Hide away...
Eva weaved between
the stalls and enclosed pods of the market zone. Even in the time she
had been here, the area had degraded over the years. More comfort
girls, more drugs, more gambling, and more stuff she barely
understood. All of it was legal and that kept people from all over
coming there for their sins. She was only eighteen, so she didn’t
recall a time when it was good. Old people barely remembered anymore.
Her plan was risky,
but she was done with this world and its endless cities. She was
never going to get off the surface through honest work. It never paid
enough to feed her and house her with anything left over. Any extra
just made up for shortfalls that always came around. There were too
many girls working for the attention of the guys. Eva didn’t do
nearly as much as some of them, so she was never going to get most of
the business. She had a way of picking out the guys that just wanted
to talk. It was a slower, but safer living.
“Not living,”
Eva said to herself. “Just surviving. I want to do more than
just survive.”
She stepped out into
the street to avoid men in body armor and helmets patrolling the
pleasure market for trouble. As far as Eva could tell, the trouble
just waited until the patrol was gone and then did what they wanted
to whoever they wanted any way they wanted. She was petite and looked
younger than eighteen even with her hair grown our long and dark, so
she had to be extra alert and careful.
Eva looked up
between the taller buildings. Most of the sky was filled with the
curve of Neptune dominating the view this time of year on this side
of the moon of Triton. The cities circled the moon in endless bands
if she wanted to walk all the way around finding trouble on every
square inch.
With Neptune in the
background, Eva saw the tower of the launch station. It was busy.
Cruisers and cargo ships connected to every spoke. She would have a
lot to choose from, but she would have to choose carefully, if this
was going to work.
The street rumbled
under her and she saw one of the famous Tritonian geysers of nitrogen
spray into the thin atmosphere between cities in the distance.
She stepped back off
the street to avoid being clipped by a hover craft that was not
slowing for some waif girl in its path. The craft towed three
trailers of merchandise on wheels behind it.
Eva rushed between
tourists and workers to the next corner and turned down the next
street toward the tower.
***
A few taxis bobbing
on their magnet fields in idle waiting on passengers. The drivers
leaned against the sides and didn’t even look at her much less
offer her a ride. She could afford one maybe two trips with what she
had in credits, but she had no intention of starving to death for a
single ride in case this plan did not pan out. They knew she wasn’t
a likely customer and weren’t going to pay her notice.
Other men farther
down the street held onto wheeled rickshaws. She could afford those
rides a little better, but she could walk faster than they could pull
her dodging around all the foot traffic. Those drivers leered at her,
but still did not address her to either offer her a ride nor to
solicit her services. They did not much look like the types that just
wanted to talk anyway.
Eva made it to the
launch tower and began climbing the spiral of stairs that wrapped
around the outside for the kilometers of distance to the top. She was
not going to pay for the elevator ride either. She passed the hatches
for electrical and hydraulics access. The doors were blast proof and
coded. She could not imagine a militant climbing up this far looking
for trouble when the moon-wide cities had plenty available with no
climbing required.
She swallowed and
sucked in air as the artificial atmosphere thinned higher up the
spiral. The colors took on the sepia tones that reminded Eva of
photographs from the era before people ever left Earth – before
her family was