Chasing Stars

by Helen Douglas

  There were two women in my berthing area now, both undressed and in the process of washing their faces.

  ‘Hi, roomie,’ one of them called, waving a hand in my direction.

  I waved back and counted silently to twenty, long enough for Ben to get back to the lift. I opened the door. The dimmed lighting that signalled night-time cast a warm pink glow on the walls, so that as I stumbled along the curved passageway, I had the strangest impression that I was walking inside a blood vessel. Peg had the map Ben had given us, but I had carefully memorised the route from my room to the lifts. I passed dozens of slim doors that led to tiny berthing areas just like mine, but not a single person.

  I reached the lifts and pressed the call button. With no map, I wasn’t sure what I should do, but I wanted to locate a few key places. Ryan’s ship would arrive at the landing bay on A Deck. Temporary accommodation was also on A Deck. With the little information I had, it seemed Ryan’s entire stay aboard the spaceport would be centred on A Deck.

  The lift arrived and the door opened. No one was inside. I pressed the button for A Deck and concocted a cover: I’d left my handbag in the Officers’ Club. No one would know I’d never owned a handbag in my life.

  The curved passageways of A Deck were equally deserted. I walked straight ahead, trying to commit the layout to memory. I counted twenty-four doors before I reached the entrance to security and the landing bay beyond. The walk between security and the lift had taken me about two minutes.

  ‘Can I help you?’ asked a tall female security officer.

  ‘I’m trying to find my way back to the Officers’ Club,’ I said.

  ‘Keep walking,’ she said, pointing along the passageway I’d been following. ‘It’s a little way along there.’

  I thanked her and continued. I passed a holding cell with a bored-looking security guard sitting at a desk reading something on her port-com. Someone had handwritten a sign that said Vacancies and stuck it to the door. I kept walking. I passed toilets and a store cupboard, a cleaning cupboard and then came to the double doors that led into the club. Just as I was about to push the door open, it swung out and I came face to face with Ben.

  ‘Eden?’ he said, the surprise clear in his voice. ‘What are you doing back up here?’ The door swung shut behind him and latched with a faint hiss.

  Somehow I didn’t think he would believe I was looking for my handbag. ‘Looking for Pegasus.’

  ‘Milo was taking him for a quick tour of the landing bay,’ said Ben. There was a touch of impatience in his voice. ‘He’s probably back in his berth by now.’

  I took a step backwards. ‘I’ll go back down and see if he’s there.’

  ‘It takes a few days to get used to the rhythm of life aboard the spaceport,’ he said. ‘The central section of the port rotates on its axis every twenty-four hours to help with circadian rhythms in our workforce, but even so, most people take a while to adjust. You should try to sleep.’

  I strode quickly back along the passageway, past the security checkpoint to the lift. Peg was there, touching the call button.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked.

  ‘Exploring.’

  ‘And?’ He looked at me expectantly.

  ‘I bumped into Ben and he told me to go back to my berth. How about you?’

  ‘I have good news,’ he said quietly.

  The lift arrived. Peg waited until we were inside before telling me. ‘He took me out on the landing bay where we arrived. There’s a small shipyard there and he wanted to show me some of the things they’re working on.’

  He touched the button for C Deck.

  ‘What about security?’ I asked.

  ‘Milo was with me so it wasn’t a problem that I didn’t have ID yet. But that’s not the good news.’

  The lift doors opened on to C Deck.

  ‘What are we doing down here?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s just it,’ said Peg, taking my arm. ‘Milo told me that there’s a small boat deck on C Deck where the evacuation craft are kept. They’re like lifeboats. You only use them if there’s an emergency. I want to find them.’

  He let go of my arm and walked out into the lobby.

  ‘Peg,’ I whispered, half running to catch up. ‘What if someone sees us? It’s ten o’clock at night. We shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘We say we’re lost.’

  Unlike the twisting guts of B Deck, C Deck had a large central lobby with four passageways leading off it, like the spokes of a steering wheel. There were no signs pointing the way.

  ‘Choose a passageway,’ said Peg.

  I turned in a circle. ‘Wait. If these shuttles are for emergency evacuation, there must be directions to them. You don’t hide the lifeboats.’

