Rayessa and the Space Pirates

by Donna Maree Hanson

  The voice crackled through the speaker. ‘Oh, she’ll live. But you won’t.’

  Stroder’s assurances were not comforting and the look Alwin’s face gave me made my stomach turn all icy. ‘Hold on,’ Alwin said to me. ‘I think he’s going to… Yes, he did.’

  I was half out of the chair. ‘What?’

  ‘A displacement missile. If it explodes near us it will shake us pretty badly.’ Alwin spoke calmly.

  I felt myself relax a little. ‘And if it hits us?’

  ‘You don’t want to know. Hang on, I’m going to try a spurt.’

  ‘A what?’ I had a feeling that I needed to hold on. The edge of my seat was as good a place as any. My fingers turned white, I gripped the chair so hard.

  ‘A spurt. I’ve been building power slowly. I’m almost ready. I can shoot ahead on thrusters and get out of range and hide for a bit.’

  ‘I see. And that will do what? Delay the end?’ My jaw ached from clenching my teeth. I was amazed that he understood what I was saying.

  Alwin cast one quick look at me and smiled lightly, confidently. ‘I hope so.’

  There was a roar of power as the ship shimmied then bucked. I felt a slur of reality and then stillness. ‘Are we there yet?’

  Alwin spun towards me, the excitement of his success making his eyes gleam.

  ‘Yes, now we wait.’ The view screen unshuttered when Alwin hit the release. A space mist, small particles of dust suspended in gas, surrounded us. I saw little lasers firing into the mist guided by Alwin’s manipulation of the controls.

  With no idea what he was doing, I stared at him, not able to hide my puzzlement. He smiled at my look. ‘I’m charging the mist. There are a lot of iron particles here. The charge I’m sending should blind the pirate.’

  ‘But it will blind us too won’t it?’ Here I was showing that I understood, even though the way Alwin’s mind worked daunted me. I wasn’t used to feeling so stupid all the time, only some of the time. Now I wish I had done more than read checklists.

  ‘Normally, yes.’

  His smarts were really frustrating. I looked at the particles outside the ship and back at him. ‘We’re not normal now?’

  He shook his head. ‘Just wait and see. You’ll like it. I have to fire some more shots so all of the mist will charge.’

  As things were quiet, I thought it was a good time to ask. ‘Do you have a spare ship suit?’ I fingered my slave clothes, looking down in despair.

  ‘Hmmm,’ he said without looking up. ‘Ship suit?’

  I ran my gaze along his one. ‘Yes, like yours. Do you have a spare?’

  ‘Not one that will fit you. Don’t worry. You’ll have all the clothes you want soon.’

  I was beginning to give up hope of ever getting one of those nifty suits. The top-of-the-line ones were self-cleaning and never creased. I shrugged and huffed out a puff of air.

  ‘You’re tired. Why don’t you bunk down for a bit while I finish this? I’ll wake you if anything happens.’

  I yawned at the mention of sleep. My hand barely covered my mouth. ‘Okay,’ I mumbled around another yawn. Who would have thought with all the excitement that I would feel tired. Nothing was happening at that moment. Even a short nap could work wonders.

  ‘Do you remember how to get back to my quarters?’

  Nodding, I said around another yawn. ‘I think so.’

  I headed for the doorway and, when it opened, stepped into the corridor. I passed by the clean white walls, and trod over the grey floor panels. I was becoming accustomed to the gravity so my path back to Alwin’s sleeping quarters was easier this time.

  Alwin’s sleeping quarters, when I took a better look, were neat and comfortable, nothing much to see though. I took a pee in the san unit and flopped down on the bed. Even though it was clean there was a slight scent of him on the bed. It was pleasant. Suddenly, warm air flowed over me, which gave me a bit of a fright.

  When I sat up, it stopped. I inched back towards the bed and when I was fully flat, the warm air flowed again. I played with it for a while bobbing up and down until I felt less fearful and could sleep. I wondered how Alwin could stand to sleep in a bed that was active all the time. Very soon though the tiredness got the better of me, my eyelids floated down and I was submerged in sleep.

