Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  “Yeah, it really is,” Wes said as he looked around then turned back to Doug. “So, then the limiting factors are power and the ability to focus that power.”

  “Yup,” Doug said with an annoyed glance. “Which is why we’ll have to keep that fact in mind when Willy starts fabrication on a flux drive for the Betty. I want to be able to drag rocks and more through those holes with her if I want. If we can bring back any claims or salvage to our system, then that minimizes the number of personnel that we have to send out for recovery.”

  “Wow, you’re really getting into this aren’t you?” Wes smiled at Doug.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that you’ve been laying out some seriously long-term plans. Not just a few months ahead like we’ve been doing for what feels like forever. You’re making plans to homestead and make something of all of this.” Wes smiled proudly.

  “Just doing what feels right. And it isn’t just for me, but for all involved. If I make a bad call, any of you can get hurt or killed like it was nothing.” Doug took another long drag from his cigarette. “I’m trying to make the best decisions that I can, using the least amount of effort for the largest gain. Simple business math.”

  “How the hell is that simple business math,” Wes asked.

  “Because we want to turn a profit with minimal losses and expenditures,” Doug replied. “The less effort, time and material that we put into any endeavor the better. It will only increase our bottom line.”

  “Oh wait, so now we’re just numbers hu? I see how it is,” Wes said jokingly. “Maybe you’ve been spending a bit too much time around Lizz.”

  “Maybe,” Doug said with a shrug. He field-stripped the burning ember from the end of his cigarette and continued up the path. He could see that the path led into a secured patio area at the back of the house. A tall stucco-clad wall topped with wrought iron spikes formed the perimeter of the small, but plush beachside manor house.

  “Um...Cap,” Wes nervously said. “What sort of business did you say your friend was into?”

  “A little of this and a little of that. I’m not exactly sure what he’s currently into,” Doug admitted. “He managed to score a small fortune when he was younger with stocks or commodities or something like that. I’m not exactly sure, but I do know it was stock market sort of stuff. Why?”

  Long tanned legs adorned with black stiletto heels appeared from behind the wall and stood in plain sight as the gate opened. Attached to those well-tanned legs was a fully nude brunette of Hispanic or possibly islander descent. Full, round breasts swayed and jiggled with the few steps that she took to step into view.

  “Master Barrington wished for me to welcome you to his island sanctuary,” she said in the scripted tone of a quickly memorized the message. “He also wished for me to inform you, that he will be with you shortly. He is currently engaged in hostile negotiations with our Swedish diplomat. Please, come in, take refreshments and relax while you wait.”

  “Are you sure that’s what his current profession is,” Wes asked. He struggled to not stare at her shapely, but completely nude body.

  “It is perfectly fine to look or to do really anything that you’d like,” she said with a contemplative eye roll, then winked at Wes.

  “I have no honest clue at this point,” Doug admitted. “It’s been years since I’ve seen him. But in the end, does it really matter? We need funding to get everything established.”

  “You wouldn’t want to be funded by blood money, would you? Cash earned on the backs of innocent women and children, for example,” Wes said.

  “True, you have a point there.” Doug proceeded through the gate as the brunette motioned for the pair to enter.

  She led them to a marble-topped patio table that rested next to a crystal-clear plunge pool. “Please, sit and relax gentlemen,” she urged. “Should there be anything that you desire,” she giggled, “please speak and it shall be yours if it is within our ability.”

  Three other nude female forms decorated the landscape. One skimmed the pool with a long-handled bug net. Another, a cute, perky looking redhead quickly removed the bottle caps from two clear bottles, inserted a lime into each and placed them on a small tray. The third nude female, a thin, small-breasted blond with a cute pixie style cut quickly rushed over to the bar to retrieve the tray.

  “Oh man, I could really go for an ice cream sandwich right now,” Wes innocently blurted.

  The hostess’s eyes got wide with surprise and she smiled. “I will see what we have available.” She nodded a bow, then turned and left. The click click click of her heels on the tiled patio accentuated the sway of her hips as she walked.

