by M E Wise
I turned back to the airlock and retrieved the goods for my exchange and couldn’t do anything but think about Jessie’s girl. I went to the tiny market and bought a few things to eat from the twins there. I went back and cleaned The Big Load for the first time in ages.
I found myself doing anything I could to get Rasha’s attention. I did favors for her mother Ahleea and made the excuse that Paps reminded me of their friendship even though it was short-lived and it took a couple conversations to remind her who he was. The black OG under-suit I swapped for looked snazzy under a hoodie so I was more presentable. Jessie, the aforementioned boyfriend was away and just like me, left a long lasting void when on long hauls. A fated opportunity if I ever saw one.
Rasha spent a lot of her time entertaining the tribe; her name for our kindred little settlement. She sang and coordinated plays and dances. The younger people loved her. Rashana Boxill was the jewel of Green Acres and I was as smitten as a teenager for her. I watched as she moved gracefully around a little stage they built. They even had karaoke nights! For a group of dying people and the families waiting for it to happen, they knew how to live. Suddenly I wanted to know more of them. I drifted so deep into a daydream about her that I didn’t realize she was approaching me.
“Benito was it?” She was laughing. I had my hood up and hid the left side of my face. She caught me off guard. I stared again like a dope. “Do you sing?” She asked me another question and I finally found my tongue and my courage. “Badly.” I grinned. She laughed. I took that as a good sign.
“Would you like too?” She asked blankly and held an old microphone in her hand. “Why not?” I took the mic as it squelched. The old device had an even older play list. I tinkered for something I knew. Once I had my song it was on! I belted loudly and off key to flinching onlookers a song I loved dearly. She Drives Me Crazy by the Fine Young Cannibals! After my dance moves and performance Rasha broke out in hysterical laughter.
“You owned that!” She continued laughing. Tears welled up in her eyes from the strain.
“I like to own the stage. My Japanese ancestors will be proud tonight!” I had her now.
“You’re a funny guy.” She was composed again. “Mom says our parents know each other.”
“Yeah my Paps and her talked a bit while he visited.” I was getting nervous. “Want to go for a walk?” I asked sheepishly.
“Sure.” Rasha smiled widely. Her deep dark eyes looked like little pools of the universe.
We walked around the many paths and joked about growing up Halfer. Seems like there wasn’t many places in the world where being a Halfer meant something other than branding. We did think that India would welcome Halfer’s as a reincarnated deity if their deformity was just right. “It’s a crap shoot! Seriously that would be one lucky Halfer wouldn’t it?” The joke was probably offensive and out of context either terrible or dead on truth. “Further research is needed.” I continued and Rasha laughed out loud. Her laugh was hardy and contagious.
“I’ve had a great time walking.” She joked about the path we rounded multiple times.
“As far as revolving doors go; it wasn’t bad.” I added dryly. She smiled some more.
“I do need to get home and get some rest. I have probe ship duty tomorrow.” She trailed away slowly. I enjoyed watching her spin and act feminine. “I had a great time too.” Rasha made her way back toward the domicile her and Ahleea shared. She was perfectly flawed and I was completely mad for her. “Damn you Jessie!” I shook my fist at the void outside of the station window.
Rasha and I grew closer and closer over the two months. I kept waiting to be called something other than friend but it didn’t happen. I held out hope though. She regularly found me before I found her and I knew if it weren’t for some deep loyalty I may have a chance at being her guy. Today was our second month anniversary in my head and I went to find her. The dock was full of recovered supplies we needed and were waiting oddly unmoved. I noticed it but didn’t dwell on it. Big Jim was waving me in to his stall.
“Ben come here. Here!” I made my way to the excited man. “It’s terrible. Terrible, terrible!” He was a dramatic soul but this was much more anxious than usual. “That trader Jessie was due back days ago and something tells me it isn’t good.” That was terrible, Rasha was going to be upset. “Dude. Any word on OG arrests? Maybe they have him.” I asked. Jim shook his head. “None at all. I think it’s worse! Tekkers!”