  Immersed in pleasant dreams and caressed by the warm air blanket, I wasn’t too happy to hear Alwin’s voice over the comms.

  ‘Rayessa. Wake up. They’re here.’

  Darn. I wished he’d stop calling me that. Then it hit me that Alwin knew more about my real parents than I did. It hadn’t sunk in yet, Stroder’s betrayal, and the fact that he wasn’t my Dad at all. From a stable, subsistence existence, I’d been swept up in a solar flare storm. I still hadn’t found my feet.

  I squeezed back into the san unit and eyed my puffy, painted face. One of my ear studs was red and I hoped it wasn’t infected. I washed and dried my face and fell sideways when the ship shuddered. Bolting out of the san unit like a piece of ejected effluent, I bounded, literally, to the door and out into the corridor. I hadn’t done this since I was 14 but felt like doing it now. I pushed off the floor and touched the ceiling with my fingertips and landed lightly six feet sway. I did it again and had to stop. The gravity was fluctuating.

  I spilled into the bridge. Alwin was busy reading displays and readouts. The console was alive with winking colour. The view screen was unshuttered. Nothing but mist showed, swirling extremely slowly.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked, sitting in the chair next to him.

  ‘They’re here, I told you, trying to scan the mist.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I dropped a miniature Scantran. It’s so small they can’t see it but it can transmit to me on tight beam. I can see them but they can’t see me.’

  I was nodding my head but I couldn’t understand why that was so important.

  ‘So do we wait then?’

  ‘A bit, but not for long.’ He hunched over the controls.

  ‘Can you tell me about my parents now and what happened to me?’

  Alwin’s head shot up and he peered at me queerly. ‘Rayessa. We are just about to be attacked. We’ll discuss it later.’

  That got me riled. ‘Well stop calling me that. I’m Rae okay. Not bloody Rayessa. If you haven’t got the time to tell me what’s going on and who I really am then don’t call me strange names.’

  His expression looked pained. ‘Sure, Rae. Charge up the guns for me, second button, third row from the top, centre section.’

  My hands hovered over the controls. They were shaking. This really wasn’t my thing. He’d have to write me a list if he wanted my help. All the controls seemed the same to me. The harder I stared the more similar they seemed. I was about to say I couldn’t find it when I saw it. I pressed it and waited tensely.

  ‘Now,’ said Alwin, and I jumped. ‘This is what I want you to do.’ My eyes widened and I listened carefully. ‘Hold on,’ he said.

  We surged out of the mist, firing our guns on the pirate ship. As soon as they saw us, Stroder started yelling through comms. ‘Get you…tards...’

  He might have said more but the guns were carefully targeted. Alwin had been studying the ship through his little Scantran and worked out exactly where each strike would do the most damage.

  It was quite frightening really, his quiet precision. This auditing sounded like an interesting profession.

  Then I realised what such precision could do. ‘Gris. You mustn’t hurt Gris.’ I tried to push Alwin away from the controls. He held firm, poised to strike.

  ‘Gris isn’t on that ship, Rae,’ he said firmly. Still I struggled with him. ‘Stop. He was sold at the slave markets. Do you hear me? Sold.’

  My eyes met his and saw the truth in there. Gris had betrayed Stroder by helping me. Of course he was sold along with me. I nodded. Alwin sent his missiles away. I saw the explosions, saw the debris explode outwards.

  I sat there silently. ‘Promise
me you will help me save him?’

  He held up a data stick. ‘I will. I have his real name, Jakob Bear. I guess that is why you called him Gris.’

  Chapter Twelve

  A Message Delivered

  We sat in silence as the debris continued to roll away. The pirate ship was dead in space.

  ‘What do you think?’ asked Alwin, after he swivelled his chair toward me.

  ‘About what?’ I was still a bit dumbfounded about the pirate ship, about almost losing Gris. I also felt a bit raw about Stroder. Alwin hadn’t blown them up completely, just disabled the ship and blown up the bridge where Stroder was likely to have been. I had to blink back my tears. Despite everything, I had loved Stroder. At least Gris wasn’t on that ship. I hoped that whoever had bought him would be good to him until I could find some way of buying him back or rescuing him.

