Among The Stars (Heinlein's Finches Book 2)

by Robin Banks

  “I translate for him.”

  “Why should I put up with having to play a game of whispers?”

  “Because he’s the best animal trainer in the galaxy.”

  “The animals are already trained! That’s why I bought them!”

  Alya winces. “It doesn’t quite work like that. Training animals isn’t like programming machines. They need constant re-training, otherwise they pick up bad habits. And they need training in order to learn new routines.

  “And he can’t work without you translating for him?”

  “Oh, no. He can work. He might not know what you want him to do, but he’ll work.” Her expression hardens as she sits back in her seat. “I tell you what he won’t do, though. He won’t sign this contract. None of us will.”

  “Care to tell me why?”

  “Because I’ve read it and I’ve understood it. It’s very well put together. I bet the Fed wouldn’t even consider disputing it. But this isn’t a contract of employment; it’s a contract of servitude. We’re not signing it.”

  “Then you can all fuck off!” he bellows at the top of his lungs.

  “Ok,” she sighs. “Thank you for your time.”

  She gets up and we all follow suit. Going past Parker, she smiles up at him, thanks him earnestly, and shakes his hand. The rest of us just nod – he doesn’t look inclined to shake our hands, anyway – and we all file out of the big top.

  As soon as we’re outside, Tom stops dead and hisses at Alya. “So that was it? No ifs, no buts, no attempt at negotiation?”

  “There wasn’t going to be any negotiation there. Too public. He wasn’t about to lose face in front of his goons by giving in to me.”

  “So now we’re fucked because you decided to antagonize him? Do you have any idea what this means for us? We don’t have a source of income, our emancipation gets revoked. Worst case scenario, we get arrested. Hell, that’s the best case scenario: worst case scenario, they send us home.”

  “That is not going to happen. Ever.”

  “Oh yeah? How the fuck are you going to stop it?”

  She sticks a hand in her pocket and throws something right at his face. He catches it before it hits and looks at it. It’s a coin. Tom stares at it as if he’d never seen one before, which is most likely the case. I wonder briefly how old the thing is and where Alya got it from.

  “There you go. You’re under contract to me, if you want to be. If you don’t, just say no. But if you think I’m gonna sell you down the river after I’ve asked you to trust me, then you’ve got me all wrong.”

  Tom glowers at her, but he sticks the coin in his pocket. “Ok. I don’t like this, but ok.”

  “I don’t like this either.” She turns to me. “What about you?”

  “What’s the question? If I like this? If I want to sign up with you?”

  “Both, I guess.”

  “No and yes. What else am I going to do? To be honest, I’ve not caught up with any of this yet. What was wrong with that contract? I couldn’t understand most of it.”

  “Oh, where to start. The main thing was that it stipulated…”

  “No big words. Not helping.”

  “It was a ten year contract. They could fire you at no notice, for no reason. But if you quit before the ten years are up, you’d have to pay back all your earnings up to that date.”

  “You what?”

  “Yeah. Now, it was ridiculous enough that maybe you could find the right planet, get yourself a decent lawyer and a sympathetic judge, and get them to annul it. Maybe you could run so far that they couldn’t make it stick. But me, I don’t fancy those chances. You would have been better off in a Fed prison. At least those places are regulated.”

  Tom looks stricken. “Shit. And everyone signed up for that?”

  “I don’t know. I just read mine. Maybe theirs were different. Maybe yours were, too. But I doubt it.”

  “Ok. Thank you. Sorry. Shit.”

  “You’re alright. But now I want to go and get my dog and curl up in a ball until the next battle, ok? It’s been a bit of a day, and it’s not over yet.”

  We walk with her towards the office. Kolya puts his hand on her shoulder and she puts her hand over his. “Are you ok about this?”

  “I am old. In ten years I am only good for tiger food. But I do not sign that.” His voice breaks. “Not even for my animals.”

  “They’ll be ok. They are worth too much.”

