Space Cherry Pt. 09

This is the first addition to Cherry's story in quite a while. For those returning, welcome back! For those dipping their toes into Cherry's world for the first time, welcome aboard! It's not altogether necessary to read the entire series to enjoy this latest story, although it would certainly add to the experience. In particular, the basis of part 9 goes all the way back to Cherry's very first adventure and her flight from Earth.

***

In Part 8, Cherry's life and the lives of her ship mates changed forever.

On the massive orbital commerce station Hyfax 7, a local magnate attempted to seize their beloved ship, the Emperor 16, and in doing so break up Cherry's new family. But through a combination of outrageous luck at the gambling tables and some legal intrepidity, Cherry once again saved the day, and in doing so secured them not only a huge fortune but also a new, modern and massively upgraded ride - the new E16.

We rejoin the story just a few days later, as the crew get to know their new ship en route back to Cremufax to invite their old friend Natalie to join their partnership. Chronologically, this story takes place prior to the events of the Epilogue to part 8.

***

"I know Hyfax 7 will always have a special place in our hearts Cherry, but I really think we should try Hyfax 2 after Crem. I hear great things. Hydro spanner."

"Oh yeah?" Cherry replied, reaching beneath the console Tor was working under to hand him the tool. "Like what?"

"Just trust me, you'll love it!" Tor insisted.

"If you say so," she replied, chuckling as she checked the readouts monitoring Tor's repair. Of course, the new E16 really had no need for this kind of repair to be done manually. A veritable army of bots and drones could easily maintain the ship. But Tor insisted. He let the bots do most of the work but Cherry could certainly understand his need to get to know their new ship. As de facto chief engineer on the old E16, he had known every nook and cranny of the ancient freighter that was now berthed comfortably in the cavernous hanger bay of its successor, and it was his firm intention to become just as familiar with their new ship. "OK, looks like that did it, the flow is coming back into equilibrium," Cherry noted.

"Course it is!" Tor beamed, climbing out from under the console, "I'm a damn genius!"

"Sure you are," Cherry said, smiling wryly before hitting a switch to activate the internal comms system. "Cherry to bridge, hey Skip you up there?"

"Sure Cherry, go ahead," Heb replied from the bridge.

"Looks like Tor solved the flow issue, you can bring her back up to mark 12 now," Cherry reported.

"Good work guys, mark 12 it is. Oh, hey Cherry, Fem says you got a letter. Looks like it's from your mom and dad."

"Cool, thanks Skip. Tell Fem to transfer it to my quarters, I'll get it there." Cherry didn't attempt to hold back the excitement in her voice. She hadn't heard back from her parents since sending word of her good fortune, her very good fortune on Hyfax 7. The sometimes lengthy delays in communications owing to the vast distances involved was one of the things about interstellar travel Cherry still found it hard to get used to and it just felt odd not to have had a conversation with her parents since becoming fabulously wealthy, wealthy enough that she knew their lives would change just as much as her own.

"Tor, do you mind...?" she asked.

"No sweat Cherry, go ahead, me and the kids'll finish up here." The kids was the term of affection Tor had already coined to describe the new E16's army of bots and drones.

"Thanks," she said and smiled warmly at him as she made for the transit pod that would take her back to the forward end of the massive ship and her quarters.

They were thirty-six hours out of Hyfax 7, en route for Crem. Though everything since she'd first joined the old E16 was new to Cherry, it felt a little fun that for the first time, her crew mates were in a similar situation as they got to know their new home. Of course, life was a little easier for everybody the more they learned to trust things on their new, sleek, modern ship. Stuff broke down less, needed a little TLC less. Water even came out of the dispensers a little faster. It still felt a little strange moving around, to see everything look so shiny and new and that internal, unspoken thing that happens when a place starts to feel like home was probably still a ways off.

But all things considered, Cherry was in a good mood as she entered her new, spacious quarters and sat at the large desk set against one wall. She took a moment to marvel at the view of stars rushing past her windows, at the fact that her quarters even had windows, and smiled as she once again savored their good fortune. She used her Biohud to interface with the screen over her desk that doubled as a mirror and called up the video message from her parents and set it to play.

