Jane quickly settled back into her old routine on Kronos. Rotating hideouts, stealing food, watching for pursuers. This time, though, she also sought out information.
It wasn’t until late 1979—more than two years after her return to the city-planet—that she was able to track down Ybra during one of the hunter’s occasional visits to Kronos. Jane found her late one night behind a motel in the Tide District and knocked her to the ground before she even realized Jane was there.
“Do you know who I am?” Jane asked, pressing a blaster to her forehead. “Earth? New York? About six and a half starcycles ago?”
“I—I recognize you,” Ybra stammered. “I think.”
“Do you know where Eriph is?”
“No, but I’ll help you find him.”
“Actually, I’ll be the one helping you find him.” Jane pulled the trigger.
The first ship Jane could afford passage on after that took her to Si Hera. She wound up in a small town called Blink, twenty or so miles north of Sagev, where she went by June Roswell and found work at a restaurant. The town was nestled between the base of the mountains and the edge of the desert, so it kept fairly busy in summer and winter.
June thought the small town would give her some time to clear her head and figure out what she wanted to do next. Instead, the restaurant stripped away what little strength and feeling she had left. She was given little training beyond a vague warning to look out for crawlers, which turned out to be a word meaning any large and horrifying bug that made its way into the restaurant. On one occasion, it referred to a large rodent.
That went on for nearly three years.
The endless cycle of waking and working and five-minute breakdowns in the freezer and sneaking out whatever food she could and going to bed in her tiny apartment was finally broken late one night in the fall of 1982—the beginning of summer, on Si Hera. June stood in the alley behind the restaurant, cramming leaky garbage bags into the dumpster, when she heard voices.
The restaurant owner—a pale, skinny, six-eyed man named Rakne—and a man June didn’t recognize were in a heated argument at the end of the alley, apparently unaware of her presence. Rakne drew a blaster. The stranger lifted his hands, his tone turned fearful. Everything about his appearance was reptilian, from the bright green scales of his skin to his slitted pupils. His long black hair was slicked back and shiny.
June grabbed a bent pipe off the ground and stormed toward the man who ran her own personal hell. “Put the blaster down.”
Rakne shot her a surprised look, then laughed. “What’s your name again? Juice?”
“June.” She lifted the pipe, ready to swing.
“You have no idea what you’re walking into, June. And I hardly think a rusty pipe is the kind of thing you want to use against a blaster.” Rakne’s eyes narrowed. “Walk away, girl.”
June’s gaze flickered to the stranger, who regarded her with curiosity. When their eyes met, his expression switched back to terror, but it didn’t seem genuine.
“I’m not walking away,” June told Rakne.
“What, you think you’re some sort of hero?” Rakne turned the blaster on her. “I’m not above killing kids like you. I’ve done it before.”
Apparently done with attempting to negotiate, he fired. First at June, then at the stranger.
June barely avoided the shot meant for her. She shoved the stranger out of the way and swung the pipe. The blast snapped off the top half. June swung again with the rest and struck Rakne’s head. She snatched the blaster from him. Fired. Green light pierced his chest.
Rakne was dead before he hit the ground.
“Impressive,” the stranger said as he climbed to his feet. “Though you shoved me rather hard.”
“Sorry,” June replied lamely. She let her weapons clatter to the ground.
“I’ve wanted him dead a long time.”
What had she walked into? A feud? Was Rakne in the wrong? Did it matter?
“I’ve been watching you for a couple seasons now,” the stranger continued. “What are you doing getting ordered around in that little restaurant? There’s clearly a lot more to you.”
“I’m trying to take a break from…” From death? From running? June wanted to escape the chaos, but the chaos ran through her blood. It was fused to her bones and wired to her brain.
“Maybe you should come out of retirement. I have work you could do. And I could get you better living conditions.” The stranger walked away from her before she could decide on a response. “I’ll be in touch.”
June showed up at work the next day expecting the place to have dissolved into disorder. To her surprise, things seemed to be running smoother than usual.
The stranger waited in the back room. He introduced himself as Mr. Scales and explained that he’d kindly offered to step in and take over the place after Rakne’s tragic death. June got the sense he’d been waiting for a chance like this. He owned other businesses around town, and she quickly picked up on the fact that they were fronts for darker work.
June didn’t care about all that. Keeping her head down hadn’t done her much good, and Scales was offering her a change of pace. Maybe he was awful, but so were the targets he gave her.
Employees who must have been a little too loyal to Rakne disappeared. New ones took their places. One was a local Si Heran boy named Mylo with tough bronze skin, short waves of dark brown hair, and serpentine eyes. Mylo was completely uninvolved in any of the behind-the-scenes business. He was funny, kind, and the only person in Blink to take in interest in June for reasons besides her abilities.
She hid them from him. Hid everything she did at night.
One night, Scales told June to watch herself around Mylo. “He’s ordinary. Doesn’t know about the things that happen in this town at night. You’re too powerful to get caught up with people that don’t matter.”
He was telling June she was too good for Mylo, she knew. But when she stood in the bathroom of her apartment that night—the newer, nicer one Scales had moved her to—she had a hard time feeling that way. If anyone deserved better, it was Mylo.
At this point, she was hardly more than a machine.