Project Charon 1

by Patty Jansen

  “They usually hang out in one of the rooms. They like to talk about their own things and play their own music. I’m sure you understand.”

  Yes, she did. “Could I meet them?”

  Rex had tried going to a normal school in Gandama, but there were no other children like him.

  “Sure, I’ll take you.”

  Tina followed him down yet another hallway, feeling somewhat happier now. Maybe this wasn’t so bad a place. Rex might even make some friends.

  “In here.” Dr Fenwicke gestured to a door to the left.

  Tina turned to the room—and stopped in the doorway.

  The boy on the bed—if it was a boy—was covered in grotesque grey growths on every part of skin she could see.

  Root-like branches protruded from his forehead and hung over his eyes.

  He must have noticed her, because he turned his face to the door. A growth-covered, alien face.

  And the protuberances were moving.

  She felt sick. She backed into the corridor and faced Dr Fenwicke.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “Her. This is Lily Basso.”

  “Lily Basso?”

  Tina knew the little girl, or at least she had known her years ago. She lived with her parents on the outskirts of town. But the figure on the bed was not Lily Basso. This was some sort of mutant.

  “How long has she been like this?”

  “These people started coming in two years ago, and before you ask, no, we don’t know what causes the skin to mutate. It’s a progressively degenerative disease. We don’t yet know if it kills.”

  And, Tina realised with horror, she had seen two more of these people: Simon Fosnet and one of the bandits last night.

  “It’s not contagious, is it?” She stared at the figure in the room.

  “It hasn’t been. But affected people are usually brought here by their families. Because their skin has a mind of its own, the victims find it hard to pick up or touch things and this makes it hard to live normally.”

  The girl lay on a special kind of mattress.

  “They’re otherwise completely normal mentally. Lily has been quite depressed recently. She would like to talk to a person her age.”

  Yes, Tina could guess as much, but just looking at the girl made her skin itchy. She didn’t want Rex here.

  “I’ll have to ask my son. What if…Rex would prefer to stay home?”

  “That could be possible. He may be able to get by with two daily visits of a nurse to your house and a friend you trust.”

  “But what would happen if he fell or got stuck?” Or if Janusz scared the nurse, or there was a sandstorm and the nurse couldn’t come?

  Or when thieves turned up again?

  “You would need a trusted neighbour to check on him.”

  “I’m afraid there is no one I trust enough to do the job properly.” Hell, she wasn’t going to let Janusz into her house. He’d be able to rummage through everything and there would be no way for Rex to stop him.

  “Then you will have to bring him here. We can definitely look after him very well.”

  Tina half-agreed to bring Rex and left for the truck with a leaden feeling in her heart.

  Somehow she had imagined a ward filled with young people, all born without arms and legs. People in harnesses that allowed them to lumber around through wide corridors without obstacles to trip over or bump into, and where nursing staff would be on hand to help them. Where there were no embarrassing stairs that they couldn’t negotiate. Where they could play silly games without feeling embarrassed, and where he would actually enjoy himself.

  When Tina came back home, having dodged questions from Janusz about her trip when she returned the truck, the raid the previous day, and the fact that she hadn’t brought back any stock, she found that the nurse was with Rex.

  She watched from the door as she cleaned the attachment points better than Tina could and gave him his anti-rejection injections.

  Lately, Rex didn't like it if Tina watched.

  She remained at the door.

  First the nurse took off his breastplate and his arms so that only the metal rods and leads poking out of his shoulders were left.

  Then she got him to crouch over the bed, and took off the leg plates.

  When the knees came off, the harness flopped down on the bed, landing Rex on his backside. She then took off the thigh sections, so only the stumps of his legs were left.

  When Rex was born, he had a little misshapen foot on one of those stumps. It had only two toes. But even that little foot had to be taken off in order to attach the harness.

  Every time Tina saw Rex like this on the bed without his harness, she thought of looking at him the first time after he was born, seeing that red lump of skin without limbs, realising that he would be dependent on her forever and that her life would never be the same. And that she would be alone to face it.

  The nurse inspected the joints between the metal rods and the flesh in his legs to check for infections. She applied a cleaning solution to those areas. She washed him, giving special attention to the areas normally covered by the nappy.

  Through this embarrassing procedure, Rex lay on the bed staring at the ceiling.

  When it was done, the nurse put his thigh parts back onto the leg rods, then the pad between his legs and the cover plate, then lifted him up onto his knees and attached the rest of his harness. She gave him an injection in a fold of skin on his belly, and then attached the arms and the breastplate.

  When the nurse was about to leave, Tina took her aside.

  She asked in a low voice, “How easy would it be to find someone private who could look after him full-time for a while?”

  The nurse frowned.

  Tina explained that she had to go away for a job but that it wouldn’t take long.

  The nurse explained what she could do, and, like Dr Fenwicke suggested, someone could visit twice a day. But that didn’t take care of the problem of a possible attack from bandits.

