Low Port Part 18

We ended up at our favorite hiding place, a corner alley created where two bars and a machine shop formed an awkward divot in the street. You had to squirm to get through the narrow entrance behind trash bins-only kids could do it. Maybe Jenn had forgotten the knack because she knocked over a bin with a rattling crash. For a moment we all froze, and then, because we were tired of laughing, we settled for m.u.f.fled giggles. We dragged the bin in front of the opening and set ourselves against the wall.

For a while we just panted and giggled, remembering the wild run through the night. Tick breathed hard through his respirator but the look on his face was just this side of panic, like he couldn't get enough air. I felt a pang of conscience. Don't let him run so hard, I told myself. I patted my leg, an invitation for Tick to sit on my lap, but that same stubbornness took over his face, and he went over to Jenn and set his little body down in her lap. She wrapped her arms around him.

"This is fun," she said wistfully. "I missed you guys."

"Do they know you're out here?" Dallas asked, wide eyed. Jenn shook her head.

"I'm on sh.o.r.e leave," she said proudly, but the effect was ruined when she added, "but my captain ordered me to visit my parents. I did, but then they made me go to bed." Her voice was full of disgust. "So I figured I'd find you guys."

We all laughed, but I was struck by the easy way she said my captain. Like she belonged or something. Do you like it? I wanted to ask, but I was afraid of what she'd say. If she liked it she might as well be gone for good.

"What's it like?" Austin asked. She leaned her chin on her knees, waiting to hear. I snorted quietly in my respirator.

"It's fun. I like it. I mean, it was hard to get used to at first. I really missed-well, everyone. My parents." We all nodded at this momentous admission. "And I kept making mistakes at first. Everyone either ordered me around or told me I was in the wrong place. I got yelled at a lot."

"Like Randy," Tick piped up.

"Shut up, tick t.u.r.d," I said.

"Anyway," Jenn said reprovingly. "But I got better at stuff. My favorite part is serving on the bridge. I can't touch anything, but I can watch. I love when we hit the jump gate." I couldn't see her mouth under her mask but I could hear the smile in her voice.

"You've jumped? Where've you been, anyway?" Austin persisted This time I snorted for real. "Apprentices don't get to go offworld, Austin," I said. "All they get to see are the same four walls, for light years and light years. We see more just by sticking around White Lake. "

"That's not true!" Jenn said. She was shocked. "I've been lots of places."

"Oh yeah? Where?"

"Lots of places. I've been to s.p.a.ceports in five systems and I was on Earth Outpost."

I kept pushing it, I didn't know why. "s.p.a.ceports. Big deal. We live on one, remember"

Everyone was looking at us, confused. Jenn's eyes became bright with tears.

"You're jealous," she said.

"Of what?" I snapped. "Living in some tin can?"

She stood up, letting Tick slide reluctantly off her lap. She slapped ineffectually at her uniform, but it had lost its white l.u.s.ter. Tick's blood mark rode her shoulder like a rust spot. "I don't have to listen to this," she said, and kicked the bin aside before squirming out of the alley. Dallas and Austin stared at me, and then her, and then followed her out. It was just me and Tick in the dim hideaway.

I couldn't meet Tick's eyes. "Come on," I said gruffly. "Let's go home."

He got to his feet a little slowly, and I knew he was worn out from our escapade. The energy I had earlier had faded and I felt tired myself, along with a bunch of other emotions all caught up in my stomach. Tired, angry, ashamed. Sad. I followed him through the opening half heartedly, pulling myself through the tight spot. To my surprise I saw the other three waiting for us.

We all stood around for a moment, looking at the rough pavement. After a moment Jenn broke the silence.

"Well? What should we do next?"

When we headed out to the main wharf again, the party was in full swing. Mindful of the guards we slid through the crowd, avoiding some of the more conscientious grownups who shouted that we needed to be in bed and what did we think we were doing, running around the wild part of town? Like we didn't already live there or something.

Jenn and I hung back, Tick lagging between us, still brighteyed, but flagging fast. Jenn glanced down at him and then at me.

"What happened? I thought he was going to get his new set right about the time I left."

