by M E Wise
Nobody counted one. The shaking and intensity of our entry had everyone focused on their own accord. I held my bible tight in my hands and prayed to a God I had hoped wouldn’t abandon me here in space.
In our valley of operation three like caravans had landed and were to be expanded upon to act as our living quarters, storage and be the delicate environment to maintain our lives here on Mars. Five larger vessels had landed some time before and were acting like miniature enclosed townships. Home², a Japanese developer had been the lucky corporate contractor to land the much sought after installation of modular living development on Mars exclusively. Rival corporations were suing in any court that would hear them but government sub-contracts kept them from making ground. Money talked and lobbyist knew where that money should be heard loudest.
We didn’t care much for siding with any who wasn’t paying our way. Our working class put our heads down and went to business for our credits and to keep things on deadline. Mars was a special arrangement of mutual reliance. A person couldn’t just be fired like on Earth. You couldn’t just quit in a fit of rage either. We were all stuck here in this alien environment.
Tonight was a special night. The first 48 went really well and our domiciles cleared early so that we could enter our dorms unsealed. “These breathers are so stale I’m still smelling a fart I let three days ago.” Sonny joked as he removed his helmet. Sweat ran from his brow almost instantly. I was assigned a dorm with Frank, luckily; and Sonny and Tomlin. My Father was in a group for contractors and team leaders, the break from each other was nice. “Is this moisture safe!” Tomlin asked wiping his own face of the instant wetness. “I’ll check with Home² brass and find out.” Frank was our crew boss.
I kept to myself mostly, the way I always had. “Let’s just thank all that is holy we get to take off the breathers!” Frank spun a positive view on the circumstances. Everyone went about stripping out of our filtration suits. The work suits were bulky but much safer than the suits we wore in landfall. The helmets were boxy and our filtration units on our back looked almost like astronaut grade gear. Except everyone was a potential astronaut these days.
Frank was laying on his bunk and staring at the Sweet³ pamphlet again. Everyone was talking about earning credits for some rest and relaxation at their facilities on site B. There were three main sites. A was the actual mineral recovery and processing site. We were in A. Site B was the commissary, entertainment and communications outpost. Everything in B was corporate sponsored and cost credits! Door fees, sitting fees and even restroom privileges had some monetary measurement. Site C however was part port and high-end corporate housing. Site A housed all of the workers in dorms, stored all of the equipment and was the muscle of Mars as we liked to think of it.
“The idea is to get into a routine so you don’t lose your mind. Keep yourself focused on a goal. Going home, meeting a girl and having a family or just paying for some quality time at Sweet³!” Frank loved to throw out random advice. “Ya think!” Sonny mocked the gentle giant. Sonny wasn’t a genius in any sense. He was a short and stout little man with a big mouth. No one knew where he came from and no one cared to ask. Tomlin was nice enough but he wasn’t a socialite by any degree. Frank was the older brother I never had.
“When do you think we will get leave fearless leader?” I enjoyed reminding Frank he was in charge even when it didn’t matter. “Leave’s leave.” He answered numbly. “It’s whenever we can afford the time spent.” I puzzled over that for a moment. “What if I had credits saved up?” The question seemed to invoke a great interest. “Given our current schedule and the fact we pulled forty in two shifts I think we could make a good case for some R&R.” He sat up. “Of course you have to have credits and we would have to make curfew.”
“We?” I asked with a gleam in my eye. “I’ve got creds!” Frank held up his wrist with a green light lit under the skin. “Anyone else?” He asked.
“Saving for something special.” Tomlin mumbled from under a pillow. Sonny shook his head and held up a yellow lit wrist.
“It’s just the two of us!” Frank sang while pulling up his utility suit for short exposure. “We can make it if we try! Just the two of us-” He spun around, “You and I!”
