Prime Time

An Excerpt From: PRIME TIME

She saw the reality on their faces. All the years of put-downs for being a Porter and a Prime suddenly became too much. She was tired of struggling to survive with no hope of a better future because some goon shanghaied her parents. Not all the transported people came from Earth’s jails—some of them had been rounded up and sent here with no choice. Her parents fell into the latter group, but the manner didn’t make any difference once you arrived. Luna was supposed to be a free, open society, but Deena never saw it. She clenched her jaw until she heard her teeth grind. How many other lies had she been told because of where she came from?

“What’s the saying? ‘Once a Porter, always a Porter’? If you’ll excuse me, I need a shower. It’s rather dirty in here.” She grabbed her towel and strode to the door.

“Deena, wait.”

She heard Jake calling her but didn’t stop. If anything, his accented Techie voice compelled her onward. She pushed through the corridor to her room, ignoring the startled looks she got from the other people. The door to her quarters slid open and she strode in.

“Zeus, put a privacy seal on the door coded to my voice.”

“Yes, Deena,” the AI replied in his deep tenor voice. “Is there a problem?”

“What makes you think so?” She meant the question as rhetorical but forgot the AI would take her literally.

“Your heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and ambient temperature have all increased beyond your normal range. Oh and you’re wearing a hole in the carpeting from your pacing.”

Deena stopped mid-stride and chuckled. “Point taken. Thank you, Zeus.” She relaxed.

“You’re welcome, Deena. Are you interested in visitors?”

“Who?”

“Jake.”

Deena’s heart rate, respiration and blood pressure soared again. “No. No visitors.”

“He is rather insistent.”

Deena smiled. The expression was not pretty. “Give me exactly five minutes and you may let him in.”

“Understood.”

Deena skinned out of her damp gi, entered the shower cubicle and turned on the sonics. Instead of staying to enjoy the cleansing, she stepped back out and shut the door. The control panel would show it as in use. The ruse should give her a good head start. She went over to her cot, shoved it away from the wall and pulled the grill off the wall vent. Smaller than the vents she was used to, but not impossible, the sides scraped her skin. The opening was one of the first things she’d checked out when she moved in. Halfway in, Deena realized she’d have to cover her tracks. She pulled back out and glanced around. Nothing in the Spartan room looked flexible enough to use as a tie and then she spied her gi.

“Got it,” she muttered. Deena grabbed the belt, fed one end through the wall grill and tied the other end to her cot with a slipknot. Feet first, she climbed back into the vent, pulled the grill into place and tugged the bed back into place. Once there, she gave the belt a yank and it came away from the cot. The door to her quarters slid open as she pulled the loose end of the gi through the grill. She caught her breath and held still.

“Deena,” Jake called.

As quietly as possible, Deena scuttled farther into the vent.

She couldn’t see the room, but she heard Jake’s steps as he crossed the small space to her bathroom and heard him knocking on the door to the cubicle.

“Deena, come on. Talk to me.”

An inch at a time, Deena backed into the vent. To her ears, she sounded like a crowd of workers at quitting time. The vent’s soft lining scraped against her sensitive skin. Good thing I’m not claustrophobic, she thought.

“Deena!” Jake called. She could hear the touch of anger in his voice. “Zeus, open the door.”

Deena could hear Jake swearing as she worked her way deeper into the vents. She didn’t stop until she got to a junction where she could turn around. Six vents opened off the space.

“Eenie, meenie, miney, moe.” Deena chose the vent at front right. It was larger than the one she’d exited, but not by much.

She crawled until she arrived at another junction. Large enough for her to stand in, it had dozens of openings, some small, some almost high enough for her to walk in if she ignored her straight posture. A strong wind blew through the junction. She turned around until she found the strongest breeze.

“Thank you, Mom,” she whispered. Her mother had worked on the vent installations and taught young Deena all about them. The larger vents led to the public areas. Huge fans designed to circulate the air throughout the habitat hung at their wall ends. The smaller ones led to private offices and quarters. She chose a large vent. Once she got to a public area, she could get her bearings and get home. She’d endured Techie prejudices all her life, but at least in the Uppers she had some respect. Even a steady gig with Security wasn’t worth putting up with their insults and innuendos. She may be a Porter, but she’d be space dust before she’d let them treat her like one.

A short time later, she pushed the button and opened the trap door in her old room. Although the ducts were dust-free, the effort of getting through them was hot work. A quick sonic cleansing did much to revive her. The two weeks away from the Uppers seemed like a lifetime. She closed the shower door and strode into her bedroom.

“What took you so long?”

Deena spun around. Jake leaned against the wall next to her closet. “What do you want, Techie?”

Her heart beat so hard, she could hear it, but she refused to let Jake know how she felt. The wide-eyed ogle on his face reminded her that, except for her brief panties, she was naked. She strolled over to her storage chest and pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank top. She felt anything but nonchalant but refused to show him how nervous he made her. The unwelcome stab of interest in him fueled her anger. He was a Techie.

“Deena, you have to understand something.”

“What? That because my parents were transports, I’m a prisoner here? Guilty by association? Right, Pretty Boy?”

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