Rayessa and the Space Pirates

by Donna Maree Hanson

  The tracking beep of the ship’s approach made my heart twitch. I stopped staring into space and turned to watch the display of the ship. The Lollydrop had started docking manoeuvres by matching its speed to the asteroid’s spin. Then as the tongue of the landing bay crossed the horizon it would line up and descend down to attach itself to the outpost. Just then, I had a horrible thought.

  ‘Oh no,’ I said and bolted for the door.

  Chapter Three

  Alwin Anton

  ‘Lord, what a stink,’ I yelled into my commlink. ‘Gris, we have a problem. The primary reclamation unit. We forgot to fix it and it’s overflowed into the main corridor.’

  I pulled my hair in frustration when he didn’t reply. ‘Gris? Gris. I don’t know what to do. Dad’s notes didn’t cover situations like this.’

  Waves of slushy sewerage were oozing over the deck planking. I’d smelt bad things in my time but this definitively topped the list. Hands on hips, I stared at the muck while waiting for Gris to answer.

  ‘Re…re…route,’ came Gris’ voice through the commlink.

  ‘Sure, no problem.’ I thought fast as I tried to calm down. I felt the fabric of my body-stocking give, as I darted backwards and forwards, trying to decide which way to go. We only had five minutes. I would have to stall the visitor at the airlock.

  I loped down the main corridor, hoping my clothing would stay on my back. I pulled up at the atmospheric control unit.

  ‘Gris. I’m cycling the air through corridors AB3 to AB5. That should take him around it. But I’m going to have to drain the atmosphere from the main corridors near the docking bay. It’s still going to stink. I don’t think the filters can do much about it.

  ‘Darn.’ I said as I punched the panel. The remotes weren’t working I’d have to go down myself. I ran, holding on to my metal chest plate and skirt because they had the annoying habit of thwacking against me and leaving me bruised.

  Then when I made the hatch, I unsealed it and put on my respirator mask. After stepping through, I rerouted the air and sealed off the passages. As the corridor filled up with better air, I slipped off my mask and screwed up my face. ‘Phew. That still smells strong.’ I sniffed and looked down. The smeared remains of an aging turd were hanging off my boot.

  ‘Crap. What next?’ I angled my foot and scraped what I could off onto the verge grating. Time was running out. So I gave up trying to clean my boot and headed for the airlock to meet Alwin Anton, representative of AllEarth Corp, before he stumbled into something he shouldn’t, all the while repeating my father’s first rule, ‘Act Stupid’. I was doing a good job so far and I wasn’t even trying.

  The hatch began to open and then halted with a grating crunch. Surprised, I looked up. The darn thing was frozen. With Mr Anton trapped on the other side, I rummaged through a service bin looking for the WD2040. After tossing bits of equipment casually over my shoulder, I put my hand on the aerosol can. I aimed and squeezed it into the frozen seal. I was greeted by the shush of air when the two atmospheres interacted. My ears felt heavy for a moment while they adjusted to the change in pressure.

  I looked up from examining my boot, nose still hitched in a sniff when Mr Anton hove into view. He was a head taller than me, with lightly-tanned skin. Athletic looking, his dark eyes glittered as they looked me up and down. With his short black hair, straight nose and white teeth, he’d pass for a movie star. If the expression on his face was anything to go by, he was surprised. He stared for a moment and then his face creased and he staggered backwards. ‘Good god. What is that stink?’ he blurted out in what the vids would call a private-school accent.

  ‘Sorry, slight malfunction,’ I replied with a nervous shrug. ‘We’re having it fixed right away. Now if you’ll follow me I’ll take you round to the control room.’

  ‘Who are you?’ He crossed the threshold.

  I swung round and felt my face heat and my underarms itch with sweat. I didn’t have to act stupid in the way my Dad instructed, since it obviously came naturally. ‘Oh? Yes, sorry. I’m Rae Stroder. Captain Stroder’s daughter.’

  ‘And where is your…Captain?’ His dark eyes were narrowed under trim dark eyebrows. He seemed to be looking everywhere at once. ‘Avoiding me I suppose. They always do.’

