That was the problem with space. Every single instinct you naturally had was wrong. People were not meant for space, we don’t have the evolutionary experience for that. Everything you want to do when doing an EVA is pretty much the opposite of what you have to do.
So you drill down new instincts with meticulous training, over and over and over.
How could you have time for romantic entanglements in-between all that?
Seconds passed. Heliodora couldn’t feel her fingers now. Her toes were pretty much a goner by now, she didn’t even bother with those. If she had to choose, she’d always choose to save her hands instead of her legs.
EVA specialists didn’t really need legs, they usually got in the way.
But hands?
Heliodora felt like crying some more, but nothing came out of her tear ducts. They were either burned or frozen, she really couldn’t tell. She tried to calm herself down. It had been too long.
There was no chance of anyone saving her anymore.
She slowly spun around, her back on the space station.
Space was cruel, even in that detail. In her dying moments, she couldn’t even see her home.
Dammit.
She felt a tug, but her senses were pretty much shot already. She couldn’t tell if it was just a piece of debris. Perhaps her stupid frying pan, coming back for vengeance after she burned it yesterday?
She saw a light.
Oh, that wasn’t good.
Nope, that light was definitely artificial.
A pod.
Someone spoke to her.
“Can you hear me?” a warbled voice came. It was a man? Probably.
“Imiamia,” she replied fluently, her tongue not working.
“You are in shock, it’s okay,” he said with an accent.
“Imiamia!”
“This will hurt, I’m sorry, but there’s no time to wait till I get you back inside the station,” the man said from somewhere around there.
“No!” she managed to blurt out when she realised what he meant.
The nanobots flooded her system, going to town. She felt her nerves reattaching, her flesh mending, her eye filling up with fluids.
With a start, she stood up, panting wildly. Oxygen was so, so sweet. She’d never take it for granted again.
She hurried and checked herself, her hands, her toes, her face.
She was fine. She was whole. More than whole.
“What did you do to me?” she screamed at him. Now that she managed to actually get a look at him, he was cute. In a… space pirate sort of way.
“I injected you with nanos to-”
“I know what you fucking did!” she screamed again.
“Then why are you asking?” he said annoyed.
“I meant, why did you do that to me?”
“You weren’t gonna survive ten seconds, girl, let alone all the time of me docking in the station, even with a mayday from my end. You’re welcome,” he said with an accent, and turned his back to her.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” she screamed at him.
He turned to her and winced. “You might have gone deaf, but these are tight quarters. I can actually hear you just fine, girl.”
“I’m not a girl!” she screamed back.
“I can hear you,” he said, turning back to his ship’s controls.
She stopped yelling. She coughed a bit, her throat coarse from all the screaming and the, you know, gulping down space vacuum. “You’ve killed me,” she whispered.
“What? Nonsense…”
“I can’t go back to the station. Ever. Nanos are banned, you stupid bastard!” she got up and struck him in the back.
“Hey, hey, calm down now!” he said, covering up his head. “I know, but you have to admit that’s stupid, isn’t it? Moreover, why would you wanna go back to that stupid space station?”
She couldn’t contain herself. She screamed in his ear again, “You’re fucking heading there right now!”
“To refuel, trade, perhaps dip my willy in a willing girl. Not to stick around, that place is a shithole.”
“That’s my home, you… you rude space idiot!” she said, lamely, pointing a finger.
“Not anymore,” he shrugged.
That struck her harder than the fucking decompression blast when she breached the station’s hull. Heliodora sat back down, staring towards infinity.
He was right. It wasn’t her home anymore. They wouldn’t let her through quarantine, not after what happened in the grey goo incident.
She was alive, but she owed that life to the nanobots swarming through her veins.
Then she heard her mother’s voice. Not really, just in her mind. ‘Heliodora, you’re being rude to the lovely man who saved your life.’
Not a lovely man, mother. Just a space captain with questionable intentions.
‘He has a nice bum, though,’ her mother would reply.
Stop it, mother! Jeez.
Okay, Heliodora nodded and she had to agree he had a nice bum. And piercing blue eyes. And a chin to die for. But that was it!
“Thank you,” she finally said with a small voice. She pulled her legs close to her body and wrapped her arms tight around her. She wasn’t even gonna be able to see her mother. Not even a hug.
“What?” the man said, cupping his ear. “I can’t hear you after all that shouting, my ears must have been blown out.”
“I said, thank you, for saving my life.”
“You’re welcome,” he said simply, and smiled at her. Then he turned back to his navigation.
Heliodora looked around the ship. It was a piece of junk, but she was in no position to complain. She was stuck on it until he could drop her off at his next port. She wasn’t stupid to voice her opinion about the ship in words, and thankfully he was looking the other way and not at her facial expression of pure disgust.
The ship aligned with the docking bay and tugdrones flew close and eased it in. “Now you show up,” Heliodora said with her palm extended towards them. “Could have used one of you five minutes ago…”
The man snorted. “Shit happens.”
“Sure does,” she said, squeezing her legs tight on her body. Sure, she was happy to be alive. But everything in her life was gone now. She wanted to scream.
