by Sarah Zettel
Eventually she gained enough on one of the boys to grab him by the shoulder and spin him around to face her.
“What’s your bug?” she asked, stepping back. “Or are you just a bunch of tinkies who don’t like girls?”
“Listen to this one,” said the taller boy. His skin was dark brown, like the bark on the trees around them, and his hair was a pale sandy red. Freckles covered his face, including one huge one under his right eye. “It thinks it’s got something.”
“Maybe I do.” Chena folded her arms. “What would you know about it? You’re too scared to even talk. Where’s the rest of your tinky friends? They hiding too? Too scared without their mommies?”
The tallest boy’s fists went up. Chena raised her own fists. She’d figured this might happen. On the station, there was usually a fight when a new kid came in, and she’d been ready for it. If she could get this over with now, there was less of a chance of Teal getting beaten up later. Teal was a major boil, but nobody laid hands on her.
But, God, this kid was tall. She spread her feet and got ready to duck when he threw his punch.
His arm went back and Chena tensed, but the other kid, this one stocky and pale tan, grabbed the tall kid’s arm before he could throw the punch.
“Not worth it, Shond,” he said. “We show up busted in, we’re gonna have extra duty for a month.” He shoved Shond’s arm down. Then he looked at Chena. “So what do you think your name is?”
“Chena Trust.” She loosened her fists. “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m Hyder. You almost got hit by Shond.” He cuffed the tall kid. “Where’re you from?”
“Athena Station.” Chena relaxed her stance. Maybe she wouldn’t have to fight after all. She wondered what Hyder meant by getting “extra duty.”
Shond snorted. “Station kid? Hall’s balls, what’re we bothering her for? She’ll be in the dorms for a week, and then her mom’ll be selling her off for body parts or to one of the freak towns. Some guy probably paid to put her up her mom’s cunt anyway.”
Chena stepped forward, suddenly ready to get as far into it as this piss-mouth wanted to go. “Say it again,” she dared him. “Go on. I want to hear how good you talk, dickless.”
“Shond!” A girl’s voice this time. She shoved her way past Chena. She was tall, broad in the shoulder, and just starting to get a pair of breasts. She had thick arms and legs and shared Shond’s red hair and freckles. “What the shit-all are you doing? The cop’s in town! He’s going to be doing a vid review before the end of the day, and won’t he just love to see your pretty face on it?” She shoved him, hard, so he stumbled backward. “You want to punch somebody, you punch me and see what’s what!”
“Back off, Sadia,” sulked Shond. “We were just messing.”
Sadia turned to Chena and fixed her with a glower that rivaled Mom’s on a bad day. “You just messing?”
“Not anymore,” Chena told her, without taking her eyes off Shond, who pretty much had to be this girl’s brother.
Sadia swung back around to face Shond and his buddy. “Get out, Shond, or I’m telling the cop how you fixed the duty sheets, and won’t that just make you look like the good kid.”
Sadia and Shond stared each other down for a minute, and then Shond’s gaze flickered back to Chena.
But it was Hyder who smacked him again. “Come on, Shond, Let’s cut. Nothing doing here.”
“Right.” Shond turned away reluctantly, and he and Hyder ran down the path, vanishing between the buildings.
Sadia looked Chena up and down. Chena held her ground without flinching. “He start that?” Sadia asked finally, jerking her chin in the direction the boys had run off.
Chena shrugged. “I sort of let him.”
“Easy to do. I’m Sadia. Shond’s my brother,” she added, confirming Chena’s guess.
Chena introduced herself and they touched foreheads to each other in abbreviated salutes. “What’s his bug?” she asked, gesturing after Shond.
Sadia shrugged. “Hates being a dorm baby. Always has to get into it.”
“Don’t all the kids live in the dorms?” asked Chena, glad to have a source of information.
“Balls, no.” Sadia shook her head and then cocked an eyebrow toward Chena. “You just slide down the pipe?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Chena leaned her back against the wall. It felt cool behind her, partly shaded by the eaves with their overhang of moss.
