Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance)

by Marlow, J. A.

  A plate of cookies joined the coffee. Then a plate of sliced bread.

  Maria must have been cooking for hours. Knowing her, she'd done it in celebration of Tish coming home. She was always doing things like that.

  And to protect the people who had become like a second family to her, Tish would willingly move.

  "I'll start packing right away," Tish finally said, trying hard not to give in to the tears. "Don't worry, I won't hurt anyone."

  "Of course you won't. You could never hurt anyone," Maria said in such a firm and surprised voice that Tish looked up at her.

  And in neither of their faces did Tish see fear. Only concern, and it was all directed towards her. So, if they weren't afraid of her, why did they agree with her moving?

  Even as she thought of the questions, she knew the answer. She asked the question she dreaded. "I need to leave Earth, don't I?"

  Both slowly nodded. Neil added, "It's the only choice if you want to stay drug free."

  The prospect filled her with even more dread. She'd been subsisting on savings for the last four months while searching for a new job. With each month what few skills she could list on a resume were becoming stale and rusty. What kind of a living could she make off-planet when she could barely make one on Earth?

  She said out loud, "I'm not a pilot, and I know nothing of trading protocol."

  "You don't make beds well, either," Maria said with a laugh.

  Neil chuckled. "Or weed the garden."

  "That's what the yard robots are for," Tish said. And if any robots had been working that particular day Maria would still have marigolds along the front porch.

  "Robot repair," Neil suddenly said. He reached for his belt, pulling out his pocket computer.

  "Don't you dare let her work on the robots," Maria said, snagging one of the cookies.

  "Seriously, not robot repair," Tish said. "Is there much call for filing clerks off-planet?"

  "As a job."

  Tish and Maria sighed at Neil at the same time. Tish shook her head, "Nice thought, but you need certification to work on engines, life-support, or anything else on a ship. I'm pretty sure that includes robots."

  "Not on a ship. I don't think you would do well cooped up on one anyway." He thumbed through screens, muttering to himself.

  "Some planets have even worse regulations for psis than Earth does," Tish said, wishing she could remember more of what she'd read. "Moving to a colony world might not help me. Or, maybe one of the further out colonies?"

  But there must be some out there that would just let her live and be herself. She needed to do some research, and fast. How long did it take to move to a colony world, anyway? Citizenship transfer, customs? She didn't really know. She'd never had a reason to know.

  "No, no. You can't move fast enough, and you shouldn't be alone. Someone should look out for you," Neil said.

  Tish sat straight up and glared at him. "I've been taking care of myself since I was fifteen. I don't need someone to look out for me."

  Maria's glare joined with Tish's. "Dear, you aren't seriously thinking-"

  "-Of course I am. He needs people, doesn't he?" Neil interrupted. "Aha, here it is. This is where you should go for now, until you get comfortable with off-world living. Redpoint One."

  It was Tish's turn to go into shock. She felt her jaw go slack before she caught herself. "The alien space station? Out in the middle of nowhere?"

  "It's not in the middle of nowhere. It's an important hyperspace rest point between the core worlds and the Drax Outlier Worlds," Neil said quickly. "A very busy place, I hear."

  "And still out in the middle of nowhere," Tish said.

  "I know it isn't a planet, but it isn't a small spaceship either," Neil continued. "It has several habitable rings. Plenty of room to move around. And there are jobs."

  Tish's hands clutched at the coffee cup, her mind dredging up everything she'd ever heard about it. Including a popular movie only a few months ago. "And it's alien. You know, those ones that are extinct. Remember the movie? Oh, and did I mention it's in the middle of nowhere?"

  "You want a place to live? This is it. They are a part of the Free Trade Association, which means greater tolerance for those with gifts. You would not be required to take the drugs. With the ships going in and out every day, if you don't like it you would be able to leave at any time." He glanced up at her. "So, live free and in a different place, or planetary and hope you can get off this rock before someone comes looking for you. What will it be?"

  Tish licked her suddenly dry lips. "No drugs?"

  "No drugs. And if you take a job with the Station itself, you can move in immediately."

  "With Arthur?" Maria asked with a small laugh. "The girl won't last a week. Hardly anyone does."

  "She needs a job, it's a job with the station itself, and she could be on a transport within the week," Neil said, casting a glare in her direction. "Arthur only asks for hard workers. Tish is a hard worker."

  "She is not a mechanic!"

  "I'm not a mechanic," Tish echoed, taking a quick sip of coffee. The flavor filled her mouth, slipping down her throat. With it the clouds in the coffee swirled in her mind, mocking her confused state of mind. From a heart operation, to no boyfriend, to no house, to no planet?

  Neil put the small computer down and leaned on the table on folded forearms, pinning her with all his attention, "Listen closely. This is an alien space station, as you said. As such, normal mechanics and maintenance professionals have a difficult time adapting. Arthur needs people with the inclination, but not the training, so he can train them for this specific station. No certification or degrees, but once you are up and running you get the same pay-scales."

  Tish sucked in her breath. She still had a school-friend she kept in contact with who crewed on a larger trader vessel in the maintenance department. The pay dictated by the Free Trade Association had taken her breath away. A few years of that and she could set herself up comfortably on just about any planet.

