Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper

leave the city.
    That last bit perked her up. She’d been studying Lym on the way down. There were so many places she wanted to see. And animals. There were animals on the Deep, but nothing there was wild. On the Deep, water ran inside pipes. “Will you take me to Ollicle Falls?”
    â€œTomorrow. If you hire me.”
    She startled at that. “I thought Satyana hired you.”
    â€œShe wanted to set it up like an accident and not tell you I was working for her.”
    Why would he tell her that? She let silence come back up between them while she thought. Satyana hiring him made sense—she’d made Nona a personal project thirty years ago. She was probably going to be even more overbearing now that Marcelle was dead—she’d think it was her duty. The Nona project. But why would Charlie tell her this right away? “Do you know Satyana?”
    â€œNever been off of Lym.”
    â€œSo—”
    He cut her off. “I don’t like being told what to do. And I don’t like secrets.”
    Well. Things must be much simpler down here. Nona had to take a few extra steps every so often to keep up with him. Her thighs and calves had started feeling sore. She didn’t complain. “So I have to hire you?”
    â€œYou can hire whoever you want.”
    â€œI’ll hire you for tomorrow.”
    â€œThat would be telling me what to do. I’m not interested.”
    â€œSo why are you here?”
    â€œIt seemed like someone should greet you.”
    â€œSo can I hire you for tomorrow?”
    â€œAre you asking?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI’m not cheap.”
    â€œSatyana can pay you.”
    â€œReally?”
    He was right. She should pay him. She fell silent, still dizzy with the space all around her. The ground changed from the hard concrete of landing pads to something softer but still man-made. They passed a man heading in toward the spaceport, and two runners passed them. Someone could run forever here, no stopping, no going around in circles. “So what are your rates?”
    He told her, and she snorted. “I’ll sort something out.”
    He glanced at the sky. “Have you ever seen a sunset?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œAbout two hours. You’ll have time to eat first.”
    â€œWhere should I watch it?”
    Just off the spaceport grounds, Charlie stopped for a moment and pointed. “That’s the town, Manna Springs, and there’s your hotel, the Spacer’s Rest. On the far side, there’s the main government buildings and the Port Authority offices—see the tall grey building?”
    She nodded. The town fascinated her. Buildings stood up straight from the floor of the world, a myriad of colors and designs. At least that was like the Deep. Except there would be connections between the habitat bubbles at home; everything on a station connected to something else, even if the connections were locked. Manna Springs looked like building blocks, all square and rectangular; the Deep looked more like a collection of rings and rounds and cylinders and even arrows lashed together.
    Maybe it wasn’t much like home after all. She expected him to ask if she liked it, and when he didn’t she said, “It’s pretty.”
    â€œI’ll show you pretty tomorrow.” He fell silent again, and that was fine with her. She struggled to take in as much new information as she could and not to complain about her legs or her lower back, which had gotten in on the game. By the time they arrived at the hotel, her legs were shaking, although she refused to complain.
    To her surprise, Charlie said, “Go clean up. Eat. I’ll meet you back here twenty minutes before sunset. The first sunset’s free.”
    She blinked. “What time is that?”
    â€œFigure it out.”

    Nona sat on the steps of the Spacer’s Rest, waiting. She had no idea if she was early or late, but it hadn’t