COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS

‘Up, mummy, up, up!’

‘No, BabyGirl. You can walk just fine. Go play with Hope. And stay out of the cargo bay, the crew is unloading.’

‘Day guss.’

‘Yes, it’s dangerous for a little girl. Somethin will fall down you and kill you. And then daddy will be annoyed,’ said .Mamie Dieudonne, mechanic by trade, mother by inclination.

‘Look.’

‘Yes, he’ll give your cold flat corpse a Look.’

‘Mummy. Thooth.’

‘Thooth?’

B.G. thrust her feet at her mother.

‘Oh shoes? They’re buttoned just fine. You did a good job.’

’Thooth. Boo boo.’ Beege made her most pitiful eyes.

‘Lemme look.’ Mamie took off one shoe with difficulty, then measured the shoe sole against BG’s foot. ‘Oh, no wonder, those shoes are way too small.’

‘Has that young’n been growin again?’ Rand Hudson had stepped into the spaceship galley for a tea break. He picked up his small daughter. ‘Ain’t I told you bout that, Beege? You ain’t supposed ever ta grow up. You gotta be my BabyGirl forever.’ Beege wrapped her arms around her daddy’s neck and kissed him sloppily.

“ Pommis.’

‘Sentences, Beege. You can make sentences. You’re nearly three.’

‘I pommis.’

‘It’s a start. Rand, she needs new shoes. These are squashin her feet somethin fierce.’

‘Ain’t we got any of Derry’s old shoes that’ll do?’

’He wore Hope’s shoes mostly an then wore ‘em right out past repair. She needs new ones that fit right. Come to think, I ain’t seen what’s on Derry’s feet lately.’

Some investigation showed that Derry, in his eighth year growth spurt, had no comfortable footwear either. At least Hope, the first mate’s daughter had stopped growing for a bit. At twelve, she was proud of her first pair of heels, which gave her a 5cm boost and put her eye to eye with the Captain. But most of the time, she wore the beaded moccasins she had bought a few stops back at Turtle Island.

‘I wouldn’t mind gettin ashore while we’re on New Canaan. Seems like a good excuse to take the little uns out in the sunshine.’ said Mamie. ’Nothin I need for Bluebell for a change.′

’Wish I could come with you, but a guy is comin by with a contract for me to sign and the stevedores

need Marco and Dita here for instructions. Go. Keep an eye open for new cargo, but New Canaan ain’t producin much. Still terraforming,′ said Rand. ’Enjoy the scenery.”

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He looked out the cargo bay door at the spectacular ring around the planet. There were rolling black clouds across the jagged mountains that surrounded Baal, the capital of the terraformed belt. The air was muggy and tropical, smelling slightly of sulphur.

“I just hope there is a place that sells kids’ shoes. Most of the people round here seem to be terraformin crews. Not many families.’ Mamie countered.

“We’re not in the residential part of Baal.′ her husband said.′ Look, the damn bank gave me scrip steada coin when I cashed the cheque for this delivery. Get rid of as much as you can. Turn it into shoes. I don’t like carrying around this traceable stuff.′

Mamie rounded up the old baby stroller and with Derry and Beege, headed out past the Federal buildings for the local shopping mall. In spite of her doubts, behind the mall in a half-circle were a school, a small park, some churches and temples. and a theatre called Family Favourite—Downtown Entertainment Group. ‘Looks like Snake’s family is spreadin,’ murmured Mamie. They’d already passed a Sweet Sally, part of DEG’s chain of brothels, as they left the Baal dockyard.

And the mall had two shoe stores that carried children’s sizes. At the smaller and dingier one,Mamie found the prices very low. Beege got new maryjanes, one pair for now in red and a larger blue pair for growth. She also got a pair of runners with slap fasteners for everyday. She sat quietly, gazing lovingly at her red shoes. Enrapt. Every now and then, as the clerk fitted her brother, she slipped out of her chair and walked daintily to the floor mirror to look at her feet.

Derry got new steel-toe high laced boots and two pairs of runners, one to grow into. Then he saw a display of high heeled tooled leather cowboy boots. His eyes glazed with lust. ‘Lookit mummy. Ain’t they grand!’

