Psychogen (Galactic Syndicate Cycle Book 1) Read online

  “What is it?” Liza asked.

  “Nothing,” he said quickly and clamped his mouth shut. Liza stared hard at him, but he said no more.

  A loud whistle blast blew from the station, and the field workers rose from their hunched positions all around the field. Liza watched her father gently set the wires back inside the heat lamp’s base. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, smiling at Liza.

  “Let’s go home,” he told her. Liza nodded and followed her father out of the fields. Her mother, Melina Strange, walked between two rows a short distance away, and met up with them near the tube that would lead back to their home.

  “Hello, Liza,” her mother said, her eyes smiling warily. Liza slung an arm around her mother’s waist, noticing how the hunch in her shoulders grew more distinct as time passed. Her mother’s dress hung loosely on her body; Vely would have to take in some of the extra fabric again. A passing worry flitted through Liza’s mind, one that had cropped up occasionally over the past few months. She was suspicious that her mother was skipping meals in order to leave more for Liza and Vely to eat.

  “Payday, today,” Hane said, rubbing his hands together. Liza looked up and saw the large stand on wheels had been brought over to the entrance of the tube; there was one stand at each exit, leading to the different districts of the Moon colonies. Workers queued up at the stations to receive their rations and their pay. Liza followed her parents to stand in line, and she watched the slow progress. Not far from where they stood, the second shift field workers entered the fields, spreading out among the plants.

  “Do you think we’ll have enough to get by this month?” Liza asked, looking back to her father. Hane glanced at her and shrugged his shoulders.

  “If we ration out properly, we should be okay,” he said. Beside him, Melina nodded as well. Liza had a momentary flash of what her mother would look like if she continued to skip meals for the sake of Liza and Vely. Her eyes would become more sunken, skin paler, and her bones would protrude from her skin more than they already were. Her mother was willing to waste away just to keep her children alive.

  “If you’d let me get a job here…” Liza began, but her father cut her off sharply with a wave of his hand.

  “No, Liza,” he said. “This work is not for you.”

  “But we’d bring home 150,000 credits a month between the three of us!” Liza protested. “And at least it would be stable pay. You know we can’t count on any of the salvaged parts selling.” A flush rose in Liza’s cheeks. This was an argument she’d had with her parents since she was sixteen years old. She’d wanted to drop out of school and help work, but her parents refused, claiming that they wanted her to finish high school. She finished school with decent grades, but her parents refused to let her work in the fields. Liza was twenty-one now, and they still denied her plea. She couldn’t understand it.

  “You don’t want to work in the fields, Liza,” her mother said. “Just trust us.” Liza opened her mouth to protest once again, but the exhaustion in her mother’s face kept her quiet. Instead, Liza offered support to help her mother walk, and slowly, they made their way up to the station.

  Her parents offered up their S-chips to be scanned. After the two beeps, their pay was added to their chips. Around the side of the station, an Enforcer was handing each worker a sack of soybeans and two small packets of nutritional supplement powder. Her father received his share, and Liza took up her mother’s share for her and slung the heavy sack over her shoulder. Melina took all four nutritional supplements and ripped two open. Liza knew better than to argue when her mother shoved the two small packets at Liza. Shifting the bag of soybeans, she took the packets and dumped the bitter powder into her mouth. She tried to swallow the powder, knowing the bitterness would linger for hours. Melina stowed away the other two, which Vely would take as soon as they arrived home. That done, the three made their way silently down the tube towards home.

  Walking through the streets, Liza again smelled the delicious scent of gumbo. They were nearing the street vendors.

  “We should grab dinner from this vendor up here,” Liza said excitedly. “It’s cheap!” Her father merely grunted, and her mother ignored her, turning instead to pause at the shop window of a friend. The two women began to chat, and Liza stopped, irritated, waiting for her mother. Her father went on ahead. Liza watched him, her eyes narrow. She shifted the weight of the soybean sack onto her other shoulder. Several times, Melina tried to draw Liza into her conversation, but Liza ignored the two chattering women.

  Down the street, Hane veered off and stopped near the street vendor that Liza had bought food from earlier that day. She watched as they spoke quickly to each other, and Hane handed over his S-chip and ripped open the sack of soybeans. Liza’s mouth dropped open; she watched her father hand over almost half the bag of soybeans to the street vendor.

