by M. D. Cooper
Cheeky took a sip of her drink.
“You look like it’s not your night,” the bartender said as he wiped up a spill.
“Not my best, no,” Cheeky replied.
“Name’s Bill,” the bartender said as he began to prepare a drink for an order that was just screamed at him from across the room. “Been a rough night here too. Sally was supposed to be around to help me, but The Perry called her up to his place for some sort of shindig he’s having.”
“Ch—Arn,” Cheeky said with a smile
“Charn?” Bill frowned. “Not sure I’ve ever heard that name before.”
“Sorry, had something caught in my throat. Arn, the name’s Arn.”
Bill looked at her like he still wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly and then shrugged. “Well, Arn, you want another Sex on the Moon? We close up in an hour and when I make last call it’ll get busy for a bit.”
“In that case, why don’t you make two?”
Bill looked her up and down. “You sure you can handle it?”
Cheeky chuckled. “Bill, I’m sure I can’t. Load me up.”
SLOP & DINNER
STELLAR DATE: 04.21.8940 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Waste Reclamation Center 12A, Ellis Reach
REGION: Perry System, Stillwater Nebula, Perseus Arm
“Stars! Repulsive as The Perry is, I think I’d rather have fucked him than do this,” Jessica said as she opened up the hatch on the next filtration tank and nearly gagged at the smell. “I mean…I can’t imagine these things have been cleaned in…ever.”
Trevor hauled the pressure washer over with one hand, the other covering his nose. “What’s really insulting is that they think they only need two guards to watch us.”
Jessica glanced back at the pair of guards watching them. During yesterday’s manual labor, they had been watched by the same two men who had escorted them up from the docks. Today there was a new set. A man and a woman who seemed more interested in talking to each other about a sim game they were into than watching their charges.
Trevor cautioned.
Jessica snorted.
Jessica glanced at Trevor as he connected the water source to the pressure washer.
Jessica felt bile rise in her throat.
Jessica groaned.
Jessica pulled her hazsuit’s hood over her head and sealed it. Then she checked the seal and had Trevor triple check. Once he nodded that she was well and truly protected from the horrors she was about to face, Jessica climbed into the tank.
“I’ll show you ‘yicky’,” Jessica muttered as she began to spray the strange green and yellow slime off the inside of the tank. It ran down the sides and pooled at the bottom in a sloppy mass. Jessica had to blast it with the pressure washer repeatedly to get the stuff to break up enough to go down the drain.
Jessica said, her teeth gritted tightly.
Trevor grunted.
A second later, Jessica let out a blood curdling scream.
* * * * *
“If you don’t like it here, why do you stay?” Cheeky asked Bill as they relaxed on his couch, sharing a bottle of wine after their most recent round of lovemaking.
Bill took a sip of wine before replying in a tone that implied she should already know the answer. “Well, there’s The Perry.”
“The guy who runs things around here?” Cheeky asked. “Do you owe him money or something?”
Bill chuckled. “Not exactly like that, no. I guess you really don’t know, do you?”
Cheeky shrugged. “Ellis Reach is just one of a hundred stations I pass through—well, maybe a thousand, actually. I don’t really make it a point to learn about each one’s boss man/woman/whatever.”
“Huh…well, did you hear how the previous Perry died?”
“Something about sucking vacuum on the way down to Seaway, right?” Cheeky asked.
Bill nodded. “Yeah the new Perry—his name’s actually Simon—pushed him out an airlock with a rocket strapped to his back. Or at least that’s how the story goes. Anyway. Simon, the new Perry didn’t really want to go the way of his last few predecessors, so he has a self-destruct system set up somewhere on the station. Rumor has it that it’s on a deadman’s switch, or at the very least something he has to contact every so often.”
Cheeky pulled a face as she thought about that. “Sounds like a really shitty setup. But seems like all the more reason to get the heck out of here. From the pictures I’ve seen, The Perry looks none too healthy. He’s probably not long for this life.”
Bill let out a long sigh before downing his wine. “Yeah, not really encouraging for those of us who are stuck here.”
“Back to that,” Cheeky said. “You’re not stuck here. Ships come and go all the time.”
“Not an option,” Bill replied. “There’s a beacon in the sys
tem that we can all pick up no matter where we are. We receive the beacon, we’re OK. We lose contact with the beacon for more than a few minutes and we lose our heads.”
Cheeky sat up straight. “What? Seriously? Bomb in the head? Isn’t that the sort of thing you find in a bad vid?”
Bill gave a sour laugh. “Well, The Perry must have watched a lot of those. After he announced how the station would blow if he died, a lot of folks did just what you suggested, got the hell out of here. The Perry wasn’t so keen on that, so he took all of us working-class schleps and loaded us up with our little surprises.”
“Damn,” Cheeky said with a whistle. “That’s barbaric.”
“Welcome to the Perry Strait.”