The ship docked. “Well, I’m off to your lovely space station, I’ll take a look around. Any recommendations?”
“Fuck you,” she snapped back.
“I’ll just ask around then. You… stay here till I’m back. Don’t try to hijack the ship, I’ve put safeguards in place, you won’t like them if you try anything.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, by the way, what can you do?”
“I’m an EVA specialist.”
“Cool! That’s always handy in my line of business.”
“Which is?” she said in a mocking tone.
“Totally legitimate retrieval and trade operations,” he said proudly.
She snorted. “Right.”
“Well, I’m off, see ya later, space elevator!” He turned to leave through the airlock.
Heliodora stood up. “Hey, wait! What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”
The captain shrugged. “I dunno. You could cook or something? But none of that vegetarian crap.”
Heliodora balled her fists and screamed “Aah!” in reply until her throat bled.
The captain took of in a hurry.
The nanos healed her throat.
The End
Welcome to the Asterism
“You can’t sit with us,” the other stars said, cooling themselves in their starpool.
“But why not,” Cassiopeia complained, feeling left out.
“Tsk. You’re new here, aren’t you?” Schedar waved her away dismissively. She was tanned and full-breasted, with an aura of bright orange.
A smaller star came close to Cassiopeia and offered her hand. She was thin and glowed white. “He
llo, and welcome to the asterism. I’m Caph. Who are you?”
Cassiopeia squinted against the brightness and tried to weigh the stars around her. She was the Seated Queen, more beautiful than the sea nymphs. She wasn’t gonna get rejected by these lazy stars, no matter how much older they were than she. She faked a smile and shook the delicate hand. “I’m Cassiopeia, Queen of Aethiopia. Nice to meet you.”
The star who was leaning on her back snorted loudly, for everyone to hear. She had her knees bent and close to her body, but otherwise she was naked, dressed only in starlight, just like the others. “I bet your hubby found a new queen already, since you’re up here now.”
“Ruchbah, be nice to our new friend,” Caph said in her tingly voice.
Ruchbah leaned back as she were before, presenting everyone with a full view of her legs and what was between them, seeming indifferent of the whole situation.
Cassiopeia tried to be friendly. “Okay, let me see if I got this. You are Caph,” she pointed at the small white star, who nodded happily back. “And the one on her back with her knees up is Ruchbah, and the big-breasted one is Schedar. And what about her?” She pointed at the flickering star on the side of the starpool.
Caph leaned in and whispered, “Oh, she’s Gamma. We don’t know her name, she never speaks. She’s fine, I guess, but she’s not all there, know what I mean? It’s like she flickers in and out of presence. You might get a few words out of her, but don’t count on it.” Then she turned to flickering star and spoke louder. “Gamma? The new star says ‘hello.’”
No reply.
Caph shrugged. “See? Don’t take it personally, she’s just like that.”
“Okay,” Cassiopeia said, taking it all in. Four stars, plus her, made five. But there was something missing. It took her a while but then she got it. “Hey, Caph? You’re all glowing, right. Your aura?”
Caph giggled. “Yes, silly. We’re stars. What did you expect?”
Cassiopeia looked down at herself. She was still dressed in her queeny robes and definitely not glowing. The stars on the other hand were butt-naked and wore only their starlight. “Well, I’m not.”
Caph bit her lip, looking worried. “I noticed, of course, but it was rude to point it out.”
Cassiopeia raised a demanding hand, just like she did with her subjects. “I don’t care, I’m not offended. Just tell me how to get my starlight.”
Caph thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure…”
The big-breasted one spoke up. “If you’re not gonna contribute to the Asterism, then we have no use for you, dear. Beat it.”
“No, I will!” Cassiopeia said defensively. Gods, she hadn’t felt so dismissed ever since she was a child. “I just need to figure out how.”
Ruchbah snorted again and crossed her legs, showing them all her butt. “A star that doesn’t shine. What’s the use?”
Cassiopeia was now getting pissed off. But she forced herself to cool down, she needed to figure this out. “Okay, help me out here, Caph.”
“Sure! But what can I do?”
“Talk me through it. What did you do to get sent up here?”
Caph turned to look at the rest of her Asterism. “What do you mean? We were always up here. Not assigned together, not at first, but that’s how it always was.”
“Yeah, but I was a mortal, not a star. I was banished in the sky,” Cassiopeia said, reliving the pompous words that brought the ire of Poseidon.
Schedar shook her head and her big breasts bounced left and right. Somehow even her orange light looked dismissive. “A mortal… What will they send us next? An animal?”
“Ooh, I’d like a dog!” Caph said, hopping in place.
“Ugh… Shuddup,” Ruchbah said, crossing her legs in the air the other way.
Cassiopeia dismissed the rude stars and tapped her chin, thoughtful. “Okay, so I’m here, it’s done, I don’t think I can do anything to change that. And this is an Asterism, right? A group of stars?”
Caph nodded happily in acknowledgement.
“Okay. And an Asterism does what? Shines bright? That’s it?”
“-And points the way to seamen and wanderers,” a voice came from somewhere. It was distorted, crackling.