The excitement pounded in my chest as I fought the moisture in my helmet. The rover crept along the temporary paths lined with prospector lights strung to posts every 15 meters or so. We were on the dark side of the planet now as our day had long ended. Site B was alive in the distance about a half mile ahead. The modified tanker city had modular homes scattered around its base. An old Mars rover from the retired NASA program sat high on a boulder outside of town. A commemorative plaque was windblown and covered in Martian dirt. That dirt was in everything, all the time. Memories of the Middle Eastern sandstorms came to mind.
Frank drove the rover up to the stall available and I plugged in the power coupler to charge the carrier while we were inside. “Are you sure you can handle this kid?” Frank asked with a sharp smile. I ignored him and headed for the door. The triple air locked system was time consuming but after chemical dusting all the dirt from our bodies and putting on new jumpsuit’s the final door was one credit check away from our passage. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the final doors opened ahead and stalled half open.
“What happened?” Frank looked very upset. “Sorry gentlemen it’s a glitch. One Second.” A voice filled our lobby.
The door closed and like a strange reset opened again to reveal a very shanty and disappointing open area. Red lights glowed from cramped domicile to domicile and very few had green lights which I took for available business. “Seriously?” I couldn’t contain my overwhelming disillusionment. “Well that’s the break kid.” Frank quibbled an upside. We walked a way inside and the massive hold that once held large equipment and supplies was littered with lame neon lights and smelled used. I found a suitable seat and sat trying to reconcile my cynicism with something to look forward to.
Frank knocked on a cheaply setup vendor front and an aged man of Japanese descent opened quickly. “Do you have beer?” Frank asked. “What kind,” barked the man. “Whatever you got; two.” Frank looked back and laughed. He received two lukewarm beers and grimaced at the revelation. “Here, you look like you need one.” He handed me a bottle. I took a long swig off the bottle and with the tilt of my head caught eye of an upper level. “There!” I pointed.
Several nicer shops and what looked like it could be a club sat high up off the depressing floor we were on. “Let’s go!” Frank chugged his beer and smashed it into a receptacle. I followed suit with a gurgling belch. Frank moaned at the noise. The stairs were steep and I could see someone of an inebriated state having great trouble navigating them. We topped the stairs with leaps and bounds to a line of blue glassed fronts. The Sweet³ logo hung sideways long the path unreadable from below.
We swiped our wrists with great anticipation and the doors slid open. Sweet scents filled the musty air and a posh interior of white furniture filled the room. I saw her immediately, the woman from the transport. I abandoned Frank to his own pursuits and didn’t look back. She smiled as the black-lit scene highlighted her makeup and revealing gown. “Do I know you?” She broke the ice. I couldn’t say anything. “Would you like to get to know me?” She asked with a lusty voice. “Yes.” Found its way past my lips.
She took my hand and trailed us back into the private rooms off the main floor. “I’m Numi.” She sat me in a large oversized chair. There are so many ways I dreamed of this moment playing out but none of them were in my control. “You’re a quiet one.” Her smile was a drug. The look in her eyes was one of complete confidence. “So, my time is money. Dancing is affordable. Dating is negotiable. Tonight, or at least for a time, is a swipe away.” Her business sense was shrewd and I had no idea what I was doing. I waved my hand over her charge tablet and registered something called quality time.
Lost Tales of Reign
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br /> Gorgon’s Song chapter 2
Choking on Words
“That’s disgusting.” A traveler breastfed her infant in the commissary as Frank and I made our way to the Sweet³ club. “That’s rough Gorgy. She’s just feeding her baby; you were a baby once.” Frank teased but missed the source of my disdain.
“It’s that thing she’s feeding that is disgusting!” Frank stopped at the bar on the first level of site B; now locally called the B-Zone. He looked back at what caused my reaction trying not to draw attention to himself.
“So the baby is deformed. It can’t help that man.” Frank chastised me. “You need to relax!”
“It’s not just deformed, that’s one of those Halfer things!” I wanted to drop the subject.
