Drifters

by Krazydiamond

The Dregs raided the Nursery again.

The fifth time in as many cycles, though who was keeping track on this derelict piece of junk? Those idiots had no sense of preservation, no greater insight than they own little war games. They'd taken four this time, all boys, none of them older than ten. Start them young, young enough to mold, young enough to get them wild and savage before they unleashed them into the gladiatorial section. And too young to last more than one or two fights. Even if they did survive, who'd want to willingly mate with whatever vicious little cur was left.

I sucked on my teeth, looking at the wreck of the Nursery unit. The remaining children were cowering in the bunker, sealed off, still too scared to put in the codes and let me in. I'd have to bribe my way in eventually but I was sick of this. The Nursery was supposed to be a neutral zone, a safe zone, free from the games and other bloody sundries the various gangs of the ship participated in. The Nursery was given a pass and recruitment was supposed to be off limits until the kids were at least sixteen and able to make choices of their own free will.

I toed the shattered interface of a nutritionist bot, some of the pieces so damaged it would be hell to fix. My fists clenched at my sides. I didn't usually get involved with the inter-gang politics, if they left us alone I left them alone, but the Dregs had continually violated the tenuous peace we had brokered. Snatching kids, breaking vital equipment, and sowing fear, each time I was the one who cleaned up the mess. Who fixed equipment. Who wheedled and traded liquor and med packs for the taken ones. Because the Dregs needed supplies more than they needed fighters, but they always kept one or two and the loss hit the kids harder each time.

It was time to go to Donovan.

A last resort, one I loathed to take because he always took more than he helped but I was charged with securing the next generation and I would be the one who took the blame if they were all popped off by one of the more unruly gangs on the ship.

Astrid came up behind me, hovering by my shoulder as she surveyed the damage. "The kids make it into the bunker?"

"Most of them," I said, tapping a code on the door. A tentative knock answered me before the bunker locked clicked open. "Get them cleaned up and settled. I'm off to see Donovan."

Astrid gaped at me. "Anika, is that necessary?"

I swallowed down the sharper retort. "The Dregs have hit us repeatedly. Ever since the change in leadership. I have to go to Donovan before they completely destroy the nursery," I took a breath. "Even if it means throwing my lot into the games."

If my resolve wavered all I needed was one peek into the bunker at the wan faces of the remaining kids, mostly girls now, they features etched by fear.

I left them in Astrid and the others capable hands as I made for the Nursery's hatch that opened onto the rest of the ship.

The corridors were quiet this time of day, fitting after such a recent raid. I saw only a few haggard traders and scarred veterans as I strolled along, casual like, as if I wasn't about to seek an audience with the head of the ship. The meanest man alive, someone who'd survived over a decade in the twisting hazards of the gladiatorial section. It took a certain kind of individual to survive so long in such a dangerous place and then to seize a sort of leadership over all the various gangs and clans that inhabited the ship, bullying them to loosely follow a set of laws.

A man I was about to beg for help. To secure the future, to protect the innocent. Did those ideals matter to a man like him anymore? Did they ever? I wasn't sure. I hadn't dealt much with Donovan as I had his predecessor, a man I'd butt heads with repeatedly and gotten into more than one fist fight with to secure the general safety of the ship's children. After all, what future did we have, if we squandered our youth on petty bloody games.

It was a hard idea to drill into the head of a born criminal.

But we were all criminals in one way or another. Not like we were the last hope for humanity or any such noble venture. We were all Dregs, cast offs, leftovers, the unwanted element. We were the expendable ones. That was why they'd corralled us up and launched us off on the Hive, a fully equipped if outdated ship built for decades of travel. A dangerous mission of expansion, into an uncharted system. Instead of risking their best and brightest, they'd thrown the Hive here. It wouldn't be the first time criminals colonized new grounds.

The problem was the Hive itself.

The newer ships had stasis pods and hyper drives. Not so with the Hive. It was what made the Nursery such a vital part of the ship. Most of us would never set foot on solid earth again. And that lack of containment is also why the Hive eventually succumbed to the anarchistic system it existed under now.

Ruled by bloody games and bloodier laws. It didn't matter. It was my task to give the ship's children, the few who survived to their first breath, as much of a resemblance of childhood as was possible in this existence. The raids were making that impossible. The birth rate of the Hive was too low to allow it.

I knew I was drawing closer to my destination but the guards posted at each hatchway. Mean sons of bitches who leered at me as I passed. It was only the obviously shiv strapped to my thigh that kept their paws off me.

Krellik, Donovan's second in command, stood outside the door to the main suite. Krellik was one of the squad who'd survived at their leader's side for years in the games, broadcasted for all the ship to see. They were celebrities in a way, impossible not to recognize, unlike me.

"I need to see Donovan," I said, folding my arms to keep my hands from shaking.

Krellik eyed me up and down, raising an eyebrow at my diminutive form. "What's a Nanny like you doing here?"

I smiled at him sweetly. "If you could handle it for me, I wouldn't be asking to see your boss." The smile fell from my face. "Please, it is a matter concerning the Nursery."

He was slow to move, slow enough to make me grit my teeth but it was a reminder of my reliance on his goodwill as he entered the suite to announce my presence.

After a few more teeth grinding moments Krellik poked his head out, his expression unfathomable as he gestured me in. I squeezed past him, unsurprised when he slid the hatch back in place behind me, leaving me alone with his boss.

