Derelict

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Micah glanced around the generic space that had been their quarters for the past half year. It looked no different from any number of assigned living spaces scattered across dozens of sectors. A modular sofa with easily reconfigurable seating and a colorless nano-polymer cover took up most of the living area. Water rings overlapped the surface of the low table in interlocking circles. An empty glass sat at the table's edge exactly where it had been for the last three days.

He slipped into the corridor and headed to his lab in the cargo hold of the abandoned ship. It had taken him weeks of work, even with repair drones, and Mendez's tacit approval, but Micah had managed to clear out and power the forward storage bay, rig up full spectrum solars, and automate a weather loop for irrigation.

When he reached his green haven, Micah emerged into the full light of an artificial day, blinking until his vision adjusted to the brightness. The plants didn't care if their cycle matched the station, and he liked working at night better anyway. He looked up at the vaulting ceiling overhead. Enough moisture had condensed around the ceiling plates that it would probably rain later.

His seedlings looked healthy--long green leaves fanned out on each plant on five sides from a central stalk--but he'd gotten this far too many times before. This was make or break time. If none of his new crosses panned out, he'd be out of luck and out of business. The lovely deep green foliage growing in neat rows up toward his artificial sun represented the last of his stolen seed cache.

"Botany for fun and profit," he said, as he logged the results of this trial. It was painstaking to manage so many variables, from hybrid pairs, to light levels, to water, to the trace elements in the soil. His work was a cross between old-fashioned Mendelian genetics and cutting-edge gene modification, except he didn't use pea plants and no lab in the Hub would risk crossing the drug cartels to support him.

He just needed to figure out what would give him plants that produced fertile seeds. Growing bittergreen itself was easy enough. It was a weed. Anyone could do it. That's what Micah counted on, if he could solve the seed problem. If. When. From behind the clear terraforming bubble wall, he watched the rain and massaged the back of his neck trying to ease the stiffness.

"Nice set up."

Micah's legs tangled with the chair and he hit the floor hard. He looked up into the face of the chief engineer's kid and exhaled. At least it wasn't one of Mendez's security officers.

The girl leaned against the polished wall, her arms folded across her chest. She tapped one booted foot silently on the metallic floor. He scrambled to his feet and gave her a smile. "You startled me." What was her name? Robyn? Raelin? His father could always remember names, drunk or sober.

"Really? Never would have guessed." Her muddy green eyes stared into his and the only thing he could read was curiosity. She had the most open closed face he'd ever seen.

"Micah Rotherwood," he said, offering her his hand.

"I know who you are." She pushed off the wall, leaned down, and righted the chair. "The question is, why are you here?"

Micah lowered his hand, studying her reactions. "Commander Mendez let me have the space for my research." Her eyes, large and wide set in an oval face gave her a childlike look. The restless intelligence behind those eyes was anything but childlike. Her lean body didn't have many curves and she dressed in plain, utilitarian pants and short tunic. Her hair--blonde and long--was tied back into a tail that reached halfway down her spine. It was an interesting contradiction.

She nodded but didn't say anything.

He gave her his most charming smile. "I was just heading out for the night. Care to join me for some coffee?"