Chapter 1
All Ro needed was his signature.
She leaned back against the form-fitting surface of the chair and chewed her lower lip. Once her father signed, she'd be free. With a quick gesture, she launched the heads-up display on her micro and called up the application again. The micro's holographic interface splashed welcome color across the standard-issue tan furniture of their quarters, softening the glare off burnished metal walls.
After a final error-check, Ro signed and locked the document before collapsing the display. She tugged her fingers through her hair. The rest was up to him.
The door to his room opened and she jerked upright, grabbing her micro as it tumbled off her lap. Her father strode into the common room and scowled when he saw her.
"I put on a fresh pot of coffee," Ro said.
Unshaven and wearing the same rumpled coverall he'd had on for days, he brushed past her to pour himself a cup.
Ro studied the set of his shoulders and waited until he finished drinking. "I pushed the consent form to your micro."
He slammed the empty cup on the counter. "You need to stop wasting my time."
"Will you just look at it?"
"I've already told you. It's impossible," he said, turning away and dropping his cup in the sink.
She clenched her hands into tight fists and stood, looking for someone or something to hit, but her only targets were the metal door to their compartment and her father. Both were equally unyielding.
"It won't cost you anything," she said, forcing her hands to relax and her voice to stay level.
His ice-cold green eyes stared through her. "Maldonados don't accept charity."
"It's not charity. It's a chance at a scholarship. A merit scholarship." Ro hated herself for pleading.
"I don't have the funds to send you and I won't be beholden to the Commonwealth." The conversation ended as most of them did--with her father walking away.
Her hands shook and she slammed them on the galley's counter. "Then cut me loose. I'll figure it out on my own."
He turned at the door to the bedroom he had claimed as his workshop and narrowed his eyes. "No."
The blood pounded in her ears. He disappeared inside. She swore at the closed door and stormed out of their quarters.
Nothing had changed.
It was the same when he'd moved them to Daedalus Station three years ago, only telling her he'd voided his previous contract moments before dragging her on the transport. Two years before that, he cut off her access to the Hub's Virtual School, insisting she had everything she needed and refusing to “waste” any more money on it. He'd yanked her from anything she had gotten comfortable with over the course of too many years and too many postings to count. Ro squeezed her eyes shut on frustrated tears, cursing herself for hoping this time would be different.
She dried her face, pulled out her micro, and lodged another formal request with Commander Mendez. Her soft boots muffled the pounding of her feet as she stomped down the corridor. At the first airlock, she slammed her hand against the ident plate. The red light blinked, shifted to amber, and settled back on red, mocking her. "Piece of shit design," she muttered as she lightened her pressure and let her whole hand rest on the metal until it deigned to register her metrics. She'd built better ones as a child out of the junk her father discarded from his workshop.
She counted to three, waiting for the station's tired AI to parse her request and decide to give her access. The round door irised in silence. Daedalus didn't even bother to acknowledge her. Wiggling her middle finger at the recessed ocular, she stepped through the opening into the central nexus and her appointment with Commander Mendez.
"And then what?" Her shoulders slumping, she paused at the door that led to the command section and glared at another one of Daedalus' blinking red “eyes.” "No, I'm not talking to you, dumb-ass." Once again the AI didn't answer. A third door dilated. Ro jumped back as one of the station's doctors stepped through with her two sons.
Ro turned to the observation port, staring out at the craggy surface of the asteroid the station called home. Sunlight glared off the pitted surface of the derelict transport ship that had crashed here decades before Daedalus had been built. A field of solar panels glinted in the harsh light outside. This side of the structure always faced its star, the other side showed the night sky. She, too, was trapped in a synchronous orbit on Daedelus, always subject to her father's gravity.
Jem would hit escape velocity as soon as his test scores got transmitted off station. All the best Unis in the Hub, maybe even the ones on Earth, would be tripping over themselves for him.
"Hey, Ro!"
She looked over her shoulder and shot him a polite and not-in-the-mood-to-talk look. "Jem, Barre, Doctor Durbin."
Jem smiled up at her, teeth very white against dark skin, his brown eyes puppy-dog eager. "Can I come over to show you something later?"
Ro shrugged and didn't miss the frown that pursed the doctor's lips. The daughter of the station's engineer didn't reach anywhere near the Durbins’ professional league. Everything about Leta Durbin came off as severe and elegant, from her sharp cheekbones to her close cropped tight black curls to the tailored bronze jumpsuit that brought out the highlights in her smooth, brown skin.
"Come on, Ro. You're better at debugging than me and you know it," Jem said.
She glanced at Dr. Durbin and turned back to the slim boy. "I'll see if I have time later this week." He beamed up at her. She smirked as Dr. Durbin's frown deepened.
A syncopated tapping filled the silent nexus. Ro turned toward the noise. Jem's older brother Barre stared out the viewport, his gaze unfocused, his foot beating against the floor, his head bobbing to a rhythm no one else could hear. She and Barre were the same age but Ro didn't think they'd ever said more than a few words to one another.