  “No…” she moaned. “Dad!” she shouted, but he didn’t hear her over the noise of the street. Two Enforcers turned the corner, marching through the streets, parting the crowds as they went. “Dad!” Liza shouted again. She dropped her sack of soybeans and took off.

  “Liza!” her mother shouted behind her, but Liza kept running. The company that owned the fields, Walnad’s Interplanetary Corporation, made it illegal to sell food rations to anyone. As with most crimes on the Moon, the punishments were severe.

  Liza shoved her way through the crowd, but the Enforcers had already spotted Hane handing over his S-chip. The vendor shoved the S-chip back at Hane, then grabbed hold of the entire sack and dragged it behind his counter. Liza shrieked, crashing through the crowds. Hane hadn’t noticed the Enforcers yet, though a large ring had formed around where he stood, as people backed away in fear. He was too busy shouting at the street vendor in an attempt to retrieve the half-empty sack of soybeans.

  One of the Enforcers, an unnaturally tall man with dark hair and darker sunglasses, broke through the crowd and grabbed Hane by the collar of his jacket, wrenched him backwards, and dropped him in the middle of the street. Liza was held up at the edge of the ring, where the crowd was the thickest. The spectators were talking, but to Liza, it sounded like a loud buzzing noise. The Enforcer stepped over Hane and looked down, a crooked smile on his lips.

  “Well, well, Hane Strange,” the Enforcer said, his crooked teeth peeking out from behind his thin lips. His broad face wasn’t nearly as sunken as everyone else’s; the Enforcers received a larger food ration than everyone else. That fact alone made Liza want to spit in the Enforcer’s face.

  From the ground, Hane stared up at the Enforcer with fear in his eyes. The street vendor who’d taken the sack of soybeans had already shut up his shack and disappeared. Liza continued to shove her way through the crowd, trying to reach her father. Behind her, she could hear Melina calling her name.

  “I thought we’d already discussed this little scam you’re runnin’,” the other Enforcer said. “I’m sure we told you never to do it again. I think we were pretty lenient; don’t you think?” he asked, directing his attention to the other Enforcer standing over Hane.

  “Too lenient, apparently,” the other said. His evil, crooked smile did not waver once.

  “Please…” Hane begged from the ground, looking smaller and frailer under the Enforcer’s height.

  “Ah, manners won’t help you this time, Strange,” he said. The Enforcer bent down and grasped Hane by the front of his clothes and lifted him up to his feet. In a quick moment, before anyone knew what was happening, the Enforcer drew a club from his belt and struck Hane across the face. The sound of the metal connecting with Hane’s bones rang through the street.

  “DAD!” Liza screamed. She pushed through the rest of the people with all her strength and stumbled out into the circle. The Enforcers turned their attention to her. Liza threw herself over Hane’s body. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth, and it was clear that his jaw was broken. He moaned quietly.

  “Who’s this?” one of the Enforcers asked. Liza was j
erked backwards onto her feet. Strong arms held her, pulling her arms behind her and holding fast. The other enforcer leaned forward, his face inches from Liza’s. She fought the urge to spit in his face.

  “Must be one of the Strange children,” the Enforcer said, chuckling at his own joke. He spat when he talked, and flecks of it landed on Liza’s face.

  “Let me go,” Liza demanded. The Enforcers laughed, and the one in Liza’s face rose and stepped away from her.

  “I’ll consider it a good thing that I’ve never seen you before,” he said, addressing Liza. Bending down, he grasped Hane’s clothing once again and hauled him to his feet. “But let me give you a quick lesson…” his voice rose. “Let me give you all a lesson! Selling your rations is against the law! And this…” He removed his gamma pistol from his holster and lifted the barrel up to Hane’s forehead, who swayed unsteadily, looking up at the Enforcer with unseeing eyes. “This is your punishment.”

  The Enforcer’s finger tightened on the trigger, and the pistol released a high-pitched noise as the gamma rays burst through Hane’s skull. Time seemed to slow as Hane’s body remained standing for a moment, before his skull broke apart in several pieces, and his body fell forward onto the street, landing with a thump. Liza screamed as tears burned in her eyes, and she struggled against the Enforcer’s hold.

