I made my way to the front of the store and started stacking the handheld vidscreens. Everyone that comes into the store is so used to having butlers and maids that they don't even know how to put stuff back to where they got it. There were half-empty cups of java and hotleaf everywhere. As I leaned down to pick up a half empty cup, I saw something else sitting there, rolled up just enough to hide the smelly contents from sight. Some half-breed had left a dirty diaper laying on the floor. It was literally right next to the garbage can! What is wrong with people? I used my thumb and index finger to pick it up and tossed it in the garbage can. I had to suppress a gag as the odor washed over me.
The phone was still ringing. I ran over to the desk, picked up the phone, and placed it right back on the base—hanging it up. Now that guy was probably really pissed.
As I went back to cleaning, all I could think about was how much I hated my parents for making me take this job. You've gotta learn responsibility, they said. So get me a stupid dog or something! I'm not even making the minimum wage set by the Tri-Star System Authority because the store was located just outside the official regional boundary. The company did it on purpose too. They knew they couldn't get away with paying such low wages if they were even just a few miles closer to the nearest ship port. Dad said it was just a sign the company was committed to success. Committed to ripping people off was more like it.
All I do in life is clean. When I get home, mom will expect me to clean the kitchen and the living quarters. I had an older sister who used to do all that but she died two years ago—it was some disease. My family doesn't really talk about it. Mom can't handle it. She pretty much makes believe it never happened. I've seriously heard her talking to Zayla—that was her name—when she didn't know I was home. The whole thing is kind of pathetic. She still has a daughter, but she acts like I don't even exist. Unless she needs some chores done—of course.
I had just finished tidying up the waiting area when I heard the buzzer indicating that a customer had walked in. I sighed heavily before spitting out that stupid greeting again.
“Welcome to Sparkle Ship Shine, where—” I looked up as I was talking and laid eyes on the creature that had just walked in the door. It was giant and brown and—gross. It was just so gross.
“Where, where—” I didn't even finish my sentence. He, or she, or it, whatever this thing was didn't seem to understand me anyway. It made a bunch of noises that were totally unfamiliar to me and pointed outside. I carefully walked over, not hiding the fact that I was staying as far away from the brown alien-thing as I could. I mean, don't get me wrong, almost everyone around here was an alien to me. I left my home planet when I was super young. We've been traveling for like, ever. My dad is in the Star System Elite Guard, or the S-SEG as he calls it. Because of his job we never stayed in one place for more than a couple of years. I never even bother to make friends anymore—‘cause there was no point. As soon as we would get close, I'd come home and see mom packing the kitchen. At least before I always had Zayla. Now she's gone too.
I looked down, wanting to focus on something else. Great. This thing was spreading some gross gooey stuff behind it wherever it walked. It stank and—wait, were there bugs swimming in the goo? I leaned down and felt my lunch jump up into my throat. I swallowed hard, trying to stop myself from puking. Yup, those were bugs in the goo. This was not my night.
I moved away from the goo. The creature was still pointing out the window. I moved to the window and when I got there I saw what it was pointing at. A ship, one of the biggest I'd ever seen. I sighed—loudly.
“You want that cleaned?” I asked.
I craned my neck and leaned closer to the window. Maybe it was pointing at a smaller ship that was parked behind the massive one?
The creature was making nonsensical noises and kept pointing. I focused on its clammy paw, then traced the direction it was pointed. Crap—right at the giant ship. I looked at the clock. We closed in twenty five minutes. It would take me a whole day to perform the patented sparkle ceiling to floor mega scrub. Even our most basic cleaning would take hours and hours on a ship that size. I thought about just running out the door and never looking back. I didn't want the stupid job in the first place. But, Jonas knew where I lived and it wouldn't end well when my parents found out I quit. I could practically hear my dad's voice in my head already. He'd sit me down—my mom would sit across from me, a disapproving scowl stuck on her face—and then dad would get going. Hard work is the only pure thing left in this universe, and when you don't live up to your duties as a hard worker you dilute that purity. At S-SEG we pride ourselves on upholding that final pure thing, that final sacred—oh my gosh, I might just die, and this wasn't even the real lecture, this was the one in my head. Better to be stuck cleaning a ship than listening to that nonsense.
