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⚒️ Something to smile about

by Joel Glover

She did not wear a headscarf often. People saw her face, and the scarf, and assumed things about her upbringing, her religious convictions, and various other personal information.

Some of the assumptions were correct, others wildly inaccurate. Ayşe resented both equally.

There were, however, days when, simply to avoid the effects of the station’s constant static charge on her thick hair, she bound her curls up in a scarf. She left one twist spiralling free and made sure the silk she used was brightly coloured. It perplexed the bigots at least.

“So, you’ve got a glut but the market is running against you,” she told her visitor. “No point depositing it here, what you want to do is break it up into three cargoes and send it around the edges. You’ll get a better price on Gore for the thulium, they’re using it direct. Cherub had some sort of supply chain issue so take the yttrium there. Take the rest to Chetlat, Imran will hold it for you and drip it into the markets so you don’t cause a trough.”

He looked like a film star, but he didn’t know it. If you looked too close, into his eyes, you saw a conviction and purpose that bordered on fanaticism. 

Bordered on, but stayed on the right side of the line.

Ayşe knew the difference.

She hoped.

“Thank you. And good luck.”

He tipped his tea back, and walked away without a backwards glance.

“I could watch that walk away all day.”

Laura’s voice was shockingly close to Ayşe’s ear. There was a moment where she was worried her friend might have overheard something she should not have, but it went as quickly as a butterfly beats its wings.

“He is a good looking man, I’ll give him that,” she agreed.

“Will we be seeing him again?” Laura’s question had both an ‘is that your romantic partner’ and a ‘and if he isn’t, can he be mine for a night’ tone to it.

“Wildcat miner.”

“Ahhh.” Laura sighed as the tightly contained behind of the miner disappeared from view. Wildcatters travelled widely and died quickly. “A shame.”

“It is, but what can be done about it?” agreed Ayşe.

“Are you finished playing the Romani Sage of Metal?” Laura did not sit, which suggested trouble.

“For now.” 

Ayşe waited. She thought, uncharitably, that if she waited long enough perhaps someone else might solve a problem on this station for once.

“There’s a boat of Returners. They’ve gone a little... space crazy.”

“Vastness of the Beyond or Let’s Go Further.”

In her time aboard the station Ayşe had seen both. Cultists came out to the very edge of human space and had three reactions. One was to see the error of their ways and slink back home. It was the most common reaction to the inky width of the galaxy.

Sadly for some, the realisation that the beyond was vaster than the human mind could fathom caused a fracture.

Others failed to realise it at all, or realised it and doubled down on their idolatry. They often insisted they should travel into the Interdicted Zones.

“Both.”

This was new.

Novelty was always to be cherished.

“What, exactly, am I expected to do about it?” she sighed.

“That’s the good news,” Laura smiled a full smile. “Nothing. They’re throwing fruit at each other in the concourse, I thought you might want to watch? I’ll buy the first round.”

“Drinks and a show? If I didn’t know better I would think you were asking me on a date!”

Ayşe found herself beaming, her mouth hurting at the unaccustomed effort of it.

“You should smile more,” Laura told her. 

But there was so rarely something to smile about.