Darien wrinkled his nose as the heavy smell of petro-chemicals and air scrubbers washed over him. A faint semi-artificial breeze made up of wind and oxygen circulators ruffled his thick dark hair like a playful ghost. All around him people swarmed like a living sea, flowing between the clustered Bloc-Dwellings with the ease of experience. He watched with a sense of amazement. It was hard to believe that an industrial cesspit like this could hide the potential for something truly remarkable.

"What a mess," Amber commented dryly, looking around her with an expression of faint disgust stamped on her soft features. She had her normally flowing locks of black hair tied back into a ponytail, as though she thought that might limit its exposure to the smog-filled air.

"Takes all sorts," he replied. "Most High-Belt colonies are like this." Despite his words, he agreed with her. Marnill was a classic example of what happened when the colonial powers-that-be prioritised utility over humanity. With three billion inhabitants crammed into half a dozen sprawling, hive-like cities, this planet pumped out enough raw materials to supply a whole colonial network, but that came at a price for those who lived there. On Marnill you worked hard and lived harder. Given the choice he wouldn't have come with in a billion miles of the place, but orders were orders.

With Amber trudging reluctantly by his side, he picked his way through the masses toward the nearest ram-station. People piled in around them on all sides as they entered the barrel-shaped structure, getting jostled and shoved around in the thronging masses. It was all he could do not to start slamming elbows left and right, and he could almost feel Amber's frustration. But right now they had to deal with it. The last thing they needed on a delicate operation like this was to start a brawl.

As the crush got worse she hooked her arm through his to keep them from being separated. He led her on, following the human flow down a broad rampway and toward the crammed box-like construction of one of the transit-rams. The huge machine filled the platform, a three-levelled carrier fifty feet long, packed to the seams with commuters. Darien dragged his companion through the nearest door and carved out a tiny nook of space as the rest of the citizens piled in around them.

Amber gave him a disgusted look. "How do people live like this," she said under her breath.

"Not everyone was as lucky as you," he reminded her. "Illuvari's the exception, not the rule."

She pulled a sour face but didn't press the point. He understood her feelings regardless. Whichever way you looked at it, Marnill was not a nice place to be.

Eventually the monstrous transit ram hit capacity and the plates beneath Darien's feet shuddered as its immense engines roared into life. The superstructure groaned and shook as they set off through the honeycomb of ram-lines that criss-crossed Marnill's capital.

"So where's our target?" Amber asked quietly, hunching herself back against the walls as though it would protect her from the smell of sweat and body odour that hung in the air.

"If we've timed this right-," he winked. "-and we have, she'll be finishing a shift at one of the blasting plants. We'll catch her on her way out."

"And then?"

"Then give her the soft sell, see how she takes it...hope for the best."

She smiled thinly. "I love a well-thought-out plan."

The journey on board the transit-ram was mercifully brief, and Darien surged out into the streets again, breathing in the chemical heavy air with relief. They emerged into a humid industrial district, where the heat from the massive cylindrical blasting plants seared through the streets. Wiping beads of sweat from his brow, Darien pulled a small console from his jacket. He thumbed the activation switch and the palm sized screen burst into life, showing a three dimensional layout of the local streets.

"Alright then," he murmured. "Follow me."

After working their way through the gridiron streets the two Blink operatives soon came to the entrance of a smaller satellite plant branching off from one of its more monolithic cousins. Some workers were spilling out of the main entrance and Darien felt a ripple of pity as he looked at them. Most were young, some even younger than him, and all bore the scars of being shackled to Marnill's heavy industry. Their faces were blackened with smoke, skin cracked and rough – several sported recent burns. With tool belts and backpacks trailing behind, the shift workers shuffled out of the main entrance. To Darien's surprise they laughed and joked as they went.

"Is that normal around here?" Amber asked quietly.

He nodded. "Afraid so."

"And she's one of them?"

"Yup."

His companion made a disgusted face. "How many people do you think we lose to hell-holes like this?"

"More than we should." Darien looked at her and shrugged. "But there's nothing we can do about it. Ride the up side. This kid's special, and we're going to make sure that doesn't go to waste."

With an extra piece of determination in his step he set off toward the plant, eyes locking onto an older man who seemed to be giving orders. The foreman spotted them on their approach and strode out of the sweltering heat of the entrance to meet them.

"Reckon yer in the wrong spot, young 'uns," he chuckled, wiping grime from his his bearded face with the sleeve of his crimson overall. "Or are ya toutin' fer work?"

"Not quite," Darien replied. "We're actually looking to meet one of the workers here."

"Aye? An' who's that?"

Darien keyed a sequence into his console and held it out. The screen flashed up with the face of a teenage girl, her skin bronzed by the constant heat of Marnill and her dark hair clipped short to just below her ears. She had a faintly mischievous smile on her face.

