A Gift for Baba 05/11/2021 - 5:00 PM
By: Will Weissbaum
Writer's Note: A Gift for Baba (Part Two) first appeared in Jump Point 5.9. Read Part One here. Original artwork by Sean Andrew Murray. Part Two She was going to get in so much trouble for this, was the first thought that ran through Yela’s head as the large hauler they had mistakenly become trapped on pulled away from Banaru Station. Staring up at the towering stacks of cargo containers surrounding the three children, she wondered, how could things have gone so wrong? All she had to do was get her two siblings safely aboard their connecting shuttle and instead, here they were rocketing to some strange location aboard a strange ship.
The next thought Yela had was, this is just like that time when Annabelle Reynard accidentally boarded Lord Falton’s ship when he was posing as the pirate king and the two of them dueled until they realized that both were secretly attempting to —
“Come on.”
“Huh?” said Yela, snapping out of her House of Ashen Grey daydream. It seemed that no matter what was going on, she could always lose herself in one of her books, even when she wasn’t actually reading it.
“We need to stop this ship,” Cellin said as she grabbed her sister’s sleeve and pulled her towards the exit on the far side of the cargo hold.
“You’re right,” said Yela, freeing her arm and taking the lead. “If we can get the captain to take us back to Banaru right away, we can try to get on the 19:45 flight to Europa. Maybe they will even let us comm Baba and tell her what happened. She’ll be worried when our shuttle arrives and we’re not on it.”
Yela felt better. They had a plan now. If she just focused on that, there was less room in her head for the doubt and worry.
Though Baba would probably scold them at first for missing their flight, when she found out about their adventure and how well Yela had handled the situation, their grandmother was sure to give one of the little smiles she gave whenever they were particularly brave or clever. As Baba said, “A good adventure is always worth getting in a little bit of trouble for.”
“Do we have to leave so soon? I’ve never been on a hauling ship before,” Daymar asked as he walk alongside his sisters. “Wait!”
Cellin and Yela froze in their tracks as Daymar dropped to his knees and ripped open his rucksack. “What? What is it? Did we lose Baba’s gift?” Yela asked.
“No, I have it right here,” said Cellin, showing her older sister.
Yela was relieved to see the precious gift still safely tucked into Cellin’s bag. After working so hard to get a replacement for the first gift they lost, she didn’t even want to think about the chance of losing this one. Even the dim lighting of the cargo hold did little to hide how beautiful its craftsmanship was. It had clearly been well used over the years, but carefully cared for. Exactly the sort of thing that Baba loved.
Part of Yela was still amazed that the stall owner had agreed to give the gift to them in exchange for only partially opening her Banu lockbox. Yela supposed that after years of trying to open the thing, even making that little bit of progress must have seemed well worth the trade. The stall owner was probably sitting with the lockbox right now trying to open it the rest of the way, but Yela had a sneaking suspicion that when she returned to Station Banaru on their way back to Mars, the stall owner and the box would be in very much the same state they were in when the children had left.
“There it is,” said Daymar as he pulled out a worn, bright yellow cap and secured it on his head. “Now I look like a real hauler. Maybe the captain will even let me fly the ship. Oh, maybe I can fly us all the way to Baba’s house!”
Cellin was consistently amazed by her brother’s ability to find the bright side of any situation. If she was a stormcloud as her father liked to say, Daymar was the ray of sunshine that poked through it. “Maybe,” said Cellin with a half-smile. “But first we have to hurry up and go talk to them.”
“Then let’s go!”
With that, Daymar let loose an even bigger grin and sped up, leading the way through the cargo stacks.
“It’s this way, Daymar.”
Without losing a step, Daymar stopped, turned, and followed his sisters in the correct direction.
- * *
It turned out that the hauling vessel not only had one of the biggest rooms they had ever seen on a ship, it also had one of the messiest. After heading out of the cavernous cargo hold, through the deafening engine room, and past whatever it is you call those rooms that are almost completely full of pipes and valves, they had come to the crew quarters.
