In The Orbit (Part I)

34. Karma

Karma smiles. She loves the rush of excitement of this slightly dangerous task. She also just in general loves being in space.

They have a bigger pod, with cargo space in the belly. That is where Harold is. He doesn't have any traceable technology on him except for a camera stuck to his glasses. The unidentified spacecraft probably has receptors that pick up on signals from anything electronic.

Fifi steers the pod out of the satellite. She hits full speed and goes shooting off towards the unidentified satellite. It is invisible to the naked eye, but the ship's cameras can see it. The screens show a large, gray, round thing coming up. It is flat and has visible windows, even from the cameras.

Fifi keeps going. Karma can feel how fast they are going even in the loss of gravity. Suddenly Fifi brakes hard. She screams as they barely miss a small mass of space debris. The sudden absence of velocity and gravity punch Karma in the stomach.

Suddenly, Fifi's face goes slack. She drops the controls. The ship swoops, and Karma picks up the controls.

"What the he-" she starts.

"Sh sh."

"KEEP DRIVING!" Karma shoves the controls back into her hands.

"Ok," she says. "Sounds good." Karma can't tell if Fifi's talking to her or not.

She drives, but instead of taking the way they were told, she goes in a completely separate direction.

"Fifi what is going on?" Karma asks.

Fifi pushes the autopilot button and digs around in a sort of glove compartment. She pulls out a small handgun. She flips up into the air in a cool little move and catches it and unlocks the safety. She smirks, and then suddenly her face is empty of emotion and her eyes are blank.

Karma freezes. Karma has seen this look before, on other people. This is the look that shows Karma that Fifi will not hesitate to kill her. Karma keeps her eyes trained on Fifi, and her fight or flight instinct turns on. Karma can feel it, like there is a switch that flips in her brain. Her brain rushes to figure out a way to disarm Fifi. Karma's flight or flight instinct is killer. Which is maybe why Karma is so calm.

Fifi's voice is low and monotone when she says, "You will listen to me, and not ask any questions. When we get to the Est- I mean the unidentified satellite, you will stay within the ship as I enter. You will not exit or contact anyone. If you try anything, I will shoot you."

Karma sits back in her seat. She needs to think things through. She decides that she will send Harold in to trail Fifi. Harold only has that camera, so it will work.

Fifi drives ridiculously fast the rest of the way. Harold lets out a yell that can be heard through the floor. Fifi seems to be listening to whatever listening device she has in her ear and doesn't hear it.

They arrive at the satellite and a door opens right in front of them. Fifi steers them in and floats slowly down a long hall. Then she parks and gets out, leaving her gun on he seat.

In a flash, Karma snatches it up and examines it. It is indeed a real gun, but it is strangely light. A thought flits through her mind, and she feels bad about knowing so much about guns. She shakes her head and gives the gun a good clunk on the side. A kind of stand in bullet falls out. It would still hurt if shot, but it couldn't do half the damage a real bullet could.

Karma smirks. Then she sees that Fifi has turned around and is charging back towards the ship. Karma holds it up and points it at Fifi when she opens the ship door. Fifi leaps onto Karma and tries to wrestle it out of her arms. They tussle a bit, but Karma is about twice the size of Fifi. She throws Fifi off and shoves her out of the ship.

"Go do your business. I won't follow you," she growls. And Fifi takes off.

As soon as she leaves, Karma pockets the gun and opens the storage area. Harold gazes up at her.

"I need you to follow Fifi. Go go go and don't let her see you!"

"What?"

"GO! You need to find out what she is doing and why she brought us to this weird spot and why she tried to shoot me!"
"WHAT?! SHE TRIED TO SHOOT YOU?!"

"Kind of. Never mind just go!"

Harold takes off. Well, it's not much faster than Karma's average walking pace, but for Harold it's fast.

Karma sits back in her chair and tries to figure out what is going on with Fifi. It would make sense if she was working with these people. Especially if this satellite program is going out to find things like this.

It really rubs Karma the wrong way. She can tell that Fifi is lying, all the time. The little vein in her temple flares almost every time she says something, and Karma assumes that it is a nervous tic that happens because she lies.

Karma also is still in shock because of the gun. The fact that it turned out to be a fake threat helps, but she is still freaked out. Luckily she learned how to deal with guns. Karma's older brother and Chelsea's older brother taught them.

Neither Fifi or Harold comes back in the next thirty minutes. With only two hours of sleep, she is exhausted and the ship is warm. Karma falls dead asleep, despite the fact that there is no Azalea to hug.

Karma dreams about Chelsea beating Azalea up. Chelsea ends up shooting the wall and turning into Fifi. Azalea's face turns a deep purple and her leg falls off. Then she feels herself flying faster and faster towards a big wall. She crashes hard, and wakes up.

"About time," Fifi snaps. "My business is done. You will shut up about this. Because they will find you and make sure you shut up. Believe me I have seen it happen."

"What does Harold know?" Karma asks.

"That's a good question. The storage area doesn't have windows we're all good. Also don't you dare tell Azalea. Or the other two. Got it?"

Karma nods. Then her stomach drops. "Ohhhh crap. Ohhhhhhhhh crap."

Fifi snaps her head towards her. "What?"
Karma shuts her mouth at the last moment. "Um, I just really have to poop. Like right now. Like diarreah stuff."

Fifi rolls her eyes. "Vacuum toilet's in the belly. Thank god we have one of those and not those gross little bag things."

Karma realizes how smart this lie actually was. Now she could make sure that Harold was indeed not in the storage area.

Sure enough, it was empty down there. Karma is awkwardly trying not to float. She does go to the bathroom so Fifi isn't suspicious. She spends a long time down there, but she uses it mostly just to think without Fifi around. She decides to go straight to Hower and tell him exactly what happened, and how they have to go get Harold. But then Fifi descends into the storage area.

"OH MY GOD WHERE IS HAROLD?!?!" she screams.

"No clue," Karma grunts.

"We have to go back for him," Fifi says. She runs back up to the pilot's chair. Karma gets off of the toilet and half climbs and half floats back up as well.

She decides that there isn't much she can do and goes back to sleep.