The Long Black (The Black Chronicles Book 1)

by J. M. Anjewierden

  “The bathroom is straight through to the back,” Morgan said, stepping aside to let the other woman in first.

  Gertrude let Haruhi down, the girl trailing behind, rubbing her eyes with one small hand.

  Morgan didn’t bother pointing the way, given that it was scarcely ten steps from the front door to the bathroom door. There also wasn’t anything between the two besides a small chair and table to one side, a cot on the other. Throw in a sink, cabinet, and kitchen work space in one corner, a closet in the other, and that comprised the whole of Morgan’s living space. The cot was the only thing in the room with anything beyond the bare minimum, as it had a snug canopy over it that closed with Velcro straps.

  There were no windows, which lowered the rent somewhat. That suited Morgan just fine. Morgan put the penguin on the chair, while Gertrude put her purse on the table, taking a moment to straighten and tighten her kimono.

  “This is where you live?” Gertrude said as Haruhi closed the door to the bathroom. Morgan could tell she was trying not to be judgmental, but it was hard to keep out of the tone of speech, especially for Morgan, who had been studying the local speech in an attempt to erase her own accent.

  “I don’t need anything more right now.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Listen, Gertrude,”

  “Yes?”

  “Thanks for inviting me.”

  “Of course. Work and school are important, don’t get me wrong, but having fun and relaxing from time to time is as well.”

  The bathroom door opened.

  “All done.” Haruhi said loudly.

  “Really?” Gertrude asked. “Did you remember everything?”

  Haruhi stopped, tilting her head as she thought.

  “Oh, hands!” She said, heading back in. With the door closed Morgan couldn’t hear if the water was running or not.

  “How did you know?”

  “No water, besides the toilet.”

  “The door was closed.”

  “Parenting requires superpowers. One of the many things they don’t tell you beforehand.”

  “Who’s they?”

  Gertrude just smiled.

  The door opened again and Haruhi came out, proudly showing her palms.

  “Good job, Haru. Can you walk for a bit so I can carry Penny?”

  Haruhi nodded.

  “You sure you don’t want me to walk with you to your place?”

  “I’m sure. You’re already home, it’s late, and my home really isn’t that far.”

  “It wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Thank you for coming, Morgan. It’s been fun getting to know you a bit. You certainly seem to have Haruhi’s vote, which isn’t easy to get.”

  Morgan opened the door to let them out, surprised when Haruhi hugged one of her legs tightly before bouncing out the door.

  Cute kid.

  Morgan watched them walk down the hallway until they had started up the stairs, the door closing behind them and locking automatically. The small clock perched on the head board of her cot proclaimed the time as 22:05. As tired as she was Morgan had to pause and work out what that meant. Day and night on Hillman might have been nearly interchangeable, but it was still noticeable, and people needed a regular rhythm. Long before Hillman had been settled the intergalactic community agreed to keep using the same seconds, minutes, hours, and weeks from Earth – one of the few things they actually did agree on. As it happened Hillman’s day was just about 23 hours, which was close enough to Earth to not cause too much of a problem. What’s one less hour for sleep for the perpetually sleep deprived anyway?

  Morgan much preferred the day on Zion. Twenty six hours, without extra work or school time to go with it. People here were much more likely to actually get eight hours of sleep than the busy people on most planets.

  Except for tonight, it seemed. Sure, it was still four hours until midnight, but Morgan needed to be up and getting ready by quarter to three for her janitorial shift at the trade school at three-thirty. That job ended at eight thirty, giving her barely enough time for a meal before her other job started at ten, assisting a mechanic who owned his own vehicle repair shop a few blocks over. Finish up there by four, then school at five.

  At least she had already eaten. A quick shower and she could get to bed.

  Only. . .

  . . .Morgan didn’t quite feel right, letting Gertrude and her little girl walk home the rest of the way alone. She couldn’t identify what was bothering her, just that something was.

  Morgan stood there, stock still, for long seconds before shaking her head and heading for the bathroom, idly working on the buttons to her coveralls as she kicked off her shoes. Paranoia was fairly useful on Hillman, but Zion was a vastly safer place. The people were friendly and productive, and the police were efficient and dedicated.

  Morgan had closed the door behind her, half out of the coveralls when the feeling returned again, worse.

  What had she told Gertrude? Try not to look like a target? What would a woman in the movement constricting kimono with a child in one hand and a large toy in the other look like?

  The bad feeling increased twofold, and Morgan made up her mind.

  Better to waste the half hour walking them home than try to sleep wondering.

  Decision made the sense of urgency and dread she felt only grew. Morgan stepped back into her shoes hastily. She was halfway down the hallway before she remembered to make sure her ID was still in her pocket, the normal process of checking tricky as she simultaneously tried to shove her arms back into the sleeves of the coveralls.

  Morgan headed back out towards the main road they’d turned off of to get to her apartment, hoping that Gertrude had retraced her steps rather than try a winding path through the neighborhood. She needn’t have worried; Morgan began to hear loud voices less than a block from her own apartment.

