Cassandra: The morning after the night before

The sounds of distant screaming and the hammering of metal on metal dragged Cass
fitfully from her sleep into reluctant, muzzy wakefulness, blinking in the half
light afforded by the cargo pods jury rigged lighting system, which she must
have left on when she passed out late last night
She groaned, rolled over, and pulled the pillow over her head to try and drown
out the banging and the light, but it was no good, she was awake now, and was
slowly coming to terms with a mouth that felt like the bottom of a budgie cage,
and the sort of throbbing head that insisted on urgent attention with some
strong pain killers
It had been a pretty good night all in all; she had tapped Jay for about as many
drinks as she felt were probably acceptable for saving the Dwarf and everyone on
board, and they had all got quite solidly drunk; although her long held notions
about not drinking anything with a colour that didn't naturally occur in nature
had been challenged by Efof's insistence that they all have at least three of
the strange luminous drinks he kept buying – it must have been those that had
made her feel this bad; nothing, of course, to do with the other ten or so beers
before those
She rolled over onto her back and blearily looked over at the other side of her
bed: Nobody else there - which was good; so at least she hadn't been so gauche
as to have made a drunken pass at the captain or worse still Efof
"Urgh" Cass shuddered, sitting up, trying to push the distasteful thought out of
her head, as she fumbled amidst the clothes and books littering the floor to
dredge up a bottle of water, which she cracked open and thirstily gulped half
of, before leaning forwards again, and pulling a crumpled pack of cigs from the
back pocket of her discarded jeans
Flopping back again, she worried a fag out and sparked it up, watching the smoke
curling gently up towards the ceiling as she took the occasional drag and sipped
at the remains of her water, trying to ignore the dull throb of her head, and
the steadily insistent pressure on her bladder that meant she would have to get
up soon
Cass really wasn't looking forward to today
Philippe still wanted a word with her
A couple of hours later after Cass had breakfasted on a couple of energy snack
bars, smoked a few more cigs and had tried to revive herself a bit with a tepid
shower in the shared facilities down at Magda's, she was on her way towards the
nearest lift cluster, walking quickly between the massed rows of cargo pods,
taking care to give the more notorious areas their customary wide berth
"Hey Cass..."
A small, thin woman unfolded herself from a gap between some cargo crates in the
in the shadows
"How's it going?" she continued
"Hey Lola" Cass stopped walking "What are you doing out here?"
"Just... You know..." the other woman shrugged, still hanging back in the
shadows
Cass frowned
"Why don't you come out here?" she said
"It's..."
Lola sighed and stepped out of the shadows, the light playing off her wonderful
platinum blonde hair, making the ugly bruises mottling the right hand side of
her face look even more vicious.
"Smegging hell, was that Charlie...?" Cass breathed
Lola smiled her usual lopsided smile, accentuated by a painful looking thick lip
"Nice to see you too"
"Smegs sake Lola" Cass groaned, stepping forward and taking the other woman's
hands "What was it this time?"
"He just needs more crystals" Lola shrugged, and briefly flashed her smile again
"You know how he gets..."
"So what are you doing out here?" Cass forcefully asked, already knowing the
answer before it came
"You know..."
"You're smegging selling yourself for him again, aren't you?"
"I only need to do it a few more times" Lola murmured quietly, avoiding Cass'
eyes "Rates aren't so good with this bruising..."
"You're working unlicensed, damn it" Cass hissed exasperatedly shaking Lola's
hands before letting them fall "If Franks boys catch you..."
She let the threat hang. They both knew what happened to people that Frank's
boys caught working unlicensed: all the girls and boys who had ever thought it
was a good idea had disappeared
"I just need to turn another few tricks, Cass" Lola whispered "Then I'll be cool
for days; Charlie might get some more work, and I might not have to do this
again"
"You need to get shot of that smegger; move out to a new bay, and start a new
life"
"You know it's not that easy" Lola breathed "Even if I went to the other end of
the ship, he'd still find me... He's not afraid of anyone"
Cass had to admit the truth behind all this: Charlie was a renowned head case,
and also, while it was easy enough to lose yourself planetside if you wanted to
drop out of existence, on a ship even the size of the Dwarf, staying lost for
more than a few days was difficult if someone was looking for you
"Hey!" Lola suddenly called out to a man who was passing by "Want to party!?"
"What, both of you?" the man asked hopefully
"She's just messing" Cass rushed, feeling dimly nauseous at the idea, especially
with her hangover
"Bah, suit yourself" the man snorted, and turned to continue on his way
"Cass!" Lola whined, making to move after him "He'd have paid; I need this
money..."
"Smegs sake Lola" Cass pulled the other woman back "You're going to get killed
doing this"
Lola, in answer to this, just smiled tiredly back at her
"Look" Cass continued, hating herself not only for doing this, but for being as
weak as to care about a friend like Lola "Here's some money"
She pulled about twenty dolarpounds from her pocket and pushed it into Lola's
hand; it wasn't much, and represented a worryingly high percentage of her total
assets, but in all conscience, even she couldn't leave Lola working out here,
especially when she had helped Cass out before now
Lola managed a full five seconds before her face creased up into tears as she
wordlessly pocketed the cash
"I... I'll see you right" she started, but Cass knew she never would
"Just ditch Charlie for me, huh?"
"Yeah..."
Cass knew that was a lie too
"Listen Cass, I should go..."
"Yeah" Cass smiled
Lola hugged her quickly, and then broke away, turning to go
"I'll get you the money back again"
"Yeah" Cass said softly, watching her go, feeling utterly dejected
She hated having to live down here on the cargo decks along with so many of the
other stowaways
She hated the casual violence that seemed to permeate virtually every aspect of
daily life; she hated the protection money she had to pay to the local gang, and
she hated the ease at which she could lay her hands on drugs. She hated the way
people, friends, sometimes just disappeared. She hated the criminals, the
prostitution, the noise, the grinding poverty, and the constant cold
Sure there were a few good things about living here, like the freedom she felt,
and the camaraderie of the dysfunctional community of misfits that had made even
her feel welcome, and who had looked out for her even when she was unable to
offer anything in return; but these scant perks were far outweighed by the
grinding misery of everything else
She closed her eyes, feeling tears prickling behind her eyelids, and blew out a
deep sigh, before taking a deep breath and turning to continue back on her way
towards the lifts