by Martin Tays
“Ruby?” It came out of Arnie in a squeak.
“Yep. Plugged Lee Harvey right there on TV. I was five, and this guy got killed right there live on NBC. I thought it was the neatest thing I’d ever seen.”
Arnie say back, mouth open. Finally, he spoke. “I’ve never talked to anyone who remembered it, before.”
Moses could honestly not care less about the subject, but he knew an ‘in’ when he had one. “So…” He asked, disarmingly, “… just who did it, then?”
“Well, it’s obvious.”
“Really?”
“Of course. It was…” He looked around conspiratorially, then lowered his voice. “… the Cubans.”
“Ah. Not the CIA?”
Arnie looked disgusted. “Give me a break. What do I look like, a nut?”
“No, no, of course not. Castro, then.”
Cranston looked smug. “Obviously.”
“Obviously. You’ve put a lot of… thought… into this.”
Arnie looked around at the data windows. “I’ve been looking for a chance to finish my book, now, for several years. Since I’m not working…”
“Makes sense.” Moses leaned forward. “I, um, I still want you to come back to work for me.”
Leaning back again, Arnie hesitated, then sighed. “I still want time to work on this.” He waved at the windows.
“No problem. Set your own hours.” He cocked an eye at Arnie. “Plus, I still owe you a sandwich.”
Arnie sighed. “Okay, fine, okay. You’re still a fruitcake.”
“True. That’s why I need you around. Someone with both feet on the ground.”
“Don’t push it. You’re more believable when you’re an ass.”
“Then I must be believable a lot.”
Arnie snorted, then spoke. “Monday?”
“Monday’s fine.” He stood. “Don’t get up… I can find my own way out.”
“Who’s getting up?”
“I can see this is going to be a great working relationship.”
Looking up at Moses in the doorway, Arnie spoke. “I get the feeling that’s normal around you.”
“Surprisingly so.”
Arnie looked at the still image, then back to Moses. “You really remember?”
“We’ll talk more about it come Monday.” Moses smiled.
“Don’t touch anything on the way out.”
He sighed and left the room.
“It’s strange, you know? I grew up surrounded by death and disease. All of us did. When I saw something dangerous, I avoided it, or fixed it, or just shrugged and lived with the danger, and that was that. It was no big deal.
Nowadays? No one’s sick, no one’s dying, and when I see something that’s dangerous it startles me. No… actually when I see something nowadays that’s even remotely dangerous it frankly scares the piss out of me.
So, what’s happened to us, anyway?”
Antoine Celebreze, from “Looking Back”
“So here they were… a group of people who’d grown up being told that they would die in less than a century discovering that that was wrong. They weren’t going to die in a century. Or two centuries. Or five. In fact, it looked like they were going to live forever.
At least, they would as long as they were very, VERY careful.
So… do you remember our little discussion about ‘the law of unintended consequences’?”
Gustav Lynn Wei, from “An Unexpected History”
“Police cordoned off the ten blocks surrounding the home as a precaution and evacuated the residents.
A Weapons Disposal Squad, fully suited, entered the residence at 5:07 pm, as shown here. They had previously lain a thick layer of protective material over the roof of the house, and around the outside.
After a tense few minutes one of the technicians came out and signaled that they were ready for transfer. The heavily armored transfer truck was brought up to the entrance of the house and the Weapons Transfer Box was loaded on board.
Fortunately, there was no ammunition found with the .22 caliber revolver, or it would have necessitated calling a Stage I alert rather than the Stage II alert utilized….”
From an article in the 2/17/2128 Louisville Courier-Journal
Chapter 8
“The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.”
Logan Pearsall Smith
The shuttle port was crowded ― jammed with arrivals, and departures, and those who desperately needed to see them.
Moses jumped as a large red bearded man in an electric orange one piece jumpsuit covered in an eye watering array of moving Mondrian images — and standing directly behind him ― screamed “Amos!” at the top of his lungs.
He brushed past the now partially deafened Moses and rushed forward to grab a small, dark skinned man in business attire coming out of the gate. The subject of the affection looked slightly embarrassed as he was spun around and kissed soundly.
Moses couldn’t help but be amused… he’d been in that situation. Actually, he’d been in both situations.
“Moses!” He turned just in time to catch an armful of Ami and was kissed soundly, himself. He pulled back and caught the eye of the traveler named Amos, who grinned ruefully and nodded in commiseration before walking off enveloped by a bright orange arm. Moses took a step back and looked at Ami, just in time to hear “Moses!” once again.
He turned to collect an armful of Doug, who leapt into his embrace and also bussed him soundly. Moses peeled the boy off, sighing and shaking his head.
Fiona walked up behind Doug, grinned and shrugged. “I was going to kiss you too, but I don’t think there’s any way I can top Doug. Not…” She glanced over at Doug meaningfully. “… that there’s anything new with that.”
Moses grinned in return, then turned back to Ami. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself. Is that for me?” She pointed to the somewhat mangled carnations that he’d been trying with little success to hide behind his back.
