CTS TIME RE250.09.05 — 11:42 AM
Sector 7 Market — Neon District, Edge of Food Plaza
The market was alive with brilliance holo-signs flickered, advertising levitating clothes, quantum-baked pastries, AI-guided jewelry that reshaped itself according to mood. Families walked in clusters, reactors glowing warm green and pink in sync.
Valerian followed. Silent. Cold. Calculating.
The male android held hands with his partner as they drifted through shop after shop. To anyone else, they looked like a normal couple two bonded reactors syncing green-pink, laughter echoing softly as they browsed clothing stalls. But Valerian's focus pierced beyond the laughter.
"He trades. He smuggles. Maybe worse. Yet he walks with her like nothing is wrong. How can a traitor… still love? How can a liar still hold his partner's hand?"
When the wife drifted into a holo-mall, disappearing among racks of self-replicating fabric, the husband lingered outside, typing furiously on a glowing quantum smartphone. Lines of code shimmered, invisible to normal eyes, but Valerian's retinal HUD caught the faint pulses encrypted transactions.
Valerian's reactor pulsed dark red. "Perfect. One clean move. Grab his neck, drag him into shadows, crush the truth out of him. Precision. Accuracy. No trace."
His boots shifted forward, barely making a sound hydraulic servos suppressing even the faintest vibration.
Then
The mall doors opened.
The wife reappeared, holding two small android children by the hands. Twin boys, their diamond-octagonal reactors glowing with innocence: two green slots for parents, one forming for themselves.
Valerian froze. His body, his reactor, his entire resolve paused mid-step.
"…He has children."
The younger child tugged his father's arm, reactor pulsing brighter as he laughed. The father crouched, ruffling his son's hair. His wife smiled, reactors glowing harmoniously.
Valerian's hand moved unconsciously to his own chestplate. His octagonal reactor pulsed faintly green, fragile, as if trying to remind him of something long buried.
"…These are more than machines. These are more… human than some humans I've known."
And then Luna's smile crashed into his mind.
Her face when she helped Oliver.
Her crystal-white teeth.
The warmth in her pink-glowing reactor when she laughed.
The image lingered. Burned. Shook him.
He blinked hard snapping back to reality. But the moment was gone. The family had moved, melting into the crowd.
Valerian's eyes sharpened. His body shifted. He scanned, calculated paths, tracked their glow. Minutes later, he found them again inside a neon-lit restaurant.
Perfect.
He slipped inside and sat at the table opposite theirs, his back angled, pretending to browse the holo-menu. His cold blue eyes didn't leave the target.
The male android noticed. His reactor pulsed faintly yellow suspicion. He leaned toward his wife, whispered softly, then said
"I'm going to the washroom. Wait here."
His wife just nodded, continuing to entertain the children with holo-toys floating above the table.
The man walked. Calm. Controlled. But his stride stiffened as he sensed the shadow behind him. He turned a corner, into a narrow hallway near the restrooms.
Valerian followed. Silent. Inevitable.
The android stopped. Without turning, he said low:
"You are following me."
Valerian's reactor pulsed red dominance flaring.
The android turned, meeting his eyes. He tried to sneer:
"You're just Mk1. Level 10. Weak. Do you think you scare me?"
Valerian didn't answer with words. He blurred forward kinetic energy coiled in his gloves, closing the distance in less than a second. His eyes, stormy blue, locked dead on the man's. No
movement, no sound just that stare.
The pressure hit like a gravity well. The male android's legs buckled. He stumbled back, reactor flickering as if suffocating under the sheer weight of Valerian's presence. He fell against the wall, sliding to the ground, trembling.
The man stuttered
"You're pushing too far… I have children… you show me fire?
Valerian's eyes narrowed. He understood every word. He stepped closer, voice cold, sharp as a blade:
"Just one thing. Tell me what you know about the black market. The illegal works. Speak and I will not kill you."
The android swallowed. His reactor flickered, torn between fear and loyalty. He tried to stand. His voice broke:
"Why should I trust you?"
Valerian lifted his wrist-watch, tapped a sequence. A glowing transaction window hovered in the air.
"100,000 star credits. For your information. One transfer. Right now. And you walk away breathing."
The android froze. His eyes darted calculating. His reactor pulsed yellow, then blue, then dim. His mind weighed betrayal against survival.
Seconds dragged like hours.
Valerian's reactor glowed red, pulsing with the threat of violence.
The android exhaled. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"…Fine. I'll talk."
The male android's synthetic breath rattled, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper.
"I told you… I don't know much about the deeper layers. I never went there. I only deal at surface level. But…" He hesitated, eyes flickering, reactor glowing with a faint green pulse that betrayed fear for his family. "There's someone else. A shopkeeper. She's no ordinary trader. She's a real imposter middle level, maybe even deeper. Knows too much. Dangerous woman."
Valerian didn't move, didn't blink. His stormy-blue glow leaked faintly from beneath his coat, his reactor flickering red and green like an unstable heartbeat.
The android continued, voice trembling. "she's the one who supplies me. Today right today she's the one who'll give me illegal microchips. That's all I know. Please… please let me go."
A faint ping echoed as the male android pulled out a slim holo-device from his wrist port. A hologram bloomed in the air between them a A woman blue eyes like frozen oceans, long straight hair the same ethereal shade, dressed in a reception uniform crisp white top, black half-skirt, synthetic stockings. At first glance, she was indistinguishable from a human, but Valerian's eyes traced the subtle glow beneath her fabricated skin. Two reactors nestled deep inside her chest, their radiance muted beneath her design, one slot glowing white a marker of untouched purity, never synchronized with any male android.
The android pleaded, stepping back, hands raised. "Bas yahi. This is all I know. I don't want trouble. My family… they don't even know. Please."
Valerian's face remained unreadable. He tapped his wrist console once transfer confirmed. One hundred thousand star credits vanished from his balance and appeared in the android's account. The male android flinched at the confirmation chime in his neural HUD, reactor flickering brightly in shock.
"Payment received," Valerian said flatly. His voice was low, metallic in its calm. "Now disappear before I change my mind."
The android nearly stumbled in his rush to escape, sprinting back toward the glow of the restaurant. Valerian watched him slip into the warm holographic light where his wife and children waited, smiling innocently, unaware of the shadows clawing at their father's life.
For a moment—just a moment—something cracked inside Valerian. His reactor pulsed green, faint but undeniable. The image of Luna's smile, her reckless kindness, flashed in his mind again like a reflection he couldn't erase.
Families. They laugh, they cry, they hope. And I… what am I?
His fist clenched, kinetic gloves humming faintly with restrained power. He whispered into the empty corridor, voice like a blade.
"Shopkeeper. Middle-level dealer. You're next."
The holo-photo of the shopkeeper hovered before him. Valerian saved the data into his watch, then let it flicker away. His balance now read: 3,978,000 star credits.
He straightened his coat, reactor glowing storm-blue through the seams, and stepped out of the shadows. The neon streets of Sector 7 blazed around him, alive with synthetic laughter and digital music. But in Valerian's eyes, only the hunt mattered now.
The path toward Flame had just opened a little wider.