Warp Thrive

by Ginger Booth

  They lied, of course. Strange, what habitual liars the Mahinans were. She wasn’t sure they even realized how constantly they fibbed. For their sake, she prayed the lovers were more honest with each other when alone. But they didn’t seem to be.

  Her party arrived at the steps up to the long boxy container. Eli turned to Zan, lead hunter of this slope, and mimed several strong gestures that amounted to, “So long and thanks for the sport.” Aurora touched fingers in the prayer gesture to offer appreciation, and the hunters departed.

  They climbed the steep stairs. Eli grasped a vertical door-pull labeled ‘THIS ONE’ and pulled. He seemed to have trouble with it.

  Aurora pressed him aside and yanked it open for him. So strange, that a man in his prime of age still looked like a sex-addled youth, and chose not to develop his physical prowess until now. She was a bit surprised he’d survived his week with the hunters. But she and Copeland had talked it over with Zan. The hunters elected to accelerate a few 12-year-olds from the creche and let Eli join in their initiation.

  She’d howled with laughter when Zan recounted the man’s First Night Out Alone ceremony, and his battle royal with stinging skeeters. The name hailed from ‘mosquitoes’ on Earth, due to the itching welts they left behind. The man was hopeless against bugs and animals.

  But Zan said his mastery of plants was uncanny, a born shaman. Their lore master need simply introduce a plant. Then Eli would elaborate with several paragraphs worth from observation alone. A valuable talent.

  The first bio-lock stage was an airlock. They sealed the container door behind them and pressed a button to pressurize. When the light turned green, they could remove their face masks and disrobe. She did this with zero self-consciousness, of course. Eli’s crotch betrayed a certain frustration, and his red bakkra flared.

  Aurora reviewed the written instructions on the wall as to how to pre-treat her laundry, shoes, and 35-cm computing tablet for bakkra. Apparently they let the bio-lock user perform all the cleaning steps. She tried the ‘?’ button, but it simply read the instructions aloud. Another press made it stop. Illiterates?

  “You seem very well educated, Aurora,” Eli ventured. He added his clothes to hers in the treatment tub. They waited on the shoes, his hunting boots especially problematic.

  “Geisha is a good career path for the pan-curious,” she agreed. “I love to hear what everyone is up to, then research interesting things they’ve mentioned.”

  “Ah,” said Eli. “I guess we asked at first but didn’t really understand your reply. No context. What does a geisha do? Aside from…”

  “Sex?” His vivid blush at her reply was adorable. “Eli, I’m not a prostitute. I do enjoy good sex, and would be happy to share it with you.” Yes, the scientist’s red blazed forth, and he attempted to hide his intrigued member behind his boots.

  She scolded herself for teasing him. “A geisha’s work is to entertain, coordinate, smooth dealings between people. It’s a leadership role.”

  Eli cleared his throat. “If you’re interested in everything, wouldn’t a science or technology career path be more suitable?”

  She frowned slightly, puzzled. “I’m interested in the people most of all. What makes them tick. I study the other things to expand our dialogue, or satisfy my curiosity. Speaking of,” her eyes flicked down to his crotch, “have you…broken your long fast yet?”

  She tried to put it delicately. These people were hopeless prudes except for dear Clay. But it was painfully obvious Eli hadn’t gotten laid since at least before they left Mahina. She’d bet longer than that.

  Eli coughed. “We don’t ask each other about…”

  “I’d be happy to help,” she offered. “If no one in this ship can arouse you.” Not that she was especially eager to break through his reserve. She’d taken on the asocial blue type before – it took hours of coaxing to ready them to perform. The first couple times it seemed a worthy challenge. After that she found them boring.

  Truth to tell, a lot of things bored Aurora. She wished she did have that science or technology bent, that joy of studying a subject for its own sake. She was too smart for the social lubricant career path.

  “Not necessary!” Eli hastened to assure her.

  She turned on him. “Eli, it is necessary. I’m sorry, I know you’re shy. But surely there are exciting women among the hunters?”