  There was a noticeboard by the lifts. A laminated sign at the bottom of the board gave instructions for evacuation.

  ‘Found it,’ I said. ‘First left and follow the fluorescent green arrows.’

  The left-hand passageway took us past a library and a storeroom. The boat deck was at the end. Although the hatchway to the deck was sealed, there was a reinforced glass panel in the hatch. Peg pushed his face against the glass to peer in.

  ‘Can you see anything?’ I asked.

  ‘Not really. It looks like there must be several shuttles inside, each within their own airlock. But I’m not sure.’

  ‘How do we get in?’

  He stepped back from the glass. ‘There’s a swipe machine by the door here. I guess you swipe your ID card.’

  ‘We get our ID tomorrow. Do you think our cards will open this hatch?’

  Peg shrugged. ‘No idea. There must be a way to trigger the hatch, though. If it’s for emergencies, it needs to be accessible.’

  ‘Assuming we can get inside, do you think you could fly one of the shuttles?’ I asked.

  ‘I can fly anything.’

  ‘You’re so modest,’ I said, nudging him. ‘If you’re so good at flying, how come you’re not on the Elite Pilot Program Clarence and Antoine are on?’

  ‘I can’t afford it. The Elite Program is for rich kids. I’m doing it the poor kid way: work your way up from the bottom and squeeze in a few flights along the way.’

  ‘Can we get to Titan in one of these lifeboats?’

  Peg shook his head. ‘We’ll have to go back to Earth. We need to think of a secluded place where no one will see us arrive.’

  I knew where we would go. I’d had it in mind all along. The farmhouse at the bottom of Trenoweth Lane was well above sea level and I doubted it had seen much development in the past hundred and eleven years. Both Ryan and I knew the area well.

  I heard a door hiss open further along the hall. ‘Let’s go,’ I whispered. ‘I don’t want to get caught down here – it’s a big giveaway.’

  We walked back along the hall to the lifts, as silently as our shoes allowed on the metal floor.

  ‘So we have to find a way to get Ryan out of the holding cell, across the port to the lifts, down to C Deck and along the passageway to the boat deck,’ I said. ‘Then we have to find a way to open the hatch and fly the shuttle.’

  Peg raised his eyebrows. ‘Is that all?’

  Chapter 23

  Induction took place in Conference Room Four, on C Deck. As well as Peg and me, there were two other new recruits, the two women sharing my berthing area: Nikki and Becca. They were both teachers.

  ‘This place has a school?’ I said, surprised.

  ‘There are two thousand residents on board the Inter-Planetary Spaceport,’ said Milo. ‘Including two hundred and fifty children. We have a suite of twelve classrooms to accommodate their education.’

  I couldn’t imagine how awful it must be for those children to grow up on board a spaceport. To live their young lives in an artificial atmosphere. To never swim in the ocean, or run through the trees.

  ‘You’ll see the schoolrooms during the tour,’ said Milo. ‘But first we need to run through the Health and Safety policy.’

 
; We were shown a short film and given a lecture on what we were and were not allowed to do on board the spaceport.

  ‘And now for perhaps the most important part of your induction,’ said Milo. ‘Emergency evacuation.’

  Peg caught my eye, a fleeting glance.

  ‘In the event that the spaceport needs to be evacuated,’ Milo continued, ‘emergency lighting will illuminate. If you follow the green arrows they will direct you to the emergency shuttle bay.’

  Milo led us from the conference room and along the passageway to the shuttle bay, the same one we’d followed the night before.

  ‘How do you get inside?’ asked Peg when we arrived.

  ‘Only those with high level security clearance can get inside,’ said Milo, waving his ID. ‘Except in an emergency. When the spaceport is on a Code Red, the hatch opens automatically.’

  ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance we can take a look inside?’ asked Peg.

  ‘Not today. There isn’t time.’

  ‘If I saw a fire, how would I operate the alarm?’ I asked.

  ‘Good question,’ said Milo. ‘There are alarms all over the spaceport. You simply break the glass to sound the alarm and then head to your nearest muster station.’

