by Jean Kilczer
“I was just curious,” I said. I could hardly make her out in the dark.
“Curiosity about somebody else's crusties can buy you a ride in an ambulance.”
“OK.” I backed up as she scooped up the bag.
“Are you a damn tourist?”
A tourist. That sounded like a good idea. “Yeah. Just arrived from Earth.”
“Tourists don't know nothing about the rules.”
I shrugged. “I can learn.”
“You don't touch a diver's bug bag, troll.” She waved the knife at me. “And you don't pull up somebody else's crusty pots in the bay. Those are the two things that can earn you an early grave. Some of the fishers are sitting up there on the hills with rifles, protecting their pots.”
“OK.” I smirked. “I think I've got it.”
I followed her as she walked under the light and knelt beside the bag.
“I've got some six pounders in here.” She wiped her dripping face and shrugged out of her tank. “On a cloudy night like this, the bugs don't see you coming.” A large crusty tried to scurry out. She shoved him back inside.
I bit my lip. Mock meat is more to my taste than eating living animals. But who was I to judge? “They bring a good price?”
She nodded. “The restaurants.” She picked up a large crusty by his carapace and turned him over. “See? No eggs.” The creature tried to reach her hand with short claws, but couldn't. “I never take any with eggs. That's my code.”
I wondered how she reconciled it with a town code that encouraged slavery.
“It's illegal, anyway.” She sniffed and ran an arm across her nose. “Though I know some trolls who would scrape them off.” She put the crusty back into the bag and snapped it shut. “I might take tomorrow off.” She glanced up at me and smiled, then stood and raked me with a scrutinizing look from dark, narrowed eyes that had an alluring slant.
“Looking for anything special?” I asked her.
“Just checking out the scenery.”
“See something you like?”
She smirked. “Some pretty fine real estate. You dive, tag?”
“I do.”
“Got gear?”
“Back on Earth.”
“I can set you up. I've got extras of everything. You get to keep the crusties you catch.”
I studied the curves of her tall, lithe body, her full breasts, taut beneath the neoprene. “A wet suit too?”
“You might have to buy that.” She peeled off her hood and shook out long, curly, raven hair that fell across her face and neck. Her features were sculpted, with high cheekbones that added to the allure. Her mouth was wide and full. I found myself leaning toward her. She had a Mediterranean look that I had always found exotic.
“So what's your name?” She unzipped her neoprene jacket. My eyes got glued to her full breasts in the bikini top. “I said, what do they call you?”
“Oh. Jules. And you?”
“Sophia.” She clipped the bug bag to her weight belt and bent down to pick up her tank. The curve of her breasts held me as though in a prison. “I'm heading back to town to drop off the crusties. Want a ride?”
I looked around the empty pier. “A ride?”
“Into town, Blondie.”
“Oh. In what?”
She motioned toward a dark corner. “On what.” She hefted the tank over her shoulder.
Didn't New Lithnia sell artificial gills, I wondered. I'd used them on planet Syl 'Terria. But I guess not.
“Here,” I said, “let me carry that.” I reached for the tank.
She pulled away. “I carry my own gear, tag.”
“Suit yourself.” I followed her to a motorcycle parked in shadows. She bungeed down the tank, her gear bag, and the crusties on the back rack and swung a leg over the bike. “Coming?”
I shrugged. “Why not?”
I found out why not when she slammed open the throttle and the bike leaped ahead like a racehorse out of the gate. If it wasn't for the gear bag and tank behind me I would've been left on the pier.
I made a grab for her and found that I had a handful of breasts. “Sorry. Excuse me.” I lowered my hands to hug her narrow waist, and felt her chuckle. The little bitch, I thought. She'd done it on purpose. She wanted me to hold her. Turned out, I didn't mind so much.
* * *
A light drizzle shined the cobblestone boulevard, crowded now with night traffic, and reflected the street lights. I waited by the bike while Sophia went into the Roman Forum to sell her crusties. I turned up my collar and trotted to an overhang on the building's passageway. I was in shadows when a Love Mine patrol car cruised by. Before I could get to a doorway, their spotlight swept by and pinned me in its glare.