“That’s an ugly thought, man.” I went toward my craft again and was going to check short range and see if any reports of Tekkers were nearby. Tekkers were usually avoidable if you didn’t have some cargo they wanted. Having a crap heap of a vessel sometimes helped. But some Tekkers lose so much of their connection to humanity they become autonomous and circuitry crazed. Those Tekkers were scary.
I prowled around in my cabin and flipped on some ranged receptors I foraged off an old satellite. I listened close on the head set and there wasn’t any radio traffic on anything but the usual. I wonder where Jessie sat out to. I would have to ask Rasha to be sure. Traders like myself kept a lot to ourselves so guys like Big Jim couldn’t clean up behind us and cut out the middleman. He’d tell his girl though.
I found her sitting withdrawn in the local area. “Rasha.” I approached slowly. She wasn’t crying but I could tell she was deeply concerned. “Rasha, I heard about Jessie. Do you know where he went?” She looked to me torn between betraying her guys trust and telling me the truth. “He went deep Ben.” She answered with deeply saddened eyes. “He went toward the outer belt, Kuiper. Not Mars.” That was horrible news. When Tekkers went missing in action from their contracts their barges tended to drift deeper and deeper into space. Jessie was probably a goner.
“I could take a trip out there and see. But that’s two or three weeks’ tops. At a good speed.” Barges are slow but the offer stood. I know that didn’t make her feel better and I couldn’t see any way to make the situation better. Deep space travel was still a sluggish grind. Loners like me spent time vegging out and living distracted lives gaming, watching old television on digital drafts, and just losing ourselves in the trip. “I could go with you.” Her offer was like a lead balloon. Help the girl get the other dude; that sounds great. But for her, was there a second thought?
We made arrangements and found some compassionate help from an unexpected source. Big Jim volunteered to go with us. Three Halfers in an old retired torpedo shaped craft sounds like a joke. It would be hilarious if we all don’t die as a punch line. I had four bunks and even with one extra I felt like we were stacked on top of each other. Tempers ran high and the looming threat didn’t help it.
“It’s my ship Jim!” His demands to increase our speeds was out of the question. This tubs all I have.
“This three-week trip is in week four!” Locating a beacon was proving difficult in the finer debris field leading to the Kuiper belt, especially with the makeshift equipment we had. Jim was not a good co-pilot; he was an accomplished back seat angry driver though.
Rasha ignored him for the most part; and me. I didn’t get it! Here we were risking our shorts lives on finding some idiot who took a deep trip into areas we weren’t supposed to be in. This far from any rescue is a dead man’s game. Rasha kept really quiet and watched the monitor for anything registering a continuous signal. I should understand her coping mechanisms better but going back to that risk factor, this wasn’t a balanced effort. Call me selfish, but none of us get out alive.
Jim shifted from complaining to taking notes again of mineral rich asteroids for future business dealings. So much of the outer rim is still unexplored. Stories came back from the area closing our solar system like it was the Bermuda triangle of space. I didn’t want to be here that’s for sure.
“I think I have something!” Rasha perked up. “A few kilometers ahead.”
Both Jim and I double checked her findings. Rasha looked a little insulted
but it wasn’t intended to be some sexist thing, at least not on my end. She was right, there was a continuous tone on the radar and my deep space dosimeter and the sound meter were pinging something for sure. We decelerated to come close to the source and every one of us knew what it was. It was Jessie’s craft adrift and it would seem no one was at the helm.
“It’s him. It’s him. Something’s wrong!” She was reacting poorly to what could easily be understood. “Hail him.”
I took the COM and shared a cynical look with Big Jim. “Big Load to Guppy.” I first called ship names. “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” I called out a common address. The response It Was Always Burning remained unanswered. We drifted closer and Jessie sat motionless in a slumped position in the cockpit. He was dead. Rasha burst into tears.