She was feeling a little warm so she'd turned around briefly to take off the light jacket she had on and throw it on her bed. When she turned back and saw what was on the screen, she nearly fell off her chair.

Phil.

The prick.

She hadn't laid eyes on the man she once shared a home with since the night she left him and, even before he said anything, the very sight of him send Cherry's stomach tumbling.

"Hi honey," he said. His face was too close to the camera and wore what Cherry could only describe as a maniacal grin. "You're a hard woman to track down Cherry. I asked your mom and dad but they were, I have to say, not very cooperative," he went on.

Cherry's mind churned. Phil's face filled the screen and she struggled to make out any other details in the image. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, something was not where or what it was supposed to be. When Phil spoke again, she understood what it was.

"So, I'm afraid I had to be a little bit more persuasive that I think you'd like." He stepped back from the camera so the space he was in became visible and Cherry felt her stomach lurch and her mind whirl. Her heart seemed to thump in her chest and for a moment her vision got a little blurry.

Still, there was no mistaking what she was looking at. Phil was in her parent's apartment. Her parents were there too. She could see her mother, blindfolded and gagged, her arms and legs bound, sitting on the couch. Her father lay on the floor. Though he was also bound, Cherry didn't think he was conscious and before her mind could start to think of other possibilities, Phil carried on.

"Don't worry honey, mom and dad are fine," he said, smirking into the camera. "Well, mom is anyway. Dad required quite a lot of... persuasion, so he's actually not doing too good.

"So let's make this simple Cherry. I have something of yours and you have something of mine and I want my fucking money you little bitch. You have 48 hours. And you know what, I'm not even gonna tell you what I'm gonna do in 48 hours if I don't have my money. I'll just leave that to your imagination and I know what an active imagination you have. I always hated that shit. 48 hours Cherry. Don't be late."

The screen winked off and Cherry screamed. Unable to process the magnitude of the awful emotions and possibilities that raced through her mind, her body just reacted instinctively. Her shriek could be heard in every corner of E16's crew concourse.

Even though they were a deck below, Heb and Fem had no trouble hearing her. When they burst through her door in a panic a few moments later they found her on the floor, more or less in a fetal position, crying uncontrollably.

It took a few minutes for them to calm her enough that they could move her to sit on the edge of her bed and another few minutes to gather that it was the message, still queued on her wall monitor, that was the problem.

Tor had arrived by then. Heb didn't think it was a good idea for Cherry to watch the message again, so Tor half guided, half carried her to the galley so Heb and Fem could watch the message and start to figure out what was going on.

When they went to join Tor and Cherry, they found her sitting on a couch, her knees pulled up to her chest. She had mostly stopped crying but her eyes were very red and her body seemed to shake.

"I'll go get her something," Fem said and left for the med bay.

"Cherry..." Heb began tentatively, "was that... Phil?"

With difficulty, Cherry managed to nod. She had told them all the story of how she'd come to be on Apollo station, how she'd happened to be in the right place at the right time to first meet Heb and end up on the old E16 and what all that had to do with Phil. So they knew all about her life with him, about how she'd come upon him cheating on her in their bed when he hadn't expected her to be home.

And of course, they knew about the money. The money she'd gambled on Hyfax 7 that had made them all rich. And bought this new ship. But they didn't know everything about it.

Fem returned with a small package from the med bay.

"Cherry, I'm going to give you something. It'll help you calm down a little. Is that OK?"

She managed another small nod and Fem withdraw a small vial from the package he'd brought. As gently as he could, he sat on the couch next to her and slowly pressed the vial to her neck.

Instantly, Cherry felt the adrenaline that was coursing through her ease back a little and the uncontrollable shaking started to quickly subside.

"That's it," Fem said calmly, soothingly, "try a deep breath Cherry, that's it."

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and felt the terrible fog in her brain start to clear just a little.

"How are you feeling?" Heb asked, still tentative. He had pulled up a chair so he sat more or less in front of Cherry. Not wanting to crowd her, Tor stood behind his Captain, close to the door.

"Bet... Better..." she managed and took another few deep breaths.

"Cherry, listen to me now OK," Heb said, and moved down from the chair he'd been on so he was on his knees in front of Cherry. "Whatever's going on, whatever this is, we've got your back. You know that, right?"

