convinced. "I don’t like it Chub; I’m not saying James has a plan that will affect us but there’s too many what if’s?”
"Yea well, with you not being here it was down to me and Rosie and she’s sold on the idea, and with James being all smarmy she ignored my warnings.”
“Ignored?’
“The contract is signed, we go tomorrow.”
“But if you feel so strongly why didn’t you veto it?”
“Jet work has dried up, and if we renege on this contract all the other shippers will find out and we'll be parked on the ground forever."
When Rosie arrived she seemed eager to leave.
"It’s just one package Jet," she said making it sound easy.
"According to the consignment documents it’s one crate… Large," he countered.
She smiled. “And one huge payoff.”
Jet was sat by the scanner as they approached Valeria, and were passing over the belt of asteroids that circled the planet. On the screen Jet could see the rocks jostling and spinning. It was mostly small ones; they in turn had impacted on the occasional medium one to set that into crazy motion. The thought crossed his mind that it was only a matter of time before a mid-sized one nudged a large one out of orbit, and down to the planet. "What do you make of this Chub?"
Chub walked over to the screen showing the space between them and the planet. “Not a lot Jet.”
“If this data is right the positions of the asteroids have changed?”
“Jet they get knocked about by perturbations all the time Jet.”
“I guess?”
"There are always collisions and bumping in asteroid belts.”
“I know, but I don’t remember this kind of activity before, it’s as if they’ve acquired energy from somewhere?”
Chub looked at him strangely. “Jet asteroid belts don’t just suddenly become energetic?”
“No…I must be imagining things?”
“We’re getting close.” Jet looked at Rosie. "You’ve got the co-ordinates?"
"Yes, we should be picking up a beacon to guide us onto the platform any moment."
Suddenly they heard the beacon; locking on they followed the signal and descended to water lever; but there was no platform as far as their eyes, or the scanner could see.
"Where is it?" Muttered Jet, "There's nothing below but water?”
Chub was looking out of the view port. “Maybe they expect us to land on one of those floating reed beds…" He stopped speaking as they saw a large shipping container bobbing in the water beside one of the reed islands.
"They’ve got to be joking?" Muttered Jet. “Where’s James?”
A couple of minutes later James came onto the command deck. “We’ve arrived?”
“What’s that?” Jet said accusingly.
James adjusted the gain on the screen. “That looks like it.”
Jet couldn’t believe James seemed so unsurprised. “It: the crate we have to pick up has been left dumped on an island in the middle of an ocean”
“Jet you’ve been here before; everything is below the water; they’re saving you the time and trouble by giving you easy access?”
Looking at it that way Jet had to admit it did save time; but he had other concerns as well. "It looks big; what are its dimensions?"
Chub scanned the container. "It's okay Jet, it'll fit in the main hold with room to spare.”
Getting closer they could see a woman waving and Jet felt a nice feeling sweep through him. "Okay, so how’s this going to happen?
“I can hover over it?”
Chub shook his head. “That wont work Rosie, unless you want to chase it around in the downwash.”
“Okay so if we hover over the adjacent island then?”
Chub shook his head. “The downwash will sink it.”
“Then what do I do?”
“Land on the island.”
Chub your joking; do you know how heavy the Flyer is?”
“Actually Rosie I now exactly how heavy the Flyer is. The landing struts will go through but the belly will distribute the weight. It’ll be fine.”
“I hope you know what your doing Chub?’
“Trust me… But to be on the safe side be ready for a quick lift.”
Still muttering Rosie brought the starship down, but landing wasn’t as easy as she had assumed as the reed bed was not only lifting and falling on the rough water, but was rippling and flexing from wave crest to wave crest.
Rosie's insistent voice brought more unease. "The landing feet are breaking through."
Jet wanted to say something but giving advice would show his lack of confidence in her piloting.
"It’s just point pressure," Chub said as if it was something normal. "The underbelly should settle okay,"
Jet hoped it would.
"I'll leave hover on till were safe… Were breaking through… We’re holding… We’re down." Rosie said in relief
Suddenly they were up again, and down again as the wave action transferred to the spaceship.