  “There is one…”

  Aurora deployed her own sexual allure to inspire him. She drew close and whispered to tickle his ear. “Tell me about her.” She canted her head to meet his eye, her mouth within easy kissing distance. “What thrills you about her?”

  Eli backed into the wall. The chamber wasn’t much bigger than a closet. “She’s…she hopes to tame a dragon. To fly.”

  Aurora sighed. Though she supposed it made a certain amount of sense. An asexual dreamer would be drawn to someone else’s unlikely dream, not their physical endowments. “Dragon?”

  “Well, a pterry.”

  Aurora blurted her astonished first reaction. “She wants to ride a pterodactyl?” She turned away to regain her composure. She really shouldn’t be so judgmental. Yet some things were just…idiotic. “That’s…” Suicidal.

  “Isn’t it?” Eli breathed.

  She glanced back. His eyes shone. Besotted. There truly was no accounting for taste. “Is she quite beautiful?”

  “The pterry?”

  Aurora pinched the bridge of her nose. “The woman.”

  “Ah, handsome enough, I suppose. She has bakkra all over… Yes. Um, kind of bony. Tall?”

  She cut off the water in the clothing tub and turned to corner him against the wall, hands on his shoulders, eyes directly meeting his. “Eli,” she explained firmly, “you walk up to her and ask her, ‘Would you ride me?’”

  Eli blanched. “I can’t just…”

  “You can, Eli. And she will say yes. You have not fulfilled your hunting initiation unless you lose your virginity again. You are not ready to return to your own world.”

  “They didn’t mention a sexual…”

  Aurora punted. “The twelve-year-olds skip that part.”

  “You think I should… But I’m supposed to guide you through the bio-lock. I promised.”

  “Eli, it’s 12 meters long. I can’t get lost. I can read the directions.”

  “Right. Well, then. Yes! I should complete my…”

  “Initiation. Yes! I’m so pleased for you!”

  He pulled his boots back on. He took the books back off and donned his sopping wet, antibiotic-laced clothes without even rinsing them first. Five minutes later he was gone, and Aurora sighed a deep breath of relief.

  Her initiation into Mahina went much more smoothly alone, with proper contemplation. Each chamber bore a camera for Copeland and Ben to monitor her progress, and a comms button to speak with them. Indeed, she had to. Someone inside had to confirm the aspirant had completed each cleansing step before they unlocked the door to the next room.

  At long last, she emerged bakkra-free in the hold of the Thrive, clasping her sopping wet clothes, shoes, and computer. Copeland waited at the door to greet her. She did feel surprisingly naked without her bakkra.

  “Ah, I forgot to…” He turned his back and clicked something. “Attention, naked woman in the hold. Short, um, broader in the hips than Kassidy. Could someone please get me some dry clothes for her?”

  Is that a slide? she wondered. And trees? What are the cables for, drying clothes?

  A short and muscular woman with lustrous long black curls appeared on the pierced-metal balcony above this strange entrance. She lobbed a wad of brilliant clothing down to the floor. Copeland scurried to fetch it, and shook out its folds to display pineapples and large flowers on a hot pink background.

  “We call it a kimono,” Cope stammered. “Here. And there’s this belt.”

  Aurora smiled warmly, relieved. She’d feared that bereft of the bakkra, she’d no longer be able to read people, as though amputated of one of h
er senses. She needn’t have worried a bit.

  The captain trotted down the stairs to greet her. “Welcome, welcome! We’re so delighted to have you!” Lie. “You’re our first Denali guest!” Truth. “You must tell us how to improve at making your people welcome. You’ll be our ambassador.”

  That last was a wincing truth. Yes, Aurora was ambassador for her kind. And no, Sass wasn’t one bit comfortable with her in that role.

  “I’m so very eager to be here!” Lie. And why not? These people couldn’t read truth to save their lives. “You must teach me everything. Will I be staying with you and Ben, Copeland?” She hoped so. She knew them best.

  “No, actually, Kassidy,” Copeland stammered. “She’s the one who threw down your kimono.”

  “Is she still…?” the captain inquired.

  “Moving. Yes,” Cope supplied. He scratched his nose. “Ben is supervising while she cleans out our new room. Aurora, you’ll stay with Kassidy in our old room.”

