Sisterhood of Suns: Pallas Athena

by Martin Schiller

  “It seems that we meet again, doesn’t it?” her captor purred. “Why is that, I wonder? Let’s find out, shall we?”

  Suddenly, Maya felt a pressure growing between her eyes, as if an invisible finger made of steel was slowly pushing its way into her skull. The sensation grew until it became unbearable, and simultaneously the strange presence that surrounded the woman, seemed to increase exponentially.

  To her astonishment, Maya also realized that she was no longer alone in her own mind. Somehow, the other woman was in there, with her, filling her consciousness with an alien presence.

  That’s right my little esper—I’m a psi just like you are, she heard the woman think. Surprised? I would be, if I where in your place. Now, let’s find out who you really are.

  Unbidden, memory after memory rushed up to the surface of Maya’s awareness. Thoughts and emotions flashed by in a rapid succession, like some kind of insane holovid that she was unable to stop. She could feel the woman sorting through them, picking and choosing things to examine like a burglar ransacking a house. Every secret that Maya had ever had opened itself up for review. Nothing was sacrosanct; her psyche was completely open to the woman’s overpowering will.

  She tried to summon up the energy to fight off the mental invasion, but her efforts were useless. The woman pushed her resistance aside with ease, and laughed at her. Then, just as abruptly as it had come, the pressure in her head disappeared and the foreign presence withdrew.

  There’s no need to fight me to exhaustion, her assailant thought, I’ve confirmed what I suspected about you the other night. I will leave you now, little esper. She released her grip, and Maya dropped into a heap on the floor.

  “You should be careful whom you follow,” she warned her. “You might just discover more than you bargained for.” Before Maya could reply, or sit up, a searing pain lanced through her head. Blackness and oblivion followed on its heels.

  Somewhere out of the timeless nothing of unconsciousness, she came to on the floor, lying in a puddle of her own drool, and looked up to meet the concerned eyes of a Port Policewoman.

  “Are you all right?” the kaaper asked. Maya started to rise, but a dark band of pain constricted around her head and she abandoned the effort, groaning miserably.

  “Please, stay where you are,” the officer said. “You’ve had some kind of attack. The medics are coming down to take a look at you. Lie still until they get here.”

  “It was the woman,” Maya said thickly. Her mouth felt like it was filled with packing foam and the words came out with difficulty.

  “What woman?” the policewoman asked. “We didn’t see anyone else on the security cameras.”

  “But—the woman—in the cape! She grabbed me!”

  The policewoman nodded, but Maya could tell by the look in her eyes that the kaaper didn’t believe her.

  “We didn’t see anyone matching that description, young lady. Why don’t you just stay down? We’ll have the medics look you over and maybe they’ll be able to explain things to you. Okay?”

  Maya didn’t bother trying to convince the kaaper any further. She didn’t have the energy for it. A strange numbness had sapped her of all her strength, and her mind felt as if it had been scoured raw from the inside out.

  Even though the something that had accompanied her attacker was now gone, Maya still flinched when the medics arrived, half certain that the woman would somehow be there, standing behind them with her enigmatic smile. And when they went to attach their probes, she started to struggle, but a shot of some unidentified drug was jabbed into her inocular. Her terror was quickly replaced by a wave of pure bliss ansd she relaxed and let the medics do their jobs.

  To everyone’s surprise, their instruments showed nothing wrong with her, and her symptoms quickly disappeared. In the end, all that they could do, once she was coherent enough to understand them, was to issue a stern warning that she needed to see a doctor for additional tests.

  Maya had no intention of doing anything of the sort. Doctors and hospitals meant more than just a closer physical examination. They also carried the risk of a deeper look into who she was and who she wasn’t. It was simply not worth it. Instead, she let the medics believe that she would follow their advice, and left the scene on shaky legs.

  A few times, as she made her way back towards the customs warehouse, she caught a glimpse of someone dressed in dark clothing in the crowd, and panicked. But in every case, the wearer proved harmless and by the time she was nearing her destination, she had become reasonably certain that she wouldn’t be encountering her attacker a second time.

