by F. E. Arliss
Johanna had studied at the MINE Tech program in Paris for her undergraduate degree in Engineering and had been accepted into the prestigious Ecole Des Mines program in Paris for her Master’s in Aerospace Engineering. She could fix absolutely anything, Sophie knew, and seemed to have an intuitive way with system parts. It was an amazing talent.
The time in Paris had been a boon to Johanna in more than just learning. In France, she’d learned how to be elegant and claim her own type of beauty. Her school-mates at the MINE Tech Program had helped her learn to embrace her long, lustrous, wildly-exuberate curls; not by trying to tame them as most girls did back in South Africa, but by encouraging them to grow. They taught her to trim off dull ends, and then how to massage her scalp and long curls with a special oil until they gleamed. Johanna still added a dollop of coconut oil to that mixture. It floored her Parisian friends, but she loved the smell and believed the old-fashioned remedy was still the best one.
Instead of feeling bad that she had a full booty, she now embraced its generous curves and felt sexy because of her lush butt and long shapely legs. Her small bust didn’t bother her. From her French counter-parts she’d learned the upside to small boobs -- you could wear the most miniscule of lacy bras and let them show. It played up her graceful collarbones and trim waist.
From all this support and coaching, Johanna now felt like the super-model gorgeous girl that she was. Sophie had matured in those ways too, and instead of feeling like a little mouse, had set about making her petite frame into a delicately, ultra-feminine package of tiny elegance. They made quite the pair; one tall, black, African queen and one tiny, delicately-pale, fairy princess.
Each had experimented with a variety of boyfriends and found that none of them, no matter how desirable, were any more reliable than men had been in South Africa. Less violent, perhaps, but no more dependable and no more faithful.
Both knew what they wanted to do with their lives now that they were about to graduate. Sophie wanted to talk to the alien species. Johanna wanted to work on a space station and work on warp drives, not just on simulated models of them. Both were unsure about how to make that happen. But they had time to work it out.
When Pierre stepped onto the terrace from the patio doors, it wasn’t with the jubilant expression either of them was expecting. His face was clouded with some heavy emotion and he held his hands out to Johanna in a beseeching manner.
“What is it?” she asked, a tremor in her voice, caused by the concern on his mobile face. “What’s happened?”
“There’s been a vigilante mob in Diepsloot. They’ve set much of the township on fire. Your mother is worried about Joseph Abay. I think we need to go and try to remove him if we can. I fear he will not be alive if we leave it much longer,” Pierre said, a sense of urgency underlying his words. “Can you be ready to leave in half and hour? We will fly there immediately.”
“I can,” Johanna stated, already heading out the door to pack.
“I’m coming too,” Sophie said. “Either of you…Don’t try to make me stay home. I won’t!” she exclaimed.
“Ok, come on then. Time is of the essence,” barked her brother. All of them rushed out of the room. Three hours later they were landing at a private airstrip outside Pretoria. The speed of air travel was a marvel these days, thought Johanna. She could remember it taking twice that long six years ago to get to Paris.
She could see her mother, Precious, pacing nervously up and down at the edge of a hangar near where they were taxiing in. She hoped Joseph Abay was alright. He was the mechanic who’d gotten her interested in fixing things all those years ago and encouraged her to learn to defend herself. He was important to her.
Her mother ran towards her and embraced her fervently. “It is good to see you daughter!” her mother said excitedly. “But in such sorry circumstances,” she added, fear clouding her face. “Diepsloot is ablaze, and I have no knowledge of Joseph Abay’s whereabouts. Let us go and find him before it is too late,” she said pushing her daughter towards the large armored vehicle Pierre had rented.
Johanna could see that it had a compliment of six men from Pierre’s security detail, loaded atop it. Each carried an assortment of weapons, including automatic rifles. It looked terrifying.
“Is it really that bad?” Sophie asked her brother, glancing questioningly at him.
