Off Planet (Asterism Chronicles Volume One)

The Job

I awoke to a knock at the door. I shot up as Jack did the same. Listening again the person knocked three times, paused for a couple seconds, and knocked three times again. At hearing that Jack sighed and walked out the room. I jumped up, surprised at the lack of pain, and followed after him. He opened the door to a small man wearing all black. The man stepped inside the house and spoke.

"Seems the rumours are true." He said with a slight accent.

"What rumours?" Jack asked as he closed the door, staring suspiciously at the man.

"You still here. Thought you were leavin."

"I was, but I went to the doctor you told me about."

"Good, I got a job for you. Easy thing, free ride to Joislin." He said slyly.

"What is it?"

"I don't know the details, but if you go here they'll explain." He handed Jack a piece of paper with an address. "Be there in two hours if ya want it, I gotta go." he left the house quickly and went down the street.

"Are we going?" I asked as he looked at the scrap.

"I don't know. Jun works with everyone, in everything. It could be illegal. But at the same time, it could be completely legal."

"Should we go check it out? If we don't want to do it we can leave." I grabbed the paper and looked at the address. It was in the Rail District. 

Jack thought about it and agreed to go check it out. For the next hour we discussed what we thought it would be.

"Maybe we need to help someone with problems flying?" I said thinking about one of the biggest fears on this planet.

"Or maybe it is illegal, and we need to help stowaways get on."

I looked at him as he thought up a bunch of illegal things we could end up doing. "Why do you have to be so negative?"

He laughed at me pouting, "because,  you think of the bad so it doesn't happen."

I nodded at how smart that idea was and started thinking of bad things too. "What if it's a trap, and Jun will get paid by the cops for bringing us in?"

It went on like that for an hour until we gathered up our supplies to leave. We each had a couple bags of blankets, clothes, food, and drawing paper for the trip. I handed Jack the pictures of Erin and he placed them in a small pocket in his bag. We walked around the torn down house, saying goodbye for the last time to the place that became my home.

On the road Jack and I didn't speak, it only took us ten minutes to get there. We decided to leave early in case something happened. When we got to the address Jack knocked as Jun had. Three, pause, then three again. We waited for a couple seconds until the door to the factory opened a sliver.

"Who's that." The voice said from the dark.

"We were told you had a job for us, free ride." Jack said, making his voice sound deeper then it had before.

The door opened and we were rushed inside. The man stood there and looked at us, he was average height, bald, and missing an eye. "Nice to meet ya'. I'm Sam." He stuck out his hand, friendlier than his appearance.

"I'm Jay, and this is Sabine." Jack said suspicion in his eyes.

He motioned for us to follow him to a back room. "What we're ya told about the job?"

"Easy job, free trip to Joislin."

"Easy it is" he stopped at an office and opened the door for us. "All ya got to do is take these on the ship and drop them off at the place written on the tag."

I looked at the small stuffed animals that were piled up in the room. It seemed suspicious, take these off planet, why couldn't they do it themselves? As I was thinking that Jack asked.

"I can't leave this planet due to health issues." He pointed to his missing eye.

"And everyone else?"

"They are busy. Don't worry, ya wont be taking the whole bunch. Just two each."

"I need to talk with Sabine." Jack said as the man left the room.

"This is fishy." I said to Jack's agreement.

"I don't know if we should do this. What's up with those stuffed animals?" He stood up and walked over to the pile. He picked one up and looked at it.

The small toy was light and furry. As he shook it he heard a rattle, shocked he looked up at me. He put the animal back and sat down in his chair again, quickly. He leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. "Drugs."

My eyes widened but he put a finger to his lips before I could speak. Shaking his head he called for Sam to come back in. He entered the room with a smile and asked if we'll do it.

"What's the catch?" Jack asked as Sam frowned.

"There's no catch."

"Sorry, we won't do it. We need to know if we'll get arrested for this, we can't risk it." Jack stood up and I followed suit. As we turned to leave Sam grabbed my arm slightly. Jack turned around and pushed him away from me. "Dont touch her."

"I'm sorry, just, please talk to my boss. Maybe he'll help you see it's fine." He left the  room as we sat down again.

We waited in silence for a few minutes until we heard the door open. We turned to see a tall man in a black trench coat. He had a slight beard and short, neatly brushed blond hair. His walk was powerful and fast, in a few strides he was sitting down in the chair behind the desk. Looking down I clenched my hands tightly, my breathing heavy. Jack noticed and placed his hand on my shoulder asking if I was okay. As the man looked at us for the first time his face grew with delight, then confusion.

"Raeseline?" My father spoke as I kept looking down.