Chapter 21

"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."