Space Rats

by Jacqueline Kirk

  SIX

  The planet of Alandra loomed in front of them coloured with plenty of green and yellow. It was a small trading world with lots of traffic on and off the planet. Among its oceans of emerald water and lands of dusty-coloured grass, there was also the occasional large forest of strange spindly-limbed trees that afforded very little respite from the harsh sun.

  They had found out very little from their computer databanks about Alandra. Only that it was the best place for refuelling this far away from the more civilized planets.

  “Now,” began Tristan as they all gazed at the planet, “We’re going to have to convince these people that we’re not alone on Star Chaser. A ship load of kids is going to draw a lot of attention and they will investigate, which would be bad!” He took something out of a drawer beside Troy that looked like a flat golden hoop. It had small diamond studs dotted around one side of it and a hinge and lock. “This is going to help us fool the shipping customs people when it’s our turn to request permission to land.”

  “What is it?” Troy asked, never having seen it before.

  “It’s a Holo Hoop,” Tristan explained, then when he saw their blank faces he demonstrated by unlocking the hoop and placing it around his neck and closing it again. “You put it on like this and then press the button – here.”

  He pressed somewhere underneath it and suddenly his face and hair completely changed. Instead of his closely cropped black hair it was now longer and a brown shade. His eyes were now brown instead of blue and he looked a lot older than his fifteen years.

  “Wow!” Troy and Ziggy said simultaneously.

  “How does it work?” Lena asked.

  “It’s a hologram,” Tristan explained, “you clip this on and activate it then you look like someone else. Good, isn’t it?”

  He grinned at them and Troy thought it looked really weird on this new face. It sounded like Tristan but it was weird hearing Tristan’s voice coming from different lips. Freaky! is what he kept thinking.

  “But what about the voice?” Krista asked, “You don’t sound much like an older guy!”

  Tristan frowned at her, or at least the brown-haired and brown-eyed Tristan frowned at her. “Are you trying to say that I sound like a girl?”

  The others giggled at that and Tristan turned his frown on them. “Will you please take that off!” Krista said in annoyance, “It’s really weird hearing you sound the same but looking different!” Troy whole-heartedly agreed. “What I meant was,” Krista continued, “You don’t sound very old and that face is of someone a lot older, try and make your voice a bit rougher sounding.”

  Tristan switched off the Holo Hoop and instantly he changed back to normal. Taking it off he said, “It doesn’t matter what I sound like anyway, Troy’s the one who will have to wear it.”

  “What?” Troy spluttered.

  Tristan handed the hoop to his brother and explained, “You’re the pilot, Troy, and it’s you that has to speak to them!”

  “But…but…,” Troy began but couldn’t think of a good enough excuse and just looked at his brother helplessly.

  Tristan shoved the Holo Hoop into his unresisting hands and turned to the door, “You better hurry and practise that voice, we’re coming up to Alandra’s security point!”

  Troy looked to the others who were looking a little worried now that they had to face not just adults but official adults. He looked to Krista who was sitting at the computer tapping away on the keyboard.

  She turned back to Troy, “We’re in the queue for processing.”

  “How many before us?”

  She turned back to the screen and said, “About five.”

  Troy sighed, “Okay, you three get strapped in. You can help me with the voice while we wait.”

  Troy clipped the hoop around his neck and switched it on, instantly brown-haired and brown-eyed.

  “Won’t they notice that your body doesn’t match your head?” Ziggy asked curiously.

  “No, I can adjust the screen so they will only see my face.” Troy explained.

  He checked that the ship was properly on course and began trying out a few voices but only managed to sound as if he had a cold. Lena suggested he stop trying so hard and keep it simple, pointing out that not all men had really deep voices. Just in time he managed a fairly convincing grown-up’s voice as Krista got a message on the computer.

  “They’re requesting contact,” she told him, an edge of worry in her voice.

  Troy could feel his heart hammering in his chest and his mouth was suddenly dry. Taking a deep breath he nodded to Krista who pressed a button on her console. Instantly a bored-looking man appeared on the screen in front of him. He waited for a heartbeat to see if the man detected anything but the bored expression remained on his face.

  “Star Chaser requesting permission to land, sir,” he said in his false voice.

  “For what reason?” the bored official asked.

  “For fuel and supplies.”

  “What cargo do you have?”

  “Nothing at the moment.”

  The man looked at Troy via the screen for what seemed a long time but then finally said, “Permission granted.”

  Before he could say thank you his screen had gone blank and there were audible sounds of relief from behind him. Troy breathed a bit easier himself and quickly took off the Holo Hoop and placed it back in its drawer for safekeeping. Pushing a button he informed his brother that they were going to land and grinned at the whoop of joy his brother made.

  “That was easy!” Lena exclaimed.

  Troy shrugged, “These out of the way planets are not particularly strict. They have lists of who to watch out for but really, if you don’t cause trouble, they won’t notice you!”

  The descent through the planet’s atmosphere went smoothly and they cruised above the landing site until they were guided into a suitable dock.

  Lena and Ziggy craned their necks to see out the front at all the other space ships. There were some small ones like Star Chaser of various shapes and colours, some beautiful ships with smooth arcing bodies and even smoother running engines that seemed oddly out of place. Then there were the junkers, the ships that looked as if they would fall apart at any moment. Star Chaser was old but at least she looked competent.