"Indigo Farrier," Amber took over. "She's registered as a part time sheeter at this plant, isn't she?"

"Aye, that she is," the foreman confirmed, narrowing his beady eyes at them. "But who're you?"

"My name is Darien. This is Amber. We work for a branch of the Interstellar Navigation Fleet," Darien said, a half-lie that he'd told dozens of times before. While the Blink organisation wasn't totally secret, it didn't advertise its presence unduly either. He pulled a card from his jacket pocket and flashed it in front of the foreman. "We can't go into the specifics of our business here – you understand."

The foreman looked them up and down. Eventually he shrugged. "A'right, none o' my concern what yer business is. Doesn't matter – the girl ain't here."

"Then where is she?"

"Ya haven't missed her by much. Knocked off her shift early – cleared her myself."

"What for?"

"Cos I try not to work my people to death. The kid needed a bit o' slack."

Darien frowned. "Well we still need to see her. Do you have an address?"

"Sure I do. An' she might jus' thank me fer handin' it over."

"And why's that?" Amber asked uncertainly.

"Cos yer not the only ones lookin' to speak to her."

The two Blink operatives exchanged a curious glance before Darien returned his attention to the foreman.

"Who was looking for her?"

"Damned if I know," said the foreman. "But I'll give ya this fer free. They were creepy scrapers, no mistake. Two o' them, not kids like you – looked like some kinda spec ops. I'm not blind." He inclined his head towards the left side of Darien's torso. "Their guns were bigger'n yours."

Ignoring his surprise that this rough-mannered foreman had managed to spot his concealed weapon, Darien focused on the more important matter. "They were armed?"

"Aye."

"The address," Amber hissed. "Now!"

"Keep yer hair on, pixie-sticks," the foreman rumbled. "Gimme that gizmo an' I'll punch it in fer ya."

Five minutes later the operatives were jogging side by side through Marnill's streets, making their way toward the address the foreman had given them. Darien's mind was racing. In his years as at Blink he'd performed this little venture on a dozen different planets and never had they run into something like this. Two soldiers, if the foreman's description was accurate, looking for the same person at the same time – it was too much of a coincidence.

But who? Who else would be looking for this girl? Her life was unremarkable in every way – if it weren't for her potential Blink aptitude nobody would have noticed her. Whatever was happening on this sand-blasted furnace of planet, he didn't like it.

They jinked and swerved through a series of increasingly intricate streets as they moved away from the bulk of the blast plants. The huge factories gave way to tightly packed cinder-coloured buildings that glittered with solar reflectors. The flow of people became more sporadic as they made their way further and further from the industrial hotspots.

Glancing at the map, Darien took another right and slowed his pace as he spotted a female figure near the end of the road. She was trudging along, whistling tunelessly, rugged black backpack slung over one shoulder and a heavy tool belt clunking against her hip as she went. She was the right height and build, and had short mahogany hair.

Amber fell into step alongside him, glancing around. "This doesn't feel right – those people, whoever they were, they should have gotten here before us."

"I know." Darien reached inside his hooded jacket and loosened his pistol in its holster. His eyes wandered up to the windows and walls that loomed in around them. This place was littered with gaps and slender alleys where anyone could easily lie in wait.

Without exchanging a word they both upped their pace, closing in as the girl disappeared around the corner. Darien couldn't shut off the alarm bells blaring in his mind. Someone was after Indigo Farrier. He didn't know who, or why, but recruiting her to Blink was no longer his concern now. He just wanted to get her out of harm's way.

He never got the chance. A shriek ripped out across the chemical-laden air of Marnill, coming from straight ahead of them. He glanced at Amber then broke into a run, hurtling down the street with his companion in hot pursuit. When he went careering around the corner he found himself looking at a scene of pandemonium.

No less than three grown men were trying to restrain the girl, all of them clad from head to toe in unmarked black fatigues. To her credit, Indigo was proving to be more trouble than anyone might have expected. She thrashed wildly against their grips, lashing out with her legs and swiping left and right with the heavy wrench in her left hand.

Darien skidded to a halt just as one of the men jammed the end of a grey truncheon against her neck. Sparks flew and immediately she went limp, the wrench clattering to the street.

"HEY!" Darien roared, tearing his pistol from its holster and levelling it. "Get the hell away from her!"

One of the attackers reached inside his coat, so Darien shot him. The man was knocked backwards, but the low calibre slug of the Blink side-arm hadn't been enough to penetrate whatever armour the man had under the black coat. Another of the assailants revealed a massive handgun and took aim, but, as he fired, Darien hurled himself to the side, landing behind the bulky cuboid of a parked road crawler.

Amber slid down beside him, her pistol held tightly in both hands. She leaned forward, peeking out at their attackers, but jerked back sharply when a bullet snapped off the metal plating barely a metre from her.

