Space, Inc

by Julie E. Czerneda

  Loh was writing out a ticket as he spoke and Bob kept shifting nervous glances between the officer’s face and his pad. After a moment, the pad spit out a ticket and Loh held it out to the storekeeper.

  Bob backed away. “What’s that for?”

  “It’s a ticket for the illegal division of a commercial space.”

  “Just because I don’t want to repeat gossip? You can’t do that.”

  “No,” Loh said, allowing himself to look surprised. “The ticket is for having an illegally divided commercial space. For not telling me how to find your Mend, you might be charged with … oh, obstruction … assault on a constable—”

  “What assault?”

  “The assault you’ll commit when I’m through thinking up things to charge you with.”

  “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t tell you about Ray! I just said I didn’t want to repeat something he told me in confidence.” Bob brushed his hair back. “He’s Ray Cowper.”

  “The nut?” Loh said, straightening.

  “He isn’t a nut,” Bob said. “I don’t know where he is right now.”

  “I’ll find him,” Loh said, laying the ticket on the counter. “The Station thanks you for your cooperation.”

  * * *

  Ray Cowper, Loh thought, as he walked out into the deserted corridor. This is as good a place as any.

  He called up the man’s file on the screen built into his sleeve; the problem with having information always accessible was finding a quiet moment to absorb it without distraction or someone looking over your shoulder.

  Cowper was an independent scientist searching for deep space signals that might indicate intelligent life outside the solar system. Due to poor financing, he had access to a very, very narrow band of space. Records indicated that his financing was about to run out—and his space on the station was eagerly sought after by a number of Earth’s governments and businesses. It was unlikely the station would renew Cowper’s lease even if he could come up with the money.

  “This looking for aliens crap really doesn’t fit the staid image the station likes to project for its science section,” Loh muttered to himself.

  Cowper had lodged numerous, increasingly angry complaints about the situation. He seemed to be exactly the kind of person who did things like blowing up space stations. He was certainly intelligent enough, having degrees in electronic engineering, computers, and chemistry.

  All of which suggest unpleasant possibilities, Loh thought.

  I shall have to talk to the man.

  Loh didn’t like possibilities. Most of the random possibilities possible on a station couldn’t possibly be good.

  He allowed himself a quiet chuckle at the thought as he began the search for Mr. Cowper.

  “I don’t see why I have to stay in,” Greg said, looking around the bare confines of the hostel. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “And I wasn’t even awake,” Russell protested. “I missed out this afternoon. I want to see the station.”

  “We didn’t do anything wrong!” Christine added her voice.

  “What about that thing on Gina’s forehead?” Ms. Tosea demanded.

  “What thing?” Gina reasoned. “It’s turned off, you can’t see anything.”

  “What about the fact that you sure didn’t acquire it at the arcade,” Lereesa snapped. “You promised me you wouldn’t wander.”

  “And I didn’t,” Greg said. “That’s my point.”

  Ms. Tosca slapped her knees and rose. “You know what, Greg? You’re right. You and Russell deserve more time in the arcade if you want it. But you two,” she pointed a finger at the girls, “are going to stay here.”

  There were the expected cries of dismay, growing increasingly shrill until Lereesa put a stop to it by saying: “If Security wants you again, they’ll want to speak to you in confidence. You’re staying here.”

  The girls looked at one another, pouting.

  “Okay,” Gina said.

  “You can order dinner sent up,” Ms. Tosca told her. “Just keep it under budget, okay?”

  They left the suite to resentful mutterings of “Yes, Ms. Tosca.”

  Outside the suite, Lereesa tapped a code into the key panel. “That will keep them inside unless there’s a station emergency,” she explained.

  Ms. Tosca raised her eyebrows. “Don’t be too sure about that. Those two are good with that sort of thing.”

  “Maybe so,” Lereesa said, “but they’d have to access this panel. I’m betting their cutting-through-walls skills aren’t up to their computer abilities.”

  Ms. Tosca laughed, and Lereesa chuckled herself.

  Behind her, the two boys looked at each other and smiled slightly.

