Happy Shack part 6

“Sharks? I don’t worry about sharks. As long as you stay off the major tracks, you know, where they give a glitch to plow, you’re fine. Sharks aren’t too fond of the smell of dreck.”


Erin was half asleep. Her battery was so low, all she could do was lie on her back. We had spread out on top of an old transport hull and from up there we could see all of Net 11, mottled with shadows cast from Net 10. Net 12 (poor suckers) being much smaller than its upstairs neighbor was well hidden. Skim ships, loaded to the gills with reusable dreck, buzzed toward lumbering barges, table tops piled high to overflowing. The barges in turn heaved upward, spilling and dripping. Upward and outward to the Net 10 Recycle Port.

“Used to be we could keep anything we netted. Now with the shortages, the level above you gets first pick of the dreck. Of course that doesn’t matter so much for us crabs.”

Erin’s eyes were closed. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Don’t go shutting down on me. I’m not repeating that locker room stunt if your memory chip reboots,” I lied. The tap cable I pulled over was ancient, desiccated insulation cracking off at every tug. It would have to do.

“Try this,” I told her. “Might not be enough juice, but it’ll get you spinning until the sharks clear out.” The whole day, security transports had been circling about the nets. Every now and then flashing lights would blink. Next thing you know you got eight, nine, even ten of them swarming around some residential unit. Blood in the water. That’s how me and Erin ended up on the ass of an airship way out in Dreckville (not a real town, mind you, just what we call the fringes of our shit-town). The nets were too hot, and I knew of some illegal patch boxes with enough power to get Erin back to Happy Shack before her curfew.

Erin slowly picked up the plug. Slowly might not be the right word here, because it wasn’t sleepily or lazily. She moved with precision but like she was underwater. Fighting the resistance of an unseen, viscous liquid. The chunky black plug snapped into the back of her head. CLACK! I felt a little embarrassed. Like I just watched her pee.

After a moment, “How does it feel? I mean, do you feel it?”

“I feel it.” She was lying on her side, staring into atmosphere. “It’s different from the Happy Shack circuit. More—” She paused and focused on me. “I don’t have the correct vocabulary. Maybe...melted?”

“Melted?” I laughed. She smiled back at me. No teeth.

“Customers complain of melted when their Sweet Slurp is too warm,” She struggled to explain. “The sweet is not as sweet. This signal is melted. I have to drink a lot of water to get enough sweet.” She let her eyes close as she tasted the electricity.

“But there’s more too,” She talked a lot since we left Happy Shack, not necessarily to me, but I didn’t mind.

“When I plug in at Happy Shack, I can communicate with district, with upper levels, with all levels. I am part of Happy Shack. We are all one, and the parts—all of us—make up the whole. Here, the signal is melted, but I can…” Her voice trailed off.

“You can what?” She was breathing faster now.

“The city. It’s hurting. Weeping.” She was panting now. Her arms and legs straitening. “A woman. A woman weaves webs. Nothing. Nothing but sky. Sky. Sky. A woman. No hair. Many hands. Many eyes. She knows it’s coming. She knows it is coming. She. She. She. She.”

Erin’s eyes rolled back. All white. She began to shake violently. The plug! Too hot to touch. Use her apron. Twist. Pull. Her entire body stiff and an electric smoke, acrid, snaking over me. Erin’s eyes wide open. Fear?

I was kneeling over her now, not knowing what a mech looks like when it’s dead and hating that I was thinking such things. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. I chanted the words out loud. A prayer in a garbage cathedral.

“I don’t live.”

Huh? I’m pretty sure this was the first joke I’d ever heard Erin11 tell. Or at least what she might consider a joke. It was also when I realized how much  felt for this girl, and I’ll call her a girl because that’s what she was. Sure she was a mech, but shit. I could have cried right then and there.