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When Fran had been a kid, she'd often stare out the window aimlessly while her mom would drive. "Come in, Huston." Every new building and landscape would become a new playground in which to let her mind wander. "Houston, we lost you." She probably couldn't have given you directions to and from a lot of the places where her mom would drive them, mind you.

"Huh?" The young jackal had startled out of her daydream. "What?" She'd lost herself in the watery sigils traced by rainfall down her side's car window just then.

"You look like you're off in space, honey," her mom had observed.

"You know," Fran had admitted, "maybe I am."

***

"Now, always pay attention to your radar here," Jackie showed the jackal. "You don't want to run into anything, do you?" Fran shook her head, glancing at the radar before moving her eyes back to the viewscreen. "You'll keep both in your field of vision when you get used to it," the roach hoped out loud. "You can just glance at it every five, ten seconds like this for now, though." Jackie had known how to fly a ship for such a long time that she no longer consciously thought about a lot of it.

"Thanks for taking the time to show me how to do this." The jackal had never piloted anything as such, certainly not a spaceship.

"What are partners for, right?"

The roach was just being folksy, but a twinge of guilt crept into Fran's mind as she spoke. "Maybe next time you're hurt I'll be able to pilot you myself, so you won't owe anyone anything." Jackie nodded.

"When you die I'll make sure to take you to the Revival chambers myself, so no one can overcharge you for it," the roach offered.

"Uh... Thanks."

Jackie thought she was being reassuring. "That's another thing that makes partners a good idea - and dying a bad one, hold it steady there." The jackal didn't really want to think about dying at all. "I still can't believe you've never piloted a spaceship."

"I've never even been on a spaceship, Jackie."

"That just blows my mind," the roach shook her head. "I guess with everything on one planet, you wouldn't need to as much," she shrugged.

"I guess everyone would be able to pilot a spaceship around here," Fran assumed.

"Well, not everyone," Jackie countered. "I used to pilot this remora I knew places 'cause she couldn't pilot to save her life," she meant quite literally. "A lot of people don't own their own spaceships, but a lot of people who don't can still pilot, though," she explained. "You never know when you're gonna need to, you know?"

"So you sometimes end up piloting spaceships that aren't yours?" the jackal asked.

"Well, one time I did, uh, borrow someone's ship for a while, if that's what you mean," the roach admitted. "That's too fast." They slowed down, incrementally.

"You stole her ship?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "What happened was, I owed this ichthyosaur some work when she died," she explained, "and her ship was still on." Fran could see where this was going. "Without my own ship, it would've taken me ages to get it done. That's a lot of interest. The ship made it a breeze." The jackal may have very well done the same, if she could've piloted. "I know what you're thinking but I knew how much she owed when she died, like, I actually looked it up to make sure. If she'd been brought back when she'd been supposed to, her ship would've already been back by then. She'd have had no idea I used it."

A spaceship was somewhere between a car and an apartment: most people who owned them lived and worked in them, they might get squatted when no one was using them, and you couldn't find a good one anywhere. Lodgings that kept you on-world were a bad idea for people who had to move worlds often.

"But she did," Fran continued.

"I still don't know what happened," the roach shrugged disbelievingly, "but when she came back to life and her ship wasn't there, she did not like that one bit, let me tell you."

"Did she sue you?" the jackal asked.

"She did drag me in front of an Arbitrator, if that's what you mean." Fran idly wondered how long she'd be able to live in the System before having to see one - and who would be doing the dragging then. "Hands on the stick."

"How did that turn out?" Justice in the System seemed to vary heavily depending on which Arbitrator you got, the jackal thought.

"I did end up having to pay her back for the inconvenience of not having had her ship on hand when she got brought back but," Jackie paused for effect, "that wasn't enough for her." Fran raised an eyebrow. "Speed up a bit." Oh that's right, the piloting, the jackal remembered. "No, she wanted everything I'd have owed her if I hadn't borrowed her ship, interest and all," the roach continued.

