Project Charon 2 Patty Jansen (readict .TXT) 📖

with the station’s docking structure and gravity returned with a lurch. A few items dislodged in one of the cabins. A loud honking came from the cabin that held the geese.

“I better go and check them,” Rasa said. She went into the back of the ship while the docking mechanism trundled further along the arm, increasing the gravity.

Tina could hear the sound of a door rolling aside, and then a cry from Rasa.

The next moment, three geese flew through the cabin, narrowly missing Rex.

“Get those bloody birds out of here!” Tina called out.

One flew on top of the headrest of the seat next to her. Finn sat here. He ducked out of the way of the goose’s flapping wings.

Rasa came up from behind with the cloth bag, and trapped the animal. This resulted in much squawking and distribution of fluff.

“It’s always the same one that’s naughty,” Rasa said, while carrying the protesting goose back to the cabin. The other two followed meekly.

But in the cabin with the geese, the devastation was much greater than expected. Not only had the geese escaped from the bags that tied their wings together, and from the cage, but they’d been getting into the cactuses. Entire plants had been ripped from the wall and out of their pots.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Rasa said. “I don’t understand why they like these plants. They normally only like seeds. I’ll help you clean it up.”

It was a while until the doors could be opened, so Tina collected the vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the mess made by the geese. They had pulled a couple of plants right out of their pots. The fronds carried bite marks. All the little seed buds had been bitten off. She had intended to grow those seeds, even if only to have something to do on the way to Olympus. Those geese were really very troublesome.

They protested loudly while Tina and Rasa were cleaning, honking at the vacuum cleaner as she dragged it past their cage.

“I am really sorry,” Rasa said when they were done. “I try really hard to lock them up but they always escape.”

“Just… let’s try to find some parts to fix that lock.” Tina let out a sigh. Rasa did try hard; she knew that. There was no point saying that geese weren’t ideal space passengers, because everyone knew that, too. The geese were the only things Rasa owned, and they had to come wherever Rasa went.

“I’ll get some parts. Trade them for eggs.”

“It’s all right. I’ll put it on the account.”

Tina was about to go back to the cabin, hesitated at the door, but then she decided to plunge in. It might be easier to speak to Rasa than to Rex.

“You like Rex?” she asked.

Rasa nodded. “He’s nice.” But she didn’t meet Tina’s eyes. Her cheeks coloured.

That was just as Tina feared.

“If there is… anything you want to talk about, I’m always here.”

“No. There is nothing.” And after a short and uncomfortable silence, Rasa continued, “I better bring the tub of grain in here.”

And before Tina could say anything else, anything even more awkward, she was gone.

This talking-to-teenager thing was not going very well.

Chapter Seven

Tina returned to the cabin, her cheeks glowing. She wasn’t sure what to think. Rex was still her baby and she didn’t want to lose him yet. But it was amazing that she even had thoughts about what he might do to girls in locked shower cubicles.

The movement of the ship stopped and a message came from the station that the docking tube was about to be connected.

“Do you see those ships over there?” Finn asked. He pointed an outside camera at a section of the docking rig where a number of ships were moored. They were ugly things, dark and square, the surface weathering consistent with having spent considerable time in deep space.

“I presume those are pirate ships?” Tina asked.

“They’re certainly not Federacy warships,” Finn said.

“Have you actually been here before?”

“I haven’t. The warships don’t come to Aurora. It’s a fully civilian station, and they have no military supply base here.”

“That never stopped them coming before.” And she meant before he joined the Force.

“Not if there is a reason, no. But they say that officially the risk of compromise is too high. In a civilian station it’s too easy for someone to infiltrate a large population and sabotage ship supplies.”

The sounds outside the hull were now gentler: soft hums and beeps and hissing, as the entry tube connected.

“Well, it seems we’ll find out what’s going on here,” Tina said. “I’m trying to keep our time here as short as possible, and I’m going to order supplies as soon as they let us off.”

Tina went to the sleeping cabin she’d shared with Rasa over the past few days. During flight, these cabins were weightless, but now the ship had been attached to the station, she could walk into them again. Of course, stuff was on the floor. A blanket lay weirdly draped over a chair and a dry soap dispenser had landed on the bottom bunk when gravity returned to the ship. For some reason, you always ended up forgetting to secure something.

The geese in the cabin across the passage were making a racket.

Tina changed into what she hoped were inconspicuous clothes: a ship overall and sturdy workboots.

When she came out of the cabin, Rex stood at the end of the short hallway.

“Can I come?”

“I won’t be very long.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Have you heard from your friend yet?”

“Not yet.”

Tina looked from Finn to Rasa.

“I’m not coming,” Finn said.

Rasa shook her head.

“All right. Let’s go quickly.”

Tina didn’t like leaving the two of them on board the ship. Finn didn’t like the geese, and Rasa was sure to let them out. It was not a happy combination.

Tina opened first the inner and then the outer door, letting in a waft of humid air.

Rex pulled a face.

“This place stinks,” he said.

It did. The air was slightly too warm and smelled of cooking—reminding Tina of her