  “Dad!!” Liza screamed. Finally, the Enforcer let go of her, and she stumbled forward over his body. Freezing tears fell down Liza’s cheeks, which disappeared into the fabric of her father’s clothes. A cold, thin hand appeared on Liza’s shoulder. She looked up to see her mother’s face. Melina looked sad, but there were no tears in her eyes.

  “Come on, Liza,” her mother said, her voice low and comforting.

  “But…” Liza sobbed, clutching onto Hane’s clothes. She dared not look up into his face, where she knew she would find nothing. Melina’s grip tightened on Liza’s shoulder.

  “We’ve got to go home, Liza. We can’t linger,” Melina said, giving her a gentle tug. Liza rose reluctantly to her feet, still trying to avoid looking at her father’s face. A man had crawled out from the crowd and was loosening the laces on Hane’s boots. Liza kicked at him, screaming.

  “You leave him alone!”

  Melina tugged her backwards with more force than Liza thought possible.

  “He a’nt needing ‘em,” the man said, then tugged off the boots and ran off into the crowd.

  “Just let him go,” Melina whispered, still dragging Liza away from the scene.

  “But his body…”

  “Don’t look back,” she said.

  “But…” she protested. Liza shook her mother off and turned, but Hane’s body was already surrounded by people in the street, pulling on his clothes. Liza’s breath hitched in her throat, and she spun away. Stumbling into a building, she threw up onto the street. “Monsters!” she shouted between the heaves of her stomach. It only took a moment before bile was the only thing she could expel from her stomach. Her throat and mouth burned. Tears ran down her cheeks. Liza roughly wiped her face with her jacket sleeve and rose. The woman that her mother had been talking to was handing over the sack of soybeans. Both women turned to stare at her.

  “Your father knew what he was doing,” Melina said, hugging the sack to her chest. There was little sympathy in her voice as she spoke. “He knew the dangers, and he knew the consequences.” Liza opened her mouth to speak, but Melina turned and began to walk towards home. Melina’s friend gave Liza a sad smile, then handed her a small cup filled with a harsh smelling liquid.

  “Drink it,” the woman said, and Liza did, allowing the liquid to wash over her tongue and remove the taste of stomach bile, though the liquid didn’t taste much better. “It’s whiskey. Not the best, mind you, but it’ll warm you up for a bit. Now run along,” she said, and disappeared into her shop. Liza stared after her, chest heaving, but took a deep breath and walked on.

  When Liza arrived at home, she found her mother had already arrived, and by the looks of things, had already told Vely what happened. Her sister stood in her mother’s arms, a blank expression on her face. Melina looked up when Liza entered the apartment.

  “Did you hack those cards?” Liza asked Vely before anyone could say anything else. Her sister nodded.

  “Not much on them. Only about 10,000 altogether,” Vely said, and Liza wrinkled her nose. Melina released Vely and crossed the room. She crouched down and lifted a panel from the floor. Vely and Liza exchanged glances, wondering what she was doing. Finally, Melina rose, holding a S-chip.

  “What’s that?” Vely asked, and the girls moved closer. Melina took a seat at the rickety old table and set the S-chip down.

  “After Liza was born, and things became worse than they already were,” Melina began, fingering the simple faux gold band around her ring finger, “we started saving. Back when it was allowed, we got a joint S-chip and saved as much of our wages as we could. Our intent was to keep saving as much as possible so we could get off this rock and live somewhere else. Somewhere nicer. When Vely was born, we had to change our plan a bit. There was no way we could save enough money for all four of us. We decided to just save enough for the two of you to buy tickets to one of the Sun Stations, legitimate tickets. That way, Vely could maybe go to college, and Liza could learn a trade, and you could make new lives. Better lives,” Melina said. “That’s why your father sold some of our ration to the street vendors. They pay good money for unprocessed soybeans. But your father and I both knew that it wouldn’t last forever.”

  “But what about you?” Vely asked, picking up the joint S-chip and inspecting it. Melina uttered a harsh laugh.

