SnapShot

By Ryuu no Taiyo

Chapter Five

The first thing she saw was the ceiling of her bedroom. She was lying on top of her covers, on her bed. Getting up, dazed, she tried to recall what was going on.

'The meteor…there was a DomZ attack…' she thought, her head heavy, 'then…I don't remember…'

She got up shakily, almost losing her bearings as her feet touched the lukewarm floor.

She was about to wake out of her room when panic overtook her. Why was it so silent? Was she dreaming? What was going on? But most importantly, where was her camera?

She reached instinctively to her side and touched the SAC. Breathing deeply, she was relieved. She had her camera, no matter what happened.

Going out of her room, she glanced out the window and saw that Solaris was setting. The sky was back to normal.

Where was Pey'j?

Going downstairs, she was surprised to see Pey'j and a woman in a blue dress talking together.

Pey'j noticed her first, and smiled.

"There ye' are! Sleep well?"

"What's going on? What happened?" Jade asked frantically.

"You passed out. The shock of the meteor crash was too much for you." The woman answered.

Jade looked at the woman, frowning slightly. Too much for her? That made her sound weak. She wasn't weak.

"Who are you?" Jade asked.

Pey'j looked embarrassed at her rude behavior.

"Jade!" he scolded in a very un-Pey'j-like manner. "This is Mrs. Kaerina."

"Why is she here?"

"I am a doctor." Responded the woman coldly, sensing Jade's dislike.

"Oh." That explained some.

"Jade, you okay?" Pey'j asked.

"I have a headache." Jade said, which was the truth. But it was a small headache, like a faint buzzing in her head that wouldn't stop.

She rubbed her eyes. "And I'm hungry." She said rather sheepishly.

Mrs. Kaerina nodded. "That's a good sign. If she wasn't hungry, I would have wanted to bring her to the office to make a few tests." Pey'j looked slightly uneasy, but it was well hidden and Jade barely caught a glimpse of it.

The doctor got up professionally and nodded.

"About my payment, you have a month to pay it, Pey'j. I understand your situation." Pey'j nodded.

"Jade." Mrs. Kaerina nodded to the young girl who said goodbye in a small voice. She walked out of the lighthouse and down to the hangar where her ship was docked. Pey'j looked after her for a moment, before turning back to Jade.

"I called the doctor just in case, Jade. You never know."

Jade looked put off. "I'm fine. I'm not that weak."

"I know. But the meteor might have radiations or worse, it could've traumatized you."

Jade sighed. It was no use fighting with Pey'j when it came to her health or safety. He always had excuses that were hard to fight back.

"Com'on Jade. You must be hungry."

"Yeah…"

She ate a few K-Bups and by the time they were finished, Solaris had set low into the horizon.

She asked Pey'j what happened to the meteors that had landed on the island. They had been picked up by the Alpha Sections shortly after she had passed out. The Alpha Sections had also offered to install a shield on top of the lighthouse, but Pey'j couldn't pay them for the service, so they had offered him a deal. The installment would be free, but every time they used the shield, it would cost them 300 units.

Pey'j had accepted, grumbling, and had watched three Alpha Sections install the shield on the summit of the lighthouse and another install the switch that would activate it from the base.

It had taken them a good three hours. By then, the doctor had already been sent for, Pey'j was worried when Jade wouldn't wake up.

"I was out for three hours?" Jade exclaimed, barely believing her ears.

"Yep." Jade finished her K-Bups in silence.

She had been out for three hours…She didn't know what to think. Was it 'cool' that she had fainted? It was good bragging material…but then again it could make her sound weak…

She wasn't tired though. She still had a slight headache but it was survivable.

Pey'j offered to let her into his workshop and she would help him. Jade had nothing better to do so she accepted.

They went down into his workshop and he offered to adjust her SAC a bit more (and at the same time copy it into another little hunk of junk he had 'found' to make another one for him). She agreed and took out the camera from it before she let him hack it a bit.

Sighing, she sat down against the wall and asked if there was anyway she could help, but he answered that at the moment, no, there wasn't, so she just started playing with her camera. She deleted bad shots and checked her mail (a feature she had discovered by accident not too long before) but there was nothing special. She looked at the news for a while on the TV too, listening as the Alpha Section commander was assuring the Hillyans that the attacks were not going to last because they were going to be successful in destroying the threat.

Jade sighed. Why were the DomZ so mean? Why did they attack Hillys?

The two spent the evening together, after a while, Pey'j realized her boredom and tried to have her help him, and together they upgraded her SAC and made a new Synthetic Atomic Compressor for him. After they went back to the lighthouse and Jade went to bed. Pey'j stayed up for a while, lighting a fire in the chimney and listening to the radio, thinking about that day. In two months, Jade would start school, and he was worried. What if something happened and he wasn't there? There was something incredible buried inside her, but it hadn't manifested itself yet. If he was lucky, it never would, but luck never quite favored Pey'j that much.

Going to the fridge and eating a Starkos, he wondered what he was going to do the next day. Jade needed friends. Kids to play with. Growing up by herself like this wasn't healthy, his mind decided. There was nothing wrong about Jade, she was strong and intelligent for her age but that was because he spent a lot of time with her and focused on her a lot. He tried to be as good of a guardian he could be. Her parents had placed her under his care, and he would do the best to raise her the best he could in their memory.

But she needed friends to play with. He didn't want her to grow up in an anti-social way.

Sighing, he went back down to his workshop, and sent an email from there to his friend Frank. He had two sons, if his memory served well; they were about Jade's age.