  Her problems however, were far from over. The yard boss was waiting for her, accompanied by two customs officers. None of them had friendly expressions on their faces.

  “Is that her?” one of the officers asked. The question was more a formality than an investigative necessity. The familiar blue flash of light had already alerted Maya that the woman’s partner had scanned her as she had walked up.

  “Yes! That’s her,” the yard boss spat, her voice dripping with malice. “That’s the little dock rat!”

  An old saying that had had its birth on Sita, came back to Maya; “Troubles seldom travel alone.” So far, her day was proving this proverb to be painfully correct. The only question she had just then was how bad things were going to get.

  “We need to speak to her in private,” the lead officer announced. “Can we use your office?”

  The yard boss glowered at Maya and nodded her assent. “I’ll be only too happy to make any statement you want and press any charges you need,” she added as she led the way.

  At the door of the tiny prefab structure, the officers thanked the yard boss for her cooperation, and promptly closed it in her face. Then, one of the kaapers sent a thought to the windows, making them opaque.

  “We have information that you are responsible for some of the shortages that have come up over the last few weeks,” the lead officer said. “We’d like to talk with you about that.”

  “I don’t know anything,” Maya answered.

  “That’s what I thought you’d say,” the officer replied. Maya was just about to embellish her denial when the officer standing behind her suddenly seized her up under the armpits, and clasped the back of her head. For the second time that day, she struggled futilely against a force that she could’nt really resist.

  “Let’s get introduced first,” the lead officer smiled. “My name is Officer bel Marda. And I know that you and some of the other dock-rats around here have been skimming off some of the freight and selling it.”

  “I’ll give you names!” Maya blurted. At that point she didn’t care if there was supposed to be honor among thieves or not. She was more than willing to give up her compatriots if there was a chance of getting herself out of the situation.

  Bel Marda came up close to her. “Oh, I don’t need names, girl. I have those. What I need from you is cooperation.”

  “Cooperation?”

  Maya suddenly understood. She’d run into plenty of dishonest kaapers in the past, and as she saw it, straightforward corruption was always preferable to honesty any time. Despite the grip that the other officer had on her, she smiled at Bel Marda, ready to do business.

  This wasn’t the right response. Bel Marda’s partner rewarded her by increasing the pressure against her head and forcing her chin down. Maya moaned as red spots danced in her vision.

  “Yes, cooperation.” Bel Marda explained, nodding to her partner to let up a bit. “You see, I run this dock, and I can’t have every filthy little dock-rat scurrying around, nibbling away at all my profits. Do you get the point?”

  When Maya was too slow to answer, the woman behind her applied pressure again. “Ow—yes—okay—I see!” she yelped.

  “Good. I thought you would. So here it is; you continue with your little caper and I get a cut of it every week. I want 75 percent of anything you make. Do you understand me?”

  Maya nodded and the other poli
cewoman released her. But Bel Marda wasn’t done with her yet. Without any warning, she shoved her fist into Maya’s stomach. The girl gasped in pain and dropped to the floor.

  “And don’t you even think of cheating me,” Bel Marda hissed in her ear, “or you’ll wind up lying on a slab. Zat klaar?”

  She didn’t wait for Maya to regain her breath or rasp out a reply. Instead, she and her partner walked outside, leaving her where she was. As Maya picked herself up from the carpet, she heard Bel Marda speaking with the Yard Boss.

  “She wasn’t the one,” the kaaper explained, “Our source must have been wrong.”

  ***

  Maya caught up with her cohorts later that day, more intent than ever to find a smuggler ship. Staying at the warehouse, or in T-Don for that matter, was not even a remote possibility now.

  Her companions were waiting for her in a quiet corner of E-section, but neither of them was smiling. The Tethyian had a swollen lip, and her associate sported an ugly-looking black eye. It was clear that Officer bel Marda and her partner had visited both of them and personally delivered their message.

