Chapter Two The Pact

Jara suggests a pact with many implications.

Updated 3/26/2013

Chapter Two  The Pact

 

“Ho.  I’m Racer,” the young man replied.  He grabbed his tool belt from the floor and flipped open his rom.  “Jara’s awake.  You better bring Davud.”

Jara was unable to make out the answering squawks.  The young man laid the rom on the bed and grabbed his skinsuit.  While he was dressing he studied Jara, and when he was finished he returned his rom to his tool belt and strode to a glass stall that, Jara recognized, was a radiant cleaner.  He reached into the stall, and when he withdrew his hand he was holding her skinsuit.

He laid it on the bed and said, “I’ll wait outside.”

Racer palmed the access panel and it opened.  He stepped out of the room, and the door slid shut behind him.  Jara waited for a moment to see if he was trying to trick her, and then she sprang from the bed and hastily pulled on her skinsuit.  She waited indecisively, wondering if she should exit the room also, but a few minutes later she heard a knock at the door.

“Decent?” She heard someone ask.

She nodded, and then she called out, “Yes.”

The door opened, and Davud rushed through.

“Jara!” he screeched.

“Davud,” she answered, and she dropped to her knees and hugged him tightly, choking back tears so as not to alarm him.  “Are you all right?”

“I fine,” he said, moving back so he could see her face.  “Bayli takes care of me.  He lets me watch vids; even ones Wendy don’t let me watch.”

“Hey, you didn’t tell me that, Davud,” exclaimed a young man standing at the door. 

Racer was standing behind him.  Jara wrapped Davud in her arms and shrank away from the two spacers.  The one who was not Racer was the taller of the two.  His complexion was darker than hers, and his hair was cut as short as Racer’s.  They had the same black eyes and facial features, so Jara decided that they must be related,

“Ho, Jara,” the unknown man said, smiling at her.  “I’m Bayli.  I’m the Captain and half-owner of the Lugging Nut spaceship, and this is my brother and partner, Racer.”

“I told her my name already,” Racer added.

His brother gave him an exasperated frown.

“I imagine you’ve got a lot of questions, Jara,” Bayli said.  “But the medidoc wants you to eat a bowl of specially prepared grain first.  That will help you to begin digesting solid food.”

Jara’s gaze moved from brother to brother.  She was suspicious of everything they said, but Davud did not look as if he had been hurt or abused, so she nodded and followed them out of the room while holding Davud firmly by the hand.  The spacers led her to the engine room where she saw a counter and stools covered with grabbit.  Silently, Bayli indicated a stool and Jara sat.  Davud had been talking steadily.  She realized what he really wanted to know.

“I’m fine, Davud,” she said, and he stopped speaking and hugged her.

Jara wanted to ask Davud several important questions, but she did not want to ask those questions in the presence of the spacers.  She watched as Bayli nuked a bowl of mush and handed it to her.  As soon as she tasted the mush, her stomach demanded more.  Quickly she scooped the soft food into her mouth until the bowl was empty.

“You can have more in a little while,” said Bayli.  “But let your stomach get used to what you just ate, first.”

Jara looked from one spacer to the next.  “Who are you?” she asked.  “Why did you take Davud and me off Mackenzie’s Rock?”

“Is that the name of the place where we found you?” Bayli asked, but Jara did not answer.  “Well, the short answer is that we found you dying from starvation, and we couldn’t stay there long enough to get you well.  So we took Davud and you onto our ship.  You’ve been on our ship for seven days.  You’ve been unconscious and laying in our medidoc.  Do you know what a medidoc is?”

Jara scowled at Bayli.  “I’m not stupid,” she replied.  “Maybe we don’t know a lot about the outside world, but we have a link to the graph on Mackenzie’s Rock.  I know what a medidoc is.”

“Do you know what gratitude is?” Racer asked sarcastically.

“Racer,” his brother said reprovingly.

