Page 6

I confirm my datapad is still in my bag, and Elwin didn’t manage to snag it. Then, after a glance back to watch him pick himself up, I open my catalog and study a gold alien species from Ferrim as I walk back to the ship to get my mind off of things.

Naturally magnetic, like telekinesis? Cool.

I hike up the metal stairs and into the guts of the cruiser, where Talros is just back from lunch.

He reaches upward and into the next hover pad control system that we have to troubleshoot, guiding cables aside and clipping them out of our way.

He has put on some muscle mass since he worked in space.

Tal also came back with a few new scars, but I’m glad to have had him as a partner.

He’s the only person I know I can count on.

“Ocassa royally cocked up last night,” he utters. “Half the power cells aren’t working.”

Packing away my tablet, I connect my harness to the cable system I rigged up earlier on the ship, initiate my magnetic boots, and walk up the hull.

Then, I hang down inside the chamber and inspect the circuitry of our next project.

My wristband lights up, detecting the nearby system.

“Cell eighteen isn’t holding a charge because its diode is fucked.

Looks like they probably busted it during install. ”

“Or maybe they just never finished the install. I’m getting the same reading on cell seven.” He reaches down for a new diode. “I still can’t believe you’re leaving me here to the wolves.”

Talros runs a grease-stained hand through his short blond hair, then hangs a tool pouch from my harness so I can disconnect the power cables and hoses from the charging assembly. I smile to myself. If there was one person on Earth I might miss, it would be him. “You know, I do get a plus one.”

He pauses and looks up at me. “That’s weird. Isn’t it?”

I shrug. “Want a free vacation on Catalyst Five for a week?”

“You’re not giving it to your sister?”

I scowl at him.

“Right. She’s getting porked by your ex.”

“Ouch and gross.”

He lifts his callused hands, grease embedded in his short fingernails. “What? It’s true.”

“Painfully so, yes. Thanks for the reminder, jackass.” I disconnect the power supply to the circuitry panel and wait while Talros replaces the diode.

“Good riddance, though. I mean, at least now, you know.” The flashtack gun brightens in his hand. A small wisp of smoke curls up from where he works.

“I guess,” I grumble.

“Hold your breath,” he says. “Don’t want your future children growing extra limbs.”

I wrinkle my nose.

“Oh, wait.” He finishes and looks up at me, then chuckles. “Guess that depends on which species picks you.”

“I’m not interested in extra limbs. But I’d take a tail, maybe wings, tentacles…”

“Hold up. You’d take tentacles over extra hands?” Talros lifts a hand and limply shakes it.

I can’t help but laugh a little. “You’re a turd, making it look so awkward. What if I get stuck with a squid dude now? I’m going to feel bad and be secretly laughing for the rest of my life.”

“As long as it helps you remember your old friend.” The way Talros says it makes me sad.

“Come on, after fifteen years, I can’t forget you. You’re the only person who hasn’t betrayed me. Not in middle school space camp, not since.”

He sighs and continues replacing diodes. “Same for you.”

“Just don’t want to date another coworker,” I admit, averting my gaze.

He sways and waggles his blonde brows. “Made that mistake one too many times myself.”

I test the diode with the multimeter built into my right gauntlet. Two probes extend from the housing in my controls. I clip them into each circuit and get the green light with proper voltages. “ Would you be my plus one?”

Talros shrugs. “I have vacation time. But this is going to be a mess when I get back, you know that, right?”

“Sorry, but I just can’t take having this leach of a shadow anymore. I literally have to go off-world where she can’t afford to go.

“I’ve tried to put her through rehab twice. She’s got to want to do it on her own. All I can think of is to remove the temptation to cling to me and siphon life from me like some sort of slutty vampire.”

He smiles to himself and then nods. “You don’t want your sister weaseling her way into the plus-one slot. You need someone else to fill it.”

I grimace. “I’m not going to lie, that too. But seriously, if we didn’t work together, I’d be stupid not to be interested in you. But I care too much about our friendship to wreck that.”

“Not to be weird, Jovie, because you are beautiful, and someone will be very lucky. But, after all these years, I think of you more as a sister. Always wanted siblings. I kind of think they’d be like you: happy to tag-team a problem, remember my birthday, and someone I could talk to about anything.

