Mission to Sector ZZ1219

by Jerry D. Young

  “Me?” Willi squeaked. She was shaking her head. “No… Not me… She has always planned on an elaborate wedding, with many of the Families meeting together somewhere. Taking a few weeks off, for not only my wedding, but for any others between families, and to conduct other inter-family business. We do it every year or so.”

  “I see,” Johnny replied, looking thoughtful. “I know that is the tradition. I was hoping you might be able to persuade her to make an exception…”

  Again, Willi shook her head. “No way am I going to get her upset with me. It will be bad enough that I haven’t told her about us yet.”

  Johnny decided not to suggest that her Uncle might have let Arabella know, probably as soon as he got to the ship.

  “Well, then I suppose I will have to see what I might be able to do.” Johnny looked at Willi carefully. “As long as you honestly do not object. I do want you to have the kind of wedding you want. I, for some reason, just did not think you would want a true state wedding.”

  “Uh… State Wedding?” asked Willi. “I have a feeling you are not talking about a Trade Families Rendezvous wedding between heirs from two different families.”

  “Well… In part,” Johnny said. “And since you did not mention anything else, I am going to assume you do not want any other type of State Wedding, either.”

  Willi suddenly paled. “Your family is… Oh, my. Will your family be upset with me, if we don’t?”

  “Don’t worry about my family. They will be so relieved that I am getting married that they will not raise one objection. They will not risk chasing you off. I have been considered well beyond the possibility of finding a mate for some time now.”

  Willi frowned. “A mate?”

  “Their word, not mine,” Johnny quickly assured Willi.

  Willi cut her eyes away from Johnny, and began to actually wring her hands. “Do you… Do you… do you think we are rushing things?” she finally asked, meeting his eyes once again.

  Very softly, Johnny replied, “Not one little bit, Willi.” When he kissed her again all those doubts disappeared faster than they had come. She kissed him back, several times.

  When they came up for air, Johnny looked thoughtful. “You know,” he said then, his hands taking hers again, “we could get married, with just your family and my sister. Later, when we have resolved this problem, we could do the wedding I suspect both families would really like to have. And it would be a nice thing to do for them. Don’t you think?”

  Willi’s eyebrows arched slightly. “As much as I hate the idea of that kind of wedding, it really would make everyone feel better about things, wouldn’t it. And I think Mother will go along with the idea. I am sure she wants us married while we are on this ship, out there…”

  Willi colored slightly, but continued earnestly. “But yes, she would like to have a wedding for me… us… with all the families. I do not know about you, but Sydney is not the only one that has been trying to marry me off. She might have even been encouraging him somewhat.”

  “Including selling you to the highest bidder?” Johnny asked with a grin.

  “Uh… NO. That was all Sydney. As big a kick as Clyde got out of it, I do think he did try to corral Sydney at least a little bit, when he could tell I was getting really annoyed. Possibly simply to protect Sydney’s life.”

  “Oh, I think it more than that. Clyde really does love you like a sister, you know. He would do anything for you. It was him urging me to get you off the shuttle just as much as it was Sydney.”

  Willi smiled rather fondly. “I know. And I truly love him like a brother. He has been a part of the family for as long as I can remember.”

  With that, Johnny unstrapped and stood. “You think you can keep your hands off of me if we take the late watch?”

  “Hey!” Willi protested, slapping at Johnny’s arm. His good one, she made sure.

  Laughing, they made their way up to the bridge, to let Janet and Evie know they would be taking over in a short while. Willi was sure Evie was going to say something very similar to what Johnny had earlier, but a quelling look from Johnny kept her silent. But she was grinning at Willi when the two left to take care of a few things before they went on watch.

  For four days the acceleration continued. The speed was approaching the maximum that experimental craft had obtained, with one-gee constant acceleration. Just over one-half the speed of light.

  Nothing civilian, much less anything the size of the Lady Paladin, had reached the speed she was now travelling. Johnny had adjusted the throttle interrupt to allow for the higher speed.

