"The Seventh Siren - Chapter 1 part 2" by Jessica Warner

The Seventh Siren was as much of a mess on the inside as on the outside. There were two and a half cabins, the half being a cupboard with a hammock in it. There was a cargo bay, a mess hole (as opposed to a mess hall), a single bathroom, and another section that was locked, probably including the engine room. There was also the cockpit of course, where everything went wrong.

  Laura investigated one of the cabins. It didn’t look too bad. She felt someone approach behind her.

  ‘This’ll do.’ Said the woman with the tied up arm quickly. She threw her bag down on a bunk. ‘Before any guys get here. I ain’t bunking with guys.’ Laura got the impression that this wasn’t because she was a proper sort of woman, but because she had lengthy experience of bunking with men. Laura dropped her pack on another bunk. It clunked on the mattress. If there’s one sound mattresses shouldn’t make, it’s clunk. Ah well.

  The woman held out her un-bandaged hand. ‘Saira Andrews.’

  ‘Laura Pole.’ Laura replied, and shook the offered hand. She didn’t think for a moment that this was the woman’s actual name. It was said pretty convincingly however. ‘How many passengers we got?’

  ‘Six.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Said Laura, surprised.

  ‘The others probably gave up. Or got caught.’ Saira smiled wryly.

  Got caught. Heading to the frontier in such a manky little shuttle was almost a crime in itself. To be doing this, you had to be guilty of something.

  As Saira fished around for something in her bag, Laura found herself wondering why this woman was going to the frontier. Whatever the reason (and Laura could think of several, all as ridiculous as each other) Laura expected Saira could take care of herself. Probably better than she could. The woman’s bare arms were hard with muscle, except for the forearm covered in ragged cloth. Laura wondered what sort of wound required it to be strapped up so tightly. And tied with huge knots…

  The other woman, the one who still had a residual look of despair in her eyes, sidled in. ‘Is there a spare bunk in here?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Said Laura, when it became apparent that Saira was going to ignore the newcomer.

  ‘Great.’ She sat down heavily. ‘This is beyond belief. How can anyone get away with this, it must be such a safety hazard!’

  ‘And what are you going to do about it?’ Saira asked.

  ‘I’m going to talk to the pilot, and demand…’ She trailed off.

  ‘As long as you don’t complain about it to us. I’m Saira Andrews, this is Laura Pole.’

  ‘Claudia Gaston. But most people call me Wish.’

  ‘Wish.’ Saira repeated. ‘Right.’ Her tone of voice was not in the least flattering.

  ‘How come?’ Asked Laura curiously.

  ‘I’m not sure. Everyone had a nickname where I came from.’ If nobody told her, it probably wasn’t a very flattering reason. That told Laura a lot about this woman all at once.

  ‘How long will this journey take, do either of you know? I mean, if the shuttle was held up so much coming this way…’ Claudia “Wish” Gaston asked.

  ‘No clue, sorry.’ Laura shrugged. If it gets there at all I’ll be pleased.

  ‘The pilot should be able to tell us. I’m not used to travelling in shuttles.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Laura had actually found the suspicious silence between her and Saira more comfortable than this woman’s invasive presence. Her voice was ever so slightly too high and loud. She tried to busy herself with unpacking, but she didn’t have anything to unpack.

  She sat down on her bed. It didn’t give at all. It might as well have been a board. Well, could be worse. Could be a bed of nails suspended over a pit of boiling lava with acrid smoke curling around, itching powder on the bed clothes, and the pillow could be alive. Always look on the bright side.

  A living pillow. That’s an interesting thought. Maybe they have pillow creatures somewhere, whole herds of them…

  Laura was jerked out of her idle thoughts as she realised someone had just addressed a question to her.

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘I asked where you were from.’ Claudia repeated, rolling her eyes as she realised Laura had been light-years away.

  ‘Earth. Sagio City, in what used to be Northern Europe before the unity?’

  ‘Oh, nice. I’ve never been to Earth.’ Said Claudia, with a note of insincerity that Laura didn’t miss. Laura wondered why she’d asked.

