by S. H. Jucha
“I’m with Idrian, Lise,” Rufus agreed, “as long as the plan doesn’t get us in trouble with station security along with the Andropov family. What you said about what the commandant might think made sense to me.”
“Yes … I was thinking about that,” Lise said, staring ahead at some teenagers laughing and cavorting on the ped-path and forcing the e-trans to navigate around them.
One of the girls in the group of teenagers flashed a rude hand sign at the passengers of a transport that slowed to ease by them, and she was prepared to do the same to the next one. But, at the last second, her hand froze when she locked eyes with Lise Panoy’s cold, blue stare. She yanked the boy on the outside of the group from the e-trans path and hissed a warning. The seven teens hurried to the side of the ped-path and managed to look as guilty as they could when the family heads passed. Of course, since they were teenagers, they were laughing and giggling about it moments after the e-trans, with its preeminent members, got out of hearing distance.
“I agree with Idrian,” Lise resumed. “This is our opportunity, but we have to protect ourselves, which means the commandant has to be made aware of the circumstances. He and I have a solid relationship, coin-wise. If I tell him what’s going on, he’ll let the investigation go forward as a hunt for a murderer, nothing more.”
“Then we help station security get ahold of Aurelia and discover she’s an empath. Then the wrath will fall on the governor,” Rufus reasoned.
“That means we keep our assets out of this, right?” Idrian asked.
“Absolutely,” Lise replied. “That fool gets no help from us, whatsoever.”
“What about the governor’s man, Sestos?” Rufus asked.
“He chose to keep this secret from us, which we could have used nine years ago when I recruited him on the coin,” Lise replied. “I say let him go under with Markos.” She grinned at Rufus and Idrian, who returned their own evil smiles.
* * *
When Markos heard a soft knock at the door, he quickly dried his eyes and blew his nose. Having composed himself, he called for Giorgio to enter.
Giorgio could see that Markos was an emotional wreck, but events were moving too fast to let sentiment stand in the way of planning.
“What do you think they’re going to do?” Markos asked Giorgio, when his security chief plopped down in a chair across the desk from him.
“I think they’ll use this against us, Governor.”
“But they’ll have to be worried that their families could become embroiled too,” Markos protested.
“I agree, which means Lise will take steps to protect the other families, while we take the heat from station security.”
“Then you don’t think they’ll use their assets to find Aurelia and bring her back to me? What then? They find her and keep her for themselves so they can blackmail me?”
“That’s too soft an approach, Governor. Admittedly, Rufus and Idrian are the type to want to blow things up, but Lise is the strategist, which is why she offered me coin nearly a decade ago.”
“And now she knows you held out on her, Giorgio,” Markos said, with regret.
Giorgio quirked his mouth in reply, knowing that it was only a matter of time before this day arrived.
“What are our options, Giorgio?” Markos asked.
“You can be sure that Lise will activate her plan, whatever it is, shortly. It’s my bet that she’ll probably involve the commandant. She’ll find a way to engage station security to find Aurelia before our asset does. If she’s successful, then I think its game over for us.”
“If your asset gets to Aurelia first, then what?” Markos asked.
“Then you and I have to think about what to do next.”
“Meaning?”
“The three women have always been liabilities, which we sought to minimize. Now, our secret has been outed to the family heads, and we have to mitigate our exposure.”
“You’re saying we have to get rid of Helena and Sasha,” Markos said, appalled.
“You have to choose between them and your governorship, which includes your family and me, by the way.”
“If we recover Aurelia first, we can decide what to do then, but, if station security gets her first, then there’s nothing we can do,” Markos replied. “Think it through, Giorgio. If the commandant gets Aurelia in custody, he’ll have this powerful empath telling him this wild tale of being raised in captivity. But, because of what Lise will have told him, according to you, he’ll know that Aurelia’s story is true. The commandant will have to investigate, and he won’t come alone. You can bet Harbour will be accompanying him and his security force. Then it won’t matter if Helena and Sasha aren’t here. We can’t make the household disappear, and once the interviews start with Harbour in the room, she’ll perceive every little lie they tell. And don’t think you or I can hide from a trained and powerful empath like Harbour.”
