Chapter 4
ALLY
Ally stared at the cracked ceiling, wondering how life had come to this. She’d been home from the factory for a couple hours now, but sleep eluded her as she lay on the pallet next to Evie. She was exhausted down to her bones, but her mind wouldn’t let her rest.
How long can I keep this up? How long can we survive hand-to-mouth? How can I get Evie out of this?
There were only questions and no answers. Dawn started to creep slowly into the world, the curtain-less window glowing with the new day’s light. As Ally stared, Evie started to stir. Ally watched as her sister rose, heading into the small bathroom before getting dressed for the day.
As she re-entered the main room, Ally noticed how worn her sister’s clothing was getting.
They’d had very little time to grab belongings when they fled the Rings in the wake of their parents’ sudden death and the unraveling of a lifetime of lies their father had built.
The clothing they’d had—which was perfectly suited to a schedule of light lunches, shopping, and casual recreation—was not made for the dusty, harsh reality of Gamma-17.
They’d left the Rings with only the clothing on their backs and a meager bag of random possessions. That was why recovering the heirloom was so important. It was the only link to the past they had, the only real proof of a better life, a life lived in safety and comfort.
How quickly that illusion had crumbled after the transport accident.
Their parents’ bodies weren’t even cold yet when the first debt collector had come sniffing around.
That was when Ally had recognized that her father had built a house of cards out of debts and promises, and that precarious structure was now collapsing in his absence.
Those debts, outnumbering his assets three-to-one, had come due.
Ally had staved them off at first, giving excuses about an inheritance that she knew didn’t exist, but one night, a particularly nasty gentleman had shown up with a contract that appeared to have her father’s signature on it. He waved it in her face, saying he’d come to collect them.
She’d tried to convince him that he would be paid in full, that he just had to wait until her father’s will was read. Giving her a feral smile, the creditor had told her he’d heard plenty of excuses in his time. He’d whipped out a pair of electro-cuffs and headed in her direction.
Panic gripped her, and Ally acted on instinct. She’d grabbed the marble statue off the expensive antique table beside her and swung it at his head. It connected, and he’d tumbled to the floor with an oomph, knocked cold.
She rushed to Evie’s bedroom, telling her to grab anything she could, that they had to run, now. Evie, shocked by this sudden change of events, had tried to question her but Ally said there was no time to explain. Pack a bag. They were leaving.
Ally rushed to her father’s office and dug into his desk, looking for anything of value.
A handful of credits were tucked into a drawer with a bottle of expensive liquor and a collection of random paperwork.
Ally shoved the credits in her pocket and grabbed Evie, and into the night, they fled, finding transport off the Rings.
Their credits had gotten them as far as Gamma-17. And now they were likely to spend the rest of their lives rotting on this rock.
If something bad doesn’t happen first.
There’d been rumors, whispers of women disappearing.
Slavers. That was why Evie stayed locked inside and why Ally kept herself as disguised as possible.
But making her younger sister a prisoner was no life for someone like Evie.
She needed to be free, to roam, to sketch, to make friends, to fall in love.
Ally swore to herself once again that she’d find a way to make a real life for Evie. Somehow.
“We’re out of vegetables.” Evie was in the kitchen, stirring up the remains of last night’s stew. It was actually the remains of yesterday’s lunch and breakfast too. Basically of all their meals since they arrived on the desolate hellhole.
“Check my pockets. I think I have half a credit left from the last time I went to the market.”
Evie grabbed Ally’s coveralls that hung over the back of their only chair. Digging in the pockets, she came out with a wad of cash. Her eyes huge, she looked at Ally, dumbstruck. “Where did all this come from?”
Ally sat up, the memory appearing in her head like sudden lightning on a cloudless day. “That son of a bitch!”
Scrambling off the pallet, she let out a string of curses as Evie started to count. “There’s over a thousand credits here! Where did you get them?”
“The Raven gave them to me.”
Evie’s mouth dropped open. She looked her sister up and down. “For what?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Ally chastised. “He didn’t lay a finger on me. He said I could consider it payment, either for the inconvenience of losing the heirloom or for the heirloom itself. It didn’t seem to matter to him.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Evie muttered. “Why would his gang steal a necklace only to have him pay for it?”
“Why would he pretend not to have it in the first place? None of this makes any sense.” Ally snatched the credits from her sister and began counting them herself. One thousand, one hundred and fifty credits. The crisp bills seemed to taunt her somehow.
