by J. Naomi Ay
"Where you going, sweet ladies?" The guy blocked our path.
"Nowhere," Lili barked. "Move out of our way."
"I'll lead you to wherever you want to go," he insisted but didn’t move. "I'll take you anywhere. Just tell me. I am yours to command."
"Okay," Lili agreed. "We're going to the refugee camp."
"Why? You not Red Alien."
"She is," Lili pointed at me. My heart froze in my chest and my knees became weak. Maybe this really wasn't such a good idea after all.
"You are Red Alien?" the guy peered at me. His breath was stinky and bad and his mouth had no teeth. "Okay, I'll take you there for only one dollar."
"Half," Lili said, "and that's all."
"Okay," he shrugged and then led us down the street, pushing all the other milling people aside. "Just follow me, sweet girls," he sang. "I'll be taking this Red Alien baby home."
When we got to the refugee camp which was merely a street corner surrounded by barbed wire and entered through a gate, Lili paid the man his half dollar and then wished me good luck.
"Lili," I called as she turned to depart. "Who were all those people standing around in the streets? Are they aliens too?"
"No, Elana, these are your people. This is what goes on while your mother eats toast."
"But why?" I called. "Why aren't they at home?"
"They are at home," she replied. "They don't have jobs so they can't pay for a house. Their home is the street."
"No," I shook my head, "that's not how it's supposed to be. Father says the people work and pay taxes and…"
"And subsidize the Queen and all of the Red Aliens and those living on the streets so less and less have money while more and more need more. That's how it is, Elana. This is reality. Now you can see why I am hoping the Emperor will come in and fix all of this and make everything the way you say it’s supposed to be." Lilibet turned and walked away while I stood alone at the gate.
"I had no idea," I called after. "I really had no clue."
"No, you didn't," she agreed by calling over her shoulder. "You really didn't, Princess. Enjoy your vacation in the refugee camp."
Chapter 11
Yula
"Who do you think she is?" Geor asked nodding toward the girl. She was sitting across from us at the front of her tent watching everyone pass with wide eager eyes. She turned and looked at me and smiled expectantly. I noticed that her red face had a patch of white near her left ear. She reached up and brushed her hand against her cheek and the white patch became larger still.
"She's not one of us," I said. "She's Cyganian, maybe another cop."
"What do you think she's doing here?" Ike wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back against him. "I know what I'd like to do here," he whispered in my ear.
"Later," I mumbled and pushed him away. "I'm going to go talk to her."
Ike lit a cigarette he had rolled himself from some paper and tobacco leaves. He traded nearly a day's worth of hard earned coins for his small stash. In my mind, that was a colossal waste of money. It also made Ike's breath smell bad. We didn't have any toothpaste or brushes either so his teeth were already getting stained from the tar.
"Give me a drag?" Geor asked holding out his hand.
Geor didn't have any coins either as he had given all of them to Mother and Father. Ike shrugged and let Geor take a puff while I walked across the dirt to Cyganian girl's tent. She smiled as I approached and practically begged me with her eyes to speak to her.
"Hello," I said kneeling down next to her and showing her my hand in a traditional Corganian greeting.
"Hello," she replied and held up her hand too. If I had any doubts before, they were now gone. This girl was definitely not one of us. Her hand was held upside down.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "Why do you keep watching us?"
The girl waited a moment before answering, cocking her head slightly as if listening to something.
"I don't understand," she said slowly mispronouncing half of the words. "I'm not watching you."
I grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to me so I could see beneath her curly black hair. It was well hidden but there was definitely an ear piece lodged in her right ear. "Don't lie to me, bitch. You're wearing a Universal Translator, aren't you?"
"Let go of me," she shrieked and tried to pull away but I wouldn't let her.
"Are you a plant? Do you work for the cops? We're not dealing drugs in here. I already told the guy last week so quit spying on us. Go down there and spy on those people instead." I pointed at the other end of the tent city where they were dealing drugs and doing all sorts of other illegal kinds of things.