Mamie picked up a pair of turquoise boots. They were well made, finely stitched of good quality leather. They had been discounted again and again.

The shoe clerk sighed. ’The price is more than excellent, m’am. We got a real good deal on those in a ‘private’ deal.’ His tone indicated that they had been smuggled cargo. ‘But there’s not much call for boy’s sizes in cowboy boots, so they’re below our cost now.’

’ Not many cows Out There,’ said .Mamie

‘Mummy, Papa Dieudonne has a cow,’ her first-born implored.

‘Tell you what. This is a good sale for me even without the boots. Buy those and the shoes and I’ll throw in a five-pack of socks for each child.’

Mamie thought. ‘Works good. Can the socks for my BabyGirl be those fancy ones?’ she pointed to a package of lace topped ankle socks. ‘So pretty.’

She paid in the chipped and traceable Federal scrip. The less trackable money on board, especially in their own pockets, the better the captain liked it. The unchipped coin they had buried on the Dieudonne property, the product of years of hard scrabble and danger, was not going to be confiscated because of tags.

She packed most of the parcels and BG, still enraptured by her own feet, into the stroller. Derry insisted on carrying his cowboy boots himself.

‘We’ll go to a restaurant for lunch,’ decided.Mamie

Although the sky had been cloudy when they left Bluebell, it had cleared and the light of Azazel shimmered over the newly terraformed square. Small trees struggled to find stability and the early swathes of ryegrass, alfalfa and pulses chosen as soil enrichment covered what would be meadowland parks in a few years. The planet’s rings arched like a silver rainbow across half the sky. The black clouds still threatened over the sharp peaks of the new mountains. Between the town and the mountains stretched the first few farms that would feed the colony.

Mamie led her little family to a brightly painted building sporting large pictures of their menu items, mostly versions of street food treats in the big windows. Although the settlement was only a few years old, Mamie noticed the frequent acidic rains that were a byproduct of the planet’s barely rstablished terraforming had

already etched the exterior and dimmed the colours.

Stepping from the steamy street into the cool air of the restaurant was a relief. There was a children’s

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menu of cheap fried foods, but Mamie ordered market vegetable soup, fresh bread and, amazingly, pineapple juice for them all. Even when her mother cut up the whole brussels sprout in the soup, Beege spat it out, but she ate all the rest of her meal. As usual, Derry demolished his food, including his sister’s rejected sprout. Both loved the pineapple juice.

When she returned to the counter for dessert cookies, the clerk told her that the juice was a local product. “We don’t have a canning plant yet, so my uncle brings us the fruit when it’s ripe and we juice it right here.’Mamie got the farmer’s contact from his smiling niece, She was pretty sure Rand would like such an unusual cargo, if enough was available. And any fresh produce for the larder was worthwhile.

When the children had eaten their cookies, sitting by the big windows and watching all the strangers go by, they all went to the washroom under the stairs of the two story building. Derry insisted on going to the Men’s by himself. He also insisted on taking his new boots with him.

Mamie parked the stroller with the rest of the parcels outside the door.

As she monitored BG’s toileting, the building began to shake. A small tremble, then harder and harder. The mirrors cracked and parts of the wallboard fell away from the metal studs.

Beege screamed as she fell into the commode. Her mother grabbed her, sheltering the half naked toddler with her body. Fear for her boy froze her in place for the long minute of the earthquake.

When the shaking stopped, she heard Derry’s voice shouting for her from the next room. Beege was clinging to her, holding so tight that Mamie had her hands free.

The washroom ceiling had collapsed and the door would not open, but there were no dangling live wires or broken water pipes. Mnady tore at the wallboard separating the Ladies’ from the Mens’. She force a hand into a crack and pulled part of the wall down, but only to the top of the tile running hygienically half way up the wall.

She called out to her son. “Are you hurt, baby? Are there any grownups there?’

‘I’m scared, mummy.’

‘We all are, Derry honey. Are you hurt? Are you bleeding?’

‘I got hit by the ceiling, mummy. It hurts a bit. I’m not bleeding though.’

