Dragon Pearl

by Yoon Ha Lee

  My luck held. A woman looked up as I entered the back room, but she didn’t summon me over. Gamblers were playing at two of the high-stakes tables. One of the games I recognized as a flower cards variant; the other I hadn’t seen before.

  I spotted Captain Hye straight off. She was the only one in a red shirt, and she had a spacer’s pallor. She frowned at her hand of cards, and sweat stains showed at her back. I had to get her out of there.

  “Captain Hye,” I said in my sweetest voice, “here’s that gukhwaju you ordered.” I exerted just a bit of Charm, not only in the captain’s direction but also toward the other players around the table, to convince them it was likely she had asked for a drink while they were distracted.

  Captain Hye looked puzzled. Then her eyes turned calculating and she reached out greedily for the cup. I watched as she took a big gulp. I hoped I could get her out of here before her luck worsened.

  The captain drew a card, frowned again, and sighed deeply. Apparently she was having trouble making sets, which is how one scored points. She completed her turn and leaned back, shaking her head.

  I glanced around for an excuse to linger and spotted some empty glasses to collect. As I passed Hye, I whispered in her ear, “I was wondering if I might have a word with you.”

  She blanched. “I’m not ready to go yet,” she snapped. “Just one more game.”

  Her companions laughed. “They’re onto you, eh?” one of them said with a smirk.

  “Shut up,” the captain hissed.

  I cursed silently. Sure, the wine had given me a great excuse to seek her out, but it was also interfering with her playing, and she was too preoccupied to talk to me. I should have served her a glass of water instead. I didn’t know how long the effect of the magic wine would last, either.

  Hye’s agitation, and her friend’s comment, told me that she was already deeply in debt to the house. That gave me an idea, although I felt bad about taking advantage of her. But it would get me off Jinju and her away from Nari, so we’d both win, right?

  “I have an offer for you,” I said into her ear as I glanced at the doorway. Yong was approaching. He must have noticed that I was chatting for too long instead of serving drinks. I had to make this quick. “A colleague of Nari’s needs passage off-planet. If you do that for her, Nari will cancel your debt. Just don’t let on to your friends.”

  For a moment, Captain Hye looked stunned by her sudden change in fortune.

  “What is it?” her snide friend asked. “You getting pointers from the staff now?”

  That brought her back to her senses. “Mind your own business,” she quipped. Then, to me, she murmured, “I’ll do it.”

  “Excellent,” I said. “You can finish up this game.” It was hard to disguise my worry that she’d get sucked into playing all night. “Your passenger will be waiting at your ship in an hour and a half.” That should give me enough time to reach the Red Azalea after I snuck out of this place.

  “Done, done,” Captain Hye said. Eyes gleaming with greed, she added, “Get me more gukhwaju.” She hadn’t even finished her glass yet, but it gave me a reason to head back to the bar.

  On the way, I passed Yong. He turned and accompanied me out of the room, whispering sternly, “You should stick to your duties instead of getting friendly with the clients.”

  “Sorry,” I said in a suitably chastened voice. To allay any suspicion, I added, “Those high-stakes players really know how to tip.”

  He frowned and shook his head. “You’re not going to last here long if you give any customer preferential treatment. Nari doesn’t like that.”

  I nodded obediently. “Understood.”

  Yong pointed to a table where a rotund man was signaling for a drink and said, “Don’t keep him waiting,” before stalking off.

  Just then, I heard a commotion behind me. Two of the bouncers strode quickly past, toward the high-stakes room I’d just left. I wondered what was going on, but I couldn’t investigate—I had to fulfill the man’s request for rice wine.

  I kept my ears pricked—metaphorically, anyway—while hurrying to the bar. On my way back to the table, I saw that Hye was being escorted to Nari’s office.

  “I told you, Nari and I have an agreement!” the captain slurred in a loud voice. Was she drunk already?

  I intentionally dropped the glass of rice wine I was carrying and bent over to pick it up so she wouldn’t spot me.

