The rust and grease stains were unsettling. The sounds of crowds echoed up and down the boarding area that looked like a converted missile silo. The clothing of most the spaceports denizens looked like converted rags. All the children needed better dental care, the air smelled like a bathroom and there was a nervous looking man huddled in an out of the way space between two supports.
He shook back and forth, rubbing his hands over one another, trying to remind himself of the sanitizer he had applied for the third time. He knew running diagnostics on his computer would calm him down, but the authorities would be looking for a high tech rig like his. He was hot with the extra clothing on top of what he was already wearing. He needed to blend in better, but he had no idea where these local clothes had been. As he continued to sweep his platform for police he spotted a crowd forming around one of the screens hovering above the rails toward the center of the cylindrical complex.
The man stopped shaking and fumbled in his backpack next to him, emerging his hand with an oversized earpiece connected by wires to his computer tucked out of sight. He pointed the microphone on the earpiece at the screen and it began to translate.
“…with the death toll rising to the thousands, whipping out some smaller Polynesian islands entirely. The malfunction that caused the deadly tsunami has been attributed by the authorities to be the doing of a hacker named Driftwave…” The earpiece almost dropped out of his hands. They didn’t figure it out; they really think he did it. “Despite the decades of service successfully counteracting naturally occurring tsunamis, Atlantis platform Avalon has decommissioned its wave generator until a complete investigation and overhaul of the security systems had been done. Launched from Avalon Island in 2490, the platform has stopped…” The earpiece dropped slightly and he heard the various gasps and comments. Many naming friends and family in the region they prayed for.
Driftwave Shoved the earpiece back in his bag and tightened the wrappings around the computer case. He shook back and forth as sweat formed on his face. He leapt up and gathered his things with the speed and precision of a twitch when the boarding lights activated next to the railings. Driftwave fell in line with the other passengers as he looked up and saw the circular platform began to float downward to the level of his terrace.
He felt more and more anxious with every step. The posted guard near the extended bridge checked his ID, its artisan level forging fooling the guard despite the suspicious sweating and fearful look of the holder. Driftwave sped his pace till he was nearly center on the platform.
The all aboard signal chimed as the lights around the bridge to the loading platform blinked. Driftwave looked back at the terrace he had been on, wondering if it was the last time he would set foot on Earth. He saw guards making rounds, checking IDs, no doubt looking for people like him. Last chance, he thought, last chance to turn myself in, not be a fugitive on the run, and hope the authorities figure it out. The platform began to rise out of the spaceport shaft to dock with the ship. Driftwave didn’t even see what the ship looked like; he simply watched the guards become dots as the platform rose away.
The city air blocked the smell of the tea, steam rising from the small cup. A trembling hand reached for the cup, shaking it wildly in its attempt to get to a mouth. The attempt was counted as vien and the cup set back down. To most, another Asian man drinking at a tea shop wouldn’t even register from the background of the Chinatown setting. The introverted trembling man felt like he stood out more than the blinking neon orange mandarin symbols that announced the tea shop.
The sound of his exhaling breath distracted him from his over-beating heart. He intended to sip the tea, but instead downed the small cup like a shot. He intended to pore himself more, but a cold breeze left him feeling exposed. He layed down his payment for the tea, as well as a sizable tip, and blended back into the crowd as he walked to the subway station.
By the time he got home he had stopped shaking, but he wasn’t any less anxious. He sat on his bed, but it felt neither comforting nor inviting. Minutes passed, and a constructive thought finally formed. He pulled out his phone and pressed number three on his speed dial. It rung only twice before a frantic voice bellowed through the speaker.
“Dude! I heard! What were you thinking? What happened? I mean…… is it true?”
“Yeah”
“Oh jeeze man…” The voice trailed off, but then returned in a changed tone to support his friend. “Look it was an honorable kill man, full on, no ones ganna question it, you can’t beat yourself up about it.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“What happened man, you usually just brush off their insults.”
“She’s dead” he trembled and held back tears. “I found out this morning.”
“Oh my god dude, I’m so sorry I…” Silence was dominant for several seconds, but his friend tried to help. “Look, we can get together and deal with your mom’s death later, right now you need to worry about retaliation.”
