Stellar Objects

Chapter 23: Meet Me On The Heap

Shelly Carpace set the coordinates for Earth.

She'd been off-planet for nearly two years, and the prospect of returning home filled her with excitement and dread. Out here, in space, she was her own person.

Her family, wealthy and politically connected, had kept her away from the Front, though they believed the work she was doing was beneath someone of her pedigree. But to Shelly, peace and order were beneath no one. And even as they hurtled towards Earth, the ship humming instead of shaking, Shelly decided not to ring her family. She had nothing to say to them.

Shelly looked up from her glass pad. Captain Nayar had assembled Andra, Shakes, and Judson on the bridge. Together, they'd hatched a plan. The Ghandi would hide on the dark side of Earth's moon while Shakes and Andra would take the shuttle to the surface, to the rubbish heap she grew up, to meet the buyer. They'd swap the gold for the meds and zip back to the Ghandi. It was a simple exchange.

"Of all the places on the planet," complained Shakes. "We have to do the drop on your rubbish heap."

"I know the layout," explained Andra. "I feel safe there."

"All right," sighed Shakes. "But I get first crack at a shower when we're back."

Shelly laughed. "We don't have that kind of discretionary water. But I'm sure Tez can find a dishcloth if you need to get the grime off."

"Maybe we should use some of that Martian gold to buy some water then?" Shakes said. "The fresh kind, not that de-sal stuff."

Captain Nayar nodded. "That's actually a good idea. If you negotiate a good deal, I'll arrange to spend whatever's left on fresh water and food."

Shelly called up Kraylx's comms address and opened an encrypted communication channel so that he didn't know it was the Ghandi calling him.

"Ready Shakes," she said. "Encrypted channel is open. You're on."

Shakes cleared his throat and leaned over her glass-pad. "Attention Kraylx," he said in a low, serious voice. Shelly closed her eyes for just a moment, imagining a man of fifty instead of a kid of probably seventeen. "I have payment if you've got the cargo. Are you prepared to exchange?"

Kraylx's voice cracked over the comms. "Where?"

"Earth," Shakes said. "But somewhere that the law won't look."

Shelly tapped out the coordinates of the rubbish heap and transferred them to Kraylx.

"I'll be there in three hours," said Kraylx. "And you better have the money."

"And you better have the goods," said Shakes. He ran his finger over his throat and Shelly cut the transmission. The drop was set.

It was all up to these kids now.

*

Andra guided the shuttle away from the Ghandi and around the moon.

She banked the shuttle and looked down on the colonies of luxury estates; bubble domes filled with people 'too posh for planet.' She hated them for ruining the Earth and moving up to the safety of the moon; where the masses weren't welcome. It wasn't fair that most people had to swelter on Earth when the richest few lounged in lunar luxury.

"Just you and me then," said Shakes, sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

"No," she said. "It's me. And you are sitting next to me. It's not you and me or me and you."

"Just sayin'" he said, "it's not too late to run away together. We've got a shuttle filled with gold and a lifetime of adventure ahead of us."

"More like a lifetime of torture," she groaned. "And I'm not leaving George. And you're not doing anything with the gold except for sticking to the plan."

Finally, the Earth came into view. From this distance, it looked like a brown ball hovering amid the stars. She found it funny that ancient people used to call Earth the 'blue planet.' How ridiculous, she thought.

"I know, I know," he laughed. "I'm just teasing you to lighten the mood. Pre-show release of tension."

"Just play your part and I'll play mine," Andra said.

The Earth grew in front of them. The planet, home to twenty-four billion people, was shrouded in brown smog.

"Feels weird to be back," she added.

"I've actually never been to Earth," said Shakes. "I was born off-planet."

"Really?"

"My parents left when Australia dried up. Had me on an Aussie outpost orbiting Titan."

"Where are they now?" she asked, regretting it immediately.

Shakes bit his bottom lip, as if thinking of the right thing to say. "They're around," he said, clearly lying. "We were on the road, a lot, doing shows but there wasn't much money so they—"

"They sold you?" she guessed; cursing herself for thinking aloud.

"No, no," Shakes said defensively. "It's not like that. They just needed to streamline, downsize, you know, for a bit. They're working on getting a permanent stage and when they do they'll send for me. I'm registered, so they can find me."

Andra didn't want to contradict him, but didn't want to partake in his fiction either. She stayed silent for a moment so she didn't do either.

"How about you?" he asked after a long pause. "Your parents ditch you?"

"They're long gone, and not comin' back," she confessed. "I don' need 'em, I've got George. And we're just fine; the two of us."

Andra cruised the shuttle over the northeastern part of Indian North America. Below, four great lakes shimmered in the smoggy sunshine. There should've been five, but the fifth one, Onteareeo, had been dammed and turned into the world's largest rubbish dump.

As they descended, Shakes stared at the dry lake stuffed with trash. "What is that?"

"That's home," Andra said. "The Heap is home."

But as she descended, the great rubbish Heap she'd known all of her life didn't feel like home any longer.