A Spacer Apprentice II

Carly and her uncle rode the train back together, neither of them speaking for most of the trip. Carly's stomach ached but she managed, just barely, to keep from crying. She didn't even want to think about what her mother was going to say to her. As they approached Paradise she gave a loud sigh and looked over at her uncle. "How did you know I in was there," she asked him. "I turned off the security system."

"You were breathing," he replied. Carly gave him a puzzled look. "When I started the engine the space plane automatically switched to internal environment control," he explained. "About halfway through my checklist, I noticed that carbon dioxide levels in the cold sleep chamber seemed to be a bit high. I thought something was leaking. So when a system diagnostic couldn't find anything, I went back to see if I could figure out what the problem was."

"Oh," Carly said. "I didn't think about that."

"A space plane has a sealed environment, just like any spacecraft," he told her. "You have to keep a close watch on the air so that if anything goes wrong you can catch it before it's too late."

Carly nodded but didn't reply.

"Are you ready to tell me now why you were in there in the first place?" he pressed.

Carly sighed again. "I thought if I could get up to the Lady Jane and hide out until you were out of orbit, I'd have time to talk you into letting me stay."

Uncle Jon raised his eyebrows. "That was your plan? You stow away on board my ship and I'm supposed to make you a part of the crew just like that?"

Carly looked down. This wasn't coming out right. "Not just like that," she said quietly. "I knew I'd be in trouble, but I figured it would be worth getting a whipping to be a spacer."

"Unless after I paddled your behind I stuck you in cold sleep and left you there until we got back to Mars and I could send you back down to your mother."

Carly squirmed in her seat. "I didn't think about that either," she said weakly.

When they got to the Paradise station Uncle Jon paid for a robot cab to take them the rest of the way home. Carly's mother was waiting out on the front porch. "You lied to me Carly," was the first thing she said.

Carly hung her head. Her stomach hurt. "I'm sorry," she said.

"I'm afraid sorry isn't good enough," her mother replied, then stopped and took a deep breath. "Get in the house young lady," she ordered. "I want you to go to your room and just wait there."

Carly looked up at her mother. "But..."

"No," her mother interrupted, raising her hand. "I'm too angry to have this discussion right now. So you can just wait in your room until I figure out how I'm going to deal with you."

Carly bit her lip and nodded, feeling in no mood to argue. She shouldered her backpack without a word and walked around her mother and into the house. When she got to her bedroom she dropped the backpack in the corner, kicked off her shoes, and plopped down on her bed. After a minute she reached over and turned on Mr. Hobbs, then picked him up and hugged him tightly, allowing herself, finally, to cry.

"You sure screwed this one up," she said to herself softly. All her preparations, all her work, had been for nothing. She was never going to get into space now. Her mother could legally keep her from going until she was eleven, and even then no captain was going to want her after what she had done. Not that she could blame them. Trying to stow away like that had been stupid, and stupidity was the one thing no spacer could ever afford to tolerate.

She stayed in her room even when her mother called her for dinner. The summons wasn't repeated, which was just as well. She wasn't ready to face anybody yet. Nor was she certain she would be able to keep anything down with the way her stomach was feeling.

After another hour or so the door chime beeped and Carly called, "Come in," without bothering to look up. "I'm not hungry," she said when the door slid open.

"That's good," replied Uncle Jon, "because I didn't bring any food with me."

Carly looked up in surprise, then rolled over to face him as he pulled a chair out of the corner, turned it around, and sat straddling it backward. "That's a cute bear," he said, pointing to the little animated toy which was at the moment climbing back and forth over Carly's outstretched legs. "What's his name?"

"Mr. Hobbs," she said, then reached down to pet the furry little toy.

"Mr. Hobbs," Uncle Jon repeated. "You might want to think about taking him with you next time. Believe it or not, something like that can really do a lot to help you get through the stress of an apprenticeship."

Carly shrugged. "There wasn't room in my backpack," she said, then sighed and looked down. "Not that it matters anymore. I'll never get into space now."

"Don't be too sure," Uncle Jon replied. "What you did today showed determination and an unwillingness to give up. Any spacer will tell you that those are survival traits."

Carly looked back up at him and blinked in surprise. "But..." she began.

"But," her uncle continued, "you also acted without permission, doing something, in fact, that you knew neither your mother nor I would approve of. That's not so good."

Carly took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Yes sir."

"Young lady, your mother and I have just had a long discussion about your actions. She believes that if you're given the chance you'll most likely run off again to try and find some other captain to take you on."

Carly felt the tears welling up again, stinging her eyes. Even her mother didn't trust her any more. But what else could she expect? She shook her head. "I won't," she said. "I promise I'll be good."

