Project Charon 2 by Patty Jansen (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

time on board the large vessels—and wet laundry that had been sitting in a basket for too long.

That was probably not a good sign for the health of the station. But the corridor outside the docking tube looked orderly enough, so Tina and Rex ventured into the station.

First they walked along a passage with docking tubes on both sides. Almost all of them were in use. The whole area was a hive of the usual type of activity: people walking in and out of ships, maintenance crews moving about, and people in station overalls wheeling trolleys with small deliveries.

They walked past larger docking tubes where people waited to be allowed on board. At other tubes, dockworkers in station overalls were unloading small parcels from ships. People met each other in meeting rooms. A woman was giving a presentation in a room with glass walls. A dozen or so people sat listening and watching the screen behind her, which displayed some kind of electronic device. Something she was selling, Tina assumed.

So far, the station appeared very businesslike, and not at all how she had imagined a pirate-run station to be. Perhaps this was why they didn’t like to be called pirates.

Tina and Rex followed the signs that pointed to the port authority.

In the busy office, they completed the formalities in relation to their identification and the ship and their preferred departure date. Tina said “as soon as possible” but she noticed how none of the dates she spotted on the woman’s screen were closer than a week. The woman then asked details about the ship, including the number of passengers it was licensed to take.

Tina asked her about getting supplies, but was informed that she would need to go into the station’s commercial sector, where she could find the Ship Supply office. So they went in search of that through a well-signposted maze of passages.

The station bore all the signs of a well-organised operation. This would not be so hard after all.

“I don’t understand why Finn is so scared,” Tina said.

“Yeah. Jens told me the place was in chaos. This is a lot better than Kelso Station.”

But then they turned a corner, where the sounds of agitated voices reached them. In the passage ahead was a kind of roadblock, a metal grate that stretched from wall to wall and up to the ceiling.

Two guards stood on the other side, with their backs to Tina and Rex, holding back a crowd of people. The air coming out of the passage was warm and smelled rank with grime and unclean people.

Someone in the group spotted Tina and Rex.

A man shouted.

“What are they saying?” Rex asked.

“I have no idea. It sounds like Sinolese to me.”

“And you don’t even understand Sinolese?”

“Smartarse.”

Rex grinned, but Tina felt uneasy.

These people were civilians. They didn’t sound happy.

Why the metal grate and the guards? To keep the clean docks separate from the unwashed rest of the station?

The guards turned around and waited until Tina and Rex came to them.

“I’m in search of the Ship Supply office,” Tina said. “We’re probably lost.”

“No, this is the right way. It’s in the hall just around the corner.”

Through there? “Can we visit it?”

“If you have valid ID.”

Tina dug in her pocket for Louisa Metvier’s ID.

The guards took it, displaying no emotion on their faces. They said nothing about danger, or even about how to get through this mass of people.

One man put the card in a really old scanner—didn’t they have modern equipment? Even the one she had in the ship was more recent.

All these transactions were conducted through the bars of the grate.

For a brief moment, Tina had a vision of these men taking off with her ID. They would be helpless.

“Your reason for your visit to Aurora?” one man asked.

“I’m in need of ship supplies,” Tina said. “I have some business contacts on the station that I need to visit.”

“You’re going to have to join the queue for ship supplies,” one of the men said.

“How long?”

“If you’re lucky, two weeks.”

Two weeks? Two weeks for a process that shouldn’t take more than half a day?

But Tina didn’t say anything, because people at the front of the crowd were listening.

Further back, people stood on their toes to catch a glimpse of her and Rex.

“What are all these people doing here?”

The guard laughed. “Wherever have you come from?”

“Kelso.”

“Where is that?” He and his mate laughed again.

That was a very strange and unprofessional reaction. Both men wore shirts with the station authority’s logo, but the trousers were non-standard and worn. Also, she didn’t believe those were official-issue stunners that they carried on their belts.

Not real guards at all. Huh.

“These people are waiting for available flights off the station, but passenger places are in short supply. You can make quite a bit by taking a few passengers when you leave.”

“I think we’re OK. We’re quite full already.”

“All right. Suit yourself.

He undid the lock at the top and bottom of the grate, and opened the door.

The people started shouting louder. The guard shouted for them to move aside, but the reaction was unconvincing.

“I’ll go first,” Rex said.

The people shrank back from Rex, staring up at his metal body. Tina followed close behind, feeling small.

A couple of people tried asking her questions.

Tina didn’t understand their language, but then a woman said, “How much?”

Tina looked at her. How much what? The woman was skinny with pleading dark eyes.

“You have a ship, right?” She had a young child with her, a skinny thing with large eyes and a smudge on his forehead.

“Are you all waiting to be taken off the station?”

Rex had stopped, and more people crowded around them.

“Keep moving, keep moving!” The guards yelled over the heads of the crowd. “Keep moving. We don’t want any trouble. We got to keep them quiet.”

“I’m sorry,” Tina said to the woman, even if she didn’t know what to be sorry for.

She left the woman and followed Rex through the crowd, trying to ignore further questions. She had already taken Rasa on