Shalia's Diary #5

by Tracy St. John

  I’d had enough. “Get out. I don’t want you here.”

  My liaison finally saw he wasn’t going to placate me. “All right. I’ll have one more look around and go. Com if you need anything.”

  “I won’t.”

  I’d turned childish with my pouting, but the hurt was growing. I just wanted Betra to leave. He went over my rooms and then did so, shaking his head.

  I didn’t get back to sleep. I felt pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen for the rest of the night. Instead, I dressed and went to the rec room to wait out the time until others began to stir. I kept myself busy with games and using a Kalquorian language program Oses had installed on my handheld. The hours didn’t fly by, but they went faster than a crawl at least.

  At last, people began to stir. I heard voices here and there calling out good mornings. Liaisons, maintenance, and housekeeping personnel began moving about the corridors, along with the occasional Kalquorian who had enjoyed a sleepover with one of the gals.

  I’d already availed myself of the coffee dispenser in the rec room, but I poured myself a fresh cup along with a second. Thus armed, I walked a short distance down the corridor and stopped at one of the doors. I bumped the visitor announce with my elbow. When seconds ticked by and no one answered, I bumped it again, a little longer.

  Finally a sleepy voice called, “Who is it?”

  I had to smile. “Good, you’re here. Are you alone?”

  “Hey. Come on in, Shalia.”

  The door hissed open and I walked into the sitting room just as Candy entered it too from her bedroom. She wore a snuggly robe over a barely-there slip of lace. She blinked at me uncertainly. “What time is it?”

  “Too damned early. Yell at me, and then have this coffee and wake up. I want to talk about the ghost.”

  Her blue eyes widened. “Did you see it?”

  I went over to the lounger and sank into it. “I think it’s been in my room twice now.”

  Candy’s mouth dropped wide open and she gasped with excited horror. “Twice? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I thought I was having funky sedative hallucinations. The first time still might have been nothing. Last night was a different story.”

  Candy sat down and grabbed the coffee I’d brought her. Her rapt gaze never leaving my face, she said, “Tell me the whole thing from the first encounter.”

  So I did while my friend sucked down her morning beverage in record time. I’m surprised she didn’t scald her throat and guts. Candy was riveted during the entire tale, gasping and muttering things like, “Oh my God,” throughout.

  “You poor thing,” she said with real feeling at the end of my story. “It’s awful to have something like this happen and the person you count on most doesn’t believe you.”

  I squirmed a little when she said that. Until last night, I hadn’t put any stock in Candy’s ghost either. Now I felt bad about that. At least I hadn’t outright ridiculed her or questioned her sanity. Betra’s attitude had hinted at him being worried for my state of mind. He had probably already commed Feru to report I was coming apart again.

  “You’ve been looking into the soldier who died, right?” I asked, hoping Candy had persisted in her belief that the matter should be further investigated. “What was the kid’s name again?”

  “Nobek Frin. I’ve looked into other deaths on board this ship too, but his was the only one to have taken place in this vicinity. It was also the most brutal murder.”

  I stared at her. “By the prophets, Candy, how many have died on this tub?”

  “Close to 25 men.” Her blue eyes were wide. “Some were accidents, but most were from fights between young Nobeks that got out of hand. It’s apparently common for it to happen to that breed when they’ve been shut up in a ship for too long, especially the ones in their twenties. That’s why we have so many shore leaves scheduled on our trip. They need frequent breaks.”

  “Older Nobeks don’t do well in confined spaces either,” I said, thinking of Oses on board the Little Creep’s ship. “So it doesn’t necessarily have to be Nobek Frin stalking around, giving us the shivers. It could be someone else.”

  Candy nodded. “It is a possibility. However, Frin fits the profile of a restless spirit the best. He was the victim of a violent, unjustified death—”

  “Is there any other kind?” I laughed with little humor.

  She kept going. “Plus there’s been a great deal of recent emotional upheaval in the vicinity where he died. I’m talking about being attacked by Tragooms and your abduction, of course. Hey, you know they tore out your old quarters and restored those rooms to like new.”

  I shrugged. “My new quarters are fine. I’m not moving back. Even if they got the shit smell out of there, I’m in no hurry to go back in where Betra and I damned near died.”

  Candy was fairly bouncing with excitement. “You don’t understand. Re-decorating or renovating a place can disturb spirits. Maybe your old quarters was where Frin died.”

  “You have no way of knowing that,” I said. I settled back on the lounger cushions and eyed her. “How do you know so much about what makes dead people haunt the living?”

  “I told you, I had an experience living in a haunted house when I was young. I did a bunch of research into the spirit world later to try and get over being scared about it.”