Even though there were two beds, it was clear that only one was in use since the other was completely covered in an assortment of items, the bulk of which could most easily be described as ‘junk.’ The small kitchenette on the side of the room housed a museum’s worth of dirty dishes, the work desk was covered with dozens of small vials, and the floor itself only had the narrowest of navigable paths through the flotsam accumulated there.
“Woah. Look at all this stuff,” exclaimed Cellin, impressed. Her own personal choice of living conditions hovered slightly around disaster area, but even her sleephab back on Mars paled in comparison to the sheer magnitude of chaos that filled the small crew area.
“It’s disgusting,” said Yela.
“It smells like dad’s feet,” said Daymar, crinkling his nose.
“You still sure you want to be a hauler?” Asked Yela.
“Yes,” said Daymar, but not that confidently.
“Look, it’s not trash. It’s a collection,” said Cellin, stooping to pick up a small rock off the ground. “Dad showed me one of these before. It’s a flint arrowhead.” She cut across the mess to hold up a large loose piece of fabric from the floor. “And this. I learned about this flag from school. It’s from Port Renatus’ first election when they formed the Mars Union.”
Cellin’s eyes narrowed and she protectively pulled the flag close to her. “You shouldn’t put the Martian flag on the floor. Even if it is an old one.”
Daymar was looking unhappily at the bottom of his left shoe where there were clear signs of him having stepped in something sticky and quite unpleasant. “Are you sure it’s a collection and not just trash?”
“It’s both.” Yela was surveying the room with new appreciation. “I couldn’t see it under the mess, but whoever lives here definitely loves history.” She turned her head sideways to look at the books that lined the packed shelf along the wall. “Look at all the books. This one’s about the Mars Tragedy. That one’s about ancient Rome. There’s Nick Croshaw’s biography. There’s even three books about the Stanley Mutiny.”
“What’s the Stanley Mutiny?” Daymar and Cellin both asked.
“When the UNE formed, a bunch of starmen didn’t like it, so they captured their captain and took over their warship. It’s what started the Unification Wars,” said Yela. “But we’re getting distracted. Right now, we still need to figure a way to get to Baba. Come on.”
Carefully stepping around empty mealbar wrappers, crumpled cans of boost, dirty clothing and the surprisingly ill-treated collection of artifacts, the trio arrive at the bridge bulkhead. Yela, took a deep breath to calm herself, immediately regretted doing that because of the smell, and then pressed the button to open the hatch.
When the bridge door slid back, the three siblings were hit by a wave of gutter rock music. Daymar quickly slapped his hands over his ears to try to drown out the noise, but he could still feel the deep bass causing his heart to beat faster and faster.
“Excuse me?” Yela said to announce their arrival, but the heavy guitar riffs swallowed up her voice.
“Hey!” Cellin tried shouting over the din, to little effect. Marching forward past the two utility terminals that populated the back of the room, she approached the pilot’s chair at the nose of the ship where a narrow band of thick-paned cockpit-glass provided a cramped view of the nearby jump point beacons.
When Cellin was close enough to see past the bulky thrust-padding that lined the back of the seat, she stopped in her tracks, confused. Yela and Daymar caught up with her and saw for themselves what had perplexed their younger sister. The pilot’s seat was empty.
No one was flying the ship.
Suddenly, the music switched off, and the silence that followed was almost as deafening.
“All right. Here’s what’s going to happen,” said a deep, melodic voice. “You’re going to slowly raise your arms and turn around. Try anything else and you’ll regret it.”
Doing as they were asked, the three turned to see a very tall woman standing in an alcove next to the door, her head almost touching the ceiling. They must have walked right past her when they came in. However, more concerning at the moment was the massive rifle she was aiming at the floor by their feet.
“Is that a real gun?” asked Cellin.
“You don’t want to find out,” said the woman. “Now, who the heck are you?”
“I’m Daymar, and I’m going to be a hauler.”
“Fantastic, kid. You definitely got the hat for it. But I meant what are you doing on my ship. You,” she said, gesturing the rifle vaguely at Yela. “Talk.”
Yela nervously stepped forward. “We accidentally got on your ship at Banaru. We didn’t meant to, but before we could leave the door closed and we were stuck. If you could take us back, we could —”
“Anyone know you’re here?”