  “Go ahead and drop your boxes,” the Tethyian said dejectedly, “for what good it will do. Now that Bel Marda has gotten her claws into us, we won’t make enough credits to make the risk worth it.”

  “It wasn’t that good a thing anyway,” Maya replied. “I’d say it’s time to run for it and find a better scam. Know any moonrunners looking for a hand?”

  The Tethyian laughed bitterly. “It’s not as easy as all that, girlie. ‘Runner crews are a tight bunch. They don’t let folks know what they are about, and they don’t take on new crewwomen unless they’re hard in need of a skill—very hard. Besides, if Bel Marda catches any of us trying to run for it, we won’t be worth a decacredit.” She made a throat-cutting gesture to emphasize her point.

  “If she catches us,” Maya countered. “You can stay if you want and work as her bitch, but I’m for jumping into Null and getting the fek out of here. And you can show me who the smugglers are. I know that’s how you’ve gotten some of your stuff out of here.”

  “I told you the new girl was smart,” the Tethyian said to her bruised friend. “Didn’t take her long to figure things out did it?”

  Then to Maya, “Yeah, I can finger them. But you’re on you own when it comes to the meeting and talking part. A lot of them pay off the kaapers, and they wouldn’t think twice about turning us over to Bel Marda if they thought it would buy them anything. So, if you want to risk getting kakked, that’s your business, just leave me out of it.”

  “Yeah,” Maya retorted. “I’ll do that.”

  Over the next few days, the Tethyian made good on her promise, pointing out the ships that she knew were ‘runners. A few looked particularly promising, and Maya took careful note of them.

  Finally, towards the end of the week, and as they were hauling some cargo towards the customs warehouse on their hovercarries, the Tethyian nodded discreetly towards the CSS C-JUDI-GO. She was a small non-descript merchanter, sitting by herself in a nearby launch cradle. Maya had seen the diminutive vessel before and really hadn’t paid it much attention.

  “That one there,” the Tethyian said. “She’s one. I wanted you to know about her, special. Mind you, the JUDI ‘s one of the best, even if she doesn’t look it. She’s got a rep of getting cargo in and out where other’s can’t, or won’t. She’s even traded with the Hriss and made it out in one piece.”

  Maya gave the ship an appraising look. She had never expected any of the ships that they’d seen to actually look like smugglers, so the vessel didn’t disappoint her in that respect. It was its size that was the issue.

  Maya knew that not all illegal cargoes had to be large to make a profit. In fact, it was often the other way around; drugs like ‘glass’ or datapaks of restricted information didn’t need much room at all, and the credits that they commanded were often far out of proportion to their physical volume.

  The problem was that small ships had small crews, and seldom needed any replacements. And the JUDI was possibly one of the smallest she’d ever seen in port. In her estimation, this made the vessel a very poor candidate for a job opening.

  “I know she’s tiny,” the Tethyian said, voicing her thoughts, “and I haven’t heard that her captain’s looking for any hands, if that’s what you’re thinking. But that’s not why I pointed her out. I wanted you to know about her so you’d stay away from her.”

  Maya rewarded her with a perplexed expression. “What’s so bad about her?” The merchanter appeared to be anything but threatening.

  “I don’t know who she pays off, and I’ve never done any business with her crew,” the Tethyian explained. “I’ve just heard a lot of tales about her. She’s a strange one. Very strange.”

  “Okay,” Maya replied. “You’ve got my attention. What kind of ‘tales’ have you heard about her?” It was hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but she did her best, realizing that the woman was being serious.

  Her companion’s voice dropped to a low, conspiratorial whisper. “The word around the docks is that the JUDI is cursed, and that her captain has some kind of witch working with her. They call her the Black Witch, and they say that the captain sold her soul to the witch to keep the Indies off their back. Some even swear the Witch is part Indie herself, and that’s how she manages it.”

  Being a trekker herself, Maya had heard her fair share of wild space stories, but this was utter nonsense. She laughed right in the woman’s face. “You’re joking, right?”

