Spin the Sky (28 page)

How could Mike have lived long enough to turn into this family man? Cesar feels like killing him right now.

Mike gets that death-defying gleam in his eye and says, “Son, I got stories about your dad that would curl you hair.”

“Tell me the worst,” Trevor dares him.

So Mike does.

WHERE THE ONE-EYED MAN IS KING

Excerpt from Trevor Vaquero’s “Tales of my Father” Archive

As told to me by Mike, the junker ship captain, right after the time I attacked pirates and mostly won and almost died.

—Trevor Vaquero

S
o I used fly with your dad back when he was a tinker ship captain. That was some good times. Well, dangerous and unpredictable and frequently hungry times, but there was good in there too.

Lot of people come and go on a tinker ship, but I must have flown with your dad almost three years before I lost track of him. He was the best there was. Ever.

The thing about flying with your dad, Trevor, was that he made you feel safe. You knew he was going to be doing his job the best he could all day every day and you didn’t need to worry about getting ordered into a suicide run. There are enough ways to die working a tinker without a moron captain or one who will freeze up in a crisis.

Some do that. Lots do that, actually.

Captain liked to keep to himself, but there were plenty that flew with him for as long as they could. There was Asia, for one. She was sort of the unofficial second-in-command and practically your dad’s shadow. Then there was Nomie, just about the best pilot I ever flew with. That girl was fearless.

Oh, you met Nomie? She’s settled down to raise a family out in New Siberia? Well, how lovely!

Honey, we’ll have to go by when we’re out that way. You’d like Nomie.

But let me get on with my story.

This particular time I’m thinking of, we had a full crew and no troubles for a couple of months. We’d been doing really well with medical runs between a couple orbitals. Your dad had a deal worked out with the Poppy Ship that kept us pretty busy. When trouble showed up, at least we had full stomachs and a good night’s sleep.

So we get a hail through the Ether from some orbital we never heard of before. You’d think I’d remember the name of that little hellhole, but the truth is I don’t.

They put in a high bid for antibiotics. That’s a kind of rare medicine that you only take when you got something nasty eating your privates off and the medibox doesn’t know what to do with it. They’re expensive and hard to come by, but we had some.

Asia checked out the Ether gossip about the place and there wasn’t much, but what there was in the gossip didn’t worry us either. Apparently before the War, it used to be one of those fancy training facilities that a few of the richer countries tossed up here. This one was built by an American outfit to be an ultra-tech, high-grav, oxygen-rich colony for training athletes for the Olympics or the pro leagues or whatever.

At first, the Earthers tried to make it illegal for athletes to come up to those places, but eventually they gave up. After the War, it wasn’t so much of an issue. Nobody had the money to pay athletes to train in space.

The Captain and I spent a little time trying to remember what sport was in off-season when the War started. We were wondering whether it was footballers or figure skaters that got stuck up there when the bombs started dropping. Regardless, according to the Ether, they mostly kept to themselves except for exporting a little wool and cheese and mutton.

Them being on the shy side didn’t worry us. Most Spacers kept to themselves anyway and if they exported then they had some money or something to trade so we wouldn’t be showing up to a colony that was hoping for charity. Tinkers are too hungry for charity. We like getting paid.

So off we go.

Now, the Captain didn’t want to go. I should tell you that. This colony had put out a hail for a large order of these special antibiotics and we didn’t have the full order. We had about a third of what they were asking for. Captain wanted to go scrounge around and get the full order together before we went. The rest of us talked him into it.

That colony was offering a great price and marked the hail as urgent. Most of us, myself included, felt like we should head over there with what we had. First, we could make sure they had the cash to afford the full order. Second, we could make sure there were still people alive to pay us when we came back with the rest of their meds.

So off we went.

We get there and dock up with no problems. Since they were asking for the antibiotic equivalent of a nuclear bomb, we boarded in full hazmat suits. My Momma didn’t raise no fool. Still, I was one of the first out and there was this giant on the docking platform waiting for us.