“I should show that pirate that we can’t be bought.” Ally was pacing, her anger riding her like it was trying to break her. But she was a wild stallion. She could never be broken. “I’ll march right back up to him and shove this wad in his face, just before I set it on fire in front of him.”
“Ally, you’re being dramatic.” Evie grabbed the wad of credits back from her sister, holding it close to her chest. “You wouldn’t dare waste credits like that.”
“We can’t keep them!”
“Why not?” Evie was alarmed. “He gave them to you.”
“Not for the right reason!” Ally was trembling, her temper boiling over. “I won’t accept any price for that necklace!”
“You’re being ridiculous! The necklace is gone and we aren’t getting it back. Why not take this as payment?”
“Even if I could accept that, I wouldn’t take money from the Raven. This is dirty money! He’s a pirate! A thief, Evie!”
“Who cares? Can we really afford to split hairs now?” Evie’s pale features were flushed, her eyes bright. Ally’s little sister was usually a bastion of calm but not today.
“If we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything!”
Evie’s mouth flattened into a line. “That’s what Dad used to say. And he’s the one that got us into this mess. So forgive me if I’m not affected by his trite platitudes anymore. We need this money. I’m not letting you destroy it or give it back.”
Ally breathed heavily, surprised that her younger sister was standing up to her.
Usually, Evie trusted her judgment. Ally had been taking care of Evie for her entire life, their parents too busy living the good life with their friends.
A life of endless soirees and theme parties didn’t leave much time for raising two little girls.
Ally ended up taking charge of her little sister, teaching her how to tie her shoes and put on makeup, along with other more important lessons.
“How can we walk away from the necklace?” Ally asked, her voice cracking. She felt like a failure. Nothing she’d done so far had gotten them anywhere, and now she couldn’t even keep a hold on their last possession of value.
“The same way we walked away from our old lives. We’ve lost everything already. Why not give up the necklace if the credits are our ticket off this rock?” Evie’s face was serious, but her tone was soft, conciliatory.
“What if the Raven is only toying with me? What if he gave me that money just to see what I would do? What if he comes back for it, and he wants more than the money?”
Evie nodded. “All the more reason to get the hell out of here while we can. The sooner, the better.”
Ally fell into the cramped room’s only chair, all of the fight going out of her at last. Maybe her sister was right. Maybe it was better to let go of everything, to start fresh.
Evie knelt beside her, taking her hand and squeezing it. “We can’t afford passage on a transport ship, but we can probably manage a ride on a cargo vessel. It might even leave us with enough funds to get started back on the Rings.”
Ally decided that it was time to come clean with Evie.
She’d underestimated her little sister, had tried to keep her sheltered from reality, but now it was Evie who was telling it like it was.
“The Rings are too expensive, and we don’t have any way to make ends meet reliably.
How are we going to afford living there on our own? ”
Evie frowned, some of the light in her eyes dimming. Ally instantly regretted her decision to confide in her about her fears. “Maybe… maybe we could ask some of our old friends for help. I’ve always been good with children. Maybe some of our parents’ friends would hire me as a nanny.”
Ally nodded, but inside, she had her doubts. Most families used holograms or robotic entities as a means of minding their children on the Rings. Human nannies were out of fashion. “And what about me? You know kids are frightened of me.”
Evie laughed. “Well, if you didn’t walk around scowling all the time, that might make a difference.”
Ally stuck her tongue out at her sister, making Evie laugh and releasing some of their tension. “You’re sure you want to go back to the Rings?”
Evie nodded, her smile gentle. “It’s home,” she said simply.
Ally took a deep breath, her purpose renewed. “I’ll head down to the spaceport and see if I can find us a lift. You get busy packing.”
Evie looked around her. Cocking an eyebrow at her sister, she laughed. “That should take less than five minutes.”
Ally chuckled. “It pays to travel light.”
Evie dropped her hand and slapped her sister playfully on the arm. “You’re hilarious.” Evie straightened, stretching languidly. “Try to find something that leaves soon.”
“Let’s see if I can find something that gets us off Gamma-17 by lunchtime.” Without hesitating, she pulled on her old coveralls and slapped a cap on her head. “Wish me luck.”
She waved and ducked out the door as her sister’s voice called after her.
“Good luck!”