  As we manoeuvred around the wreck, Alwin dropped a distress beacon so the survivors could be rescued quickly. That was humane I guess. Maybe Stroder had a chance. Then I thought about what had happened and how badly Stroder had behaved. Maybe Alwin had given him a better chance than he would have given us.

  ‘Rae, how do you think it went? Lucky escape for us,’ he said as he powered down his weapons and entered stuff into his logs.

  ‘It went fine. Your precision with destruction is quite frightening.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He stopped and smiled at me. The edge of my mouth lifted in response. He had saved me. I was grateful.

  ‘Now we have time, will you tell me what’s going on? Why was I with Stroder, who are my real parents and where the hell are we going?’

  Alwin sat back and put his hands behind his head. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes while I swung my feet back and forward. ‘I don’t know why Stroder had you, Rae, but your real parents are Opeia and Carl Gayens. I’ve done a little research. Opeia has stacks of money and comes from a long line of corporate top heavies, and Carl Gayens was heavily into genetic research. I believe he ran Future Gen, a company that grew clones, until the riots closed them down.’

  ‘Riots? Clones?’

  ‘Oh you were probably a bit young at the time, but surely you studied it in school?’

  I frowned at him. ‘What school?’

  He looked away and then returned his gaze to the ceiling. ‘No school, huh? That explains a few things. Well clones were freely manufactured for a few years. Future Gen almost had a monopoly. They made top-of-the-line clones, special order ones, or de-identified ones for general labour. The human rights people were making big noises about the definition of a human being and about abuse of life. Of course, Future Gen put a lot of money into gagging them.’

  ‘So my family makes clones, copies of people, and sells them?’

  ‘No, only your father made clones, but he used Opeia’s money to do it. She put a stop to it in the end by withholding the funds. It might have been the riots or maybe something else.’

  ‘Who rioted? The human rights people?’

  ‘No, Future Gen’s clones did. It was hushed up but I found some early reports in the news codex’s archive. There was only one or two references before they gagged it.’

  ‘I don’t understand you. Gagged?’

  He looked at me sadly and sighed. ‘Rae, you’ve got a lot to learn about the world. People in power can do a lot of things and people with money can do more. And right now, or very soon, you’re going to be reunited with your money. I mean your family.’

  I gaped and then shut my mouth. ‘Truly? How? Where?’

  ‘I have to check my mailbox first but I think we are going to rendezvous with your family. I just hope they still check their email.’

  When I stared at him blankly, he smiled. ‘There was an address, private, discreet, but it said “any information on the whereabouts of Rayessa Gayens please email”. So I did.’

  It was suddenly cold, and I couldn’t stop shivering. Alwin got up and held out his hand. ‘Come on, let’s see if we can find you something warm to put on.’

  ‘Thanks.’ I got up and followed him out.

  ‘Pity though, you look nice in those clothes, very feminine.’

  The sound of my teeth chattering was the only answer to his comments. He went through his gear and held a ship suit up to me, a dull grey job, but it would have swum on me. Then he fished out a cloak, a smaller and more colourful version of his Ridallian disguise. I settled for the cloak. I could wear it over the slave robes. I think he enjoyed withholding a ship suit from me.

  Hunger pains soon became audible groans. His eyebrow shot up.

  ‘Food? I do apologise. You haven’t eaten. Come down to the mess. It’s only small but I’ve a reasonable selection.’

  I was out the door before he could finish his sentence, elbowing him neatly in the gut as I did so. I was absolutely starved.

  The mess was like a second heaven. There were roast dinners, and casseroles, vegetables and reconstituted fruit. And there was coffee. I picked up the container. I had only seen it in the vidmovies. Del always enjoyed a cup.

  ‘You want coffee? Are you sure?’ asked Alwin as he heated three types of meal for me. ‘It will keep you awake. This isn’t the synth kind, it’s real.’

  He popped the lid and a wonderful aroma full of promise filled the small mess. I inhaled deeply. I was going to drink coffee and it smelled wonderful. Now, I knew why Del had that look on her face, so content, so confident.

  ‘Yes, of course I want to try it. I’ve never tasted any kind of coffee, synth of otherwise. It smells divine.’

