Ganymede Station Pt. 01

I watched another show or two before my body became weary and let me know it was time for sleep. This was the time of night when I enjoyed a hot shower before falling toasty and warm into bed, unfortunately the water heater was electric and as lifeless as every other modern convenience in this dump. I pulled a blanket from the tiny closet just inside the bedroom and tossed it over the mattress. I climbed under the covers to my waist and pulled the sketchbook out, setting it in my lap. I set my smartscreen into light mode and set it on the window ledge beside me. Drawing a sandstorm seemed daunting, but it had been oddly beautiful, and I wanted to capture its power if I could. What did sand feel like as it whirled through the air? It proved difficult to capture the essence of the storm and I don't think I succeeded. Still, even with the failed attempt I let my imagination take me to the distant red planet, steeped with orange sand and drifting dunes. It must be warm there, it was so red and sandy, like a giant beach. I laid back and was carried into sleep. I want to say I dreamed about a wide, flat beach, crashing surf and hot sun beating down overhead. Instead I dreamt about being forced to beat someone with a whip in a lonely cold apartment.

CHAPTER 3.

The next week felt long and was mostly uneventful. I was able to meet a guy just outside the spaceport who was traveling through Ganymede on business. He was anxious and kept letting me know he never did things like this, so I did my best to make him feel comfortable. Half an hour later in a nearby hotel he was shaking and grunting as he shot his load across my ass, buckling his belt and transferring money to my account before quickly leaving. It was nothing close to a good time for me, still, it didn't take up too much of my evening and he hadn't wanted to try anything that made me nervous.

Outside of this not much happened in my little world. I didn't bother speaking with the marshall upstairs, and he didn't seek me out again. My power had finally been restored on the third day of having no heat, and by extension no shower. Believe me I was grateful for that hot shower when the lights at last flickered to life. Even the instant food cakes were more palatable when heated, though not by much.

It was early one morning a couple days later when there came an insistent knocking at my front door. The banging woke me and I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes. The knocking came again. I pulled on a pair of underwear and my heated jacket. A few moments later the pounding rattled my front door yet again.

"Oh my god, I'll be right there!" I yelled, annoyed.

I reached the door and peeked through the small peephole. Two human men stood outside, one of them large and thickly-built, the other tall and mostly average in appearance. The bigger man carried a heavy duffel bag.

"What do you want?" I asked as I pressed a small intercom button on the wall.

"Maintenance." Said the heavier fellow.

"You're not wearing maintenance uniforms." I said warily.

"Yeah, we weren't supposed to be on duty today." Said the tall man. "But we got the call, so here we are."

"This is about the plumbing?" I asked hopefully.

The taller of the two men nodded. "Yes, here to fix the plumbing."

I unlocked the door and started to pull it open. "I honestly never expected you guys to--"

My words became cut off as the door was violently kicked inward, knocking me backward into my apartment and onto the floor. I looked up suddenly as the two men pushed their way inside and closed the door behind them. My heart raced and I struggled to understand what was happening. The intruders watched me carefully as the bigger man knelt down and opened his duffel bag. He produced a long knife and handed it to the tall man, he then pulled out a length of metal pipe.

"Wh-what the fuck is this?" I stammered in fear.

"Should have taken the lady up on her offer." The taller man said.

My skin suddenly felt cold despite the heat of the apartment. A lump formed in my throat. "She sent you to kill me?" I managed to ask. I was in a state of shock.

"She's not a monster, we just need to make sure you're not much to look at when we're done." Replied the larger man. I noticed his hand for the first time under his long sleeve where he held the length of pipe. His flesh was metal, or rather the hand, and maybe the whole arm had been replaced with a flexible prosthetic. He was an augment, and the strength in that arm was likely ten times that of a normal person or more.

My heart was nearly beating through my chest. These men were here to cut me up and beat me, and I had let them inside my home.

"T-tell her I'll stop! I'll take the job, whatever she wants!" I cried out as I slowly got to my feet and backed into the small living room.

"Sorry, it's too late for that kind of talk, that's why we're here." The tall man said as he traced his finger along the knife's edge.

I had moved around the low table in front of my sofa and now had it between the assailants and myself. I didn't know where else to go, there was only one exit from the apartment and I had no weapons. My physical stature has me a little over five and a half feet and I don't have too much in the way of muscle. My options for escape were severely limited.