  When a few people mentioned it, the consensus was that she still had plenty of headroom, and might even be able to achieve three-quarter lightspeed before relativity started creating problems.

  But now, over halfway to the coordinates where they would rendezvous with Trinity Home, which was making her fastest speed toward the same spot in space, if at a rather slower velocity, the Lady Paladin had to begin to slow down.

  While many gravity wheel ships, especially the military models, could reverse thrust to slow down, the majority of the time the control structure was rotated around the wheel support framework to point the propulsion drives toward the destination in order to start slowing down.

  With several of the compartments on gimbals so they could align with the line of thrust, Johnny ordered Evie to stop the one-gee thrust, and then reverse the thrust and start building up to one point two gees of reverse thrust. The compartments rotated as intended, and they were at zero-gee for only the few minutes it took to reverse the propulsion drives.

  Evie had reversed directly from forward thrust, but at much lower velocities. Johnny was amiable to the slower switch. They were in a hurry, but the violent maneuver would not save them very much time, anyway.

  With the higher thrust slowing them, everyone started taking it a bit easier. The extra two-tenths-gee was enough to tire those that were used to quite a bit of time at zero-gee, and rather more limited time on planet surfaces, Bastion High-Mass-Core Moon-Ship bases, and gravity wheel ships. And even on the gravity wheel ships, people often spent quite a bit of time in the lower-gee and zero-gee areas of the ships.

  But the extra deceleration saved them a full day on the trip. Evie and Willi were both at their primary posts when the sensors, on long range scan, first picked up the Trinity Home.

  As much as Willi wanted to hail her home ship herself, she knew that she could not, as any mention of her in context of being near the ship, rather than lost somewhere in space, could give away the plan.

  It was the same with Sydney and Clyde, whom the Lady Paladin was supposedly picking up from the Trinity Home to join Sir Guy and his soon to be bride in the search for Willi.

  So, it was Johnny, as Sir Guy, that hailed the Trinity Home when they had closed to a distance where the Trinity Home communication system could transmit back and the Lady Paladin’s systems pick up a usable signal.

  The Lady Paladin could both transmit and receive at far greater distances, but even with the better receiver systems, there was enough interference in space in many places that precluded lesser equipment from getting through to even the best receivers.

  And the rendezvous point had been chosen with care. It was specifically in an area that would interfere with sensor and communications equipment, limiting the chances of being spotted or heard, for either ship.

  Sir Guy hailed the Trinity Home, and asked the communications watch to let Lady McKindrick know he was approaching and would dock in just a few hours.

  He smiled at the pleased reply transferred from Willi’s mother to the Lady Paladin.

  The Lady Paladin’s gravity wheel was unlocked and put into motion when they switched to propulsion system back to normal, and were travelling at well under one-eighth gee, when they were powered. Much of the last bit of the trip was done without propulsion, simply coasting, with any minor corrections done with the small steering drives.

  And then they were within sig
ht of each other. Willi, Sydney, and Clyde were in one of the observation lounges when Evie turned the ship slightly so they could see the Trinity Home through the view ports.

  A very short time later, Sydney was piloting one of the smaller shuttles to the Trinity Home, with Clyde, Willi, and Johnny aboard. The others would come over in turns, but not until after ‘the fireworks’ that Johnny had mentioned might occur were over. Willi gave him a bit of a frown at his choice of words. But she did not contradict him.

  As expected, Arabella and Grant were on the other side of the air lock when Sydney had landed the shuttle in the parking bay, and it had sealed off and been pressurized.

  But they were not the only people there. At least ten women were with them. They called out to ‘Sir Guy’ and waved, holding back just a bit to allow Arabella and Grant to greet him and Willi. None recognized Willi, made up lavishly as Marilyn Monroe.

  As Willi stepped forward, she whispered over to Sydney, “Jealous? Aren’t three of them your ex-girlfriends.” She grinned at him.