‘Okay, Derry. Beege and I are fine too. We’ll be fine. There will be rescuers along pert soon. There any places on the walls where you can pull off the wallboard?’

‘I think so. Should I try?’

‘Yes, but be careful of any wires you see. Stay right away from those. And don’t scratch yourself on nails or fasteners.’

She could hear him grunting as he pulled at the walls. The lights went out. She heard Derry scream. Beege clung closer and started to cry.

“Derry. Derrial Hudson, pay attention. Are you hurt?’

His voice was shaking. ‘The lights went out mummy…. It’s dark.’

That’s okay, honey. That means the wires don’t got no electricity.You’re safer now.’

‘I’m scared.’

‘It’ll all work out, darlin. Daddy will come for us.’

‘I still have my boots.’

‘Good. You take good care of them.’ She thought. ‘Put them on, Derry. You may as well start breaking them in.’

She could hear no noises from outside the washrooms but the occasional ‘crumph’ as a stressed building fell somewhere. It had been a good five minutes, she thought and glanced at the time on her comm, which suddenly started buzzing.

‘Dieudonne! ’

‘Amanda!’ came Rand’s frantic voice.”Where .. you’re … babies…’

Dita’s calm voice took over. ‘Are you and the kids okay? Where are you?’

’We’re all scared shitless, but no one’s hurt. We’re …uh… we’re behind the Diablo Mall in a restaurant. I don’t remember the name, but it’s yellow and orange and red and there are big windows. Mamie shuddered

wondering what had happened to the people sitting by those windows and to the families walking down the road. ’We’re in the washrooms under the stairs. Beege is with me, Derry is by himself in the Mens. What’s

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happening?’

’I was on the bridge,′ said the first mate,′ I took the ship about a hundred metres straight up when the quake hit. Didn’t even close the ports. There was a crew of longshoremen aboard and they was yelling no end till we heard bout the quake.’

‘An earthquake? I thought it was just this building.’

‘No, pretty widespread. An’ pretty strong. Marco is preppin the hover mule and we’ll be there soon as the Captain gets himself together.’

‘Rank insubordination, Dita. I’m snowy cool… Let’s move out,’ he paused. ‘Amanda, I love you.’

‘I love you too, Randolf. Come and get us.’

Rand drove the mule,while Marco Majumdar, the crew’s muscle, rode shotgun. Two of the longshoremen were also aboard, since their families lived near the Mall. They brought crowbars and winches. ‘I never even knew we had a comealong on board,’ said Rand

‘Never know when you might need one.’ Marco said.

The stevedores dropped off at the school, where both had children. The building appeared intact and the janitor was outside by the events sign, slapping up letters that spelled ‘NO ONE HURT’.

’Smart move that,’ remarked Rand as they stopped outside the restaurant. Mamie’s GPS showed this was the right building.

‘We’re here darlin.’

‘Could you say somethin to Beege. She’s real scared.’

‘Hey, BabyGirl. Daddy’s here to get you home. Uncle Marco will help too. You just be my brave girl okay?’

‘K, daddy.’ Rand could hear her sobs slowing.

‘Did you buy nice shoes, BabyGirl?’

There was a fresh howl.

‘Bad move, darlin. Our parcels are in the stroller outside the door. Look, Beege, you have your new red shoes on.’

‘Any chance of talking to Derry?’

‘He ain’t got a comm. Somethin else for the shopping list.’

Only Rand and Marco were at the restaurant. Rand commed Dita and learned that rescue crews first concentrated on fires, then on schools, but that Corone World Building had pulled all its workers off terraforming. They were all cross-trained as first responders since they worked in such dangerous environments. About ten thousand rescue workers would be spreading out across the earthquake zone.

Shortly one of the longshoremen joined Rand and Marco. His wife had arrived for their children. “If your lady sez she’s not hurt, she should be okay. These short buildings are good in a strong quake like that one. Long as she wasn’t near a window.’

‘They’re in the washrooms.’

‘Those are under the stairs. Built that way a’purpose as quake shelters. They alone?’ He was already testing some of the debris for weight and stability. ‘Oh.’

A partition, lightly built with steel studs and wallboard shifted, revealing a body, bleeding heavily.

