“I see letters,” she said. “The lights are making the image of letters. That’s it, right?”
“Right. They say … ”
“Don’t tell me,” she cut me off. “I want to figure it out myself.” It only took her a few seconds. “It looks like ‘N dont get on.’ Is that what you are seeing?”
“Yes! I think it’s a message to me from my mother. She calls me Nin sometimes. Could she send that from the Station without any tracking information on it? It doesn’t look like it’s coming through as a normal message.”
“I don’t know. I never thought about that.” Lainie ran her fingers over the slip like she was trying to get information from it. “I can’t think how someone could do it right now, but if I worked on it, I might. It’s not through a normal path, that’s for sure. I could probably only send it to my father’s unit though, because that’s the only interior spec address I know. He might think it was an attempt by someone else to gain illegal access and block it, because I’m not supposed to know it.”
“That means your father would have to see it and realize it’s a message from you before he blocked it,” I said. “Something isn’t right, more than just the bad communication link and no shuttle. The Fosaanians aren’t acting like … like we think they act.” I explained as well as I could, trying to make her understand my uneasiness. I finished by saying, “So this Ansun is more like the head of a military group than some leader of a peaceful village.”
“It could just be a part of their culture we don’t know about,” she said, getting up to look out at the station. “No one really knows anything about them.”
“It just didn’t feel right. I think Ansun knows why the communications are cut off. And the message. It said ‘don’t get on’.” The only thing we would be getting on would be the shuttle.”
“So what do we do?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m not getting on the shuttle if it comes back.”
“I want to tell Saunder and see what he thinks.” Lainie yawned again. “I’m really having trouble waking up.” She frowned. “Do you realize your hand is shaking?”
I looked down to see my hand trembling. I put my other hand over it. “It’s a side effect from the shock, I think. I can’t really feel it.”
“That’s not good,” Lainie said.
Just then Piper burst in. “Lainie, there you are! We’re eating teinbread at your place. Come on, Saunder’s making the bread cook in funny shapes for everyone. He made me a moustache. I was going to save it to show you, but I got too hungry and ate it. Do we have any juice tablets? We’re all sharing what we have.”
I was hungry. The snacks from the night before hadn’t been enough. “We’re out of tablets, and we don’t have much else.” I’d given a lot to Mira.
“That’s okay,” Lainie said. “I’m sure there is plenty of food around in other units. Let’s go. We’ll send people to go collect what they can find.”
When we went into Lainie’s and Saunder’s place, Lainie asked, “Anybody seen Decker?”
“He stopped in few minutes ago and said he was going to the depot,” Saunder said. He lowered his voice, “I didn’t want him to stay because he’s scaring the younger ones. He won’t stop talking about Mick and the station and the Fosaanians.” He turned away from us and in a louder voice called, “Who wants a star shape?”
I felt a flash of irritation. Why hadn’t Decker asked me to come along? I grabbed a fruit pack. “I’m heading to the station too.”
“We’ll be there soon,” Piper said. “Saunder said he’d make up a new game for us.”
“Great,” I said, glad Saunder had the patience to deal with all the younger ones. I knew I didn’t. When I reached the station, I found Decker pounding on the door, his face red with rage. “Decker, stop. I have to tell you something.”
After I finished explaining, Decker just shook his head. “Are you sure you just didn’t imagine it? Maybe whatever is wrong is causing a malfunction, and you were just seeing random flashing lights.”
“I’m telling you it was a message from my mother. What if she is trying to tell us something wrong is happening on the station … like … like what if the oxygen generators aren’t working right? There has to be something going on for her to warn us off.” I didn’t think it was oxygen generators, but I couldn’t come up with a better idea.
“None of this makes any sense.” Decker gave one more pound on the door and the sound echoed in the building. There was no sound after that. I didn’t like the silence. The building felt abandoned, as if no one had been in it for a long time. Decker turned around and then groaned. “Here comes everyone else. We really don’t need a bunch of little kids around.”