  ‘If you’ll follow me, we can discuss your business. And mine.’ His eyes settled on me, the dark irises bored into my surprised eyes. I had to look away. I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me. Then it got worse. He stepped around me and looked me up and down in my shabby clothes. If there had been a garbage chute nearby, I would have flushed myself. But Daddy’s checklist had to be followed so I swallowed what was left of my pride and slunk back down the corridor with Mr Anton grinding his teeth as he passed through the deserted corridors.

  Arriving at the control centre, I stepped over the remains of five nights’ worth of dirty dinner plates and dusted off the command chair and righted the cushion.

  ‘Here have a seat,’ I said as calmly as I could.

  Mr Anton’s eyes seemed to bug out as he surveyed the chair and the control room and then rested his almost black eyes on me again. He stared at me, letting his eyes drop to my clothes.

  Everything was silent. The visitor, Mr Anton, seemed lost for words until Gris elbowed his way into the room, grunting and smelling like a pig fresh from his wallow. Mr Anton’s jaw dropped so I thought an introduction was in order.

  ‘Oh, um, Gris. Meet Mr Anton. He’s here to—why are you here?’

  Those dark eyes narrowed. Mr Anton smiled, a fake smile, and didn’t bother to shake Gris’ extended hand. It did look very suspicious. I wouldn’t have shaken it either.

  ‘Gris.’ Mr Anton spoke again with that polished voice. Perhaps he was an actor. My mind began to drift in that direction. ‘I don’t know the name,’ he said as he continued rubbing his clean-shaved chin and examining Gris in the same way he had examined me. ‘That name is not on the crew list.’ His gaze darted chillingly back to mine.

  ‘Crew list?’ I blurted. I had never seen one.

  ‘Yes, the crew list. Who are you people?’

  I blinked with the force of his words. He seemed to hurl them like accusations. I drew myself up to my full 150cm and faced him squarely with my shoulders set. ‘We are crew,’ I said indignantly. ‘What else would we be, holiday makers?’

  Gris gawped at me dumbly. I noticed that his breathing was rapid. Having visitors didn’t seem to suit him. I frowned at him and willed him to behave.

  ‘There is no need to be impertinent, Ms Stroder. Where is Captain Stroder? There is no point in him hiding from me. I may look young, fresh out of university, but I assure you and him that I am very experienced. ’

  ‘No one is hiding from you,’ I replied, puzzled. What kind of person was he that people hid when he came a calling?

  A sneer appeared on his face. ‘I am here on official business. I have a right to ask these questions.’

  ‘Really? What is your official business? You didn’t bring supplies by any chance?’ I assessed him with my eyes as he had me. He was immaculately clean. His ship suit was bright blue and tapered to his lithe body. He could pass for an actor, but I wasn’t sure who. Perhaps Nel Wingham, who often appeared with Del. But when his mouth shrunk to a pout, I thought not.

  ‘Supplies? No, not much. I was expecting to restock and refuel here. This is a refuelling post.’

  ‘Yes, it is.’ I mentally ran down the emergency checklist Dad had left me. Second point was ‘deny everything’. Great.

  ‘I’ll need an office or quarters. But,’ he gestured to the control room, ‘if this is the state of the executive area, I will lodge on my ship. But first I want you to give me access to the data core’.

  ‘What?’ I yelped. I didn’t even know we had one. I didn’t think admitting that would impress Mr Anton so I hid my ignorance.

  ‘You heard me.’

  ‘Yes, I heard you but you haven’t given me a reason to give you that access. Even if I…neve
r mind. You didn’t say what your official business was.’

  ‘Ah yes, I should have stated that earlier.’ He produced, from inside the lapel of his super-clean ship suit, an official storage wafer with a flashy AllEarth Corp logo. He handed it to me with the words. ‘You are being audited.’

  I suppressed the urge to scream. I had no idea what an audit was, and I didn’t know that the outpost had anything to do with this AllEarth Corp. I turned the wafer over. It was self-powered so I didn’t need to plug it in to read it. When I pressed the execute button the message scrolled down. Lots of paragraphs about the outpost’s specifications, when it was built and inaugurated and the details of AllEarth Corp’s ownership. Then right at the end came the bit about Mr Alwin Anton, official of said company, who had been designated to carry out a full inspection and audit. All access was to be given freely and all questions answered. It ended with a cute bit that said thank you for your cooperation. I was a bit numbed after reading it, well most of it, some words I didn’t understand at all. They had never appeared on any checklist I had ever read.

