Earth Singer

Chapter Two

'Got ya!' A small Terran girl clamped both her hands excitedly on the causeway floor, unaware of the hooded figure whose personal space she had invaded. A shrill mechanical chirping emanated from between her fingers, indicating it was some sort of mechanical-automata she had ensnared. No doubt a pet.

Propping herself onto her knees the child wrestled somewhat playfully with the machine that seemed intent on escaping once more. It was at this time she noticed the silent shape looking down at her through thickly shadowed robes.

'Sorry, mister.' The girl gazed up trying to penetrate the ambiguous figure. 'Or ma'm, or captain?' It didn't work. 'I'm Imira.' She tried again

The figure was as motionless, silent as the empty void of space that filled either side of the windowed causeway around them. Nothing but the rumbling of the ship's engines occupied the air between them.

'I don't suppose you're a tech?' She tried again as the energetic automata in her hand began to squirm again. A tiny spark erupting from her cupped hands and forced a sharp yelp from the girl. 'I made him, he's really fun when you get to know him, just a slight issue with his cognitive compliance array.' Another spark, another yelp.

'That's... a new problem. But I can fix it. I fix lots of things. My dad says I won't be able to keep him once we get to Folax. They don't let people make tech there. They call it heresy. They say the Regnum has everything you can imagine, so there's no need for people to make things. But that can't be so. I've never seen another Teksprite like Whisp here.'

'Do you think they will take him away? He's really no trouble'.

Still, there was no response.

Over the course of this one-sided exchange the causeway had gradually begun to fill with more and more passengers making their way from the ship's rudimentary mess hall to the cramped holds that made up their sleeping quarters. The robed shape became more animated, shifting noticeably on its feet, as the corridor began to throng with life. All the while looking nervously at a blinking green light emanating from a motley-looking metal device.

A hand. She guessed it was a hand, as even that much was still covered by the oversized vestments, reached out to the causeway window where the device was affixed.

'That's a funny looking box. I don't think that belongs there. My dad works on these haulers...well worked on them. He's going to have a new job on Folax. He liked working the shipyards, but he says this is better than no job at all. Anyway, I helped sometimes when he worked, that's how I know how to make stuff, and ships like this definitely don't have blinking boxes in the middle of windows. Do you know my dad? We're down in bay six with the other Hellixers.'

So, thought the figure, she wasn't a Terran after all. Still, she could pass for one. That made her lucky.

Hey!' The figure's hood cocked slightly towards the child. 'Do you think they will take Whisp when we get to Folax?'

The green light blinked with increasing rapidity, before turning solid red and emitting a continuous thin sound.

The girl must have loosened her grip as she observed, because at that moment, the Teksprite sprang from her hand across the floor between them.

'Hey!' She swiped but missed her mark sweeping aside the lower folds of the ashen robes and revealing a single cloven hoof.

'Child,' the unnaturally guttural voice at last uttered, still staring at the red light emanating from the box. 'This ship will never make it Folax.' The words faded along with the figure as it weaved into the crowd and out of sight down the causeway with no little speed.

Imira's shock meant that she had forgotten all about the Teksprite which had well and truly disappeared itself into the burgeoning crowd. She looked up once more at the glowing red light above her.

Bright, white and silver flashes erupted noiseless outside the causeway window. Imira rose to her feet. There were ships emerging from those flashes. Not like the haulers her father worked on. These were different.

Loud Klaxons sounded throughout the ship. The people on the causeway started running and shoving and screaming.