  “Are you really sure that we should be here asking him a favor?” Wes turned to Doug, worry lining his face. “I don’t like to question you on your decisions but, damn. A personal island full of naked slave girls,” Wes argued. “Really? That’s like epic level drug lord status or some shit.”

  “Don’t jump to conclusions, yet. They don’t look as if they have been abused. They all look well-fed and um...very, very healthy,” Doug said sideways as he ogled the curves of the cute little blonde with the tray of beers.

  “Please feel free to enjoy yourselves, gentlemen.” She placed the beers on the table in front of them.

  Doug took a nervous breath. “Curiosity has the better of me. I have to ask. Are all of you girls free to leave whenever you want? You aren’t being forced to stay here, are you?”

  “Oh no, not at all,” the blond giggled from behind a cupped hand. “We all willingly work here. Master Barrington pays us extremely well for our services.”

  A pair of French doors at the back of the beach manor flew open as Maximus Barrington strode onto the patio. “Bom Dia meu amigo! Dougie,” he shouted with a heavy Brazilian accent. “It is so good to see you again, my friend!” He tugged and straightened an untied silk robe that very loosely covered his otherwise naked form. Maximus’s long legs made short work to cover the distance from the house to the patio. “Oh, my goodness, Dougie. You haven’t changed a bit, my friend. Please, stand, let me get a good look at you,” Maximus animatedly motioned for Doug to get to his feet.

  “Dougie?” Wes pointedly asked through the corner of his mouth.

  Doug glared back at Wes. “It’s probably better if you don’t ask.” Reluctantly, he stood, held his arms out to the side then spun around where he stood. “Is that better? You don’t look like you’ve aged a day, Max. How have you been? Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but you did know that your robe is untied, didn’t you?”

  “My robe,” Maximus thought for a moment. “Ohhh…. No no no no my friend.” He grinned, then waggled a finger at Doug. “I just like the way it feels when it slides across my ass cheeks.” He grabbed the loose edges of the robe and demonstrated how easily the robe slid across his rear. “See. Simple. Does this robe make my ass look big?” Maximus momentarily posed, smiled, then burst into a flurry of motion and picked Doug up off of the ground in a manly chest to chest bear hug. “Dougie! Oh, my goodness it is so good to see you again after all of these years! I have so missed you, my friend! The times that we’ve had in the past! I couldn’t believe it when you contacted me! This makes me so happy, Dougie! It really does!”

  “Oh, my dear God and blessed mother Mary,” Wes snorted and shielded his eyes from the disturbing display of masculine security.

  “Um, hey Max,” Doug said uncomfortably, struggling to breathe from the tight hug. “Could you put me down, please? It’s good to see you too, Max, but we’re a little pressed for time. Could we get to the business at hand? On my next Earthside trip, I promise that I’ll return to catch up?”

  “Yes, yes, yes, of course. Early bird gets the worm and all that. I completely understand. Please, sit,” Maximus motioned at the seats. “He really hasn’t changed at all. Always so serious this Dougie,” Maximus said to Wes. Leaning against the table he smacked Wes on the shoulder and thumbed the air in Doug’s direction. “We never c
ould get him to cut loose.”

  “Um… I don’t mean to seem rude, but could you put your little friend away, please. He’s starting to look at me funny.” Wes blindly waggled a finger in the direction of Barrington’s crotch as he glanced the other way.

  A wide, mischievous grin crossed Maximus’s face. “You mean this little friend?” He bunched the robe behind his back and waggled his member in Wes’s general direction.

  Wes glanced toward the movement and instantly regretted it. “Oh, dear God! Yes that! Put it away please!”

  “Is this how you American’s dance about for your lady loves,” Maximus writhed and undulating in Wes’s direction.

  “Max,” Doug barked.