  She would have to hire some security guards as well and, presuming they could be trusted—which was always up in the air in Gandama—it would cost yet more money she didn’t have.

  Chapter Nine

  When the nurse left, Tina made for her office.

  Out of the back of the cupboard, she pulled an old box containing devices that were more than ten years old. Did this stuff even work anymore?

  “Hey, mum, I asked you a question,” Rex said at the door. And then, when Tina didn’t reply, he said, “What’s that?” He nodded at the device in her hands, an old tablet that surprisingly still worked, although it complained of low charge.

  Displayed on the screen was her certificate of ownership of the craft. She copied it before the device went dead.

  Rex came to stand behind her, his harness zooming and clicking as he did so. “What is that? Do you own a ship?”

  “I do. If it’s still there.”

  “You’re kidding. A real space ship? Where is it?”

  “At Kelso Station.”

  “Really? Are you a pilot?”

  “I was. My licence has probably expired by now.”

  “In space?” His eyes widened.

  “I don’t know where else.”

  “Why didn’t you ever say anything about that?”

  “It’s not really important.” Well, at one point it had been an important part of her life, but she hadn’t wanted to talk about it for years.

  “Then why are you going there? I heard you talking to the nurse.”

  “We need money. I’m going to sell the ship.”

  “You’re kidding. All that time you’ve kept it and now you want to sell it?”

  “Yeah.”

  Put like that, it did sound ridiculous, and pushed her nose into the fact that she just hadn’t wanted to deal with aspects of her old life. She’d pushed it into the “later” basket for a month, until it became two months and three, and four, and before she knew it, a year had pas
sed, and then two years and three… And then she’d made dealing with the ship her retirement plan, and its value was going to pay for everything she couldn’t afford with her shop income, but only when the shop had been paid off—just because she didn’t want to deal with it.

  He gave her a sideways look. “How do I know that you’re not going back to your old job and leaving me here?”

  “Because I’m not. I have no interest in going back.”

  “Then why did you keep the ship?”

  “Because…” Tina spread her hands.

  “In case you wanted to go back. I saw that you’ve been getting messages from someone in space.”

  Jake’s letter. For crying out loud. Why was he spying on her? “That’s my old colleague Jake. He’s being the same nuisance he was when I worked with him. I don’t want anything to do with it. You shouldn’t be snooping in my correspondence anyway.”

  “I just saw it. He wants you to come and work for him.”

  “Will you just stop it? I’m selling the ship and I’m coming back as soon as I’ve sold it and have the money to pay off the owner.”

  “You’re only coming back because of me.”

  “Yes! Because of you.”

  “Because you need to baby me.”

  “Because you’re my fucking son, that’s why, and before I murder you, let me tell you that I actually love you!” She strode through the shop and out the back door, slamming it behind her.

  In the yard, the sun had set, shrouding the yard in a blue-purple haze. The cactuses had taken up their usual positions along the fence line. They’d stay there until dark, when they would start to move around. They gave no sign of unrest today.

  The horizon was going hazy and the had wind picked up. There would probably be a vortex dust storm tonight. Again. She hated dust storms for the mess they made of the yard and the shop. She not only had to clean the house but meticulously take apart all the joints in Rex’s armour, because the sand damaged the mechanisms that allowed him to walk.

  Rex, Rex, Rex, her whole life was taken up by Rex.

  At one time she’d wished he had never been born, had she been clued in enough to realise she was pregnant. But at the same time, he was her blood. This was a phase he was going through, right? Things did usually get better when teenagers grew up, did they?

  The door opened behind her.

  She felt highly tempted to turn around and tell him to leave her the fuck alone, but that was not how they survived.

  He came down the steps and sat next to her in that strange way he could sit without a chair. “So when are you going?”

  “I don’t know. I need to organise stuff. I need to ask for Federacy permits.”

  “I thought you hated the Federacy.”

  “I do.” And in those two words, she encapsulated just how much she hated it. “I just need permits to visit Kelso Station.”

  “Why can’t you sell it from here?”

  “Because…” She blew out a breath through her nose. She had considered the option, but she knew for sure that someone would try to fleece her. And besides, it was hard to sell something you hadn’t seen for fifteen years. She would need to clean the ship out first. There might even be some classified Agency material still in the systems.

  “Dad is still with the Federacy, isn’t he?”

  “As far as I know, yes.” Tina hadn’t spoken to Dexter for many years. He’d never come, he’d never seen his son, and she had stopped sending pictures, although he had paid for Rex’s first walking harness, long since outgrown.

  “Would you want to go back to Dad?”

  “No.”

  “He might have changed.”

  Tina said, as forceful as she could make it, “This isn’t about Dad. I’m just. Going. To. Sell. The. Ship. That’s it.”

  “Then why are you dithering so much?”

  “I’m not dithering. I’m trying to organise stuff. I have my responsibilities.”

  “You mean me.”

  “Don’t start that again.”

  “But it’s true. You’re looking for a place to park me.”