“No, we’re traveling by ourselves, but our grandmother will be worried when —”
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to lock you three in the hold and you’re gonna sit there not touching anything until I can get someone to pick you up.”
“You’re going to comm our Baba?” asked Daymar.
The woman gave a smile, “Something like that. First things first. Take off your bags and put them on the ground.”
Daymar and Yela did as they were told, but Cellin held firmly onto her pack. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” demanded the woman.
“You can’t have Baba’s gift,” said Cellin, clutching the bag tighter to her chest.
Yela reached out her hand for her sister to give the bag to her. “Let’s give it to her, Cellin. We don’t want to make her angry.”
The tall woman took a step forward, and use her full height to tower over the kids.
“Your sister’s right. I don’t think you’re grasping the full ramifications of your situation here. You three picked about the worst ship possible to stow away on. See, this isn’t just any ship. I’m an infamous smuggler. I mean, you ask anyone who knows about such things if Rose Bryer is to be trifled with and they’ll tell you under no uncertain terms that I am not one to cross lightly. Either that or they’ll say they have never heard of me. Both answers show just how good of a smuggler I am, clear?”
“You’re like a pirate?” asked Daymar, his eyes so wide they looked like they were about to fall out of his head.
“Close enough,” said Rose.
“Woah. That’s even better than a hauler.”
“Not for you. Now this is the last time I’m going to say it, hand over the bag or else.”
“Or else what?” asked Cellin.
“Or else this.” With lightning speed, Rose reached down and yanked the bag from Cellin’s grip. “Didn’t see that coming, did you?”
“Hey! That’s stealing!” Cried Cellin.
“She knows, Cellin. She’s a pirate,” explained Daymar.
- * *
A little bit later, Yela, Daymar, and Cellin stood once again inside the cargo hold, except this time a thick power cord had been wrapped around them, binding the trio face to face in sort of an awkward prisoner hug. It had taken forever to shuffle from the bridge to the rear of the ship bound in this configuration, but Rose patiently followed them with that menacing rifle of hers at the ready just in case.
“There. Now you three just cool your heels in here and behave yourselves. We should be in Croshaw soon enough.”
“You’re taking us out of Sol?” asked Yela, rotating her siblings around so she could look at the smuggler.
“That’s usually what going to Croshaw means,” replied Rose.
Yela felt her mouth go dry. She had always wanted to go through a jump point, she just hadn’t expected to do it today. Much less as a prisoner. This really was turning into something straight out of House of Ashen Gray.
Rose studied the children for a second. “Let me guess, you’ve never jumped before?”
The sibling’s silence was all the answer she needed. Rose took a few strides to a nearby storage locker nested in the wall, and keyed opened the coded latch. From inside the small chamber she pulled out a well worn EVA suit and tossed the helmet with a clatter next to them. “Here, if you get sick use this old helmet as a bucket.”
Rose turned to leave.
“Wait. What if we have to use the bathroom?” asked Daymar, his feet already dancing back and forth a bit.
“The suit has a recycler in it. Might still be working. You can use that.”
“And if we get hungry, are we supposed to eat the suit too?” said Cellin.
Rose rolled her eyes. “There’s a ration kit in the locker too. I would recommend waiting till after the jump to eat or it’s all just going to wind up in the helmet.”
Rose stepped into the bulkhead separating the cargo hold from the rest of the ship.
“Wait, what about untying us?” asked Yela.
“No.”
And with that, the smuggler sealed the cargo hold behind her.
Not wasting a second, Cellin sucked in her breath and slipped easily from her bindings. Heading to the exit, she stopped and picked up the helmet off the floor. “Daymar, bang on the door and beg her to come back. When she comes in we can hit her on the head.”
“Okay,” said Daymar, lifting the loose cord away and following after Cellin.
“Wait, what do you think you two are doing?” asked Yela as she stepped out of the cord and hurried to catch up.
“We’re mutiny-ing,” answered Daymar. He began to pound his fists on the sealed hatch. “Help! Help! There’s a monster!”
