by Nathan Pedde
Sweat poured down Des’s forehead. If she was covered in dust and dirt, then he was too. He was sure they both looked like little kids who had both gotten into a fight in the school field. Except this wasn’t a fight and they were no longer kids.
“We’re in so much trouble,” Elsie said, “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into that.”
“We’ll be fine,” Des said, “Let me do the talking.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Cause you need to trust me,” Des said.
“But…”
“Please,” Des said, “For once. Just trust me.”
“Listen,” Elsie said, “We’re going to have a black stain on our records. He might throw us into the brig and transfer us to Io to work in an asteroid mine.”
The door opened, and a tall man walked wearing the brown fatigues of an on-duty marine officer.
The marine had a square jaw that protruded out from his face. He wore a simple brown cap which covered his buzz cut hair. The marine officer smelled of cigarettes and putrid coffee.
In his hands, he held a couple of files.
“Des O’Neal and Elsie Dagg,” Captain Kusheeno said as he sat in his chair.
He tapped the file on the desk.
“Shouldn’t we have our parents or guardians here while you question us,” Des said.
“Why?” Captain Kusheeno said, “You’re not in trouble.”
Des was shocked by the statement. He expected a lecture that included a finger waved into his face, but not this.
“We aren’t?” Des asked as he recovered.
“Why you didn’t get into a shelter,” Captain Kusheeno said, “Everyone must report to a shelter. That’s the law.”
“We were delayed,” Des said.
“Delayed.”
“Yes,” Des said, “We were on the way, but the one which was closest was full.”
“Why were you in the Ruby Sector?” Captain Kusheeno said, “School kids your age, with jobs in the Grey and Black Sectors have no reason to be over there.”
“We were exploring. Having fun. Being teenagers,” Des said.
Des thought he could see the vein pop in the Captain’s forehead.
“Listen, I’m going to cut to the chase,” Captain Kusheeno said, “I know you were in the Undercroft. Answer my questions truthfully.”
“We aren’t in trouble?” Des said.
“You aren’t,” Captain Kusheeno said, “if you tell me exactly where you went in the Undercroft, how you even got in…”
“I don’t understand,” Des interrupted.
“I want information,” Captain Kusheeno said, “This talk will go on your permanent record of course, but that’s to be expected.”
Des thought about his situation for a second. He knew Captain Kusheeno had said he and Elsie wasn’t in trouble, but things could change real quick. He grew up on Europa in the poor section and knew the Captain's type well enough.
“No,” Des said.
“What?” Captain Kusheeno said.
“I want you to mark that Elsie had made it to a shelter,” Des said, “I want you to take her out of the office, and take her home. I want you to personally make sure nothing gets put on her permanent record.”
“And if I do all of that?” Captain Kusheeno asked, “What will you do for me?”
“I will tell you all that you need to know,” Des said, “It wasn’t Elsie getting into places where we shouldn’t be, it was me. Elsie has nothing to do with it.”
“Listen, kid, do you know what will happen if I refuse your demands?”
“I know,” Des said, “You’ll be forced to arrest me. Like actually arrest me and not this fake arrest you’ve done. However, it’ll come up that you had brought in two under-aged minors without their parent or guardian being present. That would look awkward.”
“Okay kid,” Captain Kusheeno said, “You are brave at a young age. I’ll give you that.” He pressed a button on his desk phone. “Corporal Johnston, please come in here.”
A few long moments passed. A young-looking female soldier walked into the small office.
“Captain?” Corporal Johnston asked, standing at attention, “How may I help you, sir?”
“I remember seeing Ms. Dagg here at a shelter,” Captain Kusheeno said, “Please add her to the list of one.”
“Yes sir,” Corporal Johnston said, her face a stern mask with the hint of a question in the corner of her eyes.
“Then please escort her home, personally,” Captain Kusheeno said.
Corporal Johnston saluted and left the office.
“Ms. Dagg,” Captain Kusheeno said, “You’re free to go.”
Elsie followed Corporal Johnston out of the office. Elsie mouthed the words, ‘Thank you’ as she exited the office.
“Now,” Captain Kusheeno said, “What information can you tell me?”
“Ask me a question?” Des said.
“Where did you go today instead of reporting to your job?”
“You know I haven’t been going to work?” Des said.
“We’re at war,” Captain Kusheeno said, “I get reports on many things. Especially rebellious youths.”
Des reached into his pocket and tossed a small Data Crystal at the Captain.
“Try this,” Des said, “It contains a record of where I’ve gone in all of my explorations of the Undercroft.”
Captain Kusheeno inserted the Data Crystal into his computer.
“This even contains information on where you were today,” Captain Kusheeno said, “Why did you compile this?”
“Cause I wanted to prove a point,” Des said, “And cause you adults think we kids are idiots and don’t know anything. I’ve been saying the security into the Undercroft is completely Bragga Dung. Anyone can waltz into it and go wherever they want to.”
“So you think that we of the Jovian Defense Force are incompetent?” Captain Kusheeno said.
“No,” Des said, “Ill-informed. You’re stuck looking in one direction while leaving the other side completely unguarded.”
