Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (17 page)

“Little raven?” Finn asked. “I don’t mean to
pry, but I couldn’t help but overhear.”

“It’s what he called me when I was really
small. He said it was ‘cuz I ate like a bird, and liked to perch
and watch people.”

“It had nothing to do with your hair?” Finn
asked with a little teasing smile.

“Oh yeah, that too,” she replied. Ashley
sighed, feeling the relief of knowing Frederick was alive and well.
She only had her own problems left to worry over.

“Is this okay? If I sleep here, I mean?”
Finn asked, calling her attention back into the room.

Ashley realised how she was, or more
appropriately, wasn’t dressed just then. After she’d gotten rid of
the low quality work suit while moving into her bunk, she threw on
a skimpy synthetic silk crop top and the matching bottoms. She was
about to put on her high quality vacsuit when the message from
Frederick arrived, and, not normally very self-conscious, putting
her vacsuit on became a very low priority. It impressed Ashley to
no end that Finn was doing his absolute best to limit his gaze to
eye contact. It wouldn’t bother her if his eyes wandered, despite
the fact the fact that their romance fizzled as it started, but he
was trying so hard to be respectful. He was one of the people she’d
miss once she moved on.

“I mean, Stephanie assigned me to this
cabin, but I can ask her for non-co-ed. I’d understand,” Finn
continued. “I think she wanted to keep the old Samson crew
together, even though I was new when all this-“

Ashley stood and embraced him tightly. He
only hesitated a moment before returning the gesture. “That’s, um,”
he said, hesitating a moment. “I guess it’s okay?”

She gripped the back of his grimy work suit
and croaked, “Yup.” Ashley was surprised at the tears that came,
but that had been happening a lot lately, a lot more than she’d
like. “I’m such a baby,” she said as she let go.

By the time she wiped her face once, Finn
had a tissue for her. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head, trying to ‘find her
spine’ as Ursula, a former Samson crewmember once told her to do
under different circumstances, and answered, “It was just hard
being bagged up for so long in that worker’s suit, not being able
to talk to most people. Got your message bursts, though. Thank
you.” It was the best cover for her tears she could think of, and
it seemed to work every time.

“Yeah, I could tell it was hard on you,
tried to keep you up to date with what the reconstruction crew was
doing,” Finn replied.

“I spent more than half my time while I was
in one of those,” she said, pointing at her old worker’s suit in
the recycling box, “dragging stuff to and from the ships. Things
got ridiculous when they started bringing things down from the
Enforcer. I’m still sore all over.”

“Recovery meds could take care of that,”
Finn said. “It was pretty rough for me too, those suits trick you
by adding to your strength, but you don’t realise how much work
goes into just directing the crappy synthetic muscles.”

“I know,” Ashley said, reaching into her
duffel bag and pulling her favourite vacsuit out. She’d already
added a golden Chinese dragon that stretched from the back of one
thigh to her shoulders. “But Steph told me to ride it out, and I
did for the last few weeks. She was right about one thing though,
I’m in much better shape, and didn’t take any fitness meds for
weeks. Don’t know how I’m going to keep it up.”

Finn turned around as she changed into the
suit. “I’ve never bunked coed before,” he said with a nervous
laugh.

“A lot of people change in their bunk with
the privacy curtain closed,” Ashley said, pulling her vacsuit on.
“I don’t really care though, you forget to be shy when you grow up
crammed into slave quarters.”

“That must have sucked,” Finn said. “I’m
sorry.”

“It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The
Gamries didn’t abuse us, and they gave their kids strict
boundaries. Being monitored all the time was the worst, until
Justice Gamrie took me with him on his yacht, then it was
terrible.”

“That’s when Captain bought you?”

“Yup,” Ashley replied, her mood brightening
a bit. She closed the suit, leaving a slit half way down the front
open. “All done, you can turn around.”

Finn relaxed and continued to unpack his
duffel bag into the footlocker and netting beneath the bunk above.
“Were there other people serving aboard?”