“Shit!” I froze, there among strolling Terrans and aliens. It's harder to see an object when it's still. The light swung past me and I ran to the bike. The light swung back. I jumped on the bike and started it. This time the light nailed me. I leaned forward and cracked on the throttle.
“Stop!” I heard the patrol car's speaker demand as I tore down the boulevard between vehicles in heavy traffic. “Stop or I'll shoot!”
I flattened over the tank as a hot beam of light flashed above the surrounding vehicles. Behind me sirens wailed. Vehicles swerved to open a path for the pursuing patrol car. I heard a crash of metal and emergency alarms as two vehicles collided.
The street was littered with paper cups and plates. I avoided them as I leaned into a right-hand turn around a corner and down a lit walk between shops. The stones were slick with rain. People leaped aside as I tore by.
The bike's left foot peg hooked a string of lights from a stall of melons. The bike wobbled as lights dragged behind me. Smashed bulbs flew out from under the back tire like a spray of broken, colored flowers. Melons rolled. I heard the flimsy stall crash down amid screams. I kicked off the strand of lights around the foot peg and raced through the walk between stalls.
A Kubraen with a pushcart tried to get it out of the way, then left it with a shout and ran, his straw hat caught by a breeze.
I gripped the handlebars tighter as the front tire clipped the cart and sent it spinning under an umbrella of cheese mounds that spun out like missiles. The Kubraen cursed. I gritted my teeth as the bike's back wheel fishtailed, but the gyro kicked in and the bike steadied.
I headed for a dark alley at the end of the marketplace and slowed to turn into it.
“Dammit!” The headlight picked up a dead end.
I skidded the bike around, and tore back out as people ran to watch. They backed away as I raced onto the walk and turned left, toward a deserted warehouse area.
What was that?
The whine of an engine, and lights sweeping the ground from above.
Hovairs! Two of them. They paced me as I raced out onto a sandy ledge overlooking the ocean. The road bike skidded through soft sand and I turned onto a gravel road, not knowing what was ahead. The hovairs lowered. “Jules!” a speaker called. “Give it up now and live!”
“Fuck you, crotemunger!” I called back and tore down the road between tall, stark buildings.
No way to go but ahead.
But ahead, a wire fence. And no way to break through it. To my right, the ground sloped up into a dune, high above the fence. I skidded the bike through the soft sand of the dune as I turned it to face the fence, and cracked on the throttle, full bore. I lifted off the seat as the bike vibrated with a surge of power. Wheels threw a fantail of sand as I approached the fence.
Then I was sailing through the air. The bike whined. The back tire spun. I saw the fence rise up to meet me. I wasn't going to make it!
The bike crashed, breaking wire strands and tangling hopelessly into the fence.
I tried to get to my feet, but my jacket and pants were hooked. I unholstered my stingler, breathing hard. Rain blurred my vision as I methodically burned through wires that trapped me while the hovairs found level ground and landed.
I listened to their engines whine dow
n. Doors swung open. Figures framed in sudden lights jumped to the ground, calling to each other.
“He might be armed,” a guard shouted. “Take no chances with the Terran.”
Then I was free. I jumped up, holstered my weapon, and ran to the water. I glanced over my shoulder. The guards' lights were focused on the downed bike as I plunged into cold waves and swam seaward.
Behind me lights swept the beach.
“Where in the Sacred Idols did he go?” one of them shouted.
“He could be in the water,” another answered.
I swam harder.
Silhouetted by stars, I saw four boulders offshore. I swam to them, pulled off my jacket, unzipped an inner pocket and grabbed my comlink. I held it between teeth as I stretched out the jacket's sleeves and stuffed them into rock crevices. Then I kicked off from the boulder and swam parallel to the beach. The night sea was cold and I began to shiver. Something brushed my leg. I swam toward shore, away from the bike and the guards.