"I'm afraid you're not going to be given the chance," Uncle Jon said sternly. "I'll be leaving tomorrow on a special commission to ferry some VIP's out to the Trojan Cluster. But I'll be back here in eight weeks time, and then I'll be taking you up to the Lady Jane with me. That way I can make sure that you stay out of trouble."

Carly's jaw dropped. It couldn't be true, could it? Not after everything that had happened. She swallowed. "For real?" she asked him.

"For real," Uncle Jon said, breaking into a grin. "I could use another hand since Kelly Everett left to take a position with the Sakai Line, and you need someone to make sure you don't run off into trouble again, so it works out perfectly." He paused for a moment. "That is, if you're still interested?"

Instantly Carly was off the bed and hugging her uncle with all her might. "Oh thank you Uncle Jon," she cried, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"You'd better go thank your mother," he told her, still grinning. "She's the one who said you could go. And while you're at it, you might want to think about apologizing for your behavior today."

Carly stood up again, sniffing back tears and nodding. "I was pretty awful, wasn't I?" she said with a grimace. "I guess I do owe her an apology."

"Come on," Uncle Jon said as he stood up. "Let's go see her."

Carly found her mother sitting in the living room staring into the holographic fire burning in the fireplace. "Mom, I am so sorry I worried you," she said, sitting down beside her on the divan. "All I could think of was that this was my dream and it was slipping away but..." she looked down at the floor, "but I shouldn't have tried to run away like that." She took a deep breath and looked back up at her mother. "Please forgive me?"

Lisa Campbell's answer was to grab her daughter and hug her tightly. "Oh honey, of course I forgive you," she said. "And I'm sorry too for trying to hold on too tightly. I knew how much you were hoping to go off with your uncle; it's all you've talked about for the past six months. I guess I should have been more ready when the time actually came. I just..." she took a deep breath, then frowned. "It's just that since your father died, you're all I have. I'm afraid of losing you too."

"You won't lose me," Carly said. "You know Uncle Jon stops at Mars pretty often. And every time he does I'll come down for a visit, I promise." She looked across at her uncle, who had seated himself on the arm of a chair nearby. "We will come back and visit, won't we Uncle Jon?"

"No question about it," he said with a smile. "I'll make sure you have plenty of opportunities to spend time with your mother."

Carly turned back to her mother. "So does the fact that you're apologizing too mean that you're not going to punish me?" she asked with a hopeful smile.

Her mother shook her head. "No, it does not mean that young lady. Your actions today were inexcusable, and you know it."

Carly sighed and looked down. "Yeah, I know," she said, wiping her hands on her pants. "So how long am I on restriction?"

"You're not."

Carly looked up at her mother in surprise. "I don't understand."

"You're going to be too busy getting ready to leave to be going out much anyway," her mother explained, "so I think it'll be best to just take care of your punishment tonight and get it out of the way."

Carly felt her stomach start to turn over as she realized what her mother intended. "Mom," she said, trying not to make it a whine, "I'm too..."

"Don't even try and tell me you're too old to get spanked," her mother said, interrupting her. "If you can live with corporal punishment when you're on your uncle's space ship, then you can live with it while you're at home too. So now I want you to march straight into the kitchen and bring me my wooden mixing spoon."

"But..."

"Now!"

"But Uncle Jon is right here!" she whispered desperately.

"So what?" her mother responded. "It was his space plane you broke into, and I think he's entitled to see that you're made to pay for that. And besides, from what I understand you're going to be getting the same thing from him starting eight weeks from now. So you can just get going into that kitchen before I start rethinking my decision to let you go flying off into space."

"Yes ma'am," Carly said quietly as she slowly stood up. Her bare feet dragged on the carpet as she made her way from the living room to the kitchen. The spoon her mother had indicated was in its usual place, hanging in the rack above the sink. Her stomach fluttered and her heart was pounding, but she swallowed hard and reached out to take it. It was heavier than she remembered. Much heavier. "I brought this on myself," she whispered to no one in particular. Then she forced herself to turn around and head back to her mother in the living room.

Uncle Jon was still sitting on the arm of his chair where he had been before. Carly gave him a quick, embarrassed glance, her face growing hot, then dragged her feet over to her mother and handed her the wooden spoon.

Lisa Campbell stood up. "Over there behind the couch," she said, pointing to the tall, free standing, leather couch that separated the living room from the small dining area. Carly hesitated for a second and her mother reached out and gave her a sharp swat with the wooden spoon. "Scoot!" she ordered.

Her face still burning, Carly went over to the couch and stepped around behind. Her mother followed. She started to bend down over the back of the couch, but her mother shook her head. "Pants down first," she ordered. "Then you can bend over the couch."

Carly's eyes opened wide. "But..."

