From Ice to Ashes

by Rhett C. Bruno

  “Your big ears didn’t hear?” one of the guards next to him said. “He called you a Filthy. Fucking. Skelly.”

  Before Desmond could react, the last months’ worth of troubles swelled up in me. I sprung across the table and crashed into the guard. It wasn’t enough to knock the broad-shouldered Earther over, but it was enough to make him reel.

  Desmond backed me up and swung at John. After a few seconds everyone in the galley joined in, which was pretty much the entire crew except Captain Saunders. John and his security team kept their batons sheathed; they had no interest in wrapping things up quickly. Old Culver was even brave enough to throw a few punches before his people pulled him away. In the middle of it something hit me so hard in the gut that I keeled over. That was when I saw her.

  John had escaped Desmond and torn Cora out of her seat, her head banging against the floor. Typically, she was left out of scrums. Not because she was the only woman on board, but because her job was more crucial than any other and she was the best at it. Injuring her was the fastest way to get onto the captain’s shit list. I knew that had to make the Earthers jealous, and I saw that jealousy written all over John’s face as he hunched on top of her. A messy brawl was the perfect opportunity for him to sneak in a shot to relieve his envy.

  My instincts kicked in. I scurried along the floor and snatched a baton off one of the guards’ belts. John had her by the throat and said, “Maybe the cap’n won’t favor you so much if I bust your pretty—”

  I cracked him across the side of the head before he could finish. With a weapon, it didn’t matter how weak I was in comparison to him. He toppled over, blood splattering onto the floor. I grabbed Cora by the wrist, heaved her to her feet, and yanked her out of the fray. I took a few hits in the side along the way, but somehow kept my balance.

  I managed to get her to the wall by the galley’s exit, hidden behind a rack for trays. We stood there panting and watching the brawl. It was impossible to tell whose fist was whose anymore. But it wouldn’t be long before we were spotted and dragged right back into it.

  The clacking of heavy footsteps suddenly echoed from outside in the Piccolo’s corridors.

  “Enough!” Captain Saunders roared as he stormed in with a pulse-pistol in his hand. He shot at the ceiling and everyone, including me, froze. “Next one will go through the head of whoever throws another punch.”

  Anyone still standing took a step back. The captain moved farther into the room, and then Cora tapped me on the shoulder and gestured toward the hallway. With all of the groaning and people twisting off tipped furniture, she was easily able to slip behind the captain out of the room without anyone realizing. I followed her, no questions asked.

  “I’m tired of this,” the captain continued. “I don’t want to have to hire a real security team, but if this keeps happening again I damn well will!”

  “But, sir—” I heard one of John’s security members reply.

  “Quiet! Any damage is coming out of your paychecks. Start cleaning, boys!”

  I followed Cora down the corridor until I couldn’t hear the captain anymore. “What’re you doing?” I whispered.

  “We have to get you to the command deck. I’ll say you were eating there with me the whole time. None of the Earthers will know who swung that baton.”

  “I don’t think anybody saw or we wouldn’t have gotten out.”

  “Do you want to risk it?”

  Brawls weren’t uncommon during recreational hours, but hitting the XO with a weapon wasn’t how they usually ended. Even if I was protecting the navigator, Captain Saunders would have to make an example of me if he ever found out. That meant engine duty at the very least…if John didn’t kill me first.

  “Right,” I said, swallowing. “Good plan.” Being around her almost made me forget the reason I was back on the Piccolo. I’d been wondering what my excuse for getting into the command deck was going to be, and now I had it.

  “I guess this makes us even?” I asked, trying not to dwell on it.

  “Nope,” she said. “Or did you forget I pulled you out of another clash in Darien? You seem to be attracting them.”

  “Yeah…” I glanced over at her. Her long hair made it impossible to tell, but I knew there had to be a bump on her head. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. You shouldn’t have hit him like that. John’s all talk.”

  “Didn’t look like that to me.”

  “He’s just jealous. He was the navigator before I was brought on, and almost got the Piccolo torn to pieces. That’s all it is.” She glanced back over her shoulder and then sped up. “We have to hurry—let’s go.”

  Chapter 10

  I didn’t get to frequent the Piccolo’s command deck much; it didn’t often get messy enough to require cleaning like the rest of the ship. Cora’s ID card got us in, and the blinking lights and green-text-filled view-screens of the consoles wrapping the circular space greeted us.

  The room was about ten meters in diameter, with a transparent dome arcing over the top and front. The atmosphere of Saturn was visible beyond it, whipping about in amber hues.

  Cora approached the command console. An Earther engineer sat at the controls in her absence, leaning on his hand half-asleep. She tapped him on the shoulder, and he almost fell off the chair.

  “I’m back,” she said. “You can eat.”

  He coughed a few times and pretended that he hadn’t been resting. Then he nodded to her and hurried out of the room wordlessly, not even noticing I was there.

  Cora took his spot, and I sat beside her at a less important-looking console. Everything in the command deck was so simultaneously dated and complex that it all appeared foreign. It took seeing the command console and its innumerable buttons, along with a series of screens filled with information, for me to realize I wasn’t even sure where to connect a hand-terminal to it.