Literally, a giant.

You wouldn’t believe how big this man was. He was probably eight feet tall, at least, and built like a miner ship. You know, solid. Dense. Scary. He had a thick black mop of hair and clothes that looked like they were stitched together from old bed sheets by a five year old.

The giant starts talking in this thick, deep voice. He was welcoming us. It was obviously a prepared speech and he hadn’t prepared too well because he kept stopping to remember bits and had to start over a few times.

All of us were mesmerized, but Asia pulled me aside and whispered, “Second generation on a high-grav athlete training facility. That kid can’t be more than fourteen. Do you think he can see at all?”

As soon as she said it, I realized that this kid had something wrong with his eyes. His eyelids were only cracked open a slit and oozing green pus. It was disgusting.

Asia was cursed with an over-abundance of brains. I never could figure out what she was doing on a tinker. Some said she was hiding out from a military coup gone bad or a jealous lover. Some thought she was a spy. I heard she is running a colony somewhere, but I’ve also heard she went down to Earth and died of a plague. My favorite story is that she has a stealth ship that she sails through the spheres, picking up and recording all the signals like some superhero, listening for the small cries for help. I think it’s better not to know.

“I thought spinning a colony at high grav was supposed to make people shorter,” I said to Asia out of the corner of my mouth.

Real quiet, without taking her eyes off the giant, she said back, “Yes, the increase in body weight typically means elastic supportive tissue is compressed more, resulting in a height decrease, but this is the athlete training facility. No doubt that boy has been taking growth hormones and steroids since birth. He may even been genetically mutated to be taller.” Or something like that. Asia used lots of big words.

Anyway, she must have messaged the Captain on her comm, because he popped out of the ship double quick, with a hazmat suit on of course. The Captain always liked checking things out himself. The giant kid wanted us to follow him somewhere, but Captain wasn’t having any of it. We’d been burned too many times for that. We stayed with the ship when in a strange orbital.

It took a while for Captain to get the point across to the giant, but once the thought was firmly lodged in that huge head, the boy lumbered back down a hallway. He kept one hand on a wall at all times so I guessed he couldn’t see too well.

Captain had us pull out a carton of the meds. The kid showed up with a half a dozen reinforcements and we found out that he was apparently the runt of the litter, with the exception of an old guy who was only about seven feet tall. The giants were all blind or at least they had the same funk in their eyes that the kid did.

We knew that because they had canes and kept their hands on the rails. Not that old guy though, he had one bright blue eye that didn’t miss a thing and a grubby patch over the other socket. Despite the long white beard and bald head, the old guy was still stacked in the muscle department.

“The Brick,” breathed Captain, stepping forward to vigorously shake the old guy’s hand.

It turned out that the old guy was some famous boxer from before the war. In the ring he was known as
The Brick
on account of that’s what his fist felt like. I guess it was off-season for boxers when the War hit.

Captain charmed The Brick up and down the block by recalling a few of his fights, but the giants still jumped us the second the old guy was sure we actually brought the goods. Before we knew it, we were face down on the floor, trying to breath with a giant sitting on each of our backs. The crew that was still in the ship locked the doors and took off about five seconds after a giant clamped the Captain in a headlock.

Now, we’ve been through this routine before so we weren’t too upset. It was standard procedure to take the ship out of a situation like that. Plenty of people think they can save a few bucks by scamming a tinker.

That’s why we don’t deliver until the credits clear our account and if we are doing a trade, we give up one box of our goods for every one box of trade goods. It takes more time, but better safe than sorry. We forgot that some folks are just stupid or crazy.

These guys were both.

The Captain talked a mile a minute, trying to make them understand that what was in the box was maybe a tenth of the order and the crew wouldn’t ransom us for the rest because we didn’t have the rest. He kept explaining to them that we only had another two boxes of their meds, but these giants were not bright and real grouchy.