But Dad died in the war with the Nebs. Then Mom… ”

I rest a hand on his shoulder when he looks away.

“I would be honored to have you watching my back up there. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into.

I just want off of Earth because my sibling is slowly killing me.

It’s like she either doesn’t have her own ideas, or she wants to take everything I have that she doesn’t and destroy it, maybe both.

I just hope an alien picks me and actually wants to keep me. ”

“He will. And I bet you get banded yellow.”

“What? No. I was thinking green.”

“Definitely yellow. It’s your try-again-tomorrow attitude. Even when life sucks balls, you find another way to keep moving forward. You never let people get buried in negative thoughts.”

I roll my eyes, disbelieving that anyone could think I’m that cheery. “Whatever. As long as I’m not a pink.”

He chuckles. “No, but you are turning pink.”

“Just excited and nervous,” I admit with a shy laugh. “I also am worried that all this money I’ve spent is going to go down the shitter if I mess this up.”

Talros takes my right armband in his hands and inspects my recent defense system modifications with a disbelieving smile.

“Naw. Just be yourself, the person I see here, now. You’re going to impress whoever snags you.

” He points at me. “And I’ll be close by to kick some scaly ass if needed.

I saw the mayhem last round over that bounty hunter’s daughter. ”

“You watch the races?” I’m shocked.

“Worried about what my little sister is getting herself into.”

“I’m only a month younger than you.”

“Half my size.” He lets me go and gently taps the bottom of my chin with a finger. “Be proud and confident like you are here. You have a lot to offer. Be kind but demand respect. Promise?”

I inhale deeply and nod. “Okay.”

He tilts his head and inspects me. “Maybe I should send a RAM with you.”

The thick band of a Robotic Animal Module around his neck uncurls and rebuilds itself on his shoulder in the shape of a parrot. It caws. “You summoned?”

“Another one? What number is he?” I ask.

Talros shrugs. “Seventeen.”

“I wish I could, but there are no weapons or pets allowed. No offense, RAM Seventeen.” I open my datapad and send Abr my request with a picture of Talros.

“None taken,” the cybernetic parrot remarks. After a quiet command from Talros, the bird folds itself back into a collar around his neck.

Talros and I set up a test run for the ship’s hoverpad while we await confirmation from Abr.

“Got the ticket,” he says with joy, reading his datapad. “Catalyst Five in a hotel room for a whole week? I’ve never had a vacation that long unless I was sick.”

“I hope you enjoy it.” I’m secretly worried about the backlash he might get when he returns to Earth and has to deal with Elwin and Verity because she didn’t get to go.

But I can’t help everyone, especially not those who don’t want to help themselves to anything but the successes of others, even if they’re pathetic successes like mine.

After clipping the test sensors into the circuitry and supply lines of the engine, we signal the port.

Our gauntlets feed us data as the engine cycles through its warm-up phase, burns off the manufacturing oils and dust, and heats up red with warping pulses that drone even through our earplugs and earmuffs.

Talros gives me a high five and shouts over the engine’s roar, “Ocassa can suck it!”

Once we’ve shut down the thruster, filed our reports, and cleaned up our tools, we head out of the shipyard with the other crews.

Talros suddenly looks bummed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just wondering who they’re going to stick me with after you.

Won’t be the same. I’m used to having an engineer who knows how to troubleshoot.

I might get a noob or a total cocky jerk and anyone in between.

The managers, specifically Payton, have mentioned he’s not looking forward to replacing you. ”

All this time, I was just focused on getting out of my situation, and I didn’t even consider how it would affect those who relied on me.

“I’ll miss working with you, too, but not scrubbing toilets,” I admit. “Speaking of, I’ve got to head inside.”

“Right.” Talros sees my hovercar and leans around me. “Stars.”

“That was Elwin. He wanted my datapad for Verity. She lost hers again.”

“Here.” He hands me a set of keys. “I can walk home. Sleep in my truck tonight. I’d invite you to stay on my sofa, but I’m afraid that might break some Abr policy, I don’t know.”

“I can’t take that and make you walk all that way.”

“Please. That door doesn’t even look like it’s latching.”

“It’s not.”

“Jovie,” Talros whines.

“No.”

He slumps. “You’re so hardheaded sometimes.”

“Independent.”

“I stand corrected.”

“I’m sorry, Talros. I am grateful for your offer, but the idea of you spending an hour walking home is just not one I can take.”