Donovan's suite was massive and ill lit, as if the man strived for the dark. It was also completely trashed. Broken bits of machinery, glass and other debris crackled under my feet. Why would he choose to live like this? He was the most powerful man on the ship. I eventually found him, stumbling my way through the dark, my presence long announced by the crack and crunch of my footsteps. He was waiting for me, hands folded in front of him as he sat, relaxed and composed on a long bench.

I was not ready for my first sight of him.

He'd be handsome but for the scars. Or handsome despite them, a lattice work that tattooed the side of his face with the grim reminder of his roots. I wasn't expecting someone so calm, not after the wreck of the room.

"What brings a Nanny to my rooms?" His voice was soft, as casual and cool as the rest of him, his tone unhurried. I had a feeling he knew exactly why I was here. Actually he had to know why I was here. Nothing happened on this ship without his knowledge but while there were laws of a sort, they weren't necessarily followed and settling matters on your own was encouraged.

I had been settling on my own for several cycles but there was only so much I could do. So many bargains I could strike with the bull headed Dregs. Each time I lost one or two. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if the raids weren't so frequent.

"I have come to file a formal complaint on the Dregs of the Underbelly." The Underbelly was the labyrinth of service tunnels that comprised the lowest levels of the ship and was Dreg central. They existed like sewer rats.

"My, my, what have they done to provoke a formal complaint?"

Formal complaints were serious matters. It was a call for Donovan's interference, which always came with a steep price and always resulted in death. A lot of death. It was a price I came here willing to pay, no matter what he demanded of me.

I gave him a sharp look. "I think you know why."

His eyes turned considering as he reached for a decanter. "Sit, have a drink with me. Let us discuss terms."

It was too easy. Too simple. Donovan knew exactly what the Dregs were doing. He knew one of the Nannies would show up to ask his favor eventually. I sank on the bench beside him, accepting the cup of liquor he offered, harsh as engine degreaser but it helped steady my nerves.

"What do you want?" The question came out harsher than I intended but I felt played. I'd been afraid to come here for very different reasons but now I felt lured in.

"That is not as important as what you want. How severe a punishment do you wish to mete out? Do you want the Dregs culled from the ship? Do you want their leader tossed out the nearest air lock? Perhaps you wish to make an example of them in the games?" He lazily twirled the decanter in his hands as he spoke so casually of killing.

We were all criminals aboard the Hive, but crime is a board spectrum and not all of us were murders or rapists. Some of us were just desperate thieves. It was why I'd signed on to be a Nanny. It was a useful occupation and it kept me out of the games.

I took another sip of my drink, feeling the burn in the pit of my stomach. "What price would you demand if I just wanted the raids to end?" I looked up at him, trying to gauge his reaction as I spoke. "There are so many years before we see a rock worth inhabiting. Too many years to fill with nothing but blood games. Do you mean to squander the children born on this ship in pointless deaths? To snuff out what future we have?"

A small smirk played on his lips, causing the burn in my stomach to freeze over. "You're an optimist. You truly believe we were sent out here with any true chance of survival. Do you honestly believe this ship won't disintegrate at the first atmosphere it hits?"

It was the unspoken fear of everyone on this ship. The true purpose of our "mission", the cosmic joke of it. A ship of criminals, sent to drift through the stars until they returned to the dust.

"So you would condemn innocents to the games for your cynical outlook?" Donovan might be right in his view of my optimism but it was what I clung to in order to survive this place. It was the reason I went on, the reason I fought tooth and nail for the Hive's children. He seemed to read those emotions in my face as he shifted, looking me over.

"Yet there are so very few children who make it to the Nursery," he murmured. His eyes scanned the length of my body, making me very aware I was a woman alone in his quarters and how easily he could over power me.

"Is that any surprise to you when you have so few 'laws' to protect them?"

The smirk on his face widened. "This Nursery of yours, what do you teach the children?"

His question caught me off guard but only for a moment. "We teach them everything we can about maintaining the ship"

He looked surprised by my answer, giving me the courage to continue. "Who do you keeps this place running? I've spent nearly fifteen years raising the next generation. I kept them safe as I could until they are in their teens. Until they are pressed with the choice to join the games or do something useful. Some go to the games, but most of them joined the maintenance and upkeep of this ship. So while your ilk have enjoyed your blood sport, the children made sure this ship kept going. The Nursery is worth protecting."

Donovan sat in silence, turning my words over. After several long moments of silence he spoke. "Return to your Nursery, comfort your children. I will ensure the Dregs do not bother you again."

I stood to go but I knew I wouldn't get out that easy. "And the payment?"

He waved a dismissive hand. "I will send word of your payment when the deed is done."

Someone was going to die but it would not be me. I nodded to him and took my leave, ignoring Krellik's speculative look as I left.

Astrid was also surprised by my return. I wasn't sure what Donovan would do or how it would happen but my answer came soon enough when the stolen boys appeared outside the Nursery Hatch. Their faces were ashen and haunted. Clearly Donovan took my request to heart and decided to exterminate the entire gang. It wasn't a great loss, one less gang competing in the games. The surprise was the women. Nearly ten, all clearly heavy with child, timid little things, half blind in the corridor lights. The oldest bore a hand written note from the man himself.

'I have taken care of your pest problem. I have returned your charges and turned over the women we found in the Underbelly to your care. This is your payment. If the children are our future, ensure they survive to see it.'

I took a breath, unsure what I had expected he demand of me. It wasn't a stop to the games, of even a true assurance of continued safety, but ten young mothers who I could ensure would deliver their babies alive. It was the largest cluster of young we had seen in years.

It might be enough to keep the Hive adrift a few years more.