Ashley knew he was trying to ask if she was
the only slave aboard in a tactful way, and he was probably curious
about other things as well, so she answered his unasked questions
all at once. “I was the only one he owned, the rest were crew. He
brought me along to show off, and because I was good at making
sushi. I didn’t like making it until I was free, and I always
thought it was kind of racist when I was forced to learn how,
especially since I wasn’t Japanese, but he liked having an Asian
make and present sushi to his friends. I tried to explain that
sushi is a Japanese thing, and I was half Chinese, but he didn’t
really care."

Ashley stopped as Minh stepped into the door
with a pair of pilots in tow. “Um, hi,” she offered in surprise.
She loved the weathered bomber jacket he wore over his vacsuit.
First Light was printed in block letters on the left front, the
Triton Skull was underneath, with the new Samurai Squadron skull
with crossed swords stencilled beneath that. He seemed so
interesting, like he had a world of experience she couldn’t begin
to imagine, but it didn’t seem to weigh him down. It was enviable,
and intimidating in its own way. His straight dark hair matched her
own, only shorter, stopping at the base of his neck. Hers flowed
halfway down her back.

“We’re looking for cabin eight. This says it
should be past frame eight somewhere,” one grinning, long-faced
pilot behind Minh-Chu said.

“You passed it about seven metres back,”
Finn answered. “Look for the recessed red handle on the port side,
it’s the next hatch.”

“Uh, okay,” he replied, starting to walk
away. “Wait, do I pull the handle?”

“No,” Finn said, making an effort to remain
polite. “Don’t pull the handle. Just go into the next hatch you see
after it.”

“It’s a landmark, Joyboy,” said a female
pilot beside him. She had wild green and purple hair that struck
out from her head like fine wire.

“It’s a landmark,” parroted the third pilot
behind Minh, a short fellow with a broad, flat nose. He pushed
Joyboy in the right direction with thick hands.

“What’s the other half?” Minh asked, not
following his three pilots.

“Huh?” Ashley asked.

“You said you were half Chinese,” Finn
reminded her.

“Oh, yeah,” Ashley said, finding her place
in the previous conversation and deciding to take it into a
slightly different direction. “Gamrie used to take me with him on
trips and business deals after I came of age because my heritage
made me very expensive: I’m half old-world Chinese and Italian, a
really hard to find breed. When Captain bought me, Gamrie was
looking for a partner for me, a man of the same heritage so he
could, well, you know.” The room fell silent. “So Captain saved me
from being bred like livestock, I guess.” Minh and Finn’s
expressions seemed to be frozen, as if they didn’t know what to say
or do next. The awkwardness was starting to settle in, so she broke
the silence. “I grew up knowing how expensive I was and why, so I
guess it’s not weird to me. Except for the breeding thing, which
happens all the time, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. I guess
I’m still pretty proud of my heritage though, even now that I’m
free.”

“Well, if you were raised by people who kept
telling you that it’s what made you special, then it makes sense,”
Finn said. “There’s a lot more to you than that, though.”

“And now your value can’t be measured,”
Minh-Chu said with a smile that disappeared a moment later. “That
came out wrong, maybe. I meant you’re immeasurable, in terms of
money. As a slave, like when you’re free you’re worth a lot
more.”

“I-“ Ashley started, smiling openly at his
sinking attempt at communicating something she was pretty sure she
already understood.

“It was good seeing you again,” Minh burst
with a forced grin. “Finn! Good seeing you too, Finn. Not just
Ashley.” He said before jerking ninety degrees so he faced the rear
of the ship and marching away. “Places to meet, people to go,” he
could be heard saying to himself as he moved out of sight.

Finn stood stunned for a moment then burst
out laughing, Ashley joined in, unable to resist. “I’m no expert,”
Finn said. “But I think he’s crazy about you.”

“I think he just had a mental moment,”
Ashley said, shaking her head.

“You were definitely the cause.”

Ashley regarded Finn more seriously then.
She hadn’t broken many hearts in her time, maybe two, but she
didn’t want to make it three, especially if it was Finn’s.

“It’s okay,” Finn said with a reassuring
smile. “We’re good. I’m glad we found out we’re only friends early
on, and it took me a while to stop wishing we were more, but I’m
okay.”

“You’re so amazing, Finn,” she said. Tears
threatened to well up again, and she couldn’t tell him why, that
she would regret leaving Finn, Minh, and a situation that could
have been perfect for her behind. Finn’s reward was another
gripping hug. “You make me feel lucky.”