My voice carried and the woman shifted to cover the infant further from sight. Those unnatural creatures were becoming more frequent in space, especially here. Back home there was a concerted public health hearing on the ramifications of these deformities on society. Man transgressed into the unnatural and received a stiff warning to mind itself back from the universe. “Barely 17 and you are the most backward old man I know.” Frank balked at the unkind method of my expression. “I’m different too.” He drew attention to his African heritage. “People still get bent over stuff they can’t see in their own mirrors.” He smirked.
“You know me better than that.” I leaned onto the bar. Beer was cheaper downstairs and the many visits to get time with Numi was curbing my credits. We would drink first and then head upstairs, same routine, same level of dedication. “I’m tense.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Ya think.” Frank agreed.
I sipped on the cold beer for a minute and tried to nurse away my anxiety. Numi didn’t like it when I was frustrated before seeing her. She didn’t mind me leaving that way though. It’s not a relationship she says, but I spend as much time with her as possible and we talk outside of the club frequently enough. I know she is a working lady but I had hopes one day that might change. Call it youthful naiveté. She knew the business of men, women and even things beyond that. Sometimes it strained my conscience but I was hooked on all of it. My mother would be praying for me if she only knew.
We finished a beer or two and made our way to the stairs wrapping the retired freighter. New posters of rules and regulations were posted everywhere. MCD was having difficulty keeping its contractual obligations to Core Too and this dispute doubled our workload but not our pay. Red Planet Industries was putting serious pressure on all of them. Home² got shafted some under the table deals and began making noise in the News about safety requirements being ignored and how our breathers weren’t properly recycled. Sub-par breathers were causing moisture problems in just about every way possible in our dorms.
I hadn’t seen my Father in months. He missed my birthday rubbing elbows with the higher-ups of Core Too on site C. The larger than life drunk filled some entertaining role for them. Vadim had made Mars his little stage for a career resurgence. And just like Mother he put space between any distraction he had to, to get there. New sites were being built in a section called Artemis II. Somehow they got declared the first city of Mars even though our smaller community had been here and established years’ sooner. We weren’t pretty though. Pretty sold better to investors. Posters of the Artemis II development also hung everywhere no matter where you looked. Even above the toilets!
We called our township The Big Dirty for more reasons than I can list. Get some miners drunk and listing problems was a drinking game that saw very few survive without sick days coming. But Diggtown was on official paperwork with our pay stubs. So Diggtown it is. 15 months on this rock was enough but our contracts kept getting extended regardless of our signatures protesting otherwise. Mars had us by our balls. Women and men alike.
The uptick of new laborers and travelers off world made getting in places more difficult. The new bouncer outside Sweet³ was a sign of this. “You boys going to behave tonight?” He was barely older then Frank but seemed to belittle him with the sentiment every time. It pissed me off. I think knowing this was what continued the little tit for tat we experienced each time we visited, and that was frequently. Less pay lead to vouchers comped by the brass; one of the only benefits to our symbiotic arrangement. Numi and the other entertainers hated it.
“Wrists.” Eddy demanded. His tattoos and implants to appear more muscular than he was fought against his suit. He was a model of a polished turd. He scanned both our arms with a wand and then waved it over our persons like a handheld X-ray. “Look! No nuts on this one!” He made the same lame joke every time to every other person in line. The doors slid open as Frank and I exchanged tired glances of the only routine that half-assed rewarded our effort.
“Francis!” Howled a blue haired dancer loudly from the stage. He was admired for his humor.
“Where’s Numi?” I hounded the bar tender immediately. “With a guest.” Steve never liked me and I gave him no reason too. “Two drink minimum.” He added dryly. “What? Again!” Frank called from a table behind me as the music competed with his voice. “Four shots then.” I bought our rounds. “The cheap stuff. Or your usual, the cheaper stuff?” He bantered with me arrogantly. “Four shots. The Specials.” I gave him a noticeably bothered look. He was the smaller man by a good stretch. “Four Buttery Nipples.” He backed away and began mixing the drinks.