  Maximus sighed. “You Americans. Always so uptight about things. Always so serious. That and fried everything is why you don’t live as long as other nations. Cheeseburgers, constipation, and too serious.” Maximus wrapped the robe back around himself. “Still the same old stickler.” He took a seat at the table with the pair. “You know, when we first met and started hanging around on the streets of Atlanta,” he said, looking to Wes, “we couldn’t even get him to loosen up and have a drink. Everyone in the street crew tried. Even the girls.” He gasped in memory. “Remember that night when Evie insisted that you be held down and forced to enjoy yourself,” he said to Doug.

  “Max,” Doug said in an admonishing tone.

  “Eh! See he does remember,” Maximus laughingly cheered.

  “Max.”

  “Six girls. And not just girls. No, no, no,” Maximus waggled a finger at Wes. “These were not girls in any sense of the word. These were six, beautiful bombshells. Six unadulterated women,” he emphasized while cupping large invisible breasts, “that you may only witness in person once in a lifetime.”

  “And? What happened?” Wes leaned forward; his tone sounded interested.

  “Nothing,” Maximus said in a long, drawn-out breath followed by a disappointed sigh. “Not a damned thing happened. He’d gotten so frustrated and pissed off at all of us, his buddies, his amigos, that he’d went numb and, well nada.” He shrugged his shoulders. “He was always planning and thinking about the next job.”

  “Max,” Doug said as he began rubbing at his temples.

  “Wait,” Wes said. “You said something about a street crew?”

  “Yes,” Maximus gleefully hissed. “Do you not know who you are working for, amigo?”

  “Yes, I was part of a street crew,” Doug reluctantly admitted, “and that is part of the ancient past.” Doug glared at Maximus, his jaw muscles clenched slowly, then released.

  “Alright, alright.” Maximus threw his hands over his head in defense. “As you wish, Dougie. To the business at hand then.” He snapped a finger which elicited immediate action from the redhead behind the bar.

  “Do you at least like what I have done? The effort of all of those petty scams and schemes when we were younger have finally paid off.”

  “You’ve done very well for yourself,” Doug admitted. “I’ve lucked into some land myself recently, which is why we’ve come to pay you a visit. I was hoping to work out a long-term plan to develop this property.” He gave Wes a knowing, sidelong glance.

  “What sort of investment opportunity is this?”

  “Currently?” Doug closed his eyes and mentally thought through what they had been recovering. “Raw minerals, new exotic alloys, and other materials, artifacts, new advancements to current technology just to start with. The end potential is something enormous that we are only now scratching the surface of.”

  Maximus leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, then placed his head in the palms of his hands and drifted away in thought. He sucked in a quick breath. “Did you find a crashed flying saucer of some ancient race on this property or something? You make it sound like something from one of those horribly bad American science fiction movies.”

  “No. Not exactly,” Doug hesitantly said. “And I’m not at liberty to go into the full details of the situation either. You just have to trust me when I say that after we get things set up, we’ll be making money hand over fist.”

  “How much,” Maximus skeptically asked.

  “Five Million,” Doug stated plainly. “At our current rate of production, I can repay that in say, two months.”

  “Without knowing what I’d be investing in, how can I make a properly informed decision?”

  “Faith, Max,” Doug said. “Blind faith. Have I ever lied to you before? I just need a short-term investment in order to fully establish our operations.”

  Maximus let out a long, nasally sigh as he contemplated Doug’s words. He looked Doug dead in the eye. “Fifty percent interest per month for the first month and seventy-five percent interest for each following month just because I’m feeling generous between old friends.”

  “Holy shit, that’s highway robbery,” Wes blurted.

  Doug threw up a hand in Wes’s direction without breaking eye contact. “For fifty percent, I could get double my asking price from Cragwall or Hyder.”

  “Ah, but borrowing that amount from them also comes with a high risk of slowly losing body parts,” Maximus said coldly. “They still prefer a centimeter at a time over the course of a few days, in case you had forgotten. I’ll just take that wreck that you call a ship as collateral against the account along with anything on board.”