"Take him." Said the taller man calmly.

The big guy suddenly advanced toward me, holding the pipe out to one side. If he got a clean hit on me I knew it would shatter a limb or crack my ribs. He came around the side of the table between the bedroom and myself and swung with the heavy club. I hopped onto the couch behind me as the metal cudgel smashed into the flimsy table, breaking it into pieces and splintering one of the legs. He didn't hesitate long and clambered onto the small couch next to me and took another arcing swipe at me with the weapon. I dived through the air towards the kitchen as I heard the large screen on the common room wall explode into a shower of glass fragments and white sparks. The big man cursed.

I rolled to my feet and quickly grabbed a knife of my own from a drawer nearby. I brandished it before me as the two men regarded me from the opposite side of the counter.

The tall man sighed. "If you try to hurt us with that it will be much worse for you, believe me."

His icily calm demeanor was unsettling, but I had to stay focused. I grabbed a heavy glass bowl from the cupboard next to me and threw it hard at the tall man, who was closer. He ducked and backed away as it smashed into the wall near his head. While the men were momentarily distracted I dropped the knife and scrambled over the countertop in front of me and sprang toward the front door.

"Shit!" Griped the big man.

They both lurched forward even as I was tugging the door open. I noticed they hadn't locked it when they came in and was lucky to reach it without getting caught by them. The large augmented man was almost on top of me as I was racing through the doorway into the hall. His club came down, denting the floor with a loud crunching sound. I flicked my tail up as I entered the corridor outside my apartment, lashing my attacker across the face. It should stop him dead in his tracks, the force of my whipping tail, but it didn't. He stumbled only for a moment as I tried to pull the door closed behind me.

"Someone help me!!" I screamed desperately to no one.

He had switched the pipe into his other hand by this time and grabbed the door by its edge in his powerful metal fist. With a deafening squeal he literally tore the heavy door off its hinges and bent it back into the apartment. The sound was so loud in my sensitive ears that I felt briefly stunned and had to cover my them with my hands as I stumbled to my knees. A second later I knew the two men would reach me and after the escape attempt, maybe kill me out of anger. I forced myself to my feet and sprang forward again, I looked back over my shoulder just in time to see them both in the hallway, sprinting after me. When I had nearly reached the end of the passage I looked up just in time to see my upstairs neighbor, the marshall, who had stepped out of the stairwell. I pulled up sharply to avoid bowling into him. He reached out and forced me to the floor by the shoulder.

"Get down, kid!" He shouted.

I had no choice, he was strong, and I stayed down as he had ordered. I looked up to see him bring his sidearm out from a holster at his side and steady it, just for a second, before he let off a shot. A blue pulse of energy erupted from the weapon as he fired down the hall. I swiveled my head in time to see the large man take the shot in his thigh and crash to the floor with a loud cry. Behind him the tall man stopped in his tracks and raised his hands over his head.

"Drop the knife!" The marshall roared authoritatively.

The man complied, and the long knife bounced once as it hit the shallow brown carpet of the building.

"Don't either of you fucking move or you're dead!" The marshall said sharply as he pulled out his personal screen. He kept his weapon trained on my attackers as he spoke into the device. "Two armed men, shots fired, one appears to be augmented." He looked down at me. "You okay? Did they hurt you?"

"N-no, I'm, I'm fine." I was still shaking from the ordeal but also the adrenaline that was now pumping through my system.

He continued speaking into his device. "Victim appears unhurt, but shaken. Send a mobile cell unit to Andromeda Arms Apartments." He finished.

"Hey, you're alright, but I'm gonna need a statement from you." He said.

I nodded my comprehension.

"I'm taking these guys in once my backup gets here with the cell." He informed me.

"O-okay." I was still trembling. As I looked back down the hallway the tall man was staring right at me. "I don't want to stay here, I want to go, please." I told the marshall.

"You can't just go, kid. I need to know what happened here." The marshall said.

"I know but... please..." I gave him a pleading look.

He put the device back in his jacket pocket and pulled out his keycard. "You remember which room is mine upstairs?"

"Yeah, all the way at the end." I said.

"You can wait for me there, it's safe. Don't touch anything." He gave me a stern look.