Jara lowered her eyes.  “Yes, I know what gratitude is.  Thank you for saving my life.  When can we go back home?”

“Jara, you’re a Hooper,” said Bayli gently.  “You already know the answer to that question.  It will be a long time.  We’re on our way to Marl.”

“Yes, I know,” Jara said, feeling a hollow place in the pit of her stomach.  She tried to stifle a yawn and failed.

“You need to lie down a little longer,” said Bayli.  “When you get up, I’ll make you another food bowl.”

“I don’t want to lie down,” Jara replied defiantly, but then she yawned again.

“Captain’s orders.  Racer, show her the way.”

“I can show her, Captain,” Davud said.

Bayli smiled at him.  “All right, shipmate.  You show her the way.”

Davud beamed at him and gave Bayli a childish salute.  Gravely, Bayli saluted back.  Davud turned and pulled on Jara’s hand, and he led her back to Racer’s room.  The truth was that Jara did feel sleepy after eating the bowl of mush, but she was afraid to sleep.  Who knew what these two strangers would do when she was asleep?

“Did they take anything from our rock?” she whispered to Davud.

“I got my toys,” said Davud.  “And they got our rocks.”

That confirmed Jara’s worst fears.  They were rock jumpers.  They knew the value of Mackenzie’s Rock, and they were planning to take possession of the globe.  She and Davud were alone.  Her sister, Wendra, had not returned, and Julee was missing.  Presumably Julee had been taken by pirates or slavers.  Jara kept her emotions in check until they were in Racers room.

“Do you want me to stay here with you?” Davud asked.

“What do you want to do?” his sister countered.

Davud scuffed a toe on the grabbit and then peeked up at her.  “I wanna go play with my toys,” he said guiltily.

“Go on then,” Jara said as she lay down on the bed.  “Have fun.”

Davud climbed on to the bed and gave Jara a hug.

“I glad you all better.”

He hopped down and pressed his slippers into the grabbit, and then he waved and left the room.  Jara looked over at the medidoc.  Seven days, she thought.  Then she turned on her side and while wondering what had happened to Julee, she cried herself to sleep.

When she woke, Jara was feeling much better physically.  She was hungry and was looking forward to another bowl of mush.  As she finished using the viver, Jara tried to decide what to do next.  Her father was dead and her sisters were lost.  As far as she knew, she was the last of the Mackenzie sisters.  Her first duty was to ensure that Davud was safe, and her second duty was to ensure his future.

She thought furiously.  The spacers had taken the ore they had been mined, and they knew the location of her family’s rock.  They were in an excellent position to take control of her home and the potential wealth of her home.  Even though the claim her father had broadcast and had recorded on the graph was valid the spacers could claim, with some justification, that Mackenzie’s Rock had been abandoned.  It would take years and a lot of money to fight their claim in court, assuming that any attorney would take the case and that any court would accept jurisdiction.

If Wendy was alive, that would not matter, because Wendy would take care of any rock jumpers.  But Jara could not act on the hope that Wendra Mackenzie was still alive.  Jara had two assets left; the claim to Mackenzie’s Rock and herself, and her claim to Mackenzie’s Rock was shaky at best.  That left only one solution.  Bayli appeared to like her, and he was kind, but that might not be good thing.  Racer did not like her as far as she could tell.

Racer popped into his room hoping to find Jara awake.  His face lit up when he saw that she was sitting on his bed.

“Ho,” he said.

“Ho,” she replied.

“Is it okay if I use my screen for a click?” he asked.  “I’ve got a game going, and I’ve saved my data locally.  If you want to sleep, I can transfer my data to the ship’s rom and use another screen.”

“It’s your screen,” she replied.  “But before you do that, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” he said as he sat down at the terminal and powered up.

“Would you unite with me?”  Jara asked.

It took a second for her words to sink into the young man’s mind.  When they did, he stopped in the middle of entering his password and swiveled the chair.

