"Damn, will you look at that crowd out there!"
Amanda peered around the curtain, literally bouncing. The rest of the band was setting up on the make shift stage in the mess hall, ignoring her. You had to ignore the girl, really. It was the only way to get anything done. Amanda had taken to the idea of forming a band and putting on concerts like... like... well, like Lessa takes to slitting throats. With just as much bloodshed if you made fun of her.
The scene on the other side of Hanna's freshly sewn curtains was, really, no different than any other large gathering of the kids. Tables had been moved to the sides of the room so there could be dancing, true, but otherwise it was nothing special. They'd all seen it before.
Not so for Amanda. This was her moment. This was what she'd been dreaming of for years, what had been in her head when she had dragged brother Jimmy onto the kitchen table to dance for Mom, what was before her when she played her keyboard epics for her stuffed animals. What had been the reason she had pleaded with her brother to get others to get instruments and play with her.
She was going to have a concert.
A REAL concert. With an audience and everything! People were even getting drunk out there already!
She felt so adult, she could just kiss the stuffed bear sitting on her keyboard.
"So, Brat, are you ready?"
Kine stood behind his sister, hands on her shoulders. He pushed down, trying to stop her bouncing motion, but all that accomplished was getting her to bend her knees so she could bounce up to the height of his hands. Grinning, he moved his hands closer to her bare neck, hitting the tickle spots there. Amanda spun away in laughing fury.
"Stop it!" Kine just laughed at her, a sound echoed by the rest of the band. Even Sean cracked a smile, shaking his head. With murderous fury in her eyes, Amanda advanced on him. The crowd started chanting.
"Music, music, we want music!"
"Not me, I want sex!"
That brought a cheer, and a chant for sex. Kine shook his head, picking up his guitar.
"I think we'd better start before they start chanting for silly things." Amanda stuck her tongue out at him, and ran to her keyboard. Once in place, she looked around. Everyone else nodded back, so she gave the signal to Sirenia. The girl went around the curtain to stand in front of the mob.
"Ladies, gentlemen, other!" The mob cheered and jeered loudly. "We bring you tonight the first, and maybe last if you break their tender little hearts, concert from... 'The Waifs'!"
Sirenia reached over and pulled a cord. The large blue curtain dropped from its moorings and floated down to the ground. Kine tore into a power cord on his guitar, and they were off.
****
It had been an interesting month or so. Oh, boring as hell, but for some that was a nice change. Others, who tended to avoid the usual excitement, didn't notice any difference.
For Amanda and her small band, time had flown. The sheer audacity of trying to find, let alone compose, music that fit all their various instruments and tastes kept things lively and interesting. Clarinet and guitar don't often go together, but they did their best. Where two sounds couldn't exist together, they worked out pauses that would let one solo for a few passages before again being drowned out. Now, it was time to see if they had just been fooling themselves...
****
The music fast and heavy, Kine walked to the center of the stage and posed, guitar wailing out. Looking out at the crowd, he sang.
"Gone from our homes, gone from our friends
Into lands of sorrow with no ends
Family died, oh so long ago
Tell me why, cause I wanna know!
We're the Waifs of the Universe, trying to live out our lives!
We're the Waifs of the Universe, hoping the good can survive!"
The lyrics weren't the best, Amanda knew, but who cared. Kine sang them with conviction, which was the important part. Sean's fiddle provided a counterpoint with his guitar, with Amanda trying to support whatever the main player was doing at any point. Or she was just randomly banging on keys, as Ger put it, but, then, that's what he was doing with his drums so his point of reference might be flawed.
They came to the bridge. Everyone's playing tailed off, leaving just Hanna on the flute. Kine stepped into the background, as Amanda came out from behind her keyboard. The sorrowful sound drifted through the air, and despite having heard and sung this endlessly, tears still came to the twelve year old. She looked at the crowd before her. Looked out over her new family. Saw... ghosts...
"Why do we live, why do we die…
Why must love end in the blink of an eye…
Is it just us?
Are we to blame?
... Or is the whole universe perversely the same!"
The whole band exploded back to life. Amanda forgot her instrument, whirling in dance. Dance... she danced for the dead. She danced for the living. She danced for life. She danced... for joy.
