by Patty Jansen
An announcement was made, but the sound was garbled and she couldn't hear it very well.
She wished the shop owner and Rex would hurry up. She was ready and wanted to get out of here. It would be hard enough without a permit.
Finally the door to the studio opened. Rex stood in the doorway. The only way she knew it was him was because of his face, beaming, at the top of the harness.
It was beautiful, consisting of a number of segments that gleamed in the light.
He walked slowly into the room. There were no big thudding footsteps and creaking of armour. There was no more clattering and rattling. He moved soundlessly. Little blue lights lit up when the joints engaged.
He turned around in the aisle that would previously have been too narrow for him. He looked at himself in the mirror, placing his new hand—which actually looked like a metal hand and not a glorified pincher—on the section that encircled his waist.
"Look, it’s even got places for guns.”
The shop owner explained to her that the harness had a decent amount still to grow in case Rex grew any bigger.
Tina might be broke, but this expense—and it was the only thing she had honestly paid for today—and the look on his face was worth every bit.
“Mum, you haven’t even seen the best thing.” He lifted up a flap at the front. “I don't have to wear a pad any more. I can go to normal toilet like a normal person."
Tina knew. This was why she wanted the harness for him now. When they were out in space, she wouldn’t have the resources to deal with nappies.
Whatever happened, and however she would maintain his harness when they travelled or were back on Cayelle, Tina would find a way.
The shop owner obviously didn't sell these every day, and was most keen to explain all the different features. It came with a suite of instructions, and with Rex being as inquisitive as he was, Tina had no doubt that he would find out all these things by himself, but he delighted in running on the treadmill and lifting weights with his new arms. He was strong. Somehow she had a feeling that would come in handy, too, one day.
Tina kept looking outside, because something was definitely going on now. They really needed to get moving.
"Do you know what's happening?" she asked when the shop owner gave her an opportunity.
"What do you mean?"
"There seems to be some sort of ruckus out there.”
He didn’t know.
They needed to get out of there, so she finalised the rest of the transaction as quickly as possible, and left the shop with Rex.
She could almost not hear him walk. It was eerie.
"Are you happy now?" she asked him.
"Mum, where did you get the money for this?” Rex asked. "I didn't think we had enough for this and the hotel and everything else.”
"Let me tell you a secret: we don’t. But I found out some stuff I’ll talk to you about later. We’re going to Olympus and we’re giving Finn a ride. I’ve got the ship fuelled, I've bought supplies, and we’re leaving right now because if anyone comes to me with another bill, I will not even be able to pretend I’m paying it. We’re getting out of here now.”
They left the commercial passage and turned to the entrance to the docks. This time, their speed of walking was limited by how fast Tina could walk. Yes, age was catching up with her, and the good life had left her less fit and trim than she used to be.
A lot of military personnel were still rushing past in the same direction. They didn’t even give Tina and Rex a second look.
While they walked, Tina picked up talk of an imminent pirate fleet attack in the area from discussions between military personnel.
She tried her comm. Finn? Are you in the hall?
He said he wasn’t.
Are you at the ship?
I am. Someone else is here. She won’t let me through.
That’s Rasa. Tell her I sent you.
I did. She doesn’t believe me.
Rasa was doing her job too well. Just get into the ship and start the checks and scans.
It would be hard enough getting out of the tangled mess of ships and cables once they were loose from the station. The more slowly they could do this, the better. The refuelling situation had to be taken care of, too. She hoped the ship supplies had been delivered.
A new message came onto the news screens along the walls. Station alert. Have you seen this person? It was accompanied by a photo Tina knew well.
“Hey mum, that’s you.”
It was, too, an old photo from the time of her employment with the agency. This was Jake’s doing. “So it is. Let’s make ourselves scarce.”
“And then you talk about me behaving. What did you do?”
“It seems the station’s authorities are compromised.”
An alarm started blaring in the passage.
Shit. That was probably triggered by facial recognition.
"What does that mean?" Rex asked. “What do you mean, compromised?” His voice sounded high.
“Come on. I believe you can run now. Let’s run.”
She set off along the passage, and Rex followed her. He was still carrying both their bags, but it took him no effort at all.
Somewhere in the station, a crash made the structure shudder.
"What was that?" Rex squealed.
"Nothing good.”
A voice came through the loudspeakers. "All residents please take note. All residents must go to their living quarters or emergency stations. This is not a drill. We’re under attack. All residents to emergency stations."
Then a man’s voice yelled, “There!”
They had arrived at the docking hall, and the scene was one of mayhem. People were streaming in from all sides, out of other passages, on their way to the lifts, presumably to try to leave the station. People yelled and crowded in front of the lift doors. Mostly doors to the 1 and 2 sectors.
The light of the sector 1 lift flashed, and a moment later, the door opened. A number of strangely clad men burst in, all of them heavily armed and ready for fighting action. They wore pirate belts—proper, well-used ones with weapons, ammunition supplies, knives and pilfered loot dangling from them.
