Lace Ravine

Chapter 3: Lace Goes Home - pt. 2

Lace spent the next day trying to readjust to her skin, but still felt unprepared as the Hub's vast being grew across her window, orange surface soon blotting out the night of space as her ship approached the planet's third moon.

The moon was a waystation for non-commercial ships with ten or fewer passengers that wanted access to the surface. A decade ago, the system was simple: Land on one side of the moon, and get in line. One could expect to have over a hundred vessels before them, rolling slowly past the checkpoint, where each passenger had to present themselves to the official on duty, before the ship was cleared and allowed to take off toward whatever part of the crowded planet they were looking for.

The line was the same, but the checkpoint was now a building, and as Lace watched it march closer while her ship squeakily rolled further along the path, concern bubbled in her stomach. A flashing sign to her right commanded that she turn on her local communicator to receive instructions for the new process. With scrunched up features, she flipped on the sticky switch, and found the chipper voice on the station.

"Welcome to Waystation Three. For the safety of all residents and visitors of the Hub, we now have new procedures when granting access to the surface. When you reach the checkpoint, all passengers must exit your vessel and into our new security building. Please bring with you any items that cannot undergo deep-radiation scanning. This includes all living tissue, such as plants and small animals, as well as food items not packaged for interstellar travel. Warning: do NOT leave any of said items on board your ship, as scanning WILL destroy them. A cart will be provided within the building for transport of these objects if you have not brought a personal bag. Your carts and bags with be checked by our workers while all persons undergo identification-match. After scanning, your vessel will be moved into the pick-up area outside exit 2 of the building. If for some reason your vessel, you, or any of your passengers do not pass inspection, you will be escorted back to the landing-zone, where you will be asked to leave from the tarmac. Thank you, and enjoy your visit to the Hub."

Lace flicked off the comm, and frowned. "Okay, so, some things have changed." She rifled quickly through a charter in her brain, thinking of anything on her ship that could be destroyed by deep-radiation. As she reached a negative conclusion, her stomach churned thinking of any poor soul that tried to be smuggled in, only to rot from the inside out during scanning.

When she finally reached the check-point, where her vehicle was ushered into a warehouse with life-support and a massive deep-radiation apparatus, she swallowed each impulse to leave. Upon a signal given by a Tarzoth male outside, she climbed from the hatch, and shuffled toward a mass of people.

The hectic crowd sparked immediate recognition of how life always was on the Hub. Any direction Lace looked, there was a different species, all seeming lost, and a fair share of mixed-race beings with permanently downward-cast gazes, as they feared hateful eye-contact. That's when Lace noticed her own watchers. A young Kyre girl a few families to her left was craning her small neck out of the way to get a look at the human. This must have been a girl who had never been to the Hub before, and she wasn't alone.

Children stared openly. Adults only dared a side-glance. Peering through the crowd, Lace found her suspicions confirmed. As far as the eye could see, amidst displaced Kyre and detested half-breeds, big families carrying animals in cages, and loners with their lives in a backpack, she was the only full-blooded human being. For some reason, maybe because she was Leanna again, Lace felt like less than nothing.

The crowd was being funneled into three separate lines for inspection, and as they neared judgement, bodies became closer, elbows bumped, and conversations of every traditional language burst in different volumes in Lace's ears. Many of these people were not returning, as most who entered the Hub never left, and despite what the cheery instructor had insinuated, no one 'visited' the planet of slums. These hardened parents and antsy kids were desperate, the single teens were kicked out. No one who moved to the Hub did so because they wanted to. They all had to, because there was no where else.