“Lainie and Saunder seem to be handling it okay.”
Saunder jogged ahead of the group, joining us at the door. “Look, Decker,” he said, “will you at least try to act like nothing is wrong? The younger ones are scared and seeing you kick and hit at the door doesn’t help.”
Decker didn’t answer. He turned and strode off toward the shore, ignoring calls from Piper to join their game.
“At least he’s not pounding on anything,” I said. I thought Saunder would laugh, but instead Saunder frowned, his eyes focused on something over my shoulder.
I turned to see Ansun with Tasim beside him coming down the cliff path followed by a large group of Fosaanians. The men and women behind them were marching like a troop of soldiers, kicking up little puffs of black sand as they crossed the beach. They all had weapons strapped to their chests. I didn’t see Mira. When they reached the station platform, Ansun gave a sharp one-word command I couldn’t understand. The Fosaanians fanned out until they surrounded the station. Tasim scowled when he saw us.
“It won’t work,” I heard Tasim say to Ansun. The MIbot floated out from behind Ansun. I wondered where it had been last night when we were at the village.
“It’s already in motion,” Ansun said to Tasim. He headed for the station door, ignoring us. The bot followed him. “Open it,” he ordered it. “You two, you know what to do,” he motioned to a couple of the Fosaanians. The bot hovered in front of the door panel and when it opened, the bot went inside, the two men trailing after it. I tried to follow too, but the old man I recognized from the night before moved in front of me.
“No, you don’t want to see,” the man said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“The Earther is dead,” Ansun said. “He was too weak and stupid to follow orders.”
It took a few seconds for me to process Ansun’s words. “Mick is dead? How do you know?” I bolted around the old man into the station. I didn’t see anything at first, but I smelled something, a sour smell. The two Fosaanians stood halfway down the passageway and I went toward them. They were staring at the floor, at a mound of dust, like volcanic ash. On top of it lay Mick’s necklace, the one with the big silver stones, except they weren’t silvery anymore. They were black.
The air closed around me, the sour smell more pronounced. I stumbled back outside. Once I was out in the open, I took a deep breath and tried to act normal, though it made me angry to see the expression on Ansun’s face, like the man was amused by my reaction. I straightened up, not wanting him to know I was shaken. The younger ones had been too far away to hear Ansun’s words, and I didn’t want any of them seeing what little was left of Mick.
Lainie came up to me, followed by the whole crowd of younger children. “What happened? Where’s Mick?”
I just shook my head, hoping Lainie understood she shouldn’t ask too many questions with all the younger ones listening. I took a couple of deep breaths. Lainie started to speak, but when I shook my head again, she stopped, her eyes questioning. “Later,” I mouthed.
The elderly man motioned to us. “Bring the younger ones close,” he ordered. When we had all gathered, the man said, “The shuttle is coming back for you. You are all to go up to the station to be with your parents. They will
explain the situation.”
A murmur rose from the children and then Piper cried out, pointing to the shore path. I turned to see Mira’s grandmother nearing the station, a tall woman next to her. I was stunned. The tall woman was a raider, no doubt about it. I had never come face to face with a raider before, but the images I had seen matched this one perfectly. She had her head shaved, as most of them apparently did, and her face was covered with the web of fine wrinkles that developed on people who spend years in the dryness of deep space. Her silver-coated teeth shone in the sunlight. I had read the silver coating was more for show than practicality, a symbol of the most successful raiders, the ones who weren’t afraid to advertise their profession. This woman didn’t look afraid of anything.
Ansun walked over to meet her, and the way he spoke made it clear he knew her. That was a bad sign. If this woman was here, Decker’s fears about raiders on the station were probably true. My mother must have been frantic to get us to stay away. That’s why she had sent a message. The raiders had a ruthless reputation.
