We sat in silence as the debris continued to roll away. The pirate ship was dead in space.
‘What do you think?’ asked Alwin, after he swivelled his chair toward me.
‘About what?’ I was still a bit dumbfounded about the pirate ship, about almost losing Gris. I also felt a bit raw about Stroder. Alwin hadn’t blown them up completely, just disabled the ship and blown up the bridge where Stroder was likely to have been. I had to blink back my tears. Despite everything, I had loved Stroder. At least Gris wasn’t on that ship. I hoped that whoever had bought him would be good to him until I could find some way of buying him back or rescuing him.
As we manoeuvred around the wreck, Alwin dropped a distress beacon so the survivors could be rescued quickly. That was humane I guess. Maybe Stroder had a chance. Then I thought about what had happened and how badly Stroder had behaved. Maybe Alwin had given him a better chance than he would have given us.
‘Rae, how do you think it went? Lucky escape for us,’ he said as he powered down his weapons and entered stuff into his logs.
‘It went fine. Your precision with destruction is quite frightening.’
‘Thank you.’ He stopped and smiled at me. The edge of my mouth lifted in response. He had saved me. I was grateful.
‘Now we have time, will you tell me what’s going on? Why was I with Stroder, who are my real parents and where the hell are we going?’
Alwin sat back and put his hands behind his head. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes while I swung my feet back and forward. ‘I don’t know why Stroder had you, Rae, but your real parents are Opeia and Carl Gayens. I’ve done a little research. Opeia has stacks of money and comes from a long line of corporate top heavies, and Carl Gayens was heavily into genetic research. I believe he ran Future Gen, a company that grew clones, until the riots closed them down.’
‘Riots? Clones?’
‘Oh you were probably a bit young at the time, but surely you studied it in school?’
I frowned at him. ‘What school?’
He looked away and then returned his gaze to the ceiling. ‘No school, huh? That explains a few things. Well clones were freely manufactured for a few years. Future Gen almost had a monopoly. They made top-of-the-line clones, special order ones, or de-identified ones for general labour. The human rights people were making big noises about the definition of a human being and about abuse of life. Of course, Future Gen put a lot of money into gagging them.’
‘So my family makes clones, copies of people, and sells them?’
‘No, only your father made clones, but he used Opeia’s money to do it. She put a stop to it in the end by withholding the funds. It might have been the riots or maybe something else.’
‘Who rioted? The human rights people?’
‘No, Future Gen’s clones did. It was hushed up but I found some early reports in the news codex’s archive. There was only one or two references before they gagged it.’
‘I don’t understand you. Gagged?’
He looked at me sadly and sighed. ‘Rae, you’ve got a lot to learn about the world. People in power can do a lot of things and people with money can do more. And right now, or very soon, you’re going to be reunited with your money. I mean your family.’
I gaped and then shut my mouth. ‘Truly? How? Where?’
‘I have to check my mailbox first but I think we are going to rendezvous with your family. I just hope they still check their email.’
When I stared at him blankly, he smiled. ‘There was an address, private, discreet, but it said “any information on the whereabouts of Rayessa Gayens please email”. So I did.’
It was suddenly cold, and I couldn’t stop shivering. Alwin got up and held out his hand. ‘Come on, let’s see if we can find you something warm to put on.’
‘Thanks.’ I got up and followed him out.
‘Pity though, you look nice in those clothes, very feminine.’
The sound of my teeth chattering was the only answer to his comments. He went through his gear and held a ship suit up to me, a dull grey job, but it would have swum on me. Then he fished out a cloak, a smaller and more colourful version of his Ridallian disguise. I settled for the cloak. I could wear it over the slave robes. I think he enjoyed withholding a ship suit from me.
Hunger pains soon became audible groans. His eyebrow shot up.
‘Food? I do apologise. You haven’t eaten. Come down to the mess. It’s only small but I’ve a reasonable selection.’
I was out the door before he could finish his sentence, elbowing him neatly in the gut as I did so. I was absolutely starved.
The mess was like a second heaven. There were roast dinners, and casseroles, vegetables and reconstituted fruit. And there was coffee. I picked up the container. I had only seen it in the vidmovies. Del always enjoyed a cup.
‘You want coffee? Are you sure?’ asked Alwin as he heated three types of meal for me. ‘It will keep you awake. This isn’t the synth kind, it’s real.’
He popped the lid and a wonderful aroma full of promise filled the small mess. I inhaled deeply. I was going to drink coffee and it smelled wonderful. Now, I knew why Del had that look on her face, so content, so confident.
‘Yes, of course I want to try it. I’ve never tasted any kind of coffee, synth of otherwise. It smells divine.’
He tossed mugs up into the air. They spun slowly and took a little while to fall back down. In the meantime, he’d pulled out milk and sugar. He caught the mugs, sized me up with one eye and placed three sugars into one of the mugs. After that, he poured hot brown coffee into the mug and stirred it.
I couldn’t wait to try it. I sniffed the aroma and licked my lips. Then I took a gulp, swished it around my mouth experimentally and swallowed cautiously. I had a hard time reconciling the smell to the taste. One was rich and aromatic the other was bitter and thin. I was disappointed.
Alwin was watching me. ‘More sugar?’ he suggested, holding up the spoon. I struggled with myself for half a second and held my mug out. We reached five sugars before I could drink my first mug of coffee.
Those instant meals were the best food I had ever tasted. I ate too much. I wrapped the cloak around me, suddenly feeling cold and sleepy.
Alwin took a look at me. He’d been keeping an eye on the monitors from a small screen in the mess. ‘I best show you how to use the san unit and then a nap I think. It may be a while before we hear anything.’
‘You mean you want me to bathe?’ I asked not used to being required to wash. I sniffed and I smelt good, in fact.
‘Yes.’
‘Again?’ I said, my voice rising. I’d been bathed by the pirate women. I wasn’t keen on that happening again.
‘Why are you so stressed? It’s easy.’ He showed me the little cubicle and explained how to use it.
‘Okay.’
He eyed me. ‘You take your clothes off first. Put the dirty clothes there to clean and change into something else.’ He picked up the grey ship suit and shoved it into my hands. ‘This will do.’
He left his quarters. I stared at the cubicle and shook my head. No way was I getting in there. I’d sleep on it and consider it later.