“Well, to be honest, it was.” Moses pointed with his thumb toward Doug. “But now I’m thinking about giving them to him, instead. I think he earned them.” Doug hooted in response.
He held them out to Ami. She accepted the flowers gracefully, trying without much luck to straighten out the bent ones, and inhaled their fragrance. “Um.” She looked a bit puzzled. “Why do they smell like cinnamon?”
“Pointless genetic engineering. Gotta love it.”
Ami smiled. “Actually, I do. Thank you.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him again. “I think they’re very sweet. Do they all smell like this?”
Moses shook his head. “No. The white ones smell like vanilla.”
“What about the yellow ones?”
“Actually, I asked that very question. They told me I didn’t want to know.”
“Ah.” She looked puzzled for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh. Ew.”
Fiona leaned over to smell them, then spoke. “Well, personally, I think they’re sweet too. Hmm.” She turned to her boyfriend. “Just when was the last time you bought me flowers, Doug?”
“Back when… um… you know, actually I don’t think I’ve ever bought you flowers.” He paused. “Oh, crap. I’m in trouble, now, aren’t I?” Fiona gave him a look but didn’t deign to respond.
Moses, of course, did. “I think he is.” He held his hand up in the air and looked around. “Anyone else?” Everyone ― Fiona included ― looked over at Doug and solemnly raised their hands. After a moment, Doug joined them. Fiona punched him in the arm, then kissed him. Then punched him in the arm, again.
Sher came around Fiona, grabbed Moses’ hand, and kissed him quickly on the
cheek. “Didn’t want to interfere with your reunion ― either of them, apparently ― but hi.”
He smiled at her. “Hi, yourself. Where’s the big guy?”
“Leo?” She shrugged. “Where else? He’s grilling the shuttle’s engineer.”
Moses nodded. “Of course. What with him never having been in a shuttle before, and all.”
She sighed. “Yep. Tried that. You know what he said? ‘But… this is a model G variant!’”
He looked at her sharply. “Really? You rode on a model G? Did it have…”
“I don’t know.”
“Ah. Right. Sorry.”
Sher relented. “He’ll be here in a minute… you can get the full report from him, then.”
Moses heard a noise behind him, and turned to see Leo approaching. Leo also ignored Moses’ extended hand and grabbed him for a hug.
Moses pulled back and looked over at Ami. “You’re a demonstrative lot, aren’t you?”
“Well… each in our own way, I suppose.” She pointed with her chin toward Mattie and No, standing with their hands in their pockets behind Doug.
“Ah.” He nodded. “Hey.”
They both nodded. Mattie replied. “Hey.”
He looked back to Ami. “Yep. Demonstrative as hell. Okay, who’s hungry?” There was general cheering. As they headed off toward the door, Moses fell back a bit so he was walking beside Leo. He spoke quietly. “A model G? Here? How’d they get their hands on it?”
“Oh! Yeah! I asked about that! They said that after that ruckus about the 7017-F series they were so angry they actually sent a rep back to Earth to complain. Boeing shipped ‘em a brand new replacement G as an apology. It was spankly!”
“Spankly?”
Leo nodded. “Oh, yeah. Way spankly.”
“You’re just making these up now, aren’t you?” Ami, clutching Moses’ arm on the other side of Leo, cleared her throat meaningfully. He looked at her and sighed. “Can’t use that one, either, can I?”
She shrugged. “It’d be spanklier if you didn’t, yes.”
“Right.” They followed the rest through the doors, which hesitated a moment longer than normal before closing. Over their heads, unnoticed, the tiny surveillance drone caught up with them and took its patient place once again.
☼
Celestine Grace stood up, cramped a bit after having spent the last several minutes staring over the technician’s shoulder at the video feed. He looked at the tech, puzzled. “You. Spankly?”
The tech was not surprised at being addressed as such, even though the two of them were alone in the room. Grace was the type of person who refused to call an underling by first name (In this case Samantha, or Sam to her friends ― which definitely didn’t include Grace). He also couldn’t pronounce her last name ― Dharmadkikari ― on a bet, so he generally settled on pronouns.She shrugged. “Got me, sir. New slang from Earth?”
“No… it’s a code of some sort. Spankly… spankly… see what you can dig up on that.”
She was almost completely successful at hiding her sigh. “Of course, sir. I’ll squirt a message off to Earth. I’m sure they’ll be interested in such things.”
Grace ignored her sarcasm. “Good. You do that. Meanwhile, keep an eye on them. I want to know what they’re up to every minute of the day. This could be vital.”
Sam nodded. “Ah. You mean like yesterday’s clothes shopping spree in Fort Stewart?”
“They could have been hitting drop boxes, you know. Next time, you will put the surveillance unit where I tell you to.”
“Nope. Sir.” Sam replied, shaking her head. “You want to watch a bunch of women trying on clothes without their knowledge you can do it without me. As amazing as it seems, considering what I do for a living, I still maintain a modicum of integrity.”