“Hey, it’s all right, you have my blessing,”
Finn said in an attempt to comfort. “Just watch out for Paula, I
hear she bites.”

Ashley laughed and let him go. “Meanie.”

“You’re right, she’s actually pretty
personable if you’re asking her for advice. I had to talk to her
about the launch pods for the Samson, and we spent a while passing
messages through the comm proxy.”

“God, I don’t regret leaving that behind,”
she said, recalling what it was like to pass messages through a
system that kept their origins hidden while they were hiding. “I do
stay away from Paula, though. The last thing I heard her say about
me was pretty nasty, so I’ll just stay out of her way.“

“What did she say?”

“Something I’m sure other people have said,
that I was a sex slave, which I never was, and I wasn’t good enough
to fly the Samson or the Triton.”

“People change their tune when they meet
you,” Finn said. “Or when they see you fly. Ignore her, she’s
probably lashing out because she doesn’t know how to deal with
everything that’s going on, not that any of us really do.”

“She has Minh,” Ashley replied, shaking her
head.

“Scuttlebutt is already making the rounds on
that. Those pilots gossip more than anyone. Even under the worker’s
suit I heard he’s been trying to get away from her for weeks.”

“Uh-huh, I’ll wait for the official
announcement,” Ashley said with a crooked smile. “By the way, I’m
wondering if you know anyone whose been to Drifton a lot?”

“There are a few,” Finn said. “I don’t know
them though, they were busy getting on with things while we were
hiding in sealed suits. Why?”

“I’m looking for a special kind of broker,
one who can buy my accounts in exchange for money now,” Ashley
replied.

“What would you need that for?”

“My accounts are all locked because we’re
wanted by the Order, or Regent Galactic, or whatever.”

“Oh, I’ve never heard of that,” Finn
said.

“Rick, an old crewmember from before you
came on, had to deal with one. He couldn’t withdraw money from home
because they froze his accounts. He was able to sell all his
account info to a shady broker for about forty percent of their
value, I think.”

“Forty percent? That seems like a rip off,
and what does the broker do with the info? How would they get their
money?”

“I dunno, but I don’t think I’ll ever get
access to my money, at least not for years. Not if Captain is
yelling about war,” Ashley said. “I agree with him, but I still
need something of my own, y’know?”

“I wish I could help,” Finn said. “But I
don’t know anyone. Maybe ask Frost? He might know how to find some
people.”

Ashley caught herself recoiling from the
idea of asking Frost for anything, especially advice related to her
having to make her own way. “I’ll talk to him later. You’re right,
he’s shady enough to dig that kinda thing up.”

“I’m going to head out to catch the last of
the sunset,” Finn said. “Or eclipse, rather. It’ll be the last
light for almost two days, it’s so weird here.”

“I’ll be a few minutes behind, I’m just
going to unpack some stuff,” Ashley said. “Thank you, Finn.”

He smiled at her and left the cabin. She
closed the privacy curtain on her bunk, leaving her bags ready to
go, then sealed the hatch behind him and hurriedly brought up
Larry’s ident. Crewcast still replied CREWMEMBER OUT OF RANGE, even
though she wasn’t communicating through a proxy system.

“C’mon, I’ve gotta be able to do something
right on my own,” she said to herself. “I have to tell Captain
about this tonight, and I want it to be good news.” An attempt at
communicating with him through the planetary network failed next,
even the open Stellarnet couldn’t make a connection.

Ashley frantically tried to make a direct
connection to the Triton, and waited. It would take four minutes
for the message to reach the ship and return. If it weren’t for the
clock on her command and control unit, she would swear it took
longer.

The hatch opened, admitting a frantic
Stephanie. “Something’s happened to Frost! I think he fell off the
roof!”

Ashley tried to turn the holographic
communications interface off before the results of her message
displayed, but didn’t get to it in time. To her surprise, a
schematic of the Triton appeared, filling the narrow lane between
bunks, and a voice she’d never heard before responded with a deep,
authoritative tone that filled the cabin. “Ashley Lamport
Identification Number recognised, command codes match records. Zhàn
Class Close Combat Carrier, Sol System Defence Vessel standing by.
Please present your person for verification scan so system
re-initialization can begin.”