“Worse,” he replied tersely. “We need to get there. Get Joseph. And get out again. All without dying,” he added dryly.
The armored vehicle made good time to Diepsloot. Pierre had been right. It was as though the world had gone insane. Homes burned on the outskirts of the slum and the whole of the center of Diepsloot looked to be ablaze. Women and children ran crying and screaming, carrying as much as they could upon backs and heads. Men and boys appeared to be looting without compunction. Occasionally, tearing belongings out of women’s arms and loping off into the dark, leaving the women to cry hysterically. It was like an illustration that Sophie and Johanna had studied from ‘Dante’s Inferno.’ It was the seventh layer of hell.
After forty minutes of navigating the heat and chaos of the blazing town, they’d gotten close to the garage where Joseph Abay lived and worked. Parts of it were still standing. Some of those old engine lifts of block and tackle frames had kept it mostly upright despite the destruction. Johanna could see nothing in the dark recesses of the remaining hulk.
Stumbling out of the vehicle flanked by Pierre and two of his guards, she ran into the dark interior. “Joseph! Joseph Abay! Answer me!” she yelled. “It’s Johanna Van Heusen! Come out now! We must hurry! It is not safe to stay here! Come out Joseph Abay!”
Several seconds elapsed and she repeated her cries, as the guards spread out and searched the remains of the building. The screeching of metal on metal caused them all to whirl towards the side of the building. A large piece of sheet metal slowly peeled away from low down on the side wall. Joseph Abay appeared dressed in coveralls and wearing a welding mask. He was using a long wooden stick with a piece of old rubber tire on the end to push the burning hot metal out of the way. A dark pit of damp earth could be seen behind him.
“I built a small bunker. Just in case,” he gasped ripping off the mask. He stumbled and almost fell. Johanna rushed in and caught his crumpling form. “Help me Pierre,” she shouted. “We need to get out of here, now!”
Pierre helped her drag Joseph towards the armored vehicle. Precious met them at the door and grabbed one of Joseph’s arms and levered him into a seat across from her. “Get us out of here,” she pleaded to Pierre.
“Let’s roll!” Pierre shouted, and a second later the large beast of a truck lumbered off. “Don’t stop for anything!” he ordered. “Just get us back to the airstrip and out of here.”
Sophie and Precious treated Joseph’s burns and handed him water to drink and to wash his burned face. He looked a hundred years old, a sad and shrunken man who had just lost everything.
Slowly he raised his head and looked at each of them in turn. “Thank you for coming for me. Thank you,” he whispered, then sank his head in his hands and wept like a baby. Most of them wept with him.
Sophie crept up against Johanna’s back and glanced out the window over her shoulder. “It’s like hell,” Johanna whispered to her. “They’re all just hurting each other for a few items of no value. It’s mayhem. Pure evil and destruction. It’s revolting. I hate this place and I never want to come back here ever again.”
“Ok,” Sophie whispered in her ear. “We won’t come back here. Ever again.”
“Pierre, do you know if St. Mary’s School is safe?” asked Johanna’s mom.
“Yes, they have private security now and have automated weapons turrets installed on top of the school. Draconian measures for Draconian times, it would seem,” he said cynically. “I think they’ll be fine. I will check in with them when we’re back at the airfield.”
They all sat quietly in stunned silence, letting the security team do their work and get them safel
y back to the aircraft and aloft in under forty-five minutes. Joseph and Precious both fell asleep almost instantly. Fear, fatigue and grief, having wrung them out. Sophie and Johanna just sat, eyes glazed and far away, as Pierre placed his calls.
The school was fine. The automated security system was working well, and Matron felt that order would be restored in a few days. Pierre wasn’t so sure. It had looked like people had gone insane. It was a sad testament to what despair and poverty could reduce people to.
Perhaps it was time to think about putting his technologies to different uses out at the frontier of space, as Johanna and Sophie often urged him to do. Aliens could be no scarier than humans at this point, he thought wryly. Paris was civilized, but civilization appeared to be dwindling. Lord what a mess. This is what the divide between wealth and poverty did to people. It was heartbreaking.