  I gave Candy a smile. “I guess that didn’t work out quite the way you planned. You keep getting freaked out over this ghost.”

  She blushed. “I know. In most cases, they can’t harm the living. However, it’s one thing to know that and another to not lose my shit when I’m face to face with one.”

  I laughed out loud over that. “So what else can make someone decide to come back to scare the hell out of us breathing types?”

  “Oh, revenge. A need for justice.”

  I mused. “I wonder if Frin’s killers were convicted.”

  Candy nodded, sending her curls bouncing all over her shoulders. “Three were executed and two received life sentences. But it could be that Frin doesn’t know about that. If we could make contact and tell him, it might put him at rest.”

  “Putting him at rest would put me at rest,” I said. “I hate that he seems to have become fixated on me. If I move to other quarters, will that throw him off?”

  Candy bit her lip. “Spirits can attach themselves to the living and follow them around. It could be your pain has attracted him.”

  Attached to me? I had a sudden, ugly thought. My hair abruptly felt like it was standing on end. “Candy, let’s say for shits and giggles it’s not Nobek Frin roaming around. Given your reasons for a dead person to manifest as a ghost, I could be haunted because I had something to do with someone’s death. If they blamed me for killing them in an awful way and wanted revenge...”

  Her eyes went wide. “The Little Creep? Or his girlfriend?”

  “Maybe.” I swallowed. They fit Candy’s profile for restless spirits in the making, but I was thinking of someone else.

  There had been that Earther man Finiuld brought to me, hoping for me to exact revenge on the male gender for the way I’d been treated on my home planet. I hadn’t harmed him, not directly. But because of me, Oses had tortured him. Because of me, he’d suffered an awful, unthinkable death. I didn’t even know that Earther’s name, yet my worst nightmares were of what had been done to him ... all because of me. If anyone had a reason to want revenge beyond the grave, it would have been that man.

  Candy’s words recurred to me: In most cases, they can’t harm the living. That would have been comforting, except for the items knocked off my shelves. If a ghost could affect the physical world that much, then he could potentially make things happen to me. Considering the revenge that nameless Earther was due, they would be most unpleasant things.

  “We need to find out who the ghost is,” I said. My voice trembled.

  Candy nodded. “I’ll get right on it.”

  April 4, later

  What a crazy d
ay. We had another encounter with the shadow entity (Candy’s term) and this time it appeared in front of a lot of us. Candy and I are no longer alone when it comes to believing in the unbelievable.

  It all started at breakfast in our little cafeteria. Candy and I had every intention of getting an ironclad identity on our unwanted presence afterwards, but Katrina and a few of the other women had hatched a plan that put ours on hold.

  “What’s up?” Candy asked as we sat down at the end of our usual table, which was unusually crowded. Women were clustered around Katrina. Conversation all over the room was louder and more excited than normal, I noticed. Several of the women sitting with us were not from our group.

  Katrina sat at the middle of the table, her space taken up by a handheld and a half-eaten tray of food. “We’re getting a dance club on board the transport,” she called.

  “What?” I blinked. “Says who?”

  “Says Captain Wotref.” Katrina beamed from ear to ear. “After all the fun we had at the clubs on the space station, I thought we should have it added to our recreational options. The boys have their pleasure club, so why can’t we have a dance club?”

  That got a lot of happy agreement from the other ladies. Everyone seemed excited by the plan.

  “Wait, you put this in motion? It’s a done deal?” Candy asked. She looked duly impressed.

  Katrina nodded, still smiling. “Once we had Shalia back and we were on our way again, I thought everyone needed something fun with no redeeming value whatsoever. And lo, the idea to put a dance club on board the Pussy ‘Porter was born.”

  That got a lot of laughs. After my awful night of scares, I was delighted to have something lighthearted to contemplate. “So you talked to the captain, and he said yes? You are amazing, my friend. I bow to you in awe.”

  Katrina shrugged modestly. “It was a little more difficult than that, but not by much. First, I looked at our area of the ship to see if we had the space for a club. We don’t. So I went to the main concourse and had a look around there. There are three large trading rooms currently not in use.”

  “The main concourse, huh?” Candy grinned. “That way we can invite all the guys to come watch ... and maybe find a little company for afterward.”

  There were a lot of grins and giggles at her suggestion. Someone else said, “Maybe we can even convince some of them that dancing isn’t all that unmanly.”

  “Good luck with that,” I snorted. “Unless we can serve alcohol?”

  Katrina sighed. “You know the crew has tight limits on their drinking, even during their off-duty hours. They have to be ready for emergencies at all times. Still, we might be able to put in dispensers with consumption trackers for the boys.”

