CHAPTER 11

 

Bones arrived early in the morning for her shift and sent Ray back to her home on the outskirts of town where sleeping would be easier. Ray wobbled a little on the way there, feeling the effects of 24 hours without sleep. Yawning, she stomped up the wooden steps and knocked twice on the door before letting herself in.

Bones’ parlor was typical of the new raft of wooden Dianian homes. They had simple wooden walls with the roughly sawn boards exposed on the inside. A small printed metal pot belly wood burning stove squatted at one end of the room, radiating heat. Well-watered barley porridge sat on the stove, still simmering gently. The walls sported simple shelves, a work bench, a wooden table and chairs, and a single rippled window made from glass G-Ported from Earth. Two doors lead directly out of the dining room, one to Bones’ room and one to Sparks’.

Ray groggily spooned out a bowl full and sat at the table. She raised her hands to the First Child and stared at the food for a second wondering if she had the energy to eat it. She definitely wanted coffee, but couldn’t face the rigmarole of drawing and boiling water. She finished her bowl just as Sparks shuffled out from his room scratching the back of his neck and yawning. He sat himself opposite Ray and sat staring at nothing for a while.

“How is he?” he inquired looking not at all interested.

“Better.” Ray replied, “Mum thinks he will be awake this afternoon. She’s going to wait till I get there to wean him off the sedative, so I can learn how to do it.”

Sparks didn’t respond at all, he was still staring at a spot on the wall. Eventually he levered himself up and moved to grab himself some porridge.

Ray suddenly noticed an absence in the corner of the room. “Where is the data terminal I made you?” she asked accusingly.

Sparks glanced at the corner and answered a little too quickly, “I traded the parts for some new woodworking tools. Mum wants a porch out front and some more chairs.”

Ray stared at him frowning. Sparks busied himself with his breakfast avoiding Ray’s eye. She had known him all her life and she knew immediately when he was trying to hide something. She clicked her fingers to get his attention. “Do you realize how long I had to wait to find those parts? How long it took me to get that working?”

“Of course, I do,” he retorted breaking from the porridge pot, “But…you know, I needed the tools and what else am I going to trade. It’s not like we have hardware stores here. Or money for that matter, even if we did have stores.”

“That was a gift, you can’t give away a gift, you used it all the time. And Mum, did she agree to this?”

Sparks looked back at Ray, hands frozen. ” No but…” he trailed off looking towards the bedroom and then back at Ray. Eventually he appeared to make a decision. He lifted his hands to say something but was interrupted by Nettle emerging from the bedroom. Nettle caught his guilty glance at the corner where the data station used to be, and Ray thought she detected the barest hint of a head shake from her.

Nettle turned and smiled at Ray. “Did the CDSE guy die?”

Ray flushed angrily, “Of course not, and he’s not CDSE, he’s UN Navy.”

“Same thing” signed Nettle, plunking herself down next to Sparks who had returned with a full bowl. She wore an overly big, blue work tunic that hung loose off one shoulder, probably Sparks’ work shirt, and a look of bored ambivalence that she employed when actively trying to annoy people. The shirt finished upper thigh. Probably with nothing underneath Ray speculated to herself. As Nettle sat, it gaped open giving Ray an unwelcome eyeful of Nettle’s breasts, complete with Nipple piercing. Nettle caught Ray’s eye line and grinned holding the pose so the top stayed open. Everything about Nettle annoyed Ray it seemed. She forced herself not to react.

“You having coffee?” she asked, looking exclusively at Sparks.

Sparks nodded while spooning porridge into his mouth, apparently unaware of the tension in the room. Ray turned her back on Nettle and searched for the jar of roasted beans on Bones’ high shelf. She tipped a conservative quantity into a mortar on the bench.

Coffee grew pretty well but it was still a luxury. She started grinding with a solid stone pestle. It was heavy enough to act as an effective club she thought, looking at Nettle out of the corner of her eye. Forcing a neutral smile, she turned back to the table, almost catching the last word of a rushed conversation between Nettle and Sparks. Directly to Nettle she asked, “Are you eating or do you need to get going … right now?”

“I never eat Breakfast.” Nettle responded easily, ignoring Ray’s blatant efforts to get rid of her, “makes me feel ill. I’ll have coffee though. Better have something so I can dance my way through another fantastic day, driving a piece of shit tug, for a piece-of-shit company for shit food and no pay.”

Ray held her neutral smile and met Nettle’s challenging stare, “coffee it is then,” she responded. “Did you guys get to the party last night? I didn’t see you.”

Nettle made a vomiting motion, “Those bloated corporate slaves couldn’t lie straight in bed. I doubt if they even know why they are here. And if they do, they aren’t about to share it with us. Have you asked yourself why they brought the muscle? Marines are not usually required at a business meeting. Why do they think they need that kind of protection?”