“What did you say?” he asked, wanting to be sure he had heard the girl correctly.

“I said, would you unite with me?” Jara repeated.  “I’m the owner of Mackenzie’s Rock, and you’re an ore hauler.  If we united, it would be a good deal for both of us.”

Jara did not tell him that technically Davud was also an owner of the rock, but she had already decided that Davud’s share would come out of her own profits.

It did not take Racer more than a click to decide, for the offer was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Uh, yes.  Yes, I’ll unite with you.  Do you want to do it now?”

“What do you mean, ‘do it now’?  Do you mean exchange our oaths now or do you mean…?”

Jara was nervous now.  She meant one thing, and she hoped that Racer did not mean another.

“I mean, do you want to say the words now?”

He knew what Jara was referring to, and he had hopes in that direction, but the contract more important right then.

“Do you know the correct words?”

“No, but I can graph them,”

He swiveled the chair again and finished logging in.  When the browser screen appeared, he typed in, ‘uniting words.’  A list appeared on the screen.  He ignored the first four listings which appeared to be sites selling uniting paraphernalia, and he clicked on the fifth listing.  He smiled as the prose of the uniting words appeared.

“Got it,” he announced.  He turned to Jara.  “Come sit on this side of the bed.”

Jara switched sides so she was closer to the screen and could read the words, but she tried to avoid contacting his body.

“Do you want to do it now?” Racer asked.

Jara took a full breath.  This was the best I could do for Davud, she thought.  She ruthlessly threw aside her girlish dreams of a wonderful romance with a man who she adored and who adored her.

“Yes.  Let’s do it.”

Racer turned on the recorder, and then he began to read the words on the screen.

“I, Racer Tyre, vow that I will protect you, Jara Mackenzie, and I will unite with you of my own free will.”

“I, Jara Mackenzie, vow that I will protect you, Racer Tyre, and I will unite with you of my own free will.”

“Wherever you travel, Jara Mackenzie, I will travel there with you.”

“Wherever you travel, Racer Tyre, I will travel there with you.”

“Wherever you live, Jara Mackenzie, I will live there with you.”

“Wherever you live, Racer Tyre, I will live there with you.”

“Wherever you are buried, Jara Mackenzie, I will be buried there with you.”

“Wherever you are buried, Racer Tyre, I will be buried there with you.”

“Your family, Jara Mackenzie, I will acknowledge as my family.”

“Your family, Racer Tyre, I will acknowledge as my family.”

“And I will cherish you as long as I live.”

“And I will cherish you as long as I live.”

Racer and Jara said the words mechanically and without emotion.  They were only words that were said to unite their interests.  Their feelings were not involved.

“That’s it,” Racer said when they finished.  He turned the screen toward Jara.  “Open your eyes wide and let the cam do a retina scan.”

Jara leaned forward and held her eyes wide open for a moment as Racer watched the screen.

“Got it.”  He repositioned the screen so that the camera could scan his retina.

“All done,” he said when the scan was finished, and his finger hovered over the ‘send’ icon which would publish their announcement to the graph.

And then suddenly, from where he could not have said, Racer was hit by a disquieting qualm.  He turned to take a really good look at Jara.  She was hard to read.  Her face was calm, but somehow he had the feeling that she was very tense.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m sure,” Jara assured him.

Racer was not sure.  He was suddenly not sure about this at all.  I wonder what Bayli will say.  Logically it was an incredible stroke of luck.  Would Bayli see the logic?  Bayli might have other ideas, and Racer’s financial interest in Mackenzie’s Rock might complicate relations between him and his brother.  But this lucky chance is too good to pass up.  Racer turned to the screen and pressed the ‘send’ icon.  The deed was done.  He turned back to Jara who was staring down at her hands.

“Do you want to kiss or anything?” he asked.

“If you want to,” Jara replied, continuing to stare at her hands.

“Maybe just one,” said Racer who had been hoping for a little more.

