The Jovian Sweep (Asteroid Scrabble Book 1) Read online

  Chapter 1.

  The city of “Neuvo Lisbon”, Callisto moon, Jovian system.

  The power had been disconnected. The removal squad had stripped out the last of the tatty decorations and second hand furniture. The only home the Tallion sisters had ever known seemed huge now. Josie and Jasmine wandered it open-mouthed, their hands brushing against well remembered indents and frayed corners. It was familiar and yet unknown; the same but also different; still there and yet incomplete. It wasn’t just the contents. Something else had been shorn away, something important, something vital. For the first time in the family’s collective memory the tiny apartment was no longer a place where they lived and loved. It was now just somewhere they happened to be.

  In the main bedroom Jose and Jasmine's stepmother removed the last picture from the wall. It was a short span vidgraph, an endless self-powered loop of ten seconds of past time. From the door Josie saw her gaze at the four people smiling self-consciously on it. The family had assembled specially for the big event - professional vidgraphs of that quality were not cheap. She could just make out a tall solid man, his blunt honest hands resting gently on the shoulders of two coquettish little girls, Jasmine and herself, impossibly young. His shoulders were encircled by the arms of a younger version of the middle-aged woman who was now staring helplessly at the idyllic scene.

  Josie remembered how happy everyone had been. It was six years ago, on Founding Day, one of the few public holidays the colony indulged in. She remembered posing for the vidgraph, the feel of her father’s comforting hands on her back, his roughened work clothes and the faint scent of carbolic overlaying that of machine oil and good honest sweat. She remembered Jasmine had just lost her last milk tooth and her breath whistled through the gap every time she laughed. Why was it that so many artists and clever people derided vidgraphs? True, they could be clinical and artificial, but they were also so very good at evoking memories – even if they were skewed to just one experience. Wasn’t relating what art should be all about?

  The woman in the picture, thoroughly time-wearied, sighed and dropped the vidgraph into her personal carryall. Josie saw her draw the clasps together, and let it fall to the floor. She saw her stare hard at the wall. Her eyes were flicking left and right, up and down, as she slowly turned around. It took Josie a few seconds to recognise the act of finality. Her stepmother was imprinting the place on her mind, recalling each and every event, good and sad. The apartment had never been very much. It was small, spare and modest, but it had been theirs.

  Not even the largest carryall could hold all the memories.

  Josie sensed her sister's presence. She turned and saw Jasmine was at her shoulder, looking over the scene as well. They had always looked alike, although they were actually non-identical twins. They had the same sparkling green eyes and smooth coffee complexion; the same jet-black hair, bobbed straight and short in the Callistoan manner. They even had the same kind of build, rather stockier than was usual or fashionable, although neither carried any excess weight. Food, like most commodities in this harsh place, was minutely rationed. Josie was the elder by some ten minutes. She was a little shorter, with slightly less angular features and eyes that were just a fraction further apart. She usually took the lead, but this time it was Jasmine who spoke first.

  “We’re coming with you Dam,” she said, firmly. “We’ve talked it over, the two of us. There’s nothing you can say that will change our minds.”

  Josie folded her arms in silent agreement.

  Zoe Tallion, now once again Zoe Ridgeway, turned and sighed. “Girls, we went through all of this last night. I cannot stay here on Callisto. With your father dead I have no legal status under Callistoan law. You’ve seen the news reports. You know how tight life support is at the moment. You were born here. You're citizens. You can stay here and make a life. You’re young and you’re smart and they need you.”

  “I don’t want to be a Callistoan, if that’s how they treat people,” said Josie quietly.

  “That’s right,” said Jasmine. “It’s so unfair.”

  Zoe pursed her lips and picked up her carryall. “Life is often unfair. It wasn’t fair your father died, but he did.”

  “Callisto wasn’t responsible for Da dying,” said Jasmine. “That was an accident. But Callisto is responsible for throwing you out.”