  The Tethyian’s expression remained sober. “No, girl, I’m not joking. This is the word on the docks, and from dock-rats I trust who’ve been here for years. Now, mind you, I don’t believe most of it, but as my mothers always said, ‘where there’s a tale there’s a truth.’ The Witch is real even if the rest is klaxxy shess. I know that for certain.”

  “And just how do you know it?”

  “Because I’ve seen her, girl, and other dock rats have seen her, too. She always comes around the launch cradles at odd hours, dressed all in black from head to toe, and wearing a cloak to hide her face.”

  Maya went pale. Unconsciously rubbing at her throat, she looked across the docks at the little merchanter, suddenly perceiving it in a new and loathsome light.

  “That ship is bad luck,” her companion added. “Anyone would have to be warpy to even think of shipping out with her. I say stay well away from her if you know what’s best.”

  “Don’t worry,” Maya assured her gravely. “I’ll keep my distance from the JUDI--and their fekking Witch.” She meant every word of it.

  ***

  The next day, Maya ventured off by herself and decided to try her luck with the CSS Akantha. It was a fair-to-middling sized vessel that the Tethyian had identified on their very first day out. The crew was in the process of loading cargo, and she was certain that her presence wouldn’t seem suspicious to anyone watching. Chin held high, she went straight up to the woman on duty at the cargo bay doors.

  “Whatcha need, girlie?” the sailor asked.

  “A job. I heard that you might need a new hand.”

  The sailor snorted derisively. “Well, you heard wrong. If we needed someone, it would be someone with experience, and from the look of it, you don’t have much.”

  Maya smiled sweetly. “Oh, I’ve got lots of experience,” she said. “I’ve been a hand aboard plenty of merchanters, and I’ve got just the right qualifications to fit in with the kind of runs your ship really makes.”

  The woman’s expression lost what little friendliness it had initially possessed. “I think you’ve got the wrong ship, little girl. You need to move along. Now.”

  “Oh, I have it a’right,” Maya retorted. “I heard that your captain is always looking for someone who doesn’t care where her cargo comes from, or where it’s going. I’m that someone.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the sailor snarled. “But you’d better move your l
ittle ass along the dock before I help you get there with my foot.” She stepped towards her with a menacing expression, and Maya backed away.

  “Fine, I’ll go,” she said. “But I’m the woman you need. I’ll be on the docks if you change your mind.”

  Then she left. There were other ships to try, and she knew that it always paid to place multiple applications when looking for a new job. She was painfully aware that not having someone to introduce her was hurting her chances, but the Tethyian hadn’t left her with much choice. She was on her own. Pure brass would have to make up for her deficiencies.

  But by the time her psiever advised her that she needed to return to the warehouse, she had tried three other ships and the results had been just as disappointing. They were either not looking for anyone, or greeted her with the same unfriendly reception as the Akantha had. Reluctantly accepting the fact that the solution to her problems would not come that day, she headed back.

  As she walked past the Akantha, she saw Bel Marda and her partner talking with the crewwoman at the cargo bay. Then they made eye contact. Seeing the the murderous expression on Bel Marda’s face, Maya knew that she had been betrayed. It was time to run.

  She dropped her hovercarry and pelted down the docks, pushing past anyone that got in her way, and leaping over obstacles like a Shakalan gazell-bok. The two customs officers started after her, shouting for her to stop, but she had been chased by law enforcement before, and paid them no heed.

  Instead, she glanced briefly over her shoulder and used her talents, pushing at Bel Marda, and making her believe that a non-existent cargo box was suddenly in her way. The woman stopped short and her partner slammed into her from behind. As the two kaapers tumbled to the dock plates, Maya jumped off the platform and ran underneath it.

  The underside of the dockway was a low, tangled area that had never been intended for human foot-traffic. It was clogged with service pipes, support beams and squat robots that mindlessly serviced the ships above them, and except for the headlights and guide lasers of the ‘bots, the space was also quite dark.