“Okay.”  Jara lifted her head and closed her eyes.

Racer leaned forward and gave her a peck on her lips, and then he pulled back.  Jara opened her eyes.  It had been interesting to touch lips like that.  She might even have enjoyed it if the circumstances had been different.

“We should tell the Captain,” she stated.

“Yeah, all right.”

He was not really eager to tell Bayli, but it had to be done.  He wondered again what Bayli would say.  Jara followed him to the control room.  Bayli was seated in the Captains Cage studying the latest rock chart on a ship’s display.  Davud was playing with an action figure; one of several that were scattered around the room.

“Captain Tyre,” Racer began formally.

His brother turned and gave him an absent minded look.

“Yes, Crew.”

“Jara and I have something important to tell you.

Bayli paused the program and gave his brother a sharper gaze.  Uh, oh, thought Bayli.  He’s up to something.

“Yes?”

“Jara and I have gotten united,” Racer stated.

Bayli stared at the two younger persons standing side by side.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Jara and I have gotten united.  We graphed the words and recorded them, and then I published them to the graph.”

“Are you two comet struck?” Bayli exploded.  “Why would you do something crazy like that?”

“We,” Jara had started to say that Racer and she had fallen in love, but then she realized how ridiculous that would sound.  “We decided that we would be a good economic match.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, Bayli,” Racer added defensively.

Except that he knew it was Bayli’s business.  But at the moment, Racer was too annoyed to admit it.  Why does Bayli always treat me like a thoughtless kid?

Bayli tried to calm down.  He noticed Davud watching them intently.

“All right, let’s back up.  Explain why you did this.  Please.”

“You have an ore hauler, and I have a rock full of ore,” Jara said.

She was trying to breathe normally.  The next few minutes would be crucial.  Will the Captain recognize my claim, or will he claim rights to an abandoned rock?  If he said that the rock had been abandoned, there was little she could do.  He might maroon Davud and her on Marl, or worse.

“I see,” Bayli replied.

To his surprise, Bayli saw that there was some justification in Jara’s logic.  The combination was a good economic match.  And the Hoop was full of couples who had united for just that purpose.  Some of the couples were happily united.  Some were not happy, but managed to stay united for economic reasons.  The bad unions sometimes ended in violence, but those were rare.  It was easy to end a union in the Hoop.  Still, Bayli had hoped that his brother would unite with a girl with whom he had fallen in love.  Bayli believed in unities of love.  It was the reason his mother was serving on a long-rider to Junior.  She was with her lover.  Bayli missed her, but he was glad that she had found a second chance at love.

“Who suggested this?” he asked, hoping it was Racer.

If it was, Bayli thought, I’ll find a way to undo this, even if I have to be ruthless about the matter.  In the next second, his hope was dashed.  The two teenagers glanced at one another, and then Jara spoke.

“I did,” she admitted.

Now she did hold her breath while Bayli expelled his.

“Very well,” he said.  “What’s done is done.”  Jara sucked in a breath as Bayli continued.  “Jara, I need to ask you some personal questions, but I want to speak to Racer first.  But before I talk to either of you, I want to think about this for a while.  Why don’t you two go fix Jara another bowl of food?  I’ll bet you’re hungry by now.”

As if on cue Jara’s stomach let out a loud groan, and her face reddened.  She and Racer headed toward the engine room.  As Bayli watched them leave he was speculating as to why Jara had made her suggestion to Racer.

“Bayli?” Bayli turned to Davud who was sitting on the grabbit covered floor watching him.

“Yes, shipmate?”

“Are you ‘Daddy’ now?”  Bayli was startled by the question.  “Wendy told me my old Daddy went to Earth, and he ain’t coming back,” Davud confided.  “If Jara is u…nited and Racer is u…nited, are you Daddy?”

“Uh…”  Bayli had absolutely no idea how to answer Davud’s question, so he delayed his response by rubbing his eyes for a moment.

