Jack and the Beanstalk [SF YA]

CHAPTER FIVE - Up the Beanstalk - Part I

The last few hours on the stalk I slept fitfully. The warmth of the engines and their hum made my hard bed on the bumper seem almost comfortable. In my nervous dreams Kate chastised me. Brian laughed at me as he let me fall from the edge of the tube to the tracks below. Then Mike came to help me up and turned into Dodgson, whose bloodied, headless body chased me. I pulled myself out of the dreamworld to find myself dripping with sweat. The suit's insulation worked well, but too bad they couldn't remove the slight sickly-sweet scent of sweat and cologne left by the previous owner.

I stared out into a night broken by more stars than I had ever seen. Scrambled thoughts spun into poetry as the vast clarity before me shrunk my problems to nothing. A great peace entered my being. The hum of the engines and the blinking stars lulled me back to sleep.

When the hulk ground to a stop reflexes took over; I shoved myself off the bumper and onto the service grate as it slid into place. The magnetic soles of the suit's shoes held me. Scrambling up the access ladder hand over hand, I stepped off into the loading bay and floated. Grabbing crazily I snagged one of the handholds as my body flipped against the wall/floor.

(Give up the "up and down" thinking.)

--Easy for you to say.

Righting myself with sheer arm strength, I managed to get my feet down until they clicked on the walkway. With a deep breath I started forward. Before I'd gone ten meters I heard a shout in the suit's tinny speaker.

"Hey, you."

I cranked my head around to find the voice.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

The man walking towards me wore the badge of the chief inspector. Swearing softly in Russian, I took a deep breath and decided to grab the bull by the horns. "My job, sir. This is my first shift on the skyhook."

"Why wasn't I notified? Where are your orders?"

"They were supposed to be transferred up here," I lied, trying to keep that attitude of annoyance mixed with respect.

"I haven't seen any orders."

"I'm quite capable of doing the job if that's what you're worried about." I tried to sound as defensive as possible, hoping he would just drop it. My luck appeared to hold as the inspector stared me down.

He finally gave up. "I want to see you in my office at 1300 hours. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"And don't think you're off the hook."

(Did he make the horrible pun intentionally?)

--I don't want to know.

"You've still got a job to do. I want this thing inspected after it's unloaded. And I'm going to check it when you're through." He turned on his heel and left to continue his rounds.

As soon as the inspector turned the corner I headed for the ladder to the levels used for transfer of people instead of goods. I felt a little lightheaded. Reaching up to wipe the sweat from my brow I hit myself in the faceplate. I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed my stupidity.

I had effectively bypassed customs, now if only I could get onto the waiting transfer to the Moon. I ducked into the nearest lavroom and happily found that it had total enclosure stalls which divided into toilet and autolave. This would make it easy to change personas; I would probably even be ahead of schedule.