She studied the two brothers. They had the same dark eyes, sculpted cheekbones and defined nose, courtesy of their mother. Barre had her dark skin tone and hair, but sported dreads that hung past his shoulders. It must have driven her mad. Jem kept his hair short and tight like his mother's, but his father's Afrikaner heritage gave the boy lighter skin and softer curls.
Dr. Durbin scowled at Barre. "Turn it off. Now."
Sighing, he shifted until he looked directly at Ro. She startled before she realized he wasn't actually focusing on her but on a spot hanging in the air between them. His gaze shifted up and to the right before he blinked twice with deliberate slowness. Son of a bitch had a neural interface. They were pretty sweet and if she could even hope for a chance at one, she would use it for a lot more than listening to music.
"Coming to dinner?" Jem asked. "We could go over my design now."
"Sorry. Busy." Ever since Ro had made the mistake of answering one of Jem's endless questions about coding on the ed-list, he'd pestered her with more and more complex problems. Encouraging him only led to more questions. Despite herself, she grinned, sure if he stayed on Daedalus long enough, he'd come up with one she couldn't answer.
The Durbins headed to the opposite airlock into the core and the communal dining room that most of the transient staff preferred.
Alone again in the nexus, Ro stared out the viewport, seeing past the rocky ground covered with tilted solar panels and the pre-fab domes of the station's segments connected by lengths of shiny corridors like a child's construction toy. She imagined the field of stars beyond the asteroid and all the inhabited places she could reach if only she had her freedom.
Anywhere would be better than here. Anywhere she could escape her father would do. It didn't have to be Earth. Maybe she could hopscotch her way closer to the Hub. There had to be jobs for someone like her. Ro stared out across the star field before turning back to the airlock and requesting entry through to command.
Commander Mendez stood behind a completely clean desk with her back to Ro, frowning at her transfer request. Ro studied the room as the silence stretched between them. Bare walls reflected the harsh lighting. Metal conference chairs lined the far side of the room like orderly soldiers. She brushed at the grime on her shirt, but there wasn't anything she could do about the oil stains and the frayed hem.
"Mediating family disputes is not part of my job description," Mendez said, without turning around.
Ro swore to herself.
"However," the commander continued, and this time she did face Ro, her dark eyes shadowed. "I am aware that Daedalus has taken advantage of your talents in addition to your father's."
In her crisp gray and silver uniform, her black hair cut in the severe standard military crop, she at least looked the part, even if the station was the last stand of the barely competent, or the first step for the desperately ambitious. After three years on Daedalus, Ro still couldn't figure out which Mendez was.
"Some compensation is owed you."
Screw compensation. There wasn't much to spend it on out here and Ro doubted it would be enough to book passage anywhere, even if she could override her father's injunction. What she wanted was transfer papers. If Mendez couldn't provide them, Ro would have to figure out another way.
"Your father's contract runs two more standard years before he's up for review."
Ro closed her eyes on another adult lecture on patience. So what? Two more years trapped here and she'd still have nothing to show for it. Two more years for her father to skirt the edge of insubordination before locating yet another even more dead-end job he could claim was beneath him and paid him to match. Except by then, she wouldn't need her father's permission for anything anymore.
"I don't have the authority to give you a permanent station position, but in light of your work here, I can appoint you as an engineering intern."
She opened her eyes and stared at Mendez.
"It comes with a small stipend."
"Thank you, Commander," Ro said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
Mendez's intense gaze never left Ro's face. "In a year, you will have earned the ability to apply for transfer. As a full citizen."
Ro's eyes snapped wide open. With a work history and maybe even a recommendation, she could go anywhere. It was just a year. Ro could do anything for a year.
***
The nondescript food pocket clunked from the vending machine just as Ro's micro vibrated. She shoved the sandwich in her mouth and projected the display on the bulkhead wall. Mendez hadn't wasted any time getting her plugged into the system. Work orders scrolled faster than her eye could follow.
What the hell had her father been doing? No wonder the commander had been so happy to put her on the payroll. Well, the better Ro did her job, the sooner her work history would give her the advantage she needed and the ability to escape him and this rock.
She ordered the micro to reload the outstanding work. Climate control in the medical bay had been marked a priority. She bumped it to the bottom of the list--the Doctors Durbin were cold enough to keep a cryonics lab at subzero. Ro kept scrolling: broken beverage dispenser in the officers’ break room, a clogged head in the residence section, and loose radiation shielding on the storage bay's roof. She put the beverage dispenser on her personal list. It was never a bad idea to keep the boss happy. Most of the issues were small nags instead of major system problems. No wonder her father ignored them.
Whatever kept him up most nights, it certainly wasn't handling work orders.
She kept looking though the list, wondering what else she should prioritize. When an item near the end scrolled by, she stopped the display. Power demand in the derelict ship had increased significantly over baseline during the past few months and Daedalus was requesting authorization to do a power balancing. This was the AI's fourth request on the same problem, but her father had marked it as complete all four times.
Why would he risk falsifying station engineering records for something that should have been an easy fix? It didn't make any sense. That would get his contract terminated and permanently blacklist him.
But if it were true and Ro could prove it, maybe Mendez would finally support her emancipation and award her the remainder of his contract.
She didn't even need to sneak around the station anymore. The commander had given her unrestricted access.
Sweet.