The Heights of Perdition

by C. S. Johnson

  Emery laughed. “We don’t have quite that much,” she amended, “but there’s no sense wasting what we have.”

  “I suppose you are right,” Aerie said. “The URS—”

  “I know the stance the URS has, Aerie,” Emery interrupted. “I lived in it myself, growing up. Many people here are refugees, wanderers, and rebels. It would not be a good idea to ruin your cover as a refugee. Believe me, Exton has made your life much easier, and it would do you well to embrace his gift.”

  Warmth settled inside her. “Exton has been … an unusual host,” Aerie stated noncommittedly.

  “I’m surprised to hear it as much as you,” Emery admitted. “Especially after you tried to kill him.”

  “I know it might be a surprise to you,” Aerie said, “but I’m not surprised I failed at my attempt. If I challenged him again, I’d have better luck, I’m sure of it.”

  She glanced up at Emery, trying not to look as pathetically hopeful as she felt. “Will I see him around at all?”

  “He has a lot of duties as captain.”

  “I would like to thank him for his … hospitality.” Aerie decided that was the best word for it.

  “I’ll pass it along to him for you. Now, let’s get Tyra to discharge you so we can see about getting you started on your schedule … ”

  As Emery rattled off a long list of things to do, Aerie stood up for the first time in days. Her hand went up to the back of her head, where Exton had touched her wound so carefully.

  A sudden thought struck her. “Where’s Moona?” she asked, interrupting Emery mid-lecture.

  “What?”

  “My cat.”

  “Oh, that thing,” Emery said. She shrugged at Aerie’s frown. “Pets are not very practical,” she explained apologetically.

  “Do we have time to get her?” Aerie asked.

  “We’ll see if the medics can have her delivered to you later.”

  “Are you sure she’ll be all right?” Aerie thought of her kitten’s tendency to wander off and bit her lip in worry.

  “She should be, especially if she’s been here with you all this time,” Emery assured her. “The medics can see to her. There’s no need to fret. You should have some time to work on getting ready for your new life, anyway. Being a space pirate is interesting, to say the least.”

  A space pirate. On the bright side, it did sound more exciting than working in the Comms Sec, Aerie thought. She grinned, feeling more like her regular, optimistic self. “I had a feeling it was.”

  ♦12♦

  “It’s lovely.” Aerie glanced around the new room, hardly daring to believe that it was now hers.

  Aerie hadn’t been sure of what to expect for a room. The URS was all about necessity, and from her class visits to the prisons and the camps, she was expecting a no more than a small pallet to sleep on and maybe a blanket, if she was lucky.

  That was not what she found to be the case when Emery unlocked her door for her. Inside, the room was much bigger than she’d imagined, though it was only a little bigger than the room in her unit. The walls were of a sturdy black and red, giving her a small but cozy place to sleep, the pattern even reminding her of home.

  There was also a closet and a bathroom, and the bed had been prepared with light gray sheets and a fluffy pillow, one much nicer than the small pad in the med ward. She pushed down the desire to pick up the pillow and bury her face in it.

  A small table and two chairs were pushed up against the far wall, making a perfect alcove for reading or studying. Assuming she could find something to read or study.

  Seeing the colors, Aerie had to wonder if the URS had done a paint job throughout the whole ship. Everything from the med ward to her room seemed to blend into everything else. There were gray floors, black walls, and red trim all over, with numbers posted and a sign on every corner. She wondered if it was just her room, or if the others were like it.

  My room. There was no one to share it with—no Serena, no classmate, no mother, no other comrade—for the first time in her entire life.

  “I’m glad you think so,” Emery said behind her as she stepped inside the room and pushed some buttons, turning on more lights. “I’m sure you’ll get used to it soon enough.”

  “When is your room check?” Aerie asked.

  “We don’t do room checks here.”

  Aerie turned to face her. “Really? You don’t care if I spill things or mess things up?”