The next day Pey'j brought Jade into the Pedestrian District rather early. Jade was still half asleep and Pey'j was thirsty. They went to the Akuda Bar, and Pey'j presented Jade to his friend Frank, a shark-man. He was a half shark and half human hybrid. His two sons were there: the youngest, Francis, was ten, and Rufus, the eldest was twelve. Rufus wasn't very nice, and treated Jade like a little inferior pipsqueak, which got Jade fuming. Francis was a show-off, but he liked Jade well enough when she showed him pictures she had taken of the explosions and the meteors.

Frank and Pey'j talked over quite a few beers while Francis and Jade played different sort of games, all invented by Jade and involved 'spies, DomZ and neutralizing canons'.

They eventually made there way upstairs and Jade had never been up there. They eventually ended up exploring the rooms. One was locked. The other was a closet, which was empty apart from a locker that neither Jade nor Francis could open, and the other was an empty room.

Rufus joined them after a while. When Jade mentioned a racing game, Rufus grinned rather evilly and told them that races were not for little kids. Jade got angry and started yelling at him, telling him off.

"I'm NOT a little kid!"

"Sure." Rufus rolled his beady black eyes.

"You should leave. We don't want you here." She grabbed Francis' sleeve and tried to drag him away.

"Bou-hou-hou. That hurt."

Jade wanted to kick him.

"Just because your bigger doesn't make you better!" she yelled.

"Really?" he answered sarcastically.

Jade was about to pounce on him and rip him to shreds when Francis spoke up.

"Go away, Ruff."

"Gladly." He said, walking down the stairs, but turned around for a moment and added: "Bye baby."

Jade looked at him angrily.

"You're brother's mean."

"Yeah. I know. Ever since Dad let him race, he thinks he's the best."

"He races?"

"Yeah."

"But he's too young."

"There is no age limit."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

They both shrugged and went back to their games. After about an hour, Pey'j called her down and said that they were leaving. Jade nodded, said bye to Francis and ran down the stairs.

As they left the Akuda Bar, Pey'j asked: "What do you think of the boys? Any new friends?"

"Rufus is mean, but Francis is okay, even though he's a show off."

Pey'j chuckled.

"Well, that sounds fun."

Jade shrugged.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Well, I'm going to go to the factory and look for a job opening." Jade's face fell. "Do you want to stay at a friend's? Or do you want to go back to the lighthouse?"

Jade thought for a moment.

"Can I stay with Nouri?"

Pey'j nodded. "Sure. Let's go find Kyura and ask her."

Kyura was more than delighted to have Jade for the day, but there was a compromise. Kyura needed Nouri to help her today, as today was the Market Day and most of her customers came that day to buy food because it was cheaper than usual, and they didn't have the new upgraded EasyUnits Decoder, where all the shopping was done automatically with just one EasyUnits card reading. Everything was manual.

Jade was happy to help, though, so Pey'j left her with the two woman.

Jade had never worked in her short life, and she realized now how hard it was, especially because there was never any break, except from right after lunch. Jade and Nouri enjoyed themselves though: for Jade, she felt really useful and it was fun to work with a friend. Nouri was happy to have a friend to help and it was a nice change from the usual. Kyura was a very business-like woman. She accepted no nonsense, and was the type of woman that would have been an ideal slave driver.

They spent the whole day selling off what seemed to Jade an interminable amount of merchandise. Her and Nouri often snuck a bite from some of the sugary treats and tried their best not to get caught by Kyura.

The stand was just closing when Pey'j appeared again to pick up Jade. She was tired but happy, and wanted to come back the next day again to help. Pey'j smiled. He had gotten the job and thought that this would be an excellent arrangement for him, because the work days were long. Kyura said that she didn't mind, and even offered to pay Jade. But Jade didn't have an account for any credit storing, so she bashfully said no, she didn't want any payment.

Nouri also was happy. So it was settled. Jade would spend the next few weeks working at the market on Fountain Square, except during Pey'j's day off.

Pey'j spent the whole summer working, with only a few day off's here and there where Jade could take a break from her work. But Jade enjoyed herself tremendously, it was fun and exciting for a girl that had never worked before and she was eager to help.

Pey'j made enough money to pay the doctor and the bills. He also had enough to buy food (although now Kyura gave them generous discounts because of Jade's hard work) and activate the shield during the next DomZ attack. There was only one attack after the last one where Jade had blacked out, and they had tried out the shield, that worked like a charm. ("See? Without the Alpha Sections, we would be in danger now!" "Hmph.")

Jade didn't understand her uncle's opinion about the Alpha Sections, but didn't bother him too much about it. Her uncle was as stubborn as she was, in most cases, a debate over the intentions of the Alpha Sections would be useless.

But soon a new event took up all of Jade's attention and energy: she was going to start Primary school soon. A week and a half after her birthday, she realized that her care-free days were coming to an end.

The summer went by so quickly; Jade could barely see it fly by. The next day, she would start Primary with Francis and Nouri and she was excited and slightly apprehensive.

"Don't worry about Jade. Ye'll see. It's pretty easy."

"I'm not scared!"

"I never said ye' were."

"You implied it." She mumbled.

"No I didn't missy. Ye' should be in bed. Big day tomorrow and all."

Jade looked at the setting Solaris.

"Am I allowed bringing my camera?"

"Nah. But doesn't mean ye' can't." He nudged his head towards her SAC. "They can't tell what's in there, can they?" Jade smiled.

"I won't need a schoolbag then." She said. Pey'j wondered if she had understood what he had been implying.

"Nope."

She smiled rather evilly, completely understanding.