Hardshellz Read online

  ***

  All the same, we were thrown back on our own devices with no idea how long we would be confined for. I wouldn't have minded being alone with just Julianna for company – unless her gynoid programming was deeply ingrained, I might have got somewhere. And if she was a real, live hi-man, I would definitely have got somewhere. I saw the way she looked at me when she thought I wasn't looking.

  But we had Çrámerr in with us. He really missed his thrusting, corporate boardroom environment and spent a lot of time mooching about. He tried to engage us in discussions about corporate strategy, ultra-futures, takeover bids and leveraged finance but we weren't that interested. Weeks passed and I guessed that when we got back to civilisation, we'd all be deleting this time from our memories.

  The pirates were polite and after that initial visit with Knofahgginarebagz to the warehouse, I didn't see him again. They brought us food, made sure we were okay but that was about it. Every time I looked out of the inset porthole I was greeted by the same view of distant black mountains veiled by constant rain. Occasionally, as if to break the monotony, a distant meteor strike lit up the horizon.

  We endured. That's all we could do. We talked about escape but with the lethal environment outside there was nothing we could do. We speculated as to how negotiations were proceeding and how long we'd be stuck here. However, the pirates never told us any news. Occasionally I wondered about the Röötherspherians and whether they had yet been released but the pirate guards never told us about them neither. More importantly, they never told us how negotiations for our release were proceeding.

  More weeks passed. We slept, ate, talked, sat silent, and looked out the window. And argued and bickered and squabbled.