  Gris looked on from where he hovered by the door but I didn’t bother giving the wafer to him. He could only read corridor signs since the injury. I stared at the message as it began to re-scroll, stalling for time. But Mr Anton’s smooth manicured fingers reached out and grasped it, tugging it from my grip. When I glared at him rudely, he said, ‘I will be examining all of the facilities and transaction records. Though, I must say my first impressions are not good.’

  He headed to the door, gingerly edging around Gris to avoid touching him.

  ‘By the way, it would behove you to dress more appropriately. Your clothing is very distracting.’

  I glanced down. I didn’t notice anything different about what I was wearing so I shrugged. He was shaking his head.

  Drooling over his sleek and clean ship suit, I said, ‘If you have a spare one of those I’ll wear it.’

  His face skin turned pink and he coughed. ‘I, er…you are most impertinent.’

  ‘I am?’

  ‘You should just requisition one, though I have the suspicion that you are not entitled to one. You are definitely not crew.’

  Now that made me angry. ‘Not crew? My father left me in charge here. That makes me crew. I work hard to keep this place running.’

  ‘Hah,’ he said and squeezed out the partly opened door. He kicked it before he headed back to his ship.

  Gris let out a wet-sounding sigh and asked, ‘What is audit?’

  ‘Trouble, I think.’ I leaned down to retrieve the emergency checklist. So far I had acted stupid and denied everything. My eyes read the next point.

  ‘Heavens. Dad had to be drunk when he wrote this.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Gris as he scrapped dirt and muck off his skin with a sharp piece of plating, the outpost’s most efficient means of washing.

  ‘He says “lie through your teeth”,’ I quoted. ‘That’s all well and good. But what do I lie about?’

  Chapter Four

  Space Audit

  ‘Come in, Ms Stroder…Ms Stroder?’ Mr Anton’s voice grew louder. I wiped sleep from my eyes and flexed my stiff leg, tingling with pins and needles. I’d slept with the metal plate on again and this time it had cut off the circulation. I could hardly breathe as I rubbed some feeling back into my calf muscles.

  ‘Ms Stroder. I assume you are at your post. It is oh-nine-hundred.’

  ‘Oh asteroid dust,’ I cursed as I hopped up from underneath the console and hit the acknowledge button. ‘Rae here, Mr Anton. What can I do for you?’ I said a tad breathlessly. I was suppressing a moan after all.

  ‘Plenty. I’m sending you a copy of the letter of authority for AllEarth Corp for your records. You can read, can’t you?’

  I sniffed. Hadn’t he seen me read? ‘Yes, I can, though I don’t have much need for it on the outpost. We don’t have a library.’

  ‘If you are attempting humour, then you are wasting your time on me. I don’t have a sense of humour. It’s not in my job description.’

  ‘Sorry, my mistake,’ I replied, through a yawn. I dragged my fingers through my clumped, dirty hair and, as I did, I thought of how clean the auditor’s was. How did he manage it?

  ‘I want you to rendezvous with me on level 3. I will undertake a random inspection.’

  ‘Level 3?’ I had to think fast. ‘Um, that’s not a good idea.’ I angled my head, trying to see if Gris was around. He wasn’t. Bother. I had to think of something else. ‘We had to close that down three days ago. There was a radiation leak.’

  ‘Really? A radiation leak? What kind of radiation, Ms Stroder?’

  ‘Can’t recall. Gris was looking after it. Please call me Rae. I don’t think I’ve ever been called Ms Stroder before and it makes my skin crawl.’

  ‘I see. Then I will check the Beta landing bay. I assume that’s functioning.’

  ‘Yes, it is, but Gris is working on it right now. When your ship docked, it caused a power flux, or surge or something.’ I prayed Gris stayed out of sight.

  ‘Are there any areas of the outpost that are fit to be seen, Ms Stroder?’

  ‘Rae,’ I prompted.

  ‘Excuse me, Rae.’

  ‘Yes, of course. I’ll take you on a tour of the hydroponics bay.’