“Right.” He rubbed the tears off his eyes. “I…….have no idea what to do.”
“Well he was a Dragon right? I think your best bet is to see if you can join with the Tangs.”
“Join a Triad gang? Do you know how hard my mom worked to keep me out of gangs?”
“Do you know how much she’d want you to be alive? As much as those gangs try to spew about honor for their p.r. crap, if you hit them, they’re going to hit you back.”
“I know , I know.” HE trembled again as he ran his fingers over his haircut needing scalp. “So I just show up at the Tang’s and say I killed one of your rivals, protect me?”
“Look man, they’ll probably let you in and all, but these guys didn’t get where they are through charity work, they’ll make it cost you.”
“I’m a grad student in colony development, what can I offer a gang?”
“Remember that story you told me about New Attica?”
“Yeah I guess you’re right.” The trembling stopped, but shame replaced it. “You don’t think I’ll get some bad karma or, I don’t know, damnation by using New Attica to save my skin?”
“Sorry Oliver, but that’s kind of what a deal with the devil is.”
NEW STORY!!!! This one takes place in the same future as my space adventure, only in our solar system (the "sol" system, get it?) Its goign to be about some criminals on the run in the future and the cop trying to catch them, tune in every week for updates! and i will be returning to the space adventure so no worries, until then ENJOY!
Her hair was red in the tones that light shone through stained glass. Her hair fell behind her shoulders, but a stray bang curved around her forehead and eye socket, stuck in place by sweat. From the neck down her body rose and fell with her heavy breaths, steady and deep. Her head stayed still, as transfixed as her eyes.
She didn’t notice the blood at first, just the body, then the blood accented it. She stayed transfixed when she realized she dropped what was in her hand, she never looked at it, and she didn’t remember what it was, but she was sure it was used to make this. Her breathing slowed and adrenalin cleared out of her mind and allowed for thoughts. She looked around the apartment for anything she’d touched. The towel she grabbed to wipe everything down only succeeded to smear blood she realized was on her hands. Heart beats were tiny explosions like pistons firing in her chest. She had to leave, now. She grabbed her power walk to the door, it spilled on the floor. She franticly grabbed all the items, never checking if she got everything.
While kneeling she saw a twitch and froze. Another twitch and her eyes widened. She franticly made for the door. If his med cybernetics were trying to resuscitate him, they had already called EMS.
She took another look at his body while in the doorway, holding the door like a shield between her and the room. She should feel bad. She should feel guilty. A stronger twitch happened, the cybernetics trying in vain, there wasn’t enough left to revive.
The second she felt the door lock she moved down the hall, heels clicking too quickly, her heart rate wouldn’t let her slow down. The elevator moved to slow, she tensed too much when the middle aged couple and their five year old got on, she had too much sweat on her, and the red fingerprint on the floor level button was just slightly too obvious. The parents looked at her with the combination of fear and judgment that affirmed the police would be called soon. The little girl smiled at her with equal parts ignorance and innocents.
She nearly sprinted when the doors opened. She checked her flight itinerary on her phone, then ditched it in front of an oncoming ground car. Its crunching the first comforting sound she heard. She bought water from a vending machine and a cab to the space port, then ditched her credit cards. The terminal at the port scanned her identification car and called a shuttle to bring her to her ship. She threw the card out of the shuttle as the doors closed. The shuttle gave a view of her star liner as it approached the landing area.
On board, she was stopped at a bright screen at a fork in the corridor, the line to the screen shortened to her, directing passengers to their lodgings, her eyes dotted both ways.
“Vanesssa Channel.” The screen went mostly back while it loaded her information. The blank screen left her starring in her own eyes in the reflection.
“Thank you for flying with us Vanessa, please follow the lit pathway to your room.” Vannessa avoided eye contact with everyone as she walked, wondering if she could ever afford to use that name again.
