Chapter 1

Trap woke up, looked out of the window, and saw the back of the transport vessel he and his family were supposed to take that very morning cruising away toward the vastness of space. He shook his head, shook himself, and launched out of his cot,

‘Mah! Pah! The bastards left!!! They left without us! Look! Look! What are we going to -’ It was about then that Trap finished pulling on his trousers and looked around to see that in fact his mother and father were not in their usual bunks directly under his own. He turned his attention from the porthole to the bright red lines on the clock above the door with all of trepidation and worry that sends your stomach to your feet when you realise exactly what you’ve done wrong. 13:00 EA.

Were there anyone around to hear it, they would have heard a long string of profanities, followed by much too long looking underneath the beds and in the cupboard to trust Trap’s sanity, and eventually the creak of the metal that was, until moments before, his mothers bed, as he sat down, head in hands and started to cry.

Abandonment is never easy. For Trap it didn’t get easier, but with each instance he got a little quicker at coming to terms with his situation. As he sat crying through still tired eyes he said, ‘They wouldn’t, they couldn’t, me? This isn’t real, they can’t do this to me, they can’t do this to me again, they promised! They wouldn’t.’

He stopped crying and walked over to the port hole to watch the shuttle. ‘But they have. Of course they have. They never really cared, I was just a means to an end on this ridiculous pod. This whole station can float into a star for all I care!’

The shuttle ejected turning fluid to make a right turn toward the way station. ‘It must have been a mistake, they’ll come back, right? Yes. Of course they will, they’ll come back and when they do I’ll do better. I’ll pay closer attention, I’ll be more present, I’ll hold down the job. When they come back it will all be fine. They’ll see.’ Trap suddenly caught his reflection and laughed, ‘I’ll just get ready now, they’ll be back any moment, as soon as I’m ready.’

He pulled the t-shirt over his head and stuffed his util and portable dock into his already packed bag and moved back to the window. The shuttle had almost made it to the way station and was spinning about its central axis to back into one of the shuttle bays. The tears came back to his eyes. ‘What can I do? What can I do without them? If they don’t want me, who will? Why am I even here? Why is this happening? What does it matter anyway. If I’m on my own, drifting through space alone? What is the point?’

He turned back to the beds and took out his util again. The alarm had been disabled. He check the user log. Someone had logged in an hour earlier and disabled the alarm. ‘That’s it then. Okay. That’s that. Time to find out when the next shuttle is and start over again. Again.’  

He ran a  hand through his hair to gauge cleanliness and decided a couple of days without a shower would have to do. He did a once over of the room and found one of his mothers sleeping cols down the side of her mattress. He stopped for a moment, held it to his chest, and tucked it carefully into his back pocket. He opened the door and as it slid open the usual bustle and chatter that comes from the door was gone. Looking left and right, not a soul seemed to be left in his pod. There was dust and scuff marks tracked along the walls and floor, one of the lights to the right was flickering, and every other door was wide open. He sighed a long breathe and pressed the 1 on his otil. The familiar sound of laughter filled his hears as he began the long walk to the pod’s centre listening to his ‘Family matters’ col.

Chapter 2

Once he reached the end of the corridor and was walking along the outer ring he could see the way-station and the other shuttles pulling away from other pods. He slowed down to watch, his pod was old, it was probably recycled from other transport stations and had been clogged with people a hundred times. A few of the others out there were more interesting. There was one painted a luminescent yellow with black stripes that were continuous one-way windows that wrapped around the whole thing making it look like more of a massive bee than a transport shuttle. Another, smaller than the others by half, had a transparent dome on the top covering a few hundred stargazing lounge chairs, and one, that Trap assumed was military, was far bigger even than his but angular with bay doors half the height of the pod itself. They all drifted slowly toward the way-station, away from him.

Distracted by the shuttles, he tripped and caught himself on the wall. He’d stumbled over a backpack, it was closed and bright red and lonely. Trap paused the mod and unzipped it. Someone was missing a bag full of hollow discs. He turned one on to find that they were collectable discs for the childrens mod ‘The adventures of the interplanetary Rhino’. He shrugged the bag over his shoulder smiling, reminding himself that no one was coming back for it, and frowned again. He ignored the other shuttles and continued the mod.