****
They were a hit.
****
Sean left the party with things still going strong. The band had played its catalog of six songs twice, and now it had turned into a drunken jam. So many panties had been thrown at Kine, girls must have either come prepared, or snuck out to restock between sets. One had landed on the end of his bow. Luckily, Sean's mood had been good enough to take that in the spirit it had probably been intended. Tonight wasn't the time to get all grouchy over small things like that.
However... Sean had no interest in the drunken orgy to come.
Oh, he knew it wouldn't get that bad: despite what was often said about teens these days, sex was almost always a personal matter among this group. No fucking on the dinner tables... well, there was that one time, but most of the crew were off the ship, and Vince had wanted to "serve himself" to Sean...
Another reason to avoid the drunken orgy. He didn't need to see others having that kind of fun.
"Sean!"
The dark teen turned, and saw Lessa walking after him. He waited.
"I thought I saw you in the crowd, Lessa. Didn't stay?" She scoffed, a hand on her belly.
"I can't stand for that long anymore, at least without reason. Plus Shelly was getting a little too frisky, so I figured it was time to go." She leaned against the wall, shaking her head. Sean leaned against the opposite one, chuckling.
"So..."
"So," Lessa said, looking him in the eye, "I need to talk to you."
"Talk."
She shook her head.
"I need to sit. Rec room?" Sean nodded, and off they went.
****
"As I was saying... so." Sean sat back on the couch, drink in hand. He had cut back, having gone through the drunken "woe is me" phase for long enough, but still liked to partake on a regular basis. Plus, there was no way he was going to try and deal with Lessa without a buzz.
"So... I need your help, Sean." Lessa held a glass of juice in her hands, resting it on her belly. Must be nice, Sean thought, to have a built in shelf.
"I'm sure you do. What with?" He took another swig, as Lessa gathered her thoughts.
"We're going to raid," she said, looking at him. "Soon. Maybe in two days." Sean raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oh, are we now? Why would we do that?"
"Because they're practically begging for it!" Lessa sat forward, fire in her eyes. Sean kept his expression the same, and in a moment she shook her head to clear it. "I had Rich reset the exterior sensors on the asteroid so they aimed mostly above and below the orbital plane. That captain we picked up had mentioned that was where to avoid to stay out of the Fed's way, so the reverse would naturally be true." Sean nodded. Made sense. "There's a military cargo ship that makes regular runs right above us. Comes by every six days, regular as clockwork. However, they seem to be coming closer to us each time. I suspect they're trying to shave some time off the trip, and figure that despite regulations there's no chance some enemy is hiding on this small rock."
"And... you want to hit it."
Lessa nodded.
"But... what the hell is on it? How do you know it's not a troop transport?"
"Doesn't matter." This got both of Sean's eyebrows to shoot up. "What I want, what I need, are the codes. We've intercepted tons of transmissions, but some we can't crack. Maybe that ship will have what we need, and if we knock them out fast enough they won't get a chance to erase them."
"So... our little ship, which you've promised not to endanger, is going to take on a cargo vessel that is obviously armed enough not to need an escort. I assume you have a fool proof plan?"
"Depends on the fool, naturally, but... I think it will work." Sean waved a hand for her to go on, taking another drink with his other. He figured it would help all this make more sense. "The ship, like I said, will come directly above this crater. If we move the Liberty slightly and wait, we can launch a full missile strike that will hit it with only a second or two's notice. Take out the engines, and punch holes in the crew compartments. If both shuttles take off from the surface at the same moment, they can add their firepower as they swoop in for a forced docking."
Sean closed his eyes, trying to picture it. It would depend on the type of ship, naturally. How it was oriented, what the crew size was... he trusted her to have done her research on this, to the extent that was possible. It... could be done. He opened his eyes.
"So, why do you need me?"
Lessa sighed, and looked down at her belly.
"I'm no longer in any shape to do this kind of thing, and Wendi isn't ready yet."
"What about Shelly?"
Lessa barked out a laugh.
"Yeah, right! Good one..." She shook her head. "Anyway, so I need someone to lead the raid. I want it to be you."
