Starcustard { chapters 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 }
Chapter 5
Organza Nousu was still alive. Her make-up was smudged, her sand-coloured wig had fallen off and her slippers were few. A good portion of her beautiful children now floated in space in scorched bits. But she was very much still alive, and intended to use this to her advantage.
She forced herself to focus, trying to control the shock and the rage that had accumulated since her husband had first been attacked. They had stolen so much from her. They would suffer slowly and painfully.
The other pod, which contained her surviving children, drifted towards hers and stayed close. Using the pod's navigational equipment, Organza got her bearings, and then headed towards the nearest place she would be able to get help: Hepthazard.
* * *
Gen still had in her hand a delicious sandwich, given to her by the chef (an extremely user-friendly cross between a touch-sensitive television screen and a vending machine, which had kept trying to engage her in small talk), that she munched as she ascended the sloping cylindrical corridors up to the room where the Doctor was waiting for her, with Tenua hovering by her side. She still wasn't used to the disorganised and utterly impractical layout of the ship and had followed the spacefish to somewhere at the bottom right of it, to what she had been told was the cockpit.
She made her way up some steps and then paused in the doorway. She had been here before. There was a large, holographic screen on the wall right next to her, and a window looking out into space on the far side. This was where she had been brought when she had first come aboard the ship, where she had watched Mars' pod leave. She was hit by a sudden wave of guilt.
Gregarium was rattling away at a keyboard below the screen. Colourful images flickered and danced across the wall above him.
'Gen?' Tenua asked softly, floating right behind her.
Gregarium looked up. 'Ah, there you are,' he said, apparently oblivious. 'We're nearing Hepthazard now. I just wanted to make sure you're all set and ready to go.'
Gen remembered the Doctor mentioning the spacestation at breakfast, but she had almost completely forgotten about it. She felt a pang of regret... she didn't want to leave the Doctor or Tenua. Or Georgio. Or the chef. Although she didn't think she'd miss the two-headed shark much.
Something caught her eye. She turned to the window. Out in the darkness, something gleamed. At first she could only just make it out, but it began to take shape as it got closer.
'Is that Hepthazard?' she asked.
'Indeed it is,' said the Doctor.
Optional music track: 'Lemon Jelly - Nervous Tension.'
Gen watched as it took form. It was made of several large, metallic cylinders of varying size, appearing at first as one big mass, then separating as they approached. They were held in place by a long, thin cylinder that cut through them all perpendicularly at some point along their lengths, acting as a spine, each one fixed to it at different angles. Each one had rings of giant bolts at regular intervals along it.
'Seven sections,' announced Gregarium, as Gen stared. 'Most of which are filled with lots and lots of shops, taverns and places to stay. Among other things.'
Gen stood transfixed by the immense sight that now loomed before them, as Gregarium's oddly-shaped ship accelerated towards it. It made her feel very apprehensive. This was going to be her new home.
They were heading towards the innermost of the parallel columns, the largest, the end of which had four platforms jutting out along its width, each occupying a level that stretched from one end of the column to the other. Figures were stood on these platforms, signalling to all the different ships that were silently arriving at and departing from each level, waving beacons that lit up a bright blue. The same was true of the other end, but Gen could not see that from where they were.
Gregarium carefully lowered the ship so that it was level with the top platform, a slightly closer view of what Gen saw appearing on the holographic screen. One of the signallers, a maroon alien with a handlebar moustache and an oxygen mask strapped to his head, raised an unlit beacon to them in one hand and a lit one in the other to a ship that was crawling along the platform and preparing to take flight. It did so, suddenly accelerating so fast that Gen hardly got to look at it as it passed. The signaller lowered and dimmed the lit beacon, and theirs came to life.
Gregarium tapped at the appropriate keys and his ship started to move again.
They entered Hepthazard.
* * *
Organza had never been to Hepthazard. She had wanted to, and had loudly breached the subject with her late husband, but he'd just mumbled something about high crime rates. She didn't believe him for a moment, but had temporarily been occupied by her latest slavekid purchase and so she hadn't pressed the matter further. By the time she was becoming restless again, Hepthazard was behind them.
Gilt had known that if Organza had stopped off there, he'd have been ruined. He had been quick to tell the Captain to move just that little bit faster.
* * *
The ship's power was slowly restoring itself after the recent abuse of its shields, but the Captain was still jittery. He seriously doubted he would be able to re-employ himself after this. His mother would not be happy when she discovered his ever so well-to-do employers had angrily abandoned him in a ship full of slavekid hijackers.
Slavekid hijackers who were all staring at him.
'What?' the Captain said.
* * *
Gen had never seen so many ships in one place. They were parked in long rows just below them, reaching all the way to the other end. Some weren't much bigger than escape pods--in fact, some probably were escape pods--and many were around the same size as the Doctor's ship, but there were quite a few as big as the Nousus' ship, and some even bigger still.