* * * * *
Cargo closed off the latest demand from the station to disembark and surrender the ship. So far it was all bluster, just a prelude to a discussion about exchanging Jessica as a hostage—which would just be a ruse to get them off the ship.
They still had a day or two before things actually escalated.
“This is a dumb plan,” Cargo said around a mouthful of potatoes. “I mean…not our worst by a long stretch, but how long are we going to have to wait? If Derrick shows up first, he’s going to tell The Perry to take our ship. Then we fight back and then what?”
“Well, we’ll either escape, or take the station,” Nance said. “Probably escape. Station taking really isn’t our thing.”
“But how does that help us with RHY?” Finaeus asked. “If we escape, they’ll just chase after us. But if we take the station…”
“This would be a sweet station to control,” Misha added. “All the tariffs and tolls they collect gotta make a person riiiich.”
“We’re not moving in,” Cargo replied with a glower. “But I wonder if we should take the station now. It’s big, but it’s not heavily populated. Maybe ten-thousand people aboard right now.”
“Like Chittering Hawk all over again,” Cargo mused. “I’m not normally the one for the risky play, but that would make it easier to fake out RHY when they show up—if we control the narrative, that is.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Finaeus asked. “What is this? Some ancient vid with Captain Evil or something?”
“I liked those vids,” Cargo replied.
“What—I mean we’re not trying to kill the guy yet,” Nance said.
“Seriously?” Misha asked.
“Yeah, Erin, that’s the sort of thing you need to share!”
“So they’re just going to kill him and take over?” Cargo asked. He couldn’t believe Jessica would do something so reckless. Well, now that he thought about it, he could. Usually she shared her reckless plans, let him get angry about them, and then went off and executed them anyway.
Erin said.
“Great. It’s a solid plan in principle.” Cargo’s tone was terse. “Can you tell them to stop, though?”
“Please do,” Finaeus said. “Getting blown up isn’t on the menu tonight.”
* * * * *
Jessica walked into The Perry’s office with the two guards at her back. She was surprised the boss-man was open to seeing her so soon and wondered if he’d sent them to clean the tanks as some sort of special incentive.
“I heard that you didn’t like being useful,” The Perry said with a sly grin.
Jessica heard Trevor enter the room behind her and held back a smile. For some reason, The Perry just didn’t seem to think they were threatening.
She related that to Iris and the AI replied,
Iris sighed.
As Jessica had been speaking with Trevor and Iris, she had also been exchanging barbs with The Perry. “I think there’s a way I could be a lot more useful,” Jessica said as she leaned over his desk, smiling wickedly.
“Oh yeah,” The Perry asked.
“As The Perry—”
Jessica was halted by Iris crying out in her mind,
“—’s personal assistant.”
“My personal assistant?” The Perry asked with a snort. “You’re just some bimbo model that ran off with RHY’s tech. What can you assist with?”
Jessica took a deep breath as she tried to think of a way to back out of the situation. “Well…I’ve done a lot of stuff as a bimbo model. I know how to make a man happy.”
The Perry snorted. “I’m already happy.”
“I could make you happier.”
Trevor made a gagging sound over the Link.
“You’re not really my kinda girl,” The Perry said. “But I appreciate the gesture.”
Jessica decided to try a different tack. “I’m a really good cook.”
“Oh yeah?” The Perry’s eyes lit up. “How good?”
“I can cook you a meal that will make you think you’re in heaven,” Jessica said. “Steak, marinated in a special sauce of my
own creation, seared, wrapped in bacon—and that’s just the appetizer.”
“You have bacon?” Perry asked, his eyes lighting up.
“Yeah, on our ship,” Jessica said with a nod. “I’d love to make some for you.”
Perry’s visage grew cloudy. “Your friends on your ship have not been cooperative. Derrick said that he wants the ship unharmed, but I’m getting tired of playing games with your captain…shipment, or whatever his name is. So far you being a hostage has kept him from doing anything rash, though. He must like you.”
“If you’ll allow me, I can send him a message,” Jessica said. “He’ll send over some food if he thinks it’s for me. I’m on a special diet.”
“Of steak and bacon?” Perry asked, his tone dubious.
“Keeps the girls full,” Jessica said as she cupped her breasts.
The Perry snorted. “And your ass from the looks of it. We’ll have to inspect it when it comes over, but I’m willing for you to lie about your tits and ass if it gets me steak and bacon.”
“Great,” Jessica said. “Then I’ll hit the kitchen and get started. I’ll need Trevor too. He’s my assistant.”
“Yeah, sure,” The Perry said and waved them off.
* * * * *
Trevor nodded as he walked at her side toward The Perry’s private kitchen—just down the hall from his office.
The kitchen was well equipped and clean. The fridge and larder were full, and in addition to the standard selection of spices, there were many neither Jessica nor Trevor had ever heard of.