Giorgio stood abruptly and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Markos asked.
“To contact my asset with on-station security and see if he can enroll others to help him without spilling the entire story. It looks like the only way out of this mess is to spend as much coin as it takes to keep Aurelia out of the hands of station security.”
-3-
The JOS
By walking slowly from the cargo level of the El, Aurelia stalled her approach to whatever waited at the end of the exit ramp. Eventually, two cargo crew members passed her, and she kept pace with them. The three of them joined a short line. The taller and older of the two boys recognized Aurelia, turned around, and said to her, “Look, newbie, don’t you get sick when we get twisted. I just had these coveralls cleaned.”
The boys laughed harshly at the joke, but Aurelia kept her temper under control. She had no desire to hurt anyone else, despite the hostile treatment she was receiving from these strangers. She glanced down to avert her eyes and noticed, for the first time, footprints etched into the deck. From the line’s front to her, the prints were green and numbered six pairs. Behind her, a man stood on a red pair.
A rush of air emanated from in front of Aurelia. It brought her head up, and she looked past the front of the line. A protective hatch slid aside, and then a polished metal door rotated aside to reveal a small car. Six people poured out of the car, and Aurelia’s line hurried forward. By now, Aurelia, who was a quick study, was learning to observe and imitate. The people on the green footprints went; she was on green; and so, she went.
Inside the car, people pressed against a padded backrest and pulled a pair of restraining bars down to brace their shoulders, and she copied the action. When they snapped a wide belt around their waist, she did too.
When all six positions were occupied and restraints in place, green lights lit over the passengers’ heads, and Aurelia felt the capsule accelerate. As the speed increased, the car rotated 90 degrees, dropping Aurelia’s body forward. She swallowed bile to keep from staining loudmouth’s coveralls, who was strapped opposite her. When the boy realized his jest might become reality, fear crossed his face, and that helped Aurelia maintain control of her stomach.
In less than a minute, the car stopped moving, the lights turned white, and passengers pushed up bars and unsnapped belts. Where there had been no gravity, now Aurelia felt her weight firmly on her feet.
Glancing down at his feet, the shorter of the two boys commented to his friend, “Luck is with us. Our deck shoes are still clean,” and he gave Aurelia a nasty smile. She was tempted to drive his taunt back at him, but she settled for ignoring him.
Aurelia exited the capsule into a corridor and was immediately brushed aside by six people rushing to enter the car. She glanced back and read a sign’s three lines: “JOS Translation Capsule, El Cargo Area, Authorized Personnel Only.” It dawned on Aurelia that this device was how the station handled the transition from gravity to weightlessness and back again to access the El.
Aurelia followed the short corridor to a much
broader one, her eyes attracted to the statue of a man in the center of the corridor. She stopped at the edge of the corridors’ intersection. Crowds of people flowed constantly in both directions, and Aurelia, who had lived her life in near isolation, found the crush of people incredible.
Standing still, unlike everyone else, Aurelia found she became the focus of those passing by. Most people eyed her curiously, some sympathetically and some with disdain, and she closed her mental gates for protection. It was obvious to Aurelia that her tawdry tech coveralls were a striking contrast to the close-fitting, decorative outfits of the stationers.
Aurelia made her way through the throng to eye the statue more closely. A plaque at the base read, “Stephen Jenkels, Designer and Chief Engineer of the Jenkels Orbital Station.” JOS, Aurelia thought, recognizing the three-letter anagram, and a soft smile crossed her face.
Despite Aurelia’s attempt to shut herself off from the impressions of the crowds, who numbered in the hundreds, their emotions were getting through to her. She’d never encountered this many individuals at any time, and it felt like everyone was screaming their feelings at her. Aurelia clamped her hands to her ears, as if that would block out the transmissions, and she glanced around for a place of solitude, anywhere where there weren’t people.