  “One thing you’ll find here on the Perdition is that you must take care of yourself for a lot of things, including making your own standards for approval. While you live here, it’s up to you to decide how clean—or in the case of some people, how unclean—you want it to be.”

  “I’m guessing that’s good as long as no one is causing a health hazard?”

  Emery giggled, surprising Aerie. “Yes, that’s true. We generally frown on that.” She walked over to the small closet. “Your uniforms should have arrived already. Here,” she said, tossing one to Aerie. “Go ahead and try it on. That one will go well with your hair.”

  Aerie looked down at the uniform. The light material was colored a light blue with some black trim. It reminded her of Exton’s eyes.

  “There are some additional items in here,” Emery told her. “Boots, a belt, socks, gloves. Here’s the jacket, if you’re still a bit cold.”

  “I’ve seen this material before,” Aerie said. “It’s the same the URS uses.”

  “We don’t spend much time searching for new resources for our crew when it comes to clothes.” Emery nodded toward the uniform. “You’ll find a lot of what we use here is similar to or the same as the URS.”

  “Why do you hate them so much?” Aerie asked. “I mean, sure, their national pride can be excessive, maybe, but everyone has a job, a unit, and a place to be in the URS, and it’s all given freely.”

  Emery shook her head. “It’s hardly free, Aerie.”

  “I don’t understand then,” Aerie replied. What could be worth giving up fairness and a means to survival?

  “Have you ever seen anyone in the URS who didn’t want to live the way they told them to?” Emery asked.

  Before Aerie could reply, she thought about the homeless people cast out from the city, the ones she saw the few times she went to the surface. “A couple,” she muttered.

  “Then I’m surprised,” Emery admitted. “Usually they kill or imprison dissenters or insurgents. Of course, their Reeducation Program has a high success rate. We’ve only managed to help a couple of them after that.”

  Aerie thought about the Reeducation Program. They did have a funny look on their faces when they left, she recalled, one that didn’t seem natural.

  Feeling uncomfortable, she made her way into the bathroom and changed into her new clothes. Emery began programming her room settings.

  “You’ll be assigned to follow me around for the most part of this morning,” Emery told her through the door. “You’ll have some time, like all refugees, to get acquainted with the ship and its communities. You’ve been assigned to work on basic tasks first.”

  Aerie looked at herself in the small mirror. Her hair was still messy. Her uniform felt comfortable, even with the jacket. Three days in the med ward had left her wanting warmth. Her eyes, she noticed, were wide, but no longer with fear.

  More like overwhelmed, Aerie decided.

  She’d been taught that the Perdition was well-named, that it was the most terrible of places to wind up, that Captain Chainsword and his crew were ruthlessly unprincipled and eager to spill blood.

  Maybe they were just ghost stories, Aerie thought. Designed to keep her from questioning too much.

  “Don’t be a fool,” she whispered to herself. These people owe you nothing. There must be a reason they are giving you this room, these nice things. They are laughing at you. They want you to believe them, and that’s when they’ll strike.

  “If you haven’t seen it yet, there are some supplies for your hair and teeth in the d
rawer by the mirror,” Emery called out, delighting Aerie with the discovery.

  A few moments later, dressed and cleaned up, Aerie walked back into her room. Emery was standing at her kitchenette. “I’m making tea,” she told her. “I hope you don’t mind. I wasn’t sure how long you would be.”

  “I don’t mind,” Aerie said. “I’ve never been in a pirate starship before. There’s a lot to learn and just look at, really.”

  “Understandable.” Emery gestured to the table, carrying over two cups. “Are you hungry? There’s more in the cabinets, though not a whole lot. If you get really hungry, you’ll need to go down to Level Three.”

  “Right now, I’m too distracted to be hungry. The medics did give me some food before I left.”

  “They always take good care of our patients,” Emery murmured into her cup.

  “I’ve never been treated so well,” Aerie admitted. She suddenly laughed. “One time, I broke my arm when I was younger, and I had to go to the Medical Center in New Hope. I had to wait for nearly six hours with my mom while they tried to get me situated. It wasn’t fun.”