  “Maybe they get food, they get water. Maybe they don’t get love. But I cannot fix this for them. One day I have to leave them. I get sick, I get old, I die. I hope I leave them with good people. This is not good. No, I am not ok. But this is the only way now. Fight, see what we can win.”

  We get to the office and Alya runs up the ramp. Nikolai looks so upset now that I can’t bear to look at him. I feel like a coward for staring at the floor. I’m racking my brain for the right thing to say when Alya bolts out of the office.

  “Laika isn’t here.”

  I stare up the ramp. “What do you mean she’s not here?”

  “She’s not here. Not in her bed, not on my chair. Not here.”

  “Maybe they left the door open and she got out.”

  “Without me telling her to? She doesn’t just go running off. Unless she got spooked or something.”

  “Well, that creep asshole spooked me good.”

  “Good point.”

  She strides off towards her ATR, looking left and right as she goes. When we get there, there’s no sign of Laika.

  “Ok. This is bad. Really bad.” She’s starting to shake.

  “You stay here. I’ll check the stables.”

  “She knows not to go in there on her own.”

  “She also knows not to leave the office, so something’s out of kilter. You stay here in case she turns up.”

  Tom and Kolya set off in opposite directions so they can cover the whole site. I don’t like leaving Alya on her own, not in that state, but it can’t be helped. It doesn’t take long for me to get back. By then she’s calmed down, kinda. She’s slumped in her doorway, looking bereft.

  “She’s gone. He’s taken her.”

  “What?”

  “I left her in the office with Jameson. He left. She’s gone. He’s fucking taken her.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “She would have never run away. If she was scared she would have come to find me. She’s my dog. My dog.” She starts weeping quietly.

  I want to tell her that it can’t be true, that he would never have done such a thing, but I have the horrible feeling that she’s right. When the guys come back, together and without Laika, one look at their faces confirms it. Kolya starts crying as soon as he sees Alya.

  “We ask. They see her. They say…” and he chokes up.

  “It’s ok. I worked it out. It’s my fault. I should have thought about it. I should have seen it coming.”

  “That’s not fair,” says Tom. “None of us thought about it. Who the fuck does something like that?”

  “He would. I told you how he looks at the world. I just didn’t… He doesn’t like her. She’s old. She’s not worth anything. He must be going somewhere where she’ll be worth something.” She wipes her face with her sleeve. “One day I’ll find him. And then I will kill him.”

  Tom grinds his teeth. “If I’m there, I’d like to help.”

  “Thank you. Sure. We can make this a family thing.”

  “Too right.” He reaches out, pulls her up and hugs her tight. Seeing them like that would make me happy, if I had any capacity for happiness left. I’ve been wanting for them to get on for ages.

  “Ok.” Alya pulls herself away from Tom. “This isn’t the time for tears. Not yet. Battle’s not over yet.”

  He peers into her face. “You ok to carry on?”

  “Splendid. I want the chance to hurt somebody.”

  “Ok then. What are we going to do about the animals?”

  “When it’s time, we do
our job.”

  “Even if it’s not our job anymore?”

  “Even so. If they don’t sort us out, we’ll leave in the morning. For tonight it’s our job. I’m willing to bet it won’t come to that, though.”

  “We’ve already bet on it, haven’t we?”

  “Yeah. They didn’t give us much of a choice. Serves them right for trying to corner us.”

  We get back to the stables. We want to stick together and we have nowhere else to go.

  I pass the time trying to guess who will come over and whether they are going to summon us or negotiate with us here. In the end it’s Twitchy, looking even twitchier than before. I can’t blame him, really. We make a piss-poor welcome committee. As soon as the stable door opened, we all braced up for shit, so he took a look at us and shat a brick. I feel bad for the guy. Back home he would have gotten picked on until he either cracked or snapped. Either way, it would have gone on until someone’s blood hit the floor. Standing in our doorway, he looks like the only reason he’s not running away is that he’s more scared of what’s outside.

  Alya mumbles “Gods, it’s like kicking a puppy,” before going over to talk to him.