  Sydney whispered back, “Yes. Four actually,” And then almost got smacked when he added, “But next to Johnny Oneshot, Sir Guy Richardson is probably the most eligible bachelor this side of the galaxy. Even I can’t compete with that.”

  Willi did give him a threatening look, but was then distracted as every one of the women, a few of which were actually her friends, moved forward and essentially mobbed Johnny, very excitedly calling out the name, Sir Guy.

  When Willi started to intervene, her face going red, not from embarrassment, but annoyance, Arabella was pulling her close, giving her a friendly handshake. Of course, Willi then did burn with embarrassment when her mother whispered to her, “We will be talking just as soon as we get somewhere private.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” was all Willi could say. Grant winked at her. Willi edged into the crowd around Johnny, taking his arm rather possessively, and tugged slightly to get him moving. Moving away from his female fans.

  But one of the women saw the ring she was wearing and literally screamed out, “Look at that ring she has on… On her left-hand ring finger! Oh my lord! That is an engagement ring!”

  It was another of the women that screeched, “That looks just like Queen Pricilla Richardson’s ring!”

  Then a third lamented loudly, “Sir Guy is getting married! To her!”

  Before anyone else could screech, yell, scream, or just talk, Grant ushered the women out of the way, and got Arabella, Willi, and Johnny through another hatch. Which was a bit difficult in zero-gee. “Kinda like herding cats back on Earth,” Grant thought.

  Once everyone had cleared the compartment, Sydney and Clyde, entered, and then took full advantage of the situation, going a different route to intercept the group of women. And, of course, began chatting them up. Grant, who had followed them out of curiosity, shook his head and drifted off, to head for the gravity wheel by yet another route.

  But the three were by themselves now. Johnny could tell that Arabella really wanted to get a good look at Willi’s ring, but apparently decided getting into the gravity wheel was more important. Where they could sit down and talk.

  Willi kept glancing at her mother, in the lead, as they swam down corridors and through hatches until they arrived at the gravity wheel axle airlock. Once they cycled through, they entered one of the elevators that took them to the outer, one-gee, ring, taking care to orient themselves properly as the centrifugal force began creating the sensation of gravity.

  Willi was just a bit surprised when Arabella took them straight to her private quarters. Willi stumbled once, the quick change from zero-gee to one-gee causing her a bit of a problem, since she was more than a little distracted.

  When they entered Arabella’s living quarters, and Johnny had closed the hatch, she turned and looked at Johnny for a moment, and then at Willi.

  “I believe you have something you would like to tell me. Now. Finally. Yourself.”

  Willi gulped just a bit at the tone of her mother’s voice. But she managed to not look to Johnny for help, and simply held out her left hand. “Johnny asked me to marry him. And I said yes.”

  Arabella took Willi’s hand in hers and studied the ring. Finally, she glanced over at Johnny for several long moments before looking back at Willi.

  “I see,” Arabella said softly, letting Willi’s hand slide from hers. “Rather short courtship,” she added. “However… I think it will be a good match. A very good match. Congratulations, Baby!”

  With that, tears sprang to her eyes and she pulled Willi in for a long, hard, tight hug. Willi was crying when Arabella finally released her.

  “Careful, Mother,” Willi cautioned when she saw her mother reach for Johnny for a hug, as well.

  Arabella had certainly not forgotten Johnny’s condition when she saw him in the base. She hugged him, firmly, but gently. “You promise me to take good care of my baby girl?” she whispered into Johnny’s ear.

  Johnny gave her a firmer squeeze whispered back. “Of course, Lady McKindrick. Sydney has threatened my life if I don’t, and I believe Commander McKindrick would take issue, as well. So, rest assured, I will do my best to keep her safe, and make her happy.”

  Arabella released Johnny and stepped back. She wiped her eyes with a hanky she pulled from her sleeve as Johnny handed Willi his pocket cloth to do the same.

  “All right. The niceties done for the moment,” said Arabella, moving toward a chair, “I wish to hear more of this plan of yours to… uh-hem… pick up my son and Clyde, to go look for my daughter.”