  “Oh yeah. All right, so what’s the rest of the story?” I wanted to know.

  Katrina put on her modest face again, which told me she’d done a lot more to make this club happen than she was letting on. “I thought it would be nice to present the captain with good reasons to have a club beyond us having fun and attracting more men into our evil clutches.”

  “Yeah, like you need help with that, Katrina!” someone called.

  More laughter. Katrina waited for it to die down before continuing. “I discussed the club with that psychologist Dr. Feru. I told him how much fun we’d had on Xniktix and that he should sign off on it as being a good mental diversion for us gals. I showed him a few of the vids we’d taken of each other at the clubs to demonstrate how happy it made us. He agreed I had a valid point and would be glad to support the cause.”

  “He’s a big fan of our dancing, isn’t he, Katrina? Or was it your means of negotiation that he appreciated?” Megan teased.

  Katrina grinned at her. “I reminded him that he’d been seen attending the club, enjoying the entertainment. Nothing more, especially since his clan is busy wooing Samantha. Maybe Sammie did some negotiating on our behalf?”

  Everyone turned to a cute brunette standing in the group. She blushed and waved her hands as if to deny the allegation, but she wore a big grin on her face. “We’ve discussed it! With words,” she cried out in defense.

  “Sure you have,” Katrina said over our knowing laughter. “At any rate, I next went to Betra and told him of our desire for a place to dance. He forwarded the request to Wotref, and I met with the captain for a round of – ahem – negotiations.”

  “Which have proved to be fruitful,” Bettina laughed.

  “Indeed. By the way, ladies, Wotref might not be as pretty to look at as some of these boys, but he is an extremely good negotiator. As are his Nobek and Imdiko.” Katrina sighed. “I love the youngsters’ energy, but you just can’t put a price on men with experience who are used to working as a team.”

  “So now that you’ve put in all that hard work as our ambassador, what’s next?” Candy asked when we were done laughing.

  “Now we choose one of the three available spaces. Then we visit Acquisitions and see what kinds of supplies that department might be willing to donate to our cause. I think I can rope some of our Kalquorian friends into helping us to put the club together.”

  “Because nobody negotiates deals like you,” I pointed out. “Sheesh Katrina, by the time the dance club is up and running, you’ll be too tired to enjoy it.”

  That earned more laughter. Katrina picked out who would come along with her to choose the most likely space for our club. Naturally, she asked Candy and me to be a part of it. Though we had planned to work on our ghost problem, we scuttled that to scout out our dance hall prospects instead. Why not, right? It was for a good cause.

  “Picking a room shouldn’t take very long,” Candy told me in an undertone. “We’ll have plenty of time to pull our investigative gear together.”

  “Investigative gear?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

  She gave me a look that said silly Shalia. “You can’t hunt ghosts with blasters or butterfly nets. I think my handheld will cover it all, but I want to make sure.”

  I wanted to ask her why we would have to hunt the restless spirit when it kept calling on me without invitation. I kept my mouth shut, however. Candy had apparently put a lot of thought into the matter, and she claimed to have some expertise when it came to the supernatural.

  Expert or not, she was not prepared when it showed up. Nope, you don’t need blasters or butterfly nets when it comes to stalking spirits. Just Shalia.

  Ten of us went to the common area of the ship, the central part where there are shops and diversions for the Kalquorian crew who had to spend long stretches in space. It’s a big, circular area referred to as a ‘promenade’. In the middle of it is a hologram of the Kalquorian Empire’s space. The sun, bigger than Earth’s, is in the center, around which 15 planets orbit. The tenth one, blue with a strong green tinge, is Kalquor itself. It is the only planet in the system that supports life without requiring terraforming or containment domes.

  All around the edge of the promenade are the shops, dining areas, and entertainment clubs. It’s a lot like a military base’s exchange ... except no military base that I’m aware of had a sex club. Kalquorians are not inhibited in the least when it comes to sex. In the pleasure club on board the transport, you can watch, be watched, and participate in wild acts if you wish. I don’t know of any Earther women who have dared step into that place, though Katrina has tried to convince several of us to go at different times. So far, she’s had no takers. She pouts over that.

  Today she did not pout. She was too busy being excited that we were going to have a dance club. Standing in the middle of the promenade, she pointed out our choices.

  “That one next to the custom-made blade shop is the smallest, I believe. Over there next to the armor repair stall is another space that was once a lounge. It does have a bar area already in place. The last place and the largest is right next to the pleasure club. If the boys watch us dance, they won’t have to go far to work off their frustrations.” Katrina’s eyes twinkled as she said that.