  “Noah, we don’t shoot the messenger.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve been sent here by Parker. Whatever you’re going to tell us is not your fault. We’re not going to take it out on you. You’re alright.”

  “I didn’t say anything!”

  “No, you didn’t. I did. Your turn now.”

  “Mr. Parker would like to know whether you have reconsidered…”

  “Parker just realized that he’s bought half a zoo and doesn’t know how to keep it alive. It’s good for him. Formative. So, does he want you to negotiate, or does he want me to come over?”

  “He… He’d like to know if you’ve reconsidered.”

  “Oh hell no. But I bet he has. It would be better for you if I spoke to him directly.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because he’s not going to like what I’m going to tell him. And he does shoot the messenger.”

  Twitchy looks even more terrified.

  “Don’t worry. This conversation is between us. But I reckon it’d be better for everybody if we met one-to-one. Don’t you think?”

  “I guess so.”

  “So either I come with you now, or you can go there, arrange a meeting… Oh, fuck it. Let’s do this. Lead the way. You can tell him that I’m petitioning for an audience with him when we get there. Then find yourself something to do far, far away. Ok?”

  He doesn’t move, so she grabs him by an arm and coaxes him gently outside. Before going through the flap, she turns around to look at us. “Guys, last chance. You ok with me speaking on your behalf?”

  I shrug. “You’re gonna do a damn better job than any of us.”

  “Ok. Here goes.”

  As soon as they’re out of the way, we all sag.

  Kolya rubs his face. I hope he won’t start crying again. I hate seeing that.

  “I put my babies to bed now. This is hard.”

  We help him, and it really is hard. This could be the last time we settle our animals in. They don’t know it, but we do, and it changes everything. Boring, everyday tasks feel suddenly important. Before I came here I had no idea how easy it is to get attached to animals. Some of them, anyway. Some are right assholes.

  We drag things on so long that Alya’s back before we’ve finished. She looks exhausted, but relatively happy.

  “Ok. So this is how it is. We’re not employed by them.” Tom is about to explode, so she heads him off. “No, wait, this is good. I’m hired as a contractor to provide animal care services. You lot are my employees. Under contract to me. We can draft something later. Kolya, you could be a partner instead. The kids can’t because of the damn emancipation thing. Up to you.”

  “No, this is good. I like simple.”

  “They will provide transport and materials and so on for the animals, and accommodation for us. We will provide labor and advice. We do the work, we get paid. They don’t pay us or they piss us off, we go. They can throw us out at no notice, but if they were able to do that they’d have done so already. This is the good news. I’ve got bad news, too. I tried to wrangle a pay rise, but failed.”

  Tom goggles at her. “In the middle of this you went for a pay rise?”

  “Best time to. They’re hardly going to consent to one later. But you kids will be better off anyway, because I’m demoting myself to groom. Well, groom and pilot, I guess. And vet.”

  “What the fuck are you on about?”

  “You two used to be paid shit. I wasn’t. I used to get a pretty decent wage, actually, because that’s what it took to make me put up with Jameson. But my days of kissing the manager’s ass are over. That pleasure is going to be Noah’s. All I’ve got to do now is make sure the animals are getting taken care of. That’s either a demotion or a holiday, depending on how you look at it. So the total pot of credit we get is the same, but after Kolya’s wages are taken out I thought we’d just split it three ways.”

  Tom whoops. “Alright!” It doesn’t take much to make him happy.

  He’s going to kill me, but I don’t like this, and I’m not going to shut up about it. “It doesn’t seem fair. The work you do requires more brains.”

  “So what? You do a lot more lifting. I intend to take it easy, anyway. I need a rest. If we are all in agreement, we’re done here. I’d appreciate it if you could clear your shit out of my house. I want to get in there and hide for a couple of weeks.”

  Sean and his goons may be assholes, but they’re true to their words. As soon as the power goes on in the morning they start to drag the show out of the mud. We probably have the easiest job. All we have to do is load our shit on our ship. It’s just like a regular pull-down, except that we’re wading through the mud. There’s no rush, though. We’re not going anywhere for a while yet. We’re just going to stay on the ship until the rest of the site is cleared out, and then leave for our next site.