I motioned to Lainie and Decker and Saunder to move to the side of the group so I could talk to them. The older man’s attention was on the raider now and he wasn’t watching us. “My mother sent the message because of them,” I said in a low voice. “Raiders must have taken over the station. We can’t go up.”
“I don’t want to, if there are more like Bald Woman there.” Lainie shuddered. “What happened to Mick?”
“He’s dead,” I said. I didn’t want to describe what I had seen.
“Dead? How?” Decker asked.
“I don’t know, but Ansun knew about it before anyone went in the station. Something just vaporized him.”
“Mick is really dead?” Lainie acted like she hadn’t heard anything I had just said.
Before I could tell her again, a whooshing noise drowned out my words. I looked up to see the shuttle descending. It landed precisely on the ‘X’ marked for it, no pilot visible in the cockpit. Even though I knew the shuttle was programmed to land by itself, it was procedure to have a pilot, just in case something went wrong. The lack of one made my uneasiness grow.
The ramp came down and an AIbot rolled out, one of the standard ones, not the enhanced models. It stopped right at the bottom. “All children are instructed to board the shuttle,” it announced.
“What are we going to do?” Saunder asked.
Some of the younger children moved toward the ramp into the shuttle. The bot repeated itself. “All children are instructed to board,”
“What can we do?” Lainie said. “What will the Fosaanians do if we refuse to get on?”
I didn’t like to think about that. The Fosaanians could easily force us to do whatever they wanted. Ansun’s voice rose over the crowd. I flinched, hoping the man didn’t have some sort of super hearing to listen in on what we were debating. Luckily, it looked like Ansun and the raider woman were arguing. The two stood facing each other, speaking in angry voices. All the Fosaanians were listening.
“We can’t get on,” I said, trying to ignore Ansun and concentrate on figuring out what to do.
“But if we say we won’t go,” Saunder said, “I have a feeling the Fosaanians would carry us on board if they wanted to.”
“What if the whole station has been taken over by raiders?” I asked. “Do you think raiders would keep anyone alive? We might be walking right into a trap. We’ve all heard the stories about them.” When raiders took a supply ship, they didn’t leave anyone alive.
“We have to send the younger ones up,” Decker said. “Then we stay here and figure out something to do. If we go up there and there’s something really wrong, we’re stuck. Besides I don’t think they would do anything to children.”
I didn’t like the thought of knowingly sending Piper up to the station if it was full of raiders. “I think we should ask to communicate with someone on the station. We need to hear it’s safe to send anyone.” I walked over to the bot, glancing back at the Fosaanians. They still weren’t paying attention. Ansun was jabbing his finger at the raider woman. She looked about ready to hit him. “AI 72,” I said, reading the id on the bot. “Establish a link with the station commander. We have a message.”
The AI complied, sending a small hologram in front of it. The slip was nearly transparent for a moment and then a man appeared, not Decker’s father. I was surprised to see it was my friend, Gregor Skrim. Gregor didn’t usually spend any time in the comm center. Besides inventory control, he did station maintenance and was more likely to be found floating around outside the station patching leaks than sitting in front of a slip.
“Gregor, what’s going on?” I noticed the man was sweating, and his skin had an odd mottled cast to it. Gregor’s wavy hair usually went in all sorts of crazy directions, but was now flattened down to his head like it was wet. His one earlobe was bloody, and I saw that the earring he usually wore against regulations, a Sondian ruby, was missing.
“Busy times up here,” Gregor mumbled, looking up and to the side as if watching something near him. “I’m in charge of communications now, but there are problems, you know. I can only stay on a few seconds. What do you want?”
“We want to know if we should come up to the station,” I said. “Is my mother there? Dr. Neen?”
Gregor didn’t answer right away. Finally, he said, “She’s not available right now.” The words came out one by one as if he was having difficulty putting a whole sentence together.
Decker came close. “Where is my father, Commander Rigan?”
