The Earth Chronicles

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Jas couldn’t believe it. She was at home in her apartment, and she’d been standing when the message appeared on her interface, but her knees buckled and she sat on her bed as she read it.

All individuals involved in the attempted capture by unknown aliens of the prospecting starship Galathea while it was orbit around K. 67092d are found to be innocent of any dereliction of duty or other criminal or civil culpability in the resultant loss of life. No legal wrongdoing on behalf of any Polestar employees involved, living or dead, has been found.

How could it be true? She’d told them all of it, beginning to end, and her story would have been totally different from Haggardy’s. The investigation committee must have known one of them had to be lying. How could they have found no one guilty? Didn’t they even suspect that something wasn’t right? People had died. Margret Statton and nineteen officers had lost their lives. Even Loba deserved some kind of justice for his death. Haggardy shouldn’t be able to get away with his cowardly and negligent behavior.

After staring at the screen for several more moments, and resisting the urge to throw the interface across the room, Jas released a groan of frustration. She would never, never understand the workings of governments, or human beings in general.

She got up and went to her window. Looking out across the spaceport, she went over the events of the last few days. It looked like the investigation into the events with the Shadows was over, and despite what she’d thought was a growing closeness with Lingiari after what had happened with the Shadows on Dawn, he didn’t seem that interested in her.

She’d messaged him once or twice, but she hadn’t received a reply. She suspected that now that Sayen was better, the two of them would get together. The pilot had spent a lot of time with her while she was in stasis. She wished the couple well, but she couldn’t help but feel a little sad. The more she’d gotten to know the pilot, the more she’d liked him, even though he’d wavered over telling the truth about Haggardy. She understood how important his job was to him. Her career was important to her too.

A shuttle was taking off. Her gaze followed its glowing path into the hazy blue sky. Somewhere up there, out of sight, a space vessel awaited its passengers. Maybe it was a prospector like the Galathea, or a transport to Mars, Europa, Titan, Callisto, or Ganymede, or maybe it was an alien vessel belonging to one of the Transgalactic Council allies.

Jas’ heart yearned for the simplicity of space, far from the complex and bewildering machinations of humankind. It was time for her to return to the stars and her job working with the predictable, comprehensible defense units. She knew it was crazy, but she liked the fighting androids better than some people she knew. She’d even said goodbye to them before disembarking the Galathea. They hadn’t replied, but she’d felt like they were a little bit sorry to be parted from her too. It had probably been her imagination.

Scouting for danger, protecting, and defending—these were concepts she could wrap her head around, even though they weren’t easy in practice. Still, she could understand them. Yes, it was time to get back to work.

She reached for her interface and searched for current deep space security job openings, filtering the results for prospecting ships leaving within the next week. She didn’t anticipate too many problems finding another berth. Her qualifications and experience counted heavily in her favor. Most people in her line of work switched to another profession within their first few years, assuming they survived. And she wasn’t fussy about pay. Her bank account was already stacked with more creds than she would ever spend. A life in government institutions had left her uncomfortable with frivolity and luxury.

Five positions popped up on the screen. One was a two-year mission to a far-distant, little-explored section of the galaxy. It was another Polestar job. They weren’t the best employers, but they weren’t the worst either. Jas applied. With luck, she would be off the planet the day after tomorrow.

She composed a final mail to Lingiari, telling him she’d enjoyed working with him and wishing him well. Next, she wrote to Sayen and told her she hoped her recovery was going well, and that maybe they might meet on a starship somewhere if the navigator decided to return to work. From what she’d understood as the cost of Lee’s treatment, it looked like she didn’t have to worry about never working again.

Getting up, Jas went to put on a light jacket. She wanted to head out for a final meal at a local noodle shop before she embarked on another mission. Her favorite restaurants were about the only thing she missed of Earth.

Her interface pinged. Had Lingiari finally replied? She checked the screen. No. It was a mail from Polestar. Thinking the reply was suspiciously quick, she opened it. The position had been filled. Krat. She would have to apply for the shorter missions. They were all pretty much the same—one-year trips to planets that had been passed over in the first prospecting rush. Usually, this was because they were too high or low gravity, or had some other feature that made the potential profits from resource extraction marginal.

