Serpent of the Abyss by S.J. Sanders

Chapter 2

Her thermo regulatory suit sticking to her like a second skin, Lori plucked at the material as she descended the transport vessel ramp. The faint morning light was visible outside the reflective surface of the barrier dome, but from their position in the docking bay, what little she could have seen of the terrain was blocked off by buildings and equipment. Only that faint glow in the sky was visible in a stratum of violets she had never seen on Earth, telling her that she had indeed arrived on another world.

“Come on, people! Hustle, hustle,” a man standing in a dark uniform barked from below so loudly that she jumped, bumping into the woman standing behind her.

Lori turned to smile apologetically before jogging forward to keep pace with the person now hurrying down the ramp ahead of her. Whoever was bellowing orders at them effectively hurried them along, despite most still being groggy from cryo-sleep. From where he stood on the ground just below them, arms clasped behind his back, she had a distinct impression that he couldn’t care less.

“We have much to do today, so everyone needs to hurry and disembark. I’m your supervisor lead, Jack Dowry. I will be directly responsible for getting you sorted out, and for some of you I will be your direct supervisor. For now, I want everyone to line up here in front of me so I can transmit your assigned placement, your shift rotation, and your assigned quarters to your personal com.” He gave an aggravated sigh as someone up ahead turned theirs on, the sound chiming loudly in the bay. “Please make sure your comms are on.”

A number of individuals brought up their comms to do as instructed. Lori was one of them, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. How was she to know that her comm needed to be on?

From the corner of her eye, she could tell who were the experienced employees among them. The majority of the group leaving the ship were filled out with muscle, their faces harsh and shuttered. Non-gratas. She swallowed and shrank into herself just a little. They intimidated her—she wasn’t ashamed to admit it. For all the crap they got politically and socially, they were imposing enough in person that she didn’t see how anyone could possibly not be a little scared around them.

Her eyes turned again to the woman standing behind her. Gray eyes met hers, and the corner of the woman’s mouth quirked as she leaned forward.

“Don’t worry. Everyone fucks it up the first time,” she whispered. Her smile widening, she stuck out a hand. “I’m Vi.”

Lori glanced down at the gloved hand and returned Vi’s smile, clasping it. “That’s an interesting name. I’m Lori.”

“Hi there, Lori. And thanks. It’s short for Violent,” the other woman said nonchalantly and then chuckled when Lori gaped back at her. “Kidding,” she whispered. “It’s short for Violet… as in the flower.” She shuddered. “I think my mother was on some rec stuff when she picked that out. No non-gratas should be named for something as delicate as a flower.” She looked at Lori speculatively. “You could be a flower. You a citizen?”

There was no condemnation in the question, just curiosity. Lori nodded.

“Of the pleasure arts strata,” she acknowledged.

The other woman let out a soft whistle. “No offense, but pleasure arts are usually filled with soft types—not to say you’re weak or anything. What the hell are you doing here?”

Lori shrugged as she moved forward. They were almost to the bottom, and she didn’t want the cluster of people lining up to overhear her.

“Things just spiraled out of control,” she admitted. She didn’t want to say that she had already been having second thoughts before she boarded the transport vessel, but by then it had been too late.

“They must have gone left in a serious way to get sent here,” Vi observed, her voice sympathetic.

“What about you?” Lori whispered, drawing the conversation away from herself.

Vi smirked. “Non-gratas generally get schlumped along wherever they decide they want us. Any place that’s the most profitable, I guess. This will be my twelfth colony assignment since I left Earth nine years ago on my first offworld assignment. I’m trying to keep an open mind about this place. Some of the grunts I’ve run into call this place Hell’s Gate. You get shipped out here and never leave again.” She shrugged. “It’s all the same to me. I’m tired of being moved around. This likely won’t be any worse than any other hellhole I’ve been sent to.”

Lori shivered and absently plucked at her suit again as they descended the last few steps and took their place at the end of the line.

