No Space for Family [Chapter 1]
“Go to your room,” my dad directed, turning back to face me waiting in the corridor.
Normally, I would have just hung my hands down by my lap and made a sad face back at him. That would have been enough for him to shrug or roll his eyes and focus back on his task. He clicked his tongue in a way that made it seem my silent protest was going to work again.
“Sola Rae Umburter-Ankern, to your room,” he said again, this time with a shake of his finger. “Now.”
I slumped my shoulders, turned around and headed in the appropriate direction. He rarely used my full name, so I knew he was serious.
I think just about every nine-year-old like me had given thought to running away from home. It seemed pretty enticing right about that moment. For me, though, it’s just not particularly feasible when you live in a converted freighter in the void of space millions of miles from any inhabitable planets.
I mean, the thought of using the escape pod had come to me more than once before. I mean, not seriously, but the prospect seemed like a proper adventure. My plan would be to stock up on food from the synthesizer, grab a blanket and a pillow, then launch off when everyone else was paying attention elsewhere. Though… if there happened to be a real emergency during my absence, the rest of my family— my mom, my dad, and my older brother would all be in trouble. Grandma too, but that’s another story, and I’ll have to come back to that.
Sometimes I used the escape pod as my little fort. The cramped pod was kind of fun, but not so fun that I could spend more than a couple of hours completely locked in. In my fantasies of escape, I also had thought about that problem– what modifications to make. I assumed I could figure out how to rewire the navigation panel to reach the spaceweb and tune it to my favorite shows. Having the original navigation systems still working simultaneously was… a different story. Something in the manual that I had copied from my dad’s files said something about dual booting. And don’t tell my dad this, but also in there, I had figured out how to possibly disable the emergency launch signal. So if I wanted to just pop out unnoticed, I could.
But I am good child, and I was not going to cause more problems than we already had. That’s another thing I’ll get to talking about. But I had to brood for a little bit in my room and wait for a good moment to sneak back out and check on the action.
Actually, it wasn’t my room I was going back to. I had been sharing the room with my brother Terren ever since Grandma started using mine, a little over a week ago.
“Why doesn’t grandma use Terren’s bedroom?” I had asked my mom back when the arrangements were being made.
“Let’s spare grandma the odor baked into a teenage boy’s room and bedding,” my mom responded.
“And you’re okay with me in there with the smell?” I had asked, but I never got a good response.
Yeah, another reason to want to run away for sure. I had been sleeping in a little cot on the far side of Terren’s room since then. Well, as far away as the little two square meter room would allow. If you care to know what older brother smells like, it’s a mixture of sweat and the weird sprays used to badly cover up the first odor. Despite all that, Terren wasn’t a bad brother. He gave me the space most of the time, only coming in here to sleep. He did snore sometimes.
I laid down on my cot on the rough spare blanket and wondered what was happening out there. Grandma Aida’s voice came to the hub by the door. “Don’t fret, little one. I’ll be able to recount every little detail here once it’s all blown over.”
I sat up and faced the low glow from the hub screen, holding my knees. “I’m a member of this family, this crew too. What’s the point of being out here if I can’t be present to learn firsthand?”
Grandma tried to recreate the sound of a tongue clicking. “Some things are better off not learning if you don’t have to. Like what a father may have to do if his family ends up in danger.”
This so-called dangerous situation popped up a little while ago. Two standard galactic hours ago, we came into range of a distress call.
“There’s something sounding off,” said Grandma Aida. She was my mom’s mom. She was trying to help out, but I don’t think she was having the best time on the ship and was definitely… getting used to things. I’ll explain what that all means later, I promise.
“A signal? Put it on speakers, Mom,” said my dad, Jefferson. He was the captain of our ship, the Ora, and always gave orders like that.
“Well, if you give me a minute,” Grandma Aida said back.
The beeping suddenly came over the speakers across the whole ship. It was barely rhythmic but had a certain pattern to it.
I came from the common area where I was listening and up to the cockpit. “It’s all prime numbers, counting up and back down,” I said out loud, glancing around at my family.
“That’s some sort of distress signal, right Dad?” Terren asked proudly as if he already knew the answer.
My dad tapped the metal panel below the pilot’s chair. “Thank you, Aida, we’ve heard enough. That’s what it seems to be, a distress signal. Track the frequency and tell us if we’re headed closer to it.”
The sound of the signal died off and Grandma spoke up again. “Oh, I know this trick. Some ne’er do well sets up a distress signal out here in the sticks and lures nice helpful folks like us out before robbing us blind.”
My dad sighed and tapped away at the nearby control panel. “I suppose that type of situation could have happened before. But all the same, helpful folks like us have the duty to check on these sorts of things. Besides, we don’t have anything aboard that simple thieving types would find of value.”
“You have me aboard!” Grandma hissed. “And these two innocent grandchildren of mine, of course!”