"Son of a bitch!" she hissed, swivelling back into cover. "Darien, we're not geared to take on a hit squad."

He gritted his teeth as more bullets cracked off the thick metal of the crawler. She was right – with no reason to expect any hostility the operatives only had their pistols and lightweight chest plates for protection. He only got a glance at one of the huge side-arms the men were carrying, but that had been enough. He doubted the standard issue Blink armour would stand up to such a weapon.

But they had to do something.

Darien stood and turned in the same motion, firing another shot. This time he caught one of the men in the arm as his companions dragged Farrier's unconscious form away towards one of the side streets. The man let out a howl of pain and he spotted the glint of crimson where the round had found its mark.

He dropped down as solid state bullets came thumping back in response. Beside him Amber leaned around the side of their cover, squeezing off a handful of shots before ducking back again. She looked at him and opened her mouth to speak.

The roar of an engine cut her off. Both operatives peered furtively from behind the crawler to see another vehicle come skidding around the far corner of the street. It wasn't a civilian transport either. Sleek, dark and with opaque windows, the shovel-shaped crawler slewed to a halt and its side door swung open.

There was nothing they could do. Out-gunned and outnumbered, Darien could only watch as the men bundled their quarry into the crawler and disappeared in after her. Then the door slammed shut and its massive wheels bit into the ground, propelling it away from them with alarming speed.

As soon as he saw the crawler Darien's mind had sprung into gear. They may not have been able to stop the abduction, but he wasn't about to give up on their new recruit just yet. He grabbed Amber by the shoulder, turning her to face him.

"Blink back to the docks," he ordered. "Get the shuttle in the air. If we get airborne we can outrun these bastards."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to try and follow them." He shot upright, raising his wrist to display the silvery band of the Blink communications bracelet. "Once you're in the air, lock in on my comm. Now go!"

She didn't argue. Seconds later the air around her seemed to bend and warp, then she vanished, leaving behind a void as the space tried to catch up with her sudden absence. Darien turned from where his companion had been standing and sprinted off in pursuit of the kidnappers. Watching carefully he saw them turn right down a side street. Jamming his pistol back into its holster he freed his map display again and glanced at it once. After taking a few seconds to gauge his position he let the Blink happen.

The sensation was one of total absence for the briefest of instants. For that tiny speck of time he felt utterly disconnected. Then the world rushed back: the heat, the chemical filled air, the roaring engines – it hit him like a wave. And then he was running again, pelting through the streets with his eyes locked on the black crawler barely ten meters ahead.

The distance quickly opened out again as the crawler lurched and swung its way through the increasing traffic. Horns blared and people gasped at the sight of the cumbersome black monster thundering through the streets.

But if that surprised them, they were not prepared for what came next.

Darien was fast, years of experience at Blink honing his body, but even running flat out he couldn't hope to keep pace with a vehicle. So he had to keep Blinking. As the pavements gradually grew busier he had to aim high, Blinking into spaces above the citizenry to avoid materialising inside of one of them. Weaving and dodging through Marnill's stunned populace, he did everything he could to keep the crawler in sight.

"Darien, I'm airborne!" Amber's voice cut into his earpiece. "Locked in on your signal. I'm two minutes away at full burn. What's your status?"

"I'm still on them," he replied breathlessly. "Just."

"Hang tight, I'm coming!"

He didn't reply, concentrating on keeping touch with his quarry. The vehicle made a sudden, wrenching left turn, clouting a civilian crawler with its heavy rear as it went, launching the unfortunate driver into a crashing roll. Darien Blinked forward again, landing at the edge of the junction. After a frantic glance around he spotted the vehicle vanish into the gaping garage of one of the buildings. As he set off in pursuit the doors slammed shut.

That wouldn't stop him. Ripping his pistol free as he ran, he started calculating his Blink inside. Before he could, however, he heard an ominous rumbling from inside the structure. He halted briefly just outside the door, checked the magazine of his pistol, and then Blinked inside.

He landed in a crouch, pistol aimed. After a moment he straightened up and his brow furrowed in confusion. The crawler now stood empty, doors flung open, with no sign of either the kidnappers or Indigo Farrier. Listening he could hear a low rumble coming from overhead. He looked around, his sharp eyes bouncing around the room. Then he spotted an elevator at the far wall, doors closed and a red number 6 showing on the display above its doors.

"Crap..." Darien looked up, flashing his mind back to the exterior of the structure. The kidnappers must have taken the elevator to the roof, and the rumble that was growing louder with each passing second sounded all too familiar. He needed to get up there. Estimating the distance was a dangerous game, but with years of experience under his belt, Darien was better than most. Swallowing a deep breath, he forced another Blink.

His feet hit the firm concrete of the rooftop and he straightened up, just in time to see a blue exhaust plume tearing through the sky away from him. At the far end of it he picked out the dark, box-like shape of a ship.

