by Kal Spriggs
She shot a glance up and down the corridor, then pulled the top off of the lighter and pulled the inside out. She tipped the case up and caught the small glittering object that she had hidden in the base of the casing. Ariadne gave a slight smile at the small silver crucifix on the gold chain in her hand. Everything she had from her parents… and far more than some people had, she knew. Her mother’s faith, and her father’s motto.
Ariadne had sought to embrace them both, as a child. Yet her faith had faltered numerous times, especially after she went on the run, and then after brother’s disappearance. As much as she believed in people, she found it hard to believe in a god that made good people do bad things. Yet, as she looked down at the silver cross, she felt… peaceful. She almost felt that if she gave in, if she looked for his will, she might find her way through these dangers.
Ariadne shook her head. She would put her trust in her new friends. She tucked the crucifix back in the bottom of the lighter, and then put it back together. She fought a sudden urge to light it and stare at the flame, as she had as a child. The flame had come to represent her missing father to that lost child, but Ariadne didn’t need that — not now. She took a deep breath and continued down the hallway. She didn’t need symbols and she did not need faith, she had friends, they had a plan, they would come through safe and sound.
Ariadne continued down the short corridor. She stopped and peered into the port cargo hold. Most of the prisoners had ended up in that one, almost all of them strangers. She felt an urge to step in and introduce herself, but most of them had gone to sleep, some wrapped in blankets, but most just passed out on the metal deck plates.
She felt a twist of sorrow at their discomfort. She remembered the thin pallets back on the station in the prison barracks. The things had smelled stale, but still she wished they had time to bring some, they would improve conditions over the cold metal deck. She made note to ask Pixel if he had found anything in the engine compartment they could use for padding at least.
She looked in the starboard cargo bay. The pile of crates remained in the center of the hold, strapped down and secured in a manner that looked very professional. She saw the man who performed that job a moment later. He had one crate open and made notes on a datapad as she watched. She saw Run stood nearby, and she guessed that Simon used him for translation of the Chxor glyphs.
“What’s the haul?” Ariadne said.
“Well, that depends,” Simon said. He pointed at the corner, “Those two heavy crates are proper pirate booty, around three hundred kilos of gold bars. Though Anubus seems to have staked his claim to them.”
“What?” Ariadne said. “Three hundred kilograms!?”
“Yeah, it looks like the Warden had a backup plan in case he couldn’t talk his way into being the hero,” Simon said. She remembered how Mike had told them of the Warden’s plan to allow the human criminal Fontaine to stage an escape attempt to make the station’s Chief of Security look bad. The Warden’s overall plan seemed to be to increase his chances of promotion when he foiled the escape attempt. Ariadne didn’t follow exactly how a breakout attempt on the station, even a foiled one, would make the Warden look better. Then again, she thought, I’m a human and not a Chxor.
Either way, it had not worked out well for the Warden when the Chxor Fleet showed up and nuked the station. Fontaine seemed have escaped on another ship and a stockpile of precious metals along with his gang. And the rest of them had made it aboard this cargo boat.
“That’s got to be worth…” Ariadne tried to do the conversion from grams to ounces, and then to remember how much an ounce of gold might be worth.
“You’re from Tau Ceti, so around sixty seven point two million Separatist Dollars, as of the time I got captured,” Simon said, as he turned his datapad to face her. “Or around seventy five point three million Confederation Dollars. Or one hundred and twenty five point three four million Colonial Republic Drachma…”
“Okay, I get the picture,” Ariadne said. She shook her head, “So we’re rich?”
“Doesn’t do us much good right now,” Simon said. “We can’t eat gold. We can’t breathe gold, and short of dumping it out the airlock to use as a projectile, we can’t use it as a weapon right now either.”
“Still…” Ariadne said. “It’s gold.”
“I thought you females went for diamonds,” Simon grunted.