People screamed and pushed away from the lifts. Some dropped to the ground for fear of becoming a target.
A man ran for the railing shooting indiscriminately at the fleeing citizens.
A couple of Federacy Force soldiers came in from the other side and took up the defence. "Come on, quick," Tina said. Her hand itched to get involved, but that would be a dumb move, unless she wanted the Federacy to know she was using an illegal weapon.
“Who are those men?” Rex asked.
“Pirates. I think Jake has called them in.” She wondered what the clang was that they’d heard earlier. Surely not even pirates would be dumb enough to compromise the structure of the station?
The lift door opened again, and more invaders streamed into the main hall. They were clad in full body armour and helmets. Tina could almost imagine that they were covered in grey-skinned warts, even if she couldn’t see whether or not they were.
They carried weaponry she had never seen. There was no point in trying to shoot back.
Getting out was the only option and many other people had come to the same conclusion. They all queued in front of the sector 2 lift.
But no one had any interest in the A sector lift, which stood wide open.
Tina and Rex ran along the wall, zigzagging between people, then crossed to the lift. Tina hoped no one saw them go in. The doors closed.
Chapter Thirty-One
As the lift jumped into motion, Tina contacted Finn again. Are you inside the craft?
Yes. But I can’t get rid of the girl. She’s scared.
Damn. They would just have to deal with Rasa. Tina wasn’t looking forward to that. Start the engine warm-up process.
But we don’t have a station pilot yet.
Coming up.
Tina of course hadn’t ordered a pilot to t
ake her out of the maze of the docks because she had no permit to leave, but she didn’t need to incriminate herself any more than necessary by making her intentions clear.
The lift stopped. The door slid open.
The hall outside was eerily quiet after the noise from the main hall. All Tina could hear was the thudding of her and Rex’s footsteps. Hers mainly, because Rex walked quietly.
All kinds of worry went through Tina’s mind: whether their food supplies had been brought, and whether Rex and Benny would be able to detach the ship. If they couldn’t, the trip was going to be very short.
Someone shouted behind them.
Three people rushed out of a side passage. Two of them tackled Rex to the ground.
“Hey!” Rex shouted. “Keep your hands off me!”
He kicked around, but didn’t hit anyone. The third person slung a rope over the top of him.
In a flash, Tina produced the gun and pointed it at the men. “Let him go or I’ll shoot!”
The three turned to her, bent over Rex.
None of the men were affected by the warty skin condition, but these weren’t Federacy troops.
“Back away from him,” Tina said, slowly moving forward. She held the weapon outstretched, pointed at each of the men in turn.
“Let him go. Take the rope off his hands.” She gestured with the gun.
For a moment, it looked like they were going to obey, but then Rex shouted, “Mum! Behind you!”
Tina whirled around. Saw a fourth man. Fired.
The figure was engulfed in light.
Whirled back around.
One of the three men shouted, “Grab him by the feet. We’ll take the other end.”
They were after Rex?
Tina held out the gun. “Stay there or you’ll join your friend in hell.”
The recharge light was still flashing.
Shit. How quickly—or slowly—did this thing recharge?
The men put Rex on his feet, and sheltered behind him. They walked slowly away from Tina, dragging Rex behind them.
At that moment the lift door opened.
“Tina, what are you…?”
Finn.
One man lifted his hand. The light glinted off a blade of metal.
Tina yelled, “Watch out, he’s got a knife!”
Finn ducked the knife. It hit the lift wall behind him with a clang. He dived to pick it up, and flung it back at the thug in a single movement. It hit the man in the neck.
He screamed.
With a snap, Rex broke the rope that held him. He swung his arm, hitting another assailant in the head with such force that he went flying. The man landed with a thud, while the other crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood.
The third man came out from behind Rex, pointing a gun at Finn—Tina fired again.
Rex shouted, “Hey!”
Her shot went past him, hitting the man in the shoulder. He screamed and ran off, clutching his arm and his burning jacket, almost tripping over the gun he dropped. Finn picked up the weapon.
“Mum! What were you doing? You almost shot me!”
“Almost,” Tina said.
“Almost is good,” Finn said, putting the weapon in his belt.
Rex stared at Tina, open-mouthed. “You freaked me out.”
“I liked the snapping of those ropes,” Tina said. “But I think you may need some more hero training. Let’s go.”
Finn picked up one of the bags Rex had dropped and Rex took the other. The three of them ran through the passage, and Tina was definitely the slowest.
But it didn’t take long before footsteps sounded behind them.
Finn glanced over his shoulder.
“How many?” Tina asked.
“Five, six? Too many to shoot.”
Shit.
“How ready is the ship?”
“As ready as I could get it. I can’t see any faults, but I have no idea how you plan to get out. It’s a mess of cables and structures out there. We need to wait for the pilot—”
“No time.”
“What? If we try to blunder out by ourselves, we’ll take half the docking structure with us.”
“So be it. We’re getting out.”