This was an additional complication.  Bayli had grown very fond of the little boy in the week since the youngster had come aboard.  Now he realized how attached Davud had become to him.  He thought about making light of the question.  He could say that he was the Captain, and that Davud was his favorite crew.  But somehow that did not seem right.  If Jara and Racer were really united, then he and Davud were family.  Davud was waiting for his response.

“Well, yeah, Bayli.  Sort of,” he answered hesitantly.  “It’s more like I’m your big brother.”

“Goody,” Davud responded happily.

He grinned at Bayli who chuckled at the sight of the gap in the boy’s smile left by Davud’s missing tooth.  Davud returned to his play, and Bayli returned to his responsibilities.  For a while each was absorbed in his own world.  Bayli was still trying to decide what to say to Jara.  There were private matters concerning her that he as Captain needed to know.  He suspected that she was not going to be happy to reveal some of those private matters.  Eventually, he decided that he too was hungry, and he paused in his work.

“Are you ready to eat, Crew?” he asked Davud.

“Yeth.  I hungry,” Davud replied.  The little boy jumped up and grabbed Bayli’s hand, and they headed for the engine room.

“Bayli,” Davud said looking up at Bayli.

“Yes, Crew,” Bayli replied.

“I call you ‘Daddy’, huh?”

Bayli smiled down at Davud.  He gave the boys hand a light squeeze.

“Yes, Davud,” he replied.  “You can call me ‘Daddy.’  But don’t forget, shipmate.  Sometimes you have to call me, ‘Captain’.”

Davud gave little wiggle and then a happy jump that broke him away from the grabbit covering the corridor’s deck.

“Careful,” Bayli murmured as he reached out and helped Davud land.

They found Jara and Racer in the engine room.  Racer glanced guiltily at Bayli, and Bayli realized why when he saw that Jara was eating a piece of vat meat over her empty bowl of mush.  Bayli decided that her eating habits were not his concern as long as she was cautious about the amount she consumed.  He waited until she finished her meal.

“If you’ve finished…” Bayli waited.

“Yes,” Jara replied, and she wiped her hands on a towelette Racer handed to her.  “I’ll be in my…  I mean our room.”  She glanced at Racer who nodded reassuringly.

“Wait a click, Jara,” said Bayli, and then to Racer he asked, “Where is Jara’s stuff?”

“Oh.  It’s under the bed, Jara,” Racer replied.  “You can stick it in the cabinet.  Just move some of my stuff out of the way.”  Jara nodded and left.

Bayli grabbed a heavily sweetened cereal pouch, poured the contents into a bowl, and added powered soy and water.  He mixed the concoction and sat it in front of Davud who dug in eagerly.  Bayli retrieved a packet of juice from the refrigerator and set it before the hungry boy.

“How old is Jara?”

Bayli directed this question at Racer as he watched Davud stop eating his cereal long enough to stick the straw into the top of the juice packet.

Racer shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’m pretty sure she’s younger than me.”

Bayli grimaced.  Racer had passed seventeen standard Marl revolutions which meant that Jara was probably about fifteen.  Bayli was working on his twenty second Marlen revolution.  He would not finish it for another three standard months.  He glanced at Davud who was intent on his cereal again.

Bayli lowered his voice and muttered, “Have you asked her about birth control.”

Race eyes widened.  “Why?  Great Captain’s gut, Bayli, we’re not bouncing; we just met each other.  She just got out of the medidoc.  Shirit, Bayli, that’s sick.”

Bayli winced at the disgusted tone in Racer’s voice.  Kids, he thought, just do not understand these things.

“I’m not suggesting you are,” he answered defensively.  “But if you’re united, then it’s just a matter of time, right?  What about then?  Are you prepared?  Is she?”

Racer scowled at him.  “That’s our business, Bayli.  If and when it happens, I’m sure we’ll talk about it.”

“There’s a name for people who put off talking about it until the last click,” Bayli snapped.

