by Paul Brandis
The big man wore a plumed hat of gaudy colors, and with leers and exhortations, egged on the drunks to try their luck at killing the girls.
Phil strolled over and leaned close. "Hey, man. How they hangin'?"
Jed wrenched back, jerking a knife up for protection.
Phil smiled evenly. "Hey, man, loosen up. It's me. Good to see you. Who else got out of the Hole alive?"
Jed remained on guard. "Yeah, well, it's good to see you too. I didn't know if you made it or not."
"How about Kim? Did she get out?"
"Right. I grabbed her right away."
"And Dante? Did they get him?"
Jed forced a smile. "Are you kidding? When we got to the escape pod, he had the motors warming up."
Phil nodded happily. "Yeah, that's Dante. You can always count on him when the things get tough."
"Hey," said Jed defensively, "if it wasn't for him, Kim and I wouldn't have made it."
Phil nodded patiently. "That's what I meant, Jed."
"Oh." He paused. "And look, I'm sorry I didn't come over to help you out. I tried, but there were too many of them."
"Don't be silly. The place was crawling with Gabriels. You did what you had to. I'm only glad you were able to get Kim and Dante out. So, what are you doing now?"
He shrugged and held up the knives. "Trying to make out the best I can. A little bit of trading here, smuggling there, gunrunning when I can. You know, the stuff I was doing when we met."
"And Kim?"
Jed's face tensed at the name of the girl. "She's home on Terra, my home planet."
Phil nodded. "I see. At your home, huh?"
He moved uneasily. "Yeah. My family does some farming, but they also train circus acts when they can get the talent." He nodded towards the stage. "This is one of our acts. Not much, just farm girls wanting to get off the planet. But now the Cult's been putting pressure on us. They claim that the girls are only whores."
Phil glanced at the leathery girls tumbling about the stage. "Well?"
He shrugged. "Well, sure, they'll turn a trick now and then. A man's got to make money any way he can. But the Cult wants only their Holy Angels to get money for sex. They're trying to have the only market."
"And where's Dante? Is he on Terra too?"
"No, he's on board here; in the ship's astronomic section. He's got a nice cabin and everything." Jed's voice turned bitter. "Not like the hole the girls and I got."
Phil became thoughtful. "Astronomic section, huh? I think I'd like to drop in and see him. How do you get to his section?"
Jed's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? You're not going up there, are you?"
"Why not?"
He glanced around nervously. "Are you kidding? The Cult's got your picture running on every scan in the system. The bounty on you has doubled. Stay here. I'll call Dante and tell him where you are." His eyes slid around the room again. "And you better come backstage before someone sees you."
As they headed for the door that led behind the stage, a cry pierced the steamy air, and one of the girls cursed, a knife in her thigh. A roar of triumph rang out from one of the tables.
Jed grimaced. "Just a minute," and he hurried over to pay off a drunken farmer being congratulated by his cronies. On the way back, Jed grabbed the girl by the wrist and dragged her along. Backstage, as the girl sat sniffling against the wall, he wrenched out the knife and poured acid in the wound.
Phil winced at the treatment. "Why don't you use electron cauterization?
He shrugged. "This is quicker, and it teaches the girls to watch what they're doing." Turning to the girl, he put his arm around her. "Now, baby, you know you're my best girl, don't you?"
Wiping her nose, she nodded numbly.
"Then I want you to be more careful. Now get back out
there and keep your head up. It really hurts me when you have an accident like that."
As the girl limped out, Phil could not help remarking, "It hurts your wallet, you mean."
Jed threw him a weak grin. "Oh, they're all good girls. They don't mind a little pain." He pointed to a circular, steel staircase rising to the floor above. "Upstairs, my room is the first on the left. You can crash there until Dante gets here."
Rotating up through the hole in the ceiling, Phil found a narrow corridor between plasterboard cubicles. He found Jed’s room; a dirty mattress in the corner was its only furniture. A hole in the plasterboard led to a larger room with more mattresses. Single naked bulbs barely lit the cubicles. Dirty clothes lay about.
