Escape from Earth: New Adventures in Space

by Jack Dann

  Of all the accusations Mama might have made, that was the last of them, and for a moment Andi couldn’t think what Mama was talking about. “Pill?”

  “I gave you that pill this morning. You hid it, didn’t you? Just to get me in trouble!”

  “I don’t know what—oh!”

  “Oh is right! You know perfectly well what you did; it was all part of your plan!”

  “I just forgot, Mama,” Andi said. “Really I did.”

  Mama pushed past the astonished proctor, reached through the hatch, grabbed Andi by the shoulder, yanked her out of the chair and onto the deck. Andi was too surprised to resist, let alone fight back, and besides, Mama in a rage had the strength of two or three. “You are the most stubborn, disobedient, ungrateful child I ever knew! We take you brats in, we feed you, we clothe you, we work ourselves to the bone for you, and this—this is how you repay us! Running around behind my back, telling people I mistreated you!”

  “I didn’t—” Andi said. Mama smacked her across the face, then grabbed a hank of her hair and shook her.

  “Liar. I hope they lock you up for years, you sneak, you thief, you liar! You broke so many laws they ought to throw you out the airlock!”

  “Listen, lady, you can’t do that—” the proctor said from behind Mama, reaching out to grab her arm. She rounded on him, catching him square in the face; he staggered back.

  “You!” Mama had turned on Andi again. She was in full rage now, eyes glittering, spittle flying. “I told you not to take that test. I told you to watch them kids. And I told you to take that pill and not say nothin’ to nobody ’bout family business. It was nobody’s business if you had them pills every day or not. It didn’t do you harm to be short.” A blow for each told. Andi’s ears rang; she felt dizzy and sick.

  “Stop that now.” A voice she knew, a voice now as cold as the icy surface outside. Mama let go her hair. Time seemed to pause; Andi could not have said how long she was huddled on the floor.

  “You gonna make me?” Mama said. Andi looked up; Mama had turned half around, and Andi could see men in blue uniforms and one woman—Gallagher—in green. Gallagher smiled at Mama.

  “Don’t tempt me,” she said.

  “This is my child,” Mama said. “I got a right to discipline her when she’s done wrong. And she’s done a whole lot of wrong today. ”

  “You don’t have a right to beat up on her,” Gallagher said.

  “Madam,” one of the proctors said in a stiff, formal voice. “You have assaulted an officer of the law. That is an offense. You will step over here and be placed under arrest.”

  “No, I won’t!” Mama said.

  Andi’s thoughts caught up again. “What was that about the pill?”

  “Never mind,” Mama said. “You should’ve taken it, but I explained how you forget all the time and don’t like to take it, and that’s why your blood test didn’t show it.” She smiled, a ghastly fake smile. “You can tell them, Andi, that I did my best to get you to take your medicine.”

  Gallagher and Mama were both looking at her, as if they expected an answer. Andi tried to get up, but she felt dizzy again; she pushed herself up until she could lean onto one of the seats and tried to scoot back a little, away from Mama.

  “How often did you take your medicine?” Gallagher asked. “Was it always the same pill?”

  “I don’t need medicine,” Andi said’. “I’m healthy. The only time Mama gave me a pill was when we visited the Clinic.”

  “What’s this about a pill?” one of the proctors asked. “We have a more important problem here—”

  “Andi, do you have the pill you forgot to take, or was it lost later?”

  “I don’t know.” Andi felt in her jumpsuit pocket and found the little round, hard pill still in its plastic blister. “Here it is.”

  Mama snatched at it, but Gallagher caught Mama’s arm in a grip that Mama couldn’t break and swung her around, away from Andi. “Get her away from the—from Andi,” Gallagher said. The proctors moved in. Mama struggled for a moment, but there were too many of them; they bound her hands and then she stood hunched and submissive.

  “Give the pill to the proctor, Andi,” Gallagher said. “It’s evidence.”

  “Evidence of what?” the proctor said. “What’s going on here?”