  “Oh, I hope I didn’t put you out.” Clearly from his face, she had displaced him. Why he was lying about it was not clear to her. Do they even need a reason to lie?

  “Not at all,” Sass assured her. “Copeland’s move was long overdue. Let me give you the grand tour until Kassidy is free.”

  Aurora glanced to Cope. “I will see you again, won’t I?”

  “It’s a small ship,” he assured her. “How was the bio-lock?”

  “Very nice. You did amazingly well for such a short time. You should be proud, Cope.” And she meant it. She’d helped scrounge him the bakkra sensors in the final chamber. She was impressed that she was entirely bakkra-free on her first try through the gauntlet.

  He blushed even without bakkra. So adorable. With that, Aurora allowed the captain to guide her away to ‘med-bay’ and ‘engine room.’

  An hour later, Kassidy left Aurora alone in her new cabin at last, scurrying off to perform some service for Ben regarding her old room. Apparently Kassidy was a slob and young Ben was an officer entitled to bully her until the room was clean. Strange.

  Aurora activated her tablet. “Aden? I’m in. Want to see?”

  The Selectman kept his own counsel as she showed him the room with the tablet’s camera. Then he nodded thoughtfully, and took in her goofy kimono and vulnerably naked skin. “You understand the assignment?”

  “Either I convince one to stay,” Aurora recited, “or I leave with them to Mahina. I still believe four ambassadors would be better. Including Dr. Yang. My new cabin-mate is his daughter, come all this way to fetch him. They have beds for four more. Five if they leave someone behind.”

  Aden frowned. “So many. Is that really necessary?”

  “Their specialties are all strange to us,” Aurora reasoned. “And we need buy-in from all three classes. So, three specialists plus me would be ideal. Then whatever we need to speak to them about, we have someone who can understand the replies.”

  “Very well. But I still want a hostage. Make no mistake. Dr. Yang brought that ship here. It can’t be just anyone. Choose someone they’ll miss.”

  “Understood.”

  “And Aurora? Stick to them like glue. They go nowhere without you. Zan is watching too. But we need each of you evaluating independently. Don’t put your heads together too much.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Remember to be harmless and inoffensive. If they think you no more than a walking dictionary, so much the better.”

  She permitted herself to roll her eyes slightly. “I’m a whore, not a spy. Ingratiating myself into their every move. As a native guide.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And if they can’t get this fuel they need, and get stuck here?” she asked.

  “You tell me. Aden out.”

  9

  “Satisfied?” Kassidy demanded, arms crossed over her chest. The martinet of a ‘third officer’ carried out final inspection of her cleaning job on her old stateroom.

  Ben bent to apply a rag to the rear join of her underwear drawer. A drawer custom-made for her when she rented this cabin and launched the Thrive. She funded their rise to prominence almost single-handedly. Just because he’d found an errant slice of pizza here and some cookies there did not justify this white-glove test nonsense.

  “You know I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on Aurora, right?” Kassidy appealed.

  That gave Ben pause. He straightened with a pained expression directed to the now-grimy rag. “What did you put in your underwear drawer?”

  “That’s a very personal question,” she defended.

  Torn, Ben glanced toward the back of the ship, his home ever since he left his father’s house in distant, dusty Poldark. “Fine. You watch her like a hawk!” He had no idea where this expression came from. There were no hawks in the Aloha system, and he hated Earth literature. Yet the idiom endured. “I don’t trust Aurora.”

  Kassidy was already shutting the door behind her before he quit speaking. What a way to leave her home-away-from-home, yet again suffering the humiliation of a room inspection. And she failed again. What did I put in that underwear drawer, anyway? She could have sworn Abel gave that cabinet the white-glove treatment only a few months ago. No, half a year ago now.

  At any rate, being evicted by Copeland’s boy toy was an ignominious end to her residence in the elite cabins near the captain. Maybe after we fetch Dad. Surely Dad rates a high-rent cabin, even if I don’t. She suspected this argument didn’t hold water, however. The captain insisted that Copeland had dibs on her room the day he asked for it, ever since she quit paying rent and became paid crew. He simply preferred the big 4-man cabin and 8-man shower so long as he could keep his bunkroom to just the two of them.

