Young Writers Society

The little room they had to wait in was one of the worst parts. It was dark, much darker than Mr Pondek’s office, with only a single bulb blinking above his head. Steve sighed and rolled his eyes at Linea, who was to be his opponent today. Linea was a stick insect and, even for a member of a species that was supposed to be adept at camouflage, she was excellent at fitting into situations. She could even find a positive in this stupid game they were being forced through.

She was fidgeting with some veneer that was peeling off the table and shook her head at him.

“Every time, Steve?” she said, “You know they’re only testing us. It’s not even a bad way to do it. At least we get to visit places. You shouldn’t knock the league so much.”

“Whatever,” Steve muttered, pacing around the table’s surface. “I just think they’d be as well testing us on something that might actually be useful to the ship, not assembling a fireworks toaster!”

Linea looked up and frowned. “What’s a fireworks toaster?”

Steve shuddered. “It … wasn’t.”

There was a crash from off to Steve’s left. He’d gasped the first few times it had happened, but these days he just sighed and waited for Mr Pondek to get bored of making a dramatic entrance. The crash was the door slamming into the wall as it flew open; it always was. Linea’s eyes widened a little but she was around Mr Pondek pretty often so she was probably used to this nonsense.

“Morning, Mr Pondek,” she called.

“Good morning, my dear,” he said as he hopped over to them, a style of movement which Steve thought rather diffused the tension of the slamming door.

“Where’s Miss Eljen?” Linea asked. She had continued to watch the door for the moments after Mr Pondek’s entrance, but her boss had failed to follow Steve’s.

“Oh, she’ll be along in a minute with your directions, Linny, don’t worry.” Mr Pondek smiled.

“It’s Linea.” Linea rolled her eyes but barely even raised her voice. It was a waste of breath. Steve tried to catch her eye but she was gazing somewhere into the distance just behind Mr Pondek, as if trying to see through him and pretend he wasn’t there.

“Why are you here early then, sir?” Steve asked. He was unsure whether blowing over the incident made it worse, but Linea really didn’t look in the mood to confront Mr Pondek’s patronising attitude. He’d seen her defiant, and staring into the distance definitely was not it.

“Miss Eljen has kindly agreed to give you a head start,” he explained, “She’s so confident I’ve gone too far in my ambitions for you that she’s certain you’ll fail no matter how much time you’re given. Don’t fret though. I know you won’t fail me, Stephen.”

“It’s Steve …” Steve muttered. He caught Linea’s eye and she smirked. He raised his voice and said, “Then why have you agreed to give me the head start? You know she’ll only gloat and say she let you win.”

Mr Pondek grinned. “Because, young man, I have a feeling you are actually going to need the time. This is far and away the hardest task I have ever set for you.”

Steve gulped. “How much extra time have I been given – or, I guess, how much do you think I need to stand a chance?”

Mr Pondek pursed his lips. “That’s two questions, I’m afraid. You have been given an hour, but I think you probably need three.”

Mr Pondek had been right, so very very right. Steve was gripping his map tight in the middle of Diog town square, on the planet of Seriot. He’d been to Seriot a few times – its climate differed so dramatically from one end to the other that not a single JCST crew member was unable to access it – but this town had been a tiny little hamlet the last time he’d been here. Even then he’d just been passing through. He thought he’d bought some apple juice at a little stall, but that had been it.

Now there were Jikas, the planet’s dominant species, roaming around everywhere. They were crying out offers and bargains, while simultaneously trying to dodge the advances of their fellow vendors doing the same to them. None of them would help him unless he bought something, and his funds were earmarked for … actually he had no clue what. He never did, that was the whole point. No words, just directions. Follow them exactly and not try to guess what was being constructed.

His directions were absurd. The locations listed for the parts he needed were dotted all over this rapidly expanding city and Steve knew Mr Pondek was right – he would need three hours.

“What does it matter, anyway?” he muttered, as if Mr Pondek was standing right next to him, although of course he’d never have said such a thing if he knew Mr Pondek was even in the same building.

He still didn’t agree with Linea. He still thought this was pointless. He wasn’t doing it for Mr Pondek, or even to beat Linea and Miss Eljen – Linea was his friend and Miss Eljen … well, she had some strong views he didn’t want to know much about, but she also rarely offered them. He wasn’t even doing this for fear of being kicked out of his apprenticeship. Mr Pondek knew another one of the engineers would snap him up in a heartbeat. He was doing this because, despite everything he wanted to believe about himself and about his dreams of making sure the world was a place everyone could enjoy … he hated losing.

His next destination was somewhere in the north west of the city. He was currently in the north east. So it was the city’s tangent he had to cover, not its hypotenuse. Still, the little village had grown up so fast that the journey was going to take him at least half an hour, and then that would be his head start eaten all up. He groaned as a bottle top rolled past him down the hill he was about to ascend. This was hopeless.

No it wasn’t. Idiot. He lunged to his left and grabbed the bottle top, attracting bemused gazes from the vendors who seemed to be wondering what on Seriot he could be wanting with such junk. That would never sell. But Steve didn’t need to sell. In fact, he needed to buy. There was always spare money in the budget in case a planet’s inflation had bumped up the expected prices, or they were just more expensive than estimated. It had even been used as bail once. Steve was sure Mr Pondek wouldn’t mind if he used it to build himself a set of rollerskates.

“Excuse me,” he called to the nearest vendor, “Do you have any spare bottle tops and some batteries for my shrink ray?”

“Er …” The vendor, a young Jika male with narrow shoulders and three wide fully green eyes, glanced at the neighbouring stalls to either side of him. “Sure … ? You’re willing to pay of course?”

“Of course!” Steve almost growled. He glared at the vendor who had dared to accuse him of the most mortal sin you could be guilty of on Seriot – expecting something for free.

The vendor grinned, a grin far less menacing than Mr Pondek’s. That reminded Steve of another reason he put up with this nonsense. It was wonderful to be out of the office for a while.