“Unguarded…”
“Go to entry one-thirty-eight,” Des said.
Captain Kusheeno scrolled through the entries.
“This was from today,” Captain Kusheeno said, he cleared his throat as he began reading the small entry, “Three-Thirty-One PM. Footprints noted in the dust. Prints too large to be my own. I’ve not gotten lost again. I will attempt to follow them back to where they were going. Four-Eighteen PM. I see a Figure in the distant. Too dark for a picture. I think it’s a middle-aged male with balding hair. But I can’t make out his face so I could be wrong. He hasn’t turned around. He has a small computer out, and he has connected it to a service panel on a wall. He isn’t in a maintenance or a Marine uniform. The man is wearing civilian clothes… He almost saw me. I will back off and get back to the surface.”
Captain Kusheeno looked at the entry for a few seconds.
“I paused the recording to look for Elsie, who had gotten lost,” Des said, “We were there was the missile attack, and some of them sounded like they had gotten close.”
“Gotten close? That doesn’t make sense,” Captain Kusheeno said, “I’ve no reports of any issues with the defensive batteries or the shielding.”
“Maybe he wasn’t doing anything sinister,” Des said, “Can I go?”
“Yes,” Captain Kusheeno said, “Thank you for the information. I will have someone drive you home.”
***
A short while later, Des arrived home and the door shut behind him. He heard the electric whine of the hover-car engine pick up. Des knew the soldier who had dropped him off had left.
Des stood in the entryway of his uncle’s house for a few moments. The house was a two-story townhouse in the middle of the Blue Sector.
Unlike some space stations out there, the one Des lived on was built to mimic earth or one of the Terraformed planets. Plants and animals lived on the inner surface, and some of the animals were
even wild and not tamed pets. The people didn’t live in quarters like on a military station. They lived in homes and apartments. It wasn’t efficient space wise, but the extra space was a luxury people on Europa would dreamed about.
With the death of Des’s father and the disappearance of his mother, his older brother and himself went to live with his uncle, Jacob. His uncle was the owner and operator of an inter-planetary freighter, who was also single and never around. He was always away on business to some distant station or planetoid. He was gone for weeks or months at a time.
Uncle Jacob did have someone who looked in on them when her college and work schedules would allow it. Not that Des thought he needed anyone to look after him, he was sixteen after all. But it was nice to know there was someone other than his annoying brother to hang out with.
Today, Des didn’t want to talk to or hang out anyone. He needed to eat something, and to pretend that nothing of this had happened, part of him still thought the other shoe was going to drop.
Des took a sigh of relief as Susan Tao didn’t seem to be at home at the moment. No one was home. The house was dark and quiet. Nothing stirred in the house.
He took his shoes off and walked through the small townhouse. He headed up the stairs to his bedroom on the second floor. No pictures decorated the walls along the stairwell. No pictures were anywhere. The house was very spartan, his uncle’s decorating style or lack thereof showed through.
Des entered his room. He quickly changed out of his school uniform and into simple pants and a shirt. He walked downstairs to put the soot-covered clothes in the wash for the next day. He like the pair as it was lived in; the synthi-fabric had lost its stiffness and itchiness.
The front door opened and a woman’s voice called out. “Hello? Anyone home?”
Des groaned to himself, he wasn’t looking forward to this, “I’m home, Susan.”
“Oh good,” Susan said from the front entrance. “I need to talk to you, young man.”
“Take a number,” Des said.
“Excuse me?” Susan said.
Susan stomped her way through the house to the laundry room.
“Excuse me?” Susan said, “Please repeat yourself.”
“I said,” Des said, “to take a number cause my brother is going to rip me a new one, and as soon as my uncle gets home, he will too. I don’t need to be yelled at by you as well.”
“You assume that you’re in trouble,” Susan said.
“I’m not?” Des said.
“Well,” Susan said, “what gave you the idea your trouble with the Captain is my business? There has been no official disciplinary report.”
“What?” Des said, “I don’t understand.”
“Yeh,” Susan said, “I know you and Elsie were called in, the whole station knows that. But for some reason, Elsie got let go with an apology, and you didn’t get a disciplinary report.”
“That’s odd,” Des said.
“Where were you?” Susan asked.
“The Undercroft,” Des said, “I was exploring with Elsie when the attack came. We couldn’t get to a free shelter before the attack was over.”
“That’s weird,” Susan said, “Cause when I was your age, kids got sent away if they were caught in the Undercroft.”
“Well, this isn’t back then. It’s now,” Des said, then after a moment, “What did you want to talk to me about again?”
“Oh,” Susan said, “Right. I need to hire you to help for a school project.”
“School project? Hire?”
“Yes,” Susan said, “My team is working on a promotion for a locally made fruit drink. I need people to go down to the Black Sector and hand out samples.”
“How much?” Des asked.
“I have signed authorization from your school to give whoever helps extra credits in their courses.”
“Really?”
“And some free product and a meal.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Susan said, “It’s not this Saturday, but the next one. Can I put you down for one two-hour shift or two?”