Sean stretched his arms out along the top of the couch, looking at the woman. She was insane. Yup. Totally insane. Nothing new there. Then again... nope, there was no 'then again'. She was nuts.
"You do realize I completely disagree with your entire quest thingy, and think you're a dangerous nut job, right?" To his surprise, Lessa nodded with no sign of disagreement with that statement.
"Fair enough. But, that said, I want you to do this. We need Kine to command the ship, so unless I get Mel to do this the only person strong enough is you."
"And what's in it for me?"
"You keep kids from dying."
Sean looked at her. Damn that bitch... she had him. The psycho had him. He had to protect the others from her mad ideas, and that meant... damn it! She saw it in his eyes, but there was no hint of satisfaction or even acknowledgement in her expression. She kept acting as if there had never been anything in doubt.
"Take Wendi with you, keep her at your side. Everyone else will be a volunteer."
"Wendi doesn't get a choice?"
Lessa shook her head slowly.
"Both her and Shelly have made their choice. They're mine, to do with as I please."
****
The party was breaking up.
Amanda watched from her table in the corner as Kine and Mel helped a drunk Shelly stagger out of the mess hall. She shook her head. That woman had no self control.
"Now, come on, Wendi, admit it: this was more fun than training!"
Wendi shook her head at Sirenia, smiling but not commenting. The redhead snorted in disgust and looked over at Amanda.
"Can you believe this girl? She'd rather play soldier than dance!"
"Someone has to keep you idiots alive."
"What do you think I'm doing every time I make meals for you?"
"Slowly poisoning us."
"You bitch!"
Amanda just sat back, watching her two friends got into a mock sissy fight. It had been too long. Between Wendi's training, and, she had to admit, Amanda's band training, the three girls had barely spent any time together. It was like... well, like they were growing apart. Or, maybe worse, like they should never have been together in the first place. They were friends by accident of age, the only preteen girls before little Mari's arrival. Maybe... they just really had nothing in common.
"OK, ladies, break it up before I have to spank one of you." The ladies in question looked up with a start, an amused Kine standing over them with his arm around the bald Mel. Wendi turned bright red and looked down at her lap, a reaction Sirenia wasn't about to let go. She grinned up at the blond hunk.
"I think Wendi wants that spanking, Kine, especially if it's on her bare ass... ouch!" Sirenia suddenly jerked away, her teasing expression turning to one of anger as she brought her right hand up, rubbing some new injury. The anger slowly turned more in the direction of fear as she saw Wendi's expression. There was... something new in her friend's eyes...
"Enough!" Kine said, shaking his head. Silly girls. He looked down at his sister.
"Mel and I are going back to her cabin for the night. You sober enough to make it home?" Amanda nodded, made the 'OK' sign with her fingers, then tried to belch and yawn at the same time.
"Yeah, I'm OK. I didn't drink too much." She looked up at Kine. "Think we did good?" He put a hand on her head and rubbed her scalp.
"We done good. You played a great concert."
Amanda smiled up at him. He never praised her just to be nice. Every complement was always earned. She looked over at Mel.
"Try not to wear him out too much tonight. We have first watch in the morning."
"Not MY problem," she said, with a grin that told all that she, for one, was just getting started on her evening's entertainment. Taking the chuckling Kine by the arm, she steered him towards the exit. Her hips swayed, all three girls momentarily doubting their sexual orientation as they followed her movements out of the room.
"Sigh... I... I'm sorry, Sirenia," Wendi said, looking over at the redhead. She offered her hand to her, a peace offering. "I shouldn't have hurt you. So much of what I'm learning is just reacting, and... I'm sorry."
Sirenia took the offered hand, and squeezed.
"It's OK. I was being a cunt." She turned to Amanda. "How about you? Want to apologize for anything while we're at it?"
"Well... I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you two." She reached over, covering Sirenia and Wendi's hands. "The 'Trio' should spend more time together, no matter what we're doing otherwise." The two nodded.
"How?" asked Wendi.
"We need to find a way to do something together. Some activity we can all do."
Sirenia looked down at their joined hands, and a sly smile touched her lips.
"Well, if we all turned lesbian..."
Wendi and Amanda jerked their hands away with lightning speed.
"Ewww!!!"