I crawled out of the water and lay flat and still on pebbled sand. The guards ran back to their hovairs and climbed inside. The two craft lifted and drove low over the waves, sweeping their lights.
I got up and trotted back to the bike as the hovairs circled the boulders.
“There he is,” the speaker announced to the other craft as it hovered above my stretched out jacket.
I got down on my knees by the bike, panting, shivering, and cut the remaining strands of wire. I lifted the bike and climbed on, then started it and took off. I ran dark as I left the beach and headed into the outskirts of Wydemont.
I was shivering badly as the night air whipped water from my body. Sophia needed a windshield on her bike.
I rode back to the Roman Forum and drove up the steps to the broad passageway. The guards would never figure that I'd come back to Wydemont. Would they?
Crowds entered the Forum, laughing, dressed in outlandish costumes. I weaved between people and spotted Sophia sitting on a stone bench.
She jumped up and strode toward me. I glanced back. The tank and gear bag were hanging off the rack.
“Where the hell did you –” she started.
“Get on, Sophia. I'll explain later.”
“What? Get off my bike! Now!”
I braced my legs as she pushed my shoulder. “Can't do it. I leave with you or without you.” I revved the engine into a high whine, then brought it back to an idle. “Your call.”
Her eyes widened. Her full lips parted. “You're serious, aren't you? First you steal my goddamn bike, then you –”
“Couldn't help it.”
“You've got a lot of explaining to do, troll.”
“I intend to. But not now. Not here.” I glanced around. “Get on!”
She hesitated, then furrowed her brows in a confused look. “I must be crazy.” She swung on behind me, wrapped her arms around my chest and leaned her head against my back as I rode down the steps, between lanes of vehicles, and to my hotel room.
* * *
The hot shower was pure bliss. But the nagging thought that Boss Slade knew I was somewhere in Wydemont Creek was not conducive to a peaceful state of mind. I put on my vibed clothes, but I missed my jacket.
Sophia dug out a pair of gray pants and a blousy white Buccaneer shirt from her gear bag and went into the bathroom to shower. She came out dressed, and brushing her wet hair.
I watched her as I sipped fresh brew at the table. “You look better in those clothes than in neoprene.” I took a sip. “If that's possible.”
She smiled that broad smile that crinkled her eyes, and shook out her hair. “You think so?”
“I do.”
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table. “Now start explaining, Blondie,” she said and smiled, “before I call the police.”
As we sipped fresh brew, I told her everything that had happened to me from the time I was kidnapped.
“So,” I added, “I have to find a safe place to wait for Joe and the troops to arrive.” I finished my coffee. “And it's not here.”
She bit her lip.
“I didn't mean to get you involved,” I said. “It's a dangerous game, Sophia. Take your bike and go home. I'll work something out.”
“Jules.” She touched her lips thoughtfully. “There's something you don't know.”
“I'm listening.”
“Those troops you're waiting for…”
“What about them?”
“They're not coming.”
“What're you talking about?” A pang of doubt that had been stalking the back of my mind suddenly surged forward. “How can you possibly know that?”
“I grew up here. The colonists settled New Lithnia because of the mines. They voted to be an independent world, not under the jurisdiction of the Worlds Alliance, so that they could make slavery legal.”
I gripped the coffee cup. “Alpha wouldn't agree to that!”
“The mining conglomerates have strong lobbyists. You know, campaign funds. All kinds of perks.”
I stared at my empty cup. “So it's hands off,” I whispered and leaned my head back. “Now what?”
“You'd better leave the planet. Return to Earth while you can.”
“Can't do it. As soon as I use my credcount, it will alert Slade. It's probably already locked anyway. I can't even pay my hotel bill or buy food anymore. Come to think of it, I can't rent a vehicle.” I rubbed my forehead. “Does everybody in the mining towns go along with this obscenity of slavery?”
