“
Yeah, about that, Naero. We need to be sure. You can’t think of anything someone might want from you or Jan? Are you sure your parents didn’t give you anything to keep safe for them, anything at all from their trips into the Unknown Sectors? A trinket, an artifact, a relic–even data files?”
“
No. Nothing. Jan and I have been over this, too. We checked all of our files and logs, and scanned our belongings. Someone might be desperate to find this alien stuff, but the scary thing is–we don’t seem to have it. That’s all I can figure out.”
Aunt Sleak frowned.
“We’re missing something important; I can just feel it. Well, I’ve put out feelers with some old friends in Shadowforce. We’ll get copies of your parents’ fleet logs. It might take some time, but we’ll get a line on something.”
“
I hope so.”
A shadow fell over them.
Jan stood between them and the lights. “You two gonna gab, or fight? We’re up again, N.” Naero sat on her hands, resisting the urge to smooth her hair away from her face with her added digits while she tried to run out the clock.
Leave it to
Jan. Apparently he enjoyed getting beaten and throttled. A little bit too much for her tastes in her current state of mind, or lack thereof.
She clenched her six-fingered fists inside her six-fingered sparring gloves and prepared for combat.
15
Finally they had some down time later that afternoon. Six fingers and all, Naero joined her mates to visit Chaela, who looked bored out of her mind, watching wall vids and reading
INS
feeds on a flip panel.
Chae rolled her eyes but her face brightened as they all filed into her room, holding bunches of
greenpod flowers behind their backs.
“
Wow, am I glad to see you guys. I’m going stir-crazy in here while Remy’s on his duty shifts, but I’ve got two more whole days to hang out here and keep my stump in this re-growth tank.”
She snarled, pointing to her leg,
secured below the knee, immersed in the fizzing, dark green regeneration tank.
In three days she
’d have a new foot grown back, but it would be soft and useless as a newborn infant’s. The bones would continue to re-form and harden, and then the painful therapy would begin for her to retrain the joints and muscles and learn to use it again.
Saemar dumped an armload of snacks and drinks into Chaela’s lap. Foil packages and cartons spilled over onto the floor.
“What’s all this crap? I don’t eat this stuff. Get this junk off’a me.”
“
Can it, sweetie. This stash is for us. We’re all gonna take turns sitting it out with you, when your squeeze Remy isn’t here, as you regrow your tootsies. And when we’re not in training or on duty.”
Naero winced. They hadn
’t bothered to ask her to join the watch team.
Not with her
own…situation.
She stopped trying to hide her hands.
No one but her seemed to be able to see her delusions, anyway. Ignoring them and pushing on seemed to be the best way to make them go away.
Tyber pulled a couple of floppy, dopey-loo
king sim-helmets out of his tekpak. “I have this new simgame you gotta try. The holoimager is amazing. We fight our way to this castle and–”
Chaela crossed her arms.
“Save me from the geek patrol. You know I hate your dopey games, Tyber. And I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one of those goofy sim caps.”
Tyber already had his on.
He looked both hurt, and stupid. “What’s wrong with them? I’m telling you, this game throcks.”
Everyone struggled not to laugh. Even Zhen.
Gallan took some pics and vid with his wristcom for later blackmail. Tyber looked like a total idiot wearing the damn thing.
“
Yeah, you keep that thing the hell away from my head, or I’ll rip your arms off and you’ll be strapped down next to me with your stumps in two tingling vats of goop.”
“I’ve never had the pleasure to hafta regrow anything,” Saemar said. She rapped on the wall with her knuckles. “Knock on hull. What if a guy lost his dingdong? Would his stuff grow back? Would it be just the same, or could they, you know, make improvements? I’m not just talking length, but thickness, too. But I digress. Does it hurt at all, sweetie? Or are you all pumped up with drugs and so it kind of feels frost?”
Chaela shifted, blinked, and grunted, making faces.
“It definitely is not frost. It doesn’t exactly hurt, but it kind of feels like bugs are biting me or sticking shock and stun needles in me at times. It’s really weird. But if it gets me back in my squadron, I’m all for it.”