  She'd wanted a job of more excitement than the data processing of the last job, but to leave the planet? It felt extreme. Too far. And yet, it gave her a shiver of excitement.

  "No previous training?" Tish asked again, not believing she could be considering the possibility. Surely someone like her couldn't qualify for something so high-paying.

  Neil smiled, leaning back in his chair. "No training. Just a willingness to learn and work hard. You've helped me around the house before. You learn quick. Programming the robotics, troubleshooting the heating system. None of it stumped you."

  Tish smiled weakly, "Just weeding the flower bed manually."

  "And if you had known exactly what a marigold looked like compared to a weed, I'm sure you would have done well with it, as well." He tapped a finger on his pocket computer. "There are three job openings in his department and Arthur will take a recommendation from me as if from an employer. Now, do you want in, or not?"

  She glanced at the white bag sitting on the table next to her coffee cup. The multi-colored containers of pills were barely visible through the thin plastic.

  She'd never felt so threatened by things so small. A new heart valve in her chest that should last the rest of her life, and yet she wasn't free to live it. On the pills, and the side-effects would start, leaving her unfit for most jobs. Off the pills, and the government would come looking, perhaps even force her to take them or incarcerate her where she could be 'safely observed.'

  The walls started closing in, making it hard to breath. All because of what the doctors said happened in the operating room. Because of the government fear of those with mental powers.

  "I'm not a psi," she whispered.

  Neil frowned. "That's not an answer."

  She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath, thinking of the clouds in her coffee. Ephemeral as dreams. Well, maybe it was time to make a dream or two solidify, to finally come true. Time for an adventure. To stop reading about them and start living them.
>
  Time to restart life, even if it meant moving away from the only planet she'd ever known.

  She pushed the pills even further away, saying firmly, "I'll go for the job."

  Once she made the decision it all happened rather fast. A response came from Redpoint One by the end of the day telling her that her application had been accepted. The message included the full job offer details.

  Seeing the pay-scale and perks eased her mind. She quickly accepted the offer and added a quick note that she would like to start as soon as she could get there. The next communication sent her the finalized job contract as well as information on transportation to the station.

  She didn't own much. All her belongings fit in the small attic room she'd rented for the past couple years and the furniture belonged to the Getty's. Sorting and packing took no time at all.

  All the while the Gettys stayed close. She played her last game of soccer with the boys in the back yard. Maria cooked up one last grand meal. Neil insisted she accompany him on anything he worked on at the house.

  But she felt every moment. Waiting for someone to show up at the door demanding to know why she wasn't taking the pills. Maybe to force her or take her away. With each passing hour the urge to get off-planet as soon as possible built. To get out of Earth's sphere of influence.

  And by the end of the week she was.

  A tear-filled goodbye with her surrogate family and she was on The Golden Oriander on its way to the Drax Outlier Worlds to deliver cargo with a stop-over at Redpoint One. Redpoint One arranged for her to travel in one of their four passenger rooms. It was smaller than her room at the Gettys, but more than she'd hoped for after reading up on standard economical accommodations aboard freighter ships.

  Her few belongings, packed securely in sealed boxes, sat in a neat pile in one corner of the room at the end of the bed. She packed two suitcases to live out of until her arrival at Redpoint One.

  The first week Tish loved it. The other two passengers kept to themselves so she had nothing to do but lay around, rest, read, and wander the few corridors open to her. Relax from the stress of trying to leave Earth in such a hurry, tensing every time someone came to the door of the house.

  The second week she cleaned her room, helped in the ship kitchen, finished reading the new book series she'd brought with her, and read the entire documentation sent by Redpoint One.

  By the third week the walls were closing in.

  Her reading expanded to include every instruction manual and checklist she could find on the ship, the ramifications of her new job description weighing heavy on her shoulders the closer they grew to Redpoint One.

  The doubts piled on. A Maintenance Engineer? She wasn't an 'engineer' by any stretch of the imagination. Was she mad?

  Tish put down the emergency main power-down checklist. It would be more fun if she understood half the items listed. She slouched down in the extra chair at the rear of the cockpit that she'd been allowed to sit in since the beginning of the second week.

  "Ready to crew?" Captain Jarvid asked, swinging his chair around to glance at her.

  She crossed her arms over her chest as she slouched down a little more. "Not unless you want your ship blown up for the insurance money."

  He let out a hearty bellow of a laugh, the sound of it filling the cockpit.

  The pilot looked back with a grin. "Not this close to port. We're ready to drop out of hyperspace."

  With the news her fears exploded, sure that she would not be able to do the job and they would ship her right back to Earth. She so desperately needed to make it work, and she had no idea what she might be walking into.

  "Give us plenty of room, Mr. Samson," Captain Jarvid said, swinging back towards the front.

  "Yes sir."

  An alarm echoed through the ship as Mr. Samson announced the hyperspace exit. Tish sat back up, her arms gripping the chair arms tightly, waiting for the bouncing and gravity fluctuations that had accompanied the hyperspace entrance.