Walking briskly with hands tightly against the sides of her head, Aurelia crossed to the other side of the wide corridor, passed shops, dodged people, and dived down a smaller corridor. It was still busy, and she kept twisting and turning, seeking an even smaller passageway and some peace.
Within minutes, Aurelia was lost, but she didn’t care. The noise in her head had quieted to a murmur, which her mental gates could control. She stopped and eased her hands away from her ears.
“You okay?” Aurelia heard a small voice ask. To her right sat a young boy in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg from thigh to ankle.
“Fine,” she said. “The crowds made me a little jumpy.”
“They do that to me too. I like it quiet,” the boy replied. “The name’s Toby,” he said, extending a hand.
“Rules,” Aurelia replied, using the nickname given her by Sasha. It was a common complaint of her little sister, “Aurelia, you have too many rules,” Sasha would say. Aurelia briefly shook Toby’s hand.
“What happened to your leg?” Aurelia asked, leaning against the bulkhead next to Toby.
“Accident. It was shattered in too many places to fix properly, so I’m waiting for my BRC,” Toby said, pronouncing the acronym as “brick.”
“What’s a brick?” Aurelia asked.
“A bone replacement copy … a BRC,” Toby replied. “You know you’re wearing cargo crew coveralls, but you don’t talk or act like a stationer, and you certainly aren’t a downsider. Are you from the Belle?”
“Actually, I need to get to the colony ship. Do you know how to do that?”
“Sure, it’s in section H. You take the Belle’s shuttle from terminal arm six, gate four. How come you don’t know that?”
“I’ve had some problems recently,” Aurelia replied, shaking her head slightly to intimate it had something to do with her memory.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Rules. Looks like you and I aren’t having much luck lately.”
“Could you show me the way to the shuttle, Toby?” Aurelia said hopefully.
“Yeah, it’s a long way around the ring, but I can get you there. You have coin, right?”
“I have some,” Aurelia said, holding up the hand with the ring on it.
“A c-chip ring. Haven’t seen many of those around lately. My mom has a couple of old ones in a drawer. How much you got?
“I don’t know,” Aurelia said quietly.
“Touch it to your comm unit, and it’ll tell you,” Toby said helpfully.
“Don’t have one.”
Toby gave Aurelia a look like he was talking to an alien. He pulled out his device, tapped the screen a few times, and said, “Touch it to mine, and I’ll tell you how much is on it.”
Aurelia was unaware of how the coin could be transferred from the ring, and she was loath to lose what little she had by doing as Toby requested. She opened her senses and pulled from him. She felt apprehension, sympathy, and gratefulness, presumably the latter for the opportunity to talk to someone. Toby seemed safe to her, so she tapped the ring to the top of the device he extended toward her.
“Sorry, Rules, it doesn’t have near enough for a shuttle ride. You could buy some new coveralls,” Toby said, eyeing Aurelia’s tired and ill-fitting pair, “or you could get a few shriek lunches.”
“Shriek lunches?”
“Yeah, shriek, as in what the heck did I just eat?” Toby replied, holding his hands above his shoulders and imitating a person freaking out.
Aurelia laughed quietly at Toby’s antics. He reminded her of Sasha, who was the boisterous one of the sisters. She could sense Toby’s jitters, and she thought through his emotions. “What are you worried about, Toby?”
“You know … the usual things,” Toby replied absentmindedly, but he pulled his arms protectively toward his body.
“Such as …” Aurelia pressed.
“Mainly, it’s the bone replacement. I don’t know if it will hurt or if they’ll get it right. They usually do, but sometimes it doesn’t take. I could be crippled for the rest of my life.”
The more Toby talked, the more Aurelia was moved by the worries that haunted him. His pain reminded Aurelia of hers. She closed her eyes and pushed, replacing Toby’s anxieties with confidence and hope.
“Oh,” Toby sighed in relief. “You’re from the Belle. You’re one of those people, Rules.”