Oh my God is it raining? It’s raining. This is the first time I’ve gotten my hair to look good in weeks and it’s raining. I guess I could take a cab to lunch; no it’s only a block away. Great, I have to put my hair in the rain, maybe a hat? No nothing is going to match this. Damn, hair in the rain it is, where is my watch? Let’s see, not under the bed, why would it be there at all? Not in the bathroom, not in the fridge (also unlikely but after that one time I’m checking there more often). Where the heck is- oh right on the stand next to the door where I left it, where it’s supposed to be. Stupid place for it, why did I put it there?Let’s see fasten it on, all three locks sealed, keys loaded, house security synced, ok good to go. Wow it does kind of cover up like two thirds of my forearm, maybe I should buy one of those smaller ones, but I like the bigger screen on this one, and it has all those cool skins for the time feature. Plus I haven’t talked to Lacey in forever and I don’t want to call her just to ask for her to hack another watch to accept all keycards I input. I should call her.
WOW elevator music is AWFUL, I should have taken the stairs. It is a couple hundred stories though; I should repel down the stairs. Then make it a sport.I want this elevator to hurry before the playing of this elevator music develops into a war crime. Hey my phones ringing. Sarah!
“Hey Sarah, I’m on my way to lunch right now. Oh my sister’s there, hmmm maybe I should head back. No you couldn’t have me on speaker cause you know you called me deep down to warn me she’s there. Then why did you call me? They are! Damnit! I was just getting used to the place, now I’ll have to clean it and everything. Because I made the mess I can clean it up I don’t need to call a maid for everything. Uh, actually I would call the last 5 months “me VERY successfully dodging my parents by jumping between the various properties they own” thankyouverymuch. Why isn’t them existing in the first place a good enough reason, why did they have to do something THIS time. No they totally did do something and I’ll………. Don’t listen to Emily she’s practically PROUD of the fact she doesn’t have to do anything herself. Well my Dad tried to fire a guy who- oh hey the rain stopped- for giving me a bad review on one of my flight tests. No he was being kind of a dick but I don’t need my daddy showing up and trying to fix when poor little me gets a bad review. Yeah well its worse for my career to have everyone think I can’t actually fly and I only get a position because my dad is a firkin Admiral. Exactly everyone who spends two second in a cockpit with me knows I can fly so I can handle a bad review. My Mom? Are you serious, I look for reasons to avoid her, but she also tried to get involved and made it worse. I’m not even sure how either but she managed. I guess I can stay in the central park penthouse. Yeah the one in the tree, it’s awesome. What guy? Wait how did you know he likes to hang out in the park? I did not tell you, I didn’t even know, or rather didn’t remember that I knew. Cause my parents probably won’t even think of going there till summer, even if I saw him there I wouldn’t say Hi to him. He’d probably get all anal about me interrupting his sacred tree hugging time. Yes I do remember him telling me all about the delicate balance of Mars’ ecosystem and how trees make breathing there possible, I almost expected a PowerPoint. Whether or not he found a way to make Terraformatted environmental biology interesting is beside the point entirely. As is whether or not the napkin drawing diagrams were cute. I did not keep it that other dude kept it to study off of. Well I forgot I took a picture of it. Yes I really did.” Yay pizza shop, I’m starving.
“How’s my favorite cousin?” Sarah smiled brightly with a greeting as honest as it was uplifting. I’m glad out of all the genes running through my family a few of them combined into a decent person. I smiled in return and began walking to where they were seated, dodging a table in-between the door and them.
“Hi little sister.” Emily’s tone and expression seemed inviting, but had the tone only another girl could identify as more contempt than compassion. As long as she didn’t talk too much I could get through this meal without wanting to choke her on her own pizza slice. Mmmmm pizza, I hope they already ordered.
“Did you already order?”
“Half pepperoni and half some kind of cheese that apparently makes you healthier.” Sarah looked over Emily with a confused look.
“Yeah its suppose to be really good for your complexion, I read all about it in-“ That’s about where I stopped listening, which felt a little awkward for Sarah cause I basically just stared off into nowhere until a waitress asked me what I wanted to drink. I let Emily talk for a while, staring at my watch most the time looking through new skins for the clock. I’m sure I’ve told Emily how annoying she is when she starts…….uhg…..talking, but I can never tell if she’s a moron or just doesn’t care. Either way the only real way to create a conversation that isn’t her talking for hours is to get confrontational, then she pouts, which is annoying but its quiet.