Phil examined the mattress in the dim light, saw nothing moving on it, and folded down.
The scraping of the door woke him. Dante entered blinking nearsightedly in the gloom. Seeing Phil, his chubby face curved into a smile. "Hello."
Phil laughed. "That's it? After traveling to the edge of the known System and back, I only get a hello?"
Dante's brow furrowed. "Uh, it's good to see you."
Phil's smile remained. "Well, thank you, and it's good to see you too. Sit down."
Dante sat back against the thin wall. "So, where have you been?"
Phil moved closer and spoke low. "I've got a major assignment for you. If we can figure it out, we'll be as rich as the biggest corporation."
Jed pushed open the door. "What's this about being rich?"
Startled, Phil looked up. "What are you, eavesdropping now?"
Jed shrugged. "Sorry, thin walls."
In the next cubicle, sweating, panting girls entered and flopped down on the floor.
Jed stepped closer. "You were saying about getting rich?"
Suddenly a shout from below was instantly followed by a concussion round explosion that shook the floor. Jed ducked out the door, then charged back in. "It's the Cult." He dived through the hole in the wall. "This way."
Phil jumped up and yanked Dante to his feet. "Here we go again," and he pushed him after Jed.
Stomping on slippery bodies, Jed stumbled through the girls' cubicle. At the far wall he put his head down and bulled through the plasterboard partition. Curses and screams erupted as he trod over the humping bodies in the next cubicle. He did not slow, and Dante and Phil charged right behind.
Lunging through several more walls, the three finally staggered into a corridor. A ladder curved up and down the interior of the ship's wall. Jed headed up.
As Phil waited to follow, he glanced back down the tunnel of holes. Hooded Cult police in modified robes, crowded into the first cubicle. One aimed and fired through the holes. Phil leaped up after Dante as the wall beside him shredded and caught fire.
The corridor on the next floor was even darker. Jed grabbed Dante's hand. "Hold onto my belt."
Phil snatched Dante's belt and bent forward as Jed pulled them along through the black passageway.
The corridor seemed to widen, and Phil heard snoring and grumbling. The acrid stench of feces and stale urine burned his nostrils. Something kicked out at him as he passed, and he heard a deep, inhuman growl. Then Jed dropped through another hole and they climbed down between buildings that ran along the narrow street.
In a cart driving away from the saloon, Phil looked back and saw several Cult patrol wagons parked in the street. "They certainly didn't take their time finding me," he mused.
Dante continued to look straight ahead. "I think we can assume that someone informed them of your presence."
Phil eyed him dryly. "Yeah, I'd say that. The question is, who?"
Jed leaned forward tensely. "What berth is your ship in?"
Phil shook his head. "They'll have the lanes back there blocked. We'll have to try another way."
Ordering the cart to turn back, they rode for a while, then followed as Jed jumped out and ran up a ladder to another level where they hopped another cart. Little by little, sometimes riding, sometimes running along suspended walkways above the tunnels, the three worked their way to the far end of the landing bay. There, Jed dropped from a catwalk to the roof of a large hangar, and pried back the
corner of a sheet of corrugated steel. Below, traffic-directing craft lined up in neat rows.
Sliding down a girder, the men wedged into one of the craft. Though automatic, the tiny, square craft had room and manual controls for one operator, and little else. Jed fired up its minute rockets and they putted out the door. Automatically he reached for the radio.
Phil stopped him. "If it's not on, we have an excuse for not answering Control."
Jed gritted his teeth. "Makes me nervous not to hear if they're calling us."
At his berthing bay, Phil opened the chute and slid into his ship, while Dante and Jed disconnected the support cables and hoses. When the docking crew flew up, miffed at not being consulted, Dante eased their minds with a handful of corp credits.
Heading out the freighter, Phil slipped into the lee of a huge, produce barge, and was escorted out like a sucker fish next to a whale.
Attaining the slow cruising speed maintained by the barge, the three unstrapped, and Jed bent over Thea's bunk in amazement. "You still have her? Man, let's get to Rupert and turn her in. Is that what you meant when you said you were going to be rich?"