“Shhh,” Aurelia replied, holding a finger to her lips. “It’s our secret, Toby.” She enjoyed the conspiratorial smile that crossed Toby’s face. It smoothed the remaining frown lines on his forehead.
Aurelia debated asking the question on her mind. If her predicament weren’t so dire, she might never have said anything, but her circumstances called for boldness. “Toby, you don’t by any chance have enough coin to buy me a shuttle ride. I could pay you back.”
Toby’s immediate answer was a snort. “I’m eleven. How am I supposed to have that much coin?” When he noticed Rules deflate, he did what most eleven year olds do to help. “Hey, Rules, you want to have some fun? We can go to a terminal arm and play freefall. My mom took my deck shoes, but you can help me through the cap.”
The mention of a station’s arm and learning how to access one intrigued Aurelia. It would take her one step closer to seeking Harbour. “Sure, Toby, lead the way.”
Toby gave Rules a grin and took off in his motorized chair.
Aurelia ran to keep up with Toby. She could hear his laughter, as he swerved around people. Some stationers turned to remonstrate with Toby for his unsafe behavior, but mouths were abruptly closed when they spotted his full leg cast and youthful face. Aurelia kept her head down and murmured “Sorry” to the many she darted past.
Starting to gasp for breath, Aurelia was grateful when Toby turned down a short corridor labeled “Section S, Terminal Arm 2.”
“Mining captains dock their ships here, Rules, so the arm has little foot traffic. The crew gets downtime, and they don’t return to their ship until the last minute.” Toby locked his chair and set the alarm sequence, which would send a signal to station security if it was moved without his approval. “Help me up, Rules,” Toby said, extending his arms to her.
Toby’s excitement was infectious, and Aurelia dearly wanted to help him enjoy his freefall. For her, his emotion was liberating after the months spent with Dimitri. The images of her cousin’s body on the patio started to intrude into her thoughts, but she pushed them away. She bent down and Toby threw his arms around her neck. Standing the boy up with his cast was trickier than she expected, and Aurelia was in danger of losing her balance.
Silently and swiftly, a pair of powerful arms reached around Aurelia and gripped Toby’s shoulders to steady him. With the stranger’s h
elp, Aurelia was able to help Toby stand upright. Their rescuer was a shaved-headed woman, who had more mass than the two of them combined.
“Thanks,” Aurelia and Toby mumbled together.
The woman smiled, and bright teeth flashed white against her brown skin. Then she joined her companions, who were waiting for her.
“Spacers,” Toby whispered.
“How can you tell?” Aurelia asked quietly.
“You notice how the stationers always wear skins?”
“Hmm,” Aurelia replied. She assumed that skins were the names of the body-hugging unitards that she’d seen. Some were a simple black, some were colored, and some were expensively decorated.
“Yeah, well spacers wear skins and something else … almost anything else.”
The woman’s companions, including her, wore the strangest collection of clothing over their skins that Aurelia could imagine. She could swear one individual, who had disappeared from sight, was a man, who was wearing a colorful skirt.
“C’mon, Rules,” Toby urged. “I got to hop, and you have to balance me.” Toby switched to a single hand on Aurelia’s shoulder, leaned his heavy cast behind him, and, as Aurelia took small steps, he hopped on one leg.
Toby signaled a translation capsule with his comm unit and tucked it deep in a pocket. Within seconds, the dual doors slid open, one after the other, and the two made their way into the capsule and secured their positions with shoulder braces and belts.
“Do we have to wait until the car fills?” Aurelia asked. She saw Toby give her the look that said she was a creature with two heads.
“It’ll time out. Be patient,” Toby replied. He’d no sooner spoken, than the lights over them turned green and the other positions went dark.
Aurelia experienced the same effect when she transited to the JOS from downside, only this time she was rotated onto her back because of her position in the capsule. And in contrast to her previous translation, there was no longer any weight on her feet. Remembering her newly learned lesson, she kept her deck shoes firmly planted.