‘Bleedin’s good. She’s alive,’ said Marco. shifting the partition to reveal more of the woman. He pulled her free revealing a terrified child beneath her, silent and shocked. ’S’okay,kid. Yer mamma’s hurt but she’ll be fine. C’mon over to….’ he saws a grass boulevard across the road. ’Yer goin there. Yer gonna be quiet an sit with yer ma. We’ll bring her right over. Got me?

The child nodded, responding to the command in Marco’s voice. ‘We ain’t got time fer you ta be a whiney lil pisspot, kid. Stay with yer ma. Don’t cry. An if we say jump, jump.’ The child nodded again.

Marco and the longshoreman carefully removed the woman, who was unconscious and had a badly broken leg, to the boulevard. The child trotted obediently beside them.

Slowly the three men worked their way across the restaurant floor. They could see the stairs still standing but there was a lot of debris in the way.

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Hours passed. There were two aftershocks, not strong enough to do anything but scare already frightened people. No rescue crew had come to the area, but a few neighbours had arrived. ‘They’ll have checked that the school kids is fine…. Crews’ll be downtown where most of the damage is.’ ventured the longshoreman.

Beege had cried herself out and was asleep. Mamie and Derry kept up a desultory conversation while trying to break through the wallboard. Their first attempt turned out to be between different studs so the holes didn’t match up. When Mamie, stronger than she looked from her work on Bluebell’s engines and systems, tried to break through the wall on Derry’s side she found it was cement board faced with tile. Derry’s hole revealed pipes blocking the way to the Ladies’.

‘I’m awful thirsty, mummy,’ he complained. Mamie could hear that he was close to tears.

‘There’s water in the taps, sweetie. You don’t need a cup, just scoop it in your hand.’

‘But I can’t get out of the cubicle, mummy. The walls is too smooth.’

There ain’t a gap at the bottom of the door?’

There’s something in front of it.’

‘Can you slide into the next cubicle?’

‘There’s only one.’

‘Okay,’ she thought for a moment then tested the tap on the sink in front of her. ‘Derry, the water is still running. Did you flush the toilet?’

‘Yes, mummy.’

‘Is there a tank?’

‘Yes, mummy.’

Mamie sent prayers of thanks to Jesus, Buddha and Mithra.

‘Take the top off the tank. The water in there is clean and you can drink it.’

‘Eeeew!’

‘Yeah, eeew. But it’s better than the water in the commode.’

‘I’m not that thirsty, mummy. I can wait till our crew gets here.’

’Okay, Derry. Your sister’s in the Land of Nod. Why don’t you stretch out and try to sleep too?”

Mamie knew he would be crying himself to sleep. At eight , Derry was determined to be manly and macho. He modelled himself on his father and on Marco. Once he had listed Dita as one of the men of the crew.

She checked that Beege was still sleeping, then commed her husband.

‘The kids is asleep, darlin. Any idea how much longer?’

‘We’re about two metres away, darlin. But we’re at the counter and there’s a lot of hurt here. Sharp things, hot things and boilin oil. ’

‘Any sign of the counter girl? Long black hair in a back braid?’

’She got a scald from the tea machine, but nothin too serious. Prolly won’t scar.’

Mamie could hear Marco shouting instructions. ‘You got help at last?’

’Still just local folks. Rescue crews is downtown.’

There was a cheer.

’ We just found another group. Looks like they got scratched and bruised is all.’

‘Beege is still sleepin. I think Derry is too. Gotta choice, get him out first.’

A few minutes later, light flooded into the dark room. Mal kept into the opening, his arms encircling his wife and baby, who woke with a howl, then burrowed into her daddy’s neck. He led them to the boulevard and returned for his son.

Mamie saw the triage area that had been set up by the neighbours. There were only a dozen people on the boulevard, one lying very still apart from the others, but most were moaning quietly. A few small children, too young to have been safely in the school, sat by wounded adults. A table with a tea urn and sandwiches was staffed with neighbours.

Rand returned, Derry wound around him. Against all expectations, he was pulling the remains of the stroller. It looked as if all the parcels were still there.