I grabbed my cleaning cart and told the alien to sit tight.
“Please don't get your goo on everything,” I said—even though I'm pretty sure it didn't have a clue what I was saying.
The door buzzed as I made my way outside. The big dome that covered the Sparkle Ship Shine was already lit up, indicating that it was the last call for business for the evening. The ship dock was quiet this time of night, but the city in the distance was just starting to liven up for the night. Not that I'd know from firsthand experience, but this place was known throughout the whole sector for its nightlife. Lights illuminated the cityscape. When I closed my eyes, I swear I could hear people laughing and having fun. And there I was, standing in front of one of the biggest ships I'd ever seen. I sighed again—I was gonna need a lot more soap.
I pushed my cart to the side and approached the hatch of the ship. Locked—of course it was locked. I couldn't believe this was happening. I just wanted to go home. I left my cart there and returned to the store.
“Mister,” I said as I came back into the store, “the hatch is locked.”
No one was there. Great, it probably went to the bathroom, which meant that after I'm done cleaning the massive ship was going to have to clean up its massive—I stopped, feeling my lunch again in my throat. Looking around the room, I noticed that the keys to the ship were on the counter by my station. I figured he didn't need them until I was done cleaning the ship anyway, so I grabbed them and returned to the hatch.
I tried a few different keys before finally finding the right one. It slid into the lock and set off a series of boops. The hatch dropped to the ground and I pushed my cart up the ramp and onto the ship. I was standing in a great big chamber with a terminal in the corner.
“Welcome,” the ship said, startling me. “You are now aboard the Electra Five-Seven-Niner—powered by me, Electra, the world's most powerful shipbrain.”
This night was the worst. I looked around, suddenly feeling eyes all over me.
“Keep it together, Sadie, it's just a dumb ship,” I muttered under my breath.
“Please state your purpose,” Electra said.
“Um, yeah,” I said, unsure how I was supposed to talk to a shipbrain. “I'm Sadie. I'm supposed to be—uh, cleaning you?” I ended with what sounded like a question for some reason. It's not like this was a normal situation. Most ships don't talk. Actually, none of the ships I've cleaned have talked, and I've cleaned a lot of ships. More than I can even remember—oh wow, I clean for a living, don't I? Embarrassing.
“Ah, yes, welcome Ms. Sadie,” Electra said. “I will set a green indicator light on the rooms that Master Urshkos would like to be made clean. Red lights mean do not enter. If you have any questions, I can see and hear you wherever you go.”
“The ship is watching me. That's just creepy,” I said under my breath.
“Not at all,” Electra responded. “I am programmed to help in any way possible.”
Any way?
“Could you maybe just clean everything yourself, then?” I asked. I didn't have a whole lot of hope in life, but for a moment I actually thought the ship was going to tell me what I wanted to hear.
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��Without hands that would be quite difficult, Ms. Sadie. After all, I'm just a dumb ship.”
Was this thing sassing me? I was quickly wishing I didn't tell the ship my name. Hearing it talk to me like it was a person was disconcerting. I grabbed my cart and started pushing it across the chamber. It squeaked loudly as I shoved it in front of me. After a minute or so I saw the first door with a green bulb above it. The door was unlocked, so I pushed it open. The room was pretty much just a big empty space. I could hardly find anything in there that needed to be cleaned so I just swept a bit and made sure there were no cobwebs. I tried to look like I was actually doing something—even though there wasn't much to actually do. The last thing I needed was this ship reporting back to Jonas that I wasn't doing a thorough job. After one final inspection, I moved on to the next room. It was virtually the same thing—a little sweeping, no cobwebs. Okay, moving on.