  “Just let me finish my—” Hye was saying as the office door closed behind her.

  It looked like she wouldn’t be going anywhere tonight.

  I waited until one of the other bouncers passed by, then popped up and looked at him with a worried frown. “Is something wrong?” I asked innocently.

  “Hye finally bet too much,” the bouncer said with a headshake. “Must have gotten overconfident—or desperate. None of your business, though.” He scowled at me, and I hurried over to a table, not coincidentally one close to the parlor’s entrance.

  Hye would rat me out to Nari any minute now. Time for me to make my exit.

  I just had to hope the Red Azalea had other crew on board, guarding the ship while their captain was “busy.” As long as someone else could pilot it, I still had a chance of getting off-planet.

  Then an even worse thought came to me. Gamble her ship away . . . Yong had said earlier. What if Nari took the ship as payment for Hye’s losses?

  I had to get to the Red Azalea, fast.

  I stepped into the restroom and let my Charm unravel. No more silk, pearls, and gold jewelry for me. I reverted to “Bora” form but gave myself spacer’s clothes and a flatter, more average face. I checked the mirror to make sure I looked unmemorable in every way.

  Heart pounding, I sauntered out of the restroom, hoping no one would notice me . . .

  . . . and walked smack into Yong. He grunted but didn’t budge an inch.

  “Sorry!” I said automatically. I looked down at the floor as I quickly moved out of his way.

  He stepped into my path and took my arm. “No, I’m the one who should apologize, miss,” he said. “Looks like you’re in a hurry.”

  “Yes,” I said, my head still bent. “I’m running late. Must go.”

  “That’s right,” he said. “You must go.” Then, in a much lower voice, he added, “Go while you can, Min.”

  I stared up at him. He’d seen through my Charm!

  “Fox or no fox,” he whispered, “you’re too young for this life. I’ll escort you out, while Nari is distracted.” He pointed toward the parlor entrance with his chin.

  When we passed the bouncer at the door, Yong said to me loudly, “And don’t let me catch you in here ever again!” Then he made a show of pushing me outside.

  The other bouncer didn’t even blink. He’d seen it all before.

  I couldn’t exactly say thank you to Yong while he was throwing me out, but I did flash a grateful smile at him.

  As I hurried down the street, the music from Nari’s dwindled behind me. It sounded harsh and jangly, and I couldn’t believe I’d ever liked it.

  I thought of the graffiti I’d seen earlier and wished I had time to add and don’t drink the wine.

  Following the spaceport directions I’d memorized previously, I broke into a run toward the Red Azalea’s dock. I now had some tip money in my pouch, but I had no idea whether it would be enough to buy my way on board. Too bad I hadn’t been able to squeeze a little more out of “Aunt Nari.”

  A ship rose up before me in silhouette against the night sky, a squat freighter with stubby wings. I bet it was barely capable of atmospheric flight. Under the harsh overhead lights, it looked even more battered than its identifying photo in the kiosk. Still, I sighed in relief when I spotted the painted red azalea on its wing. I was that much closer to getting off Jinju and finding my brother.

  Now I just needed a pilot.

  It wasn’t difficult to convince the dock agent that I was on the Red Azalea’s passenger list. By the time she double-chec
ked the roster at my urging, my name had magically appeared on her data-slate. The illusion wouldn’t last long, but then, I didn’t plan to be around here long, either. With any luck.

  I sprinted the rest of the way to the Red Azalea, looking around nervously, convinced that one of Nari’s goons would nab me any second. She must have noticed by now that I’d skipped out.

  Once I reached the starship, I shouted up at it, “Captain Hye’s in trouble!” When no response came, I banged on the closed hatch with my fist. Ouch! But, if there was a crew inside, I couldn’t see any other way of getting their attention. “Is anyone in there?”

  There was a loud, staticky noise; then a deep voice buzzed out of a speaker I couldn’t locate. “We’re busy. Go away.”

  “Captain Hye has been detained by Nari for racking up too much debt,” I said. “Nari is threatening to claim her ship.”