“He’s not available either.” Gregor wiped some sweat from his forehead. “Quinn, you know how it works here. It would be good times if you came up. Everybody listening to music like they always do. Never a dull moment. See you soon.” The man turned his head away from the slip and then nodded. “I’m signing off now,” he said, and without waiting for us to respond, he ended the connection.
“That answers it,” I said, “Everybody listening to music? Nobody listens to music up there. It drives Gregor crazy how the scientists don’t want music distracting them. He’s trying to alert us there’s a problem. And no one would put Gregor in charge of communications or anything else. He’s always getting written up for not doing his regular jobs, and he’s the lowest level worker there.” I knew Gregor was only a few years older than myself, and spent most of his time regretting that he signed on for such an isolated job. He liked fixing things that were broken on the station, but not much else he was assigned to do.
“I think you’re right, Quinn. Something is really wrong,” Lainie said. “Gregor looked terrible.”
“We can’t all stay here. You know they aren’t going to let us. You all get on board and I’ll stay,” Decker said. “If I go now they won’t even notice me.” He started around the side of the shuttle, but the AIbot blocked his way.
“All children are to board the shuttle,” it said.
“Not me, botwit,” Decker said, trying to go around it.
“I believe you are mistaken,” the bot replied, moving to block him. “I do not have a wit. Wit has several meanings, all of which apply to humans only. The first definition … ”
“Stop,” Decker said. “We aren’t getting on the shuttle.”
“You are a child and therefore not excluded from the order.” The bot rolled a few centimeters closer to Decker as if trying to encourage him to move.
I hated not knowing what to do. My mother had told us not to get on the shuttle, but I knew Decker was right about the younger ones. There was no way we could all stay on planet if Ansun wanted us off. “I’ll stay too,” I said. Maybe I could figure out a way to contact my father. There had to be a way to use the comm units, especially if Lainie stayed and helped.
“Quinn, are you coming?” Piper said, her foot on the bottom of the ramp.
“Wait, Piper. Don’t get on yet.” I changed my mind. Maybe I should keep Piper with me and let the rest go up.
“Why not?” she asked.
I went over to her and drew her aside, “I think it’s better if you stay with me.”
“I want to see Mom. And that raider woman is scary.” Piper’s lower lip trembled. “I don’t want to stay here. I’m going. You stay if you want.”
I could tell from her face if I made her stay, she’d get too panicky. “Okay, calm down. It’s okay. Once you are up there, I need you to tell Mom something. It’s a secret though. You need to tell her when no one else can hear you.”
She nodded, smiling. I knew she liked secrets. “Good. Tell Mom I got her message and to send me more the same way. She’ll understand.”
“You got a message from Mom and you didn’t tell me!” Her smile disappeared as fast as it had appeared.
“There wasn’t a good time, and it wasn’t really much of a message. It’s important you tell her though.”
“Okay.” Piper looked doubtful. “I wish I had Teeny with me. You’ll take care of her, right?”
“Piper, get on!” One of Piper’s friends called. All the other younger children were already inside.
“I’ll take good care of Teeny,” I promised, feeling ridiculous saying it.
The bot announced yet again, “All children are to board.” Piper walked up the ramp, looking back at me. I tried to act as if everything was fine.
The bot moved over to where Decker stood with Lainie and Saunder. “What happens if we don’t get on?” Decker asked, crossing his arms. The bot didn’t respond.
“Wait Decker,” Lainie said. “I have a better idea. A72, what is your primary definition of ‘child?’”
“A child is defined as an immature human in the preadolescent stage of their lifespan. It cannot be defined as an exact age, because of the variability in the species.”
“The rest of us here are all adolescents, not preadolescents,” she told it. “You already have all the children on board.”
The AIbot didn’t respond. It wasn’t a question anyway, so I didn’t expect it to answer. I waited, hoping Lainie’s argument would work. It did, because the AIbot wheeled up the ramp, apparently convinced it had carried out its job.
Station Fosaan Page 9