"That seems like a bit much," Fran gasped. "What did she do?"

"She tried to kill the Arbitrator." It really was a dangerous occupation.

"Tried to?" the jackal tilted her head.

"Arbitrators are hard to kill," Jackie shrugged. "You don't stay one for long without some unique means of persuasion," she euphemized. "Eyes on the viewscreen."

"What happened to the ichthyosaur after that?"

"She's still a Renegade to this day, as far as I know," the roach added offhandedly. "I think she eats people now."

***

"I hate cars," Fran's roommate would often say. "People can't drive" was a close second. The jackal's roommate used to work for minimum wage as a moderator on a picture-posting forum, to determine what was safe for consumption or not. "I wish there weren't cars." She had had to see the most horrifying images that the world had to offer day after day until what it had done to her mind had forced her to go on assistance for acute workplace aversion. "I mean, I need a car." She needed the car to buy groceries, clothes, medicine, cleaning products. "It'd be better if there weren't any cars at all." After enough close calls with irresponsible drivers where her roommate's preternatural driving skills had been all that had stood between them and certain death, Fran had been inclined to believe her. "We don't need cars, as a whole." She'd been able to fix cars like nobody's business, with her intuitive grasp of complex systems. "We don't need pollution, road rage, and car accidents." She'd also understood the complex system of society enough to picture it without cars. "But why put money in public transit when you can make money from oil, right?"

"But you still need to use the means that are available to you to get what you need, don't you?"

"Exactly," the jackal's roommate had nodded grimly. "We don't need cars, but since we have them, I need one," she'd shaken her head. "See how that works?"

***

*FLICK!*

"Dex, old buddy!" Jackie's face had lit up right along with the channel screen where her old friend's image had just appeared. "It's been ages, hasn't it?" Fran honestly couldn't remember seeing her look this happy since they'd met. "How have you been?"

Dex gestured with her crinoid tendrils as she spoke. "It's been too long, Jackie." The jackal found she could 'read' some of the hybrid's 'expressions' through her body language, even though she had no face. "We should meet up sometime." You couldn't quite see Dex's feet onscreen, but you could still tell she had flamingo legs.

"We totally should." Over time, it had become one of those things that they always meant to do, but never got around to.

"I wanted to give you a heads up." The voice Fran realized came from Dex's lamprey maw sounded concerned.

"What's up?"

"Sticks and Stones came to see me." That got the roach's attention.

"Was it about food?" Her antennae stood straight up.

"No, nothing like that." Jackie's antennae seemed to relax.

"Was it about Kacey's murder?"

"Kacey was killed?" Dex sounded as surprised as the roach had when Ghost had told her. She'd quite liked the giraffe.

"That's a no, then," Jackie deduced matter-of-factly.

"They were on a full-on recruitment drive, if you can believe that" Dex explained.

"They wanted you to join them?" The roach laughed. "They don't know you at all, do they?" Dex may have been less public about her dislike of the Commission than Jackie was, but she didn't dislike them any less.

"There was something about the way they were talking about it, though... They're saying there's like way more Renegades around than there used to, getting bolder, too. They're getting desperate. Something's going down, it looks like. You might wanna lay low and keep your ear to the ground for a bit."

"Did they ask about me?" Without wanting to seem self-involved, it was a fair question.

"No, they're not onto that plan you were telling me about, if that's what you're worried about," Dex waved off. "How'd that turn out, anyway, you try it yet?"

"Didn't work out," the roach sighed.

"Well, I'm glad you're still around, for what it's worth." The jackal could hear a smile in the hybrid's voice. "Who's piloting?"

"I'm her new partner!" Fran chimed in.

"Hey, I didn't know you had a new partner," Dex said encouragingly. "I'd love to meet her. What's the next Jamboree you're going to?"

"Dex, I can't even remember the last time I went," Jackie chuckled. "It ain't cheap."

"I'll pay your way through sometime," the hybrid shrugged. "How about that?"