  At least he took Ben with him.

  That wasn’t much consolation. She liked Ben – everyone did. She just hated cleaning.

  Jules darted out of the dining room to accost her en route to the low-rent district. “One rule in the 4-man cabins. Anything left on the floor? You buy it back for 1 credit per item. That’s two credits for socks!” Jules grinned at her and popped back to her kitchen.

  Aw, hell. Hitler the Housekeeper was on her case, too.

  Sighing, Kassidy slipped into her new Mahina-colored room, mushroom with mushroom trim, beside the testosterone-hued vast bath. With urinals, an all-time low for the privileged urb. Urinals. She’d share a shower with Cortez and Wilder, and this ‘geisha’ she didn’t know. And unlike Cope and Ben – who should have hosted the lady, they knew her! – Kassidy hadn’t stepped foot outside this ship since they arrived at Denali.

  Where was Aurora?

  She peeked into the giant baths. Assured that Wilder was not actively employing a urinal, she walked to his door. Do they go around by the catwalk, or knock here? Fortunately, the door opened before she decided to take the long way around.

  Aurora smiled, the hairless honey-brown woman newly attired in camouflage tank top, no bra, and the safari pants she’d worn through the jungle.

  “Oh, good!” Kassidy cried. “I was afraid I lost you! Shoes. You need shoes.” Barefoot was painful on the catwalk. “You can help me unpack!”

  Aurora smiled. “I’ll watch. This side of the room is mine, yes?”

  Drat. The native was assertive. Kassidy must be really off these days. Back home, she imagined she could easily flick a wrist, and her sheer charisma would animate people swooning to help her. Not that she’d actually tested this theory on cleaning chores.

  Aurora draped herself to lounge on her lower bunk. “So your father is the great Dr. Yang. Did you ever know him?”

  “Know him? He’s my father. I mean, he left when I was 7. But we kept in touch until he left for Denali.”

  “Does everyone on Mahina know their parents?” The women blinked at each other. “I was raised in a creche. Don’t you use creches on Mahina?”

  Ah. Kassidy explained the system. She glossed over the difference in treatment between urb and settler babies, but stressed that the new plan was for al
l children to receive creche care to age 15 if their parents desired it.

  “What do you do on Denali?”

  “We’re gene-crafted. Usually there are two parents, plus the generational genetic corrections. Raised in a creche to age 12. My class, cosmopolitans, transfer to the cosmo dome at age 5. Hunters at age 9, and the farmers stay with the ags, of course. The infant creche is with the ags. By age 13, we leave the creche for apprenticeship. At 17, we receive notice of who our parents were, so we can investigate them. Some youths wish to contact their genetic parents. I didn’t.”

  “Did your parents know each other?”

  “Mine? I doubt it. The woman worked in city government in Denali Prime, the man a lead hunter in Glasswork, a town that no longer exists.”

  “That seems cold.”

  “Cold?”

  Kassidy considered the nonexistent warmth level between her parents, and flashed a bright smile. “There’s a romantic notion that children are wanted and conceived in love. All that.”

  Aurora shrugged. “Our children are selected by the needs of the community. We are raised to serve the niches we are born to fill. Roughly. Cosmos like me are unspecialized by design. We find our own path to service.”

  Kassidy focused on stuffing belongings into cabinets for a few minutes. “I’m not sure whether you’re lucky or not with that. For me, I’ve always chosen in reaction to my parents. They’re both leading medical researchers. I thought my dad delighted in me as a gymnast and performer. Turns out he’s as disappointed as my mom, that I didn’t outgrow that silliness and attend medical school.”

  “Hm. Tell me, Kassidy, who is the most important person on this ship?”

  Odd question. “Important to whom? Sass would say we’re all important. I’d say I’m the least valuable player at the moment. But other times I’ve been the most valuable. To the ship? Its high priest and engineer, Copeland. He’s the one who keeps this old bucket flying.”