"We're here for you Cherry," Fem said beside her and she felt him inch just a little closer to her and the soft, soothing touch of his hand in the middle of her back.

"You just say the word Cherry, I'll fucking rip that motherfucker's throat out," was Tor's contribution and, despite everything, Cherry couldn't help a chuckle escaping. For the first time since they'd entered the room, she managed to look up. Tears still filled her eyes, but there was another reason for them now, aside from her parents' plight.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," she said before sobs overtook her again. Instantly, she felt Fem's arm tighten around her, felt Heb move to the other side of her on the couch and do the same, with Tor taking Heb's place on his knees in front of her.

"Come on, Cherry, you have nothing to be sorry for," Heb said.

Their kindness and very obvious affection for her, their unqualified support of her in what was obviously a nightmare situation had the effect of forcing Cherry to try to control herself, to overcome the sobbing. She knew she had to tell them the rest of the story.

"Thank you guys," she said and did a big sniffle. Tor got up and came back with some tissues. "But, I do have something to be sorry for. This is my fault."

Cherry felt a little fearful now as Heb, Tor and Fem didn't speak, giving her space to carry on. As she looked around at her shipmates, at the men that had come to mean so much to her, she was grateful that she saw no suspicion in their eyes. Still, the thought of what her honesty might cost her was a painful one.

"You guys have been..." she began but her voice caught in her throat and she had to stop for another deep breath. "After I tell you what I have to tell you, if you want me off the ship, I'll understand. But... ending up on E16... being here with you... with all of you... it's the best thing that's ever happened in my life. I want you to know that."

She did see something in their eyes now. If not suspicion, then certainly fear. As much as she'd come to care for them, she couldn't help but be aware that they had come to care for her too and, as she struggled to keep the image of her bound and gagged parents from her mind, the guilt of letting her shipmates down was nearly overwhelming.

"It's OK, Cherry. Talk to us," Tor said softly and she felt again, as she had on Xan's ship, the solidarity in his eyes.

"I told you about Phil, about how I left him and all. But what I didn't tell you... the reason all this is my fault..." she paused and raised her head until she was looking at the ceiling, as if in search of intervention from a divine power she didn't believe in. "I stole from him," she said at last.

"The money? He said in the message he wanted his money. I always just assumed..." Heb said after a short silence, softly though. There was no insistence or reproach in his voice.

"I guess, technically, it was our money, it was in a joint account, but it was all his. The vast majority anyway."

Cherry hadn't made any secret of the money she had, at least when she'd gotten to know her crew mates well enough. She hadn't really thought about why, maybe because of a nagging guilt, but she hadn't been totally up front about the source of it. When she'd first told them about it, they had assumed it was essentially her life savings and given the reason she'd left Phil, they didn't ask too many questions.

"I nearly don't want to ask Cherry, but... he's... he's got your parents..." Fem said nervously.

"How much was his?" Cherry understood what he wanted to know, what they would all want to know. "All of it. Almost anyway. About a quarter of a million credits."

A kind of stunned silence descended. While this was not an outrageous sum by galactic standards, it was a great deal of money to people like Heb, Tor and Fem. And to Cherry too. At least it would have been before Hyfax 7.

"Why?" Fem asked finally.

"I don't know," Cherry replied, "I mean, I was just... mad. I wanted to punish him I guess and I knew that... if I wanted to... you know, start a new life or whatever, it might come in handy. Turns out, I got a pretty decent job like straight away so I ended up not really needing it and... honestly, I just stopped thinking about it until Hyfax and then..."

She didn't need to go on. The understanding that what Cherry had done, the money she'd stolen from Phil, had not only saved them but changed their lives so fundamentally was clear to them all.

"And did you ever think he would be capable of...?" Heb asked.

"Phil? Not in a million years. He spends most of time in VR, that's why it's so... I just can't believe he'd do something like this..."

"Money makes people do fucked up things Cherry," Tor observed.

"I'm just so sorry guys..." Cherry said, and lowered her head to her chest again.

If she'd been looking up, she would have seen a look pass between her three shipmates. It was brief but effective and very deeply meaningful.

"Cherry, listen to me," Heb said, turning his body to face her, "you did something you probably shouldn't have done but that doesn't change anything, anything at all, about your place on this ship, do you understand? Hell, if you knew half the stupid, fucking crazy shit the three of us have pulled in our time..."