  “If those Enforcers had half a brain to investigate the whole thing, they’d know I was involved, along with many other field workers. Either way, I’ll probably die in the fields, just like my mother did.”

  Liza slammed her hands down on the table, shaking it.

  “You can’t just throw your life away like that!” she shouted. Melina looked at Liza indignantly.

  “I can, and I will. You two have the ability to survive. You have to,” she said. For a moment, it seemed like she would say more, but instead, she closed her mouth.

  “None of this makes any sense!” Liza shouted, but Vely threw her a sharp look.

  “Shut up, Liza,” she said, her face devoid of emotion. Liza held her anger for another moment, but the stare from her sister quelled the feelings. Liza sank into a chair and propped her chin in her hand. Vely turned her attention back to her mother.

  “When can we leave?” she asked. Her mother shook her head.

  “We’re not there yet,” Melina said. “We don’t have enough. And now, since the cost to get a passport is so high, it’ll take some more savings. We’ll have to import clothing as well, to make you look like you belong at the Sun Station.” Liza lifted an eyebrow.

  “How are we going to afford our apartment?” Liza asked, trying to turn their attention to more important matters. “If I don’t make any money from selling parts, then we’re forty-thousand short!”

  “You’re right,” Melina agreed. “There must be something else,” she added after a moment.

  “Can’t you just tell me why the fields are so horrible?” Liza demanded.

  “I want to know, too,” Vely added. Melina looked between her two daughters, rose, and unbuttoned her dress. The back slipped down, revealing Melina’s thin back, which was covered in red, puffy scars. Vely and Liza inhaled sharply at the sight of the ragged stripes running every direction on her back.

  “Mamma?” Vely breathed, moving forward to lay her hand over Melina’s back. She flinched slightly at the touch, then pulled away and replaced her dress. Melina turned back around and pulled her two daughters closer to her and laid her hands on their cheeks.

  “The fields break you. They break your will to live. That’s why your father and I did what we did, and why our lives are not as important as yours. You two still have the chance to be happy, and to live
without hardship,” Melina said, and for the first time since the incident in the street, Liza saw tears in her mother’s eyes. “Do you understand, now?” she asked.

  3

  The cold grew worse. Liza heard rumors drifting through the streets that there was a leak somewhere, and that the very oxygen being pumped into the colonies was escaping into space. Others thought the authorities of the Moon colonies were purposely trying to freeze and starve the people to death. Liza found these theories highly unlikely, as she could breathe just fine, and she wasn’t dead yet. She was in pain, of course, from the piercing pain in her lungs with each inhale and the hunger cramps that squeezed at her sides. Suffering, but alive.

  More and more Moon colonists remained indoors at all times of the day, too afraid to leave and brace the cold. Liza could hardly blame them. It made her job easier without the crowds, and there was no one else to pick up valuable parts in the scrap yards. She was able to make a little extra money due to supply and demand, but not much. Losing a whole bag of soybeans from that crooked street vendor was a blow to the Stranges. They were eating even less now, trying to stretch out their remaining bag. The street vendors had apparently disappeared quickly after the incident with her father.

  Liza knew that her family was not the only one suffering. In the halls of their apartment house, other families were at the end of their ropes. Twice in one week, two people in their building stopped trying to keep themselves alive, unable to hang on in the cold and hunger. The Hearse only stopped once to pick up both bodies at the same time, ringing that sad, lonely bell as it drove away.

  The blankets from their beds became cloaks, and Liza walked around the colonies with her thickest blanket pinned together under her chin, with a corner pulled up over her head to act as a hood. She’d taken to wearing almost every item of clothing she owned. Some days it still wasn’t enough.

  During one wandering, as she scrounged for discarded parts near the spaceport, she noticed that there was a white substance on the dome covering her district. Liza dropped her bag on the ground. She removed one of her fingerless gloves and placed her hand over the white substance. It was cold, colder than anything she’d felt before. When she removed her hand, she saw to her surprise that her hand had left a print in the white stuff. With a fingernail, she scratched, and it flaked off. She placed her hand back over the white spot. Beneath the small amount of heat her body put off, she could feel the white spot become wet. She removed her hand once more and saw water droplets on her hand. She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together.