He made it right to Jaylen’s quarters with no problem. It was just like in his dream. He remembered the chief coming, the door opening, and the girl standing there. How beautiful she was. Even though she wasn't dressed up, she was only wearing shorts and a T-shirt, she was beautiful, and no amount of Federation grease could hide that simple fact.
But this time when the door slid open, the room was filled with boxes of food and some white containers marked with the Federation medical seal. He could barely step into the room it was so full. He stepped back into the corridor and looked up, it said Storage Bay #4 above her door.
He knew that she had been here. So he started pulling boxes out and throwing them into the hall. He remembered where her bunk was on the far wall, and he wanted to make it there. Just to see that it was there. Just to see that little space where she had slept. So he kept pulling down heavy boxes. Some were food rations designed for long trips in space, some looked to be engine parts. They all had the Federation seal on them. Ten minutes later he was sweating and the corridor was filled.
Katy walked in. “What you doing?” she said.
“Moving boxes,” he said.
“Yeah, I see that. What for?”
“Are you gonna help?”
So she helped him. And after another ten minutes or so they made it to the back wall. Jolo pulled the last large box away expecting there to be a bunk. A blanket. The book that he'd given her. Something.
But there was nothing except a smooth metal wall.
“This was her living quarters,” he said. “I remember that.” And so he worked his way towards the bathroom which was on the adjacent wall. He climbed on top of the boxes, moved the upper ones out of the way and then began pushing like a madman. By this time Katy had stopped and just watched him.
He got to where the bathroom used to be, but it, too, was nothing more than a smooth wall. He ran his hands along it thinking there must be a welded seam. But nothing. He cried out, “Jaylen!” And then started punching a Fed ration box until dehydrated brown bits started spilling out, making a little mountain on the floor.
Jolo sat down on a box in her room for a while, all alone, trying not to think. Once his breathing slowed and the urge to break something had subsided, he made his way to the mess hall and ordered a coffee and a slice of pie from the droid.
A minute later she brought him a piece of apple pie. It had a flaky crust, it was sweet, and had small, golden brown chunks which really looked like apples. And even though he knew it was synthetic, he still enjoyed it. He couldn't remember the last time he’d actually held a real apple.
Jolo went to back to the main deck as the Jessica was nearing Qualus. He found Katy sitting in the engineering chair eyeing the status screen. Jolo strolled in and sat down in the captain’s chair.
“ETA?” he said.
“We should be slowing down in a few minutes. Are you okay?”
Jolo did not respond.
“Who was she?”
“A girl that I knew before.”
“Did you love her?”
“I can't get her out of my mind.”
“Sounds like love to me.”
“It's just that I can't remember things. I remember the girl. The ship. I remember Barthelme. I remember the young engineer, Tanaka, and most of the crew. But I still don't know who I am or where I'm from. Or why those bastards want me dead.”
“Well, I'm just a trash hauler pilot so take it for what it's worth, but if I were you I’d try not to fight it. The memories will come. And I know earlier I said you didn't seem like a hero. But taking this ship was pretty heroic. Stupid. But heroic. So there's that.”
“Well, thank you for that little pep talk.”
“I hope you find her.”
Just then the ship dropped out of warp and started making minor course adjustments for the trip down to Qualus.
Qualus was a large, dirty rock devoid of any natural beauty. Once they got close to the surface Jolo could see work crews. And initially he thought they were droids moving rocks out of a big hole in the side of the mountain, but then he realized they were human. Katy said the BG used local people because they were cheaper than droids. They kept them fed on a brown gruel that most core world humans would not feed to their dog. Katy said the core worlds maintain some semblance of civility and peace, and the standard of living was acceptable, but out on the edges, beyond Federation control, the BG pretty much did what they wanted.
No one ever went to Qualus unless they were hauling refuse, as it was the core world’s main dump site, or they were mining: Qualus was a prime source of quarz 5, which was a key component to the making of weapons grade alacyte. The BG had recently been sending cargo freighters loaded down with quarz plugs to Duval for final processing.
The Jessica flew low over the mining operation on the ground. Shiny black BG foreman with long energy rods kept a close watch over the men, women, children, and even old people, who were busy hauling rocks into a large container. A freight ship waited to take a sufficient amount to Duval.
A little further out, maybe 2 km from the work crew, Jolo spotted a small blue clump in the sand. They got close enough to actually see that it was a small child face down in the sand. The thermal scan read negative.
“What's that about?” said Jolo.
“He tried to run,” said Katy. “They got foreman enforcers on the ground and droids in the air.”
Jolo landed at