“Then I will fix your door. Sufficient?”

“Tal…”

“Nope, it’s decided.” Talros motions me inside. “Go on.”

I walk toward the offices and then stop. “Why are you…”

He collects a toolbox from his truck. “Don’t want you to miss out on your opportunity at a better life like my mom did.”

I turn back and hug him. It takes him a second for him to hug me back. “Thanks, big brother.”

“Gotta make sure you get there so I can have my vacation, too,” he teases.

I scoff in mock offense and punch him in the shoulder.

“Maybe you can invite me to the wedding or at least to tour your new homeworld?”

“Okay. Might be nice to have a familiar face now and then.”

He steps back and chuckles. “Alright, see you in the morning?”

“Yeah.” I adjust my bag, thank him one more time, and then hustle into the port security office.

The janitorial closet is tucked in the back corner of the bottom floor, and I have three levels to clean. The faster I do it, the more time I have to sleep.

I start with the bathrooms and locker rooms and find two clogged toilets, one having flooded the floor, a mess of gear grease in the showers from someone who’s ignored the rules, and a broken soap pump in the men’s bathroom, leaving the counter covered in foamy slime.

Lovely.

By the time I hoist the backpack vacuum over my shoulders and start working my way through the offices, I’m exhausted and shaking from not eating dinner. But I need my pay before I can eat.

Every time I vacuum, I sense the tingles of electricity through my discharge harness.

They zing through the threads embedded in my skin, trying to find a path to ground.

My body feels like it’s leaned up against a hot, chain link fence that fizzles.

My gauntlets light up, alerting me to the increased electric load.

I feel it most in my arms, but everywhere.

Shitty vacuum. Maybe they’ll get a new one for the new cleaner. Doubt they’ll have a Faraday bodyweb.

When I finally clock out and my credits load onto my armbands, I sulk out through the doors and back to my car.

It’s mildly cool, like most nights just outside of the city.

A light breeze picks up cottony bits, rolling them across the pavement, likely stuffing from some forgotten mattress by the dumpsters.

When I get to my car, Talros has mended my door so that it shuts. His hover truck is missing, and I’m glad he’s gone home to sleep in a bed like he deserves. He’s always been there for me. We make a solid team. I don’t want to ask for more from him.

I get in and try to start my car so I can drive to the minimart and get some food since I can’t bum leftovers from the port restaurant anymore. My car whines, squeals, and quiets. There’s no sense in trying it again. The charging system’s starter is toast. I can’t get another until the morning.

I slump back in my seat, hungry, tired, and barely hanging on. I lock myself in my car in the empty port parking lot and open my datapad, studying the pictures of the aliens to distract myself from the pains in my stomach. And finally, it breaks me.

Tears fill my eyes, and I curse myself for being weak, feeling broken, and wasting precious water. Clean water isn’t free in our city.

A scrap of paper in the shotgun seat catches my eye.

Thanks for the help, bitch. Good luck finding your pillow. Hope a venomous alien picks you.

-Verity

I scoff, look up at the fluff swirling around the parking lot, and realize she shredded it to spite me. I crumple up the paper and angrily toss it on the floorboards. I have few things of comfort left, and she just destroyed one of them.

A light clunk of metal lands on my roof.

RAM-9’s radiant green oculi peer inside my windshield. It folds its propellers into its back, paws at the glass, loses traction on it, and scrambles in frictionless, awkward chaos as it slides down the glass to my hood.

I find the energy to laugh once and crack the door so the robot can come inside. It’s the size and general shape of a cat, complete with a tail and pointed ears.

RAM-9 crawls over my lap, curls up on my chest, and switches on its cold weather heaters that keep its joints from seizing in winter.

Its warmth is comforting. After wiping the tears from my face, I collect my blankets, eager to get some rest. I think Talros makes his creatures because he’s lonely.

He no doubt has to program behaviors like the purr of RAM-9.

Up on the hillside street, I see my ex-bestie, Kayla, leaving the portside restaurant with a bag of food.

Screw Kayla, Verity, Elwin, the restaurant managers, and the rampant gangs that have killed so many and got Verity and my mother hooked on Surge-stims.

I don’t want to be here anymore. I want a new life. Even if it isn’t perfect. I just want a change from the same old shit.