  Ray watched the small group walk down the corridor and hop onto the people mover, dodging past a group of biotechs. He licked his lips nervously, tasting the acrid salt of nervous sweat.

  The two girls aren’t with them.

  Which might mean that they had stayed behind, the voice of hope struggled to convince him. But it might also mean they were at Security headquarters telling anyone who would listen about his secret.

  When the group was out of sight, he snuck over to the door of their quarters and, after a swift, nervous glance around, pressed the call button.

  An Oriental girl’s image appeared on the screen. “Did you forget something?” The question was followed almost immediately by screaming as his image appeared on the inner screen. “I’m calling security!” the girl said.

  “NO! Wait!” Ray said desperately. “Just give me a chance to talk to you. It’s very important. Please.”

  “I heard what you said!” Another girl’s face appeared beside the first’s. “You want to blow up the station!”

  “What!” Ray had trouble getting his mouth to close for a moment. “I do not!” he insisted. “Where did you get that idea?”

  “Your friend said so!” the one who must be Gina told him. “This will blow the station wide open. I heard him!”

  “Nooo,” Ray said, his eyes bulging. “He only said that as a metaphor.”

  That stopped them cold. Neither girl could believe that a mad bomber would use a word like metaphor.

  “Please, wait, let me explain,” Ray begged. “Just give me a minute. But you’ve got to let me come in—I can’t talk about this in the corridor.”

  The girls looked at one another. “There are two of us,” Christine said.

  “I don’t like it,” Gina said. “You didn’t hear him.”

  “I don’t want to hurt anybody,” Ray said, his voice falling in despair. “Believe me, I don’t think that the station canceling my lease is reason to kill a lot of innocent people. I may be a little, umm, peculiar, but I’m not a murderer.”

  “What do you think?” Christine asked Gina.

  “I think you’re going to let him in whether I like it or not,” Gina snapped.

  “It’s the only way to get to the bottom of this.”

  Gina threw her hands up. “All right, do what you want. If anything happens, it’s your fault.”

  “Like, it’s ever not my fault?” Christine asked. “Was it not my fault when you jacked the game screen at the football match to show—”

  “I jacked the screen? Soooo not! I helped when you—”

  Christine’s thumb hit the open key with unnecessary violence; she muttered a word under her breath and shook it. Apart from that, nothing happened except that Ray’s face in the screen grew more desperate.

  “It won’t work!” Christine said.

  Gina came back to her side and tapped it a few times. “Unless you broke it,” she said. “But I don’t think one thumb could do that.”

  “They locked us in!” Christine said in astonishment. “I can’t believe they locked us in.”

  “I can take care of that,” Ray offered.

  “Well, so could we, if we could get at the keypad,” Gina said. “It can’t be too hard.”

  Ray gave them a haggard grin. �
��I’m sure you could. You probably hacked your way out of your playpens.”

  “No,” Gina said. “But I got this set of cydolls when I was six, and I hacked their controller so I could make them run all through the house and hide things.”

  Ray stopped in the middle of unclipping an instrument from his belt. “You didn’t!”

  “She did,” Christine affirmed. “I was there. The cat climbed on top of the porcelain cabinet and wouldn’t come down for days.”

  “Well,” Gina pointed out, “it was your idea to make them carry matches like a torch relay race.”

  Ray tore his attention away and shuddered. “And to think I’ve regretted not having children,” he muttered, and set the square featureless box over the keypad. “With my luck and genes, they’d probably be brilliant and depraved, like this bunch.”

  The little box beeped contentedly as it achieved electronic communion with the hostel’s system. In a few seconds, he was tapping in a code and the door swished open.

  The girls glanced at one another and relaxed. He was smaller than they’d thought, and skinnier. They both thought they could take him with one hand tied behind their backs.

  “I’ve got something I guess I should show you,” he said.

  “Like … a gun, maybe?” Christine asked. “Or a knife?”

  Ray rolled his eyes and began unzipping his coverall. “Of course not,” he said impatiently.