Sadia leaned beside Chena and folded her arms across her chest. “Then you haven’t got the talk yet?”
Chena’s mouth twisted up into a tight smile. “Yeah, but I slept through it.”
Sadia laughed. “No dim bulbs here. It’s pretty boring. I’ll give you the free preview.” Sadia held up her hand and started ticking points off on her fingers. “If you got no money, you get to live in the dorms and work the town, work the shit mostly. Money, you still got to work the town, but you get your own place and whatever else you can buy. Enough money”—Sadia held up her index finger in front of Chena’s face—“and you get to buy your kids a spot in a school, otherwise they work the town with everybody else.”
Busted, thought Chena. At least they can’t shut the air off here.
“They give you a shift yet?” Sadia asked.
Chena shook her head. “We’re just in the dorm for a couple days. Mom’s got a job coming.” Which was an exaggeration. Mom had a job, all right, but it might be a while before they had money for rent because of the bills from Athena.
Sadia’s look was skeptical, but not derisive like her brother’s had been. Chena couldn’t blame her. She’d heard enough lies from the hall kids in the station to know some kids would say anything to keep someone from knowing how bad things were with them.
“Well, keep your head down and look busy, you may stay off the duty sheets for a while. But don’t try to duck it too long. They may put you on the watch list, where they’ve got Shond.” Sadia dropped her gaze and kicked at the gravel with the scuffed toe of her shoe. “If you stay there for too long, you get declared useless, and then the hothousers can have you.”
“Useless?” Chena pushed herself away from wall. “You’re kidding.”
Again, Sadia shrugged. “So, all right, the cop doesn’t call it ‘useless,’ but that’s what it means. It means you’re no good as a person, only good for spare parts and experiments, and they can haul you off whenever and wherever they feel like.”
Chena looked at Sadia hard, trying to see if the girl was trying to pull one over on the new kid. But Sadia looked serious, and a little worried. If she was for real and her brother was on the list…
“And people just let them do this? To their kids?”
“The hothousers own the world. We just live here. Who’s gonna say anything?” Sadia folded her arms. “I hear on the station they shut your air off if you can’t pay your rent.”
Chena opened her mouth to say she’d never seen it happen, but she closed it without saying anything. It could happen, and everybody knew it. That was why Mom had taken them off the station, never mind what either of them had told Teal.
Just then, a brass banging filled the air. Chena jumped, looking automatically around for an info screen.
Sadia laughed, but not too hard. “Ease off, new girl. It’s the breakfast bell for first shift.”
“Oh, right.” Chena slumped her shoulders and swallowed against the thumping of her heart. That woman, Madra, had said something about a breakfast bell—
Chena’s thoughts stopped in their tracks. That gonging meant Mom was waking up right now, to see that Chena wasn’t in her bed.
She groaned. “I gotta get back. Mom’s going to kill me for wandering out.”
She turned to go, but Sadia grabbed her arm. “If they give you a chance to pick your shift, try the get into K37. That’s where I’m at.” She gave Chena a quick smile that faded into a pleading look as she let her go. “And if you get into it with Shond, try not to fight him. He’s walking
the edge as it is.”
“Promise,” said Chena.
Sadia’s smile came back for real. They waved to each other and Chena pelted hard up the path, hoping she was heading right for the dorm.
Even as Chena concentrated on running, Sadia’s words flitted through her head. What she said couldn’t be true, at least not all of it. Because if it was true, Mom never would have brought them here.
She wouldn’t have. No. Of course not. Never.
CHAPTER TWO
Offshoot
Thud!
Chena staggered backward from the soft surface she had slammed into.
“Are you okay?” A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders. Chena looked up and saw she had plowed right into Madra.
“I’m sorry, Aunt,” Chena gasped, saluting quickly.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Madra waved her apology away. “No harm. But what are you doing out here?” She looked Chena up and down, her dark eyes taking in the details, such as Chena’s bare feet.
