Betrayal

Part 2

"I made it", she said, with a weak, slightly ironic smile.

"Yes", said David, feeling stupid and awkward for stating the obvious, but he couldn't think of anything else to add.

"Who are you?"

"David. David Sarved."

"I thought this dome was abandoned. Lucky it wasn't, I guess." She tried to sit up, but clutched at her head instead, groaning. "Jesus, it hurts."

"What hurts?"

"What do you think? My head! You try to jump ship in a goddamn antique suit, see how your head feels!" She had started off shouting, but her voice tailed off to a whisper.

David was stung. "No thanks, I'm not stupid enough."

He saw the anger flash across her face, then collapse into dead exhaustion. "I guess I deserved that."

The silence lengthened. The girl lay motionless. David began to get uncomfortable. After a minute or so, David asked, "So who are you?"

"Mac." She sighed deeply. "The name's Mac."

"So why did you jump ship?"

She smiled ruefully. "It was either that, or be kicked off. Without a spacesuit."

"Stowaway."

"Got it in one, Ace." David flushed again. Next he'd be telling her she was female.

David thought that his next question, so why'd you stow away? would perhaps also not be that apt; so instead, he asked Mac where she was from.

"Earth, of course."

"Wow, Earth, really?" David was suddenly excited. Although he'd been born on Earth, he had only vague memories of his life there. Shortly after his fifth birthday, he and his family had left when his father was transferred offworld. Vague as they were, the memories were sweet: sunlight, green grass, white clouds, his parents laughing together...

"Yeah, really." She raised herself painfully onto one elbow, and turned her head to face him. "Amazing, right?" Her expression suggested otherwise.

David decided to leap ahead. "What's wrong with Earth?"

She closed her eyes briefly. "So many things. I couldn't even begin to tell you."

"Yeah, well, life here isn't all that great either, you know."

"So I'm beginning to find out." She looked around at the dome. "What are you doing here?"

David felt embarrassed again. What could he say? There was no reason to be here. He decided to tell the truth: let her laugh at him, show she was just like all the others. "I come here to get away from everyone, just to think, and dream."

Surprisingly, Mac nodded knowingly. "I used to do that when I was your age too. I had a secret rooftop on our building I used to go to. Just to get out of the unit and away from all the losers."

She regarded David steadily for a few moments, them seemed to reach a decision.

"Is there net access here?"

"Sure." David handed her his pad.

"No good; too easy to trace." She craned her neck to look around at the walls of the dome. "I need a crufty old hardwired terminal, with a nice, low-tech fiber link that no-one notices anymore."

David thought for a moment. "There's an old maintenance term on the bulkhead at the bottom of the access shaft."

"I can't get down a ladder just yet. What's in here?"