“Make lock.” Big Jim ordered. I looked at him coldly. “What? That’s a vessel we need. I feel as bad as anyone but that’s the truth.” Rasha’s eyes were full of hate. She left us to our dirty work and crawled into a bunk and sobbed. I hated seeing someone so full of life fall apart.
Docking was easy enough. We cleared the space between and the air inside was stale. Jim went about changing the filters in the air recycler. The gravity centrifuge still turned just enough to keep us grounded. I could fix that by re-routing a system or two and went to it. Rasha slowly worked her way to Jessie. I didn’t know his last name or if he had any family. I think this added to the sense of responsibility Rasha felt for him. Not that she didn’t care for him but Halfers often had no one to call on.
A blaring alarm started sounding from The Big Load! I ran to the airlock and saw it was a proximity alarm. Something was approaching. “We have to go! Now!” Jim dumped Jessie’s body to the floor and strapped into the pilot seat. “Go!” He shouted. He began priming systems for launch. A slingshot maneuver to get out of somewhere fast. Rasha and I made for The Big Load. She stopped between vessels and realized she was leaving Jessie behind. “We have to go Rash! You can stay or go?” I wasn’t forcing her to do anything but the situation needed a quick decision. She joined me and I released the seals and the Guppy drifted away and the thrusters on the rocket looking craft failed to burn.
“Jim! Dude we can still get you!” I called over the COM. His gargling voice came back, “It’s mine, I’ve got this.” Either he was greedy or so prudently frugal that reason was not his strong point. I primed The Big Load and its surefire engines began a slow burn to get us in position to leave. The Guppy began to accelerate and Jessie’s body drifted free from the airlock! “What the fuck Jim?” I yelled over the COM. He didn’t answer. Rasha, strapped into the co-pilot seat, looked to be in shock.
The Guppy left our view, behind in the distance was a Tekker barge. We had found that ship just in time; but too late for Jessie. I felt horrible. This was going to waste a ton of fuel but we had to get out of here. I released a second tank of helium fuel into space and burned the engines. We accelerated with noisy shakes. The Big Load easily caught and passed the Guppy. I waved bye as we saw Jim nervously bouncing in his seat. The barge was too slow for both crafts though. He didn’t need to know that, insensitive jerk.
Big Jim never communicated or answered hales even though he remained a lit object seen by the naked eye. Rasha laid in bed and I didn’t feel I could do anything for her. I wanted to but that kind of suffering is a personal thing. I could be wrong though. I wished I knew her better so I could be what she needed. “He didn’t deserve that.” She said quietly enough to hear in the craft. I unbuckled and took it as an invitation to try some method of consolation.
“He didn’t deserve to die out here alone.” She rolled over to see me. “He didn’t deserve to be tossed out an airlock like garbage either!” Her voice reverberated off loose panels in the quite craft.
“I completely agree with you.” That’s what came out but I had nothing profoundly helpful to add.
Rasha sat up quickly. “Was this the plan? Take me out here and find my man dead and be the hero? You want the girl that bad?” She was angry and had every right to be but that was bullshit! “No.” I said flatly.
“Really! No. Jim and you both seemed to know something was up?” Rasha cried.
“You can’t blame us for knowing the possibilities are grim! Jessie did a stupid thing.” I barked.
Rasha seemed deflated. There was nothing to do. She was hurt and grieving; like we always do, or at least they do. “Big Jim may be an asshole but he knows the score. Halfers have little windows and if we get caught staring out of them too long we missed the opportunity for the door. I’m out here to live and take chances! I don’t want to die needlessly but I sure as hell don’t want to make it happen.” I opened my fool mouth and every thought I had come pouring forth. We weren’t nearly as upset about Jessie dying as we were about how he died.
“You’re so right!” She laughed and cried. “We’re all out here just living it up!’