He’d have to see what his company had that might help here -- water purification or solar energy arrays. Perhaps portable cook stoves or prefab shelters could be made. That wouldn’t change the fact that they simply didn’t have work or resources to keep going, no matter what Pierre had to offer them from his company’s stores. His air purification systems had helped people breathe better in the mines. It hadn’t altered the terrible work conditions that he couldn’t control. There was always something else that depended on others. It was demoralizing.
Chapter Seven
Future Forward
Johanna Van Heusen, her mother Precious, Joseph Abay, Pierre Roux and his sister Sophie all set quietly in different positions around the room. They were at the Roux home outside Paris and had taken the last few days to recover from their harrowing ordeal in rescuing Joseph Abay. The chaos around Pretoria and Johannesburg had died down a little, but it would never be gone until something was done about the enormous division of classes there.
Precious couldn’t help but think about how their lives had been saved because Johanna had been brave enough to stand up and do the right thing, the brave thing, and help Mr. Roux when he was attacked. Their lives would have been as horrible as all those others killed and robbed in the rioting.
Precious would have urged Johanna to stay safe, stay down, don’t bring attention. In the end, that would have killed them as surely as anything. It made her feel so sad, that that was what had been ingrained into her. Don’t do right if it might cost you pain. Might made right. Look the other way. It was no way to live. Her daughter knew that. Precious was proud of Johanna for that.
They’d come together in this plush room, far from the dangers of poverty and oppression to discuss the future. None of them was sure what that meant for their friendships, but it was time to decide. Precious felt sure that it would only be good.
Johanna looked around and the others in the silent room, and released along sigh. She guessed she might as well get started. “I’ve come to a decision about what I want to do with my degree,” she stated with certainty. She glanced at Sophie and caught a faint smile of encouragement from her friend. “I’m going in to Paris and apply for the Orbit Guard. They have a female Corps now and I want to sign up for the Engineering component of the Corps.”
Precious couldn’t help the little cry that escaped her lips. Johanna turned to face her. “I can’t stay with you forever Mom. I love you, and I want to do this. Please support me in this,” she beseeched her Mother. “I’m twenty-two years old. It’s time to strike out on my own,” she added firmly.
“What about Sophie?” Pierre asked, uncertainly, looking between the two girls.
“I’m going to join the Women’s Corp for Orbit Guard in the diplomatic training branch,” Sophie said shyly. “If they’ll take me that is,” she added.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” snapped Johanna. “They’ll be delighted to have you. You’ve got no lisp at all anymore, if that’s what you’re worrying about! Just take your time, and speak slowly. It will all be fine,” she added, encouragingly.
Sophie smiled at Johanna, and turned to her brother. “What do you think?” she asked him quietly, gazing into his blue eyes. “Will you let me try?”
“You don’t have to ask him to give you permission!” Johanna stated.
“Johanna, please!” her mother gasped.
Pierre laughed, “Always the same firework of a girl. Good for you Johanna. And she is correct, Sophie. You don’t have to ask me for permission. It is your life. I will support you in whatever endeavor you decide is right for you,” he continued fiercely, striding over to pull his sister into his arms.
“We’ll have to be apart. Johanna and I, that is,” Sophie whispered up at him. “I’m a little frightened of that. I’ll be on my own at the Orbit Guard training academy after she deploys. Please say you’ll visit me there,” she pleaded.
“Of course, I will,” he stated adamantly, hugging her again.
“I’ve got news of my own. I’ve decided to invest in some of the new technologies that are being offered through Orbit Guard. I’m going to start manufacturing a type of space craft that uses our air-flow technologies to maximize speed and reduce fuel consumption. Accompanied by the new armor that Donji Industries out of Japan is manufacturing, it will be an unstoppable little beast of a machine.”
