This ongoing sci-fi series will contain non-consensual elements.
I had been on my way to Ferrin in hopes of reconnecting with the Siren's Kiss and seeing Roki again. Instead, I had answered a distress call from a stricken station and in turn helped some of the doomed inhabitants escape on a crippled ship. Now I was stuck on a way station in the middle of space with no credits and no way to leave.
Luckily it was a busy station and had a friendly staff. I sent a message to the location of my ship using the station's comms array. I told them to either contact me here or on Ferrin.
I was given a bed in a bunk room with some other women. As I had no means of payment I would have to do menial work in exchange for a bed and food. Due to my experience, I tried to get a job doing something more meaningful, but the station chief told me that he had no higher-level jobs open at the moment. He did consider my pregnancy and put in a word for me at one of the few bars that operated here. They didn't mind my condition they saw it as a benefit. They'd had workers steal booze before, but being pregnant meant I was going to be dry.
There was always a steady stream of ships; sometimes, they would pick up spare crew from the job boards. I put up my notice with the express intent to get to Ferrin. I wasn't choosy about the work I was willing to take either.
Wickram and some of the others had already secured passage on a transport leaving for another way station in a neighbouring sector. They asked me to join them but it would put me further away from Ferrin. They lamented that they weren't able to help me out but assured them it was fine.
The other pirates didn't stay long either and got work on a pirate ship that had stopped to re-arm and refuel. I told Josiph he was a good man, and wished him luck.
The bar I was going to be working at was called Indigo. It was one of two drinking establishments on the way station. Its proprietor was a man called Gorran who lived in quarters above the bar.
"You're Emrah, aren't you?" he asked as I met him one morning.
"I am, ready to work."
He was in his fifties and was a short stout man with powerful-looking arms. He began to tell me that he ran a clean establishment, which meant no drugs and zero tolerance for bad behaviour. Our main competitor was on the opposite side of the concourse. It was a little more downmarket than Indigo. I asked him how he managed to run a friendlier bar. He told me it was simple. He charged more for his drinks. It made him less competitive, but he priced out the hard drinkers.
The station also didn't allow brothels. Our two places were the only sources of entertainment.
"We get a lot of officers in here," he said, as he showed me around. It was a small place with a dozen tables, a bar area and a couple of booths.
There was another barmaid too. She was called Selena. She was twenty-three and quite pretty. There was a shyness about her which came across as a demure attitude. Unlike me, she didn't stay in the bunkhouse but instead lived with Gorran above the bar. At first, I assumed they were father and daughter, but he informed me she rented a room from him.
"How along are you?" he asked, gesturing to my stomach.
"Six months."
"Is that why you are going to Ferrin, to be with the father?"
I didn't want to complicate things by telling him the truth, so I lied and told him yes.
"You'll get there," he said, cheerfully.
I started my shift that night. Like he had said it was a more upmarket place, and it wasn't hard work at all. Gorran worked the bar while Selena and myself served the drinks and wiped down the tables.
Trying not to think about my pregnancy was getting increasingly difficult. A doctor at the medical center had confirmed that I had indeed been fitted with a device by Sakura that meant I had to carry the child to full term. If I didn't get transport there was a very real chance that I would have to give birth here. I would certainly be in good hands. After that, I didn't know what I was going to do with it. It was a question I had tried not to answer. A baby wasn't something I wanted. Going back to the Siren's Kiss with an infant wasn't an option. Going to a civilized world could be a solution. There it could be taken in and looked after. I would either need credits or a ship for that.
My new colleague seemed to take a shine to my predicament, and she asked me all sorts of questions and insisted on putting her hand on my bulge. She thought it was a wonderful thing. I asked her about her background. She was from a colony that had suffered a viral outbreak and collapsed. Through the kindness of strangers, she came to be here, and as she told me, Gorran looked after her now. Once I got past her shyness I found her to have quite a happy outlook on life.
We were due to close when the station chief and two of his colleagues came in. Gorran knew them well and told me he often drank with them after hours. He let me go early and with aching ankles I went back to the bunk room.
**********
The next few days passed quickly. Sometimes it was busy and sometimes quiet. Selena was good company during the slow hours. I didn't talk to Gorran much, who preferred chatting with the patrons. We had plenty of regulars who worked on the station. A few were like me, working here until a better opportunity came along.
One afternoon the station chief stopped by. He had some more questions about the destruction of the station I had come from. His name was Skrillo, but most people just called him Chief.
"As I told you I wasn't there when it happened," I said.
"Uh-huh, when I spoke to Wickram he told me it was a ship using some sort of stealth technology. Have you ever seen anything like that before?"
"Not in the free systems," I admitted.
"What worries me is that it was no pirate attack. No raid, no demands, just destruction."
Whoever had done it had destroyed the docked pirate ship and that suggested that it could have been a revenge attack.
He didn't seem satisfied with my answer but I had nothing else to suggest. The truth was that I was familiar with stealth technology. Not in the free systems, but in the UEN. They were small prototype ships that were mainly used in special operations. It was highly unlikely they would come so far in the free systems just to destroy a pirate ship though.
He went over to chat to Gorran who I now was realising was a good friend of his.
That evening the place filled up. A ship had just arrived for a much-needed resupply and its crew were eager to stretch their legs and let their hair down. Their captain also graced us with his presence. He was a man about my age with a head of darkly coloured hair. His companions were a woman with long copper-coloured hair and a rather well-built younger man.
"Where are you coming in from?" I asked as I placed their tray of drinks down.
"Just came through the three sisters nebula, heading towards the Belarus sector," the Captain told me with a pleasant smile.
"You wouldn't be passing Ferrin?" I asked, somewhat hopeful.
"The wrong direction for us," he said, and asked if I was looking for passage there.
I nodded and then the muscular young man asked why I wanted to go there.
"Catching up with my crew."
The woman with the long copper hair sat back in her chair with a more interested expression on her face. "You are a pirate?"
"Yeah, from the Siren's Kiss."
She told me she hadn't heard of it, and assumed I was married to the bar owner. It made me laugh.