Cellin grabbed a crate from the bottom of the storage locker and dragged it next to the door. “Once we take over the ship, we can fly to Europa ourselves.” Climbing on top of crate, she raised the helmet over her head ready to attack whoever came through.
“Have you gone crazy? Get down from there. We can’t attack Rose.”
“Why not? She attacked us.”
“For one thing, she has a gun. For another, you have to listen to me. Dad put me in charge of keeping you safe.”
“And look where you being in charge has gotten us,” Cellin muttered as she shifted her grip on the helmet. “We’ve lost two gifts, missed our flight, and got kidnapped. Maybe I should be the older sister from now on.”
Yela felt her stomach drop out from beneath her. Maybe Cellin was right again. Her heart beat faster and the room began to swim around her. Maybe their dad shouldn’t have trusted her.
“I don’t feel so good,” said Daymar, clutching his stomach.
As Yela watched Cellin puke into the helmet, she finally realized why she felt like her insides were being stretched and squashed at the same time.
They had entered a jump point.
- * *
Cellin laid with her head in Yela’s lap as her sister gently ran her fingers over her back.
Daymar sat nearby riffling through the rations in the box that Rose had left them.
The three were finally starting to feel normal again after their trip through interspace. Yela still couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea that on the other side of the hull was an entirely new star system, and had instead chosen to focus on taking care of Cellin, who had experienced the worst of the jump symptoms.
“It’s like dad picked these out,” said Daymar as he dumped the last of the box’s contents onto the floor. “All the mealbars are mushroom ragu, and there are only two flavors of boost to drink, bitter melon and coffee. Blech.” When he reached the bottom of the box, he pulled out a spiral bound book that had been stored there and quickly held it out to his sister. “Here, Yela. A reading thing.”
“What does the cover say?” asked Yela. After Daymar’s mishap with the docking port lettering she was determined to help her younger brother improve his reading skills.
Daymar studied the cover for a moment, and then began his attempt. “E-meer-gen-ki Praht-o-cowls. Emeergenki Prahtacals?”
“Right, Emergency Protocols,” said Yela.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s probably a guide on what to do if the ship catches fire or loses pressure or something. Like that vid they made us watch before the transport ship took off from Mars. Do you want to read the first page?”
“No,” said Daymar, putting the book down near his sister. “I want to see if the storage locker has some not-gross food in it.” Getting up, Daymar went to the crate Cellin had dragged out of the locker earlier and opened its lid.
“There’s a bunch more pressure suits in here,” said Daymar as he began to empty them out. “Now we can all go bathroom if we need to.”
Yela picked up the Emergency Protocols manual and began paging through it. “Seems this ship was built in the shipyards near Deimos and it is over one hundred meters long. Oh, you know that room with all the pipes we walked through? Turns out that’s the life support controls. Handles all the oxygen and the water and stuff.”
“Maybe we could poison her,” said Cellin as she sat up from Yela’s lap. “Not enough to kill her or anything, but like maybe next time she took a shower the water would make her sick and then we could mutiny.”
“Even if we could find a way out of this room and a way to poison the water, do you remember how filthy her room was? Who knows how long we would have to wait for her to actually take a shower.”
“I don’t hear you coming up with any better plans.”
“That’s because there are no good plans. We’re locked in here and that’s all there is to it. Sitting and waiting quietly is the best way for all of us to get out of here safe.”
Cellin looked down and worried her finger at the small tear in the top of her shoe. “But what if we don’t?” Only the wet spots on the cargo hold floor revealed that she was crying.
Yela opened her mouth to promise her sister that they definitely would be all right, but before she could say the words, she realized that she wasn’t sure anymore. She didn’t know where Rose was taking them or what else might happen. Yela suddenly felt helpless.
Here she was actually living an adventure that would fit perfectly into one of her books, and it felt nothing like she imagined. The characters in her stories always seemed like they were having so much fun when they were in danger. But then again, she never read about people like Annabelle Reynard and Lord Falton sitting around and quietly waiting either. Maybe this is what Baba meant when she would tell them that, “it’s hard to get anywhere if you’re not willing to take a single step.”