"Sure, yeah." I said as I found my footing and stood. The marshall pressed the key into my palm and I shakily headed upstairs.

I closed the door and locked it behind me as I entered the unfamiliar apartment. I shouldn't say unfamiliar, it was identical in layout to my own, just backward on account of being on the other side of the hallway. I didn't want to poke around, he had asked me not to, so I sat on the couch in the common room. I held my hands clasped tightly in my lap as I couldn't stop them from quivering. One end of the sofa was piled high with clothes, the other end had a pillow and a tangle of blankets. I was still trembling and my mind raced with frantic thoughts. I couldn't sit still just yet so I got up and began pacing in a tight circle. I started to look around the place, to distract myself. The kitchen was messy and cluttered. I saw a mostly empty bag of the same brand of instant food patties I often ate. There were empty alcohol bottles strewn over nearly the entire counter with more on the floor. There was an old recliner next to the couch and a big table nearby holding more empty bottles with a couple of chairs. I peaked into the bathroom, same as mine, though the mirror wasn't cracked. There were pill bottles over the small counter here as well as a razor and other washroom necessities. I briefly looked myself over in the mirror. I ran a hand through my shoulder-length dark purple hair. I was immediately reminded that I was still just wearing a pair of underwear and my jacket. Lastly I poked my head into the small bedroom. I was even aware that this was a big breach of privacy but I just wanted to focus on something else while I waited. The bed was unmade, clothes tossed on the floor and over a small chair wedged into a corner. There were more empty liquor bottles lining the window ledge. This window was actually uncovered as it had a decent view of the street outside.

The small shelf behind his bed had three picture frames. I leaned over to peer more closely at them. One showed a small boy with a large moustached man. At first I thought the older man was the marshall but there were subtle differences in the face, I determined it must be his father, and he the young child. The other two pictures were of women. One was a beautiful young human woman with yellow hair in a long dress, she was smiling. The last picture was a scabarethen woman, middle-aged sitting on a bench, looking slightly away. I didn't want to snoop further, and resigned myself to just sit on the couch and wait. My nerves had calmed for the most part by now.

It was about an hour before there was a knock at the door. I jumped, instantly reminded of the knock that had awoken me earlier this morning.

"You got my key, open up, kid." Came the marshall's muffled voice.

I got up and opened the door, stepping aside to let the man into his home.

"What the hell did you get yourself into?" He asked as he moved past me and directly into the kitchen.

"What did they tell you?" I asked anxiously in return.

"Nothing. They were obviously paid well to keep their mouths shut." Responded the marshall as he found a bottle that still had liquid inside. He took a swig.

"Are... are they getting locked up?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah, of course they are. Assault, breaking and entering, destruction of property, hell, maybe attempted murder. No proper jail on Ganymede so they're getting shipped off within a day or so. Penal colony maybe, in the belt." He said nonchalantly.

"Good." I stated flatly.

"I need you to tell me who those men were, kid. Actually, come to think of it, I need to know your name first." He added after some consideration.

"I'm Cheynex, son of Cerasbek. Everyone calls me Cheyne though." I offered.

The marshall walked back to me and stuck his rough hand out to me. "Henry Deacon, everyone just calls me Deacon."

I shook the man's hand. It was big and warm, kinda nice. "Hi Deacon, thanks for earlier."

He shrugged. "It's my job. It's lucky they made so much noise ripping your place apart, and then I heard you yell as I was on my way downstairs to check out the racket."

I winced as I remembered. "You saw my place? Is it really bad?" I asked tentatively.

He frowned. "Well, yeah, I mean the door isn't even on the hinges and the door frame is all screwed up. Your living room looks like it exploded, there's a big dent in the floor and it looks like there were power cables underneath that got damaged." He finished.

"Well that's fucking great." I responded. I had no idea how I would afford the repairs, I was positive that our landlord wouldn't help in the slightest.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad. Sorry kid." He took another drink. "You want some?" He offered.

"Actually, yeah. Hey, guess you got me that drink after all." I added.

He gave something of a laugh. "Yup, although I'd say you owe me at this point."

"Guess so." I admitted.

"So who were these guys?" He inquired as he poured me a small glass.

"Hired men. They said they weren't going to kill me, just... beat the shit out of me." I sighed.