  Three boys, or men perhaps, Morgan wasn’t wasting time guessing, had gathered around Gertrude and Haruhi. They didn’t seem especially threatening to Morgan, but plainly Gertrude thought them such. If Morgan had seen them in the street while she was out walking she would have kept an eye on them, at the very least.

  They had their backs to Morgan, and Gertrude was too intent on them to have noticed Morgan approaching.

  “This isn’t hard, lady. You pay the toll, and we go away.”

  Well, that settled that. Morgan had been warned about this kind of scam within days of moving into the neighborhood. Most of the people doing it were counting on intimidation to get their way more than violence, but telling the genuinely dangerous from the bravado filled was nearly impossible short of violence actually breaking out.

  As such, Morgan didn’t feel the least bit sorry for rushing in and sucker punching the closest one in the kidney, followed by a swift kick to the groin. The kick she pulled her strength on, she was trying to incapacitate him, not do permanent damage.

  If these were punks ‘hustling the tourists’ they wouldn’t be interested in sticking around for a fight, and if they weren’t Morgan’s only shot was distracting them long enough to get Gertrude and Haruhi and then running. She was strong, sure, but there were three of them.

  As the first guy went down the other two turned to her, giving her an excellent opportunity to hit number two in the jaw. Morgan had never hit anyone in the jaw before. She was surprised how much it hurt, but Morgan forced herself to ignore it and dodge to the side as the third guy kicked at her.

  His timing was off and the kick unbalanced him enough that he staggered forward, actually tripping over the fallen first punk.

  Shaking her aching fist Morgan turned to face the second guy, stepping a little bit closer to negate some of his advantage in reach.

  Meanwhile Gertrude had fished something out of her bag with one hand while pushing Haruhi behind her with the other.

  Morgan had no idea what it was, beyond the obvious – black, cylindrical, easily fit into the palm. Gertrude held it out towards
the second guy and depressed the top. A stream of some kind of orange liquid hissed out, hitting the second guy squarely in the face. A lot of it splashed off, as well as misting in the air around him.

  Then the splashing liquid hit Morgan too, part of it in her eyes.

  She was almost instantly blinded, her eyes stinging and watering so bad that they involuntarily squeezed shut.

  “Ahh! Lady, lay off the spray!” He yelled. Morgan could hear him stumbling back, crashing into a garbage can that was standing at the edge of the sidewalk.

  Morgan tried blinking, easier said than done, but she managed it. It didn’t help, nor did the tears streaming down her face.

  Luckily her being able to see didn’t seem to be vitally important. She could hear the injured punks stumbling off.

  “Are you okay, Haruhi?” Gertrude asked, her voice shaking.

  “What’s going on Gertrude? I can’t see.”

  “Don’t rub your eyes, Morgan. That will only make it worse.”

  Not exactly an answer, but Morgan supposed the information was at least useful.

  “I’m sorry you got hit with it too. I’ve never had to use it before, I had no idea it would splash that much.” Morgan could hear Gertrude moving around a bit, but couldn’t make out where the men were, or Haruhi. “Where did you come from, I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”

  “Heavy worlder. They are gone, right?”

  “Oh, yes. They’ve run off. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t of been here.”

  “My eyes?”

  “Do you have any medical supplies at your place? It isn’t just pepper spray; it will take a bit more than water to get it off.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Give me your hand, Morgan.”

  Morgan heard the chime of an uplink being activated.

  “Where is the nearest open medical center?”

  Morgan couldn’t see the holographic display projected into the air above them, but she could dimly hear the machine working.

  “My home is closer than any of these. Let’s get you there.”

  “This hurts quite a lot,” Morgan agreed.

  “Is it okay?” Haruhi asked in a very small voice.

  “Everything’s fine, Haru. Morgan just got something in her eyes. We’re going to take her home and make it better.”

  “Who were the men? They seemed angry.”

  “They were angry, but they’ve gone. We didn’t have what they wanted.”

  Walking the blocks to Gertrude’s home blind proved quite problematic. Gertrude had to guide Morgan and keep hold of Haruhi’s hand. Penny the penguin, forgotten during the brief fight, was picked up and dusted off as best as possible, then given to Morgan to hold.

  Morgan couldn’t decide if it was all unbearably embarrassing or unbearably funny. Her stinging eyes negated much of the humor, though at least that subsided a bit after a couple minutes.

  “There are some steps ahead. Haruhi, can you open the door?”

  “Okay!”

  Morgan was amazed that the child was so awake at this time of night, as well as seemingly oblivious to what had happened, but it was just as well.

  “Door. Open!”

  “Voice print recognized. Three heat signatures recorded. Please identify.”

  “Me, Momma, and Morgan!”

  The door swung itself open, and Gertrude helped Morgan up the steps inside.

  “Just drop the toy. There’s a couch just over here.” Gertrude guided her a few steps forward, then to the left. Morgan’s shins bumped into something soft. She put Penny down and reached forward with her now free hand, feeling the edges of the couch before turning around and sitting.