A few minutes later he waved his otil at the pod centre door and they slid open. Like the corridor it was bare, and there were definite signs of a rush, but he heard the strain in a deep but distinctly feminine voice grunting, ‘One, two, heave!’ followed by more grunting, some panting, and then the same. Trap poked his head round to see a tall, thin, red haired woman on one side of a control plate with a crowbar and a large, almost round, bald man on the other side with another. ‘One, two, HEAVE!’ she said again. They both jumped in unison and put their weight behind the crowbar, but the panel didn’t budge. Trap started tapping away at his otil and made his way over. He was looking at it as he said,

‘Hey, hey there, let me help, those things are electrified, you won’t get it like that you have to …’ He clicked the button on the right side, the two noticed him, registered what he was doing, and started to shout,

‘No!’ they called out, just as Trap’s otil flashed and produced the magnetic field that disengaged the lock. The panel fell to the floor.

‘What?!’ He said, jumping back, ‘I got it off didn’t I?’

‘You idiot.’ The bald man growled, ‘We could have done that. You magged the system too, everything back there is locked now!’ Trap’s face dropped as he realised they were right.

‘Calm down Jerry.’ The red haired woman said through gritted teeth.  ‘I’m sure our friend here just made a mistake.’ Trap was nodding apologetically, ‘Afterall, he’s still here, like us. Are you a collector too? I think for ruining that one for us you should probably give us whatever you got in that bag of yours? We already cleared out our corridor.’ Jerry was nodding along but still looked angry.

‘A collector? No, I’m just a passenger, I’m looking to get over to the next pod so I can …’ The red haired woman started to approach, crowbar in hand. Trap backed up. ‘So I can meet with a friend, they’re the collector, I was just bringing this to them.’ He shrugged the bag off his shoulder. ‘Sorry about the panel, but yea, you’re right, you can have this.’ He hugged it to his chest and started backing toward the stairs.

‘It better be good. That was the control to the other passenger corridors you broke. Who knows what we’re missing because of you. What you got?’

‘Ah, oh, I see, well, you know, I found some hollow discs, down the side of beds, that kind of thing, yea. Some good ones too, adventure ones, I figure I wouldn’t be able to smuggle anything bigger off the pod, ya know?’ The red haired woman kept coming, but at least she was nodding.

‘Yea, I know. Hand it over.’

‘Oh, sure, of course. Here.’ He slid it along the floor to her feet. She picked it up and threw it to Jerry, not taking her eyes off Trap.

‘What’d we get?’ Jerry unzipped it and gestured his otil at the discs.

‘It’s just Rhino adventure discs!’ he shouted. Trap ran. He took the stairs two at a time and made for evacuation doors to the other pods. He was pretty sure Jerry wouldn’t catch him but looking over his shoulder the red haired woman was clearing the stairs as fast as he was and was almost on him. He waved his otil manically and the doors slid open. Inside was silent. He ran while he despaired and looking around saw a person, tall and broad standing over the balcony looking toward the bay doors. He ran for them.

‘Hey! Help, HELP!’ He shouted. They turned around noncommittally and Trap saw it was a woman. She had black hair tied high in a top knot, and brown eyes the colour of her skin that made the white around them pop. She wasn’t wearing a uniform but the way she held herself and the contrast of how neat she looked compared with the slight chaos of chairs and tables around her, she could have been. Trap ran to her side and looked over the balcony, it was a good fifty metres straight down to the bay doors. The woman frowned at him and back at the red head. She’d stopped running and was leaning on the crowbar waiting for Jerry to catch up.

‘Don’t worry about it miss, you look like you’ve got somewhere to be? The next pods are probably gearing up to leave right? We just want to talk to our friend here.’

‘No, no, we’re not friends, I don’t know these people. I think they’re pirates, I stopped them from breaking into a control panel they were going to…’ Trap started edge behind her,

‘Hey, don’t touch me.’ She snapped at him. Trap did so. She looked between Trap and the red haired woman, ‘What were you doing getting in their way?’ She said to him, ‘So you’re an  idiot? That’s why you’re still here? Maybe you’re better off having this chat with them, think about it?’

