Bit watched the tall man leave. They had said he was the captain of the ship and brother to Calen. Though his hair was darker and his eyes lighter, he had the same long aristocratic nose and firm, muscular jaw. Like many of her past employers, this Jack had a temper. She had seen it in his clenched fist and the working of the muscles in his jaw as he fought the urge to respond with violence. He may not have hit her yet, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t later.
Though she wanted nothing more than to stay in her corner, she obediently stripped out of her old clothing and stepped into the shower. She pushed the lever and flinched as the cold water poured down on her body. In record time she was clean and garbed in the captain’s clothing.
With nothing else to do, Bit settled back down in her corner. Before she could get comfortable, the ship began to rumble. She heard various metallic sounds as the ship detached from the spaceport.
Bit glanced up at the wall she was leaning against and noticed a swath of cloth. Assuming it could only be a curtain, she climbed to her feet and pulled it aside. Numerous layers of duroglass formed a window. It was small, and all she could see was what looked like a long metal arm. The arm was retracting itself, slowly folding into itself like a telescope. As the arm retracted, the ship gave a small jerk before gently pulling away. The further the ship drifted away, the more she saw of the enormous spaceport.
Without even trying, she counted at least seven arms jutting out of the central hub. Three of the arms were in use, attached to ships of various sizes. Two were freighters, but the third was a sleek, shiny government vessel. Though she had never seen one herself, she had spotted pictures of the new military ships when they were first launched two years ago. From what little she had caught from Mr. Asselstine’s grumblings, the Earth’s government had “been caught with their pants around their ankles” in regards to monitoring space travel… whatever that meant.
Slowly, the ship turned, revealing the other end of the spaceport and four more ships. Bit had never traveled in space before and only knew about it from what little crumbs of information her employers accidentally dropped for her. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it hadn’t been this. She had never dreamed that the skies were so busy. Some portion of her had assumed there were only a few ships out there, barely able to travel from Earth to Ceres—the farthest human habitat. Clearly, her few expectations had been wrong.
Bit slid down to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. She was tired of being frightened. Though she wasn’t naive enough to think she would ever find the peace of her early childhood—before she became an indentured—she didn’t want to be afraid of her own shadow. Bit wanted to be courageous, she just didn’t know how.
She was just beginning to drift off in her cramped and huddled position when the door creaked open. Jack entered, dropping her documents on his bed and sitting down in one swift motion.
As the door swung shut she spotted another man loitering on the catwalk near the stairs, as though he was trying to look like he had a reason to be there. Though she had only seen him for a moment, it was enough to tell her to be afraid of him. He was leaving middle-age behind. His once brown hair was losing its color and she had spotted wrinkles around the eyes, but, despite all this, she saw the power in his arms and shoulders and the stance of a fighter. Even as he lounged against the railing he stayed on the balls of feet.
The door clicked shut, blocking the man from her view. Her eyes flicked up to Jack of their own accord. He caught her looking at him and she dropped her eyes to the ground, focusing on the seams in the metal plating.
“I contacted the Department of Logistical Labor. You were right. I can’t just forgive the debt,” he said, nearly growling the last few words.
His hand curled into a fist and he pounded it against the mattress.
“So I guess you’re stuck with us.”
“I-I’ll try not to be a burden, sir,” she said, barely able to get her voice above a whisper. “I can work hard.”
To her surprise, she watched as he clenched his fists again. Bit closed her eyes, waiting for the blows to come.