"I'm not spying," she cried and her eyes filled with tears which then leaked out on her face. They trickled down her cheeks, drawing white tracks like snail trails through her red face paint. "I only want to help you," she wept.
"We don't need your help." I let go of her arm. "We don't need any more do-gooder Cyganians offering us hand-outs and advice. We need jobs and respect. Those are the only things we need."
"I'd like a job," Ike agreed strolling over, his cig now reduced to less than the size of his thumbnail. He wouldn't give it up until it was completely gone, even if he burned his fingers in the process. "You got any jobs for us, bitch?"
"I…I…" she stuttered staring up at all of us. "I might."
"Sure," Ike laughed and then grabbed me again. "Come on," he whispered in my ear. "Let's go use your tent before your parents return."
"Gramma's in there," I snapped back at him. "Leave me alone. I'm busy here." I turned to the girl. "What do you want? What are you doing here with make-up dripping down your face? That's not even your real hair color, now is it?"
She waited another moment for the translator to keep up and then nodded sadly at me. "I just want to help," she practically whispered. "I just want to know what it's like for you and maybe figure out how we can make it better."
"We who?" Geor asked now standing next to me as well. "Who's going to help us? There ain't any Cyganian willing do anything for us except load us on a ship and send us back to Corganus."
"I know people," she insisted, "people with influence, people with money."
"You sure don't look like it," Ike snorted.
"I know," she nodded. "But I really want to help. Can you tell me why you came here and what you're doing now?"
"We ain't doing shit," Geor replied and then snickered thinking he was cool. I slapped him across the head for his bad Corganian and using foul words.
"Just because we're living in a tent city and begging for coins doesn't mean you need to speak and act like a bum. You went to the University, we all did," I told the girl. "We're educated and civilized even though now we don't look like it. See that guy over there." I pointed at the man sitting in the doorway of the tent three doors down. "He's a doctor, a surgeon but here he begs for coins and sweeps floors. The woman across from him is a lawyer and right now she's selling flowers. My father ran a business and had two hundred employees. Now he walks around with handfuls of buttons begging people to buy them. Sometimes he collects waste papers and cardboard and turns them in at the recycle station for a penny a pound."
"Why?" she asked. "Why did you leave to come here to do this?"
"Crappy government," Ike spat. "Although I can't say yours is much better. We'd all be better off if the ship went on to Rehnor but it was too far away and their space is tightly patrolled. They would never have let us in."
Just then Mother and Father returned from their rounds on the local corners. Both of them looked overly tired and hardly glanced at us before going into our tent.
"Our turn," Geor said and went to gather the bags of buttons. "Are you coming with us today, Ike?"
"Where are you going?" the girl asked rising to her feet. "Can I come with you?"
"No," I replied automatically.
"Sure," Ike said with a grin.
"Okay," Geor agreed. "Why not. Come on, Yula. Wha
t harm could it do? She wants to know what it's like for us; she can sell buttons and collect cardboard too."
"But then she'll want a cut and something to eat," I protested.
"No, I won't," the girl insisted. "You don't have to share anything with me. Just let me come and see, please?" She nodded hopefully.
"Ah, let her," Ike smiled and appraised her with his eyes. "She's not too bad looking for a Cyganian. I can put her to work." He was trying to make me jealous but the truth was I didn't care.
"Fine." I snatched my bag of buttons from my brother and headed toward the gate. Rees, the gate attendant was paid fifty cents a day to sit here and write down the names of everyone who left or came back.
"Yula," he announced scratching with his pen. "Geor, Ike and who's this?"
"Elana," the girl replied. "I came in yesterday."
"Oh, that’s' right," Rees mumbled and put a check mark next to her name. "Well, out you go. Good luck to you all. Some charity league is coming tonight and bringing soup and bread so don’t be late for dinner."
"Soup and bread, woo hoo," Geor cried and then slapped Ike on the back.
