Chapter 16:
Clara stood before the window in her chamber, letting the tears fall. She had no love for Orbitary, but she also had no destination in mind either. She was uncertain about the future, and she had to get her mother out of that cryo-chamber and onto a passage somewhere. But where? Where could they go? She had her father and Joshua back now, and close by. They could go anywhere now, but where was there to go?
Her tele-call chirped. Clara answered it and found Joshua looking back at her. It was still startling, his transformation. She said, “Yes?”
Joshua said, “I just won a massive pot. Father’s at a table. Are you going to be in the hall soon? We waited for you in the chamber all night, but you never came so we figured you must have had to do something else.”
Guilt hit. She had spent the entire night trying to wrestle with the hardest of all decisions. She could stay on, but Renall would be gone. She did not know if that would make it easier or harder for her. The hall would no longer be his now anyway. “Yes.” She straightened her shoulders. She knew she had few choices. They could stay on Orbitary long enough to get more credits and then book passage somewhere else, somewhere that halls were legal and they could make more credits. They would probably have to live a very nomadic existence now, and she felt no joy in that thought. “I’ll be right there.”
She clicked off and gathered her things then headed for the hall. Her feet dragged. The last thing she wanted to do was cheat at a table, but Joshua and her father were right. And again, the hall was no longer Renall’s so she could do it and know she had never cheated the man she loved. That was something, at least.
Her head high, she sailed into the hall. The noise hit her ears, and she winced. The tables were packed. The dealer she would be replacing was in the midst of a high-stakes high credits game. No way could they let go yet and it didn’t look like the table would close anytime soon either. She drifted along the banks of the games tables, casting an eye about for a likely prospect.
Joshua lounged at a table, a tall bottle of water in front of him. The expense of that water made her teeth gnash together.He should not waste credits so easily,she thought as she slid into the seat next to his.
Joshua whispered, “What are you doing? You can’t be seen with me.”
“I am not cheating for you, Joshua, for any of us. I don’t have to.” She fumbled the key to the cryo-chamber out and set it on the table. “He gave me the key.”
Joshua regarded the key. He tilted the water into a glass and sipped it slowly and with real pleasure. He took a long breath. “What’s the catch?”
“There isn’t one.”
Joshua snorted. “There is always a catch.”
“Not this time.” Her fingers danced across the table’s top. “Joshua, what do you plan to do? I mean really do? What are we supposed to do?”
His face took on a bleak expression. “I don’t really know. I mean I know we can’t stay here. This place is a credit pit. They charge you every time you breathe it seems like.”
“That’s because they do.” The restrictive nature of Orbitary chafed at her yet again. “It would be far too easy to stay here and keep living in the rooms and working this hall but—but I don’t think that is what I want, really. We’d be chained to yet another kind of debt. No better off than we were in Old Toronto. We would all have to struggle each day to keep the amount of credits we owe low and our wins high and our losses low just so we could buy into another round.”
Joshua’s eyes fastened on the key. His finger slid it towards his body. “I know that. It’s a sucker bet, staying here. I just don’t have any idea of what else is out there, or what to do next.”
Their father appeared. His brow, much smoother and younger now that he had had the lifts and lasers applied, wrinkled as he saw them sitting together. Joshua held up the key and Benson’s face became wreathed in a smile. He took a seat. “How did you do it?”
“He gave it to me. He is selling the hall. Sold it, rather. He gave me the key and my freedom and so now…”I don’t want to be free of him. I want to be with him. But that is never going to happen. I have my family. That is what matters and what I have to deal with right now.She spoke again. “We were just discussing what we should do next. I don’t know, truly, if the new owner of the hall will want to bring in new dealers or not. Even if they do, I am not sure staying here is a good idea.”
Joshua said, “Me either. I agree with you on the fact that staying here will effectively keep us chained to the tables and to debt and we might end up in their debtor’s prison off one bad hand. I think I will pass.”
Benson nodded and passed the key back to Clara. “I also agree with that. First things first we have to get your mother out of cryo. Then we can, after she has had time to readjust, sit down as a family and decide what to do.”
Clara looked back at the table she usually manned. Still busy. Still no signs of the dealer or the players letting go. And what was more, her heart was not in it.
Carding was a learned skill. She had always known that. There had been plenty of hands that she had enjoyed, but it had never been something she truly loved and wanted to do. It was all she knew.
Maybe it was time to learn something else.
She stood. “The bays are down below.”
They headed for them. The doors were, of course, locked. They each had to pay a five-credit chip to enter, something that grated on Clara’s nerves. The cryo boxes sat in long rows, and they walked along the rows softly even though they knew that no amount of noise would awaken the beings within them.
A tall being with glowing flesh and a tall, angular skull appeared. “May I assist you?”
Clara held out the key. “We need an awakening.”
“I see.” The key was plucked from her grip and examined. “Oh yes. This way.” He led them to a smaller room off the one they had been walking through. There were far fewer boxes there, and the being went straight to one.
Benson asked, “Why is she being kept in this room?”