“These are for you,” Gallan said.
On cue, all of them dumped their flowers in her l
ap, on top of the heaps of junk food.
Chaela just stared.
“What the hell is this? I hate plants and flowers. What am I supposed to do? Make a salad?”
“It’s customary to bring a recovering patient flowers to brighten her room,” Zhen said. She took them one by one and put them into pweaked nanovases set into the medical bay’s walls, quickly and efficiently arranging them into a pleasant pattern.
“Great, I feel like I’m in some kind of jungle now. Hey N…Naero? You okay?”
Naero snapped out of it and
came back to the present.
“
Sure. You know. Still trying to deal with it all. But don’t worry about me. You just get your foot back. You’ll be running with us again in no time. Uh, sorry. No pun intended.”
“I’m…I’m sorry about your folks, Naero,” Chae said. “We all are. They were good to us. They were stand-up people. None of us know what to do or say.”
Everyone looked down and got quiet.
“Naero, you know we’re there for you if you need any of us,” Chae added.
Naero bit her lip. “I know that, guys. I couldn’t ask for better mates. It’s all…just so new still. I’m still dealing with it. Just give me time.”
They all drew close and put a hand on her. Even Chaela.
“We are,” Chae told her.
Naero pulled away from them before she started bawling.
“Uh, I gotta go. Got a thing with Jan. He, uh, wants to meet him somewhere. So, I’d better go. To go talk about stuff.”
“Sure, sweetie. You go right on ahead. And don’t worry about Chae. We got her covered until her lover boy Remy gets off work.
Saemar turned back to Chaela and patted her hand. “Now, I’ve got the first watch, sweetie. I wanna go over the performance of my last couple dozen guys to see maybe who’s worth another go. I got vid clips from my wall cams so that we can compare both looks
and
prowess, although you can’t always see that much from certain angles.”
Chaela panicked as the rest made
ready to leave. “Quick, someone kill me. A stunner. One of you has to have a way to stun me, right? Zhen?”
Zhen patted her arm.
“Sorry, Chae. You and Saemar enjoy your girl time. Tyber, you’re not staying to watch.”
“
Awww…Mom.”
In desperati
on, Chaela snatched one of the sim helmets and squashed her head into the silly thing.
“All right, T. Switch me on. Let’s find that stupid castle.”
Tyber popped his cap back on. “Yay!”
The caps came to life, forming glowing globes of intricate holographic projections over their heads, immersing them and their senses in the projected adventure world.
Saemar cluelessly kept rambling, focused completely on her pad. “Now what about this guy? Lots of enthusiasm, but I never noticed this growth right here. See it? Let me zoom in. What the hell is that? Do they still have goiters? What is a fricking goiter anyway? Is it like a tumor? Do you think I should be worried about that? Maybe Zhen should check him out for me before we hook up again.”
“
That’s my cue to be gone.” Zhen made a hasty retreat. “Bye-bye. I’m out of here.”
*
After she left Medical, Naero located Jan.
He
insisted on dragging her to a spiraling session of all things, in Dromon’s enormous network of zero-G orbs and chubes. Usually reserved for younger teen Spacers around this time.
She hesitated at one of the entrance hatches to the
chube complex.
“
I’m almost of age, Jan. I don’t spiral anymore. I’m surprised you still do. I’m too old for this.”
He pleaded with her.
“Come on, N. I’ve been on a memory run. Remember all the fun we used to have going to these on all the Clan ships? We had a blast. We didn’t just go to make out with the other kids.”
Naero raised both eyebrows at him.
“At least I didn’t...usually.”
Jan grinned.
“Okay, okay, that was later. It used to be such a ride. Remember? It was just us.” He looked down. “Now...it is just us again, sib.”
Naero hugged him close for a moment.
“Oh, Jan. C’mon. It’s all right. Sure, we can go in.”
They slipped inside and closed the hatch behind them. They slid down the waiting chube, lined and scribed with teen
Spacer tags and glowing holo flirt notes.