  From the emergency shuttle bay, we were shown the sick bay, the mess rooms, the kitchens and the stores. Milo took our photographs and issued basic ID cards. And then we moved on to the other things we would need to know. I tried to hide my impatience; if everything went to plan we wouldn’t need to know how to log an accident or where to go to get a burn treated.

  ‘Before we head up to A Deck, let’s go over to the laundry room and pick up some uniforms for you,’ said Milo.

  Peg was talking to Milo about what sort of clearance we would need to access each area. I wanted to listen in, but didn’t want to seem too obvious, so I fell into step with Nikki and Becca.

  ‘Why do you want to work up here?’ I asked Becca.

  She looked at me like I was stupid. ‘For the pay of course. My salary here is four times what they pay back on Earth. My boyfriend and I are saving for a house.’

  ‘Is he here too?’

  She shook her head. ‘He was hoping to get a job in the kitchens but apparently all the posts were filled.’

  I smiled at her. ‘I bet a position will open up again soon.’

  We reached the laundry room. ‘Every Friday you must bring your clothes to be washed and pick up new uniforms for the week,’ Milo told us.

  We were each given five tunics and loose trousers, a pair of shoes and a sash. Mine and Peg’s were green for the kitchens. Nikki and Becca had purple.

  ‘We will complete your induction in the Landing Bay,’ said Milo, glancing at his wristwatch. ‘We’ll need to make this quick; there’s a scheduled arrival at eleven o’clock.’

  When we had first arrived, Peg and I had to go through the rigorous security procedure for visitors. Now that we were residents with identification cards, we were able to take the much faster route through residents’ security.

  ‘You won’t spend much time in the Landing Bay,’ said Milo as we walked out on to the docks. ‘But every time you have shore leave, you will embark and disembark the spaceport here. And it’s imperative that you understand how dangerous the landing bay really is.’

  I looked around. The landing bay was a busy area, with dockers unloading cargo ships and cleaners working on the shuttles. It smelt like a poisonous mix of hot metal and welding fumes.

  ‘The cargo docks are at the far end,’ said Milo, pointing to the other end of the landing bay. ‘Shuttle craft dock as close to security as possible.’ He checked his watch. ‘Any moment now, you will hear an alarm. It consists of five long blasts. That’s the ten-minute warning.’

  ‘Warning for what?’ asked Becca.

  ‘Warning that the hatch to the landing bay is about to be opened. If you find yourself in the landing bay when that hatch opens, you’ll get sucked into space. You’d be surprised: it does happen. You either need to get out of here within ten minutes or stay inside one of the ships. The ships are all clamped down. Don’t leave until you hear the all clear. That is three short blasts of the alarm. Don’t take any chances out here.’

  The alarm sounded. Five long blasts, so loud that any conversation was impossible.

  ‘That’s the alarm,’ said Milo. He escorted us back through security. ‘Work starts tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Kitchens at seven. Schoolroom at eight. Make sure you show up on time and in uniform.’

  We were dismissed. I checked my watch: eleven on the dot.

  ‘How long do you think it will take for them to transport Ryan from the ship to the holding cell?’ I whispered to Peg.

  He shrugged. ‘It took us thirty minutes to clear security.’

  My arms were aching with the weight of five uniforms. We followed Nikki and Becca back down to B Deck to hang up our uniforms and work out our next move.

  ‘Nikki and I are going to freshen up and go to the Space Bar,’ said Becca. ‘Do you want to join us?’

  ‘Maybe later. My friend Peg and I are going to go and check out the library.’

  Nikki pulled a face that evidently summed up her opinion of the library, and the two of them went into the bathroom.

  I pulled the plastic wrap off one of the kitchen tunics and put it on. It was made of a soft green cotton and hung to just above my knees. The sash that went with it was a darker green. Quickly I tied it around my waist. The final part of the kitchen uniform was a hat designed to cover your hair. I bundled my hair into a ponytail and coiled it on top of my head, pulling the hat over it to hold it in place.

  I was just about ready. All I needed to do was put on my necklace – the one with my mum’s wedding ring attached – for good luck. Rummaging through my backpack for it, I noticed the penny I’d found, seconds before leaving 2012. I tucked it into my tunic pocket; I’d need all the luck I could get.