  “You’ll need to take that to the Clinic. Andi was supposed to be getting daily medications to enhance her growth. Sometimes the treatment fails, so failure to grow isn’t proof of no medication. But not finding it in her blood-work is. Apparently her mother gave it to her just before a scheduled exam, but this time Andi didn’t take the pill. So it showed up as a flag on her medical record.”

  “But I thought required medications for such conditions were provided, part of the adoptive stipend,” the proctor said.

  “We’ve got a couple ourselves, and we get all the medications provided.”

  “They are provided,” Gallagher said. “They were provided for Andi and all her siblings. But her mother found another use for them . . . sold them on the black market, I expect.”

  “I did it for her,” Mama said. “I did it for all of them. Things is hard enough out there, never enough money, the Company charges for everything and cheats us on sales. Times we’d all have gone hungry if I hadn’t had somethin’ to sell. What difference did it make if she stayed short? Being tall wasn’t gonna make her pretty, or rich.”

  “I could have been tall?” Andi said. “You had pills to make me grow tall and you sold them?”

  “We needed the money more’n you needed to be tall,” Mama said.

  “And what about the others?” Andi said. “What about Bird and Gerry and Damon? Were they supposed to get medicine, and did you sell that?”

  Mama didn’t answer aloud, but her expression made it clear. Andi’s rage swelled until she thought she would burst with it. “How could anyone do that to a child? To their child?”

  “You never were my child,” Mama said. “Not really. The law said we had to have you brats if we wanted land, so we took you in.” Her face flushed again. “And now look what you’ve done! Bird and Gerry in the Clinic, my life and your Pop’s ruined, all because of you.”

  “Get her out of here,” Gallagher said. The proctors led Mama away, steadying her down the steps to the dockspace floor.

  Mama looked back once. “I hope you rot in a prison cell.”

  Andi blinked back tears. She was not going to cry, no matter what, not in front of Gallagher.

  “We need to get the medics for you,” Gallagher said, stooping down to look at her. “Bruises, cuts—”

  “No,” Andi said. “I’m all right, really.”

  “Well, you can’t stay on the deck—let me help you up, get you cleaned up a little, then we can tell—by the way, when did you eat last?”

  “A ship rat bar early this morning,” Andi said after a moment’s thought. So that hollow feeling was from more than the day’s events and a few smacks from Mama.

  “Food, then, after a chance to wash your face,” Gallagher said.

  “I’m fine,” Andi said again, as she struggled to rise. Gallagher helped her up; Andi’s head spun for a moment, but then she was able to walk to the shuttle’s small toilet space.

  Later, during a meal of foods she had never tasted before, she felt her wits coming back to her, enough to worry about what would happen next. Her face hurt now, but not badly; she certainly didn’t need to go to the Clinic for a few bruises and a cut lip.

  “We need to have a chat,” Gallagher said.

  Andi knew what “have a chat” meant. Her appetite vanished. “I’m in trouble, I know—” she began.

  Gallagher’s eyebrows went up. “You? Hardly. Oh, there are some irregularities, sure, but on the whole you’re not the one in trouble. Thanks to you, we have a team of child thieves in custody, a highly illegal cargo has been seized, and your two friends—both from influential families—are alive and unharmed.” Gallagher’s grinned. “You’ve had qui
te a day, and a lot of people want to thank you for it. I thought you needed some quiet time before you had to deal with all that excitement.”

  Andi’s appetite returned, and she ate a bite of something brown and crispy. “Yes, ma’am. What is all this?”

  Gallagher cocked her head. “I hope it doesn’t make you sick; I should have thought about that. Do you grow any of your own food, in your habitat?”

  “No. I asked one time and Mama said it took too much time and cost too much. We have those tubs of staples and packets of additives. You put them in the processor and add water, and if there’s any flavor packets left—”

  “Ah. Well, you may have a stomachache later, though I hope the enzyme additives in the sauces will prevent that. Sometimes peoples’ bodies react to any change of food.”

  “I feel fine,” Andi said. She ate the last of the brown crispy things and put her fork down.