  I heard some words that Mom wouldn’t have approved of. “I knew it! If you have anything to do with that parasite Nari—”

  I thought furiously. “No! Captain Hye sent me to tell you because she couldn’t get away herself! She was being too closely watched. If there’s a pilot on board, you need to get out of here before Nari shows up. She’s got some kind of deal with the spaceport authorities. If you don’t go now—”

  More choice words came from the speaker. I filed them away for future use so I could sound like a spacer.

  “Captain Hye had more instructions,” I said. “I’ll tell you if you let me up. It’s best that we speak privately.”

  Once inside the ship, I’d be a step closer to my goal. Maybe I could use Charm on the crew to convince them to take me along.

  There were a few moments of silence, then a grudging sigh. “All right. You’d think Hye would know enough to stay out of trouble, but no. . . .”

  The hatch lowered, forming a ramp. I scrambled up, banging my head on the rim of the opening in the process. A short, heavyset man awaited me. He looked much less like a stereotypical spacer than Captain Hye did, although if he was watching the ship, he had to be one. Instead of a sleek uniform, silken robes drooped from his shoulders and trailed onto the deck. He must have been pretty confident of the Red Azalea’s artificial gravity to wear an outfit like that.

  “Nari never changes,” the man muttered. “But taking a spacer’s ship? That’s low. Especially when all she ever does is sell them to scrappers.”

  “You can’t let her do that!” I blurted. I needed this ship!

  “I don’t intend to,” the man said, looking at me quizzically. “So, you were going to give me further instructions from the captain?”

  I gulped and used Charm to appear confident. “She, um . . . she said to go to Gingko Station as originally planned.” That was the starbase near the Ghost Sector. If the Pale Lightning was in the area, there was a chance I could track down my brother from there. “Besides, she owes me. She promised me passage there in exchange for getting word to you.”

  Hye did owe me—for the surprise drink, if nothing else. The man continued to watch me with raised eyebrows, so I kept talking. “Nari’s minions were watching Captain Hye too closely—I was the best she could do. Besides”—and this part was true, too—“I also need to get away from Nari.”

  “Join the club,” the man said grimly. He spoke what sounded like code words into a wrist unit, then said to me, “I just told the crew to stay wherever they are on Jinju and keep out of sight until this blows over. I can’t wait for those three to get back here, not if the ship’s at stake. I doubt Nari will go after them if they lie low—her beef’s with Hye.” His mouth crimped and he grumbled, “It figures this would happen when I’m the one left babysitting the ship.”

  “So we can take off now?” I asked hopefully.

  “You a good copilot, by any chance?”

  I was crestfallen. “No,” I admitted. It would be dangerous for me to try to fake that.

  My answer didn’t faze him. He took the pilot’s chair and pointed at the seat next to him anyway. “Dirtsider, huh? Well, some of the ship is automated, but you might as well learn the basics. Strap yourself in. I’m Byung-Ho, by the way. You?”

  I stuck with my cousin’s name. “Bora,” I said as I fiddled with the strap.

  “Okay, Bora. First, check the life-support and engine panels. With a cranky old ship like this, there are signs of stress to look for, but we’ll keep it simple for now.” Byung-Ho pointed at the various illuminated digital graphs on the display panel as he spoke. “Basic principle is, you want to make sure these indicators stay in the blue zone. Blue for heaven, as they say. If any of them dip toward red, something’s wrong, and you’ll need to consult the diagnostics. The computer will guide you.”

  It sounded doable, although I was sure he was glossing over the details. I studied the graphs carefully. After all, I realized with a sickening feeling, if anything happened to Byung-Ho, I’d be on my own. I liked working with machines, but I’d never flown before, and this system was new to me.

  “Now,” Byung-Ho said, his hand hovering over a large gold button, “we power up the ship’s maneuver drive. This will get us past the atmosphere until we’re far enough from local gravity to Gate out.” He hit the button.

  A red light came on above a completely different button. “Did something break?” I asked.