“I… um…” Chena stared past her at the doorway to the dorm. The double doors were shut tight. Mom was wondering where she was. Mom was going to kill her completely dead.
“You were trying to get back before anybody noticed you were gone?” suggested Madra.
Chena bit her lip. “Yes, Aunt.”
The woman’s smile broadened and she shook Chena’s shoulder gently. “It’s just Madra, and you’re already too late.” She gestured Chena to come on and started walking down the path.
Because there was nothing else to do, Chena fell into step alongside Madra, glad that the woman did not insist on keeping a hand on her shoulder or anything. She was a round woman, Chena now saw. Strong, but not a hard-body. She looked like she might actually be okay.
Madra pushed open the dormitory doors and led Chena through a dim room that looked to her just like the sleeping room, except it had chairs, tables, and pillows in it.
“Common room,” said Madra when she saw Chena looking around. “Someplace to relax in the evenings.”
Down the inner corridor, the sleeping room had transformed itself into a hive of activity. Women and girls busied themselves around pallets and cupboards. Some of them, obviously more used to this than others, moved quickly and efficiently—rolling up their beds, stowing their blankets in the lockers, getting out bags and buckets of bathing supplies, and herding the smallest children out the door. Others just yawned and stretched and scratched, blinking stupidly around them, as if they weren’t sure where they were. Some burrowed farther under their blankets, searching for a few more minutes of sleep. Chena, coming in from the fresh air, couldn’t help noticing the strong scent of un-washed people.
Mom and Teal stood still in the middle of all the activity. Mom was saying something that Chena couldn’t hear. Teal must have caught sight of the movement in the doorway, because she touched Mom’s hand and pointed. Mom’s gaze fastened on Chena, and Chena, figuring there was no getting out of this, picked her way between the strangers in their miscellaneous assortment of nightclothes.
“There,” a stringy pale woman wearing a blue shirt and nothing else said to Mom. “I told you she’d be back as soon as the bell sounded.”
“Thank you,” said Mom to her in a tone that meant anything but. She immediately turned on Chena, her face filled with fury. “Where have you been?”
Then Mom saw Madra following right behind Chena, and her mouth shut like a trap.
Chena dropped her gaze to the floor. She’d been right. Witnesses or no, Mom was ready to kill her. “I woke up. I wanted to look around. I lost track of time. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry, Helice,” said Madra. “The village is fenced and monitored. There’s nothing she could get into that would hurt her.”
“Thank you, Madra,” said Mom in her most polite voice. “I appreciate you looking out for her.” She gave Madra a salute.
“It’s part of my job,” said Madra cheerfully. “Well, I have to make my speech now.”
Chena saw the tips of Madra’s shoes moving away. Mom was silent for a moment, and Chena risked a look up. Mom still looked angry, but her face was softening. Chena shot a glance at Teal, who returned a look that plainly said, You’re so lucky.
For what? Getting out, or not getting killed?
“All right.” Mom sighed and ran a hand through her sleep-rumpled hair. “Nothing happened this time. But this is not the station, Chena.” She held up a hand. “I know, you’ve noticed. What I’m saying is, we don’t know all the rules here yet. We need to be careful for a while until we’re all settled in. You understand me?”
Chena nodded, relieved that the talking-to was no worse. “Yes. I won’t do it again. Sorry.”
Mom looked dubious, but she didn’t scold anymore. “And what did you see while you looked around?”
Chena opened her mouth, uncertain what she would say. But she never got a chance to speak.
“Good morning,” announced Madra, taking up a position in the doorway. Chena had to peer through a forest of shoulders to see her. “Mornings are a little chaotic, so I thought I’d come by and give you the basic rundown on where you should be.”
“Thank you,” murmured Mom under her breath. A chorus of similar murmurs rippled around the room. Chena suppressed a smile.