I kicked the ground, bitterness rising in my throat. "You remember what happened to firs'pop, right?"

She nodded. Firs' pop was guiding a fueling tube into the lake when the tube hit an air pocket and bucked. Jenn had been there when first pop's name was chiseled on the memorial stone at the Cathedral.

"Well, after that there was only money for second mama to get new lungs. Tick-we thought he could wait, since he was so little. Now, though, it looks like he's going to need them sooner than we thought."

"He shouldn't even be outside," Jenn said, alarm rising in her voice. I shrugged.

"Nah. The clinic gave us some drugs to keep him going. He'll be fine." I snuck a glance at her. "I couldn't keep him from seeing you. Couldn't keep myself away."

I waited with my heart beating so hard my head swam. Jenn just kept walking, as if she hadn't heard. Then she turned sideways toward me. I could see her eyes crinkling over the mask.

"Me too," she said, and she reached out and squeezed my hand. "What about you?" she said. "I thought you were going to get that seaship spot."

Even holding hands couldn't take the sting away. "Yeah, well," I said. "They need me on the lake." I didn't tell her I hadn't signed on yet, or that second pop hated looking at me anymore. Or that all we did was fight when we did talk. Or that I missed firs'pop so fierce that I halfway made a promise to myself that I would give up the seaship apprenticeship if only he could come back.

"Look!" Tick shouted. "Randy and Jenn are holding hands.

We sprang apart, and I made a lunge for him. "You little-" Dallas and Austin began to sing, "Jenn 'n Randy sittin' in a-"

"Hey, you kids!"

Startled we all turned around. Three wharf guards were coming toward us, their masks sleek and new, their eyes narrowed. Jenn muttered something her firs'ma would disapprove of.

"Can we help you, officers?" beamed Austin. Dallas came up next to her. The twins had the natural ability to project sweetness with their eyes and voices alone. I always looked guilty, even when I wasn't.

"What are you kids doing up this late? Where do you live?"

With blithe innocence, Austin said, "We're sorry, officer. We had to bring dinner to our firs'mas on the night shift. We're heading straight home."

He bought it. His eyes relented.

"See that you do. The docks are no place for kids."

Solemnly we nodded and chorused our promises. Then, with them watching us, we heading quickly in the most plausible direction. We turned a comer and risked a look back-they were still watching, but they had half turned back to the wharf. One was talking on a radio. I got a bad feeling about that.

"Austin, how do you do that?"Jenn said admiringly. "Come in handy on board." She imitated Austin with a mincing falsetto. "Sorry, officer, I'm just a poor innocent little waif."

We started laughing, but it was too soon-I could see the officer sign off the radio and look over at us again, and then moving purposefully toward us. Someone must have mentioned the street lamp.

"Uh oh, time to go," I said. Not even Austin would be able to get us out of this one. Grabbing hold of Tick again, we took off through the crowds.

"Where to?" Jenn shouted, her breath coming hoa.r.s.e through her mask. I looked around for inspiration.

"The Cathedral!" I said.

It was a long steady uphill slog. Before long we were all breathing like Tick. The Cathedral rose above the White Lake s.p.a.ceport, a ma.s.s of solid rock, its feet dipping into White Lake and forming one end of the vast bowl that contained the fuel reservoir. It shone in the reflected light of the lake and the string of pearls, shimmering with white and pastels, like an aurora made of stone. In school they taught us that people used to build cathedrals, but those cathedrals were just buildings. No one built this Cathedral except for the planetary forces that shaped the lake itself. It undulated with elaborate carvings, curtains and gargoyles and dainty columns of stone that were as delicate as lace.

It rose so high above the lake you didn't need a respirator at the top.

We walked in grim silence. I knew it wasn't as far as it seemed that night. We'd all been before, for field trips and with our families. But we had been running around all night, and now we were carrying Tick, taking turns to carry him on our backs. I didn't even look up to watch the Cathedral draw near, just kept walking, eyes on my boots as I put them one in front of the other. Every now and then I slipped on the wet path, slick with some fluid that I was too tired to guess about.

