The Healing Moment Assigned by HR Central Stacks

By R.J.K. Lee

Debby, the librarian currently stationed to provide mobile library deliveries in north galactic quadrant three, placed her roomy voyager in autodrift and went to her bedroom. On the cushioned sofa with her black top hat snug on her head, she rubbed aloe cream into her ten fingers, her two wiry arms, her body bruised orange and yellow. Fifty whirlwind stops on planets, moons, and asteroids had burned her out.

The video greeting sent from home hovered before her, but it only made her cry. Adoon’s bronze skin gleamed in the sunlight. White tresses of her wedding dress fluttered over their vegetable garden on Moon CS07. So far away in the Central Stacks solar system.

Adoon's black frizzy bun bobbed as she waltzed. That professional grace and power in each bend and turn. Debby's cheeks flushed as she imagined her love taking her trembling hands and leading her through the steps which she always found so difficult. Her heart beat faster. Half excitement, half despair at the interminable shifts until she could return home.

They’d delayed their honeymoon forever. But they promised each other that as soon she returned, they’d shrug off complaints from HR and drain all vacation hours to fly free for six months. Adoon wanted to take her dancing on a Milky Way tour without limit.

Work first. Wrap up this wave of deliveries with efficiency and care. With Adoon laid off, they were living on Debby’s interstellar librarian wage. Not bad, considering the insurance and housing benefits. This latest shift of several months promised enough payment to fund their home life and their “limitless” travels.

She shifted her wife’s image away and summoned the message from HR.

Thanks HR. Always so thoughtful.

Debby kept her reply brief. No mention of her annoyance at Trasker and at HR for not transferring him elsewhere. She scanned the attachments, double-checked the Raindos tunnel map, then tucked the memo into her spirit folder with a rapid wriggling of her fingers.

As if healing was needed. Debby was doing just fine and didn’t need flashbacks of screaming matches with Bredio, or that time she placed her favorite hat on her head for the focus and courage to run from the sad pit she’d dug out of her old life. Only item from her old life she’d brought to Central Stacks.

A nope to flashbacks. Focus on wrapping up the shift. Then spin back to Central.

Debby took the top hat off and hung it on a hook over her cot. Then she went to the transition shower, sprayed clean, and entered the transformation cube.

Once transformed —a shedding and reskinning process— she stored the shell of her human body in a spacious locker and moved on to the transporter. She wriggled her new tentacles at the mirrored surface of the transporter control panel. Jagged teeth glinted along a forked tongue. Her squidfolk form loomed gaunt and slimy. She waved at herself with two hands, sixteen fingers, and two dozen tentacles.

Cavern 40a was as deep as the transporter could place her; another four caverns down to reach the main goal of 44e, and perhaps deep enough to avoid a chance encounter with her ex.

A thousand glow bugs sparkled blue on the cavern walls and ceiling. They wavered above Debby like the swathe of distant, needy stars she was obligated to visit.

Another job, another hour, another speck on the cosmic network. She really didn’t want to be on this particular speck right now, didn’t need the memories, had long since moved on. Didn’t need the healing no matter what her friends in HR recommended. HR thought she had to be scarred ever so much by leaving her past behind, her friends and family, and an entire planet. But the trade-off? Being an interstellar librarian, a perfect opportunity. Freedom to travel. Help enhance the quality of the entire universe. Ditching her baggage was a bonus.

Debby smiled away the irritation, swaying her body, her tentacles, to release stress. She approached the descent toward the next level of caverns. Then stopped and turned.

Thudding steps approached from the upper tunnels linked to cavern 39 and all the way back up to 01 and the surface. Her mind opened to the presences as they drew closer. She could hear their minds whisper. Slices of their thoughts: We’ll be rich. That bastard better quiet down. Anything moves we kill it. I’d rather be fishing. How’d I end up—

Five cloaked travelers entered the chamber of cavern 40e, silhouetted in the flickering light of the lanterns they raised.

The largest member of their group shouted a command. “Hoy! Cage that beast!”

Placing their lanterns on the ground, they drew weapons: a chunky skull-ax, a curved blade, a mining pick, butcher’s knives, and a net and trident combo. Diversely sharp and menacing, they spread out around Debby.

Debby’s current form rose several feet taller than her opponents. Her appearance as squidfolk —a subspecies of psychic gleaner— inevitably upset beings outside of her objective on Raindos. But it was more important to make her primary patron comfortable and she couldn’t be expected to change species at the whim of everyone else’s misguided annoyance. The transformation was draining, especially if overdone.

“Could I ask you to stop and move on, please?” Debby used the language of the local tribes, accent marred by her current form’s narrow teeth and forked tongue. “I’m not exactly what you think I am.”

The muscled leader of the gang, gnarled hair decorated in skulls and fishtail bands, started slapping his chunky ax against his left metal gauntlet as he spoke. “You sure” —clang— “look like” —clang— “a brainsucker.” He grunted, switched the ax hilt to his left gauntlet, then started more swings against his right gauntlet. “All those tentacles” —clang— “just a fancy” —clang— “minstrel’s hat then?”