Deacon handed me the glass which I accepted gratefully.

"And why would they want to do that?" He asked seriously.

"I uh, because of what I do, and who that might bother." I replied. I wasn't sure if I should tell him everything or not but, he seemed to be the only person on my side at the moment, and he was a lawman after all. There was a chance he wasn't corrupt. I didn't really have any choice, it was painfully clear I couldn't take care of myself.

"Because you're a prostitute?" He asked pointedly.

I blushed. "Yeah."

"You owe someone money or something? Is it that woman who runs the Rose Thorn?" He inquired further.

I was visibly shocked. "How do you know all that?"

He shrugged again and scratched through his short black and grey hair. "She would have the resources to hire men. I just saw you there what? A week ago? Give me some credit, I'm a station marshall, this is sort of what I do, figure things out."

"I don't actually owe her money, I do this on my own. She, Tetha, just thinks every man who comes here automatically owes her any credits he might spend." I shook my head in frustration. I took a drink from the glass Deacon had given me, hoping it would start to calm my nerves.

"I know the type." Said Deacon, taking another pull from his bottle. "Well her boys are gone now and she'll realize that you went to the law. She should leave you alone."

"I hope so." I replied, though I honestly wasn't convinced.

"Is there anything else I should know?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"No, I don't think there's anything else to say." I said with a shrug.

He nodded absently and entered some information into his device.

"Okay, well, this was pretty open and shut then, so that's good. Less crap for me to fill out." Deacon said as he walked over to his chair and sat down heavily. The recliner groaned from the added weight.

"Thanks again, Deacon, and for the drink." I said as I set the mostly empty glass on the counter and headed toward the door.

"You got somewhere to go, Cheyne?" The big fellow asked.

I paused, I thought hard on his question. "I... guess back to my apartment." I said uncertainly.

"Kid, there's no fucking door. Well, there is, but it's wedged halfway into your kitchen counter. Where else can you stay?" He asked again. "Hotel?"

"I can't afford that. There's not really anywhere else for me to go." I said quietly, looking at the floor. In this whole isolated station I had no one to turn to, I was alone as I had always been since my father left.

Deacon set his jaw, contemplating. After a few moments he said. "I don't think you're a bad kid, Cheyne. Shit happens, especially out here. If you promise not to bother me or get underfoot, you can stay here for a little while, until your place gets fixed up."

I gave the marshall a baffled look. "Why? You don't need to do that. You don't, owe me anything."

Deacon leaned forward in his chair and regarded me. "Well, look. It shouldn't take too long to fix your door and whatnot, I'll talk with Ford tomorrow. You were decent to me, the other night, I'm not a total asshole. Just, let me do something I feel good about."

I considered what he was saying. He had his reasons I supposed, and there was no way I could turn down his offer, unless I wanted to sleep in the street.

"You need anything from your place?" He asked. "I thought you might want to finish getting dressed."

I looked down at my bare legs. "Yeah, I'll go get it. Bathroom stuff, some clothes, I don't have much. I doubt our neighbors would think twice about grabbing what they can out of there if I leave it though." I replied unhappily.

"Well, I'll grab your stuff, you just stay here." Said Deacon as he stood and went into his kitchen. He retrieved a large box which he carried in one hand. "Clothes and bathroom stuff. Anything else?"

"I said I can get it." I mentioned again.

He strolled past me and opened the front door. "Well, you can come with me then. I'm a big guy, handy for me to carry everything right?"

"Sure. Uh, thanks." I said. It was unsettling for me to have someone trying to help me with anything in my life, and hearing myself saying thank you so much was also a first. It worried me that he must have ulterior motives.

I let out a sigh as we reached my apartment with its missing door. We moved single-file into the common room and I surveyed the damage. The small living room was destroyed. Even the couch had been crushed, probably from the augmented guy jumping on top. The wall and viewscreen were smashed to bits. The front door, which was nearly folded in half had been thrown aside and become embedded in the kitchen counter. There was a huge dent near the door where the pipe had struck and some of the metal floor grating was jutting up around the impact. This would not be an easy or inexpensive fix. Seeing my small home this way, it should have filled me with sorrow, and perhaps it did, but more than that I found I just didn't really care. I couldn't summon the energy to give a shit. Just one more thing in my life gone wrong.