  “I can imagine,” Emery said. “Depending on what day it was, it could have been longer. Medical supplies are usually delayed in the URS, even in the capital.”

  “How do you know that?” Aerie asked. “It wasn’t too bad. And at least I got treated. Eventually.”

  “Tyler, my husband, worked in computer tech. He has a sister, Meredith, who had to go to the Med Center for a blood transfusion. After nearly five hours, when it became clear she would be waiting, he hacked into the system to see if he could get her in faster. It turned out they wouldn’t have been able to see her at all, until their new supplies came in three days later. She would have been dead.”

  “That sounds awful.” Aerie remembered how nervous her mother had been in the Med Center, even though a broken arm was hardly life threatening. “Her mother must have been worried.”

  “It’s the fact that the hospital didn’t admit they couldn’t treat her that bothered Tyler. They slipped out and he was able to track down a small church house, home to some members of the Ecclesia, where medical treatment was possible.”

  “So the medics, then, are they from the Ecclesia? I saw their insignia. I know they’re not from MENACE.”

  “No, they’re not from MENACE.” Emery’s brusque response made Aerie flinch.

  “Just wondering. I’ve never seen it before.”

  “Many of them are student apprentices here,” Emery explained. “They are part of the Ecclesia. As are most people aboard the ship.”

  “I’ve never heard of that nation before I came here.”

  “They are more than a nation. They share something deeper than culture and rules, and even a leader.”

  “Isn’t Exton their leader?”

  “No, Exton is the captain of the ship. It’s different.”

  “Oh.” Aerie frowned. “That’s unusual.”

  “It’s more of a religion,” Emery explained. “I’m sure that the URS has not told you anything about religion, since it is forbidden by the State, and anything forbidden by the State is evil.”

  “I see,” she murmured, disturbed at how much that made sense. Maybe a little too much sense. Aerie looked down. She tried some of the tea, surprised at the sweet taste. “So, how long will I be here?”

  “We don’t know yet.”

  “What if my unit is looking for me?”

  “They won’t find you.” Emery set down her cup. “It’s pretty simple. The ship is currently out of range for most messages. We’re currently headed back around the moon once more, and then we’ll head back toward Earth since it is the end of our growing season. We don’t have much longer before the harvest.”

  Before Aerie could ask about the harvest, Emery added, “Right now, only Dictator Osgood and General St. Cloud, and possibly a few others, would have access to the satellite feeds they would need in order to be able to reach us.”

  Aerie felt her breath leave her. She knew the General would not be happy to discover his daughter had been taken as a prisoner—guest—aboard an enemy ship. And she didn’t think she would be safe letting Emery know she was the daughter of the highest-ranking general in the enemy state. They’d been nice enough to her as an accidental refugee. As a political piece, she would surely suffer.

  “What if I wanted to send a message?”

  “You’re not allowed.” Emery sat back in her chair. “Right now, we’re not enemies, Aerie, unless you insist on it.”

  “I already told Exton I was the enemy,” Aerie grumbled. “For all the good it did.”

  Emery frowned. “You’re our guest, by our mistake, and we want to do what we can to make you feel welcome here. But we can’t have you threaten the rest of the ship. I assume from what he’s told me that Exton thought you would cooperate.”

  Aerie flinched. “I will,” she said, her voice barely audible as she thought about her self-assigned reconnaissance mission.

  “It’s better for your family, too, if you refrain from contacting them, despite what you might think. The URS might see your family as a threat to the State,” Emery went on, ignoring Aerie’s sudden apprehension. “They could see you reaching out to them from the Perdition as an anti-establishment movement, a resistance of sorts.”

  Aerie was about to object, when she realized Emery had the right of it. Thinking about her PAR, Aerie knew the URS didn’t take well to non-conformity, political or otherwise. “I guess with my mother dead, there’s no reason anyone would miss me.”