  Saira had slipped out. There were sounds of people meddling in the mess hole.

  ‘Well, lets have a look at the rest of the shuttle.’ Laura suggested. ‘And meet the people we’ll be spending the next who knows how long with.’

The mess hole. It fitted the six passengers quite nicely, and Laura expected they’d be spending many a bored hour here. Depending on the company…

  Aside from Saira, who had found some spare bread lying around and was eating at a speed to make lightning look pretty ordinary; and Claudia, who had taken a seat not too close and not too far away from them and folded her arms, the other passengers looked like interesting company. And that’s interesting, not good or bad but interesting.

  One was standing, and fiddling with anything that wasn’t nailed down with apparent fascination. This was the one who had broken into the shuttle. He was somewhere in his late twenties, Laura would have guessed. He had quick eyes and a quick grin.

  The boy sitting with his feet on the table was, however, a boy. No older than fifteen, Laura judged, but apparently travelling alone, to the most dangerous place in all the galaxy. It was curious. He seemed to be relaxed, on the outside, but a few signs gave him away. One of his hands toyed with something in his pocket, and he sat too far forward.

  The other was examining them in a similar way. He glanced Laura up and down, then looked away, but she couldn’t tell whether he approved or not. He probably wasn’t too far off her age, but for some reason she couldn’t work out, he looked older.

  ‘Alright ladies? Is this all there is?’ The one who had been investigating an open drawer apparently judged them more interesting for the moment.

  ‘Looks like.’ Laura nodded.

  ‘Great stuff. We won’t get any of those stories you hear about people starving to death on long-haul flights then.’

  ‘What stories?’ Asked Claudia.

  ‘That’s just what I was thinking.’ Snorted Saira, but in a completely different tone. The tone of somebody who knew there were no such stories.

  ‘I’m Ryan.’ The man decided that neither Saira nor Claudia were any fun, and turned to Laura. He smiled winningly. ‘And you are?’

  ‘Laura Pole.’ He took her hand, and kissed it theatrically, all the while talking to her chest.

  ‘Pleasure to meet you, Laura. Are you travelling alone?’

  ‘Yes.’ Said Laura, gently but firmly, indicating that she’d like to keep it that way.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Ryan shrugged, and dropped her hand as if he was very used to this happening, but hadn’t yet stopped trying. ‘And who’s the other one?’

  ‘I’m not going to sleep with you either.’ Said Claudia firmly.

  ‘Charming, I only wanted your name. Bit presumptuous there.’ Ryan pointed carelessly to the other two. ‘Toben and Darr.’

  ‘Hi.’ Said Laura. ‘Which one of you is which?’

  ‘Toben.’ Said the boy. ‘Take a seat?’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘So! We’re all trapped together like rats in this...’ Ryan searched for a good description of the shuttle, then apparently gave up. ‘I’m looking forward to it myself.’

  ‘What did you do to your arm?’ Toben asked Saira inquisitively.

  ‘Hurt it.’ She replied crisply through a mouthful of food. From this, everyone was able to independently decide that they would not bring up the matter again.

  ‘Does anyone have any money they’d be prepared to lose to me in a card game?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t play.’ Said Toben.

  ‘Great stuff. Now, does anyone know how to play Centauri Whist?’ Ryan checked.

  ‘Yeah.’ A few of them nodded.

  ‘Now we’re getting somewhere. And finally…does anyone have a pack of cards?’

  Darr reached into a long pocket and passed Ryan an old deck, then proceeded to thoroughly ignore him. He turned to Laura. ‘Does your room smell of burnt plastic too?’

  ‘Nope. Engine oil.’

  ‘Oh. That’s worse.’

  ‘Well, it’s a matter of opinion really.’

  ‘I s’pose.’ Darr shrugged. He smiled at Laura slightly as if to say “No, I can’t believe we’re talking about this so rationally either, but what else can we do?”

  ‘I can’t believe this!’ Said Claudia. ‘I’m bored already, what are we going to do for the whole week it takes to get to the frontier?’