“Maybe instead of poisoning the water,” Yela began, to the surprise of Cellin, “we can use these emergency ventilation controls to flush the atmosphere out of the ship and knock her unconscious.” She pointed to the corresponding diagrams in the manual.
“Yeah! That could totally work!” agreed Cellin, wiping her eyes. “And we can use those pressure suits so that we stay awake.”
“Yes! We just need a way to get out of here.”
“I can’t open this box,” said Daymar. The two girls started, having temporarily forgotten that their brother was still there. “And it won’t move either,” said Daymar, tugging on the handle of a crate in the storage locker. The number pad on the front latch glowed red, showing that it was sealed.
“You could try the code she used to open the locker door,” suggested Yela. “2380.”
“How do you know what code she used?”
“She opened it right in front of us. It was kind of hard not to see.”
“I don’t understand your brain sometimes.”
“Same,” said Yela, playfully shoving her sister.
“The code worked!” exclaimed Daymar, lifting up the lid. “Oh. There’s nothing in it. Not even a bottom.”
“What?”
Yela and Cellin rushed over to look. There was little light in the locker, but there was no denying that the inside of the crate was much darker than it should have been. Yela reached a hand in and as far as she could and met no resistance. “There’s no bottom.”
“That’s what I said,” reminded Daymar.
“I wonder what’s down there,” said Cellin.
“It’s too dark to see anything,” said Yela.
“I have an idea,” said Daymar before he left the locker and came back with one of the pressure suits. He fumbled for a moment and then all three siblings were suddenly blinded when the suit’s flashlight turned on. Not wasting a moment, Daymar dropped the suit down into the box. It fell for a few meters before coming to a stop in what appeared to be a crawl space located below the floor.
“It’s a secret tunnel.”
“Where does it go?”
“Let’s find out,” said Daymar. He pulled himself over the edge of the box and hooked his feet into a small indentation there. The box had a ladder built in! Daymar climbed down into the subfloor and crawled out of sight. “There’s a whole room down here.”
Not wanting to be left out, Cellin and Yela quickly followed down.
Automatic lights kicked on as they reached the end of the tunnel, revealing a small alcove lined with shelves.
“We found the pirate’s treasure,” said Daymar, looking at the various items on shelves with wonder.
“This must be where she hides all the stuff she smuggles,” said Yela. She delicately picked up a flat engraved stone from the shelf and lightly ran her fingertips over the markings. “I saw one of these during our school field trip to the Moscow History Museum. This is a cuneiform tablet. It’s thousands of years old.”
“Look at these goggles,” said Cellin, sliding the dark, oversized bug-eyed optics onto her head. “They’re just like the ones the settlers use in those old frontier shows Dad likes to watch.”
“This stuff is really valuable,” realized Yela. “I think Rose must specialize in smuggling rare historical artifacts. That explains all the books and stuff in her room.”
“Hey, cute little fella,” said Daymar, tapping on a transparent glass box. “What’s your name?”
Inside a hairy, slug-like creature crawled along the side, its underside undulating in a display of multicolor ripples where it glided along the surface. Daymar slid the lid of the box off.
“Careful, don’t touch it,” warned Yela.
“Don’t worry, it’s friendly,” assured Daymar as he very carefully put his hand into the box. “It’s a sniblet. They’re from Aremis. I learned all about them on Kid Kadets.”
“So what’s it doing in here?”
“That’s easy. Sniblets are treasures too because people in Vega tried to wipe them out. There’s not very many of them left.”
“I thought you said it was friendly.”
“Friendly to people. Sniblets eat metal though. Look.” Daymar placed the sausage-esque furry creature on top of a bronze sculpture of two people kissing. As the creature crawled along, the metal practically vanished and within seconds there was nothing left of the torsos of the young lovers.
Yela checked the tag on the sculpture. “He just ate a Rodin. Whatever that is.”
“I guess he was hungry,” said Daymar. “Maybe that could be his name.” Daymar lifted the sniblet up to his face. “How about it. Do you like the name Rodin?”
“How much metal do you think Rodin can eat?”