  Josie stood by her sister. “Besides, life might be unfair, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make it fairer!”

  Zoe walked to the door, both girls following close behind her. “I know it’s hard, but the authorities are just being practical. Callisto hasn’t been settled long. Water, oxygen and food – it all has to be made. Everyone has to pull their weight here. There isn’t much margin for error.” She hefted the carryall onto a shoulder. “And a foreign national with no essential skills is an easy burden to be rid of.”

  Josie could feel herself scowling at the infuriating injustice of it all. “People shouldn’t be burdens,” she said hotly.

  “No, but I’m not in a position to quibble. They want rid of me, and I don’t particularly want to stay. Not any more. So. That all works out rather nicely, doesn’t it?”

  Josie stared. She had caught the slight quaver in her stepmother’s voice.

  “But what about us?” Jasmine wailed.

  “Under Callistoan law you are adults now. You are free to make your own decisions and live your own lives.”

  “My decision is to come with you Dam,” said Josie, firmly.

  “Me too,” added Jasmine.

  “Girls!” Her stepdaughters bunched up as she turned to lock the door. “We are not talking of a simple day trip to New Loire! This is about moving all the way to Courage Asteroid. That’s a long way to go, and not just by space liner.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Josie, quietly.

  “I mean that Courage is very different from Callisto. You'd be starting right from the very bottom in a totally foreign land.”

  “It’s not completely foreign!” exclaimed Jasmine. “They’re still Belters. We can be Couragers as much as we can be Callistoans.”

  “That’s right,” said Josie.

  Zoe picked up her meagre possessions and strode out. They clung to her, sobbing gently, as she locked the door for the last time.

  “Well, that’s that.” Saying it didn’t make it true, of course.

  “Let us come with you to the spaceport,” said Josie, between gulps of air and tears.

  Josie felt her dam's deep breath. “All right.,” she agreed.

  One of the elevators was already being used, and the other was broke, so the trio walked down the stairs to the communal entrance hall of their living habitat. The stairs were moderately well used, but even so a third of the lights were out and the walls were dirty and pealing. The entranceway was perpetually cold. The janitor-cum-guard who seemed to be perpetually on duty at the entrance was staring at a vidscreen tucked below his desk. His eyes flicked over them.

  Zoe marched up to the desk and handed over her key. “Apartment four one eight Mr Bomba. Now vacated.”

  Mr Bomba had no right arm, a consequence of a mining accident two decades back. Even after all these years, he fumbled the key with his off hand.

  “Your perscomp.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I need to acknowledge receipt.”

  Numbly Zoe detached her personal computer from its wrist mounting and placed it onto the desk. Mr Bomba deposited the key in a draw and then tapped a code onto the perscomp. As he bent over he exposed his scarred hairless head, another consequence of the vicious Callisto mines. Josie had always been fascinated by his appearance. It was only now that
she realised she didn't really know him at all.

  Bomba handed back the perscomp wordlessly, and turned again to his vidscreen. Josie recognised the Callistoan trait of ‘Desprend’. The family were no longer residents, therefore they were no longer Bomba’s responsibility, and therefore they were of no further interest to him.

  Josie saw her mother’s lip tremble. She should have guessed Bomba would desprend. He wasn’t being consciously rude or unpleasant, it was just that Callistoans, even more than most Belters, worshipped pragmatism above all other virtues. The man registered neither surprise or offence when Zoe angrily snatched up her perscomp and stomped out.

  They emerged from the habitat and into the maelstrom of the public concourses. It was morning shift change and the pathways and tunnels were filled with scurrying Humanity, all busily preoccupied with the minutiae of everyday life. Even though the family was the epitome of woe, nobody gave the three Tallion women more than a glance. Nuevo Lisbon was a place where chronic discontent was far too common to warrant much attention. Besides, there was desprend. Josie almost choked. How had Callistoan practicality ever seemed such a good thing?