“Yeah, what?” Racer asked belligerently.

“Parents.”

“Oh.  Okay,” Racer muttered, feeling a little deflated.  “Look, that’s not in the plan right now, so relax, will you?  Spirit, Bayli, can’t you see what a great break this is?  I’ll be rich.  Both of us will be rich.”

“Have you stopped to realize why Jara is doing this?  She’s scared.  She’s got nobody, and she has to protect Davud.”

“I said the uniting words, so I’ll protect her,” Racer replied confidently.  “She’s got me now, and she’s got you for that matter.”

Bayli gave up.  He could see how Racer saw this situation.  It was a great opportunity.  He wondered for a moment if his opposition was due to jealousy.  He hoped not.  Still, he needed to ask Jara these questions too.

“All right,” he said.  “You stay here with Davud.  I’m going to talk to Jara.”

“Just remember, she’s my wife now,” Race stated stiffly.  “So act appropriately.”

“Just remember, Crew,” Bayli retorted.  “I’m still the Captain.”

He left the room and headed to the personal section.  Bayli hesitated at the entrance to Racer’s cabin, and then he knocked.  Up to now, he usually would have knocked and then entered after a few moments.  But there was a girl inside, and the protocol would have to change.

“Decent?” he called.

“Yes,” he heard Jara reply.

When Bayli entered, Jara was sitting on the bed.

“Jara, I need to ask you some questions,” said Bayli, and Jara nodded.

“How old are you?”

“I’m half past fourteen Marlen cycles, Captain.”

Bayli winced.  Even in the Hoop, fourteen cycles was often considered too young to unite.  It was true that there were rocks and ships that accepted fourteen cycles as the age of adulthood, but most set the age higher.  Sixteen was the most common age, and it was not unknown for the age to be as high as twenty cycles.

“That’s awful young for you to be united, Jara,” Bayli pointed out.

“That’s the age my father set for Mackenzie’s Rock, Captain.”

Jara said the lie easily if guiltily.  The truth was that Clide Mackenzie had never set an official adult age for his daughters.  He had died without ever speaking about that.  Wendra was twenty four, so she was long past the age of adulthood.  Julee was nineteen, and very few rocks would not have recognized her as an adult.  But there was no one to say whether or not Jara was lying.  If Bayli recognized her adulthood then she was legally the owner of Mackenzie’s Rock, at least until she could locate Wendra or Julee.

“All right, let’s leave that aside for the moment,” Bayli answered.  “I’m sorry to be so blunt, but do you have a birth prevention implant?  And if you do, when was the last time it was loaded?”

Jara’s face reddened.  She did not want to talk about that, but she was a Hooper, and she knew it was the Captain’s right and even his duty to ask.  A child would mean another set of lungs that would consume their precious air.  Captain Tyre had to ask her this question.

“No, I don’t have an implant, Captain,” she replied, lowering her eyes.

“In that case I’m going to ask that you and Racer abstain,” Bayli said firmly.  “Our medidoc doesn’t have the pregnancy evaluation application installed in its rom.  Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes, Captain.  All right.  Have you told Racer?”

Inwardly, Jara was breathing a sigh of relief.  This was the part of her plan she had been dreading.  It would have been very unusual for a united couple not to engage in sexual intercourse.  Captain Tyre’s order would postpone the normal course of events, and she was happy he was giving this order.  She knew it was her duty to give herself to her husband, and for Davud’s sake she was prepared to do carry out that duty, but she was glad that the event had to be postponed.

“I haven’t made it an official order yet, but he knows how I feel,” Bayli answered.  “I need to get back to the control room.”

Bayli left Jara alone in the room.  A few minutes later, Racer showed up.  Unlike Bayli he did not knock first.  He entered and plopped himself on the bed beside Jara.

“So I guess my old gave you the straight orbit talk,” he said.

“He said we’re not supposed to bounce.  I don’t have an implant.”