‘Ha, yea, okay, I’ll think about it, next time, when the chat has less heavy metal equipment involved?’ Jerry caught up,

‘Look.’ The red haired woman said shifting her weight onto the other foot and hefting the crowbar, ‘We’ll just take a few swings and then deposit him in the next pod bay, he’ll be fine.’

‘Hang on? Deposit him? I thought you pirates were strictly thieves? Isn’t there some kind of code or some rubbish?’ Trap started nodding,

‘There is! He’ll still be alive, he just won’t be able to get in our way again. I’m looking out for myself, you understand.’ Jerry was holding his crowbar in both hands staring at Trap. Trap was staring at the woman he was hiding behind, who had clenched her jaw and tensed her fists.

‘No. In fact I don’t understand. If you ask me, we should all be looking out for each other, not just ourselves.’ She took a step forward and cracked her neck,

‘Oh save it for someone who cares.’ Jerry said, thickening the tension the way only thugs can. Trap stepped up cautiously and whispered,

‘I’m someone who cares.’ His wall of a protector shook her head at him.

‘Okay, I’m with station guard, you two walk, get on with your day, whatever pre-departure rituals you have left to finsih, and I’ll look the other way.’ The red haired woman stopped smiling and looked concerned, Trap started grinning,

‘That’s right, we can all walk away. You don’t want to hurt me, the guard have tazor rods, even you idiots aren’t stupid enough to try a crowbar against that now are you?’ Jerry took a step back but the red haired woman cocked her head,

‘That’s true,’ She locked eyes with the other woman, ‘where is your rod guardswoman?’ She turned and looked at Trap and frowned,

‘Oh. That was a lie, huh? A good one, I had no idea.’ She rolled her eyes. The red haired woman shrugged and turned to Jerry.

‘Let’s get her too then.’ Jerry stalked forward grinning. Trap took a step back so his back was against the balcony rail, and the woman with a top knot stepped forward. Jerry attacked. He swung the crowbar with one hand above his head for momentum and around across his front to strike her in the side. She moved fast, as his swing drew back she rushed forward inside his arm and caught his elbow under her left arm, with her right hand she punched him straight in the throat. There was a dull slapping sound and then a crunch. He stepped back coughing. He dropped the crowbar and reached for his throat. She spun on her front heel and swung her boat across his face, planting her foot back down as if nothing had happened. Jerry stumbled to the side and over into a heap coughing. The red haired woman looked at Jerry on the ground and then back at her with gritted teeth, ‘Hey! What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just do that to people!’ The irony wasn’t lost, she rolled her eyes and Trap smirked.

‘My name’s Mel. Turn around.’ There was a beat of silence, but better judgement didn’t prevail. The red haired woman ran forward with her crowbar over head. At the last second Mel slid to her side and pushed down on the other woman’s arms. The crowbar hit the ground and bounced up, she let it go and it clattered to the ground. Mel used the distraction to swing her elbow across the other woman’s face. She screamed and stumbled to the side. Mel quickly straightened up and kicked her in the side as she staggered. She grunted and fell over Jerry into a heap. Both scrambled to their feet holding their faces and, scowling, hobbled back the way they came. Mel and Trap stood and watched as they disappeared through the evacuation doors. Once they closed Trap said,

‘Wow! That was amazing! It’s wonderful to meet you Mel! I’m Trap, passenger room 437 pod g.’ He held out his hand with a smile, she turned toward the stairs and started to walk away. Trap looked back the way he had come and thought about going back for the interplanetary rhinos discs. He followed Mel. ‘I know what you’re thinking, “pod g? I thought they’d already gone?” Well yea, you’d be right, the rest of them are gone. I stayed behind. You know, to make sure everyone got on okay.’ Mel was walking down the stairs two at a time, he hurried to keep pace, ‘And you? Which pod are you part of? Are you leaving soon?’ He paused but there was no response. Maybe I could come with you? We could look out for each other?’ She kept walking. Trap shrugged and followed her anyway.