  Taxis were unknown on Callisto, and public transport crowded, expensive and unreliable. Most people walked. Even very long distances - like to the spaceport. They set off.

  Inside a minute Jasmine was wailing.

  “Why can’t we come with you, Dam?”

  Zoe sighed. “You might be able to claim Courage citizenship through me, but there’s more to it than that. It would be very hard for you on Courage Asteroid.”

  “Why?"

  "You know nothing about it," said Zoe shortly.

  "We know a lot about Courage,” said Josie. “You used to tell us about it all the time.”

  “That’s right,” whimpered Jasmine.

  Zoe reached out to each of them in turn, ruffling their hair. “But that’s knowledge up here, in your heads. It’s not the same as knowledge in here.” She touched above her heart in emphasis. “That’s the kind of thing you get from experiencing somewhere all your life. Just like you have from living here on Callisto. You know nothing else.”

  Josie paced around. “Isn’t it a good thing to learn?” she inquired, ready to gauge her stepmother’s reaction. Unfortunately Jasmine butted in.

  “It can’t be all that different!”

  That allowed Zoe to answer the wrong question. “Yes Jasmine, it is - in all sorts of tiny important ways. They eat different food, wear different styles and have different accents. That kind of thing affects you after a while. I know.” For an instant their stepmother looked very old. “I’ve never told you this,” she confessed, “but I’ve never liked Callisto. We only came here because after the crash there was no work to be had at Courage. Or anywhere else in the Confederation core asteroids for that matter - believe you me, we looked. The logical alternative was to come to your Da’s home. There was work to be had here for sure. Environmental techs are in demand on a new colony. Callisto needed us then, even if they did treat us like the dirt we were digging away for them.”

  Josie saw the horrified look on her sister’s face and knew that it mirrored her own. Both of them instinctively looked around. One did not openly criticise the cliques that ran Callisto, at least not in those terms. Not if you didn’t want a visit from internal security.

  Zoe laughed at their reaction. “See? That is such a Callistoan reaction, right there! No Courager would balk at complaining about their government, or jump like a power drill if someone else did.”

  “You shouldn’t talk like that,” said Jasmine sulkily.

  Josie took her opportunity. “Actually, you’ve never talked like that before.”

  Zoe shrugged in response, but Josie noticed a watering about her eyes.

  “They’re kicking me out. What more can they do? Anyway, not everything was bad here. There were compensations.” She smiled. “You two, for example. And to be fair most people made us welcome enough. It's just that, well, there was always - I don’t know - an edge to their acceptance? I always felt that I was a stranger. No. I was born and raised on Courage Asteroid. That’s my home.”

  Josie bowed her head. “Then let us make it our home too.”

  “Yes,” said Jasmine.

  Zoe sighed. “The point I’m trying to make is that just like me ten years ago you’ll be starting from scratch, but you’ll be at a time in your lives when things are confusing enough already. Won’t you miss all your friends here? Including those boys you’ve started getting interested in?”

  Josie felt herself colouring. Jasmine did not.

  “You’ll not ‘fit in’ girls,” continued Zoe. “You’ll always be different, in spite of having me for a mother. You’ll never really be one of them.”

  “Different is good,” said Josie. “I like being different. Anyway it’ll be exciting – a new challenge. I think we need that. It’s not as if there’s much for either of us here on Callisto.”

  Jasmine gave a sharp inward breath and looked around. Zoe looked straight at Josie.

  “There may very well be nothing for you on Courage Asteroid.”

  “Then it’s a chance against a certainty.”

  Zoe pursed her lips. “All right - then lets be practical, just like good little Callistoans. There’s the matter of money. I can just afford the fare back to Courage - with all my savings; and a moderate loan from my cousins; and on a slow transport. If we were all to go - well - we’d be in debt bondage for the rest of our lives. That’s too much to ask of anyone.”

  There was a pause.

  “Money isn't that important,” said Josie slowly. “I’ll accept being in debt bondage, if it’s the price I have to pay to be with you.”