"Oh, I couldn't let you do that," the roach hesitated. "It wouldn't be fair to you."

"Fair shmair," the hybrid dismissed. "C'mon, when's the last time your partner's been to a Jamboree, huh?" she playfully insisted.

"Longer than me," Jackie admitted. Never, in fact. "Maybe sometime, sure!" Jamborees were the best thing the System had to offer, so it seemed fair for the roach to take the jackal to one after trapping her in it. "When I'll have time." Dex's physiology did her best approximation of nodding.

"Peace out, friend."

*FLICK!*

***

Fran's mom had been with her when she'd finally gotten her driver's license. The young jackal had passed her first written exam very easily. She'd also passed her second written exam just as easily as the first time the second time she'd failed the actual driving test. It was as if theory had come to her in the exact same way that practice did not. Finally, after months and months of practicing so that she could manage to get parallel parking down just right, with her new driver's license fresh in hand, Fran had driven her mom right out of the driving school's parking lot

into a fire hydrant.

"Hey, mom?"

The young jackal's mom had responded to her as calmly as if nothing had just happened at all. "Yes, dear?"

"I don't want to drive."

"Then don't."

And she never drove again.

***

"Stop the ship."

Fran complied. "Am I doing something wrong?"

Jackie shook her head. "Would you like something?" She gestured at her bag. "Maybe another mild stimulant, or something else?" She walked over to it to start rummaging through it.

"Oh, sure!" the jackal chirped. "Thanks."

The roach clucked her tongue. "I seem to be out of nutrient pills for now," she pulled out a solute syringe. "Will this do?"

Fran's maw gaped. "Um..." She'd never told Jackie about her fear of needles as such. "Uh..." The System may have made it easy enough to survive, but to thrive? "I don't..." The roach was putting two and two together.

"You're scared," she quietly understood. "Are needles bad where you're from?" It seemed like the most logical explanation.

"They're..." It seemed harder to explain than it should've been. "I'm just scared of them. I don't know why, honestly." The jackal seemed ashamed. "It's part of how I'm messed up."

"Hey..." Fran looked up to see Jackie put her hand on her shoulder. "We're all messed up about all sorts of stuff, aren't we?" The jackal nodded. "But you've had to deal with needles before, haven't you?"

"Y-yeah," Fran forced out.

"How'd you deal with it then?" The roach moved to the jackal's side to put her arm around her shoulders.

"Well, when I used to be a kid, I..."

"What's a kid?"

Fran became distracted by the question. "Well, a kid is..."

"I'm sorry, what did you use to do?" The jackal blinked. "When you were a kid, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"I used to fantasize that a giant... space... bug - why are you putting the syringe away?"

Jackie smiled.

"It's done." Fran liked this particular giant space bug. She decided.

***

"It helps to get away from it all every once in a while, doesn't it?" Fran's best friend had loved driving, especially at night. "I mean, don't get me wrong, on some level, driving sucks, I get that." By day, she'd worked at a minimum wage customer service job in a hierarchical, authoritarian office building that had taxed her sanity, or what had been left of it. "Just, on another level, it's still awesome, you know what I mean?" She didn't drive to work or back from it as such but, after long work days, unable to sleep anyway, she'd taken the jackal out on long drives for hours in the middle of the night, letting out all the tension she'd accumulated during the day. "We mythify driving as freedom in a way that's kind of bullshit, but also kind of not, not completely." She'd had no idea how to fix a car, she'd just drive. "When I'd get into fights with people I lived with before, I'd go on these big drives to give them time to calm down." She'd talk with her hands as she'd drive a lot, driving with her knees, with no other cars in sight as if the road was hers like in a car commercial. "When my friends lived too far, I'd drive to where they lived so I could finally meet them." She'd take Fran to mounts, parks, rivers, junkyards, and rooftops, reminding them at night of the beauty of the world that they were a part of which they'd forgotten about during their work day. "The Greeks and Romans believed in what they called genius loci. They'd say places had spirits, like people did, and that you could talk to them..."