“Diamonds aren’t rare,” Crowe said from the doorway. “Their price is artificially maintained, especially now that we can manufacture them to spec. Most jewelers make a huge overhead off of diamond sales. And resale value is essentially nonexistent. Gold, on the other hand, is a relatively rare metal, which is why it has so much worth.”
“Good to know,” Simon said. “I didn’t know that about resale value. You have much opportunity to try to sell used diamonds?” His voice took an overly casual tone, but Ariadne could see the calculation behind his eyes as he stared at Crowe.
Crowe gave him a slight smile, “Mister Policeman, are you asking me if I stole some jewelry?”
“I’m not a cop anymore,” Simon answered. “However, it would clear up some questions I had about your skills, particularly with how easily you hacked the Chxor station systems. I think it took you around two minutes, including the time it took to plug in the datapad.”
Crowe shrugged, “What can I say? I’ve got some serious skills.”
Ariadne restrained a sigh, time for a change of subject. “So, what’s in these other crates?”
“Well, in box one, we have…” Simon swept out a hand, “Chxor rations. Box number two contains… More Chxor rations. And box number three…”
“Let me guess, more Chxor rations?” Ariadne said helpfully.
“Yep,” Simon answered. “The other boxes have the same labels, but I’m still going through it, just to see what all is here.”
“We can’t eat their food, can we?” Ariadne asked. “I mean, we’ve got different proteins and stuff, right? I’ve heard that some species can eat similar foods, like the Ghornath…”
“Yeah, the Ghornath are able to eat our stuff,” Crowe said. “Stupid Rastar found my stash of ration bars.”
“Stash?” Simon said. “I thought we agreed not to hoard the food supplies, but to take a bar as needed,” Simon said. “We have enough food for a full week if we share supplies.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to share,” Crowe said. “And didn’t you hear what I said? Rastar went and took all of mine!”
“Hey,” Ariadne said. “I’m sure Rastar just plans on dispensing them. He’s got a low opinion of letting people go hungry… and for good reason.”
“Yeah, you would take his side, wouldn’t you, mind freak?” Crowe said. “You’re no better than one of the aliens.”
“Walk away,” Simon said. “Before you start to really annoy me.”
Crowe looked at Simon and then gave Ariadne a nasty look. “Oh… I see how it is. Well, then. I’ll leave you two some privacy. I’m certain that the little Chxor there will find it interesting, especially if you let him take notes.”
Ariadne felt her face flush. She opened her mouth to deny his allegation. But he left before she could find the right words. She looked over at Simon, and saw he had gone still. He didn’t meet her eyes when he spoke, “Sorry about that. He’s a piece of scum, I shouldn’t have let him get to me.”
Run looked between them, “Is this some human emotional ritual? I must note that I have no interest in psychological functions. I find your biological functions of interest.” He looked between Simon and Ariadne. “Or is this your reproductive rituals? I understand that humans put much value on emotional bonds with regards to mating. We Chxor fortunately are above such petty necessities and procreate only to produce superior genetic lines after we have earned our right to reproduce.”
Desperate to change the subject to something that didn’t involve further embarrassment, Ariadne addressed the little alien. “Run, is there any way that humans can eat t
hese Chxor rations?”
He shook his head, “This experiment would not work for very long. Humans and Chxor have different proteins as you said before. Also, we make use of different chemical compounds, many of which each species finds toxic to the other. I am aware of several experiments where Chxor tried to survive on humans, none of which found success.”
“Human rations,” Ariadne automatically corrected.
“No, they had no need to ration them, they had a surplus available,” Run answered.
Ariadne frowned, “No, I mean you meant to say that Chxor tried to survive on human rations.”
“I did?” Run asked.
“Of course,” Ariadne said patiently, “Otherwise it sounds like the Chxor ate humans.”
“Right,” Run said.
“Glad we cleared that up,” Ariadne laughed. The little alien seemed so odd sometimes. She felt certain he was different from other Chxor though, if only because he viewed humans as something to study rather than exterminate.
“Um…” Simon frowned at Run. “I’m not really sure we did.”