“You’ll also get used to that,” Vi laughed. “Your TRS will be a lifesaver when you are working outside of the dome.”

“Is there something you wish to share with the rest of us, grunt?” Supervisor Dowry demanded, his eyes focusing on them in a frosty glare.

Vi’s eyes snapped up to him, her smile dropping away as she shook her head, her long brown braid whipping behind her with the movement.

“No, sir. Just giving the newbie some pointers.”

His eyes narrowed, but he nodded approvingly. “Good.” He spun to face the group. “We approve of team building here. The rock is a hostile world. We call M285 the rock because it is the miles of the most barren wasteland that you’ve likely ever encountered. We have regular seasonal sandstorms. We have a buddy system in place. Each of you will be paired off with someone. You will share a dorm and will come dependent on each other out there on the rock. You will also be matched with an experienced worker in your field to show you the ropes so that no one gets killed or gets anyone else killed. This is not a vacation holiday,” he growled. “Nor is this a place for showing off. We work as a team. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!” the line shouted, and Lori struggled not to jump again, her face flushing as she nodded vigorously.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” he said as he paced to the front of the line. “I will now go down the line, transmitting your information. No one has permission to break from position. The moment I deem we’re ready, we will proceed.”

The group fell silent as Dowry made his way down the line, the only sound the double beep of his datapad and the comm being transmitted to. Lori fidgeted, staring out ahead, not sure of where exactly she should look. The docking bay was well-lit, with a few short-distance fliers and among them a surface transporter with numerous open cars lined up on its track. On the other side of it she could see a platform station and numerous rows of lockers. She reasoned that whole side had to be a workstation. It was strange to see it sharing space with the docking bay but perhaps it was to keep all the transport vessels localized in one area.

Beside her, Vi hummed to herself. “Interesting layout they have here.”

Lori nodded, her head ducking as the supervisor’s head turned toward them. She so didn’t want to get in trouble her very first day.

“Relax,” Vi whispered from the corner of her mouth, her lips barely moving. “You’ll learn to read them. This windbag is mostly hot air. He’ll yell a lot but won’t actively make your life hell. Stand tall and firm.” She glanced with approval when Lori straightened her shoulders, her lips pinching together. “Perfect,” Vi hissed.

With Vi at her side, Lori just barely managed not to flinch when supervisor Dowry stopped in front of her.

“Raise your comm,” he ordered.

She complied and watched with curiosity as her file came up on his datapad and then winked out with a chime before her comm pinged. Without another word to her, he stepped in front of Vi and repeated the process before continuing down the line.

Vi opened her comm and looked down at it and grunted before glancing over at her curiously. “Ok, don’t keep me in suspense here, what did you get?”

Opening the transmission, Lori looked down, aware of the fact that Vi was reading over her shoulder, and skimmed the orders. Disappointment soured in her gut. She had hoped for something indoors related to the mining operation.

“Delta group, designation miner, first rotation,” she muttered as she closed it.

Vi’s shoulder knocked against hers, throwing her out of her pity party. “That’s perfect—me too! Looks like he wasn’t kidding about the buddy system. Looks like we’re sharing a dorm. I may snore a little, but it’s not too obnoxiously loud, I don’t think.” She wrinkled her nose as Supervisor Dowry shouted for the group to follow him into the colony. “I guess off we go,” she observed as she winked down at Lori.

Lori smiled at the other woman’s friendly candor. Most coworkers she had in the past had been almost overly polite, as if they were afraid of presenting anything that could be interpreted as inappropriate. Some did so as they looked for any and all means to climb the ladder—and stepping on those in their way—into a better position. Even Kris had been unhappy to rock the boat at all. So much so that, now with some distance between them, she wasn’t sure just how much she had known him. He let her have the most say on final decisions, even for something as simple as what they would have for dinner.

Lori wasn’t sure she had ever known anyone quite so blunt as Vi. She wasn’t sure if she entirely enjoyed it, but it was a nice change to feel like she was dealing with a real person and not a perfectly crafted, socially accepted presentation.