"This is no good," she snapped. "We have to shut down hover and put down properly.”
Chub was grabbing for something to hold steady with. “It’ll be okay.
Jet just wanted to make sure they didn’t end up being down forever.
The Silver Flyer settled onto the reeds pushing them under the water to the point where wave crests washed straight over them.
Jet, Chub and James went through to the hold and opened the cargo door, as it did they watched ocean surge under the Flyer.
"Jeese; I hope that container isn’t as heavy as it looks," mumbled Chub.
Jet looked at him anxiously. “Now’s not the time to loose confidence Chub.”
They saw Selian dive gracefully into the water and almost without a ripple she sliced effortlessly towards them.
"Wow," gasped James. "Always thought it was just my fantasy but this is as close to a mermaid as I’m ever going to be in this lifetime."
Selian reached up with one arm and lifted her body from the water. The clothes she wore clung to her as water ran down her perfectly shaped thighs. "I thought you would land over there?" She gestured back to the crate.
The tree men stared at her speechless.
“There’s a reason?”
Jet found his voice first. He coughed to cover his staring at her. “I... we… we thought if we would sink it?"
"It's not… Heavy." She said; her expression had a guilty look about it.
Chub looked around at the open Ocean. "Heavy or not why here?"
"It is rather complicated: maybe we could load up and get out of the water and then I’ll explain?"
Jet tore his eyes away from her. “James, make yourself useful and help me get some hauling lines; we need to do a bit of fishing."
Selian swam out a hauling line under the ogling stare of all three and secured it to the container. Chub activated the winch and a short while later it was alongside and he was preparing the robo-arm, "How heavy is it?" he said deliberately not looking at Selian.
"Its not as heavy as it looks; I'm not sure." She said uneasily.
Chub aimed a spectrometer at the crate. "Okay density; now volume." Another beam flashed over the container. "Okay that’s the crate; are you prepared to tell us what's inside?"
“Do you need to know?”
Jet was slightly surprised at her reluctance. “Actually no, but if the contents are dangerous in any way we have to consider the safety of the ship?”
“No; they are perfectly safe; I promise.”
Chub extended the arm and they felt the Flyer tip a little’ moments later the engine hum increased and the spaceship righted. He powered the arm up again.
They were all expecting the flyer to tip over a second time but there was no effect and the arm lifted the container with ease.
They all looked at Selian and she smiled back as they brought it inside. She waited while it was secured to the floor of the spaceship and then
spoke. “I… have a confession. Actually…" she began hesitantly, as her eyes jumped from one curious gaze to another. "We have a second pick up?”
Jet looked at her, implications entering his mind. “Will it take us long?’
“If everything goes to plan it shouldn’t; it’s not far.”
Jet nodded. “Okay.”’
“Essentially… its here?”
“Here?”
“Yes here.”
“Here on this planet?”
“Just over there; here.”
Jet stared at her in confusion. “What’s inside the container?” he said in an insistent voice.
“Actually it's… Full of reeds."
They didn’t react too much at first, assuming there was a reason for the cargo.
“Its reeds just like those.” She pointed to the adjacent island.
Nobody spoke; they just stared at her in disbelief; at last it was James who did. "You're serious?"
"Yes… well, really it’s seaweed and reeds, and maybe other kinds of vegetation, but basically… reeds."
Jet shook his head. "We're used to carrying pretty much anything across the galaxy; no questions asked but never have we been asked to transport…"
His words were broken into by a thundering crack from above them. They all quickly looked skyward to see a flaming meteor streak across the horizon. The watched transfixed as the rumbling slowly ebbed and flames became a vapor trail; at last their disbelieving eyes came back to Selian. The sight seemed to have given her strength. "That’s the reason I called you?” Her hesitancy left her and she became confident. “Maybe we should go to Rosie; I need you all to hear what I have to say.”
The crew found somewhere to sit or something to lean against while Selian stood in front of them; even the sight of her body; still in moist figure hugging clothing didn’t stop them hanging on every word.
“It’s happening with increasing
Jet Black – Return to the Planet of the Merwomen #15 Page 3