Cherry felt her eyes fill again with tears as she struggled to meet Heb's gaze.

"You're one of us Cherry, no backing out now," Tor said.

"Guys, I'm sorry. I lied to you. I can't ask..." Cherry started, but Fem interrupted her.

"You don't have to ask Cherry. We wouldn't let you ask. We're a crew. All for one and one for all, right guys?"

"Damn straight," Tor agreed and Heb nodded solemnly.

Cherry was about to protest further that she didn't want to drag them into the whirlwind of shit she was responsible for creating, but as she looked in the eyes of her shipmates, each of them focused on her intently, she knew though her vision was blurred by tears that it would be fruitless. Her heart seemed to swell a little as, in what was surely the worst moment of her life, she felt utterly enveloped by her shipmates' kindness, affection and solidarity and the weight of the nightmare she had to face seemed lighter for it.

"Right," Heb said finally, "let's ah... let's start to figure this out. First thing's first, Tor, get up to the bridge and alter course. We ain't going to Crem just yet."

"Aye, aye Skip," Tor said, jumping to his feet.

"Fem," Heb went on, "don't you think something's a little fishy about this guy? I mean, if his money was... stolen... why wouldn't he just call them cops right away? Cherry didn't travel on any fake docs or anything, right Cherry?" Cherry nodded softly. "Right. So she wouldn't have been hard to find. Come to think of it, why would he assume we wouldn't just call the cops right away? He's taken Cherry's mom and dad hostage, in their own home for fuck's sake!"

"You thinking what I'm thinking Skip?" Fem asked and pursed his lips, his eyebrows drawn together.

"I think I am. I'm going to make a few calls. Cherry, why don't you lie down for a bit. Fem...?" Heb said, getting up.

"I'll stay with her Skip."

Such was the fog in Cherry's mind, the speed of their words and action confused her a little and Heb was already at the door on his way out before she was able to speak again.

"Skip..." she called weakly. He stopped and turned to face her.

"All for one and one for all Cherry. Get some rest. We got this."

***

Fem gave her something to help her sleep so she wasn't sure how much time had passed when she awoke to find Heb sitting by her bed. Fem was still there too.

As she woke, it took her brain an instant to recall the memory of what was happening and she sprang upright when it jumped to the surface of her mind.

"Mom..." she called out, panic in her voice, before she felt Heb's calming hands on her as he moved to sit on the edge of her bed.

"It's OK Cherry," Heb said soothingly, "It's OK, they're OK."

Still a little dazed, it took Cherry a few seconds to fully grasp what Heb was saying.

"Wha... they..." she struggled and felt her body start to shake a little again.

Fem brought over a glass of water and helped her bring it to her mouth.

"Just relax Cherry," Heb went on, "they're OK. I, ah, I made some calls."

Cherry's face, her whole body still registered total confusion as she searched Heb's eyes for answers.

"You're not the only one with a few skeletons in the closet Cherry," he said.

***

They adjourned to the galley and Tor joined them. They sat around the table as they had done so often before in the old E16's far less spacious, far less comfortable space. Fem poured coffee.

"Who did you call?" Cherry asked at last.

"I knew..." Heb began, but hesitated a little. "I knew you'd have to find out someday, I just... I didn't think my hand would be forced I guess," he went on and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Cherry, like a lot of people in our business, not all of our jobs are... well, not all the work we do is what you'd call one hundred per cent above board. Over the years, we've developed relationships with... certain people... certain groups that prefer to stay... under the radar."

"Holy shit Skip," Tor chimed in, "that was about the most cryptic attempt at an explanation I've ever heard. I thought we said we were gonna be honest here!"

"Shit, I know," Heb said, and ran his hand roughly over his face.

"Please, Skip..." Cherry began, but stopped when she realized she didn't really know what she was asking.

"Cherry, we sometime do business with the mob, specifically the Meldobian mob," Heb declared finally, looking straight into Cherry's eyes.

Somehow, though Cherry knew it had clearly taken a great deal of effort for Heb to share this information with her, knew he feared it would be shocking to her, she found that she registered almost no internal surprise at all.