I did that for what seemed like hours. Every now and then, Electra would offer me a drink of water or tell me the name of some sector of the ship I was entering. This place was even bigger inside than it looked like outside. I finally made it to a sector of the ship that looked like someone actually used it. I stepped into the first room in the sector with a green light. It was so gross. There was a bed in the corner, but not like any bed I'd ever slept in. It looked rock hard and there were no blankets. As I stepped closer I saw something else. The bed was covered in the same goo that the creature in the store was spreading behind him. This must be where he slept. Even without focusing on the goo I could already sense the little bugs swimming around in it. A shiver of disgust moved from the base of my spine to the top.
“Electra?” I shouted, speaking a bit louder than I probably needed to.
Just as she'd been since I came aboard, Electra was right there.
“Yes, Ms. Sadie?”
“Is this where your master sleeps?” I asked.
For the first time since I'd encountered her, Electra hesitated. After a moment, she answered.
“Yes, Ms. Sadie.”
I didn't know how to ask the next question without seeming rude, but I didn't know what else to do.
“Are you expecting me to clean that goo off the bed?” I asked.
“Yes, Ms. Sadie.”
That was not the answer I was hoping for. I thought about quitting again. My parents would be furious but maybe I didn't even have to go home. They were so checked out since Zayla died they might not even notice I'm gone. But without a job how would I pay for anything? I was pretty sure I could survive a few nights on the streets, but eventually I'd need food and a place to sleep. As I looked at the goo and the bugs within, I started thinking the streets didn't sound so bad.
“Is everything alright, Ms. Sadie? Your efficiency has dropped exponentially since you came into this room,” Electra said.
I sighed. Nothing was alright, I was trapped cleaning ships for a living. But who was I kidding? I knew I wasn't going to quit and go live on the street—which left only one option.
“Everything's fine,” I said.
I leaned down and examined my cart. I reached past the regular cleaning gloves and grabbed the pair of heavy duty gloves further back. I wasn't about to take the chance of any of that funky stuff touching my skin. There was a wash room attached to these sleeping quarters, so I filled up my bucket with clean water and grabbed a squeegee. I turned to look at the mess of goo all over the room, then turned back to my cart. I grabbed two more squeegees, my largest sponge, and the scraper—I was definitely going to need the scraper. Even as well-equipped as I was, the alien residue wouldn't come off. It was more like glue than goo. I squeegeed, sponged, and scraped. When that didn't work, I grabbed a few different bottles of cleaner from my cart and tried them. Combined with some vigorous scraping I finally started to see some progress. Muscles in my arms and back were burning, but after nearly an hour I had the room clean. Congratulations, Sadie, you just killed yourself for 4u. All that, for 4 lousy u. What kind of a life was this for a seventeen year old girl?
I finished up in the room and then moved to the wash room, which thankfully wasn't very bad at all. I moved on to the next rooms. None of them had any goo—which made cleaning them a breeze. When I reached the end of the hallway I passed through a large doorway that led into a huge open space. On the ceiling was a green light, Electra's super helpful reminder that this room was to be cleaned. I looked around some more, trying to decide where to begin. The room was vast and filled with all kinds of objects. Many of them were unlike anything I'd ever seen—completely unidentifiable. It looked like the gross creature was some sort of collector. I moved closer to a set of shelves to inspect the items piled on it. Upon closer inspection, none of the items were all that impressive. He was a collector alright—a junk collector.
I made my way around the perimeter of the room, working slowly toward the center. I began to gag again. This time, it was from the smell of something rotting. It only took me a second to find the source—a yellow bag in the center of the room. I covered my nose and inched toward it. It looked as if it was moving. A red liquid was seeping out of the drawstring opening.
“Is someone in there?” I asked, my voice shaking.
I was close now, close enough to see what was really happening. The bag wasn't moving at all, but the maggots that covered it were. They crawled in every direction over the entirety of the bag. I turned away, finally giving into the feeling that tortured me all day. I threw up. My vomit splashed onto my shoes.
