The Space Merchants

by Wendie Nordgren

  The door opened, and I followed Captain Hiroshi onto his bridge. Two men were already working at stations. Each was seated in a gravity chair in front of large clear free hanging vid-screens where they used their hands to open and close several different programs seemingly at once. Too many different technical things were on those screens for me to count. The captain's chair was in the center of the bridge, with compact rectangular vid-screens that were horizontal to the arms of the chair.

  "Report," Captain Hiroshi commanded.

  "We are refueled, life support is optimal, and rations are restocked," said the tall blonde athletic man to the left.

  "All repairs are completed, weapons systems are fully operational, and the shields are reinforced." The deep monotone of the voice to the right drew my attention more than his report. I could almost feel his words inside of my ribcage. I stared at him in shock without realizing it, until he turned to Captain Hiroshi. He was an alien.

  "Allow me to make introductions. Yukihyo this is Miss Teagan Green. Miss Green meet Yukihyo Lee. Yukihyo handles security on Tora," Captain Hiroshi said.

  "It's nice to meet you, sir," I said.

  Yukihyo walked toward me where I stood with my back to the lift's door. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Green," Yukihyo said.

  Risking an upward glance and hoping I wouldn't blush, I said, "Really, the Miss Green sounds way too formal. Please, just call me Teagan."

  The man who had been in the other grav chair suddenly placed himself into the space between Yukihyo and me. Throwing his right arm around my left shoulder, he said, "In that case, hello, Teagan. I'm Phillip." He flashed a brilliant smile at me and sauntered back to his chair and vid-screen.

  Addressing Yukihyo, Captain Hiroshi said, "Would you please give our guest a tour of the ship? Forgive me. Teagan, but there is a matter to which I must attend. Do you mind?"

  I shook my head. "No, sir. I don't mind at all. It is so very nice of you to even let me be here."

  Captain Hiroshi gestured for me to follow Yukihyo from the bridge. The bridge opened onto a wide corridor with four doors along each side and one at the end. Yukihyo led me to the door at the end of the corridor. I followed Yukihyo into a large square room. All of the walls were made of same type of light grey metal as the bridge and corridor. When I looked up, I thought I saw what could be windows in the ceiling, but they were covered with metal on the outside of the ship.

  "Do those open?" I asked while pointing up.

  "Yes, in space you can see the stars from where you are now standing," he said.

  "Well, shouldn't one of those couches be here rather than over against the wall? I can't imagine wanting to move away from this spot if I were looking at them from so close. It must be amazing." Lowering my eyes back down to the room, I noticed Yukihyo looking at me, and I felt self-conscious.

  "Have you ever met anyone not of your world, Teagan?" he asked.

  I smiled and blushed. "No, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to act."

  Yukihyo looked human, almost. While Yukihyo seemed tall to me, since I thought the top of my head must be even with his shoulders, for a man his height was average. I was short for a woman. His skin was pale, but I assumed most people who spent much time in space would be lacking a tan. He appeared very muscular, and I tried not to be too observant of his arms and shoulders. Yukihyo's hair was grey, a soft grey like the color of a dove. He wasn't old though. He couldn't be over thirty. His eyes were the most alien thing about him. When I had first seen his eyes, I had thought they were solid white. Yukihyo's eyes had thick dark grey lashes outlining an almond shape. Looking into them now, they looked more like opals, if the veins of color within opals moved. His eyes seemed not to swirl in circles, but more like strikes of slow motion lightening, moving without any sense of direction. Yukihyo's eyes were mesmerizing. I couldn't tell how many colors were there in the milky white surface of his eyes.

  Blushing, I said, "Forgive me for staring, please." Deeply embarrassed, I couldn't think of what to say.

  In his deep monotone, Yukihyo said, "There is nothing to forgive. I must seem strange to you, which is understandable. You will adjust. It is curiosity with which you seem to observe me. I sense no fear or hate from you, as with some of your species."

  I drew in a surprised breath. "Oh, no! I'm not afraid of you or anything. I mean, we just met."

  One side of Yukihyo's mouth lifted in what I guessed to be a smile. "Allow me to share the greeting of my people with you," he said.

  "Okay," I agreed, hoping it wasn't complicated.