“This isn’t my real hat,” Debby said. “I left that in orbit.”

Next to the noisy ax-wielder stood a wiry guy polishing his curved blade and shaking his head. He’d been in the sketches HR attached to their message. In her memory, too. Bredio, apparently a con artist engaged with a violent gang now. Figures. Probably her fault.

Bredio’s laughter spilled from his mind to hers, followed by a roaring flood of his thoughts overwhelming her own: C’mon Unther, shut up. You’re happy you got your hands back, we know. Don’t need to beat it into every—

Debby gritted her sharp teeth, her tentacles batting at the air, and she managed to clamp down on the stream of thoughts enough to think.

“Definitely a brainsucker,” Unther said. “No cage. I’m cleaving its head for my wall.”

Debby tasted the thoughts of the other three group members: the net and trident combo giddy over the prospect of a greater share of the treasure; the mining pick banking on better jobs promised by Unther; the butcher knives counted on the impressive monster trophies.

Bredio was her way out. The rest of the gang seemed much too Team Unther.

This was the healing moment HR wanted her to have, and she’d use it to her advantage. Healing or not, Debby knew she could push Bredio’s buttons if she wanted, twist his emotions if she told him the truth.

“I’m not a real gleaner, believe me.”

Unther glared. “Believe you?” Clang. “You’d like that.”

“I’d like to avoid complications, sir. I am a librarian. I am only providing a delivery service here before I spin off to the next job.”

“Spin off? That how you monsters travel? Spin the lewd appendages round-about?”

“Please. Can I offer you a brochure?”

Bredio, sword now sheathed, clapped his hands, interrupting the back-and-forth. “Excuse me, Miss Tentacles. Bredio here. I have questions for you.”

Unther grumbled and smacked his ax once more.

Debby chuckled at the nickname, which came out more of a hiss. “Missss Tentaclessss here. Ask away. Time’s limited though. I’m leaving by tube soon as I finish my delivery.”

“Got it,” Bredio said— as if the fool would know what a tube was. “Sorry about Unther’s attitude. Three questions: What kind of librarian are you? Who do the deliveries go to? What’s your next job?”

With her hands on her hips, she wriggled her tentacles at Bredio. “I’m an interstellar librarian of rank undisclosed. I’m busy delivering to the squidfolk— their students love research. This form I’ve taken on is the form most comfortable to the student I’m meeting. And my next job? Really? That’s not your concern.”

“Let’s say I believe you.”

Bredio paused. Unther spit and smacked his ax against his gauntlet again. The other members of the gang muttered amongst themselves from the shadows. Bredio shrugged at them then bared his empty palms at Debby. “Can I get library materials?”

“Your group’s marked for a brochure. I can provide one. For an actual library card, I’ll have to process an express registration. Five spots to sign in the contract and rulebook. If you review that while I complete my delivery, I’ll grant you the card and a few items I have primed in my folder.”

Bredio clapped his hands. “Deal.”

Debby pulled a bundle of paper from the folder at her side. "Sign with your finger, any digit, on the spots requesting a signature. Once signed, hit submit and admin will process. If you move on, no problem. I'll track the contract and rulebook to your location. Until then."

Debby wriggled her tentacles and scurried deeper into the cavern network.

“Don’t you brimming move, foul brainsucker,” Unther shouted, hefting his ax.

Debby ignored him.

“Stop Unther,” Bredio said. “I want a card.”

“Enough negotiations,” Unther growled. “We slay the monster. Why the Frijian wasting whirl you need a card?”

“Does it matter? We’re not even here for squid hunting.”

Debby lurked further down the passage, listening from the shadows.

“Imagine the trophy,” Unther said. “That sucker on a spike. The guild will sing songs of our bravery. Councils will award our cleansing of the cave squid.”

“We’ll have songs enough from the dragon we were sent to steal from,” Bredio said. “No more side quests.”

“Says the pickpocket trying to get a library card.”

“Point taken. But desist and I’ll buy the next round.”

“Like I’d believe you.”

“Believe me,” Bredio said. “I’ll buy with my own money. I’ll sing along with your poor taste in song. I swear on my sister’s sweet soul. Swear on the love I still bear for my runaway fiancé.”

“Ugh. If you’re swearing like that...”

Echoes of the argument faded. Ugh indeed. Bredio still loved me? Really? After I ditched him with a slap and a scream, and a dash into what I knew was a one-way trip off planet. At least a decade absence, during which I got myself married to my true love and he married himself to treasure hunting.

Debby hurried along a passage toward cavern 42. She spiraled down between a wall of glowing moss and a wall of glimmering minerals, reminding her of Adoon and their marriage ceremony. The handmaidens guided them spiraling down through the warmth of fire blossoms, sprays of light glimmering across Adoon and her flaring nose, eyes flashing with wonder as she turned to Debby.