  “Your mother’s gone?” Emery’s eyes softened, and Aerie was surprised by the genuine empathy she saw in her eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that. My mother has passed on, too.”

  “My mom was a great lady,” Aerie said quietly. “I miss her so much it hurts to think of her. It’s been close to five years now. She died just after my birthday.”

  “My mom died about ten years ago, a few months after my father. For a long time, I cried when I thought about her.”

  Aerie nodded, unable to say anything. I should be used to being shocked by now, she thought. Having something in common with her enemy surprised her, especially something as deep and painful and true as missing a mother.

  “I felt better after Exton told me it hurt more not to think of her,” Emery said. “I always liked that. He’s really clever like that sometimes, but you can’t let him get a big head over it or he’ll just be insufferable.”

  “He knew your mother?”

  “Oh. I’m his sister.”

  Aerie gaped. “You are?”

  Emery smiled, and Aerie could see a small dimple appear, just like the one Exton had over the left corner of his mouth. “Yes, I don’t mention it too often,” she said. “We don’t look much alike. We both help run the ship and keep our parents’ legacies alive.”

  Aerie just continued to watch her, mentally berating herself as she blushed.

  “There’s no need to be embarrassed,” Emery told her.

  Embarrassment quickly transformed to anger. “I just didn’t realize he’d be sending you to spy on me for him.”

  “He’s not like that.” Emery sighed. “You don’t need to be so paranoid.”

  “I’m paranoid?”

  “Seems like it,” Emery muttered as she picked up her cup and headed toward the compact dishwasher. “I don’t know why he likes you. That would get on my nerves after a while.”

  Aerie felt her blush go from red to purple. Exton likes me?

  “Maybe he feels sorry for you,” Emery continued, talking more to herself than Aerie, making Aerie’s stomach tumble once more, despite the tea. “That would explain why he’s been so nice.”

  “You’ll have to ask him about it,” Aerie muttered. “I certainly gave him no reason to like me.”

  “There’s no point in asking him to explain himself,” Emery told her, stating it with such a resigned quality Aerie knew she was familiar with it. “Let’s just get to business, shall we?”<
br />
  She nodded, trying her best not to show her irritation. Let’s get this over with. I can start collecting information on the Perdition faster if we can get out of here.

  “Here is where your schedule is posted,” Emery said, pointing to the screen placed beside the door. “You can change it between daily and weekly settings. Today, you’re going to follow me around the ship for the morning and you’ll be working on Level Five. At the end of this shift, you’ll be free to congregate with the other families and crewmembers on Level Three.”

  “Oh? I’ll have free time?” Aerie had to stop herself from wriggling her butt in excitement. That would give her time to go investigating, she thought.

  “Yes,” Emery told her. She pressed another button on the screen. “Here’s a map of the ship here. Your room is on this level, in the centerfold region of the ship. We are on Level Two”—she pointed to the different floors—“and this here, Level Five, is where you’ll start working later. The med ward is on Level One. Other floors are off-limits to you at this time, such as where our researchers and our students are working.”

  “What’s this?” Aerie asked, pointing to the large oval-shaped room on the screen’s diagram. “Is that where the engine is?”

  “No.” Emery paused. “That’s the Biovid.” Before Aerie could ask more about it, she continued, “Here’s where your room is. We’ll start familiarizing you with the ship from here.”

  Aerie nodded. “I think I’ll be able to handle the screen. It’s similar to the URS tech, too.” Although not the new NETech, she thought with a small smile.

  “Good. It also acts as an intercom and public announcement device. You can get news from its different channels, though we really only have the station that’s run by our students and a couple from Earth that are filtered through the ship.” She smiled wistfully. “The Ecclesia are very fond of music, you know.”

  “That’s nice.” Even if it seems a bit frivolous. Aerie had only heard music at ceremonies and graduations, and she could understand the appeal of it to some people. Brock had mentioned once how music didn’t seem to encourage the proper, pious attitude most befitting the State, and ever since then Aerie had found his remark to be true.