“How about none.”
“Keep it up, and I’ll make it a split shift.”
“You’re desperate aren’t you?” Des asked.
“No,” Susan said.
“Besides me, how many other people have you recruited?”
“Three,” Susan said, “We have no budget and need people to volunteer their time.”
“Great,” Des said, “but, at the moment, I don’t need the extra credits though.”
“How about I get your school to let you work off some of the demerits that you seem to collect?”
Chapter 3
The next day Des sat in his History class, dressed in his cleaned school uniform. He tapped his tablets stylus on the desk as he waited for the rest of his classmates to finish the quiz. He had been done it for a while, but didn’t want to be the first one to submit. He didn’t want his classmates to think like he was a nerd.
Des’s desk was in the second row from the back of the classroom. The student desks were the same as everywhere he had been to. Four metal legs, a wooden top and a built-in tablet with a detachable stylus for the actual school work.
The teacher, Mr. Mixon, was a middle-aged man who spoke in a nasal voice. He stood in front of the class and was dressed in his usual brown suit and tie.
“That’s time,” Mr. Mixon said, “Please submit your quiz.”
Des pressed the submit button on his quiz.
“Now,” Mr. Mixon said, “It’s advisable for you to spend the rest of the class working on your assignment on page one hundred and thirty-four.”
Des flipped his stylus over to the tablet and started moving program icons around on the screen. He didn’t want to work on the assignment. It was about Early Martian history, and he had no interest in anything that happened on Mars during the early years.
“Hey, Des,” Alix Keshnikov said from beside him.
Alix was a seventeen-year-old boy from a smaller station out in the Trojans. Alix spoke with an accent that Des hadn't gotten used too. His voice had a grating quality to it.
“What do you want Alix?” Des said.
“Why were you called to see SS Bootie-shorts?” Alix said.
“Who?” Des said.
“Captain Kusheeno.”
“Why do you call him that?”
“It’s a history joke,” Alex said.
“Right,” Des said, “It was nothing, really.”
“Nothing?” Alix said, “You and Elsie got caught outside of a shelter during the last attack all because you two were snooping around the Undercroft. Am I right?”
“You should stop listening to the gossip girls.”
“Des. Alix,” Mr. Mixon said from his desk, “Please cut the chatter and get to work. Focus. Focus.”
Des looked down at his tablet. He flipped through the icons on the tablet to the textbook and his workbook. After a moment, he began to work on the assignment.
The assignment was a simple task. Des had to answer a bunch of questions from the textbook. It didn’t take him long to finish, it was something he almost didn’t have to think about. The work seemed natural for him, not that he liked the thought about being good at History class.
Des had been done for a couple of minutes when the bell rang.
“All right,” Mr. Mixon said, “Your quizzes are marked, please review your quiz tonight. They’re to help you. And don’t forget the test tomorrow. If you got a good mark on the quiz, you should do fine. But that shouldn’t stop you from studying. Right, Mr. O’Neal?”
“What? I study,” Des said.
Des pulled his own personal tablet out of his bag. It was a smaller version of the class tablet, but with more bells and whistle. He looked at the quiz in his inbox. It was out of ten marks, and he had gotten nine correct.
After he checked his marks, he opened up the InstaPic application. He scrolled through different pictures of people, places, spaceships,
and cats. Des walked down the hallway towards his locker, he didn’t really pay attention to where he was going, but he trusted his feet to take him where he needed to go.
Elsie stood against a locker as Des walked around the corner.
“Thank you for getting me out of trouble yesterday,” Elsie said, “I owe you ice cream at the Old Market Station.”
“It was really no problem,” Des said, “I’ve been dragging you everywhere dark and dirty. Least I can do.”
“Did you get in trouble?” Elsie asked.
“I don’t understand it,” Des said, “but for some reason, I didn’t.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Elsie said.
“Me neither,” Des said, “Speaking of bad things, how are your grades?”
“Why?”
“Cause I might have a way for you to get some extra credit,” Des said.
“What?”
“You know Susan right?”
“Yes, I remember Susan,” Elsie said.
“She needs a volunteer for some college project,” Des said, “She’s able to offer extra credit for any volunteers from our school.”
“When is it?” Elsie asked.
“Two Saturday’s from now.”
“Are you trying to get out of it or something?”
“No…”
“I’ll do it, but on one condition,” Elsie said.
“Which is?
“You’re going to volunteer too.”
“Fine,” Des said, “It’s not like I have much of a choice.”
“Oh?”
“I was voluntold.”
Des reached his lock and quickly unlocked it. Pictures of computers and space crafts decorated the inside of it. Des put his school tablet into the locker. He grabbed a pair of gym shoes and a gym bag.
His phone rang, the horn of a ringtone echoed from his back-pack.
Des dug and pulled it out. He looked at the call display. It was a government number. He answered it on the third ring.
“Des O’Neal,” the Voice said.
Des recognized the voice.
“Captain Kusheeno,” Des said, “What do you want?”
“I need you to come into my office once you’re done class today,” Captain Kusheeno said.