They skimmed over the many vehicles until they found a space big enough to settle in.
Gen turned to Gregarium, the apprehension only increasing as she waited for him to lead the way off the ship. He didn't move.
Then, the signallers stepping inside, the huge metal gates at each end dropped shut, sealing off the level and preventing the entry or exit of any other ship.
'What's happening?' asked Gen.
'They're filling it up with air,' explained Tenua.
'You don't use helmets?' The Nousus had always used helmets to get from the docking area to the main construct of any station they had stopped by at. She recalled how the transparent bowls had pinched at her stepparents' necks, pushing flab up into the bowl itself and giving them grotesquely inflated-looking heads.
'We do for most smaller stations,' said Gregarium. 'I'm not quite sure why it's different here. Just grander, I guess.'
'We can go now,' said Tenua, who had been watching the screen, where all the flickering images had returned, meaningless to Gen. 'We can go and get tasty food.' Eel-glazed rolls never seemed to be far from Tenua's mind.
'Indeed,' said Gregarium. 'Gen, I have your spacesuit here, if you'd like to put it on.' He handed it to her and she did so. It was still too big.
'We should get going before they open the gates again,' said Gregarium. 'Are we all ready?'
'Yep,' said Tenua.
Gen nodded.
'Right then. Off we go.'
Gen followed the Doctor and the spacefish along a route that was overly complicated and altogether too long, before they reached a small metal door with a huge bolt. Gregarium spent several minutes pulling at this before it finally slid free and very nearly sent him flying.
He climbed down a small ladder to ground level and Gen followed him.
The docking area was cold. Or at least, colder than the cosy warmth of Gregarium's ship. Gen stuck her hands into her pockets. Her fingers found something, and she brought it out to inspect it. It was the small, triangular pendant Mars had given to her.
'Ooh, pretty,' said Tenua, appearing by her left shoulder, her tendril brushing against it.
'On we go,' said Gregarium.
The signallers had now turned their attention to ushering people to the nearest doors.
'I like those lights they have,' Tenua told Gen. 'I wish I had one to wave at people.'
The three of them weaved in and out between the parked vehicles, as did others right across the length of the level. They were herded through one of the doors, which a signaller closed shut behind them, and made their way down some flights of steps.
They emerged in an extremely long corridor, with hundreds of different creatures travelling up and down it. The curved ceiling was lined with sharp, fluorescent lights. The floor was smooth and shiny. Gen felt a little dazed. It hurt her eyes. It was almost as bad as the Doctor's White Room.
'Turn left,' said Gregarium. 'I'm afraid we have quite a way to walk. Mel resides in the section second from the end.'
It was a long walk and Gen did grow tired near the end of it, but all the shops and displays and most of all the bustling activity of the spacestation kept her attention very nicely. Even Tenua gave up her chattering, for the most part, to blink excitedly at every coloured lamp and every bright signpost.
'There it is, Gen.' Gregarium pointed out the custard café while they were still yards away from it. This gave Gen plenty of space in which to crane her neck around some of the taller, spikier aliens in the crowd and receive her first impression of the café.
It was an L-shaped building in the corner of a wide, table-filled alcove, with shiny black walls and short little awnings embroidered with blue and green neon filament. The counter was empty of customers, and Gen couldn't see further in.
Gregarium coughed and said, 'Tenua, stay with us please.' The fish was fluttering just a bit high, just a bit ahead of the Doctor and Gen, twisting her fishy tentacle in and out of excited corkscrew shapes. Gen smiled to herself.
The tables and chairs outside the café were deserted, save one slender, green, winged creature who was sipping a small cup of something. Gen tried not to stare. Tenua didn't.
Suddenly a low, cheerful shout came across the patio. 'Greg, old boy, is that you?'
Gregarium smiled, took his hands out of his pockets, and nudged Tenua as an incredibly plump, pasty gentleman wearing a white apron and a chef's hat strolled out from behind the counter and met them among the patio furniture. As he got closer, Gen noticed that his skin was a watery pale. He looked almost as if he had been made from dough and rolled in flour.
'This is the girl then? The one who purportedly escaped from her owners' ship. How fascinating. Not something that happens very often, eh, Greg?'
Gregarium felt inclined to point out that Gen was not a slavekid and that they were technically family, but he refrained. He smiled politely and coughed. 'You're alright taking her then, Mel.'
'I'm simply delighted, I tell you. Thrilled to pieces. Do come in, Greg. Come in and stay a while. Tell me what you've been up to out there in the void.'
The Doctor laughed a very small, private-sounding laugh and let Mel lead him by the shoulder into the café. Gen and Tenua followed, grinning at one another in anticipation.