  Cora’s slender arms extended over the console and her fingers danced across the keys. She didn’t just move fast: There was a grace to it that I hardly thought could be possible in the act of typing.

  She stopped and looked at me. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “John. I didn’t say it before.”

  “Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. Like you said, I’m sure he wouldn’t have done anything. Everyone’s just on edge.”

  “Everyone’s always on edge. It was the same before you got here. Someone mouths off and someone else decides they’ve had enough.”

  “Makes you wonder why Captain Saunders even bothers hiring people like us.”

  “Like you—remember?” She pointed to her mouth, where there was no sanitary mask to be found.

  “You’re one of us, Cora. Can’t change that.”

  The flickers of a grin showed on her face for a fraction of a second before vanishing. I couldn’t think of a time when she’d truly smiled, with no reservations.

  She turned her attention back to the command console. Something was clearly on her mind, but she remained silent. I took the opportunity to lean back in my chair and stretch my aching arms. To be honest, I was more grateful for her saving me from the cleanup job in the galley than anything else. When we left food was spilled all over and barely a piece of furniture seemed to have survived being toppled.

  I studied the command console. Circuits ran up underneath it to provide power and Trass knows what else. They weren’t what I was searching for. As with any console, there had to be a slot to plug in a hand-terminal in order to transfer data in case connection to Solnet wasn’t possible. A number of different ports along the front might have been able to fit it. Or break it. I couldn’t read the labels above them from my angle. I peeked at my hand-terminal to figure it out and then leaned in to get a better view of the equipment.

  “Another new hand-terminal?” Cora asked. I retreated immediately, and was relieved to find that she’d been busy studying Saturn’s current meteorological charts when she’d said it. She seemed dist
racted.

  “What?” I shoved the hand-terminal back into my pocket. “Oh, not exactly. That new one couldn’t be fixed so I went back to my last model. Old, but it does the trick.”

  She grunted in agreement. It was only then that I realized she wasn’t really working. She was aimlessly rifling through atmospheric data, but that was it. Something was distracting her.

  “Kale,” she said, almost in a whisper.

  “Yeah?”

  “Is everything all right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She stopped typing. This time when she turned to face me, she rotated her entire seat. “You’ve been here two years, and you’ve never been the one to start a fight.”

  “I didn’t start it,” I groused. The way that John and the other guard said the word skelly repeated over and over in my head. They asked for it.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “It was nothing. I just don’t like that word. Skelly.”

  “He’s used it before. It’s just…I’ve never seen you like that. So angry. Something happened to you during the last shift, didn’t it? Same thing that made you want to quit.”

  “Is that what this is about?” I questioned, getting defensive.

  “No!” She sighed. “Never mind.”

  Her gaze fell back toward the console. The most words we’d ever exchanged, and again I was blowing it. If she was going to make saving me a habit, I at least owed her a bit of truth. I slid my chair closer. This allowed me to figure out which port was labeled for hand-terminal intake, but that wasn’t my focus.

  “I wanted to tell you, Cora,” I said. “I just didn’t know how. I thought I had to stay on Titan. I…My mother—”

  “Is sick,” Cora finished for me. She turned back and stared into my eyes. Straight into them.

  My brow furrowed. “How did you know?”

  “I can hear it in your voice.” She reached out slowly and placed her hand on my arm. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “I can see it in your eyes. The helpless feeling. I’m so sorry.”

  My lower lip began to tremble. I bit it so that Cora wouldn’t see my sanitary mask moving with it. Before long my eyes welled with tears, and I couldn’t stop them. All of the emotions I’d been struggling to bottle up came gushing out of me. The only thing I could manage in response was to murmur, “Thanks.”

  “I understand,” she said. “I lost mine to that place right after I was born.”

  Based on the way she looked, I knew, as did everybody else, that her mother had been forcefully impregnated by an Earther, but I’d never asked her about it. Because she was born alive, I’d figured that her mom had survived as well. Apparently I’d been wrong.

  “I had no idea,” I said, finally able to compose myself enough to speak. “I didn’t know my father for very long, but I always had my mom at least. I can’t imagine growing up alone.” It helped explain why she was so timid.

  “Not really alone. The Darien Lowers’ orphanage took me in for a while, but they were even more crowded than now and I was lucky to get crumbs from the other kids. Once I grew enough for everyone to realize what I was, they eventually had to kick me out for my safety.”

  So not alone, but hardly noticed, then noticed for all the wrong reasons, and, finally, abandoned. “Ringers kicking out Ringers. That’s awful, Cora. And we wonder why we are where we are.”

  “It was a long time ago. I’m just glad I grew a little taller than the others and am good with tech. Most kids leave the orphanage and wind up right back on the streets. I was at least able to get a job at a busy coffee shop in the Uppers. One day Captain Saunders saw the way I worked the register and took me in. I’ve been here ever since.”

