

A figure emerged from the shadows—a man of average height.

Yet despite his limited stature, his presence commanded respect and fear, and his eyes, set within a thick brow studded with diamonds, were piercing and judgemental.

He wore a traditional gold woven kaftan, which flowed around his lean, skinnier form than she remembered since they'd last met.

‘Welcome home, daughter,' K'Toro D'Hanna drawled. ‘You helped us out of debt; we will be ever grateful for that.'

She walked up to the simpering man and, without warning, slapped him across his face.

‘To wriggle out of the arrears you raked up,' she hissed into his stunned, reeling face, ‘you set House ALMQ's sentinels on me, dragged my kids away while I watched and put your wife and my household up for ransom. What monster does that?'

K'Toro D'Hanna recoiled from the force of Katya's slap, his hand moving to his stinging cheek.

His expression shifted from shock to fury, his eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

‘How dare you, child?' he bellowed, his voice echoing through the hall. ‘After all, I have done what I have to keep this family afloat. You have no right to judge me, given you, too, are a delinquent just like us all.'

Katya stood her ground, her gaze unwavering as she faced her father. ‘How convenient of you to forget that you taught me to be so and pushed me to work as a pickpocket, burglar and thief. Any crime I've committed since leaving this freakin' home was what I was forced to survive on my terms. I also never stole from the innocent again, only the guilty. But what you did was unforgivable. Putting our family at risk for your gain, using blameless lives as pawns in your twisted game. You give love a bad name, that's for certain.'

K'Toro's face contorted with rage, his fists clenched at his sides. ‘You were always a rebellious child, never understanding the sacrifices a father must make to protect his legacy.'

‘Fokkin shut it,' she snarled. ‘My so-called father, the man who was supposed to safeguard and care for his loved ones, allowed my mother and children to be held captive for an indefinite time as leverage in some unknown mission. So he could wipe his gambling and loan debts and cosy up to a corrupt King. This betrayal cuts deep, and know that all you've done is slice through whatever remaining shreds of familial loyalty I had clung to.'

The brothers shifted behind her, unsure how to react to the heated confrontation between their sister and father.

K'Zito stepped as if to grab her, but K'Toro lifted a hand and recoiled, eyes flashing with age-old resentment.

Katya shot glares at all of them, bristling with outrage.

Realising he'd no leg to stand on, her father sighed with weariness, his mood shifting. ‘Katya, come in, eat a meal. Stay with us until K'Sumi releases your mother and the children. There's not much more we can do prior to then.'

She jolted. ‘Wait? He just agreed to let them go. That's why I came along with these losers, to plan how to retrieve them.'

‘We can't yet,' her father shrugged. ‘The King sent word to wait for him to tell us where they are. K'Sumi is holding them until his mission succeeds.'

Katya almost lost her damn mind, hyperventilating. ‘So he reneged on his promise to the Rider? Fokk that!'

She couldn't believe what she was hearing and clenched her hands into fists at her sides, her eyes blazing with fury and fear.

‘We must find them,' she said through gritted teeth. ‘I won't let them suffer for one more day because of your freakin' greed and incompetence.'

She nailed each of the men in her family with a withering look. ‘You all should be ashamed of yourselves.'

Her brothers hung their heads while K'Toro glanced away, unable to meet her glowering gaze.

‘I require a commtab now,' she demanded. ‘I'll need to call in some favours.'

Her father's shoulders lifted and fell with a massive sigh. ‘My office.'

She strode away, leaving the foursome to sulk in the hallway, shuffling their feet in uncomfortable silence.

The workspace was just as lavish as the rest of the mansion, but Katya found the opulence suffocating.

She marched in, slammed the door shut and locked it.

Striding to her father's ornate desk, she accessed his commtab, her fingers flying across the holographic display.

‘Mirage, I need you. Please.'

The tiny earpiece Xion had given her on the D'Hanna ship buzzed to life, and a small cloud of noids flowed from it to her keypad.

‘I'm here, Katya. I listened to it all and worked out what needs to be done. Let the metanoids do their thing,' the harmonious, mellow tones of the Sable Riders AI intelligence advised.

‘I'm in,' they added a few seconds later.

‘Fokk yeah,' Katya breathed.

‘I've accessed your father's network and I'll be in K'Sumi's in no time. Stay at the desk for a tad longer, then make an excuse to leave. I should have a location where they're holding both Xion and your loved ones soon.'

After what felt like an eternity, which was just a handful of beats, Mirage's voice crackled through the earpiece again. ‘I've got Xion's position. We'll need to rescue him first so he can help you infiltrate the facility where your family is being held.'

Relief flooded through Katya, tears misting her eyes.

With a shaky inhale, she composed herself and shut down the computer, erasing all traces of Mirage's infiltration before exiting the office.

She stalked back into the hallway where her siblings and sperm donor still lingered, eyes on her.

Silent, Katya made her way past them towards the exit without a glance back.

The sky above Iccythria blazed with vibrant shades of purple, from deep royal hues to soft lavender wisps. The ever-changing clouds swirled and danced in the dusky light, creating a mesmerising display.

It belied the volcanic activity churning under the surface of the massive planet.

Katya stood in the street outside her family's residence, waiting for Mirage, who had sent Xion's flyer from the Tachy to fetch her.

Her chest constricted with emotion as she turned, her eyes flicking over the mansions she'd called home, where she had grown up amidst chaos.

She had lived here in fear for most of her life, ruled by her father's greed for wealth, longing to break free from his particular cycle of oppression.

The anxiety and dread had never left her. For a moment, she was overpowered by a helplessness that things would never improve for her, that he'd never flee this life she'd been forced into.

A soft ping interrupted her soul malaise.

Mirage spoke into her ear. ‘I'm here.'

Katya jolted when a sleek Sable-designed sports flyer shimmered into view before her.

She had not caught its approach vector and gaped at the sight.

‘Get in,' the dulcet tones of the Sable AI announced.

With one last defiant glare at her past, she put the D'Hanna legacy behind her and pivoted towards the vessel, sliding into its compact yet luxurious interior.

As the Sable consigliere piloted the craft up and away from the smoggy surface of Iccythria, Katya turned to face the control panel. ‘Mirage, how long to the ALMQ facility?'

‘Half an hour, tops. I've patched into their framework and found the cell they're holding him in. I've also modded for you a prison uniform and faked credentials to sneak you inside. You'll need the pack of tools on the chair beside you. I won't bore you with their use, given you have an impressive career already in concealment, infil and ex-fil.'

Katya's eyes widened, and she huffed. ‘You seem to know a little about me.'

The AI's answer was cryptic. ‘I know enough.'

The streamlined racer sped off, stealthing mid-air as it rose to high altitude, whisking Katya away towards a fresh escapade.

Except this time, the stakes were much higher than ever.