  Yukihyo stood directly in front of me and lifted his hands with his palms toward me. "Place your palms to mine," he instructed. I did. He looked into my eyes. "Your eyes remind me of sunlight shining through leaves," he said. Then, Yukihyo bent down and pressed his forehead to mine. I felt a calm envelop me. He straightened up and withdrew his palms from mine. Gesturing toward the room in which we stood, he said, "This is an area for relaxation." Moving to the right, he entered the next room which was filled with exercise equipment, treadmills, and weight machines. A large mat took up the center of the room. It looked squishy, so I stepped on it and bounced a little. "Shoes are not to be worn on the sparring floor," Yukihyo admonished in his calm monotone. I stepped off of it, making sure that I hadn't left any smudges. Walking out through the relaxation room, and into the room on the other side, he showed me the kitchen and dining area. Cabinets and counters lined two of the walls. A large table stood in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides with benches. In the corner of one wall, was a small desk and vid-screen, and next to it was a large cold storage unit with large clear double doors. Next to the cold storage stood an equally large pantry. The lighting in the room changed to blue before changing back.

  Curious, I asked, "What was that?"

  Yukihyo explained, "The change in color to blue symbolizes the Captain's desire for us to return to the bridge."

  "Oh." I did not do a good job of hiding my disappointment that the tour was over. I hadn't even seen everything yet. We exited the kitchen and entered into the relaxation room. From there we returned to the corridor and walked down its length to the bridge.

  Captain Hiroshi raised an eyebrow and leveled a glance at Yukihyo. "Well, what are your thoughts?"

  Yukihyo paused and said, "favorable."

  Captain Hiroshi grunted and then offered me a small sly grin. "Teagan, it wasn't chance that brought about your being here. My crew and I have much work to complete keeping the ship functioning, and trading with different off world colonies. I decided to hire an additional crew member to serve as an assistant in matters both domestic and industrial. While visiting my uncle, I asked him if he knew of anyone who might meet our requirements. He suggested you."

  I was completely puzzled. "Captain Hiroshi, sir, as disappointing to me as it is to admit this, I don't know your uncle. I don't know many people at all really." A wave of sadness hit me when I remembered that one of those people, Mary, had left. "I really don't like telling you this, but I think you've mistaken me for someone else."

  Captain Hiroshi raised his eyebrow and said, " I have made no mistake. My uncle pointed you out to me himself at his restaurant. He told me of a hardworking young woman who yearned to see the stars. Uncle Lee said she reminded him of me, when I was a boy inventing stories of my adventures to tell him."

  "Uncle Lee, as in Mr. Lee of the Sun Palace?" I asked.

  Captain Hiroshi nodded.

  "I never realized that he ever paid attention to Mary and me talking. Mr. Lee definitely never mentioned to us that he had a nephew with his own starship. Why didn't he tell us?" I asked.

  "Uncle Lee wanted it kept quiet, until I had decided to hire you. Uncle feels you have been disappointed a time too many and did not want you to suffer from false hopes."

  My brow wrinkled. "Henry gave me the work pass, though."

  Captain Hiroshi met my gaze with his deep brown one. "Uncle had pointed Henry out to me as being a frie
nd of yours, so I approached him and Ted at the land port and arranged for your work pass." Wow, so Henry was in on this, too. "Once Tora leaves orbit, many weeks will pass before we return. Do you wish to come with us?" Hiroshi asked.

  Eyes wide, I nodded and managed to release a whispered, "Yes."

  Captain Hiroshi nodded. "Very well. Phillip, please escort Teagan home to collect her possessions. I plan to leave orbit in two hours."

  "Yes, sir," Phillip responded. I just stood there overwhelmed.

  "While you two complete your mission, I will meet with a land port official and transfer Teagan from her current position with the city, to employment through me on Tora. Teagan, if you decide that space is not what you had envisioned, I will secure living quarters for you along with suitable employment upon our return."

  "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," I said.

  Instead of going to the cargo hold, Phillip led me to an area somewhere behind it. Inside the area were different vehicles. Phillip hit a button, and a large door opened and lowered to the ground, forming a ramp. He opened the door of a sleek six-seater hover craft, ushering me to take a seat. I had never ridden in one before. Phillip closed the door and got in on the other side. Phillip drove out of Tora and onto a drive behind all of the ships that I had not noticed during my two days in the cargo hold. We left the Union Land Port through a tunnel in the towering wall.

  "Which way, Teagan?"

  Unsure, I said, "If you know how to get to West Avenue from where ever we are, I can give you directions."