When it was my turn to hold Tick I could hear his hoa.r.s.e breathing against my back. It was getting harder and harder to suck air through my mask-I could imagine how he felt. The drugs had only a limited effect. I remembered taking them myself, being tired all the time and wanting desperately to take a full breath but unable to.

It will be better when we get to the Cathedral, I thought, and shifted Tick up a little higher. He snuggled into my back.

When we reached the gap in the cliff where a narrow pa.s.sage had been cut, Tick and I almost didn't fit. My elbows and Tick's feet sc.r.a.ped against the rough rock, and my feet slipped on the shallow steps, worn smooth by the pa.s.sage of so many feet and now running with tiny rivulets of liquid. I went down hard on one knee and Tick gasped and grabbed at my neck, choking me.

"Stop it, Tick!" I said, strangled. "Not so tight."

"Randy, I want to go home," Tick whimpered.

"Stop it. We're almost there."

"Please, Randy. I'm sorry I asked to come."

Shut up! I wanted to scream at him, but I had practically no breath left myself. I just grunted, and shifted him again.

We squeezed through the last turn, and at last we were only ten steps away from the top. Dallas, Austin, and Jenn were already at the railing, their masks off and their faces aglow in the light from the lake. As soon as I reached them I sat at their feet, tumbling Tick to the ground and ripping off his mask and then my own. This high up it was like breathing filtered air, the fumes that offga.s.sed from the lake staying low over the surface of the reservoir. I sucked in air, patting Tick on the back while he coughed and gurgled. Gradually his breathing slowed and color came back into his face.

We didn't say much, just looked out over White Lake. Far off in the distance, the fueling ships sunk their long tubes into the lake, like giant insects hovering around water. Skimmerboats zoomed around them, and we could see the lakefront teeming with activity. Up at the Cathedral it was quiet and peaceful. Even the constant glow was muted and a few stars shone overhead. The air was sweet and a light breeze ruffled our hair. I snuck a look at Jenn's profile, absorbed in the view. She had grown while she was away. Her face had angular planes now where before her cheeks had been round and comfortable. I could see what she would look like all grown up, and I didn't like the way it made me feel. Like I was being left behind.

"Randy, which one's pop's name?" Tick's voice was back to normal. I tore my gaze from Jenn's face. Hundreds of names were inscribed on the Cathedral wall, perpetually lit up by the glow from the lake that killed them. We could read them from here.

"Fourth from the bottom, Tick, middle column." Four more had died since firs'pop.

I couldn't stall much longer. In a few months I would have to take my place on the lake, earning a living like my parents. The extra cash would come in handy-Tick would get a new pair of lungs that much sooner. Never mind that it would never be enough. There would always be new lungs to buy for someone. Heck, once I started working on the lake, my respirator would never completely protect me from the fumes. We worked first for lungs down there. I turned away from White Lake toward the Cathedral. The Cathedral was part of the ma.s.sive escarpment that blocked White Lake and the s.p.a.ceport from the Glory Sea. It was hard to believe that on the other side of the Cathedral was a whole other world that I had never seen and never would see. It could be on the other side of a jump gate for all the chance I had to go there, anymore. If firs'pop hadn't-I cut off that thought. Sometimes I just got tired of thinking about it.

"What the-" Dallas jumped up, swiping at his jeans. "I'm wet!"

"Wet!" Jenn scrambled to her feet, checking her uniform. It clung damply to her backside, and I swallowed hard. Then the wet registered and I got up too, looking around. A slow dark patch spread out from the Cathedral Wall, creeping toward the in trail we had just come up. Another rivulet meandered toward the railing and the drop to White Lake. Tick whimpered and I knew what he was thinking. Leaking fuel. But in the next instance my common sense caught up with me. If it had been fuel, we would all be choking from the fumes by now. With the others watching me I knelt and took off my glove and touched a finger to the wet. I brought it to my tongue.

Salt water.

The Cathedral wall was leaking.

"What do we do?" Austin said, her eyes wide.

"We have to tell someone," I said with a calm that came out of nowhere.