“I don't. A few others who still work for their living don't. But most people have grown up in a world of free everything.”
“It's a slimeshitting welfare state!”
“A welfare world,” she corrected. “Slavery is the natural order of things for most people here. Boss Slade and the congloms are smart. They never take slaves from New Lithnia's communities. And you know.” She shrugged. “There's the revenue from the mines. Boss Slade is the most popular tag in Wydemont. Couples invite him to their weddings. He hands out generous presents on holidays.”
“Because he's such a great tag,” I said tightly. “Man, am I up the proverbial creek.” I smirked. “Wydemont Creek, I guess.” I traced a finger in some spilled coffee on the table. “I was hoping that when the troops arrived, we could free the slaves and close down Love Mine. The others too, until the congloms changed their ways and paid for free workers. Now…” I shook my head. Lisa. Would I ever see my daughter again? I doubted it. “You'd better leave, Sophia,” I said wearily. “They might still trace the purchases I made and find me here.” I stood up. “I have to get out myself. Wish I had a jacket.”
“I can't leave you like this.” She stood up.
“You can't stay with me. I know how to get lost in the mountains and live off the land. I've done it before.” I went to the window and watched the flow of traffic, like strings of lights along the main drag, the flashing colored neon signs of casinos that hid a multitude of sins. Perhaps Wydemont was a nighttime den of fun and games because the people's consciences prevented them from sleeping at night.
I turned from the window. “They'll never find me,” I said. “When things quiet down, I'll sneak into town and steal the supplies I need.” I put my hand on my holstered stingler.
“No.” She came to the window. “Listen to me. My parents didn't have much, Jules. They worked hard. But they left me a small, hand-built cabin in the mountains where I grew up. We hunted and foraged for what we needed. We traded with a local general store for the rest. It's isolated, and I can afford to buy you supplies to get you started.”
“I've got a packed credcount, Sophia, but I don't know when or how I can pay you back.”
“Suppose we don't worry about that right now, Blondie? I even have a quarter horse and an Arabian up there I use for backpacking.” She smiled. “All the comforts of home-on-the-range.”
“You sure you want to do this?”
She nodded.
I touched her cheek,
then brushed my hand across her lips and smiled. “You're one incredible woman, Sophia, inside and out.”
She moved closer to me and parted her lips.
I backed a step and shook my head. “We'd better leave now, before they catch us in bed.”
She laughed and went for her gear bag and tank.
“Can I carry that tank for you, lady?”
“If you insist. Can I buy you a jacket and those supplies?”
I smiled. “If you insist.”
“Did anybody ever tell you that you have a great smile?”
“Yeah, a few. And that I need a haircut.”
She tousled my hair and laughed. “Oh, no. Don't ever get a haircut.”
“Are you teasing me?”
“Well, At least not until it reaches your butt.”
I swung the tank over my shoulder. “OK.”
Chapter Eight
Sophia bought me a black jacket with a hood and lots of pockets. I put the comlink in an inner pocket and we rode to her apartment to drop off her dive gear and wash it. Then, with the supplies bungeed down on the back rack, we headed into the mountains on her bike.
It was midnight and we were both too tired to navigate the narrow, rocky uphill path with the bike. The lights of Wydemont Creek shrank to a liquid pool of gold in the distance.
We gathered branches and started a small fire. I stripped down to my shorts, and turned my back while she undressed, and we crawled into sleeping bags next to each other. Her bare shoulders shined in the planet's two rosy moons.
Now, Jules, control yourself, I thought.
The stars blazed like fires in the clear sweep of the galaxy, and I wondered again, as I rested my head on the air pillow, what lifeforms and civilizations existed out there on star systems yet to be discovered. I could spend my life exploring planets and never make a dent.
A gentle wind shook dew from rain-soaked leaves that pattered on the low twists of blue vegetation. The dark earth and the plants emitted a pleasant pungent smell.
“You got any snacks in that bag of stuff?” I asked Sophia. “Like maybe some doughnuts?”