  “You did it the right way. I…” I considered telling her the truth about who I was before the Piccolo, but after everything she’d been through, she should’ve been the one to turn to the shadows for answers. What was my excuse? “I wish I’d found this ship sooner,” I said. “Maybe then I’d have enough credits saved to get my mom what she needs.”

  She frowned. “They say it’s getting better in the Q-Zones, but from what I hear getting the right medicine is harder than ever.”

  “Try impossible. It might not seem it after what you went through, but you’re lucky you don’t have to worry about getting sick as much as we do. If I were you I’d do whatever I could to keep your list of friends short so you never have to step into one of those places.”

  Her hand slid down my arm and fell to rest over mine. “Don’t say that. I may feel lost sometimes, but I know what I am.” For once she smiled fully at me. The sight made Saturn’s rings seem like a cheap sideshow. “As a fellow Ringer woman, I know your mother will make it.”

  I half-laughed, half-sniveled. “You sound so sure.”

  “Mine fought through sickness long enough after an Earther took her against her will to give birth to me. We’re stronger than they think we are, Kale.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I am.”

  We held each other’s gaze. I’d never been so near to her. She was shorter than me, so I could feel her warm breath against my neck. It probably smelled like the grub she’d just eaten in the galley, but to me I might as well have been in a garden.

  “Kale, what’re you doing up here?” somebody asked crossly.

  Our heads snapped around instantaneously and Cora reeled her hand away from mine. Captain Saunders stood in the command deck’s entrance. He appeared exhausted.

  “Captain!” Cora exclaimed before I could answer, which was probably a good thing since I had no idea what would have come out of my mouth. Heart-to-hearts with Cora were new territory for me. “Sir…I…We were just catching up.”

  “You know the rules, Cora,” he said. “No maintenance allowed in here unless you have my permission.”

  “S…Sorry, sir.”

  “Don’t let it happen again,” he warned, his glare boring through her. Then his countenance lightened and he leaned on my chair. “You two missed a hell of a mess down there.”

  “What happened?” I asked. I peered at my outfit. There were a few spots of blood around my hip. I covered them with my hand.

  “Same shit as usual,” he groaned. “Both our people seem intent on tearing my ship to pieces.”

  “Anything I can help with, sir?”

  “Not anymore. Break’s over. Let’s get back to work.”

  “Yes, sir,” Cora and I said simultaneously. “There looks to be a promising field a few thousand kilometers south of here.”

  I hopped to my feet, and only when I reached the exit did I remember the main reason I’d needed to be in the command deck. I’d been right there, the hand-terminal slot within reach, and I’d missed my chance.

  —

  The Piccolo hit a major gas pocket soon after I reported back to the harvesting bay. Four hours straight of canister prep and tank cleaning ensued, all while listening to Culver holler. Everyone who could work after the brawl was tired and sore. A few others had to head down to the med bay for treatment. Faces had bruises and scrapes. I probably had one or two of my own, but none of the metal walls were polished enough for me to tell by reflection.

  Desmond’s right eye was so swollen that he could hardly see through it. He didn’t say a word the entire time we worked next to each other. At first it was a relief, but toward the end I found it eerie.

  “All right, boys,” Culver finally announced. “Pocket’s been emptied out. You’re done for the day. Get some sleep.”

  We filed out lethargically. My arms and legs burned with soreness. My chest was so tight that it felt like I was pulling each breath. I couldn’t wait to get to the Ringer dorms and feel cool air against my filthy skin. The first days working under Earth-like G were always the toughest. It didn’t matter how many shifts I’d served or how recently I’d popped a G-pill—my body never got used to it.

  “Where the fuck did you run off to back there?” Desmond said into my ear once w
e reached the ship’s corridor.

  “Back where?” I said.

  “Don’t play stupid.”

  “I’m not in the mood, Des.” If growing up as a pickpocket had taught me anything, it was that there were times to run. For someone who loved fights as much as him, I could only imagine what he thought about a man who did that.

  He pushed me against the wall. The rest of the crew continued walking by.

  “I saw what you did, Kale,” he whispered.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “To John.”

  My eyes widened. I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close so that I could be as quiet as possible. “Did he see?”

  “If he did, he won’t remember after that hit. He’s in the med bay, probably with a bandage around his head.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “No mud stompers anyway. No way you’d be here right now otherwise. Lucky for us they think we all look the same.”

  I released him. “He was going to—”

  Desmond shook his head to silence me. “I saw.” He patted me on the shoulder and smiled with the pride of a father watching his son take his first steps. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know,” I said, shaking off his hand and continuing on my way through the corridor. He kept pace with me.

  “Damn, Kale, what is it with you? Can’t take a joke. Can’t take a compliment.”

  “Just keep it down, okay? I don’t want engine duty.”

  “Engine duty? They’d probably put you through an airlock for that. ‘Assault with a deadly weapon,’ I think they call it. Might’ve been worth the punishment for putting that mud stomper down.”

  I swallowed the lump forming in my throat.

  “Relax.” Desmond slapped me on the back. “Captain’s too pissed at John for letting that get out of hand to care who it was. Your secret’s safe with us.”