Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

Kara jumped up as the face of the man who’d talked to her earlier appeared. His eyes glowed as he looked at her, but behind that, he looked like a tired, old man.

“I am sorry about that, our earlier connection got cut.” He spoke in Anglic, just as some of Kara’s oldest family had. Even Kara’s parents had once insisted she learn it; it was, they’d said, a fairly common tongue among the rest of humanity.

She’d practiced it enough that her grammar was proper, but she was sure she had a horrible accent just listening to the way the man pronounced his words.

“Will you still help us though? And what is your name?” She looked over at Jared, sleeping by the door, his arm curled around the cloth doll. She felt slightly dizzy.

“I’m Jamar Sinjin Smith, captain of the Queen Mohmbasa .” He sighed. “I’m sorry about the signal quality, there is a lot of jamming going on.”

“The Satrap does not want anyone hearing anything,” Kara said. “It said Emancipation was revoked.”

Jamar frowned. “Humans are still mostly Emancipated out there.”

He didn’t understand. “The Satrap says all humans are no longer free, all Satraps will be doing this.”

“That can’t be true,” Jamar said calmly.

The universe suddenly seemed better. An outside human, talking calmly to her. Things weren’t like that elsewhere. Kara dried her watering eyes. “I think we only have hours of air left.”

Jamar grimaced. “Three people went in looking for fuel, and to get to you, but I’ve lost contact with them. I think they’re still trying to get to you, though.”

Kara hugged herself and crumpled down to the floor. “The three men, do you think they can fight well?” She looked up at the face.

“At least one of them can.” The distant man faded for a second, then solidified. “I wouldn’t give up yet, Kara. Let’s give them some time and see what they come up with.”

Jared shifted, opened his eyes. “Are we being rescued?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Okay,” Kara told Jamar, then turned to Jared. “This is Jamar. He’s on a ship outside of the world. He says someone might be able to come to us.”

A big smile broke out, and it was slightly infectious, despite the complete flips in hope and despair she’d just been run through. Kara stood up. “I’ll monitor the outside for them,” she said. “Jared, try going back to sleep. Sleeping conserves air.”

Jared nodded, wide-eyed, and shut his eyes and hugged the doll tight to himself. He took a deep breath and coughed. The stench was unbearable now that they’d been forced to use the bathroom’s floor. Her lungs hurt.

But she remained standing, waving a virtual window into existence that looked down at the outside of their prison.

Please, please make it, Kara silently appealed to the empty window. Jared shouldn’t have to choke to death because she’d made a mistake. It wasn’t his fault. He was just a kid brother.

“Listen,” Jamar said. “Make sure to tell the people who show up that I’m pretty sure a fully fuelled ship called the Toucan Too on the other end cap’s docking bay. It’s a small transport, I didn’t see it when I swept the habitat coming in, but I think I have a read on it. I’m getting more jamming, I’ll try to deploy—” Jamar Sinjin Smith winked out of existence in a haze of fuzz.

Kara touched the space where he’d just hung, then turned away to wait.

She’d almost fallen asleep standing and watching video of the outside when she noticed the movement. Two helmeted figures standing by the outer door.

Then a third, a woman walking backward, carrying the largest gun Kara had ever seen.

Jamar Sinjin Smith hadn’t returned to talk to her yet. But who else could these people be? Kara triggered the outer door to open.

The nearest man looked around, then ducked in. He waved the rest of them on. The woman with the gun backed in.

Kara sealed them in. Jared stirred.

Then she opened a window into the area between the two doors. There would still be no air in there, but she saw the woman slump against the wall and leave smears of blood on it.

Kara looked back at the space where Jamar’s head had appeared. He had said three. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Still, she remained cautious and cracked the inner door just slightly. Her ears popped and she could feel the air shift as it filled in the empty area. Jared jerked awake.

“If you are from the ship on the outside,” Kara yelled at the half-inch crack she’d allowed, “then what is your captain’s name?” The man with the long, bunchy hair turned and walked to the crack.

“Jamar Sinjin Smith, you talk to him?”

“Yes.” Kara released the door. It rolled halfway open. “But then we lost each other.”

There were now five of them sucking up the air, the three adults using more than Jared or her. Where they stuck in here too now?

The very black woman stepped forward. “We’ll want to wait here as long as we can to see if we can reconnect with him before making a try to get back out.” She turned to look down at Kara. “You understand it’s bad out there? Dangerous?”

Kara nodded again. She’d known that for a long time. “Your captain, he said I had to tell you there was a fueled ship at the other end cap. What’s your name?”

“Nashara. Ijjy has the long hair. The other is Sean.” She sat down with her back against a wall. “I could really use a nap.”

“We don’t have much air,” Kara protested. “We should leave as quickly as possible.”

The woman, Nashara, waved at Sean. “See if she can help you talk to Jamar. If not, we’ll move out to that ship.”

Jared darted between the two men to Kara’s side and stared back at them, not sure what to make of them. “She’s scary,” he whispered too loudly, and pointed at Nashara.

“Not now, Jared.” Kara turned to the one with the short hair and tight curls. “Let me help you with it, I know a lot about them.”

“Thanks, you never find me turning down extra help.” Sean walked over to her side.

Kara watched out of the corner of her eye as Nashara pulled Ijjy aside and whispered to him. She couldn’t hear it all, just the word kids and a nod toward Jared, then her.

“We’ll make do,” Ijjy told her, breaking out of the whispering, catching Kara’s glances at them.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to bring them into a firefight.”

“We’ve been caught in enough of them already,” Kara said, turning her back to Nashara. “He won’t cause you any problems.”

Sean tapped her shoulder. “It’s okay, don’t worry about her.”

Nashara snorted from behind them both as Kara focused on trying to find a signal from the outside.

Jamar reappeared, though the video kept dropping until Sean froze the image of his captain’s head over the panel, and Jamar’s voice filtered out from unmoving lips.

“I’m glad to hear you all,” Jamar said. Everyone crowded near. Both the men were sweaty from running, and Kara found herself edged out behind them. “I was worried about you all.”

“We okay. How you doing?”

“I’m undocked. I have a small surprise for you,” Jamar said. “I found the Toucan Too . It’s fueled. They aren’t responding to me, but the ship responds to me, and diagnostics report to me that she’s got fuel. All we need to do is get there.”

“The girl told us.”

“We go meet you there?” Ijjy asked.

“That’s completely on the other side of the habitat,” Nashara said. “Twenty miles of hostiles?”

“It’s what you’re going to have to do. I’m sorry. I’ll try to meet you there,” Jamar said.