Ariadne shrugged, confused by his cryptic statement, “Well, anyway, we know that Run will have plenty of food, even if the rest of us can’t eat this stuff. We still have about a weeks worth of ration bars, at one bar a day, right?”
Simon stared at Run with pursed lips. He blinked a bit, almost as if caught off guard by the track of her conversation. “Yeah. One week. Your course puts us near the first of the inhabitable planets in a day, and the other one in five, right?”
“Yeah, It’s actually a moon of this gas giant. It should take around a day, but if we have to do braking maneuvers, then that will draw out the time somewhat.” Ariadne said. “It depends on how extreme maneuvers we can manage, but I think another day at the most.”
“Alright,” Simon said, “Then we’ll be fine for food until after we have a ride out of the system or we get caught and killed. Either way, it’s not a huge issue.”
“But the trip elsewhere could take several months,” Ariadne said. “It depends on what system this is. They gassed us, for transport, so I’m not sure where we are. If we’re deep in the Chxor Empire… well, it could take weeks or even months to get back to civilization.”
“I can only plan for something if I know the full parameters,” Simon answered. “We don’t have a ship capable of escape yet. We might get lucky and find a human freighter or even a smuggler. In that case, we trade some gold for a ride out, and we don’t worry about food.”
“What if we don’t find a ship like that?” Ariadne asked.
“Then we starve to death or Anubus kills and eats us to survive,” Simon said.
* * *
Ariadne left Simon to his inventory and went aft towards the engine compartment.
She felt somewhat hesitant as she stopped outside the open hatch. She didn’t really understand the machinery there and a small part of her worried that just her presence might throw things into chaos and perhaps destroy the ship. It seemed a silly idea, she fully realized. Then again, if I lose my self-control, who knows what might happen, she thought.
She straightened her shoulders though and stepped inside, despite her fears. She would not let some vague fears limit her interaction with her companions. “Hello?” She asked. She stared around the tiny compartment, surprised that she didn’t see Pixel. The tall, gawky engineer normally stood out. Certainly she did not see anywhere where the brown haired engineer might hide in the tiny space not occupied by the fusion reactor or its support machinery.
His head popped out of an open panel in the floor several feet away, “Oh, hey, how ya doing?”
Ariadne nearly jumped out of her skin. She didn’t know how he had fit through the hole, much less how his entire body fit underneath, but for a moment, it looked like his disembodied head floated there in front of her. “Uh, what are you doing down there?” She finally managed to ask.
“Oh, just checking out the magnetic plasma guide rods. We put a lot of strain on them with that pulse burn. I just want to make sure they’ll hold up to normal work when we need to do maneuvers so that they don’t fail on us,” Pixel said. “Want to help?”
“Uh… sure?” Ariadne said.
“Pass me that gauge there, please?” Pixel said. Ariadne looked at the pile of tools nearby. She vaguely recognized wrenches and a hammer, but the rest looked arcane in the extreme. “It’s the black thing that looks kind of like a pistol, only with a big screen on it.”
“Oh,” Ariadne picked it up and passed it down to him.
“Thanks. Getting in and out of here something of a pain,” Pixel said. He dove down into the mess of piping and wire conduits below the deck plates. He spoke a moment later, his voice muffled, “You have no idea how often I wished I had telekinesis, if only so that when I got stuck in a job like this I could just call over that one tool I always seem to forget.”
Ariadne smiled, “Well, you have no idea how often I wished I had some technical expertise, if only to fix stuff when it breaks.”
“Hah, that’s funny, I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Pixel said. “You know, I could teach you some things, if you’re interested. Just simple stuff, how to start the plant, how to read the gauges, that sort of thing.”
“That sounds like fun,” Ariadne said. She always liked to learn new things. She had no real interest in the fusion reactor or the fusion drive. But still, she thought it might be useful to know a bit about it. “When can we start?”