“First I’m sure you’ll all want to get cleaned up. Then we’ll be having breakfast. After that, you can report to me for your shift assignments. You’ll find towels and soap in your locker.” Madra gestured toward the wall of tiny wooden lockers. None of them, Chena noticed, actually had locks. “If you get your things and come with me, I’ll show you the baths and facilities.”
“Bless you,” breathed the woman who had reassured Mom about Chena’s inevitable reappearance. “I’m coated, just coated.”
“Yes, indeed,” murmured Mom, a polite nothing. “Girls, let’s get our things.”
Mom opened the locker that had their names on it. The towels she found were thick but rough, and the soap was a yellow cake with ragged edges, as if it had just been broken off from a big slab.
“What’s this?” said Teal, holding up the soap. “Where’s the shampoo?”
“This is what there is for now, Starlet,” said Mom, gathering clothes and towels. She pushed Teal gently into the mob that was gradually forming itself into a line in front of Madra, who was fielding a dozen questions about sleeping arrangements, job ops, and breakfast. “We’ll buy ourselves what we need later.”
Chena staked out a place next to Teal, eyeing the other kids in the crowd, trying to see if any of them looked friendly or looked like trouble, but mostly they just looked sleepy and a little confused. Just like she felt.
Madra lifted her voice over the flutter of questions. “Everybody ready as you can get? Good. Follow me, please.” Madra smiled reassuringly at the befuddled herd of people.
Bet her mouth gets tired, holding that look, thought Chena grumpily.
But apparently it didn’t. Madra’s smile stayed fixed in place as she took the lead. The men and a few boys seemed to have slept in the round room across the way, and they joined the procession through curving, branching halls that smelled strongly of earth and too many people.
Madra seemed to know just about everybody who came and went, skirting their crowd, and she had a cheerful greeting for them all. “Good morning, Yuri, how’s your hip? Hello, Dulce, Shukmi. Come see me later. I’ve got news for you. Gardens of God, Buile, you’re huge! Have you felt it kick yet?”
Madra took them down a flight of stone steps. The air grew warm and damp and became filled with the echoing sounds of voices and splashing water.
“Now, then,” said Madra. “There’s something I ought to warn you about. It comes as a shock to a lot of our new arrivals from the stations where private living is the norm.…”
But Chena, ducking her head so she could peek between the screen of people in front of her, already saw. Past the squared-off doorway was a room lined with flat gray stones. In the center w
as a shallow pool of steaming water. In and around that pool, all the people were naked—men, women, girls, boys, and little babies. They soaped up and rinsed, walked back and forth, and even chased each other, and not one of them had a thing on.
“No,” said Chena, swinging around to face her mother. “I’m not going in there.” She wasn’t the only one. A whole eruption of exclamations and protests exploded around them.
Mom sighed, pressing a hand to her ear against the noise. “It’s just for now, Supernova. Soon we’ll—”
“I don’t care.” Chena slashed her hand through the air between them. “I’m not taking a bath in front of… everybody!” She gestured behind her. There were men back there, and boys, and old women. Even aboard the station they’d had their own shower. Okay, it was about the size of their locker down here, but it was private. “There’s got to be—”
“Believe me, I understand.” Madra’s voice lifted above the general din. “It was really bad the first few times I had to do it too, but then I realized that nobody was paying any attention to me anyway. They just wanted to get cleaned up and get into the breakfast line.”
As if to prove her point, a small string of people, dressed and smelling like soap and warmth, shouldered their way through the crowd of newcomers and hurried down the hallway. Some of the others shrugged and took themselves through the doorway.
No one was leaving. Some were still grumbling, but if even one person left…
“Mom—” Chena started.
“Not a word, Chena,” said her mother. “I don’t like it either, but we are here and we have to make the best of it.” More of the others were starting to file in. Chena felt her chances to get out of this slipping away.
“Couldn’t we just go dirty until we get our own place?” suggested Teal plaintively. “I mean, you said it’d be soon.”
Mom’s sigh was short this time, frustrated at being caught by her own words. “Soon could be a month, Teal. Do you want to go dirty for a month?”