“That guys an asshole.” Francis ribbed with the blue haired dancer on his lap. “But look at what he deals with!” The dancer slapped him playfully.
Most of the entertainers here were augmented in some way. Mostly the usual ways, breasts, butts and such. But some had the expensive gear- adjustable parts! It wasn’t unusual for some new patron getting teased with an expanding and contracting chest and they weren’t seen for a while after unloading a week’s pay before they left. I had my own dry spells in the early months with Numi. Numi had limited work done, mostly of the Enchantress line of the work. Her eyes could change color with thin contacts of reactive glass. She had color shifting wings tattooed on her back. She was no angel I would ever pray too. Not after all I’ve seen of her ways. But she is my everything in that foolish way only men who visit these places could understand. Or women, I noticed a set of ladies from the mineral crews nearby. One ogled another woman, a dancer; the other had a young Japanese man gyrating and grinding at her like it was attractive. She obviously didn’t mind.
I heard a familiar laugh come bellowing from the private rooms and it was moving closer. “You are so bad!” Numi’s voice teased too close to ways I have come accustomed too. “Oh shit.” Frank cleared the dancer from his lap. Vadim Pri walked strutting with Numi clinging to an arm. I wish I could say I was stunned, that would be something I could measure. I was numb, and otherworldly. “Well look here! Moy mal’chik!” He hollered loudly. “Numi…” he drooled drunken in his beard, “have you met my son?” Numi was blank faced but turned that quickly into a fake smile.
I stood in the presence of my Father, as I was raised, when introduced. Numi offered her hand but I ignored it. “Don’t be rude.” My Father blurted but realized what was really happening. He burst into a fit of laughter. I was humiliated. “Numi, you drifting little flower, how far does that bed reach?” His joke caused a deep anger in me quickly. He knew it too. Frank took my elbow and I held my breath and my words. “The nights on me, moy mal’chik. A late birthday gift.” Vadim was being generous enough given the circumstances. “Drinks all around for my boy!” He belted to a thirsty club. Numi rubbed his chest hair and furthered her act.
“I must be on my way!” Vadim leaned over and slobbered over the woman I admired most. She cut an awkward glance at me as he kissed her neck. “Son.” He said as he passed.
Numi remained still, maintaining the entire play as my Father made his way out of the club’s VIP entrance. I fought every part of me that wanted to blame him for this. Numi turned and walked quickly down the hall and I followed with haste. She slammed the door to her private room as I stuck my foo
t in the closing jam. “No you don’t.” I argued for her to let me in. “I don’t owe you anything Gorgy! You’re confused.” Numi charged. I pushed the door open.
“I’m paid up. You heard him.” She looked completely disgusted. My words were angry and wrong.
“I need a moment.” She said quietly. I approached her but she pushed me back. “Do you mind?” She was angry and turned toward her walk-in shower. I stripped the bed of the sheets and hurled them into the hall. There would be no romance tonight. I knew this and so did she. “Keep the credits.” I couldn’t look at her. “Fine. I will.” She scoffed and I turned and left in a huff.
I blazed down the hallway and Frank again dumped a dancer to the floor! “Sorry!” He proclaimed innocently, “You ready Gorgon?” He followed me as I pushed my way through the club. I may be young but I dwarfed most men here. A male dancer feigned insult and complained as I neared the doors. “Slow down nutless!” Eddy blocked my way on the stairs and I jerked him out of the way. He put his hands up surprised by my hostility. “Some bouncer.” I spit in his face.
“Gorgon, she’s a worker!” Frank tried to calm me the wrong way.
I kicked a row of casino machines on the way toward the triple airlock and drew more unwanted attention. The security at the doors wanted to have a word but I ignored them. “Don’t fuck this up!” Frank challenged me as they approached. The two guards blocked the path and I sized them up for a fight. The lights flickered on and off and we all looked around as the air cyclers whined to a slow stop. “What the hell?” I was cooler headed in the moment.
