Set the Monkey Free
This is chapter two, have you read chapter one yet?
Carlos wasn’t in the galley. Simonee checked the cargo bay, the grow room—nothing but violet light and the ship’s low hum swelling in the quiet. Her own steps echoed back at her. The Fénix felt abandoned.
Except for the... singing?
A broken baritone drifted from the crew corridor. She followed it to the captain’s berth where yellow light flickered through the cracked open hatch.
“Yo era un lobo; yo era un canalla.” Carlos sang. “Y caminaste en mi sombra...”
Through the gap, shadows danced over Carlos hunched on the bed.
He had a lowball glass of amber liquor in his hand. All around him, fake candles flickered fake flame—so... relaxing. She wanted one.
He raised the glass. “Me llenaste de orgullo, pero ahora lamento...” Let it fall with the verse.
The Carlos she’d seen since Enceladus Station was usually so... avuncular. Sure, he could grumble and holler at times, but he had no bite. This Carlos was different—and probably best left alone.
But the thought of Mariem sitting on her bunk pulled her face in, and put her knuckles to the hatch—rap-tap.
Carlos twisted, brow pinched—then soft—he waved her inside. “Ah, nena. ¿Qué pasa?” He stood as she entered.
“Lo mismo. ¿Qué pasa contigo?” She glanced around, then settled her gaze on him, arms crossing.
He chuckled, and stepped back in a way that had a cower to it. “Nada, nena.”
Reaching, he pulled another glass forward, tipping over the bottle on the desk in front of him.
She caught it. “Whiskey, Carlos? I thought you were a tequila man.”
“No-no—tequila is for friends.” He shook his head and took the bottle—sighed. “This you drink alone. Whiskey is the key that sets the monkey free, as they say.”
“Haven’t heard that one.” She said, turning to the fake candles on the shelf beside her. “So, Mariem came to see me just now.”
“Oh, really?” Carlos said, adding a finger to his glass but leaving the extra one empty.
She turned, scowling. “She was pretty upset—seems you two had a fight earlier.”
Carlos sank onto the bed and swirled his glass, staring into it. “I’ll apologize tomorrow.”
She shook her head. “That won’t work. She seemed worried more than anything.”
Carlos jerked his shoulders. “It’ll all clear up in a few days, then she’ll have a new reason to be pissed at me.”
“Okay, now I’m worried,” she said. “Can you be less cryptic?”
A yellow flicker caught damp on his cheek and Simonee lost the scowl. “What’s wrong?”
He pulled up a weak smile and handed her a tablet. “Nada, nena—just a little visit, that’s all.”
She took it. “Visit? We’re millions of kilometers from anywhere.”
He downed his whiskey, as she read.
Her face pulled tight. “Admiral Santiago?” She handed it back. “Carlos, this message came in a month ago—you never told her?”
A cheap grin plastered his face. “And you probably shouldn’t either. Let it be a surprise.”
Her head shook, but he slapped his knees. “Now, while I always appreciate your company, nena, me and this bottle were in the middle of a very important conversation.”
She blew out a long breath and nodded, then left him to his bottle.
Mariem was gone when Simonee got back to her room. She tapped, ‘U up?’, into her message app. Her thumb hovered over the send button, but Mariem’s words—I felt dirty—kicked her in the stomach all over again.
Her whole body felt heavy with it. So she went to bed.
Simonee woke up when her leg started screaming. “Agh! Agh! Agh!” She rubbed the locked muscle until it settled.
Now she had to pee.
She hobbled up to the main deck, teeth grinding at every step. The common toilet was right behind the bridge, and as she passed, Mariem’s voice barked through the open hatch.
“Fénix, hailing Crafthopper 697—your transponder has you on a collision course with my ship. Care to explain your intentions before I start throwing things at you?”
Simonee limped up to Mariem on the bridge, hissing through her teeth with each step. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, hey Fénix, uhm... Crafthopper 697 here, did you not get my calendar invite?” A squeaky voice blared over the speakers. “I’ve got personnel from Zentari-Neys Naval Command and a package for... Mariem El Ow-uh-ah... er.”
“Already?” Simonee said.
Mariem turned on her. “What do you mean, ‘Already’?”
Simonee’s jaw fell open, but the speakers spoke first. “Oh, looks like a… Carlos Santiago accepted my invite, he’s the captain, right?”
Mariem glared down at her as she hammered the mic button. “This is Mariem El oo-ah-AIR, the first mate. Please stand by, we seem to have an internal communication issue.”
“Howdy, Ms. Ouaer! This is Bastien Faulk. Look forward to hanging out with you guys all the way to Venus.”
“Venus?” She spat, then turned in full to Simonee, butt on the console, arms over her chest. “So, what did you and Carlos neglect to tell me?”
A lump jumped up Simonee’s throat. “Well, Venus is new, but I think that ZN personnel is an Admiral Santiago. But... I thought we already had one of those.”
Mariem’s jaw bulged. “And he told you not to tell me,” she squeezed through her teeth. “Didn’t he?”
She stepped back and her calf nearly buckled again. “I swear, I was going to tell you anyway, but I got back to my room, and you were gone.”
“And you didn’t think to shoot me a message, like, ‘Hey, guess what, we’re getting a surprise visit from Admiral Santiago’” Mariem barked.
Simonee shrugged. “I—I thought you needed to be alone and we’d talk this morning.”
Mariem’s eyebrow shot up. “It’s thirteen hundred. What happened to this morning?”
“I slept in,” Simonee squeaked. “They weren’t supposed to be here for a couple of days!”
Mariem shook her head. Her shoulders sank. “Fine, you’re off the hook, but when I finally murder Carlos, you’re helping me mulch the body.”
A laugh jumped out of her but stalled halfway—Mariem didn’t look amused.
“Well, better go put a buffer pad around the air-lock.” Mariem lurched away from the console. “Wouldn’t want the little bitch to asphyxiate.”
<< You've Got Something on Your Eye
New to Simonee’s story? The Cannibal of Cloud Ball 9 is Book Two of The Girl with the Cybernetic Eye. Book One — The Ice Princess of Enceladus Station — is complete and free to read. Start here.