  Willi rolled her eyes, but quickly straightened up and sat down when her mother shot her a telling look.

  “Of course, Lady McKindrick,” Johnny replied, without cracking a smile. And then he began to give his future mother-in-law the details. Including several that Willi had not heard before, to her annoyance.

  An hour later, with Sydney, Clyde, and Grant having made it to Arabella’s quarters, Johnny left to get his sister, the Majors, Cherokee, and the crew.

  After introducing the four crew members, they left to see the sights of Trinity Home. And do a little shopping, one of them said, rather eagerly. It was not often someone not part of one of the trading families had a chance to see the vast array of items the traders carried.

  Shortly after Johnny left, Arabella looked around. “Where are Syd and Clyde?”

  “Same place Evie is, unless I miss my guess,” Major Butler said with a chuckle.

  “She wanted to see the sights on the ship, Mother. Sydney and Clyde ‘kindly’ offered to show her around, so I wouldn’t have to do it.”

  Arabella turned away before Willi could see her grin. “Those boys…” she whispered.

  It was a lavish spread for dinner. Even for a trading family. “Mother is pulling out all the stops,” Willi whispered to Johnny as Johnny seated her at the large dining table. With Grant somewhere taking care of a problem, Cherokee moved immediately to seat Arabella.

  And since Major Butler seated Major Echart, it was a scramble as to who would seat Evie. Evie and Willi both rolled their eyes at the actions of the two men.

  “See what you started,” Willi whispered, again to Johnny.

  He simply smiled. “It is good for them and for my sister,” he whispered back.

  “You seem to be moving quite well in one-gee, Sir Guy,” Arabella said.

  Johnny tilted his head in agreement. “Yes. I am recovering nicely. Marilyn has been making sure I do not over tax myself. She is quite the… nurse.”

  “Is that anything like a watchdog?” Sydney asked as he began loading his plate. He grinned at his sister, knowing she could not do anything to him.

  Willi grinned when Evie winked at her, and Sydney jerked slightly, and looked at Evie. She had kicked him for Willi.

  But that was the limit of the horseplay at the table. Sydney knew better than to push it in front of his mother, anyway. Much less with the guests that were dining with them.

  Grant arrived only
a few minutes into the meal, nodded to everyone, gave Arabella a hand signal to let her know all was fine, and sat down.

  The small talk was about situations each had experienced in the many places most of them had been to at one time or another. After the dinner, everyone excused themselves to allow Arabella, Willi, and Johnny to have some time together to discuss what would happen next.

  The discussion was primarily a few more details of the plan that Johnny had explained to Arabella earlier. But both she and Johnny had come up with a few changes they would like to make in the plans, and wanted to check with each other about them.

  One of the changes, recommended by Grant and strongly urged by Arabella after they had taken a tour of the Lady Paladin, was for Johnny to take several people from the Trinity Home with them as additional crew.

  Willi was a bit surprised that Johnny did not protest very much at all. More a token protest, just to make sure Grant’s and Arabella’s offer was not a token one.

  Between Arabella, Grant, Willi, Syd, and Clyde, seven people were approached, had a streamlined version of the plan explained to them, emphasizing the dangers they would be facing, and the rather open-ended timeframe involved.

  All seven were friends with and well known to Willi, Syd, and Clyde. They were eager to go help to ‘find Willi’, since they were not told that she was actually the Marilyn that was to marry the Sir Guy that was aboard.

  Once they had agreed, and been sworn to secrecy, which was Syd’s idea, they were told most of the other pertinent facts. Primarily that Marilyn was Willi, and Sir Guy was, in fact, as the rumors had been saying, Johnny Oneshot, and they were on a mission to help the Confederation. All seven were just as eager to go as before they had been told the additional information.

  The final decision was that the wedding would be kept private, with only those that had to be there to avoid some potential problems. And, as it worked out, it was a good opportunity to get the cover story spread through sources that would be deemed highly reliable to whomsoever they might speak to about it.