I luv Mishi.
Theon, chube 17.
Azhuri Decimates the Competition
You flip me Nyssra!
They spilled out into the cushion of the primary zero-G orb, floating in a holographic, color-shifting, mirror-lit sphere forty meters in diameter, with numerous other access hatches and chubes.
Glowing swing lines in changing, pulsing hues, and flashing, shifting push plates stuck out in various places.
Teen throck and tekk music pulsed. The best dump tunes from over a hundred systems played and throbbed and shifted over the speakers
and panels in random waves of sound and image that could hit like sonics.
The younger kids were all gone. This was teen time.
You had to be between fifteen and nineteen to get into to this scheduled spiral. Naero barely fit the parameters.
About fifty Spacer teens spiraled around in zero-G, laughing, chasing each other, flirting and pairing off.
Of course, everyone knew that spirals were monitored by fleet security so that pairings and the occasional fight never went too far. But swooching and makeout sessions allowed the young to sneak off, let loose some steam, and get together.
Under the Rules of Conduct, young
Spacers remained free to approach each other and just talk. Free to work out problems and disagreements. Free to propose, refuse, or change romantic pairings at any point.
Despite the regs, spiraling was a still a blast of release and sheer freedom, compared to ship duty.
Flying and swooping around in null gravity always felt liberating. As if one could, in fact, fly. A great sensation for the young and anyone under a lot of pressure.
Sometimes even
Spacer Elders reserved the chambers so that they could float free and chat and recall their younger days.
Jan grabbed her and snagged a push plate with one leg, swinging her in a wide arc down to the core.
Naero laughed, and loosened her long, dark hair, letting it spin free with the rest of her. She soared down and caught a swing line, whipping herself around and rocketing back up off a spinning push plate.
Jan dove at her, smiling and giggling. Then he swung away and shot down a flashing pulse chube.
Naero right on his heels.
Frie
nds they knew called out them. Some even came after them.
They chased each other through other orbs, pushing off and swinging. Other teens swooching here and there, their faces locked together in passion, clinging to each other
so desperately.
Various stages of teen hookups. Some just starting out and tentative. Others ending, pulling away from each other, shaking their heads.
Spiraling was uncertain, scary, and great. Every part of it.
Naero realized she did miss it.
Why did she ever think she was too old now?
A cute, skinny kid shot out of chube and nearly crashed into her. Naero held him at arm’s length. They spun and laughed together.
“Well, hello, pretty girl. Name’s Danaldi. Haven’t seen a sweet little thing like you in here before.”
Naero chuckled and rolled her eyes. Her petite stature
often misled others into believing that she was younger.
“How about we play tag for a while,” he said, one eyebrow raised suggestively. “I catch you... and then you’re It?”
Naero grinned. Then she flashed her rank bands at the boy. They flared blue in the muted light.
“
Whoa. A three-striper.”
“
You’re sweet, Danaldi. But I come of age soon. Sorry.”
“
Don’t know what you’re missing.”
“
Oh, please.” She whipped him around and spun him into the nearest chube.
“
Good luck with the younger girls, sweetie!”
“
Wahoo!” Danaldi shouted.
Jan popped his head down from another chube and yawned.
“Wow, you used to be sooo much better at this, N.”
Naero shot toward him.
“Sib, you are gonna pay for that. I am gonna soak you.”
“
Big talk…from an old lady.”
“
Oooh. It’s flaring now.”
It only took the length of two chubes before she caught Jan by his ankles and kicked him into a glowing water ball in the next orb.
Splashes and glorbs of the shining nanolit liquid scattered in several directions.
She splattered him good.
They chased each other for a long while. Then they floated and took a breather, sighing and talking quietly face-to-face, in an orb all by themselves.
“Aunt Sleak wants me to say something...about Mom and Dad at the wake,” Jan blurted out.
He hung his head. “I...I can’t do it, N.”
Naero nodded.
“It’s all right, Jan. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”