  Peg was waiting for me out in the passageway. He smirked. ‘You look lovely in a utilitarian sort of way.’

  I looked up and down the passageway. There was no one around. ‘I have an idea,’ I said in a low voice. ‘I’m going to head down to the kitchens and say that I’ve been sent to get lunch for the prisoner. I’ll take it up to the holding cell.’

  ‘That might get you in,’ said Peg. ‘Then what?’

  ‘You’ll be waiting outside. Last time I passed, there was only one guard. As soon as she unlocks the cell to let me deliver the food, you come in. I’m going to try and get something hot – soup maybe – to throw in her face. Between us we can overpower her and free Ryan. Then we dress him in one of your uniforms, hit the alarm and head for the evacuation shuttles.’

  ‘It could work,’ said Peg, unravelling the map. ‘There’s a restroom close to the holding cell. I could wait in there with a spare uniform for Ryan. Why don’t I head up to the bar to meet Lyra and find out if Ryan’s in the cell yet?’

  ‘Good idea. I’ll meet you in the restroom in twenty minutes,’ I said. ‘Wish me luck.’

  The kitchens were down on C Deck. I smelt them long before I reached them. Steam and grease, the lingering fishiness of seaweed. Then came the clanging of pans and the clattering of dishes, voices calling. Lunchtime. Everyone would be busy. Perfect.

  ‘Are you the new girl?’ a red-faced woman barked at me. ‘You’re late.’

  I was about to tell her that I wasn’t scheduled to begin until tomorrow, but she thrust a platter of steamed rice into my hands and ordered me to deliver it to the canteen. I carried it swiftly to the serving table, feeling more and more like a worker and not an imposter. The canteen was already busy with workers in for the early sitting. I squeezed the platter of rice on to the end of the table, next to a tureen of steaming hot soup.

  At one end of the table was a pile of plates and bowls. The workers each picked up a plate and shuffled along the line, buffet style, helping themselves to what they wanted. I grabbed a plate and spooned some rice onto it.


  ‘Hey, you!’ said one of the kitchen staff, a young boy with a face full of spots. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

  ‘The captain asked me to bring a plate of food to him,’ I said.

  ‘The captain doesn’t eat down here. You get the captain’s food up on A Deck.’

  ‘He specifically asked me to come down here and fetch him a bowl of the soup. It’s his favourite.’

  The spotty boy accepted my explanation. I filled a bowl with soup, placed it on the tray next to the rice and put a cover on top. Then, to make it look realistic, I added a bottle of water. I walked carefully, wishing I hadn’t filled the soup bowl so high, out of the canteen and down the passage to the lifts. Thankfully the lift was empty. I plastered a bland, bored look on my face and pressed the button for A Deck.

  The lift opened with a ping on B Deck and Nikki and Becca came in. Nikki had changed into a dress and was using her hands to explain to Becca all the different ranks on board the spaceport. My heart began to race. They knew I wasn’t due to begin until tomorrow. I ducked my head and turned away, staring down at the tray.

  ‘There are ten men for every woman on the spaceport,’ Nikki was saying. ‘The officers all eat and drink up on A Deck.’

  ‘OK,’ said Becca. ‘I’ll come with you just this once. But I’m here to save money, not to spend it.’

  The lift slowed and stopped and the door slid open. Keeping my head bowed, I let them leave first. I pressed the button to hold the door until I heard their voices fading as they made their way towards the bar, and then took the other direction, towards the restrooms and cells. Just before I reached the holding cell, a door opened a crack and a voice hissed at me. ‘Hey! Eden!’

  I stopped. It was Peg. ‘I’m in here. OK?’

  I nodded and used my hip to open the door fully.

  ‘Did you see Lyra?’ I asked.

  ‘No. She’s not there yet.’

  ‘We must be too early. I should wait. What time is it?’

  ‘Half eleven.’

  ‘I’ll give it ten minutes,’ I said. The tray was heavy; I put it on the floor and stretched my arms.

  ‘There’s always the possibility that she won’t be able to get to the bar,’ said Peg. ‘Milo said it was an expedited transfer. They’re only here for three hours. They still have to have security clearance and clear quarantine. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything else.’