Phil twisted around in his control chair. "No. And I can't turn her in just yet."
Jed was literally salivating with greed. "Why not? That's why we stole her, wasn't it? The money we could get could solve all our problems."
"Well, for one thing, she's not well. She's almost died on me twice now, and I won't turn her over until I know she can survive."
"Are you kidding? What do you care if she survives? Let's get the money and run, like we always do."
"Listen, if we sell Garve Slen a Goddess that dies within days of delivery, he'll never stop tracking us. You saw how he wants her. It's a real obsession with him."
Dante nodded. "He's right. If there's any chance that the merchandise may be defective, we must try to correct it if at all possible."
Jed stared down at the sleeping girl, and shook his head. "Man, to think I'm standing next to a half a million, and I can't do nothing about it. That hurts."
Phil smiled. "Just relax. We'll all be rich. But first, let's see if Kim can figure out how to fix her."
CHAPTER 12
"Look at this," said Dante.
Phil strolled out to the porch of the hewn log cabin. The cabin was one of many that had once, long ago, been a children's summer camp on Terra. Now Jed's clan lived there.
"What?"
"Down there in the water."
Phil's gaze ran down the field, past a dozen grazing horses, to the sound. There, two girl's heads bobbed in the blue water next to the dock. On one, golden hair glistened in the sun. On the other, long, white tresses serpentined out in the water like a wreath. Nearby, the little spaceship rested on the sandy beach. "What's Kim doing with her?"
A trim, white bottom flashed to the surface, and powerful legs flailed the salt water.
"I believe she's teaching her how to swim."
"Oh, yeah?" Phil skipped down the steps to the gravel path. "I think we should take a closer look at this."
Dante hurried after. "My sentiments exactly."
On the edge of the dock, Phil squatted and examined the two young women in the water. "What's happening, girls?"
Kim's gleaming face beamed up at him. "Isn't she marvelous? A few days ago she could barely walk. Can you imagine, growing to her age and never learning to walk? Then I got the idea of suspending her in water to make it easier to learn."
Dante plopped down and dropped his legs over the edge. "And?"
"She learned almost instantly. It's as if she can read my mind, what I want her to do, even before I ask. Also the saltwater toughens her skin. Now I'm teaching her to swim."
Phil smiled at Thea. "Has she said any words yet?"
Kim's smile faded. "No, and I've been thinking on that. If she is telepathic, she may never speak; may never feel the need to."
Phil looked into Thea's eyes. "If you can understand us, I wish you would try to speak. It would make things a lot easier."
The girl's serious expression mirrored his.
Dante shook his head. "We think in words. If she doesn't know words, she isn't really reading our minds, only our emotions."
Kim cleared the water from her face with a shake of her head. “Well, whatever she does, she’s the fastest learner I’ve ever seen. If only she could sleep better. She tries, but I finally have to fly her above the gravitational pull to get her to relax.”
Phil watched the girl suspended in the undulating water. “You know, we should be able to figure something out. How about a floating sleeping bag? As long as her head was above water, she’d be all right.”
He turned to Dante, and observed his friend’s disjointed expression. He had already turned his mind to the problem.
* * *
"So tell me more about your comet ship." Phil slouched deep in a chair on the porch, his feet propped up on the railing. A straw hat perched on his nose shaded his eyes from the sun squatting on the horizon. Dante, also with his feet up, sucked contentedly on a straw in a glass of juice.
"Well, one thing's for sure, I'm no longer the only one who knows about it."
"What do you mean?"
"When I was working in the astronomic section aboard the Redoubtable, I checked the master computer to see about the comet's progress. I was given no access, and the next day the supervisor called in each shift to try to find out who made the inquiry."
"What'd you say?"
Dante gazed off into the distance. "Wuzn't me, mon."
"Good thinking."
They sat in silence for a moment, then Phil turned to him thoughtfully. "Who owns the Redoubtable?”