  He tossed mugs up into the air. They spun slowly and took a little while to fall back down. In the meantime, he’d pulled out milk and sugar. He caught the mugs, sized me up with one eye and placed three sugars into one of the mugs. After that, he poured hot brown coffee into the mug and stirred it.

  I couldn’t wait to try it. I sniffed the aroma and licked my lips. Then I took a gulp, swished it around my mouth experimentally and swallowed cautiously. I had a hard time reconciling the smell to the taste. One was rich and aromatic the other was bitter and thin. I was disappointed.

  Alwin was watching me. ‘More sugar?’ he suggested, holding up the spoon. I struggled with myself for half a second and held my mug out. We reached five sugars before I could drink my first mug of coffee.

  Those instant meals were the best food I had ever tasted. I ate too much. I wrapped the cloak around me, suddenly feeling cold and sleepy.

  Alwin took a look at me. He’d been keeping an eye on the monitors from a small screen in the mess. ‘I best show you how to use the san unit and then a nap I think. It may be a while before we hear anything.’

  ‘You mean you want me to bathe?’ I asked not used to being required to wash. I sniffed and I smelt good, in fact.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Again?’ I said, my voice rising. I’d been bathed by the pirate women. I wasn’t keen on that happening again.

  ‘Why are you so stressed? It’s easy.’ He showed me the little cubicle and explained how to use it.

  ‘Okay.’

  He eyed me. ‘You take your clothes off first. Put the dirty clothes there to clean and change into something else.’ He picked up the grey ship suit and shoved it into my hands. ‘This will do.’

  He left his quarters. I stared at the cubicle and shook my head. No way was I getting in there. I’d sleep on it and consider it later.

  Chapter Thirteen

  To Be and Not to Be

  I woke up from a long nap. I was in Alwin’s bed. I had no idea where he had bunked down. I decided to give the san unit a try. He always smelt so clean. It made me conscious of my own scent, which was stronger now. I guess I had no choice but to wash regularly myself.

  I slipped off my clothes and stood in the tiny rectangular contraption. I put my arms up in the air and stood with my legs apart and my eyes shut.

  ‘Engage,’ I said to the unit.

  Fine spray shot all over me, a hard mist that sluiced me down. Then some sort
of light, flickered over me and then jets of hot air. I stepped out feeling and smelling clean. There wasn’t a drop of water anywhere to be seen. I wrapped the cloak around me, while deciding what to wear. It was a choice between the dirty slave clothes or the large, ugly ship suit that Alwin had offered me.

  I settled on the ship suit, rolling up the arms and legs and tying it around the waist with a belt. I put the slave clothes in the sanitiser as Alwin had instructed me and went to join him on the bridge. He should have had a response to his message by now. He had sent an email Opeia and Carl Gayens saying he had their daughter in his custody.

  When I got to the bridge I stopped short. Alwin had his head in his hands and was groaning. ‘What is it?’ I asked, coming up behind him.

  ‘Oh, there you are. Mmm, you look clean.’

  ‘Yes I’m clean, what’s the matter? You sounded upset. Is there something I should know? Have you heard? Are they coming?’

  ‘No, I haven’t heard. But I found something in the database.’

  ‘What? About me?’

  ‘Yes. It’s a story about your kidnap. It was linked to the clone riots. Two weeks after the riot it says you, Rayessa, were returned to your parents.’

  ‘But you said I am Rayessa.’

  ‘I know, the gen scan said you are. I’m sure you are. I just don’t know what this article means. It could be a scam. It could be a hoax to scare off a ransom, anything. It could mean that they won’t answer the email.’

  ‘Well, forget the email. Let’s go find them.’

  ‘Calm down, Rae. I’ll do some more research.’

  ‘Why? Can’t we just go to Earth?’

  ‘It’s not that simple. I’m following a few leads. It’s not easy to track company ownership. AllEarth Corp is owned by a series of holding companies and trusts. The Gayens’ money is all over the place and so are they. I can’t find where they live or where they are now or even where they will be. They like their privacy it seems.’

  ‘Umm, I have no idea what you just said. What does AllEarth Corp have to do with my parents?’