  As soon as we’re loaded up, our work gets so much easier that it feels like a holiday. We’re warm and dry. It doesn’t sound like much, but after being cold and wet for so long it makes all the difference. I’m so happy I could cry. Tom can still find something to gripe about.

  “Why didn’t we do this as soon as we got flooded out?”

  Alya sighs. “Because Jameson was too tight to run life support on both the ships and the portabubble. You’re lucky he didn’t just cut our air during the night to save on wages. Guy was an asshole.”

  “And this one isn’t?”

  “Fat chance. He’s just a different breed of asshole.”

  Asshole or not, that afternoon he sends Alya and Tom off in an ATR to get animal supplies. She takes the chance to pop through a food market, so when they come back laden with bags it really does feel like a holiday.

  “Come forth, oh downtrodden masses, and tell me how amazing I am. Seriously: I need to hear it. I bear food and drinks. Nothing exciting for you squirts, but Kolya and I shall be regretting this in the morrow. Feel free to kiss my feet, though you will need a wash afterwards.”

  Kolya claps her on the shoulders and kisses her forehead. “Wonderful! Now you give me this food. I cook.”

  He grabs her bags and goes off to the kitchen. Tom follows him, struggling to carry all the bags he’s got. They’ve got enough food for a platoon. This is gonna be great.

  Alya rubs the circulation back into her arms. “Kid, this is officially party time. I’d tell you to get your glad rags on, but we’re all so filthy that it seems a bit pointless.”

  “I have a surprise for you. It’s the best surprise ever. I didn’t do anything to make it happen, but I’m going to take the credit anyway.”

  “What is it?”

  “They’ve authorized us to use the ship’s ‘fresher. They serviced it while you were out and it’s all ready to go. You can have a proper scrub. In the warmth. In a clean ‘fresh
er.”

  Alya’s eyes light up. “If we weren’t so damn filthy, I could kiss you.”

  “Lucky escape, then.”

  I live in our ship as if it were a castle, like in one of the books Alya lent me. The waters around us are our moat. Inside we’re warm, dry, clean, and well-fed. Once we’ve pulled up the ship’s ramp and shut our doors, the world leaves us alone. Everything may be going to shit outside, for all I know. I’m not remotely tempted to go out there. I don’t even want to look. All is peaceful in my world, and that’s good enough for me.

  After a couple of days the sores on my hands start to heal up. Tom and Kolya aren’t coughing as much. The animals have gotten back to their usual mood, too. They don’t try to kill us half as often.

  I’m so comfortable that I’m waiting for it to explode in my face, but after eight days of this bliss Noah turns up with our wages. He even stays for a coffee – not that he needs it, the poor twitchy bastard. He seems an alright guy, though in a permanent state of panic. I wish I could work out whether he’s always been like this or he got like this working for Parker. It’s not as if I can ask him, though, and it could be a bit of both anyway.

  The day after, a tech comes to test our ship’s engines and systems. They’re all fine.

  The day after that, we set off.

  5.

  Finally leaving this godsdamned hellhole feels like the end of a horrible nightmare. The only thing reminding me that we’re not just snapping back to normal, that serious events have taken place and won’t be undone, is Laika’s empty spot on the co-pilot’s chair. Tom and I stare at it for a while. It’s easier than looking at Alya trying not to look at it. In the end, Tom unstraps himself, gets up, and sits there instead. Alya looks surprised, but not displeased.

  I’m glad the two of them have finally gelled. I just wish it hadn’t taken so much strife.

  It’s a long trip. We should have been on Eris three weeks ago. We could have stopped there for the last week of our planned stay, but we’re in no fit state to open anyway, so we’re going straight to Megaera instead. None of this means a damn thing to me and Tom, because we still don’t know our planets. All we know is that we’ve got the best part of two weeks on the ship, and then a few days to get back on our feet before the show opens.