Creation Read Free Page A

fix a hundred-year-old computer that he didn’t understand.
    Sam couldn’t remember a single ship coming back from that far out, which only added to the mystery. He searched back through the information packet, wondering how they intended to get him home after this little adventure. Even assuming he could get the ship thinking and feeling again, the energy required to get her back to the inner planets would be massive.
    Lud shook Sam out of his contemplations then pointed at the small window. “Look out there. That little pebble is Deimos.”
    Pebble all too aptly described the hurtling rock surrounded by spacecraft of various sizes and configurations, all vying for a place to dock. Sam closed his eyes and leaned away from the window, certain a crash was imminent in all the chaos.
    Lud chuckled. “A week in space with nothing within a million miles will do that to your eyes. Don’t look so panicked. We won’t even be stepping foot on that rock. The big rotating docking bay off to the left of Deimos is where we’re headed.”

    * * *
    T he gloom that had clouded Sam’s thoughts lifted as he set foot on the floating transfer station. Optimism floated in the air as if pumped from the recirculation system. But then, breathing in anything other than the poorly scrubbed stench of his fellow travelers, as he had done for the last week, couldn’t help but brighten his mood.
    Lud attempted to restrain his voice to interior use, but its increased volume over what he’d used in the spaceship added to Sam’s sense of ease. “We want to avoid the big transports. Keep your eyes out for a small, disreputable docking bay. Something that looks like you’ll catch some strange space flu just by walking in the gate.”
    Free of conventional gravity, the walkway bent up behind them and arched up as they moved forward. In a flash of insight, Sam understood the futility of a hamster wheel, which kept the animal perpetually at the bottom. Lights guided the way, branching off to the side as a spoke of the monster wheel came into view overhead. His mind struggled with the sight of people turning to walk up what he’d considered rounded walls then walking away over his head down the shaft toward the center of the station.
    Even more confusing were the holes in the floor. Instead of falling in, people tilted down the arched ramps toward the waiting transport ships.
    Lud’s arm clamped around Sam’s waist as his legs buckled from vertigo. “You get used to it. Best if you don’t eat anything, though.”
    Half of the rotating spaceport, the half they’d landed on, was filled with commercial liners headed to the Moons of Jupiter or Saturn. But as the large bays full of well-appointed craft gave way to smaller regional ones, Sam could make out, around the next radial arm, travelers who hugged their dusty, worn space attire tight to their bodies. No longer well lit, the bays held many dark corners filled with people more likely to offer an illegal transaction than transport.
    Lud pulled Sam by the arm down to one of the smaller loading bays. “We may be in luck. Wait here a moment.”
    Sam had trouble seeing anything lucky about where they were headed. Lud casually leaned against a wall, pulling his long, thick space jacket up to his chin.
    It took a minute or two for someone to stop near Lud and mimic his stance. Sam couldn’t make out the muffled tones of the conversation. The oddity of Lud’s quiet voice made the hairs on the back of Sam’s neck stand on end.
    Lud pulled a wad of Earth banknotes from his pocket. The stranger never lowered the hood of his black cloak, but his nod was unmistakable.
    Questions flooded Sam’s mind, but a quiet look from his normally boisterous companion was enough of a clue for the younger man to remain silent and inconspicuous.
    As they left the rotating spaceport, the artificial gravity let go of its hold. Sam floated behind Lud down the narrow central corridor of the ship. Small compartments, meant