Dante pursed his lips. "Uh, it's a Dynamine freighter, I think."
"Dynamine. That means Garve Slen. Now, why would he allow no access to information about that comet?"
Before his friend could answer, the ground shook, the windows rattled and a straining, snorting horse, pounded passed just in front of the porch. Astride, a tall, naked girl leaned forward, her white winged hair whipping in the wind.
Startled, the boys reared back. Phil’s hat went flying, and he had to flap his arms to catch his balance.
Dante, not so lucky, dumped over backwards, spilling his juice over his shirt and pants.
Phil leaped to his feet and craned over the porch after the disappearing figure. "What the hell was that?"
Next Kim rode up out of breath. "Isn't she marvelous? I know she's never ridden before, and I can't begin to keep up with her."
"You mean, that's—"
Kim nodded proudly. "That's right. That's her."
Phil glanced down at Dante gingerly picking himself up in a sticky mess. "Can you beat that? That's the Goddess."
"Marvelous," his friend muttered, and went inside to clean up.
Kim beamed. "Yes, she has a way with horses. Wait, I'll show you," and she rode after the girl, calling.
Soon they came cantering back, Thea's pale face flushed with happiness. Her horse snorted and danced sideways with excitement.
Phil stared. "She has no saddle."
"Or reins," Kim said proudly.
"So how does she guide the monster?"
With wonderment, Kim shook her head. "I don't know, but he seems to go where she tells him to. Watch." She turned to the girl. "Why don't you let this horse rest, and ride another?"
The girl's flaring eyebrows arched up in inquisition, then she slipped off the horse's back and stepped toward the field. Suddenly, far down in the field, the head of another horse swung up. He stared at the cabin for a moment, then trotted briskly up.
As he nuzzled the girl in ecstasy, she rubbed his soft nose, and scratched his forehead. He even stood happily as she gently reamed his nostrils and dug out the dust from his ears.
She then grabbed a handful of mane, and kicked up on his back. She kept her hands in her lap as the horse wheeled around and leaped away down the path toward the dock.
Kim laughed
and clapped her hands in exaltation. "Can you believe it? Isn't she beautiful? She knows what they're thinking." She turned to Phil. "Yesterday, in the barn, a horse was down, and we didn't know why. She sat with it for a moment, then stood and pointed to its lower intestines, and doubled up her fist. I clearly got the idea that the horse was bound up, constipated. We washed it out, and he's going to be all right."
Phil watched the dimpled bottom bouncing rhythmically on the back of the horse, and without turning, he called to Dante. "Uh, you really ought to come out and see this."
His friend, in a clean shirt and wiping his face with a towel, grumpily strolled out onto the porch. "What now?" Then seeing the girl ride away, stood transfixed.
Kim chattered on. "She's still a little awkward walking and running, so she's taken to riding everywhere. At first it was terrible on the inside of her legs. They bled raw, but she wouldn't give up, and I tried to help by soaking her in a bath of soda and alcohol. I know it was painful. She cried, but she never complained."
Phil eyes never left the girl. "How would you know if she did?"
"Oh, you can tell. She makes her feelings felt. You really ought to get to know her better."
As the horse spun around and dashed up the path, the vision of the girl's unbound breasts suspended conversation.
As she galloped by, Kim kicked her heels into her own horse and lunged after her. She waved wildly. "See you later, boys," and they disappeared up the path into the woods.
A few moments of profound silence passed, then Dante cleared his throat. "There are times, when life seems to hold enormous promise."
Phil nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I'd like to screw her, too."
Until Phil arrived with Thea,Kim and Jed had shared a cabin near the camp's lodge. Then Kim began sleeping on the sandy beach as Thea floated semi-submerged nearby in the plastic cocoon Dante devised. Until Thea's digestive system could inculcate more solids, Kim fed her baby food.
And she monitored her time in the sun, watching to see that the incredibly tender skin did not burn. Thea's complexion soon glowed peach golden. It was as if she had awakened from a long, drugged sleep, and now radiated joy at the dawn.