  A soft fast vibration went through the ship. The vibrating floor tickled the bottom of her feet. A deep hum filled the air for a few seconds before the swirling clouds of hyperspace disappeared with a flash, replaced by a beautiful starfield.

  At least it was beautiful to her after so long without being able to see anything out of the portals other than murky moving colors of dark hyperspace. Her first off-planet adventure and she'd seen very little in the way of starscapes.

  "Good exit," Captain Jarvid said as the starfield shifted to the right.

  "Thank you, sir. We have clearance for approach. Third in line for decontamination."

  "Good. We'll be docked before lunch."

  Docked? Docked where?

  Tish leaned forward to get a better view out a wide portal next to the console on her left side. All she could see were stars and more stars, then the long wisps of color from a distant nebula. No planets, no other ships, no space stations. Maybe they were making some sort of way-stop?

  The space station appeared, filling the entire window. Then filled the other windows on the starboard side of the freighter. The thing wasn't just big. It was massive.

  Through her amazed staring, Captain Jarvid said, "Welcome to Redpoint One, Ms. Douglas."

  CHAPTER THREE

  TISH WAS VAGUELY aware both the captain and the pilot were grinning at her. She didn't care. She couldn't take her eyes off the space station.

  For one thing, the thing was massive. Maybe it appeared so large because they came out of hyperspace so close to it? She could see a tiny speck heading away from one end. Probably a ship, but was it very big?

  Then there were the rings. Five rings in a row, all off a base tube, the entire gray and blue structure slowly spinning in space. It looked delicate and massive all at the same time.

  The more she looked, the more detail she noted. Openings in the central tubes leading into the center of the structure. Appendages and blocks on the spokes holding the rings to the central station. A slight flaring of the tube at each end.

  Her first impression had been correct. The thing was huge.

  "Well, what do you think?" Captain Jarvid asked.

  "It's not red," Tish said.

  Captain Jarvid's booming laugh made her flinch and forced her attention away from the space station. She could feel her face turning red.

  He rested his folded hands on his belly as he brought his laughter under control. "Good one. The word 'red' in the name doesn't refer to a physical color. It refers to the hyperspace point."

  Tish shook her head. "I don't understand."

  "It all has to do with hyperspace radiation," Mr. Samson said. "It builds up in a ship the longer she's in a jump. At a certain point it becomes deadly. That point is called a 'redpoint.'"

  Tish glanced out the window, thinking of her new heart valve. She hadn't read any restrictions from hyperspace travel in her discharge information. She squeaked, "We've been soaked with radiation?"

  "A bit, but nothing like the early days of inter-system travel. That's when the space station was named "Redpoint One" as this is the point most ships would hit the redpoint danger in hyperspace radiation exposure," Mr. Samson said.

  "There are no suitable stars nearby to stop at on the way to the Outlier Worlds, but the station shows up in hyperspace despite not having a strong gravity-well. It's how it was initially found." Captain Jarvid gestured towards the station. "It was, and in a way still is, a valuable way-station. A place of rest to detox a ship from the hyperspace radiation build-up."

  "A process sped up by the station itself. Stand by, we have clearance to pass," Mr. Samson said, turning fully back to his console.

  The freighter swung fully towards one end of the station. With each passing moment it grew larger and the surface more detailed. Wide landing bays, and then large windows and portals became visible. The inner part of the nearest ring came into view, showing arching semi-transparent material covering the open living spaces underneath.

  She'
d read that the rings were filled with garden areas, and some people even had the privilege of living along the edges, able to enjoy the view both inside the ring and the space outside. She didn't imagine she would have the luck of such nice living accommodations, but she intended to explore as much as possible as soon as she could.

  What she'd read hadn't prepared her for the reality.

  The freighter went past the last of the rings, past the spindles holding the rings to the body of the station, and moved across the end of the main long tubular body itself. Making a turn, the starfield complete with the nebula returning on her side, the space station filling only in the front windows.

  Only, it wasn't solid.

  The end of the main body opened up, allowing her to see completely through the long axis of the space station main body and out the other end. An opening in which she could see several ships ahead of them, all passing through with immense space with room to spare.

  Good grief, the entire main body was hollow!

  The Golden Oriander turned towards the opening, slowing down to take its place in the center of the tube. Directly in front of them a large luxury spaceliner slowly moved forward at the same pace.

  Regularly spaced internal rings illuminated the interior and the ships passing inside. Light danced along the metal around the portal next to Tish. She sat back, snatching her hands away.

  Captain Jarvid chuckled. "At most it will tingle. The field only affects the radiation."

  The only reason his laughter didn't bother her was Captain Jarvid's good humor, something she'd come to appreciate over three weeks of travel. She asked, recalling what he'd said before, "The detox?"

  "By the time we're through the other end we'll be ready for another jump, if we were to continue traveling. All hyperspace radiation dissipated."

  A passage that seemed to take forever. A glance down at the computer around her wrist told her it wasn't her imagination. After the first few rings she didn't see much that was new other than large open bays off from the main tube.

  Maybe if they were outside she would have seen more. There weren't even any ships passing the other direction to help with the boredom creeping in. Only the spaceliner in front of them.