  Phillip took a few turns. Then, he spent several minutes driving in one direction. Finally, I recognized where we were.

  "Phillip, about two miles down West Avenue, there's an old overpass. The housing community where I live is located underneath it. I live in unit fourteen."

  Phillip had been chatting to me about different animals he had seen while on other planets. He promised to show some of them to me, during the jaunt we were about to go on. Phillip's chatter had dwindled down to nothing by the time he pulled up behind my unit.

  "Is this the right address?" he asked.

  "Yes, thank you for driving me. Without Henry to see me home, I was afraid that I would get lost. I've only been out to the land port twice."

  Phillip got out, went around, and opened my door for me. He followed me around to the door of my home. I pressed my palm to the door, and entered, inviting Phillip to come inside. Inside my housing unit, Phillip looked like a giant. He looked around at my cot, window, sink, and shelf.

  "This is where you live?" he asked.

  "Yes, I'm lucky. I got this place a few days after I got to the city. The enforcers don't like it when you try to sleep on park benches." I grabbed my new black backpack and placed my two remaining new outfits inside along with my pajama bottoms, shirt, undies, socks, jumper, and flip flops. I placed my toothbrush, toothpaste, and comb in a small compartment inside. Having packed everything I owned, I closed the backpack. "Okay, that's everything. I'm ready to go."

  "That's everything, huh?" Phillip asked.

  I gave him an excited smile, and he drove us back to Tora.

  Chapter Six

  Captain Hiroshi awaited our arrival and opened my door for me while Phillip raised the portion of the hull that functioned as a ramp. "The fair maiden has been rescued, Captain," Phillip announced. Captain Hiroshi took my backpack.

  "You travel light," he said. "Perhaps you will find some things you like on our off world stops," he said. Realizing I had been in the same clothing since dawn, had worked all day loading Tora, and that the time approached midnight, I worried that I might be having an unsavory effect on my new captain.

  "What kind of items do they have at our first stop? Where is our first stop?" I asked. Captain Hiroshi began leading us through a doorway and into a lift.

  "First, we dock at the colony outpost Polybius on Scipio. Would you like to see your new quarters?"

  With an enthusiastic nod I said, "Yes, I would. Yukihyo didn't have time to show me what a room," I corrected myself, "what quarters on a ship look like."

  Hiroshi asked, "What have you imagined?" He stopped in front of one of the nine doors in the main corridor. It was one of the second doors down from the bridge.

  "I figured they would be a little smaller than my housing unit, with a bed that pulls out of the wall or something like that."

  Captain Hiroshi raised one of his brows and said, "Perhaps you will be pleased." The door slid open, and he entered. Curious, I followed. It was not what I had expected. Although the same grey metal covered all of the walls, the room was beautiful. It was rectangular in shape and longer than it was wide. At an angle in the far left corner, there was a large bed, not a cot. Covered in pillows and blankets in purple, fuchsia, and grey, it looked like something that might appear in a magazine. Up above in the ceiling over the bed, a long rectangular skylight remained covered. The bed had been placed under it. The skylight was longer by at least two feet passing over each side of the bed below it. My eyes traveled clockwise to the corner opposite the bed where walls formed a room. Next to the room, another corner was formed by its edge. Around the room’s corner and against the wall of the ship, rested an oval metal vanity with a mirror that had a round cushioned stool with a purple seat in front of it. A foot or so of space separated the vanity from a long storage cabinet that stretched to the wall through which we had entered the room. Drawing my eyes from the right and back to the left near the door, I saw a long thin metal table that rested against the back of a grey couch that had been covered in more purple and fuchsia pillows. I reached out and touched the table with my left hand, unsure if what I saw was real. On the wall in front of the couch, hung a vid-screen that was longer than the couch.

  In a soft and barely audible voice, I said, "It's beautiful. Are you serious? You can't be. Is this really where I get to stay? Really?"

  Captain Hiroshi said gruffly, "Your quarters please you. That is good. Yukihyo hoped that you would like the colors he selected. While you and Phillip collected your things, I handled your affairs. These quarters on Tora are recorded as your official residence. Your work designation is that of domestic assistant on Tora, and officially, I am your employer. Your quarters here on the ship, food, and medical needs are included. Wages earned may vary depending on trade agreements, but I assure you better earnings than those of a land port worker. If this is acceptable to you, Teagan, the contract requires your hand scan. We can access it on your vid-screen."