“Well, I’ve been at this for… oh, jeez, like six hours now. So I think I’ll take a break. After I get some sleep maybe?” Pixel said. She heard a clank as he worked on something out of sight, then he gave a grunt, “Well, that should do it… let see here….” Ariadne waited patiently. She didn’t mind the silence, it gave her time to zone out. “Huh, that’s interesting.” The dry tone of his voice managed to impart special emphasis upon the word interesting.
“Good news, I hope?” Ariadne asked.
“Nope… just interesting. Apparently the Chxor designed the rods with less of a margin for crazy stuff like we did. We actually exceeded the safety margin by… well quite a bit. The guide rods peaked out at almost five hundred degrees centigrade, and I think that it’s a good thing we only did that pulse for twenty seconds.”
“What does all that mean?” Ariadne asked.
Pixel’s head popped back up from the open panel. “We nearly lost magnetic containment on the fusion drive,” he said.
“Uh… isn’t that a bad thing?” Ariadne asked.
“Oh yeah, but we would never have noticed,” Pixel said. “I bet the Chxor would sure find a second fusion explosion after the station very confusing, though.”
“So can we still make maneuvers?” Ariadne asked.
“We should be fine, just no fancy stuff like we pulled. If we planned to use this boat any longer than we do, I would recommend maintenance, but…” he shrugged. “Honestly, I mostly checked out of curiosity.” He lifted his shoulders out of the hole and held up a bag of tools, “Could you hold this?”
Ariadne caught the bag. Pixel braced himself on the edges of the panel and squeezed out. Close up, she could smell him. He smelled like a strange mix of warm bread and motor oil. Though she didn’t know how, his scent reminded her a bit of her brother. “Phew, thanks, I would hate to have had to crawl out and then right back in just to get that gauge…” his eyes went distant. “Oh darn.”
“You left it down there?” Ariadne asked.
He nodded sheepishly, “Yeah. Well, no help for it…”
Ariadne looked down in the hole. She held up one hand to stop him. She saw the gauge, the black tool lay on a shelf formed by two pipes that ran together. She narrowed her eyes in concentration. She reached out with her mind and lifted the small object up out of the hole. She caught it by the pistol grip, and gave Pixel a broad smile as she passed it over.
“You’re pretty useful to have around,” Pixel said. “And not just for roasting bad g
uys.”
Ariadne grimaced, “Thanks.”
“You didn’t like what you did?” Pixel asked.
“No,” Ariadne answered. “I am strongest with pyrokenetics, more so than my other abilities. When I first manifested my abilities, that came first.”
“I don’t see the problem,” Pixel said
“Imagine a teenager with hormonal issues who can light people on fire with her brain if she loses her temper,” Ariadne said. “Luckily I got it locked down for the most part. My little brother helped me a lot with that. But there for a while… what with my other abilities, I could have become one hell of a little monster.”
“Oh,” Pixel said. He seemed to think that over. “Well, at least you didn’t kill anyone, right?”
“Not then,” Ariadne said softly.
“Oh?” Pixel asked.
“I… got careless, went the other way, tried to help some people and got caught doing it,” Ariadne said. She looked down at her feet. “My brother and I had to go on the run. We came across some pretty rough sorts, and some of them just would not stop pushing. One of them attacked my brother… and I lost it. Worse than with those Chxor, actually.”
“You saved your brother, though, that’s important,” Pixel said. “And at least no one innocent got killed. Shoot, I don’t think you got it in you to hurt someone who doesn’t have it coming.”
“Thanks,” Ariadne smiled. She cleared her throat, “Anyway, so what brings a university trained engineer way out here?”
Pixel looked away, “Well… I guess you could say I trusted the wrong people. They asked my advice on what I thought was a joke or prank of some kind. They put their own little spin on it though, and people died. I could have stayed back on New Glasgow and faced some serious prison time. I ran instead, and here I am.”
“I’m sorry,” Ariadne said. “The people who used your work, did you know them?”
“One of them I considered a friend,” Pixel said. He sighed, “We had a difference in opinion over some things… I thought it just something that we discussed an argument we both used to stimulate thought. I guess he felt a lot more serious about it.”