“Not everything is some giant conspiracy,” Ray retorted, annoyed at how quickly Nettle always got under her skin. “They all looked pretty normal to me. Mostly scientists.”

Sparks joined in, swallowing his last mouthful and dropping his spoon in the bowl. “This first lot are just the pretty faces. As soon as the speeches finished last night CDSE on Earth announced that another five super cruisers will arrive in two years. Who’s going to be on those ships? And why didn’t we know anything about them until today?”

Sparks’ last comment hung in the air, the implication was obvious. If the cruisers were only two years out, then CDSE had launched the vessels over nine years ago. That cast doubt on the official line that the Golden Hind was a scientific and diplomatic mission one of the scientific aims being to assess the effects of extended hypersleep. And the CDSE deal must have been pretty much sealed for at least that long if not longer.

“So, what?” said Ray. “So, they already have hypersleep nailed down. They wouldn’t have sent Golden Hind if they hadn’t.”

“Then, why lie about it?” Nettle interjected. “I don’t trust them. I’ve never trusted them. They keep us around as long as we serve their purpose. Keeping their fucking air clean enough for them to survive another stinking week or two.

Sparks and I have been talking with people on Earth, you know and CDSE don’t have the best reputation up there. They are involved in everything. Terrestrial and astro-mining, real estate slum lords, blood farming, and everything in between. CDSE care about one thing, money. Why do you think they bought the Earth-Net program?”

“We know about all of that, already, “Ray signed. ”And besides, they didn’t exactly lie, they just didn’t advertise it. They were probably waiting to see how the Golden Hind went first. The governments wanted out of Earth-Net fifty years ago. The bureaucracy of running the program is such a nightmare that I’m surprised they didn’t sell it sooner. But now they will all pay CDSE to manage it. Simple as that-there’s your money.”

“Nobody knows how much though,” Sparks responded. “It’s all a big secret. We know that CDSE bought the whole operation but what they paid was kept secret, along with the ongoing contributions that nations will need to make to CDSE to manage the program. I bet it’ll be like private vs government prisons. Conditions for us will take a back seat to profit margins.”

Nettle turned from Sparks to stare at Ray, challenging her to argue. Ray didn’t argue, she just sat and stared at the pair as they sat staring at her.

“Why do you two always imagine the worst? Earth won’t let anything happen to us. The Captain said it last night. We saved Earth, without us they would all be dead, and they know it.”

Nettle held the stare momentarily then unfolded herself from the table and made her way over to the kettle that was now merrily whistling. Ray tipped the coffee she’d been grinding into the coffee pot and slid it across for Nettle to fill.

“Look,” Ray added, “I get your point, OK? We never had any choice about any of this. We are born, we grow up, and we work for Earth-net. What is going to be different? Just a new logo, right?”

“I think that depends,” Nettle signed after pouring the water.

“On what?”

“On what is in those cruisers,” Nettle signed, holding Ray’s gaze again.

Sparks broke the spell by noisily pushing the bench back as he stood, gathering his breakfast bowl. “We should just ask, see what this Captain has to say.”

Ray smiled, “Exactly, and I’m sure Stone is going to do precisely that.”

Nettle looked skyward, “That useless tit, if that bastard Captain offers him a proper office with a desk and big mirror he’d suck the man’s dick like it was a goddamn toffee apple.”

“Stone’s alright,” Ray countered. “His speeches suck but he’s a good administrator. He’ll make sure we have what we need out of this new deal.”

“That’s if they ever tell him what the deal actually is,” Sparks added, flexing his back. “We won’t find out today in any case, Nettle pour me a coffee please, I’ve got to get dressed.”

“Me too.” Nettle passed the job on to Ray, “Pour for both of us,” she threw over her shoulder before stalking after Sparks, hips swinging and butt cheeks poking out just below where the shirt finished.

Ray stared after them for a second then turned back to pouring the coffee. They were definitely hiding something. But what? New porch my ass, she thought to herself, Sparks loved that com-port.

Nettle and Sparks eventually headed out for their shifts and Ray was left alone in the quiet house. Despite her overwhelming urge to sleep, she lay awake staring at the rough wooden beams in Bones’ small but functional bedroom. An absence of windows kept the room dark and cool. Light filtered through where the boards did not quite meet.

Shadows from the roof trusses and created a web against the wooden ceiling. In patches, she could see the deep grain in the wood and imagine where branches had protruded when the wood was alive. Above this, most of the ceiling was shrouded in inky shadow. Her tired mind imagined there was a metaphor there but right now it slipped around the edges of her consciousness and refused to focus into anything. She enjoyed the delicious humming of her overtired limbs sinking into the welcome bed as her waking mind tumbled into sleep.