Whatever. A longer assignment would have been better, but Jas didn’t really mind what kind of planets she worked on. She applied to all four positions, put on her jacket and went out.

In the basement of a department store, she went to one of the many small restaurants that lined the walls. She took a seat and spoke her request into the ordering mic. As always, her height and coloring made her stand out. The rest of the patrons in the basic restaurant watched her for a few moments before returning to their meals. She didn’t have to wait long before a bowl of noodles appeared on a serving cart and trundled over to her.

She’d barely begun eating before her interface pinged again, twice, in her pocket. She took it out and propped it up against the condiment containers on the table. She’d received two mails replying to her job applications. That was fast. She opened the messages and read that both positions were no longer open. Her stomach began to sink. Three jobs filled as soon as she applied for them? It was too much of a coincidence.

With a sense of foreboding, she continued to eat. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a third mail arrived. The company was very sorry, but her application had been unsuccessful. Krat. Krat. Krat. She’d finished her meal, paid, and was leaving the restaurant when the fourth mail arrived. She almost didn’t bother opening it. The security officer position had been posted in error, the message said, and the company was not accepting applications.

It had to be Haggardy’s doing. He hadn’t only got off scot-free, he’d called on all the contacts he’d built up over his long career and managed to get her blacklisted. Damn the misborn. He’d followed through on his threat to her and Lingiari. She stopped in her tracks. Lingiari. If Haggardy had punished her for refusing to cover up for him, had he punished the pilot too?

Did Lingiari already know he’d been blacklisted, and did he blame her for pushing him to tell the truth? Was that why he hadn’t been answering her mails?

Jas continued on her way back to her apartment. When she arrived, she threw herself on her bed. Her plans to get away from Earth were falling through, and it looked like a good friend now hated her. Could the day get any worse?

As she lay thinking about what other spacework she could apply for and wondering how far Haggardy’s reach stretched, her interface pinged again. Lifting her arm from across her eyes, she peered at the screen. She blinked away the blurriness of her vision. Someone was calling her on a live vidmail.

She sat up and squinted at the name. When she recognized it, she smiled. Finally, she had something to be happy about. She thumbed the icon to open the vid.

“Jas,” exclaimed Makey as soon as he saw her.

“Hi, what’s up, kid? How are you doing?”

The young man looked much better than he had when Jas had last seen him. His face had filled out, and his skin was a healthy color.

“I’m all right. I’m living in a holding center while they process my refugee application. Some of the people here say I shouldn’t have any problems because Dawn’s being invaded at the moment. Did you hear they’re sending in extra troops?”

“Yeah, I did. I hope they win back the planet soon, Makey.”

“So do I.” He paused and screwed up his face as if he found it difficult say his following words. “I’m worried about my da. I know he wasn’t good to me, but...”

“I understand. He’s still your father. Try not to worry. I’m sure the army’s doing everything they can to protect Dawn’s inhabitants.”

“And I miss Mam and Neeve. When they got taken by the Shadows...and I left so fast...what had happened to them didn’t really sink in. Now I’ve had time to think about it...” The kid’s expression fell.

“I’m sorry, Makey,” Jas said. “But, you know, I think they would have been happy to know that you got away, and that you’re going to have a chance at a new life.”

Makey smiled sadly. “Yeah, maybe.”

“So, what’s the plan when your application’s approved?” Jas asked.

“I haven’t decided. There’s so much I don’t know, and so much I want to do. But I was...I was thinking about becoming a security officer like you. I want to fight the Shadows, Jas. I want to get them back for what they did to my family and my friends. It might help me feel better about leaving them on Dawn if I could work at protecting other people.”

“Makey, you’ve got nothing to feel bad about—”

“I know. I know. I understand what you and Carl said about me being just a kid and everything. But it doesn’t change how I feel. Jas, could you help me? I don’t know anyone here, and I need someone to help me apply for courses, or maybe apply to the military. I haven’t decided yet exactly what I want to do.”

She arranged to go and see him at the refugee center. It would be good to see him again, and it would give her something to occupy her while she figured out what she was going to do with the rest of her life, too.