Rasha threw herself back on the bunk bed. “We left Barbados because people thought I was an evil omen. An evil omen!” She cried. “God-I hated them for it! But I was raised not to hate. Sing away your pain. That’s what we were taught. God was love and if we loved God we emulated that love. No one loved us enough to leave us alone.” She took several shaken breaths. “They burned our house! They burned our house and when we called the fire department they did not come!” She quieted. Her confession was an exorcism of self. I wish I hadn’t said anything to make this worse.
I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder. She shrugged away hard. I didn’t make a second attempt. The rest of the trip was the loneliest tour I have ever been on.
Lost Tales of Reign
Itou’s World chapter 3
Same Old, Same Old
Business as usual wasn’t as fulfilling as it once was. The people of Green Acres were great but it was beginning to feel like a new cage. I was an elder now by Halfer standards and the sound of that didn’t appeal to me. Elders fell into two categories, the wise and accepting, or me. I wasn’t in any hurry to lay down and die or sit idle and let everyone remind me of that daily.
Our population was quickly cycling new people for all the wrong reasons. The last five years have been a strange surreal blur and being homesick was something that definitely kept me awake at night.
Jessie’s untimely fate placed a nice rift between Rasha and I. We never quite rekindled our once flirty affair. Romeo and Juliet got one thing right, if you are going to fall in love in a hopeless situation, get it over with or it won’t happen. Given my current frame of mind, I could care less for romance and wanted nothing more than to trade anything for more time. Or at least the time it would take to be hopeful again. Right now I am in it for myself and my reckless abandon has caused a strain with the very people who gave me a chance to live out here among the stars.
“Ben, you are in a deep rut!” Big Jim argued. “You’re drawing attention like a fly on shit!’
“That’s pretty disgusting. Do you spend time observing this, bro? Or just dwell on fecal philosophy naturally?” My biting humor landed a twisted look from Jim. “Why not just tell me who it is or who they are and let me settle it?”
“Laugh at me! Go ahead…” He garbled, “but the truth is you have the attention of benefactors you can’t afford to piss off.” I never liked someone who couldn’t be straight with me. My mother started this when she tried to whitewash being a Halfer like I was going to be fine. Nothing was going to be fine! Why sugarcoat it?
“Is that cloak and dagger act necessary?” For people who live in cloaks the irony was thick.
Big Jim forced a travel drive into my hand. “What the hell is this BJ?” He didn’t say anything or attempt to answer my question, giving me the cold shoulder and walked off. Great, the one person who would trade skins with a snake is avoiding me. I threw my hands up in the air and went back to my docked ship. Everything was going to hell! The Big Load suffered a fatal system failure and I was limited to floating around in zero g
ravity to fix everything.
I had been running some off the books errands for a Tekker in the making. She called herself Romania like the old country and had a thick accent. From our video exchanges she was into some serious body modification to stay youthful looking. Unlike the usual Tekker lot who eventually traded away everything resembling a human existence, Romania was trying to extend her life. She had done a good job too because I couldn’t tell how old she actually was.
I exited the airlock into The Big Load and floated over to my console and plugged in the ancient memory device into a port bank. My monitor was warming up and I was shivering. I rummaged around for a thicker hoodie to go over my worn OG environment suit. “Opportunity awaits Benito.” Came Romania’s auto-tuned voice calling from the monitor. Being startled is an understatement. We never did business face to face. I had thought many times it had something to do with me being a Halfer. But given she was a closet Tekker, that probably wasn’t the case at all. We were two sides of the same hidden coin.
“Benito you have been very reliable over the past two years. I am grateful for your awkward professionalism. However, this particular acquisition may prove difficult.” Romania had a flare for the dramatic. She had a point though, each favor was taking me closer and closer to the Martian lanes. That’s Orbital Guard territory and not a place Halfer’s wanted to find themselves treading. “There is an outpost on Deimos, supplying black tech. I need someone to secure my payload and deliver it to a secure location in your backyard. The pickup point will be the same, and of course you are one step closer to that new ship you keep trailing on about.” What?