  In a quiet shaky voice, I said, "I think the bed is the size of my housing unit. This is like something out of a book, the made up kind with happy endings." Sensing I might be about to cry, the captain placed my backpack on the metal table behind the couch. He took my hands in his and just looked into my eyes for a few seconds. He rubbed his thumbs over the tops of my hands and then released them, crossing the room to the vid-screen.

  "To activate the screen, all you have to do is touch it." Captain Hiroshi demonstrated. "Touch it twice to pull up the menu, and then you can point to categories, and drop menus." He pulled up the contract. I walked over and placed my palm where he indicated, and then, he did as well. With the contract completed, Captain Hiroshi submitted it and received instant notification of its acceptance. The contract on the vid-screen flashed, and my picture appeared with my name on a new official work identification permit that would and could be viewed by any government or military personnel who scanned me or searched my name. "I will leave you now for the night. Get settled in and get some rest. You may go anywhere on this deck, except for my bridge or the personal crew quarters, unless invited. Understood?"

  "Understood, sir," I replied. The captain left, closing the door behind him. I walked to the room in the back right corner. The door to the room was across from the bottom corner of the bed. Inside, I found a bathroom with a shower, waste unit, and sink and mirror. I had my own private bathroom. It just kept getting better. I got my backpack, opened it, and withdrew my pajamas, placing them on th
e purple cushioned stool and my backpack on the vanity. I brought my toothbrush and toothpaste with me. I placed the items on the metal surface surrounding the sink. I scanned my bathroom, while availing myself of the waste unit. I put my boots and socks in the corner. Black pants followed. I removed the temporary work pass from its pocket. All of this had started with that pass. Not only had I gotten to see a real starship, but now I had my own room on Tora. A built in cabinet, between the sink and shower stall, held a basket at the bottom and towels on the top shelves. Large soft fluffy fuchsia rugs were in front of the sink, waste unit, and shower. My pants and socks went into the laundry basket with the rest of my attire. I took a towel and dropped it in front of the shower. The door slid open, and I entered. In a horizontal line, three buttons were on the shower’s wall. I pushed the center button. Water thrummed down on my head and shoulders, causing a moan to escape me. Best shower ever, I thought. I got my hair wet and wiped water from my eyes. The buttons had taken on colors, the one to the left, red, the one to the right, blue. I pushed the red one and the water temperature rose, so I pushed it again. I turned and let the hot water pound between my shoulder blades. A clear bottle, filled with a light pink fluid, rested on a small previously unnoticed corner shelving unit in the shower. I took it and opened the top.

  "I guess they don't use cleaning enzymes here." I sniffed it. It smelled like roses and jasmine. I poured some into my hand, put the bottle back, and lathered it all through my hair. I thought of Captain Hiroshi's words. If I wasn't happy, if life on Tora wasn't for me, he would find me another job.

  "Yeah, right." I had used too much of the pink stuff and used some of the suds to clean the rest of me. I knew I had been manipulated. That much was clear even to me, but it hadn't been in a malicious way. It had been in a way, as to not get my hopes up, while Captain Hiroshi formed an opinion of me, a secret interview. These quarters were spectacular. I would have to be completely out of my mind to give this up. I didn't mind cleaning a few waste units and loading and unloading cargo for this. Anything here had to be better than trash bins all day or even Mary's job, before Paul took her away. I rinsed off all of the soap. I squeezed water out of my hair and pushed the center button. That was the best shower of my life, and I didn't even need to wear flip flops. I dried off and brushed my teeth. The rugs felt soft and warm under my toes, which had been trapped for so many hours in my hard and unyielding boots. I went out and over to the vanity. I unwrapped the towel from my body and wrapped it around my hair instead, dressing in my pajama bottoms and shirt. I opened a drawer of the storage unit and put my clean clothes in it. I put the backpack in another drawer. Back in my bathroom, I got my boots and old work pass and put them in the drawer, too. Finished unpacking I headed for the bed. I pulled back the soft thick covering, blanket, and sheet, and slipped inside. I didn't know what type of fabric these were made of just that they were more luxurious than anything I had ever felt before. Another groan escaped me. This was a real mattress, nothing at all like my cot. It was both soft and firm, and the bones in my back ached as they began to relax. The pillows were soft and clean. I wrapped my arm around the blankets, and pulling them close against my chest, I was blissfully asleep before any more appreciative thoughts could occur to me.