"Not one word young lady," her mother said, cutting her off. "I pulled your pants down every time I paddled you when you were little, and I don't see any reason to change things now."

For a long moment Carly just stared at her mother. Then her shoulders dropped and she let out her breath. She looked down at the ground and without a word unfastened her pants and slid them down halfway to her knees. Without being told, she slipped her panties down to join them a second later, remembering only too well how she had been spanked when she was younger. Her uncle was still sitting less than five meters off to her left, but she was too ashamed to even glance in his direction. Taking a deep breath, she bent forward over the back of the couch and reached down to touch the seat cushion.

"Hands flat on the cushions," her mother said unnecessarily. "Don't take them off until I tell you or there'll be extra."

"Yes ma'am," Carly whispered. She closed her eyes and couldn't help squirming a little bit as the cool breeze from the air conditioner raised tiny goose bumps on her bare flesh. When her mother laid her hand in the middle of Carly's back she tried to steel herself to remain still. It was her own fault she was in this position, she told herself, so now she could just stay put and take her punishment.

The spanking began with a rapid series of hard swats that cracked loudly on Carly's bare, vulnerable flesh and stung like white-hot fires. Carly yelped and clenched both hands tightly against the pain. Her mother spanked hard and fast right from the beginning, and Carly gasped at the punishing, burning sting. In seconds tears were filling her eyes and rolling down her face to drip on to the leather couch. Carly arched her back and tried to twist her bottom out of the way but her mother did not let up. Her knuckles were white as she forced her hands to stay on the cushion and she whimpered and sobbed as the awful wooden spoon seared her bottom over, and over, and over again.

Even when the spanking was finally over Carly stayed bent over the couch, trembling and sobbing like a little child. "All right," her mother said at last, "we're done. Do you think now you can manage to stay out of trouble for the next eight weeks?"

Carly stood up slowly, still trying to catch her breath and slow the tide of tears. "Yes ma'am," she said.

"I hope so young lady," her mother replied, her voice still stern. "Because if I have any more problems with you I won't hesitate to put you right back over this couch and pick up where I left off, is that clear?"

Carly nodded. "I'll be good, I promise."

"Good," her mother said. "Now pull up your pants, and then you can go say good-bye to your uncle."

Quickly Carly reached down and pulled her panties and jeans back into place, gasping as the tight pants pressed painfully against her throbbing, swollen, rear end. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands, then sniffed back the last of her tears as she refastened her belt, making a point of not turning around until she was once again completely dressed. Only then did she discover that her efforts at modesty were wasted. Her uncle was no longer in the room, having left discretely sometime during the punishment. Carly looked quickly over at her mother. "I think he went out onto the patio," she said, and Carly nodded and headed in that direction.

She found her uncle standing on the front patio, watching Phobos rise. "I'm sorry I made you late getting back to your ship Uncle Jon," she said quietly.

Uncle Jon made a brief gesture of dismissal. "It's not a problem. I've still got plenty of time to get back and meet with my client." He turned to face her. "However I do expect you to fix that hole in my security program when I come back to pick you up. I don't like the thought that somebody can just break in anytime they like."

Despite her throbbing rear end Carly found herself smiling. "Not very many people could," she told him.

Her uncle nodded and smiled back. "Well in that case, I'm glad you're going to be working for me and not against me," he said.

Carly looked down at the ground for a moment, then back up at her uncle. "Uncle Jon, you really don't have to take me with you if you don't want to," she said quietly, feeling her stomach beginning to ache again even as she spoke. "I know that what I did was wrong, and I really won't run away again."

"I'm very glad to hear you say that Carly," he replied. "But whether I thought you were going to run away or not, if I didn't think you'd make a good spacer I would never have invited you to come along. Space is too unforgiving an environment for that. Real problems don't happen very often, but when they do I can't afford to have anybody with me who can't be counted on to do their job, and to do it right. I believe I can count on you Carly, today's poor judgment notwithstanding, and that's the only reason I'm willing to take you on."

Tears began to fill Carly's eyes again and she blinked hard to keep them from flowing over. "I won't let you down Uncle Jon," she whispered.

Uncle Jon took a step forward and enfolded her in his strong arms. "I know you won't sweetheart," he said as he gently stroked her hair. He put his hand under her chin and tipped it up. "Are you ready to go back inside now?" he asked her. "I've made up a list of things you'll need to do before you'll be ready to leave with me, and I'd like to go over it with you."

Carly nodded eagerly. "Yes please," she said as she wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. Her bottom ached from the punishment she had received, but somehow that didn't seem to matter very much as Carly, her eyes still watery with tears, took her uncle by the hand and led him back inside the house to begin planning the fulfillment of her dream.