“But you’ll lose docking privileges.”
“For escaping from enemy attack? I doubt it.”
Tina had no more breath for talking, but while they ran through the passage, she realised the horrible truth. The break-ins had never been about the cactuses. Or maybe only a little bit. What these pirates really wanted was Rex. Her son, who had been born after having been exposed to rift material, and after fifteen years, had not shown any deterioration of his skin or his mind. And she was sure as hell not going to let them get their hands on him.
They got to the ship’s docking tube.
Rasa sat in the entrance under her blanket, the geese mildly alarmed at the fast approaching runners.
“Get out of the way!” Tina called.
Rasa got up, clutching her blanket, her eyes wide.
Tina ran into the tube. She registered that the panel next to the door was on and showed 100% readiness. She pushed open the door. It still stuck, but it was only the inner door, because the airlock was folded outwards for docking. Damn, she hoped it still worked, because she hadn’t tested it.
Into the cabin.
She flung off her jacket and gun, hit “prepare for departure” and dropped into the pilot’s seat. The outside projectors and the banks of control lights came on.
Rex and Finn also came in.
People outside shouted.
“Hurry up! Shut that door. I’m going to disconnect!” She attached her earpiece, attempting to listen to the control centre over the yelling. “Can you shut up? I need to hear the control centre.”
“Mum!”
“What?” Tina turned around, pushing down one half of the earpiece, ready to tell him to sit the hell down and strap in.
But he stood in the aisle, holding a white goose.
Tina stared at him and he stared back.
“She lost her home,” Rex said. “If she stays here, she’ll be sold off. I’ll look after her, I swear.”
All kinds of thoughts went through Tina’s head. She’d only ordered supplies for three people, not four people and five geese. She didn’t want to be responsible for any strays while she didn’t even have her own shit sorted out.
But all of that faded into insignificance with Rex’s words, she’ll be sold.
If ever she’d be responsible for one girl being sold off as sex slave, she could never live with herself.
“All right. Strap her in. Try to get those animals locked up somewhere. Shut the airlock. Come and sit here.”
Finn went to the door, pulled Rasa inside. She didn’t appear to understand what was happening and protested with a squeal. The geese ran through the cabin, honking loudly.
“Get those birds out of my way!” Tina called.
Rex sank into the chair next to her, which he could, because he fit between the control panel and the chair.
Tina pulled out a control console and shoved it at him. “Work out how to disconnect the tube.”
She got up again, because Finn was chasing the geese around the cabin. Tina grabbed a safety blanket and chased two of the birds into a corner. She trapped them with the blanket, looped it around the loudly protesting birds and shoved them into the cargo hold. Finn had caught the other two geese while the fifth one was still running around the cabin.
The inner door slid shut.
Rex said, “Are we ready? Disconnecting now.”
If the irising air lock still worked.
Tina ran back to her seat and reconnected her earpiece.
No, they weren’t ready. Someone needed to strap Rasa in and show her the safety mask. Tina needed to study the way out of this maze.
The airlock mechanism zoomed. Metal clanged and clicked. A hiss of air indicated the sealing of the cabin. The air vents came on.
The free light c
ame on. The gravity shifted. A tool belt floated into the middle of the cabin.
A squawk sounded behind her, and a highly panicked goose flew through the cabin. Crashed into the wall. A couple of feathers added to the floating debris.
Rasa called out, and a lot of yelling ensued.
Benny informed her helpfully, “I detect foreign biological material.”
Rocket science, that.
The ship was drifting further. They had to get moving or they’d tumble into an uncontrolled path.
Tina tested the engine. It responded, pushing the ship a tiny distance from the station.
But now the navigation refused to come up.
Benny said, “Need to install update before system is operational.”
Well, that was helpful.
Finn dropped into the seat to her other side, breathing deeply. “I strapped them in together.”
Tina noticed a trickle of blood running down his cheek. “You’re bleeding. How good are you at manual navigation?”
“Yes, well…” He wiped his face with his sleeve, smearing the blood all over his cheek. “Not my strongest subject. Have you got a map?”
Tina brought up the display.
Finn blew out a breath. “Shit, it’s a tangle out there.”
“I told you so. I need a direction pronto because I’m out of contact with the station and we’ll start diverging soon.”
The station and everything attached to it rotated, and now that the ship was loose, the slightest movement would bring them out of sync.
Finn started reading out sets of coordinates and Tina fed them into the navigation system—that had been recalibrated since Benny had updated.
Tina carefully navigated the ship between two metal struts, but the station already rotated and now that the ship was no longer attached, it had its own momentum.
A voice sounded in her ear. “Kelso Station Control to unknown pilot. Please return to port. Kelso Station Control to unknown pilot…”
Tina shut it down.
She glanced aside at a small noise next to her.
A goose, standing next to her, looking curiously at the screen.
“What is that bird doing in here?”
“Sorry, they all ended up in the cabin,” Finn said. “The door wouldn’t stay shut.”