“You just don’t understand espionage.”
“And probably never will, sir.” She grinned. “However, I do understand peeping toms. Will that be all, sir?”
He started to reply, then just nodded his head jerkily and left. She grinned at his departing back and returned to her surveillance.
☼
Ami was in a wonderful mood. It had been nice to go off with her friends and see the sights, but she’d actually been a bit surprised to find out just how much she’d missed Moses.
They were in his apartment after dinner, where Moses had limited himself to a drink during dinner and one beer during the movie. She wasn’t sure why it was happening, but damn, it was nice to see.
Afterward, he’d invited the whole crowd over for ‘a surprise’.
The surprise was a movie — a 2D one that looked ancient ― and a snack. “Um… Moses.” Sher looked up from her bowl, uncertain. “Just what, exactly, is this?”
Moses looked away from the vid window. “Popcorn, dear.”
“Ah.” She held up a kernel, staring at it. “And is this what it’s supposed to taste like?”
“How does it taste?”
“Sort of like… um…”
“Butter flavored packing foam?” Doug supplied helpfully.
Moses considered the question, then nodded. “Yep. ‘Bout right. Hey… do you realize how hard it is to find popcorn on Alpha Centauri?”
Doug carefully set his bowl down before looking back and replying. “Apparently not hard enough.”
“Heathens.” Moses looked over at Ami. “They’re all heathens.”
“Yes, dear. All my friends are heathens.” She pointed to the vid window. “Now watch your nice movie.” Moses snorted at Doug disdainfully, then turned again to the show. Ami was watching it too, sort of. But mainly she was watching Moses watch it. It was fascinating.
He obviously knew every line of dialog, yet he still laughed at parts of it hard enough that she couldn’t hear the actors speaking. What a strange, funny man. She leaned in a bit closer and listened to him quietly whispering along to the dialog.
“The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the true that is brew… brew that is true!” She pushed herself up and kissed him on the cheek.
Moses blinked, then smiled. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he whispered “What was that for?”
“No reason.”
“Best reason of all.” He drew her in a bit tighter. “Thanks.”
Snuggling back in beside him, she looked back at the screen and replied. “My pleasure.”
Unfortunately, just as the final sword fight was starting to shape up (Moses pointed and said “Basil Rathbone!” ― Mattie shushed him) there was a chime at the door.
☼
Moses was annoyed. Just when they were getting to the best part, too. “Pause. Entryway video.” The action on the main vid windows obligingly froze and a smaller one popped open beside it showing the corridor. There were two women outside, one who looked surprisingly middle aged and a small, pretty blond. “Entryway comm. Hi there. Do I know you?”
In the window the older looking woman spoke. “Moses? Sober up. We need to talk.”
Moses stared at her for a long moment, surprised, before he spoke. “Cath? Seriously? Is this what we’re doing?”
“Oh, good, I caught you early enough in the evening.”
Moses looked down at Ami, then spoke. “I’ll have you know… oh, never mind. You wouldn’t believe me, anyway. You’re right. You caught me early enough in the evening. Can I help you, darling?”
“Yes. You can start by opening this damn door.”
Moses stared at her image for a long moment. Then he shrugged and spoke. “Let ‘em in.” A chime signaled acknowledgement.
After a moment Cath entered the room. When she saw the crowd she stopped short and looked over at Moses, eyebrow cocked.
“Friends. I’ve got friends. Surprised?”
“Frankly, yes, a little. We need to talk.” She looked back around the room meaningfully.
“So you said. Talk away.”
Cath looked at him, at his friends, and back again to Moses. “Fine. Doesn’t matter. Just make sure none of this gets out.”
Moses turned to Ami’s friends. “Guys?”
Leo spoke for them all. “Not a problem. You know that.”
“Yeah. But she needs to hear it.” He nodded in Cath’s direction.
Ami had been watching the interplay with fascination. Finally, she spoke. “Excuse me?”
Cath looked at her. “Yes?”
“Are you Cathleen Spindowski?”
She nodded. “Call me Cath. Please.”
Ami’s eyes widened. “Wow.”
Leo looked at his sister sharply, then back to the visitor. “That Cathleen Spindowski?” Cath just shrugged.
Moses answered Leo, his eyes never leaving his visitor. “Yeah. She’s that Cath Spindowski. The first, and to be honest the best, engineer of the UESS Endeavour. She’s also a royal pain in the ass.” Cath nodded in agreement.
He looked behind her to the figure waiting in the hallway. “Who’s your friend, Cath?”
Cath stepped out of the doorway and motioned to the person behind her. “That, Moses, is the reason I’m here. Meet Sandar. Sandar Brillerman. Sandar has a recording you need to hear.” The blond girl entered the room, looking around.
Looking over at her, Moses spoke. “That’s an interesting… um… Sandar?”
She shrugged and looked embarrassed. “Look, it was a typo, okay? My parents were a little, um, stoned when they filled out the forms at the hospital. I was supposed to be named after an aunt of one of my Mothers.”