  “Yes. Yes, me too,” said Jasmine, after a short pause. “We can’t leave you on your own Dam. It wouldn’t be right.”

  Zoe smiled at them tenderly. “I appreciate your devotion girls. I do. But you don’t know what you're saying. Debt bondage is a horrible thing, worse than you can imagine. I can’t make a demand like that upon you. I love you both too much for that.”

  “You wouldn’t be making a demand on us, Dam. It’s our decision,” said Josie.

  “I’m sure we can manage," said Jasmine. "Our recycling money should be in soon. I’m expecting a lot this month - maybe as much as forty credits.”

  “Jasmine, forty credits would be just about enough to buy the three of us one reasonable meal.”

  “Every little bit helps.”

  Zoe made a muffled noise, half laugh and half sob. “Oh dear. You see? I was talking about how different things are and you come out with something like that! That kind of thinking is pure Callistoan! You sound like one of those awful public information films! No Courager would ever talk like that.”

  Jasmine was only mildly abashed. “Well, waste is bad.”

  “Yes it is. But it’s not the worst thing.”

  Josie butted in. “No, that would be splitting a family up!”

  Zoe picked up the pace.

  As they walked the crowds gradually thinned out as the shift changeover completed. Only a few maintenance staff and unhappy latecomers were scurrying about by the time they reached the main concourse.

  There was an electronic sign overhead. ‘Warning,” it read. “Artificial gravity is only operating at 80% earth standard on this section.” Even as they read it, a mechanical voice began to recite the same message, on a loop, with the added explanation that the authorities were sorry, the situation was temporary, it was all down to a local power shortage, and they were confident the situation would soon be resolved.

  Just as the three of them braced their bodies against the sudden reduction in gravity, the sign and the mechanical announcement shifted to a heartfelt urging to save power, so that this terrible event would not be repeated. As a caveat, the mechanical voice asserted that the selfish and wasteful misuse of power by some citizens was damaging the whole colony.

  Normally none of the Tallions would have pa
id the slightest attention to the message – exhortations for thrift were commonplace on Callisto – but this time Zoe took the opportunity to contrast the event with what would have happened on more affluent Courage Asteroid. She spent the rest of the journey explaining how there were never power shortages on Courage. Her stepdaughters remained silent, their faces blotchy with misery.

  Customs at Callisto spaceport prioritised according to direction of travel. They didn’t much care what came onto the colony, apart from resource-guzzling Humans. So baggage in was swiftly scanned while passports and visas were checked minutely. Conversely, they didn’t much care who left, just so long as they didn’t take anything remotely valuable with them. After a cursory check of documentation, personal baggage of both potential emigrant and dependents would be given a thorough check, resulting in the confiscation of any foodstuffs or electrical equipment. The Tallions were smart enough not to be carrying anything. “Temporarily retained” items had a habit of disappearing forever.

  Departure lounges had the power of time distortion. When you wanted to be gone the minutes dragged. When you didn’t want to leave they flew by. Zoe tried to start conversations, but the twins were lost to sorrow.

  “We can keep in touch by vid,” Zoe said hopefully. “The time lag between here and Courage Asteroid isn’t that bad, and now and again wouldn’t be too expensive.”

  That just made things worse.

  “Please girls. Don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

  The twins looked at her, and then fell into her arms. “We love you Dam,” said Jasmine, her voice muffled. “We want to be with you.”

  “I know,” said Zoe. “You’re my daughters, as much as if I had given birth to you. It breaks my heart to leave you, but it’s for the best. My occupancy extension was good just until you were of an age to be assigned. You’ll be doing your State aptitude tests in a week and finding out what you can do to best help Callisto survive.”

  “I'd like to be a miner and bury Callisto,” Josie spat out. “They treat people like objects.”

  Even Zoe glanced up at that, and Jasmine positively palpated. The Callistoan authorities had a reputation for finding out everything and forgiving very little.