The Juggernaut (Juggernaut #1)

Six

Councilman Theodore Chambers made his excuses and broke away from the small group of well-wishers, and his own birthday party, to look for his son.

He guessed what was holding Malachi up. The problem would be that girl again. She was a rogue element in a fragile society. Theo sympathised with her predicament but held firm to his conviction. He could not afford to give her any special treatment. Since he had been welcomed to the New Haven council he was responsible for the lives of almost a thousand citizens. All of whom needed to be fed and protected from the dangers of the Juggernaut, both inside and out.

Tila Vasquez was not so special that her need to roam free could be allowed to threaten the security of everyone else.

Theo bumped into a young, excitable couple as stepped through the airlock which was stuck open by rust and decay, on their way to the party. He smiled at them and made small talk for a few minutes and was under no illusion that their excitement stemmed from the fact it was his birthday.

The renovations of the decommissioned livestock transport ship, registration BV601, had recently been completed, and Theo's fiftieth birthday had provided the excuse for the community to celebrate. It was more than welcome after such a successful project.

Theo's original aim had been to simply make this space habitable for their growing population. The fact that he had personally trained four new engineers in the basics of life support technologies was the icing on the birthday cake.

The couple pattered off the polite small talk expected of people who wanted to be on their way but didn't want to seem rude, as Theo tried and failed to remember their names. Eventually he shook the husband's hand, accepted a kiss on the cheek from the wife and told them to go have a good time. He watched them leave and smiled at their happy union.

He was glad they had found each other, especially here, but he was not surprised. Love, like any other seed, could take root in the darkness.

The couple joined hands as they walked. The husband whispered something in her ear and she giggled and playfully slapped his shoulder.

Why couldn't Malachi find someone like that? Theo wondered. Why couldn't I find that again?

Theo adored his son but still found him to be a frustrating young man. Even Malachi would admit to that. But Theo recognised his son's strengths too. Malachi was more than capable of dealing with the finances and clients of the little business they had carved out for themselves here, but his real gift was understanding the machines they dealt with daily, and knowing how to fix them.

Theo smiled to himself again. He was a good engineer, his years of study and alphabet soup of qualifications could attest to that, but Malachi had an easy gift with machines. All you had to do was explain what a machine was supposed to do, then hand him a manual and a box of tools, and wait.

Maybe it was the natural consequence of how he had raised his son. Malachi's mother, Theo's wife, had not been in Malachi's life – either of their lives – long enough. Malachi was only six when they arrived on the Juggernaut twelve years earlier. He was nine when his mother died in the raid. Theo had worked every hour he could so they could survive, and so young Malachi had spent his childhood in the workshop, helping his over-protective father with anything he could and absorbing, totally, everything he was taught. Malachi had a mind like a bucket. He was fortunate to have a father with a mind like a tap.

Before his family had moved to the freeport of New Haven, Theo had worked as chief engineer for one of the interstellar corporations on a range of projects from experimental engines (promising) to asteroid-based arcologies (too expensive) and from space elevators (too theoretical) to moon-based launch systems (efficient but already outdated).