  ‘Hydroponics? Ms Stroder, I mean, Rae, there is no hydroponics bay listed in the outpost’s schematics.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know about the schem…the schematics but there’s been a hydroponics bay ever since I can remember.’

  There was a pause. The line was still open. I could hear it. ‘This is most unusual, Ms Stroder.’

  ‘Yes, we’ve never had an audit before.’

  ‘That is not what I meant,’ he replied with a sigh.

  ‘Oh, but I meant what I said,’ I added and smiled.

  ‘Meet me at my ship. Right away,’ he barked into the comms. My smile faded and I felt quite faint suddenly. I said the first thing that came into my mind.

  ‘Yea, okay. Be there in a jiff.’ I punched the commlink. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

  ‘Don’t talk bad. Gris don’t like,’ said Gris from the doorway.

  I turned on him, fists clenched. ‘Gris. Where were you? He’s tying me up in knots. What am I to do? Dad’s list is a joke and I don’t like that guy. He’s so, so…stiff. He doesn’t cuss—he’s clean and he’s doing honest work.’

  ‘Gris fixing things.’ He fumbled with his lap plate.

  My eyes followed his hands. I gulped. It was time to leave. ‘Gris, now is not the time to start fixing that thing, okay. Tie yourself up and fix something that’s broken or I’m not sure what will happen. Gotta go and meet Mr Anton Audit.’

  I ran from the command centre before Gris’ urges got the better of him. It was probably Mr Anton’s visit that had set him off. Usually only the pirates stressed him out that much.

  Confused, I took a wrong turn and had to double back. Some corridors were still closed due to the broken reclamation unit. I was huffing by the time I made it to Lollydrop’s hatch. I hailed Mr Anton and the hatch slid open.

  The ship was really clean and new looking. I ran my hand along the walls and when I noticed how dirty my fingernails were, I pulled them back. My scruffy handmade boots clanked on the metal floor as I headed towards what I thought was the bridge. Highlighted arrows flickered and lit the way so I followed them.

  He was standing with his back to me, scrolling through data on a screen. In front of the bridge console stood three chairs in a line. I waited for him to notice me. He must have heard my footsteps. Even I could hear them echoing around me still.

  He swung round. ‘Thank you, Ms Stroder. Take a seat.’ He swivelled a chair around for me to sit in.

  I looked at it warily and then eased myself down. It was comfortable and didn’t appear ready to fall apart.

  ‘So, Ms Stroder. I would like an accounting of where your father is?’ Mr Anton spoke as he paced around my chair, stopping occasionally t
o hold his chin in his hand. My eyes flicked around the bridge, noting its cleanliness and its functionality. The air filters even looked clean and I could smell Mr Anton from where I sat. And he smelt clean too.

  I sniffed myself and wrinkled my nose. I smelt bad in these spotless surroundings and I no longer blended in.

  ‘Ms Stroder, please pay attention. Your father is where?’ His hand now rested on his hip and he softly tapped his shoe on the floor.

  ‘Dad was taken by pirates a few years ago.’ I watched his face. It seemed to freeze.

  ‘What did you say?’ he said and began to pace five steps to the right and five back again and again. I watched, fascinated by his precise moves.

  ‘I said he was taken by pirates. A few years back pirates began to attack the outpost. That’s when the crew began disappearing or were found dead after the raids.’

  He slowed his pacing. One eyebrow tilted ready to slide off his smooth-skinned forehead. ‘They were taken,’ he repeated. ‘When was that?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was younger. Dad went…about three years ago, I think.’

  ‘How is that possible?’

  I blinked. ‘What do you mean how is it possible? We are very isolated. Our comms are weak. The distress beacon was blasted out of space. We’ve had no ships stop for refuelling for years, even before the attacks. Dad said it was the new space station around Saturn that took away our business.’

  I shut my eyes, trying to block out the memory of that attack and the loss of my father. I heard a noise and my eyes flew open. Mr Anton had plonked himself into his seat and was running his hands through his short, dark hair.

  ‘Let me get this straight, Ms Stroder. You and Gris are the only ones here.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And the outpost is barely functional?’

  Avoiding his eye, I shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t say that exactly It’s…it’s almost functional,’ I said.