  “I guess it’s the other thing that strange guys always say they’ve got to show you,” Gina muttered. “Now I’m definitely calling security.”

  “Wait,” Ray said and reached for her wrist.

  Before he knew what was happening, Christine gripped his wrist, half-turning it with a thumb pressed down on the sensitive spot above his thumb.

  “Wait—”

  Gina grabbed the other hand in an identical grip. “We tied for second place in self-defense class,” she said. “Hey, this really works!” she went on, as he sank to his knees and made a choked sound.

  The girls quickly stuffed a roll of spare socks into Ray’s mouth. “Does this count as an Adventure in Outer Space?” To Ray: “No, don’t try to get up. You could hurt yourself pushing against the joint like that.”

  “Urruruk!” Ray agreed.

  “I don’t know,” Christine said seriously. “I mean, it could have happened on a trip to, oh, Marseilles, just as easily. Have you got something we could tie him up with?”

  “Tights?” Gina suggested with a shrug. “I’ve got plenty of extras. I really don’t like that pair with the spangles now, anyway.

  “I guess if we pull them tight enough,” Christine said skeptically. “We can’t leave enough stretch for him to work loose.”

  In less than a minute, Ray was trussed at ankles and wrists. The two girls each held an extra pair of tights and discussed whether they should tie his wrists to his ankles.

  “Arrgh! Pffffthtt!” The roll of socks, somewhat damp, spat across the room. “Wait a minute,” Ray said in a hoarse exasperation. “This has gone far enough. I am not dangerous!”

  “Well, you aren’t now,” Gina said. “Ms. Kourosoppolu always said to immobilize a potential danger first. Then figure out what else to do.”

  “I do not have any kind of a weapon on me. I have no intention of threatening or hurting you or anybody else! Where did you get these crazy ideas?”

  “From you,” Gina said offhandedly.

  “All I want to show you is a file I have tucked into the top of my coverall.” He rolled onto his side and the girls could just see the tip of the paper folder leaning out from his open zipper.

  “What the heck is it?” Gina asked.

  Christine reached down and very cautiously slid it out and opened it.

  “It looks just like that plaque they put on the Voyager spacecraft,” she said, looking at what was inside.

  “Yeah,” Gina agreed, “but …”

  “Different,” Ray finished for her, “Very different, if you check it against the original from Earth.”

  The girls looked at one another and then at him. Christine whistled. “You know, Gina, I think maybe this does qualify as an Adventure in Outer Space. Cool!”

  “Yeah, if it’s not a fake. Where did it come from?” Gina demanded.

  “The data stream came from the direction of Epsilon—”

  “That’s over seven light-years away.”

  “I seriously doubt Voyager could have gotten that far,” Christine sneered.

  “Exactly,” Ray said smugly. “But without a doubt, that’s how far away the closest star in that direction lies, and the figures prove that the signal came from a vast distance. It’s not one of my fellow scientists jerking me around. That was the first thing I checked.” He looked up at them. “Do you realize what this means?”

  Gina’s face began to turn pink. “It means I misunderstood what I heard,” she muttered. “I’m very sorry.”

  “Sorry enough to untie me?” he asked, somewhat sharply.

  Just as the girls bent to untie him, the door opened. Ms. Tosca entered, saying, “I’ve changed my mind, girls …”

  She stopped cold and stared. Behind her, Lereesa and the boys took in the very peculiar scene.

  “This is the guy I overheard this afternoon,” Gina said quickly. “But he’s explained everything. I was totally mistaken.”

  “Mistaken to the point of tying him up?” Ms. Tosca asked weakly.

  “Yes,” Ray said cheerfully. “But it’s all cleared up now.”

  “Not exactly,” Lereesa frowned. “How did you get in here?”

  Ray grinned sheepishly. “I figured out the lock code.”

  “Oh, you did, did you?” Lereesa said grimly. “I think we’d better call security,” she told Ms. Tosca.

  “NO!” the two girls and the scientist shouted.

  Ms. Tosca pressed her hand to her forehead. “Maybe we should allow them to explain,” she suggested.