“Wow that’s a lot of information on a type of cheese you read somewhere, do they have a food that improves brain power?”
“Why?” Emily did her best to form an expression that matched her sarcasm, I doubt she connected the dots to what I meant yet, but she knew it was supposed to be offensive. I shrugged, content with having made my remark; Emily simply rolled her eyes, as though I was the one being ridiculous. “So Mom is wondering if you’ve picked out what you’re going to wear to the formal ball at the Embassy.”
“When is it?” Emily looked as though I’d forgotten a holiday.
“Next month, OBVIOUSLY. What have you been doing this whole time?”
“Missing this...” I smiled and let out a sigh.
“I LOVE the Embassy Ball...” Sarah was leaning her chin on her arm and looking upward, thinking about the architecture of the main hall. The oval shaped room was easily a hundred yards, with a terrace spanning a third of it, pointing at the entrance from the opposite side of the room. The walls were lined with half circle indents, each housing a ten story statue; eight total. Each statue one of the pagan gods the planets were named after, all spectacular works of art, obstructed only by a thin staircase against both walls leading to the terrace. The ceiling was an oval dome that went clear at night and opaque during the day, and hovering right beneath it, a hologram of the solar system with the real time alignment of every planet. Specifically though, I believe she was remembering when she first danced with her current boyfriend of the last couple years, somehow she had every column and statue of the building and each song they danced to memorized.
“We’ll I’d love to have my sister put a little thought into what she’s going to wear so I don’t have to remember being embarrassed the whole night.” Emily took a drink in an effort to calm herself down from the idea that I might make a wardrobe choice that was not in the height of fashion. “It’s already worrisome enough; you never even dance with anyone, or talk with anybody.”
“Find someone interesting to talk to, or music decent to dance to.”
“We’ll why don’t you find a date so I don’t have to do EVERYTHING to make you seem socially acceptable.”
“You’re right; maybe I could attract someone by wearing something slutty enough to make them overlook my personality… Could I borrow some of your clothes?”
“Hey, where’s that pizza at.” Sarah looked behind her with a forced smile, moving her head around as though the waitress was hiding in wait with the pizza and would only deliver upon being spotted. I took a drink while smiling at my own cleverness as my sister began her pouting: mission accomplished.
“You know some of those Spaceflight institutions you’re so obsessed with attend the Embassy Ball.They’re going to notice, too, if you’re just awkward and unattractive at the entire event.” Wait, I thought I won, why is she still talking? And why am I not saying anything? Oh my God, I don’t have a comeback, I’m just sitting here silently because she…..no…..no this can’t be, is…….is she right? Think of something. THINK OF SOMETHING!
“Well it is considered very fashionable to bring a date from another planet to the Embassy Ball. Maybe that guy can help your reputation and give you decent conversation,” Sarah inquired.
“What guy?”
“What guy?” Emily now inquired with a slightly more than polite astonished look.
“Uh, the one we were just talking about on the phone?” Sarah gave a smile.
“The MARTIAN?” Emily’s eyes widened curiously, I couldn’t tell if Martians weren’t a hip group in high society anymore or if, hey wait a minute-
“How do you know about the Martian?” I removed my hand from the glass long enough to point and squint accusingly.
“You told me about him.” Sarah laughed hysterically while I made an obvious show of being at a loss for words. “Oh my God he was so interesting, He was like double smart since he’s like the only Martian ever not to be biology major but still be from Mars.”
“You would think that.” Emily was unscathed by the aggression of my comment.
“And he was kind of cute.” Sarah helping Emily’s argument? What?
“No it was just the muscle stimulants-“
“Wait, if he’s just here for school he might not have anything formal to wear.”
“I don’t think he even knows what formal-“
“We could find some formal clothes for him we just need to know his size.”
“Do you have his number?”
“I WILL KILL YOU BOTH!” was all the waitress heard as she placed our pizza on the table and attempted to avoid eye contact with me. It is going to take my entire conversational prowess to stop the rest of this lunch from becoming my doom.