  “Yes! Because I care about you, all right?” Tina took in a deep breath through flaring nostrils. Did he ever stop?

  “You’re not even seeing the most obvious solution.”

  “And that is?”

  “You could take me.”

  Chapter Ten

  Tina stared at Rex for a long time. Finally, she asked, “What do you mean?”

  “You could take me with you when you go to Kelso Station. I’m fifteen. I promise to behave.”

  “I know you would.” Well, she could hope. “But it’s not as simple as that. I don’t think they’ll have facilities for you on board the shuttle or in the station.” And there was the cost of a ticket, but at this rate, it was fast being overtaken by the potential cost of employing people here to look after him.

  “I’m not that special.”

  “Your harness is wider than most doors in space, and your movement module can’t move sideways.”

  “I’ll go in a chair.”

  That was the first time he’d ever agreed to do that. “It wouldn’t be easy.”

  “I know.”

  “You may have to handle some pretty embarrassing situations.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Yes, you will care. I’ll have to undress you in public and do all the things the nurse just did, and people will watch you."

  “OK, I’ll care a little bit, then.”

  “When we’re out there and you’re tired, you’ll care a lot. Believe me, I’ve been through this.” She knew how tetchy and irritated people could get in space. And those didn’t even wear a cumbersome harness.

  “I can handle it.”

  “Even handle me giving you your injections?”

  His eyes widened.

  “That’s the price you’ll have to pay.”

  He swallowed. “Oh. OK then.”

  Ha, that shook him. But she already sensed a change in him. Maybe it was a good thing to take him. Let him prove that he was as grown up as he said he was.

  She’d deal with it. Maybe she could find a cheap helper on Kelso Station. It was big enough and the stations were always full of qualified people looking for work.

  During the periods of weightlessness, he would be easier to lift out of the harness and maybe he could even do it himself.

  The injections… Once upon a time, she had been squeamish about needles, but that time was long gone. She watched the nurse give Rex his needles every time. She could see no reason why she couldn’t learn to do that.

  She just needed a steady supply of anti-rejection medicines. For how long? Would they allow her to have that big of a supply? That could be a problem, but she doubted he was the only person needing medication, so there would be a solution.

  She met his eyes. “Do you promise to behave?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you promise not to have silly tantrums and do as I say when I tell you?”

  “You sound like a dictator.”

  “Sometimes, life in space can be like that. People get into a lot of trouble when they’re stubborn.”

  “It can’t be as bad as all that. I watched all the vids, mum. It’s a civilian station, not a military base.”

  True. And she understood that even the military bases were becoming more friendly and people-oriented, less grey and monotonous. “I don’t have time to chase after you.”

  “I know that. I promise to behave, really.” He placed his huge metal pincer over his breastplate. “Metal hand on my metal heart.”

  “OK, then.”

  His eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I’m going to space?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m going to space, I’m going to space, I’m going to space!” He bounced up the steps and around the kitchen, landing with a heavy thud each time. The plates in the cupboard rattled.

  “Be c
areful. I want there to be a house for us to come back to.”

  “I don’t care. I’m going to space, I’m going to space!” He bounced through the hallway, into the workshop, out the roller door and into the yard. “I’m going to space, I’m going to space!” And into the pergola where the cactuses waited to be watered. “Do you hear that, oh my planet-dwelling spiky friends? I’m going to space!”

  Tina couldn’t help but smile. Once she had been that wide-eyed kid. Maybe it would be good for him. His life here was very isolated.

  “Mum, mum, do you have anyone’s stuff that needs fixing before we go? I got my 3D printer online and I can print new connectors now, a hundred of them if you want, and I’ll do it all before we leave.”

  “I just want you to help me tidy up some things,” Tina said. The subject of his printer had come up a few times. It was not that she didn’t like him playing with it, but she highly questioned the legalities of the models he used, and there was a reason all her stock came from Peris City: because the printer there held the licences for all these commercial models. People got prosecuted for illegally downloading them.

  “I’ll tidy up anything you want. Including my trains.”

  “Let’s have dinner first, and think about how we’re going to secure the shop while we’re gone.”

  Rex wanted to help her cook.

  That hadn’t happened for a long time. During the preparation and eating of dinner, she outlined all the ways they could secure their business. She said her main concern was the stock and the cactuses.

  “What about the house?” Rex asked.

  “If someone wants, they could burn the house to the ground, and there is nothing to stop them doing that. We still own the land. We can rebuild, because we have insurance, but if someone steals the stock or the breeding stock of cactuses, we have to start all over again. I want to store both somewhere else. At least the most valuable items.”

  She had done this before, of course, leaving a valuable asset in storage for a rainy day. It was just this asset they were going to sell.

  Tina said that one of her suppliers hired out storage compartments. The cactuses she would have to hide in a secret valley in the desert. She’d keep the seeds separate, of course. Then she had another thought: her armoured jacket she’d worn last night. It was full of seeds. She’d take the jacket on this trip. So that was triple backup for her breeding stock.