Adoon would have a grand belly laugh over Debby’s new nickname. Miss Tentacles. She wanted home already to hear that laugh. Skip this nonsense. What Adoon wouldn’t find amusing was who Trasker and HR had nudged her up against. She knew HR didn’t like her wife after the whole dinner party collapse due to Adoon’s panic attack. They'd even whispered about Adoon only sticking around as a moocher, a sponge, a user, after Adoon kicked them out of the party. Trasker had even warned Debby not to waste her time with another woman (an incident which inspired Debby to place a complaint that unfortunately went unheard).

But Bredio, really? He was much worse than a woman relying on her wife for support in her time of need. As she should. Bredio was the loveless dead-end. No matter what the prejudiced jerk Trasker thought.

Debby skidded to a halt. She’d rushed through 42 lost in her thoughts, circled down to 43, and nearly stumbled right off the edge of that cavern.

Focus, my aloe girl. She let Adoon’s voice wake her.

But then another presence caressed her mind, probing, asking: Who are you, trespasser?

Debby, the librarian stationed here. A local patron has transactions pending. The response flowed from Debby’s mind like strands of hair scrubbed loose from her head into the shower drain. She reached her tentacles out as if to catch them.

A heat flash of foreign thoughts rushed in to replace the thoughts she’d expelled. A librarian, is it? Who is the patron?

Maewquar, a student at the Glow Worm Institute.

Ho-ho. My cousin’s getting fancy with his studies. Good on him. I’ll bring you.

Debby approached the trespassers. “Bredio and Unther. Hello again.” Her voice hissed in the squidfolk accent. “Return to cavern 40 and wait for me. The inhabitants here do not take kindly to your trespassing.”

Unther charged, swinging his ax at Debby. The wind rushed along the sharp edge of the weapon, nearly cutting her.

Bredio leaped at them. Debby thrashed out a tentacle but stopped mid-swipe; Bredio wasn’t attacking her. He landed on Unther and the men wrestled in the dirt.

“What’s wrong with you?” Unther roared.

“Get away from her,” Bredio retorted.

Her. Did he know? Debby closed her eyes, the appendages of her Miss Tentacles form trembling in shame. Shame at the adoration squirming through her spirit, the memory of her old self invading her new. She remembered loving Bredio once for how he always came to her defense. But that wasn’t her anymore. She’d learned he came to her defense too many times for her to breathe. It had reached such an awful state that she was literally asthmatic around him, sucking in breaths in shallow gasps until he left her alone.

“No,” Unther growled and clamped his arm around Bredio’s neck. “Get with the quest and slay it.”

Bredio squirmed out of the head lock. “I am trying to get a” —he punched Unther in the face— “card for the library” —Unther punched Bredio in the face — “that took my wife!”

Unther and Bredio scrambled away from each other.

Debby opened her eyes and stared at Bredio. She was sucking desperately at the air, even in this form.

Unther popped his knuckles. “Huh, so this is the library you were talking about.”

“Yeah.” Bredio pointed at Debby. “I’m pretty sure that’s—”

Debby gasped for air, found enough to speak. “How did you know?”

“I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but you confirmed it when you offered us the brochure. When you talked about the squidfolk like wearing a hat, I remembered the hat you wore before you ran off and vanished. You mentioned a library once like it was a faraway place you’d dreamed of. When you screamed at me you were leaving that last night after the fight, right before our wedding day, it seemed like that library dream had something to do with it.”

“Too late for that,” Debby said. “Enough.”

Bredio grimaced, clearly uncomfortable.

Debby released a breath, long and sad, almost deciding to apologize, almost telling him that she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Her tentacles hung still, waiting. She let the words remain unsaid.

“Well,” Bredio said. “It was a long time ago. Are you enjoying the job?”

“I am,” Debby said. “Do you still want a card?”

“I do. Can I see you? The real you.”

“After I finish this.” Debby took a deeper breath, pushing the cloying memories away. “Wait for me back there. Keep your friends out of my way. Even then, I can’t stay. I have another life.”

“Understood.” He frowned and his eyes went misty.

Debby recalled their screaming matches, not just that final one. Ending their relationship had been vital and necessary, a good decision no matter how sad. Probably better she didn’t take chances. The past had a way of biting you in…all kinds of places. She had her primary patron to handle. This painful side stuff could wait. Could wait forever.

Adoon waited at home, someone who truly cared and listened and worked through the bad stuff. They didn’t need a past tearing their present apart for no good reason.

Debby backed away to Maewquar’s cousin in the shadows.

Bredio nudged Unther back toward cavern 40a.

Debby rolled her eyes at what Trasker had thought was a healing opportunity. She apologized to the squidfolk as they continued on to meet her primary patron. She wasn’t one to use memory baubles and this encounter had reminded her why.

Another agent could collect her ex’s application. They’d have to inform him that Miss Tentacles was otherwise occupied. She had more pressing matters.