"So much for sneaking back in," Dallas said. His voice had an eerie grownupness about it. We all looked at the spreading water heading for the lip. This small amount of water posed no threat. It would vaporize before it fell to the lake's surface. But if the leak grew-I thought of water reacting with the hydrazine in the lake, the heat sending the entire reservoir boiling over into the town. My stomach knotted.

"We should find out where it's coming from. Maybe we can plug it up," Jenn said. We trooped back to the wall, following the trail. It led us along the base of the Cathedral and we wound around some fallen rocks away the viewing ledge. The paving stones were broken and dusty, and the native plantings were withered. We could follow the water easily through the mess, a dark trail against the dust and rock.

The leak came from a narrow crevice stuck between two folds in the Cathedral's wall. I stuck my hand in as far as it would go, feeling cold salt water on my fingers. I wiggled my fingers and dislodged a piece of rock. Water gushed.

"s.h.i.t!" I said and withdrew my hand.

"What?" they demanded and I reddened. I couldn't say I had just made it worse.

"Okay," Jenn said. "Dallas, Austin, and Tick-you guys try to block this up. Randy and I will head back to town and tell the port authority."

"I want to go!" Tick said. He started to cry. Jenn knelt.

"Tick, listen. We have to go really really fast. It's better for you if you stay up here where the air is fresh. Don't worry. We'll come back for you guys."

"With grownups," I added. "They'll be able to carry you all the way down and you won't have to walk or breathe hard."

"Can you get firs'mama to come?" he sniffled.

"I'll try," I hedged, thinking grimly that it wasn't going to be pretty when I told firs'ma where Tick was.

We left them scrounging for rocks and dirt to block the leak, and headed back to the surface. I hated putting my respirator back on, feeling it clamp off my air and make every breath a ch.o.r.e. The filtered air smelled of sweat and bad breath.

Jenn and I jogged down the trail steadily, not talking at all. The water was running fast. I remembered my fingers wiggling in the crevice and the sudden increase in the flow. I began to run, pa.s.sing Jenn and slipping on the uneasy footing.

"Randy!" she cried as I went down, sliding painfully along the trail. My jeans tore on the rocks, and I skinned my knee. I got up and hobbled painfully a few steps, my breathing tortured.

"We have to hurry," I gasped, clasping my hand over my stinging knee. It throbbed and blood welled in the scratches. I thought of the fumes from White Lake entering my vascular system through the cuts, and smiled wanly at Jenn. She was as filthy as me, her uniform streaked with dust and mud, and her hair pulled out of her neat braid. She grabbed my hand and we ran on, me limping a little.

The party had died down. Hardly anyone was out on the boardwalk any more, and most of the bars had gone dark. The streetlights were dimmer now, and the throng had thinned almost completely. There wasn't a patrol to be found. Jenn and I banged on doors and ran up to the few stragglers, but no one answered and the drunks were unhelpful. Finally we stopped in the middle of a deserted street, sucking air.

"What now?"Jenn said, throwing up her hands. I kept one gloved hand over my knee.

"Let's go to my house," I said. "They might even listen to me before they kill me."

She didn't laugh. "No," she said. "My ship. Come on." She dragged me once again.

As it turned out, it was the right move. There were plenty of wharf guards around her ship, not to mention her parents. And Dallas and Austin's parents. And mine and Tick's.

They were milling around, talking wildly, and almost didn't see us as we came up into the floodlights that illuminated the docking bays. We shaded our eyes against the light, and were enveloped in a group of weeping adults. Jenn was doubly unlucky-her parents and what looked like all her senior officers were berating her.

"Randy, what the h.e.l.l is going on?" my second pop bellowed, his eyes red above his mask. "Where's Tick? Is he all night?"

"He's fi-" I started "Randy, your knee!" Second ma gasped. "That needs to be sealed! What happened?"

"Ma-"

Jenn was having no easier time of it but she was more direct.

"There's a leak!" she yelled. Everyone turned to look at her.

"The Cathedral-water's coming through. It's leaking into White Lake."

"Tick and Dallas and Austin are up there," I put in. "They're trying to plug the leak."