Sarah Talmaiz sneaks out of the house to go for a ride on her boyfriends spaceyacht. Things go wrong resulting in a trip to the asteroid belt.
Ho, I'm Sarah Talmaiz. I snuck out of the house last night to go joyriding on Reggardi's space yacht, but when it came down to crunch time, the jerk wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Luckily some space junk disabled the yacht before... you know. Then this guy, Pall Swiftcar fixed the yacht and offered to take me aboard his freighter if I "united" with him. Well, better him than Reggardi, I guess, because my face still hurts.
What's this, Pall? You're not going back to my home planet, Marl? You're heading to the Hoop? You can't be serious! So that's what "uniting" means? Are you crazy? I can't go to the Hoop with you, I have homework to turn in. I wanna go home!!
Excerpt
Reggardi hesitated a moment, and then he disappeared back down the passageway, but not before giving Sarah a warning glance. Sarah took only a few seconds before deciding. She quickly walked over to Pall and grabbed his sleeve. He glanced away from a display to give her an inquiring look.
“I’ve got to off this ship,” she said urgently to Pall.
He turned from his task with a puzzled look on his face.
“What?” he asked.
“I have to get off this ship,” Sarah repeated.
“Why?” asked Pall. “You’ll be able to drop in a couple of hours.”
Sarah pulled her hair away from her face and turned her cheek toward him so he could see the mark on her face.
“Please. I need to get off this ship,” she repeated once again.
Pall’s brown eyes widened as he heard the plea in her voice and saw the damage to her cheek. He looked at the passageway, and then he looked back at Sarah.
“Did he do that?” he demanded.
“Yes. I truly need to get off this ship.”
“Great Captain’s Spirit,” exclaimed Pall. “Yeah, I can see that’s true. But I can’t take you off this ship without permission from the Captain. And he is the Captain, right?”
“But there’s only the two of us,” wailed Sarah who was becoming desperate. This rescue was not going well at all.
“It’s the law,” explained Pall. “And I can’t break it, Sarah. He could get my ship banned from trading with Marl. I have shipmates who have money invested in this ship. We have to be able to return to Marl.”
“Can’t you do anything?” Sarah begged. Once again, she was feeling panicky.
The young spacer thought for a few moments. As they waited, the ship’s comm dinged. It was Reggardi demanding to know why Pall was taking so long.
“I’m having a little trouble aligning the gy,” Pall lied. “Hold on for a few minutes.” He turned to Sarah.
“Have you ever been united?” he asked hesitantly.
“What? No,” replied Sarah, offended that he would ask such a personal question of a perfect stranger.
“Legally, I can take you off this ship if you’re willing to unite with me,” said Pall.
A deep hurt settled into Sarah. She gulped. So that’s how it is, she thought. He’ll risk a brush with the law if I have sex with him. She thought about refusing but only for a moment. Still, she had to know something.
“Have you ever…,” she indicated her cheek, “…done this to a girl?”
“Never,” replied Pall emphatically. “That’s despicable. My shipmates would probably space me if I did such a thing.”
Sarah gathered her courage. “All right,” she said bravely if shakily. “I’ll… unite with you if you take me aboard your ship.”
Pieces of Eight, Part III is a collection of eight novellas to complement the eight in Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight, Part II and Pieces of Eight, Part IV.
A Subtle Armageddon follows in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in defending traditional values in an increasingly secular culture. It deals with the plight of the last man on Earth, who ought to have had it easy. But he is not the la
