The Long Forever. Eugene Lambert

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СКАЧАТЬ I’m the only one who can fly this freighter. And only I have the contacts to sell the darkblende to!’

      The nublood kids huddle and swap whispers.

      Sky shoots a disgusted look at me. But what can I do?

      ‘Okay,’ Murdo says. ‘If you want me as your captain, stick your hand in the air to be counted.’

      Pretty much all the kids hoist their hands. I’m tempted, but don’t. Sky just sneers and folds her arms.

      Murdo grins and treats us to a stiff little bow.

      ‘Thank you. A sound choice, if you don’t mind me saying so. Now then, who shall we have as our quartermaster?’

      I worry eyes might slide my way. They don’t. Cam calls out that he’ll do it. But Anuk gets shoved forward to stand against him, and collects way more hands. She looks as pleased about this as if she’s been shot. Cam looks gutted. There’s loads of good-humoured shouting, so it takes Murdo a while to get them to listen to him again. Beside me, I feel Sky stiffen.

      ‘One last thing to decide before we go back to celebrating,’ he yells. ‘I say we look up my old contacts, flog the darkblende and get ourselves settled. Sky says we risk our necks to hunt for her sister. What do you guys say?’

      ‘That’s not fair,’ I protest.

      Murdo ignores this. ‘Who’s with me?’

      Hands are slower going up this time, but up they go until he grunts with satisfaction. It’s a big win for him.

      ‘Anybody for Sky?’

      Anuk sticks her hand up. So do two others. I raise mine too, but only so that Sky sees.

      Her lip wrinkles. Bleak-faced, she stomps off down to the lower deck and the sleeping quarters. Truth is, I’m glad the vote went the way it did. But I hate seeing her raging.

      I take a deep breath and go to follow her.

      Anuk stops me. ‘Maybe you should leave her be.’

      ‘There’s no maybe about it,’ I say.

      Halfway down the steps I hear her cursing, as well as loud smashes and bangs. Murdo winks. I continue on down.

      ‘Hey, Sky,’ I call. ‘It’s only me, Kyle.’

      A half-seen something flies towards my head. Sky’s blaster. I have to use all my speed to dodge. It clatters to the deck. I snatch it up and pocket it.

      I guess I should be glad she only threw it . . .

6

       DIVERSIONS

      ‘Party’s over,’ Murdo growls. ‘Let’s get down to business.’

      Rich, coming from a guy who’s only just got up from snoring his drunk head off. Meanwhile, Anuk has had the rest of us hard at it for hours, cleaning and tidying. Our cramped quarters are way more liveable now.

      ‘What d’you want us to do?’ I ask.

      Red-eyed and clearly suffering from a head-banging hangover, Murdo flinches. ‘No need to shout, is there? We should have to space those bodies, and then I’ll alter course.’

      This last bit he says with a glare at Sky. She meets it, eyes narrowed, face like stone.

      It’s cool in the hold, but the stench of death is already nasty. Inside the cage we find more bodies than we’d expected. One of the two beaten-up crewmen is stiff and gone to the long forever. His gobby mate shouts threats at us until Cam sets his killstick to stun and shuts him up.

      Skinny guy wisely keeps his mouth shut.

      Murdo has him show us where the airlock is, in a small compartment beneath the hold. After he’s done taking Murdo through the lock’s controls, I sling the guy back inside the cage. Then three of us wrestle the pilot’s body down. He hasn’t got lighter by being dead and we’re blowing hard by the time we’ve shoved him into the airlock. Murdo taps at a grubby screen beside the inner airlock door. It closes, sucks inwards and seals.

      Above us, a red light starts strobing.

      ‘Warning, illegal override,’ a machine-voice chants.

      ‘Yeah, we know!’ Murdo slaps the screen again.

      The warning chokes off. He mutters something over his shoulder to us about opening outer doors with pressure still inside, so the body will be blown out.

      As he does, I feel the slightest of thumps.

      We take turns gawping through the clear-view panel set into the inner airlock door. Beyond the open outer door, the pilot’s body tumbles slowly away from us against a backdrop of stars. I’d heard stories that if you ended up in space without a pressure suit it would be messy. But he doesn’t explode and his blood doesn’t boil out of him.

      I can’t decide if I’m relieved or disappointed.

      The two dead kids, Mav and Kaya, we leave until last. Somebody’s gone to the trouble of wrapping them up in canvas tarpaulins, a sort of makeshift burial shroud.

      ‘Anybody want to say a few words?’ I ask.

      At first all I get is eyes flicking uneasily away from me, but then Cam surprises me.

      ‘They died fighting . . . so we could be free,’ he says.

      Anuk repeats it. Next thing, they’re all at it. I glance at Sky, expecting her lip to curl. Not a bit of it: her eyes are shiny and she chants it as loud as anyone.

      Two more soft thumps and the red light quits flashing.

      ‘Least they didn’t die in a cage,’ she says to me.

      We clamber back into the hold and start making our way back to the crew compartment, while the machines that allow us to breathe start scrubbing away the stench of death.

      ‘Hey, not so fast,’ Murdo says, sticking his head up from the floor hatch. ‘Bring the prisoners.’

      ‘You’re not serious?’ I say.

      Sky rolls her eyes. ‘They’re slavers. Serves them right.’

      ‘No! Please don’t!’ skinny guy whines.

      Murdo laughs, real ugly, and tells us there’s an escape craft down below with four empty stasis pods. ‘Stick ’em in there and it’ll save us watching and feeding them.’

      When we look dumb, he curses and grudgingly explains what stasis pods are. Seems they work by slowing your body down into a sort of super-hibernation. Deep-space escape craft have them so occupants can survive until they’re found, which can take years. Whatever. I’m just relieved he’s not going to space the prisoners in cold blood.

      Sky СКАЧАТЬ