Meanwhile, Asia sat next to me, whispering that the bug that’s gunking up their eyes was probably in the water and probably crawled up their eyeball nerves to get in their brains and made them nuts. She had a name for it, but I’m not too good at remembering that stuff. I just remember being glad the bug wasn’t airborne because all our suits got torn open when the giants jumped us.

“How do you know all that?” I asked, because if it was anybody but Asia, I’d be thinking all that was just the space hysteria talking.

“Used to be a doctor,” she replied.

“Really?” I asked.

To be honest, I was thinking about winning the ship betting pool with that little tidbit. I know I should’ve been paying attention to the situation in front of me, but there were a lot of free beers riding on what Asia used to be.

“Yeah,” she grunted, keeping her eyes on the giants. “But don’t spread it around. I don’t want to get stuck here.”

I saw her point. If these guys would jump us for a carton of meds, what would they do for an actual doctor?

That’s when all hell broke loose.

One of the younger crew members, some kid who’d been flying with us less than two months… I don’t bother to learn their names until they’ve survived at least a year. The kid had been mouthing off to the giant holding him for a good fifteen minutes and I guess the giant just couldn’t take any more.

The giant grabbed the kid and just smashed him into the wall. He crushed the kid’s body a few times, until that poor boy was just so much meat. Brains everywhere. Totally disgusting.

Now, I know it’s gross, but remember you asked for the worst and this was it. The next thing I know, that giant, the one who just smeared this kid across the room, ran one finger through the brains dripping down the wall. Then he licked his fingers and laughs. The other giants started laughing too. It was the most horrifying sound I ever heard.

So, of course, we knew that we’re all dead. There was no way those giants were going to let us go.

The Captain figured that out too because he turned around and punched the old guy right in his one good eye. The Brick dropped to the floor, howling and clutching his eye. The giants heard their king fall and went ballistic. It provided just enough of a distraction for a few of us to wiggle free and start fighting. Asia jumped up and did some sort of ninja stuff, kicking the crap out of the giants nearest her. They were big but slow.

I did my part too. I always kept a few knives handy under my hazmat suit, still do. Those of us that could bolted down a hallway, but not everyone made it. We heard the crunching of bones and screaming. No matter who you are or what you do, make sure you wear solid footwear, kid. You never know when you’ll need to run fast.

We ran like hell.

Captain was in front, leading us on. I could hear people behind us, but I didn’t look back. Eventually, Captain ducked down a hall into a large bay, slammed the door and locked it from the inside. We stood there, panting and looking around for some way out of this mess. Since our hazmat suits were shredded in the fight, we ripped off the remnants so they wouldn’t slow us down. Nobody was thrilled about that, but Asia repeated what she told me about the bug being in the water and we all felt a little bit better.

“How do we get out?” asked Asia. She always was one for getting right to the point. I looked at the Captain because I sure as hell didn’t have an answer.

Now this orbital wasn’t your basic spinning can. It was a fancy one with a lot of globes strung together like beads on a necklace. We were talking about why they built it like that when we docked. Captain thought they did it so they could spin each globe independently to change the gravity and have a bunch of different environments to train in.

“Well,” said the Captain after a minute. “If we can find anything to get us out into the void, the crew will pick us up.”

“How do we find a ship or even a suit without finding more of… them?” asked Asia.

Captain nodded.

“They have bad eyesight,” he stated, scratching his head.

“And thus poor depth perception and poor hand-eye coordination,” replied Asia. “Also, I imagine whatever infests their optic nerves causes a fair bit of pain and thus renders higher cognitive functions difficult for them.”

I tried to get in on all this heavy thinking. “They are blind and stupid. So we can sneak around and they won’t notice us?” I said.

Captain shook his head. “They’ll just turn on the cameras in the hallways and have the computer look for us.”

Yeah, I didn’t think of that.

I tried again with, “So we fake out the cameras?”