"Tell them to bring us some T-bone steaks instead," Ike called as I headed across the street.
We walked for about a mile to get away from the refugee part of town. There was no use selling our buttons to Corganians just like us. They had no money and their own buttons to sell so we had to spread out across the city, searching for an empty street corner where maybe some nice Cyganians might look upon us with pity. Elana followed us, asking stupid questions like why did we bring buttons? Why couldn't we just bring money?"
"Corganian money is worthless on Cyganus," Ike said. "And the government wouldn't let us convert it into Imperial dollars."
"Buttons are small and fit into the one bag we could carry," I replied.
"And somebody told Mother they'd be worth something here," Geor added.
"But they're not," Ike stated.
"What if I could get you a job?" Elana asked. "What if I went and spoke to some people?"
"Yeah, good luck with that," I replied. "There's only a few million other Corganians looking for work and since we came uninvited and we don't have any papers, it's illegal to hire us."
We stopped at a corner that we had used before and wasn't that bad for selling buttons and begging. A few girls from the camp hung out in doorways on this street and they made more money than the buttons ever would. One of them was a pharmacist back on Corganus and gave the rest of the girls a tonic to keep themselves clean. She had given me some too in case I wanted to join their business. I wasn't ready to do that just yet although it was a consideration. I used her tonic anyway since I wasn't all that sure about the cleanliness of Ike.
I sat down on the pavement and spread out my stuff displaying the buttons in rows right in front of me. Geor went across the street and sat on the corner there with a sign printed on cardboard that read, "I'm blind and unemployed." He wore dark sunglasses and left his hat near his feet. Elana sat next to me until I shooed her away. Her streaked painted face might scare away my sales.
"Come on," Ike waved to her. "Let's go walk around."
"No, you don't," I called back. "She's too innocent, Ike."
"Innocent and stupid," Ike laughed, "but we can fix that. You need a job, Elana? Do want to be a working girl?"
"I'd like to work," she agreed.
"Ike!"
"Take it easy, Yula. Are you getting jealous?"
I turned my face away and smiled at the lady that was looking at my buttons.
"Now you stand in this doorway and whistle at the boys," I heard Ike say as they walked down the street. "When one of them comes up to you and asks you how much, you tell him twenty. You make him happy and if he hurts you, I'll beat him up. Then you can keep five and I'll keep the rest."
"I don't understand," Elana replied. "How do I make them happy? What do I do?"
"I'll show you," Ike replied and they disappeared around a corner.
"But why should you get more?" Elana protested.
"Because I might get hurt. You just have fun. That's the way it works."
I'll take four of these," the lady said to me so I handed her four buttons and collected twenty cents.
Chapter 12
Sam
"I love shore leave!" I screeched so happy, so very happy to have my feet on the fricking ground. I didn't care which planet this was, I was just happy to be on a planet.
"This place looks pretty bad," Randy remarked looking around the city. He told us only to use his hacker name when we were in the Lair. "Nobody should know I'm one and the same guy," he cautioned.
"My lips are sealed," I swore and Stevie nodded too.
"Cyganus has only been in the Empire for what, three weeks?" Steve frowned.
"Something like that," I replied. "Sheesh, I hope we can help. This place is bad, really fricking bad."
We were walking by a guy sitting on a street corner begging for money. The guy was red like a Corganian and his skin was wizened and old. He had no legs so he sat in a chair. The chair didn't have any wheels so I wondered how he went home every night.
"My son comes to carry me," the old guy replied. His teeth were all yellow and a few were missing. "He has a strong back."
"Are you from Coragnus?" Stevie asked tossing some Imperial coins in the old guy's box. "Are you a refugee?"
"Come here," the guy waggled his finger, "I want to tell you a secret." Stevie leaned closer so the guy could cackle in his ear. "I'm Cyganian. I just paint my face red so I can collect more benefits." Stevie backed away and Randy looked horrified
"You ought to paint your face something too," the old guy continued pointing at Randy. "You're far too pasty white."
