Interzone 251 by edited by Andy Cox

would only hold one.
    Her suit’s chrono beeped. Time to head back.
    She pushed off from the lifepod with both hands, spun, and with practiced ease brought both boots up against the far wall, where they stuck. She didn’t dare look back; she’d need her eyes clear for getting out safely.

    ***

    Three hours of restless sleep later, Huj was banging on her door. “Rep’s ordered a Worship,” he said. “All hands.”
    Fari groaned as she rolled out of bed. The last Rep was sporadic with Worships, and never invited the brothel women, so she was usually left in the woman’s chapel alone, where she typically sought salvation on the insides of her eyelids. All hands meant that the other women would be there, and a minder to keep an eye on them, and so the full pious show would go on.
    She pulled on her cleanest pair of pants and tunic, then grabbed her veil from where she’d tossed it in a corner. “When’s the first bell?”
    “We have forty-one minutes. If you’re not out in three, we go without you,” he said through the door.
    Cursing, she found her boots and slipped into them, throwing open the door. Mer and Huj were both there, looking at least as stressed as she felt; the minimum fine for being late to a Worship was more than any of them could afford, and this Rep didn’t seem like the forgiving type.
    “Suit up,” Mer said, holding out her helmet and bottle for her. “I have the feeling it’s going to be a long day.”
    The different rocks of the pile – an asteroid field, really – were connected by cables, with rickety, airless, and unshielded cars that rode them like tin cans sliding on string. The three of them climbed into the car and settled onto the hard bench inside, and started it up towards Station. Fari checked her chrono, and noticed Huj doing the same. It was a twenty-four minute trip, which was going to leave them with about eight minutes to spare on the far end. Close, but they’d make it.
    Fari didn’t feel like talking, and apparently neither did Huj or Mer. They rode the cable in silence, until Huj dozed off and began to snore. They let him sleep until they were within sight of Station, then Mer kicked his leg.
    Borrn was waiting not far from the cable terminus, looking nervous and unhappy. When he spotted them, he visibly took a deep breath, then intercepted Fari as her teammates split off to head towards the Men’s chapel.
    “Fari,” Borrn said. “After Worship, report to medical. The Rep wants a full checkup on you.”
    She barely kept from exploding. “What does this Rep have against me?” she snarled.
    “You’re a woman doing a man’s job, and doing it well,” Borrn said. “Figure it out. And when you do, keep it to yourself.” He turned and hurried after Mer and Huj without giving her a chance to form a response.
    She walked to the Women’s chapel, bowed her veiled head to the minder as she entered, and knelt on the cold tile floor in front of the golden icon hanging at the front of the room bathed in warm light. There were a dozen women already there, lined up in a unified front, finding some small safety in numbers. She could not, would not ever belong to their group; to a one, they all hated her for escaping their common fate.
    Beside her, one of the brothel women nudged her with an elbow, the faintest of contacts, deeply forbidden.
    “Mer comes to me, now.” The words were barely breathed, but each one was like a knife. “Now that you don’t meet his needs.”
    Fari gritted her teeth, her fists clenching against the floor. She could remember the feel of Mer’s arms around her the night before, the unspoken understanding that that was what they had now, since Leor, since… It had seemed enough. “Good for him,” she managed to hiss back. “And not my problem.”
    Whatever response the woman had hoped for, that must not have been it, because she did not speak again. In the silence they were each left to contemplate their failures and resentments at the