Title: Grounded
Version: 1.0, posted 2/27/06 (posted to LiveJournal 11/18/05)
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine. (See full disclaimer on previous page.)
Summary: Young Jenna Stannis makes her first trip planetside.
A/N: Written for ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
b7friday
on the prompt Jenna.
Grounded
by Mistral Amara
Jenna set foot on a planet for the first time when she was eight. Her
father had brought her along to carry his contraband. The overworked
customs officials questioned her father closely, but never spared a
glance for the gaudy 'toy' jewelry that hung all over Jenna like
festival lights. She fidgeted with a strand of sapphires while she
waited for her father to be cleared. Her body felt heavy and
uncomfortable; the ground didn't thrum and pulse like the decks of the Nightwind,
and the air smelled funny, like the filters hadn't been changed in a
long time. The planet felt dead, and in her child's heart, she was
afraid if that if she stayed groundside too long, she'd die too.
When
they were finally through customs, Cal Stannis hailed a ground cab. It
sped along its predetermined course in two dimensions--forward, back,
right, left, zooming around corners and narrowly avoiding other ground
cabs on their own pre-programmed errands. It was so much more awkward
than simply pointing your ship where you wanted to go. Jenna pressed
her face to the window and looked up at the sky. She couldn't see the Nightwind
from down here, but there were birds--bright, colorful, free.
She'd only seen birds in her bookreader before now. How graceful they
were! She wondered what it would be like to be a bird, to fly without a
ship. If she had to live on a planet, she'd want to be a bird.
She
was so busy watching the birds that she barely noticed when the ground
cab stopped. Her father retrieved his credit voucher from the machine's
slot and they got out in front of a row of shops. Their windows were
grimy and the paint on their signs was peeling. Her father took her
hand and led her into a shop marked 'Gaffer's Curios'. A bell tinkled
as they entered.
There was a grey-looking man at the counter in
back; Jenna guessed his name was Gaffer. Gaffer smiled and asked her
her name, but he didn't really seem interested in the answer. Then her
father took all the jewels she wore and laid them on the counter, and
he and Gaffer started arguing about the price. Jenna thought they must
have forgotten that she was there at all.
Soon she was bored by
all the talking, so she started to look around the shop. At first she
stayed within sight of her father, but he and Gaffer didn't pay any
attention to her wanderings, so she explored the whole shop. There
weren't any toys, no computers, not even a bookreader. Just funny old
things--little carvings set on checkered boards, papers sandwiched
between stiff colored covers, chairs so old they were made out of wood.
She couldn't imagine what anyone would do with any of it.
Then,
near the front of the shop she hear some noises. They were
high-pitched, like the sounds of ship's rats, but they didn't sound
like rats. They were more chirpy, like a computer. Maybe there was
something here she could play with, after all.
She followed the
sounds all the way to the very front of the shop, right by the window.
There, behind a box of old scarves, she found not a computer, but a
cage! A cage full of tiny birds, their wings as bright as the stones
that her father and Gaffer were arguing about. The birds chirruped more
loudly when they saw her, and jumped around in the cage, beating their
tiny wings. They hopped up and down, climbed up the sides of the cage,
and ran round and round. But there was no room in the cage for them to
fly.
Jenna's heart beat fast, almost as fast as the birds'
wings. Just seeing them in their cage, she felt trapped, anchored to
the earth with no hope of ever breaking free. A feeling of panic seized
her, and she found herself gasping for air. Without thinking, she
grabbed the heavy cage and dragged it off the shelf. It was too heavy
for her to lift, so she scooted it along the floor until she got to the
door.
The door chimed as it opened. She heaved the cage over
the threshold, undid the latch, and opened the cage door wide. The
angry voices behind her got angrier, but she was too absorbed by her
task to pay them any attention. She watched as the more adventurous
birds hopped to the opening and flew away, then she shooed the
stragglers out after them. The last ruby and emerald wings were
streaking away in the distance when she felt a heavy hand on her
shoulder.
"Jenna! What are you doing?" She knew that voice. Her father was upset.
So was Gaffer. "Stannis, those birds were for a customer. They'll have
to be replaced."
Cal Stannis's shoulders slumped. "I'll pay for them."
"You bet you will. They don't come cheap."
The
ride back to the spaceport was mostly quiet, except that her father
made a hushed call to the supply depot. When they got to the docking
bay, Jenna saw that the pile of crates was smaller than usual. They
were all food and repair parts, as far as Jenna could tell. None of the
crates was marked 'books' or 'toys', or even 'clothes'. She guessed she
was in a lot of trouble. But when she reminded her father that he'd
forgotten her mother's flowers--he always brought her mother
flowers--he just said, 'Not now, Jenna,' in that same upset tone, and
she knew something was really the matter. Her mother hadn't done
anything wrong.
Later, when her parents explained to her what
she'd done, she understood why there were no flowers. She even
understood why she wasn't allowed to watch any vis-plays or use her
bookreader for a month, except to do her schoolwork. She was sorry
she'd caused so much trouble, but it was too late to take it back now.
Still, it wasn't all bad. She'd never forget the sight of those
beautiful birds soaring off into the sky.
And nobody made her go planetside again until she was thirteen.