Mel Marsh kept a set of older but very comfortable apartments above the custard café. Gen and Gregarium enjoyed very nice warm drinks, tasty sweets, and very large and cushy furniture. Tenua, despite Gregarium's attempts to settle her, swam through the air at almost frightening speeds, remembering every inch of the wall and every piece of decoration. Once satisfied that all the rooms were still the happy places she knew and loved, the fish wrapped her slippery self around Gen's forearm and allowed herself to be stroked and fondled into a very blinky sort of sleep.
Gen was still nervous about what would happen once Tenua and the Doctor left, but felt comfortable enough in her enormous armchair to drowse very pleasantly under the chuckling of the two adults.
* * *
'Tell us,' one of the louder, younger slavekids demanded, 'where we're goin'.'
The Captain stared. The kid was holding what looked like an extra-long corkscrew.
'Where are we goin'!?' he shouted again.
The Captain grimaced as the slavekids crowded him. 'You tell me!' he yelled. 'You kids are running this intergalactic popsicle stand!'
The slavekids stared. A rather pitiful frightened look shuffled itself around among them. Andromed glared across several slavekids' heads, directly at the Captain, with anger and doubt in his eyes. Stat stood next to him, looking up at Andromed's face.
The Captain wasn't used to making decisions. He took his flight orders, no questions, and flew them like he'd been trained to do. The Nousus had let him do his job, he'd done it, and all had been well.
Until this.
The murmuring slavekids filled the spacedeck. Occasionally he could hear the clicking of kitchen shears and knives.
With a frustrated grunt, the Captain flung open a drawer and pulled out a small controller. After a bit of fumbling, he got it to light up the large transparent screen.
'There we are,' the Captain shouted. He shoved a few slaveboys aside and pointed at a green flashing dot. 'That is us. This,' he indicated a cluster of darker specks, 'is our solar system. And up top you can see most of the major spacestations in this sector. You tell me where we're going.'
* * *
Optional music track: 'Jack Johnson - Constellations.'
Tenua used her tentacle to push a lock of Gen's hair behind the girl's ear. Gregarium knelt down, his face serious.
'Tenua,' the Doctor said, keeping his friendly eyes on Gen's, 'How would you like to come back next month?'
The fish smiled and fluttered her fins. 'Oh yes, please.'
Gen smiled through her ambivalent nervousness.
'What about the presents?' Tenua turned to the Doctor and made the brightest and most expectant face Gen had ever seen. Gregarium laughed, a little embarrassed that Tenua had given away the surprise.
'Yes--ah, thank you, Tenua, for...reminding me.' The Doctor pulled from his pocket a small tin. It looked like a very old thing, perhaps a tin that had once held cigars or mints. Gen took it.
'Open it, Gen.' Tenua fluttered impatiently. Gen pulled at the tin until she found the hinge. Inside was a funny little glass trinket with loops and knots. Gen fingered the glass thing, staring at it with a bemused look on her face. Tenua giggled.
'Mel will take care of you. Don't worry.'
Gen grew quiet.
Gregarium put out his hand and gave Gen a vigorous handshake, slid his fingers out in one smooth, quick movement, made a fist, and held the flat of his knuckles there for a moment, waiting.
'Like this,' Tenua whispered, demonstrating with her fin the post-handshake ritual. Gen curled her hand into a fist and laughed when Gregarium tapped his against hers. The Doctor laughed too.
Tenua gave her a big smile and a friendly poke. And then her two friends were walking away.
'Goodbye, Gen!' Tenua shouted.
Gen answered goodbye back.
* * *
Organza's bony slug hands reluctantly peeled off her fake eyelashes. She would buy new ones, she promised herself, tossing the grimy, sticky things aside. Boxes and boxes of them. Hepthazard was the biggest spacestation in the sector, containing the highest of high-end shops. She would find the nicest and most expensive fake eyelashes money could buy. She deserved them, after all that had happened.
The fact that she had just lost her husband and her spaceship did not seem to make any difference to Organza's idea of her own financial stability.
Every minute closer to the spacestation brought a stronger sense of calm to Mrs Nousu. She was still furious. She was starving. She was impatient and irate and unpleasant, but she had direction. She had a vision in her head of just how things would be. After alerting the authorities of her predicament, she and her children would enjoy a leisurely afternoon browsing shops and tasting things at posh cafés. And they would stay in the nicest hotel suite, and when their ship was returned to them, life would resume. She would spend a little time looking for a new husband, a little time reading her favourite periodicals, and most of her time torturing Hydrogen, the little brat.
As the spacepods pulled into Hepthazard, Organza was still imagining manicures and cocktails under the bright ceiling lamps of an outrageously expensive spa. She met her children in the cold docking area and gathered them close to her. As a fat, globby flock, they all walked into the crowded corridors of Hepthazard, unnoticed, unheralded, and very unhappy.
Optional music track: 'Polysics - Buggie Techinica.'
