Like the First Moon Landing by Matthew J. Metzger

Author:Matthew J. Metzger [Metzger, Matthew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBTQIA+, Science Fiction, lesbian, intersex, Trans, discrimination, Mystery
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2020-08-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

There were skulls on the backs of her eyelids.

Every time Maggie closed her eyes, she could see Rebecca’s tortured face smiling back at her. See the finger bones gathering around her toes as she moved some dead man’s hand. See the stains on the gantry where decayed flesh had oozed through broken skin. See the long streaks left by torn nails as they had clamoured to get out. As they had saved the ship by containing the fire and turning off the power, but been unable to save themselves.

She was exhausted, but sleep refused to come. Perhaps it was a good thing. No doubt the sight of the engineering unit would be carved into her dreams. The frantic pacing of a murderer in the corridor outside. He’d shouted at the door. Had he been shouting to anyone who could hear him? Had he listened to them dying?

Dinner sat uneasy in her gut. Lídia had insisted on cooking, with a wooden voice that spoke of desperately clinging to ritual. She’d disappeared into her quarters within minutes of finishing her plate, and Maggie had left her to it. She’d binned the rest of her own. Eating seemed so…unnecessary, in the light of what they’d seen.

And under the disgust, there was guilt too. Maggie had been suspicious. How could Lídia not know anything? How could Lídia not be involved? And she’d been right, but very wrong too. Lídia had been a victim as much as the others. And to compound the injury that Dan had inflicted—assaulting her, murdering her girlfriend, endangering her life as well as everyone’s else—her own crewmates had abandoned her. The medics who ought to have protected her had seen a freak, and abandoned her to die rather than risk their lives for hers.

And didn’t Maggie know what that was like?

Didn’t she know, deep down, why Pa hadn’t come to the Commonwealth with them? Didn’t she know, really, why Hélène hadn’t stood by her decision not to sign the papers? Because Maggie was a freak too. Not quite like Lídia, but not unlike her either.

And yet, here they were, the survivors of deep space.

Footsteps shuffled in the corridor. The doors slid back. Maggie lifted the blanket, and a tall, angular body climbed into the bed. She was naked. Her angles settled against Maggie’s, her fluffy hair tickling Maggie’s skin. One hand rested just below Maggie’s breast, the thumb resting on the swell, and Maggie ignored it.

“Talk to me,” Lídia whispered.

“About what?”

“You.”

Maggie licked her lips. She could talk about Hélène. Her training. Cadets.

“I have an older brother called Sam.”

Lídia burrowed her head into the pillow behind Maggie’s and said nothing.

“He’s ten years older than me. Ma had a difficult pregnancy with him, and they thought he would be their only child. So when Ma finally got pregnant with me, I was supposed to be their miracle child. I was their gift from God. I was proof they were blessed, and someone was looking out for them.”

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at that birth.

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