  “I’ll be right back with the medical kit. Haruhi, go to your room. It’s time for bed.”

  Haruhi grumbled something Morgan didn’t quite make out, and she heard Gertrude’s steps as she walked out of the room. The room felt large, and the floors sounded like wood, but she couldn’t tell much else. The stinging wasn’t too bad, but she didn’t dare open her eyes just yet.

  Morgan heard Gertrude’s steps approach after less than a minute.

  “Can you stand up and lean your head back. I need to wash your eyes out.”

  Morgan complied, taking a step away from the couch.

  “Keep your mouth closed. This stuff isn’t toxic, but I doubt it tastes very good.”

  Slowly Gertrude started pouring a liquid on Morgan’s eyes, it wasn’t pleasant, but it did take the stinging away almost immediately.

  “Now open your eyes so I can get the rest out.”

  Morgan complied, though the urge to close them again against the pouring was strong.

  Blinking in relief Morgan looked around. She was standing in a very large room with three large couches arranged around a low table in the middle with a large holotank taking up the fourth wall.

  This room alone was at least twice the size of Morgan’s whole apartment, and she could see two doors in the hallway they’d walked in from, besides the door leading outside.

  No wonder Gertrude had been shocked at how small her place had been.

  “Careful you don’t touch your clothes,” Gertrude said, bringing Morgan’s attention back to her. The spray is still potent, and there is a fair bit on your coveralls.

  “Let me help you clean up,” Morgan said, gesturing to the puddle on the floor and the liquid still dripping off of her shoulders.

  “Nonsense. You need to take a shower to get the rest of the spray off of you, and so we can clean your clothes. I can handle this. If you head back out to the hallway the bathroom is the third door to the left. There are towels and a robe in there you can use. Use the shampoo and soap in the blue bottles. It’s what I use after coming back from class and is definitely strong enough to get any of it left off safely. Leave your clothes on the floor so you don’t get it on anything. My washing machine can have them clean in less than an hour.”

  “This really isn’t necessary,” Morgan said, faintly embarrassed at the amount of attention Gertrude was giving her.

  “Morgan, you attacked three grown men to help me. More importantly, you helped my daughter. How could I ever repay that? Cleaning your clothes and letting you use my shower is nothing compared to that. Now get moving before you manage to get some on your face again.”

  Morgan complied, leaving the older woman busy putting away a bottle she’d evidently pulled from the medical kit, sitting on the table next to a large pitcher of water, now mostly empty.

  The bathroom was actually smaller than Morgan had expected, given the size of the other rooms she passed. She supposed there was only so much space you needed for a bathroom, especially one meant to be used by a single person at a time. The towels were readily apparent, as well as the robe once she closed the door behind her. The shower had a door instead of the curtains Morgan had expected, glass that was mostly opaque. Carefully shedding her clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor, Morgan walked into the shower. She was relieved to see the controls were basically the same as in her apartment – both were quite different than anything she’d seen on Hillman or on the Pale Moonlight, after all.

  There was a knock at the door a few minutes later.

  “Morgan, do you mind if I reach in and grab your clothes so I can get them washing?”

  Morgan thought about it. Having the woman in the room with her would be a little awkward, but Morgan was short enough that none of her was visible above the opaque part of the glass door, and she really needed to get home and get to bed.

  “Go ahead,” she called out.

  The door opened and shut in the space of a few minutes. Satisfied that there was no chance of any of the nasty spray lingering Morgan got out of the shower a couple minutes later.

  Hurriedly drying off, Morgan slipped into the robe. It was too big, of course, dropping almost to her ankles and covering her hands even after she pushed the sleeves back.

  Not knowing what else to do Morgan headed back
to the front room with the couches.

  “Gertrude?” she called out, quietly. Hopefully Haruhi was asleep by this point, even before the excitement it had been a long day for all of them.

  She found Gertrude sitting on one of the couches; her kimono replaced by another bathrobe like the one Morgan wore. She was rocking back and forth and Morgan could see she had been crying.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No. Yes? I was so scared, more for Haruhi than for me. I’d never been in a situation like that before, especially not without Naru there to protect me. Us. What if you hadn’t have come?”

  “You’d have sprayed them all in the face instead of just one.”

  “Would I? I don’t know that I would have been able to get it out without you distracting them.”

  “Does worrying about what could have happened differently help?”

  Gertrude shook her head.

  “Then don’t worry about it. Haruhi is safe. You’re safe. Those three won’t be so keen to rob people in the future.”

  “I’m sorry, Morgan, I didn’t give you enough credit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When they first came up to us in the street, my first thought was to wonder if you had sent them.”

  Morgan had no idea how to react to this. To have someone assume she was a criminal was insulting, but so out of the blue that she had to wonder why she could even conceive of that.

  “Because of the timing?”

  “That, and because you don’t wear an uplink.”

  Morgan shook her head, trying to parse what Gertrude was saying. No, it still made no sense.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Did you notice that the thugs didn’t have uplinks on?”

  Morgan shook her head again, this time to answer Gertrude.