“Who was that- Oh,” Cassiopeia said, realising who had spoken.
The flickering star had somehow registered Cassiopeia’s arrival, and had butted in in the conversation. Gamma locked eyes with her, so she assumed her mind was here as well, at least for now. “Hey, Gamma right? I’m Cassiopeia. Yes, that’s helpful, thank you very much. Do you know what else I should do to get my starlight?”
The star flickered for a few long moments.
Schedar sighed. “She’s gone, that was it. She might have a reply for you in a few centuries or something, or she might just ask you what the question was. She’s stupid.”
Ruchbah stood up, which surprised everyone there. “Hey, don’t call her stupid! She has issues, okay? Just ignore her if you don’t wanna talk to her, but don’t badmouth her.” She sat cross-legged next to the starpool, frowning with menace as the Schedar. The orange star just scoffed at her and crossed her arms under her bosom, making it bounce around even more.
Cassiopeia saw it at that point. The camaraderie. They might seem off, and the definition of ‘off’ was under debate since these weren’t people, but they had each other’s backs. That’s what she needed to do, perhaps?
She walked close to them, ignoring the initial warning of Schedar, and reached the far end of the starpool, which was a bit outside their imaginary inner circle. She pulled her sleeve up and leaned in to look in the starpool. It was brilliant and twinkling, just like the starry night. And there was some sort of dark liquid but you couldn’t see through it. Cassiopeia reached in to touch it.
There was silence, and she had a bad feeling about this. She looked around to see what the stars were doing.
Schedar was still crossing her arms and perking her breasts up, but her attention was on Cassiopeia and the starpool.
Caph looked absolutely horrified, her pale face a mask of pure shock.
Gamma was out of it, staring at someplace far away, flickering like always.
And Ruchbah was cross-legged and leaning in, her face looking coy, as if she was waiting to see a woman get burned on a hot stove.
Cassiopeia pulled her hand back.
Schedar and Caph sighed in relief, Ruchbah tsked, disappointed.
Cassiopeia squinted at them all, it was necessary since they were all illuminated. She went through their conversations in her mind. What was the first thing they said to her?
Oh, right.
She had to admit that she wasn’t a Queen anymore. She wasn’t even a woman. She was just a star.
Cassiopeia stepped inside the inner circle, despite Schedar’s stare that was pointing daggers of light at her.
Then she took another step, and even Ruchbah seemed she was about to hop up and pounce at her.
And then another step, and Caph seemed delighted to see her.
And a final step. They all turned to Gamma. She flickered brightly, making them all squint at the sudden flash of light. “Take your seat,” she finally said, then tuned out entirely.
Cassiopeia felt assured then. “I was right,” she said, and took her royal dress off, letting it slide on the floor that wasn’t really there. It disappeared into lethe as soon as it left her toes. She plopped herself down next to the others by the starpool. Naked, just like a star.
Then she reached into the starpool, and cupped some light with her hand.
The stars stared at her, now looking impatient.
She drank it, and her skin shone white and blue.
The End
Sir Patrick and the Mermaid
Part 1
In a way, Sir Patrick felt responsible for what happened. It wasn’t his tugboat and it wasn’t his propeller that injured her, but he was nearby and he was minding his nets instead of seeing what was up with all the racket.
/> The sea turned bloody, the foam rose to the surface. It was clear that the tugboat had clipped something big, perhaps something nasty like a shark, or rather something pretty like a dolphin? Who knew?
Sir Patrick took his time pulling his nets inside. To be honest, even if he had throttled his boat immediately, the heavy nets would have held him in place better than a solid anchor.
Took him, what? Fifteen minutes? Twenty? At most.
Nets safely tucked in, he moved his boat closer to the disturbance in the water. He saw something glistening but that meant little on the Scottish sea’s surface during the day. Lots of things glistened, a fish, a plastic bottle, a discarded bag.
What he saw that day changed him. But he didn’t waste any more time, he threw his ropes to the side and grabbed his sticks and gently tugged the floating body close to the hull.
Seeing it close, he gasped, as she was pretty, and she was mangled.
Sir Patrick made a noose and tied her tail close with his expert hands, then let go of the sticks and climbed outside. He reached for her with his hands, his back straining, his feet slipping.
Once, twice, he failed, she slipped away, carried out by the gentle wave. Luckily he had tied her well, so he had a third chance.
Success! He grabbed her tight around her torso and tried to keep his hands away from the nasty gashes along her body. Was she in pain? He didn’t know. Perhaps she had fainted from too much of it, Sir Patrick had seen grown men collapse that way after a severe accident during a fishing trip.
He bit his lip. If he had known, he would have hurried more. Yes, he knew that at most, he’d have come to her aid just a couple of minutes earlier, but still. Sir Patrick managed to pull himself up and back onto his boat, holding her tight.
Taking in a breath, he took her sight in as well.
She was young, that much was certain. And she was pretty. And naked. All that covered her up was her long hair and a stray bit of seaweed.
And, most importantly, she had a fish’s tail.
MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets Page 103