  “Could I be untied first?” Ray asked plaintively. “I can’t feel my hands anymore. They got all of the stretch out of these tights. Ms. Kourosoppolu would be very proud.”

  “Isn’t this a bit unethical?” Ms. Tosca asked when the explanations were done. “I mean, shouldn’t you tell your support group first?”

  “I and my colleagues have spent everything we have on this project,” Ray said. “If I tell them first, we’ll lose a chance at ten million credits, and we need those credits to keep going. I think it would be more unethical to blow this chance, and I’m convinced my colleagues would agree.”

  “Um, but you’ve already blown it,” Russell said. “You’ve told us, and your friend earlier today.”

  Ray’s shoulders drooped. “You’re right,” he said. He buried his face in his hands. “You’re right.”

  “Not to mention station security is probably looking for you,” Lereesa said. “If you attempt to make a call to Earth, they’d probably block it and find you in seconds.”

  Ray lowered his hands, there were actual tears in his eyes. “For all I know, it was a scam anyway,” he said, his voice choked.

  “That’s right,” Gina said, patting his shoulder consolingly. “Lloyd Witham is a pornographer, after all.”

  “Wait a minute,” Greg said. “There’s no reason he has to know that we’ve been told. I mean, I won’t tell anybody; what about you guys?”

  They looked at one another. “Sure,” Russell said, “I don’t mind. Ray did some major work on this. He deserves to get some of the credit. Not to mention the ten million. Hey, man, what you going to spend it on?”

  “A Foundation,” Ray said. “We need an independent agency to communicate with—”

  “There’s still the problem of getting a message past station security,” Lereesa pointed out, shifting slightly in her seat, visibly uncomfortable at the rising enthusiasm.

  “And we still don’t know if this guy would pony up once you do show him proof,” Christine said. “I mean, Gina’s right. He is a sleazebag.”

/>   Ms. Tosca cleared her throat. “Actually,” she said, “in my opinion, Lloyd is a stand-up guy.”

  They all looked at her.

  “I used to go with him in high school. Until my parents found out about these soft porn movies he was putting on the internet.” She bit her lip. “Lloyd said he understood. My father was a minister, after all. But I always felt like a coward.”

  Lereesa put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

  “Cool,” said Gina brightly. “Then you can call Witham for Ray and say he didn’t think he’d be able to get through on his own.” She looked around at their solemn faces. “What?”

  “Just that the lies are getting pretty thick on the ground here,” Lereesa said. Was it just this morning she was so bored?

  “But this is our chance to do something important—”

  “I … I …” Lereesa stammered.

  “Hey, you’re qualified,” Ray pointed out.

  The hushed tinkle of cutlery came from other parts of the restaurant. It was one the guide had never been able to afford; some of the paneling was actual wood, shipped all the way up the gravity well from Earth. The ambience was lost on her right now, and even the savory smells of a meal worth every exorbitant penny.

  “I’m a tour guide!” she blurted.

  “The Outsider Foundation’s going to need PR work,” Ray said. “The Lost Gods of the Galaxy know I’m not fit to do it. I mean, imagine me dealing with the media, VIPs who want tours—”

  Lereesa blanched slightly. “Okay,” she said. “I do have a degree in Communications.”

  “And you earned it,” Ray said earnestly. “If you hadn’t helped convince Ms. Tosca, there wouldn’t be an Outsider Foundation to handle establishing communications with the Outsiders. It’d all be official—and me and my friends would be reading about it on the newswebs.” He paused and smiled brightly. “And pretty soon, you’ll be working with some other old friends!”

  “Oh?” Lereesa said cautiously.

  “Yeah! Gina, Christine, Greg, and Russell are taking the prelim courses. They’re all bright as tacks—they want to work for the Outsider Foundation. I mean, so do all the other bright kids in the Solar System now, but we owe—”

  The thought of working with those four made Lereesa hesitate, but not for long. Her thumb came down on the signature patch with an audible thump. Boredom in space wasn’t going to be her problem much longer.