My dad addressed my mom, ignoring my grandma’s complaints. “Amelia, let’s lay in a heading. I thought I saw an asteroid field within a short jump of here. See it?”
“Gottem, Jeff,” my mom said back from the navigator’s seat. “And Mom?”
“Yes, my beautiful and thoughtful daughter?” Grandma lamented.
“Just help us out on this and we can make this quick. Get us back on track to helping out your situation. Kids, strap in.”
Twenty standard galactic minutes ago, we reached hailing distance of the craft sending out the signal. I had been in my seat at the rear of the cockpit since the distress call had originally been picked up. I definitely wasn’t ignoring my homework for all that time. If anything, this was a learning opportunity of the extracurricular sort.
My little station had star charts that guided us to places. I had learned the station quite well during my time aboard. The distress call wasn’t from any place that I would call nice, but I’ll let you judge whether or not an asteroid belt is an enticing destination.
“We’re within range of where that call was made,” My dad said plainly. He was at the controls still, carefully plodding our ship through the maze of space rocks. “Aida, could you send out a hailing frequency for us?”
“Do I have to?”
“Mom,” said my mom to Grandma, her shoulders slumping.
“You are the one in control of the comms and translator there, Aida,” my dad added. “We need it to zero in on their location. And, of course, to see what they need.”
“Fine,” Grandma said in one word before taking her silence again.
My mom and dad looked at each other while the silence dragged on. “Mom?” My mom spoke up again.
“It’s telling me it’s Froungle. I obviously can’t understand a word they’re saying.”
“Hmm, this far out, they might not speak Alpha Standard,” sighed my dad.
“Give it some time, Grandma,” I said, trying to help. “We might not have the language pack, but the translator matrix can decipher it.”
Grandma clicked her tongue. “Why can’t they just speak the same language as us?”
My mom sighed. “Mom, we come from a planet that went over a whole millennium without a single common language. On a galactic scale—“
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don’t have to give me another ‘galactic scale’ lecture. Let’s see… they say they’ve got engine trouble… sure… and they need a particular part. That, or a remagnitizer to get theirs back working. Whatever that means. They are offering to let us dock with them and work out a trade. Hah, doubt it.”
My dad nodded along with the impatient translation. “Well, we can see what we can do. Send them back a… on second thought, let’s just talk to them face to face.”
Terren shook the back of my dad’s seat. “Should we at least have something at the ready to make things go… smoother, Dad?”
“You mean for self-defense?”
“Obviously.”
My dad shook his bald head. “Coming through the airlock strapped with a weapon doesn’t set anyone up for a friendly exchange.”
“What better than an energy rifle pointed to their chests to ensure they’re friendly?” Grandma added. “Just saying.”
“We hear you loud and clear, Aida,” Dad responded. “Terren, just keep the scanner going so we know where to head.”
“Aye, sir,” Terren responded, focusing back on his station.
Our careful, evasive maneuvers took us deeper into the asteroid field until the glint of ship plating flashed in the cockpit’s field of view. The long, narrow craft hung to the side of one of the craggy space rocks trying to stay put.
“There they are,” My dad said, huffing to lift and swing himself out of the low pilot’s seat. “Amelia, switch out and take us in, initiate the docking maneuver.”
My mom effortlessly switched stations and took over the controls, gently pushing the Ora around to guide our docking hatch up to the Froungle ship.
“Terren, with me. Sola–” my dad directed before glancing at me. “Go to your room.”
That brings us to the present time, me in my room and missing out on everything. I felt the sudden jolt of the two ships meeting, followed by a low hum of the systems interlocking.
“I’m locking your door, Sola,” Grandma warned me suddenly. “Your dad gave me the code.”
I swung myself to the edge of the cot suddenly. “Why? I’m not going to try anything.”
“Sure, dear, but we can’t be sure that the little freaks on the other side of the airlock aren’t going to try something.”
I shook my head. “The Froungles are a quiet yet diligent race. Their people are well known for their mineral trade, which they obtain from asteroid fields in deep space in places where others wouldn’t usually care to tread.”
“Where’d you learn that?” Grandma retorted.
“I looked it up just now. I downloaded books on this sector before we left.”
“Ever the studious one. Have you considered that books can be wrong sometimes?”
“No. Well…”
“Well, my sources tell me that they’re little and creepy,” she interrupted. “I mean, they even have the word ‘frown’ in their name. And their language is just awful.”
I sighed loudly so Grandma could hear. “Mom says you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Like you’ve ever seen or felt a real book on paper with a real cover.”
“Frown isn’t even spelled the same way! It’s a coincidence.”
“If you know so much, spell frown for me, little one,” she prattled.
“Grandma—“
“Sorry dear,” she seemed to apologize with a huff. “You just never know what you’ll get out here with all these strange types. Ah, what is this? Your dad is paging me to help with the communication system. I have to help these little… folks translate. Sit tight.”
Fifty Shades of Grease Publishing 