"No need to be insulting," Randy muttered and walked away.
"Do you see this guy?" The old man pulled out one of the coins that Stevie had just given him. He pointed at the Great Emperor's face. "He's going to take my benefits away."
"I don't think so," Steve replied. "He's just going to make it fair. Why should the Corganians get more just for being Corganian? Come on Sam. I'm not interested in getting into a debate. Randy, hold up." He grabbed my arm and pulled me down the street. "Let's go get something to eat, guys."
"Sure, dude," I replied. "Just not too expensive. I've got to get souvenirs for my family."
We headed down the street and crossed the block which was filled with street people, and Red Alien's begging for money. Steve gave out coins to everyone who asked.
"Don't do that, dude," I cautioned.
"Why are you wasting your hard earned money, bro?" Randy asked stopping to look at some buttons that a red girl wearing a tight black t-shirt was selling on a corner.
"You want some buttons?" she asked in a low husky voice. Randy blushed deep and fumbled in his pockets. He handed her a coin.
"You can pick out eight of them for one of these," she said. "Unless you want change?"
"Eight?" Randy squeaked and knelt down on the sidewalk to examine each button carefully before making a decision.
In the meantime, Steve had walked across the street to talk to a guy sitting on the corner and begging for money. I followed him since I didn't think my uncle would want a button and Randy looked like he was going to take about four hours to inspect each and every one.
"You're blind?" Stevie asked the guy. "So we should give you money?"
"I can't work, dude," the guy replied. "I need your help."
"Are those sensory lenses?"
"What?" the guy asked.
"Sensory lenses," Stevie repeated slowly so the translator could keep up. "People who wear sensory lenses can work and be productive."
"Uh, no, dude," the guy replied. "These are just sunglasses to…uh, protect my eyes?"
"Mhm," Steve nodded doubtfully and grabbing my arm, he pulled me forward while sticking out his foot. I nearly tripped and fell on the guy.
"Ach!" the guy screamed.
"Wha?" I yelled too. "Why did you trip me, Stevie?"
"To see the dude's reaction," Stevie said with his arms now crossed in front of his chest. "He's about as blind as we are. Give it up, dude. Go get a job."
"I can't, bro," the guy replied now taking off his glasses. "We're not allowed to work here. Back on Corganus, I was a certified public accountant although that turned into more of a certified asset confiscating type of job. They even taught us how to use assault weapons to collect when people didn't pay their taxes."
"That's harsh," I said as Randy with a bag full of buttons returned from across the street.
"That girl is so hot," he fanned his face. "I think I'm in love. I bought forty buttons."
"That girl is my sister Yula," the accountant guy replied. "Stay away from her. She's got a nasty boyfriend."
"I'm in the Imperial SpaceNavy." Randy sucked in his gut and stuck out his chest. "I'm trained in defense."
"Cyber-defense," Stevie said and then Randy's shoulders sunk. "Don't get yourself hurt, this isn't Imperial Quest."
"You guys play Imperial Quest?" the Corganian guy cried. "We had that game back on Corganus! It's been like four month's since I had a chance to play."
"Seriously?" I asked. "What level were you on? Randy's beaten twenty-eight but he plays as Katie."
"No way," the guy said. "I always play Thad."
"Thad?" I gasped. "Who in the galaxy would ever play Thad?"
"Can we get something to eat around here?" Randy asked frowning at his belly. "I'm getting kind of hungry."
"Eat?" the guy asked and shook his red head. "I don't know any restaurants. I have to give all my money to my family so I never eat out. Someone's bringing soup to the shelter today though. Thad's got all these weird idiosyncrasies that give him special abilities."
"That's for sure," Stevie mumbled and offered the guy his hand. "Come on, I'll treat. Invite your sister too."
Randy raced across the street to get Yula while Geor packed up his sign and pocketed the coins in his hat. "Let's go this way," he suggested so we all headed down the block.