"Amber," he yelled into the comm. "They've moved onto a shuttle; had one stashed in one of the buildings in the factory district."

"I see them," she replied sharply. "And I see you. I'll make a close pass at the rooftop. Get ready!"

Turning to look back in the direction of the Marnill space port, he spotted the arrowhead shape of the Blink shuttle as it rocketed over the city. It came to an abrupt halt in mid air beside the roof he stood on, held aloft by a series of boosters on its underside.

Feeling the welcome tug of the shuttle's Nav-Rod, Darien let the Blink happen, instantly transporting into the vehicle. He emerged into reality amidst the blinding blue glare of the Nav-Rod structure and as soon as his feet hit the deck he roared through the corridor:

"I'm in, GO!"

The surge in acceleration almost knocked him flat as his companion launched the ship in pursuit of their quarry. As the inertial compensators kicked in he managed to scramble his way through the main hallway and into cockpit, flinging himself into the co-pilot seat.

Buckling in, he looked out of the shuttle's main window to see a receding exhaust flare far in the distance. He glanced at the display and saw their trajectory – straight up and out of the atmosphere.

"Scunner me," Amber cursed as she wrestled with the shuttle controls. "That thing can move."

"Stay on them," he told her. "Somebody in harbour control must've noticed something."

"You sure about that?" She gave him a dubious glance.

His brow furrowed. "Just get me within weapons range."

"You want to shoot them down?!"

"I'll go for the engines – leave them dead in the water."

"You'll be taking a hell of a risk."

"Tell me something I don't know." He took a deep breath, spinning up the targeting computers for the shuttle's main guns. As weapons went, their armaments weren't exactly daunting, but the twin-linked Gatling cannons slung under the nose-cone could still do plenty of damage in the right hands. Amber shook her head but didn't argue, instead making a series of minor adjustments to the shuttle controls to coax more power out of the engine.

Still the speck in the distance receded.

Darien drummed his fingers anxiously against the arms of the co-pilot chair, glancing at the targeting reticule every few seconds. The distance counter confirmed his fears. Little by little, the other ship was pulling away.

It didn't take long for both vessels to tear out of Marnill's atmosphere, breaking into the void of open space. The roaring of the shuttle engines deadened to a low rumble from the rear compartment, but Darien didn't feel any more at ease. The other ship's engine flare was barely a pinprick now.

"What the hell have they got crammed into the back of that thing?" Amber murmured in disbelief. "Darien, I'm sorry, I can't get anything more out of our engines without blowing them to pieces. They can outrun us."

His jaw tightened with frustration. "Just keep as close as you can – try and get a bead on their course trajectory."

"I'll try."

As they soared further away from the planet Darien noticed on the HUD that Marnill's port authorities had finally responded to the disturbance; half a dozen ships were fanning out from the planet in pursuit, but it was too little, too late. If the state-of-the-art engines strapped to the Blink shuttle couldn't keep pace with the intruder, there was no way a collection of colonial antiques would be able to.

"Darien, they don't seem to be heading anywhere," Amber told him, shaking her head. "Their trajectory doesn't point them at any major colonies, no military bases – there's nothing on that course."

Darien raised an eyebrow. "So where are they going?"

"Wait..." A confused expression flashed over her face and she looked up. "I'm picking up another ship out there."

"Colonial?"

"Doesn't match any known configurations. It's...something else."

Darien punched in an adjustment to the main sensor array, tightening the beam to try and garner a more accurate reading.

"They're still out of visual range," she told him. "Whatever's out there, it might be packing a lot more fire power than our little cannons."

Darien glanced at the HUD. The ships from Marnill were lagging tens of thousands of kilometres behind. No help would be arriving any time soon.

"We don't have much choice," he said. "Stay on course. Even if all we can do is get a look at this thing it'll be worth it."

"The scanner's having trouble picking up a proper reading," she told him. "The drive signature's all out of whack. It's distorting the sensors."

"Just stay on course. I'll try clean it up." Ignoring the weapons systems, he focused his attention on trying to scrub out some of the interference. He tightened the beam and funnelled extra power from the weapon systems into their main array to try and penetrate the strange cloud of distortion that their quarry was flying straight into.

Grim-faced, Amber shook her head in frustration as she tried to coax more power out of the shuttle's already red-lining engines. An unhealthy whine echoed through the ship's interior and red lights started blinking on the main panel.

"They're within that distortion now," she told him. "I can't separate the signals. They might have boarded it. Any luck with the sensors?"

Darien thumped a fist against the arm of his chair. "I've gutted secondary power systems – not much else I can throw at it."

"Wait..." His companion stared in bafflement at her HUD. "What the hell? I've...I've lost the reading!"

"What?!"

Amber looked up at him from the console, a stunned expression on her face. "Darien, they're just...gone."