  Doug slid back his chair and began to stand. “I’ll tell you what, Max. If you come to some sane sensibility, then give me a call. I expect our good fortune to last quite a while longer. So, there may be other investment opportunities in the future. Should I let you know if that happens?”

  “Wait, sit!” Maximus slapped the marble tabletop. His mouth twitched in frustration as he tried to form coherent words. “You said minerals. So mining, no? If I know you, then this is really important, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.” He gently rubbed at his temples. “What sort of equipment are you after?”

  “Asteroid mining equipment, lathes, mills, preferably all automated. Transports, shuttles, really any ship and crew willing to go off into the black without knowing where they are going or how long they’ll be there.” Doug smiled a triumphant smile.

  “Repay me as soon as you can, plus fifty percent on top of the original amount. But I want to send my own ship and crew to help with the effort,” Maximus pointed a finger at Doug. Doug glanced to Wes, then back to Maximus.

  “Consider it my own little insurance policy,” Maximus said. “My men will do everything in their power to ensure your success.”

  The young blond returned, placed a napkin on the table followed by a tall, slender drink glass topped with a colorful paper drink umbrella.

  “Thank you, Jillian,” Maximus said to the young blond servant. He took her hand and gently kissed her knuckles. “I believe that I’m starting to get a headache my dear.” He rubbed furiously at his temples.

  The petite blond giggled, feigning shyness. “Of course, Master.” She smiled and quickly knelt. “It would be my greatest pleasure, Master.” She disappeared beneath the table.

  “Oh, yup,” Maximus squirmed. “That may just do the trick, my dear.”

  “What the…” Wes’s eyes bulged with surprise.

  Doug cleared his throat.

  “Oh, I am such a terribly horrible host. Where are my manners?” Maximus snapped his fingers twice more. “I am so sorry for my rudeness. Please, accept my own personal prescription for headache relief.” He winked at Doug.

  “That is completely alright, Max,” Doug assured him. “We were here for business, not pleasure.”

  Both the redhead and the brunette appeared by Maximus’s side. “Yes, Master,” they said in complete synchronicity.

  Maximus let out a frustratingly disappointed sigh. “You’re sure?” Frustrated disbelief showed on his face as he looked from Doug to Wes and back again.

  “Yes. I am very sure,” Doug said.

  “Alright, alright,” Maximus waved a dismissive hand at
the two young women, then relaxed and adjusted himself in his seat.

  “Five million plus another two point five million when I can,” Doug reiterated. “Have your crew contact me as soon as possible.” Doug stood and extended his hand across the table toward Maximus.

  Maximus leaned forward ever so slightly, and reluctantly shook hands in agreement. He flashed a disappointed smile at Doug. “It is a shame that you are in such a rush that you refuse hospitality, my friend. But promise me one thing, Dougie.”

  “What’s that, Max?”

  “At some point, you will slow down and enjoy some of what life has to offer before it all passes by,” Maximus said with a distracted smile. “But for now, safe journeys my friend. We will make up for it when you return.” He slid down in his seat, leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

  Gamma Draconis system / Anderson (Eltanin 2)

  The Dragon's Lair / Power Pit

  August 28th, 2176 / Lunchtimeish (Local Time)

  “S

  o, if Trae picks up both of the squat cages that I had on the list, they could fit into this corner, which means that the bench press and butterfly machines can go over into that corner and I should have plenty of room for a heavy bag in the center of the room, right about here.” Tiff held out her arms in an approximation of the diameter of the punching bag. “That should work pretty damn good, man,” she muttered to herself. She chewed on the left corner of her lower lip as she mentally measured the space around her. The space was surprisingly empty of containers or shelves, unlike most of the other areas in the lower level of the ancient spaceport. A thick layer of dust covered the floor except in the areas where she had been pacing, or where the existing gym equipment from the Betty had been brought into the room.

  “Well now, ain’t this some sort of coincidence. Just the person we were looking for.” Tiff turned to see a gangly wisp of a man standing in the doorway. He brushed back oily strands of dirty blond hair behind his ears.