  Troy landed the ship with only a slight jolt. He hadn’t wanted to tell the others that he had never landed a ship before but was extremely relieved when it went relatively smoothly. As soon as they set down Tristan came up to the bridge.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Krista and I will go and get the fuel and a couple of parts I need. You lot will go and get the supplies. Here’s a list and a card to pay for it.” Tristan told them handing over a slip of paper and a small metallic card.

  Troy looked at the card noting the strange silver hologram imprinted on it. There was also a name on it – John Atlas.

  “Who’s John Atlas?” he asked.

  “That’s us,” Tristan told him, “We couldn’t put the account under any of our own names or under Star Chaser, it might have been traced so we came up with John Atlas.”

  “Won’t someone need to stay with the ship?” Ziggy asked.

  Tristan shook his head, “No, there is security that patrols here. Besides this way we will get everything a lot faster and be away before we can draw attention to ourselves.”

  Troy smiled at Ziggy reassuringly but he still looked slightly worried. He could see that Lena was trying not to bounce up and down with excitement at the thought of going shopping on a new planet. Orla merely stood at her side watching everyone with her usual silence.

  Opening the hatch door they paused for a moment before heading down the ramp and stepping on to the planet’s surface. Troy looked behind him to find Lena and Ziggy staring open-mouthed at all the people.

  “Hey guys,” he said, “try not to look like such bumpkins!”

  They quickly stopped staring and Lena even scowled at him as if she would never do such a thin
g. Tristan and Krista strode off after he had secured the ship and warned them to be careful.

  “Come on,” Troy said as he started walking.

  “There are so many people here!” Lena exclaimed.

  She couldn’t help staring at a very slender woman as she stood in front of her open ship. The woman was a lot taller than a human, her skin was a soft lilac colour and her hair a luminous white. Her robes were of a strange metallic material that shimmered pinks and purples.

  “Do you think she’s some kind of queen!” she breathed in awe.

  Troy snorted in amusement, “Her? No way. She’s a Decadian. They’re all merchants of some kind. They don’t even have a government – ‘everyone for themselves’ that’s their motto.”

  Lena looked slightly disappointed but still thought the alien woman was beautiful anyway.

  “What about Captain Tightpants there?” Ziggy asked him.

  Troy looked to where Ziggy was pointing at a tall man wearing a long brown coat, behind him was another much larger man carrying a gun.

  “Smugglers,” Troy said confidently.

  “Really?” Ziggy said looking with fascination as they passed them, “What about them?”

  They amused themselves as they walked through the ships by trying to guess what the ships were for. Some were just usual transport ships or merchant vessels but others were pirates, smugglers or worse. They had one ship and its black swathed captain down as assassins and couldn’t help sniggering as they went past until the so-called assassin turned to watch them. They quickly scurried away.

  Leaving the ships behind they turned into a busy main street and paused for a moment to figure out which way to go.

  “Where exactly are we going for this stuff anyway?” Lena asked as she perused the list. Tristan had written down a variety of different foods along with other stuff including blankets, toiletries, medicines and clothes.

  “Why do we need suits?” Ziggy asked, “We all have our own stuff.”

  Troy took the list and read it. Near the bottom of the list Tristan had written ‘3 suits’. Troy smiled and explained that Tristan meant three space suits, one for each of them except Orla. Tristan had already explained that he and Krista would use their parents’ old suits and Orla could probably manage with Troy’s old one but Troy himself and Lena and Ziggy would need one of their own.

  “Are we really going to need one?” Lena asked horrified.

  “We might,” Troy replied, “It’s always better to have one in case we have to land somewhere that has an unbreathable atmosphere.”

  Lena gulped, she had never thought of that possibility and felt slightly queasy at the thought.

  Troy looked up and down the street and spotted a sign for a market. They headed towards it, all eager to spend some money.

  Even though Troy could remember coming to such places before, the memories were vague and so he enjoyed the sights and sounds of the market just as much as the others who had never experienced anything like it before.

  The market was more like a long, wide street with shops down both sides and stalls clustered in the middle forming their own network of pathways and alleys. The smells as they passed some of the food stalls had their mouths watering but Troy urged them onwards, pointing out that they needed to get their supplies first before they could get anything to treat themselves with.

  Getting the supplies was relatively easy, the only hitch being they needed to buy a cargo cart to transport all the bags and boxes they had already acquired and in no time they had it almost full.

  Much to Troy’s surprise Lena had turned out to be a very good haggler and more than one vendor or shop keeper had been left shaking their heads at what they were sure was a deal not in their favour. When it came to getting the propagation equipment she needed for her plants she excelled herself, managing to get not only the equipment and seedlings for a knock down price but also some extra plants and spare parts.

  They had done such a good job on buying the supplies that they had quite a bit of spare cash so Troy led the way back to some of the food stalls they had passed earlier. They bought some fruit pies and biscuits, sticky buns and cream cakes but their main goal was the sweet stall they had all drooled over when first entering the market.

  They were on their way back to Star Chaser when Troy noticed a man standing some distance away at the edge of the docking area. He was too far away for Troy to see clearly but there was definitely some kind of marking on the man’s neck. From the way he was studying Star Chaser Troy knew the man recognised the ship. What it meant for them he dreaded to think.