  “Ready to talk? And listen?”

  Now it would come; Andi tried to stay relaxed. The warm, comfortable feeling in her stomach helped with that. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Several things happened today, some that you don’t know about. First, you and your family went to the Clinic early this morning for checkups, right? And your littlest brother was sick?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You had a blood test as part of your checkup. You already know about that: they found no growth hormone, and it’s in your record that you were supposed to be given it daily. But there were other results of the exams you and your siblings took, and the youngest child’s condition, which led them to the conclusion that medical neglect and perhaps abuse was going on. I don’t know all the details—”

  “The others, too?”

  “Yes. And evidence as well of misappropriation of medications supplied—”

  “Misappropriation? What’s that?”

  “Stealing, basically. Your mother—or both parents, probably—were selling medications provided for you and your siblings.”

  “What did Bird and Gerry need medicines for?” Andi asked. But even as she asked, she thought of Bird’s nervousness, her inability to sit still and work steadily on anything.

  “I don’t know,” Gallagher said. “But it was in their records. Then, there’s the matter of your Class C exam. Yes, the law says twelve-year-olds can apply for a hardship license, and your father had signed for you to do that. But records show there are three licensed pilots at your habitat: your two parents and your older brother. Why did they need you as well?”

  “Pop said Oscar was big enough to run the processorpacker,” Andi said. “And that way I could go out on prospecting trips with him, even overnight.”

  “Did you want to do that?” Gallagher asked.

  “I wanted the license,” Andi said. “I wanted to get away— away from Mama, and really—away from all of it. Someday—” All she had dreamed tangled in her throat and she couldn’t get it out.

  “What is it you want in your life, Andi?” Gallagher asked gently.

  Andi felt tears pricking her eyes again and blinked them back. She was not going to cry. Not when someone was actually listening. “I want to get away. But not just get away, I want to get to—to find new places. When I was doing simulations in our shuttle, it was the only time I could see out, see the sky. And— and there it is, the whole universe. There’s the planet—well, we can’t go there, it would kill us, but all the other moons. The outer planets. And I don’t even get to see the other side of Ganymede except when we come to Base and then we’re underground again.”

  “Do you ever think of going back to Earth, or MarZone?”

  “Not really,” Andi said. “Earth sent us out here, all us kids, because they didn’t want us. I don’t want to go where I’m not wanted. I want to find a place where . . . where people want me, or where there’s no one. One or the other.”

  Gallagher nodded. “So you weren’t forced to take shuttle training or the exam early?”

  “No,” Andi said. “And anyway, I’m good at it.”

  “That you are,” Gallagher agreed. “Your test scores were . . . remarkable. We’ve also accessed your school records. Your parents have only provided basic schooling, right?”

  “Basic?”

  “Andi, colonial law requires that parents provide a basic education to all their children for a minimum of eight years, but they can go beyond that if they want.”

  “I thought only kids in real schools could get things like that,” Andi said. “Mama said—”

  Gallagher’s mouth twisted for a moment. “Teaching modules are equally available to homeschoolers and classrooms.” She cleared her throat. “The thing is, Andi, with the evidence of medical neglect—amounting to abuse in some cases—and misappropriation of medication and attempt to defraud—and concern about your taking the exam as a hardship case—an emergency meeting was held this afternoon and determined that all you children should be removed from parental custody. Your parents are facing serious charges—”

  So Mama was right about that at least. The family was destroyed because of Andi.

  “It’s not you,” Gallagher said, as if reading her mind. “Your parents chose to withhold medication you and the others needed; they chose to conceal that from the Clinic by medicating you before exams; they chose to sell the medications illegally.”

  “But—what happens to us? Where will we go? And . . . will I ever grow?”

  “You think of that as a serious problem?”

  “Well, yeah,” Andi said. “How would you like being called a runt, having everybody think you’re a baby?”

  “I didn’t like being called a giraffe or a flagpole because I was tall and skinny,” Gallagher said. “My mother’s hair went white really early, when she was in her twenties; she didn’t like being called an old lady. We survived it.”