“I’ve got a test subject contract for these small combat fighters accepted by Orbit Guard. So, it turns out I’ll be at Orbit Guard headquarters near the academy, far more than we’d ever suspected.” He grinned at his sister. “Good timing, huh?” he laughed.
“Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed. “I’m so happy about that.”
Joseph Abay rose and extended his hand to Pierre. “I want to thank you for the opportunity to work for you here at your Paris home. I promise to keep the machinery all in good working order.”
Johanna laughed, “Oh that’s perfect! Thank you, Pierre!”
“It gets better!” her mother added, smiling now. “I’ll be staying on here as well, to help with the household and keep an eye on Joseph!” she exclaimed, teasingly. “It will be good to have an old friend close by.”
“It seems we all have new adventures in our futures,” Pierre said happily. “Let’s raise a toast to new adventures, and long friendships!”
A chorus of ‘salutes’ rang out.
Chapter Eight
Station
Johanna Van Heusen groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and pulled herself upright. They appeared to be landing on the Orbit Guard frontier station. The crew had woken the women from their deep sleep an hour ago. It was hard waking up from a space-fold induced sleep. Who knew it would be so lulling as the galaxy flew by you in great dark swathes of distorted space, luminous light shows, and tiny flecks of planets and stars.
They were to report to the landing bay, strap in for the transition to regular space, and then fall in and disembark. At their orientation, they were to be given a tablet that would hold a schematic of the station, the whereabouts of the mess, bridge, their various assigned duties, and their quarters and roommates. She’d been roommates with her mother or Sophie all her life. She wasn’t sure how she’d get on with a new one. It made her swallow nervously, and get a little worried knot in her stomach.
Otherwise, Johanna was thrilled. She’d resisted sleep until they were several hours into fold-space. It had all been so exciting. The explosive surge of power to break Earth’s atmosphere, then the jump to fold-space. Seeing the Earth from orbit had been life changing.
She felt no regret at seeing it disappear behind them, becoming just a tiny distant marble of color. Instead of bursting into tears like some of the women, Johanna had only felt a surge of satisfaction. She’d noticed the icy-blonde Russian with a medic’s bag strapped on her hip wasn’t tearing up either. At least she had company in not feeling sentimental about this new adventure.
They were to be met in the landing area by their Commanding Officer, a Lieutenant Chloe Sedgewick, also station’s counselor. Not that Johanna felt she’d need that kind of support. She was delighted to be here. She missed Sophie an
d her mom a bit, but aside from that, this was fantastic!
Strapped in and ready for landing, Johanna watched curiously as the station platform came into view through the large porthole windows on the side of the troop carrier they rode. It was enormous, and ugly. It was a sort of conglomeration of added-on pieces and platforms. It wasn’t the shiny material she’d imagined. It was dark and dirty, and looked a lot like Joseph Abay’s garage, if had been flattened a bit, and had branches added to it. Well, so much for that bit of space fantasy.
Johanna supposed that as the Frontier Station’s crew grew, so had the station, with whatever they could find out there to fit the purpose. Well, she was good with that concept. It had been her whole life up until St. Mary’s School. Find something that would work, then shape it to fit. Nothing had been new or custom in her early life.
As the troop-carrier they were lashed into bumped to a halt inside the landing bay of the Station, each of the women began unsnapping their harnesses and digging into the cargo netting for their stowed gear. Johanna hadn’t brought much. Her luggage consisted of her multi-purpose wrenches and the special harness, now much upgraded, that held them to her uniform.
Johanna heard a sucking pop as the door depressurized, and a mimicking feeling in her inner-ear. Then the gate began to lower away. She couldn’t help throwing an excited smile at the Russian medic across from her. The girl returned the smile with a slight one of her own.
An odor like dirty socks and body odor wafted in from the now open door. Some of the women wrinkled their noses. Not Johanna, or the Russian medic, she noticed. To Johanna, this was a far cry from the stench of human waste and filth that became second-nature in the slums of South Africa.