Exiting the docking bay into Raza, her eyes widened as she tried to look everywhere at once. It wasn’t like anything she had expected. Pictures of colonies showed high-rises that rivaled those on Earth, colorful splashes of signs and ads everywhere, dirty mean alleys and back streets hid from sight by the bustling well-kept roads as droids zipped about and people clogged the streets as they shopped or hurried by to their destination. Far from Earth’s rules, the colonies also showed signs of debauchery and, at times, forbidden interspecies pairings in entertainment. This wasn’t anything like that, but it wasn’t quite as dismal as the agri-farm colonies where tiny domes spaced far and wide across the surface of farming planets. It was simply… brutal.

That was the only word that came to mind as she stared at her surroundings. Although unlike many colonies, it had maintained most of the original white architecture, there was no real build-up that should have naturally happened over the course of the last several years since the Raza became operational. Instead, the buildings had merely dulled, and whereas most colonies attracted businesses that helped to grow the colony to more sustainable sizes, Raza still only had a business square that boasted a basic supply store, a comm station to send long-distance messages to family and friends, a couple of eateries, and a dimly lit bar. All of these Dowry briefly pointed out as they passed by, and every place looked nearly vacant as if she were looking at some old west ghost town with higher tech and plumbing.

“The square is open at all hours, day and night, to accommodate all of our shifts and rotations. We don’t have many luxuries here, but the comm station does have connections where you can order goods to be delivered. It takes a few weeks to get them, but it is your best option!” Dowry shouted. “Otherwise, you can get your basic goods, new uniforms, a bite to eat and some entertainment right here. The bar does have a large viewing screen in the back where they have scheduled vids. You can use your datapad or comm to link into their systems for more information. Our reception is poor out here due to interference from the nearby asteroid belt, but you may be able to pick up some long-range frequencies in your quarters.”

He pointed to several rows of apartments to the right of the square. “Those are the dorms. As I said before, since we believe in the buddy system, you will be sharing rooms with the person you are paired with. If you have any objections about who you’re paired with…” he squinted at their group, “…well then, that’s just too bad. Unless they are guilty of a serious infraction against you, I don’t want to hear about it. We don’t coddle our workers. Men and women are kept separate and will remain separate. We don’t care who you fuck—just make sure you return to your dorm after you are done. We do have family dorms if you are eligible for a license to marry.”

“Great,” Vi muttered as Dowry led them past the dorms to a large communal building that seemed to dominate much of the dome. “And I thought Paltrez was hell—and I mean that almost literally, since the planet was mostly black rock and lava flows. At least it had some parties that were memorable. This place has managed somehow to be worse. It’s like it’s stuck in the exploratory phase.” She shook her head, disgruntled.

Lori gave her a wry smile but kept silent as they stepped into the communal building. By the end of the tour, she was well on her way to agreeing with the other woman. Raza was about as drab and lifeless as they came. The cherry, however, was stepping into their tiny dorm that was barely big enough to fit them and their bunks. Vi sized her up before throwing her duffle on the lower bunk, mercifully leaving the less claustrophobic upper bunk free.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss Vi or sit down and cry. This wasn’t at all how she had imagined living in a colony would be.

Vi gave her a concerned look. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Look on the bright side, you’ve got me. I’ll help you out. This kind of shithole stuff isn’t new to me at all. Not the first bunk or dorm I’ve had to share either. And you are a citizen. Find yourself a nice guy here and you can get into a family dorm easily.”

Lori shook her head mutely. No, she couldn’t.

Sniffling miserably, she climbed onto her bunk. She heard Vi sigh below her, but she just couldn’t face her at the moment. Instead, she lay there, wiping the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. She tried to remind herself that it was just a year. It would fly by. And yet a large part of her wondered why she hadn’t just swallowed her pride and ambition and moved back home instead.