  He laughed. “No, but be prepared for some bluster.” He pressed the button under the red light.

  A loud, heavily accented voice squawked from the communications system. “Red Azalea, you are not cleared for takeoff. What is going on?”

  “Aren’t you going to say something?” I whispered to Byung-Ho.

  He ignored the annoyed voice on the comm system and answered me instead. “There’s nothing to say. I’m not going to hang around here and let Nari’s thugs take the ship. Captain Hye’s good at talking her way out of trouble. She can take care of herself until I come back for her.”

  The loud voice spoke over Byung-Ho. “Red Azalea, power down your maneuver drive. You cannot depart until you have filed the proper documents. If you do not comply within one minute, you will be subject to fines under Regulation 138.8.2.”

  “I wish them luck collecting that,” Byung-Ho said with morbid cheer. “I locked our account as soon as I noticed Hye starting to dip into it.” With that, he entered a set of coordinates, then settled his hand on a complicated-looking joystick.

  “But won’t they—?”

  Before I could finish my question, I was flung back into my seat as the ship tilted up and blasted toward the sky. The pressure increased, and I saw spots before my eyes. The loud voice threatened us with more fines.

  We pierced a murky veil of clouds and angled ever upward. I could no longer hear what the voice was saying because of the roaring in my ears. My stomach dropped. My seat—no, the whole flight deck—vibrated, which I hoped was normal. It didn’t seem to bother Byung-Ho.

  After a few dizzying minutes, the acceleration eased and we were soaring through space. The sky bloomed black before us, lit by the pinprick fire of stars. My breath caught at the unexpected beauty of it, as well as the knowledge that, for the first time in my life, I was free.

  “We got away without even a warning shot?” I asked as soon as I’d recovered from the takeoff.

  “You’ve been watching too many holo shows,” Byung-Ho said with a dry chuckle. “If they shot down everyone who had to leave a step ahead of the authorities, no one would bother touching down on a backwater planet like Jinju. I made sure we were paid up this morning. They save their defenses for real threats.”

  The voice from the spaceport was still lecturing us. Byung-Ho reached over and flicked off the communications channel. “There,” he said. “The navigation system will alert us if we’re about to smash into anything, so there’s no need to endure that.”

  I couldn’t believe how quickly we’d catapulted beyond the thin veil of Jinju’s atmosphere. We swerved past a moon, and in the distance I could see one of the system’s swirly gre
en-blue gas giants as a distant disc. In reality, I knew it was many times larger than Jinju.

  “Now tell me,” Byung-Ho said, “why are you going to the Ghost Sector? Do you have gambling problems of your own?”

  I glared at him.

  “If it’s not that, it’s gotta be something just as seedy,” Byung-Ho said, making a placating gesture with one hand. “Like looking for treasure, or smuggling for mercenaries, or dealing with traders from the Jeweled Worlds. I’ve heard it all.”

  “I would never!” I said indignantly. Raiders from the Jeweled Worlds attacked the Thousand Worlds from time to time, but that didn’t stop less scrupulous people on our side of the border from illegally buying goods from their traders.

  “Whatever it is, you must be one tough cookie. Either that, or desperate.”

  He was right about the desperate part. I didn’t dare tell him about my brother, though. I had no idea what kind of trouble Jun had gotten himself into, or whether he really did know where the Dragon Pearl was. I definitely didn’t want to lead a stranger to such an important artifact, even if that stranger happened to be helping me.

  “It’s for my family,” I told him, because I had to say something. “We’re poor, and I want to do my part to help.” I said it like I was ashamed of it, which grated on me—maybe because it was true and I was ashamed of it. I’d finally gotten away from home—Jinju was dwindling to a speck behind us—but the memories of omnipresent dust and threadbare clothes and worn-out furniture would always haunt me.

  Byung-Ho nodded. “Well, you’re not the first adventurer to go into space seeking her fortune,” he said. “And the Red Azalea has friends at Gingko Station. There’s no direct Gate there, but the fastest route will take us there in two hops.”