  “Yeah, but people grew up to you, didn’t they? They grow past me.”

  Gallagher looked at her. “Andi, you say you want to go out to the frontiers and explore, right?”

  The change of topic broke the tempo of her thoughts for a moment. “Yes, why?”

  “There’s more than one frontier. One of them is inside. If you want to go forward, you have to leave things behind. Not saying it’s easy ...”

  “Like . . . Mama?”

  “Like the Andi who hates being short, when being short isn’t something you can change. Do you know what the height requirement is for that new expedition to the outer planets?”

  “No—what new expedition?”

  “Planning stages. Supposed to leave in three or four years, about the time you’ll be eligible to apply as junior crew. I’m too tall for it. They won’t take anyone over 1.6 meters.”

  “What’s the minimum?” Andi tried not to let herself hope that she might have a chance of getting on that crew.

  “There isn’t one.” Gallagher paused to let that sink in, then went on. “Andi, you want to explore, you said. Be with people who want you. See new things. Being short won’t stop you. Only you can stop you.

  “You really think so?” Andi asked.

  “I know so,” Gallagher said. “Someday I’ll tell you why, but right now we’re going to meet some people who are very interested in your future. I hope you are.”

  Andi was having the best day in her life, hanging out in Boone Concourse with her friends after school. New clothes, a pixie haircut that looked so much less babyish than the old style, matching colors and designs on her fingers and toes, a crowd of other girls vying for her attention ... no more gray jumpsuit, no more of Mama’s depressing predictions. All the children had new homes, new families. Beth’s parents had been so grateful for her information, information that led to the capture of the workforce pirates and finding Beth and Vinnie safe, that they had agreed to become her new guardians. Beth had taken Andi to the best shops, to style consultants, and her parents had agreed that “cultural opportunities” includes fashion as well as classes in music appreciation and art.

  Captai
n Gallagher, the first time she’d seen the new Andi, complete with the silver and emerald-green nails and matching silver and green hair ornament, had shaken her head. “You are so twelve,” she’d said, grinning. “Enjoy it while it lasts, Andi. It won’t all be easy.”

  Andi had figured that out. Right now she was a novelty, on the edge of celebrity. Girl pilot-adventurer outwits wicked workforce pirates. That wouldn’t last. Nor would the teachers’ fascination with her untapped potential, that brilliance the assessment tests said she possessed.

  But this was now, and now was a new life. Someday she might qualify for an expedition to the outer planets—though she wasn’t sure she wanted to spend long months in another windowless habitat. She might explore more in the Jovian system, maybe even with Captain Gallagher. Or she might do something else—anything else that didn’t involve being stuck where she had been stuck. She would work hard in school—she had already found the classwork in Beth and Vinnie’s class ridiculously easy while haughty Hamilton, who’d ignored her, barely passed. The teacher had even threatened to call Hamilton’s parents to the school for a conference. And she, Andi, would succeed at something, whether it was exploration or not.

  But for now, right this minute, it was enough to be sitting with a crowd of friends in one of the booths of Dave’s Desserts, spooning up yet another delicious food she’d never had before, after an hour of shopping. She had an allowance from her own money, a trust fund established from the sale of the pirates’ shuttle and cargo. Her new friends were teaching her about sales and loss leaders and clothing exchanges—ways to get more for less, what they called combat shopping. So the new green sandals that went so well with her nails, and the green and silver dress cape they all agreed she needed, plus a little music player and a stack of required tapes for music appreciation—all fit into her new budget.

  Hamilton strolled into the shop, trailing Terri and Lisa as if they were part of her costume. She looked at Andi with utter contempt.

  “You may be famous, and you may have new clothes, but you’re still short,” she said, as nastily as ever. “And ugly.” Silence fell around them. Andi felt herself going red; she felt even shorter for a moment, then a gust of laughter moved through her. She scrunched down in her seat, making herself even smaller, and grinned straight into that haughty face.