She was still feeling her way with these two spacers.  She needed peace between the brothers for her sake and for Davud’s sake.  Tension between them was not in her plan.

“Hey, I know why you proposed,” Racer said as he laid back and clasp his hands behind his head.

“You do?” Jara asked, worried that he might have figured out her plan.  She was surprised at his casual attitude.  She had thought that Racer did not like her, but now she wasn’t sure.

“Sure, you need protection and security for you and your brother.  Personally, I think that’s a great reason.  You’re smart, Jara.”  Racer turned his head to grin at her.

Jara didn’t reply.  The statement about her motives was true, but she hadn’t realized that Racer would understand.

“Bayli’s such an old,” Racer said derisively.  “Look, don’t worry about bouncing.  I mean, he’s my brother, and I love him and all, but he thinks that I’m still a kid and can’t see anything.  You and I are united, and we have a deal.  You have a rock, and I have a ship, or at least Bayli and I have a ship.  Sooner or later, you’ll feel like bouncing.  Everybody does.  But I’m not going to go wild comet on you.  How old are you anyway?”

“I passed fourteen cycles four standard months ago.”

“Fourteen and a half cycles, huh?” Racer let out a soft whistle.  “Yeah, that is young even for the Hoop.  I don’t think it would be legal for us to unite on Marl.”

“How old are you?” Jara asked, becoming curious about the teenager with whom she had wedded Davud’s and her future.

“I’m just past seventeen cycles.  Me and Bayli have been hauling ore since I was seven.  Our old man died and left us this ship.  He and Mom used to haul ore between First Rock and Marl.  Mom was from the Hoop, and Dad was from Marl.  About a year after he died, our mother fell in love with a long-rider, and she signed up to travel with him.  Me and Bayli have been hauling ore on this ship ever since.”

“How did you find Davud and me?”

“Someone posted a direction signal just inside the clump.  They were probably planning to return later.  When we got farther into the clump, we heard your claim signal.  It was pretty faint though.”

“My father set the signal.”

“How long ago did he do that?”

“About ten cycles ago,” Jara answered.  “The directional signal must have been installed by the pirates who took my sister, Julee.”  She sniffed as a tear formed.

“What happened?”

“Pirates landed at our rock.  One of them entered, and Julee bashed him with a magnetic net.  She didn’t want to kill him, so I helped her take him back to the airlock, and we left him there.  But they came back, and somehow they grabbed Julee and took her away.  And they took our food cache.”

“I read that in your log.  Damn shiriting pirates,” Racer exclaimed angrily.

“They might not have known that anyone else was on the rock.  You saw our secret room.”

“That’s no excuse,” Racer declared.  “Someone could have been outside on a rock hunt.” He glared at the wall for a moment and then continued.  “Then after a while, you stopped eating and let Davud have your portion.”

Jara nodded.  “I was hoping Wendy would get back.  She’s my oldest sister.  She’s the captain of our ship, and she took a load of ore to First Rock. She should have returned more than two months ago.  I don’t know what happened to her.”

Racer whistled softly.

“You and Davud sure ran into a rough meteor storm, Jara.  I’ll put a ding on the graph and see if I can find out some info about your sisters.”

His kind words surprised her again, and now all the feelings of gratitude she had suppressed because of her uncertainty over her situation flooded through her.

“Thank you, Racer,” she said, her voice choking a little.

Racer turned toward her and met her eyes.  He did not smile as he said his next words, and the tone in his voice was solemn.

“I said the oath, and I’ll keep my word, Jara.  You and Davud can depend on me.  And you can depend on Bayli, too.  He may be an old, but he’s a good man to stand with when you’re getting radiated from all sides.”

Then he blushed as if he was embarrassed at the seriousness of his speech, and he turned to his terminal.  As he powered up, he heard Jara sniffle, and then she crawled away and got under the covers of their bed.  Shortly, he heard soft regular breathing as she slept.