“They can eat a lot. Why?”
- * *
“These bitter melon drinks are pretty good,” said Yela, taking another sip. “Sort of like a lemon apple flavor. You sure you don’t want to try?”
Daymar shook his head no, and focused on guiding Rodin back onto the path they had drawn. The little sniblet had already eaten his way along a good chunk of the cargo hold’s exit hatch.
Cellin fidgeted inside the baggy pressure suit she was wearing. All three siblings had put on the suits so they’d be ready to flush the ship’s atmosphere the minute the little creature had finished munching their escape route.
“I shouldn’t have let you drink that coffee boost,” said Yela to her sister. “Look how jumpy you are.”
“How much longer is this gonna take?”
“Shouldn’t be much longer. Rodin’s making really good progress,” said Yela.
“No he’s not,” said Daymar.
The sisters came to look. Sure enough, the noticeably fatter sniblet was no longer moving.
“I think he might be full” Daymar gently picked up and prodded Rodin but it had no effect.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait for him to wake back up,” said Yela.
“No, I can fit through,” said Cellin. Taking off the large pressure suit, she put one foot through the partial hole in the door and then the next foot. She pushed herself through up to her hips, and then sucking in her breath, twisted and wiggled until she managed to only just barely squeeze all the way through. There was no way that Yela or Daymar were going to be able get through the same way as their younger, more flexible sibling.
“Fantastic! Now you can open the hatch for us!” said Yela.
Cellin tried the control panel, but the door stayed firmly in place. “It’s locked on this side too. Says I don’t have permission.”
“That means the only way to open it is the security controls on the bridge.”
“Give me my suit and I’ll get you out.”
“What? Let you go alone?”
“You two are too big, and we can’t risk waiting for Rodin to wake up. Who knows what might happen or how long sniblets nap for,” said Cellin. “Just tell me what to do and I can flush the air.”
Yela’s instinct was to argue and protect her sister, but after everything they had been through that day . . .
“Here.” Yela handed her sister the crumpled pressure suit and helmet through the small opening, and using the diagrams in the manual, proceeded to explain what Cellin would need to do in order to trigger the emergency ventilation controls and open the cargo bay hatch.
Once their younger sister was out of sight, Yela and Daymar put on their helmets and waited.
It was probably only a minute or two, but standing there, hearing her own heartbeat inside the helmet, Yela had a much deeper appreciation for when her science teacher had tried to explain to them how time was a relative concept.
“Do you think Rose found Cellin?” asked Daymar, gently stroking his gloved finger along Rodin’s back as way to calm himself.
As if in reply, there was a loud clunk, followed by the rushing sound of wind. The atmosphere was being sucked out of the cargo hold!
“Rodin, look,” said Daymar. “Cellin did it!”
Rodin! Yela had been so worried about Cellin that she had almost completely forgot about the little sniblet. “Daymar, Rodin won’t be able to breath,” said Yela. “We have to get him inside a suit.”
If she had stopped to think, there was no way she would have done it, but right then, as all the air drained out of the room, it seemed like the obvious choice. Yela sucked in a deep breath and took off her helmet.
The wind rushed past her face so hard that she could barely keep her eyes open, and then a split second later the wind stopped. The atmosphere was all gone. Leaning forward so that Daymar would be able to reach her suit’s opening, Yela hoped that he would understand. Her lungs were burning as Daymar reached forward and slipped Rodin into her pressure suit. Not wasting another moment, she snap her helmet back into place, and sucked in a deep breath.
As she panted heavily, Rodin began to crawl across her faceplate.
“He’s awake! You did it!”
It was then that the cargo hold door slid open.
“Come on,” panted Yela. “Let’s find Cellin.”
As they entered the engine room, they heard the rush of wind again. Designed to put out fires and flush toxins, the ship’s emergency ventilation protocols were already pumping atmosphere back in.
Crossing through life support, they arrived at crew quarters to see Cellin standing above the unconscious body of Rose and holding Baba’s gift proudly above her head.
“Mutiny! The ship is ours!” cried Cellin triumphantly.
To be continued