“Ms. Sadie, are you okay?” Electra asked with concern in her voice. Was that really possible? A ship feeling compassion for me?
I wiped the vomit from my mouth with my sleeve, then pointed at the bag.
“What is this?”
“I'm afraid I cannot say. The work done on the ship requires extreme confidentiality, and besides, I've scanned the Sparkle Ship Shine code of conduct in your company's databanks and you are in violation. No employee is allowed to seek information from a client regarding their personal or professional lives. Since this is your first violation of your own company's rules I will not inform your superior, but I do need you to do your job and clean, Ms. Sadie.”
I shook my head. This was too much.
“I sense that you're upset over the bag,” Electra said. “When incidents like these occur, it's only out of absolutely necessity. I've scanned the rest of the ship and find no additional corpses.”
I think she was trying to cheer me up, but somehow it just upset me more. How long had I been cleaning this ship? Surely I was almost done. If I could just get through this and get the bag taken care of I could finally go home. I studied the bag, looking for a way to manipulate it without actually touching it.
“How am I supposed to... clean this?”
“In the same manner you would clean any leak or spill,” Electra replied.
I shook my head.
“This is not worth 4u per hour, Electra.”
“You will be tipped very well as long as you commit no further violations,” the ship said.
I grabbed my squeegee and started toward the bag.
“Please, clean the vomit off of me first,” Electra said.
“Off of you?”
“The floor—clean it off the floor—quickly.”
So blood, corpses, and maggots were no problem, but vomit was an issue? Whatever. I cleaned up the vomit, then somehow managed to force myself to deal with the bag. Using all the strength and leverage I could manage, I hoisted it with the handle of my squeegee, then tossed it onto the cart. I don't know how I did it, but I cleaned that whole mess without throwing up again. Oh I wanted to. You better believe your sweet hiney that I nearly blew chunks about twelve different times, but I didn't.
I looked around, realizing that it appeared like I was done cleaning the ship. What time was it? It had to have been almost morning. If my parents cared about me, they might be concerned that I hadn't come home yet. But they didn't so much as call to check in. Sometimes I wished they'd
just disappear. Zayla would've called to check on me. That was true family.
“I'm done, right?”
I waited for Electra's response, but it never came. I asked again. Still nothing. One more time, a little louder—more silence. After creepin' on me all night the ship's all of a sudden nowhere to be found.
“Hello!?” I shouted. Other than my own echo, I heard nothing.
As nice as it was not to have Electra watching my every move, her sudden absence sent a wave of panic through me. I had no idea if I could find my way back off the ship without Electra guiding me.
“Help me!” I yelled. Again, nothing but my echo.
I started quickly walking toward the exit, but turned back toward the cart. Jonas would freak out if I left the cart behind. I went back and grabbed my cart, then tried to retrace my footsteps. It didn't take long for me to realize that everything looked exactly the same on this vessel. I kept making turns down hallways that led to dead ends or rooms without exits. Full panic gripped me. I broke into a run. Dragging my cart behind me, I soon found myself in a sector I was pretty sure I hadn't been in before. At the end of the corridor was a room with a red light above it. I definitely hadn't gone through any doors with red lights, and since none of the green light rooms were helping me I decided to go for it. Sorry, Electra, but I gotta get the hell outta here.
For some reason, I grew nervous as I reached out for the door handle. I hesitated for a moment, remembering Electra's instructions to stay out of the rooms with red lights. But I was desperate, and Electra wasn't around anymore. I tried the handle—locked. I stared at it dumbly, just blinking at it like an idiot, like maybe if I stared long enough the door might magically unlock.
I took a step away from the door, feeling off balance. I hadn't realized just how exhausted I was until that moment. I'd been cleaning the Electra Five-Seven-Niner for how many hours? It felt like it'd been forever. I leaned against the wall and let it guide me to the floor. As my bottom hit the metal floor something jagged dug into my right butt cheek—the keys!
9 Tales Told in the Dark 19 Page 6