  ‘One week?’ Snorted Saira. ‘Yeah, if you’ve got a high-class battleship and a private route. On this flying dumpster we’ll be lucky if it only takes a month.’

  ‘And as it was three weeks late anyway, we’re probably looking at two.’ Ryan agreed.

  ‘But what-’

  ‘Here.’ Darr took a few pages of a newssheet from his pocket and threw it to her.

  ‘Anything interesting going on?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘Lessee…’ Darr scanned it. ‘Some politics stuff, something about the Galactic Authority(*1) having a recount on the elections-’

  ‘Anybody here get to vote?’ Toben asked.

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Haven’t been here long enough.’

  ‘And I’m not old enough. Move on.’

  ‘Okay,’ Darr scanned further down. ‘There’s something about a robbery from some-’

  ‘Stately home?’ Ryan asked. ‘Lost the entire contents of their computer system hard-drive? All the programs, codes, and passwords you could ever want? Thieves weren’t caught?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s it.’

  ‘I dunnit.’ Ryan claimed.

  ‘Well, we won’t bore you by reading the details of that one then.’ Said Darr indifferently.

  I can’t tell if he’s joking or not, Laura thought. I expect he is…but then someone had to do it, and he has to be running for some reason…

  I don’t know. It’s got Claudia worried and Toben interested, but I think I’ll take the noncommittal stand of Darr and Saira until I know him better.

  ‘Some celebrity stuff, some sports stuff…riots at Rizz 54 asteroid prison.’

  ‘Didn’t they have a breakout a while back?’ Asked Toben.

  ‘Yeah, but they sorted it all out. Got ‘em back inside.’ Said Darr.

  ‘Ah, that’s what they say.’

  ‘Oh great, a conspiracy theorist.’ Claudia rolled her eyes.

  ‘Was that you as well Ryan?’ Asked Saira.

  ‘Of course not, I’d never get caught.’

  ‘There’s some really boring stuff about stellar route laws, that’s in the bit you’ve got Claudia.’ Said Darr, still scanning the newssheet.

  ‘You can have it back then.’

  ‘Cheers. Here, have some riots.’

  ‘No thanks.’

  ‘Well, it’s the most interesting thing in there. Nothing about the frontier.’ Darr shrugged.

  ‘What, no sex scandal?’ Laura checked.

  ‘Hang on, I must’ve missed that…ah yes, the trusty sex scandal, here you go.’ He passed her the page.

  ‘I don’t really want to read it, I was just checking. That would be my whole theory of the media down the drain if it wasn’t there.’ She explained.

  ‘Never anything worth knowing because it’s fifty percent fiction and fifty percent boring?’

  ‘And always gloomy.’

  ‘Yeah, you’re right. But I’ll read it anyway, it’s not like we’ve got anything else to look at. That’s it though, except for the recruiting

poster for the Orion Alliance army(*2) on the back page.’

  ‘Do they pay good?’ Toben asked.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do they pay at all?’

  ‘They claim to.’

  ‘No need to be so cynical, I’m not really a conspiracy theorist. Only when I feel like it.’ Toben defended himself.

  ‘Good for you mate. How long do you reckon we should give the pilot before we drag him out of the bar?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘How much do you value your lives?’ Asked Saira. ‘The more drunk he gets-’

  ‘I think I’ll go fetch him now.’ Ryan decided.

(*1) EXCERPT FROM “A Reawakening Coma Patient’s Guide to the New Improved Universe!” BY J.WARNER:

The Galactic Authority (GA) is the council consisting of about sixty-seven percent of the governments in the galaxy. The others either couldn’t be bothered to join, weren’t invited, or are far too power-mad to consider such a thing.

(*2) EXCERPT FROM “A Reawakening Coma Patient’s Guide to the New Improved Universe!” BY J.WARNER:

The official peacekeeping and law-enforcement forces of the galaxy, who do battle only with bandits, terrorists, pirates etc. Or at least, that’s the idea. It’s funny how the definitions can usually be stretched to cover “anyone the GA doesn’t really like right now.”