by Clay Moore
"Sometimes we need a demonstration of who is the alpha male." A woman dressed in a bikini top and a bikini bottom stood at Ian's left hand. "Oh, pardon me my name is Foster Kincaid." John was of the opinion that a bikini was simply a desire of a woman to have a particular size. He had never met a woman that had measured up to her bikini. Even Abigail had a little bit of size envy to her bikini.
"You are one of the hostesses here?"
"I sure am."
"Do you fight every flight ?" "This is a middle-class passenger liner. We offer a lot of entertainment, and we also sell alcoholic beverages. You mix the two of them, and you get either machismo or something that is opposite of it. Bravado is what I guess you call it. I see a couple things when I look at you Mr. — ?"
"My name is John Hardesty."
"Okay John Hardesty, could I have your glass. I am a hostess no matter how I am dressed." This was the second woman who felt comfortable in her own skin. The first was Kandi Kane, and now what somebody would call a simple barmaid knew what she wanted and how to get it. If he had known, then this kind of a woman existed he would not have put up with the dates of insipid women. He put his new desire on Vivana. She had ruined them for other women. He should thank her.
The rest of the two days 14-hour flight was pretty much a routine. The ship's company felt that a method make things go quicker. For John that was not the case. All the enforced rest made him antsier. He ended up walking the lounge and then stopping at the large window. All he could see was the dancing white and gray like areas in front of the ship as it traveled through hyperspace. An impromptu contest was put together by a mother who is doing this to the children, and the adults found out that it was actually kind of fun. Draw the pattern of hyperspace. Even John thought about getting the colors and a sheet of paper and drawing his impression of hyperspace.
John even allowed himself to be seduced by the hostess who likes to wear bikinis. She explained that there was no such thing as prostitution on board ship. Some of the hostesses indicated that they would be interested in entertaining the male customers. The hostess did not have to do much. She said exactly 7 words. Those words were "do you want to see my bunk." Since this was the evening of the second day that they would soon be in hyperspace. He went with her and woke up with her.
During breakfast, the words were spoken that no one wanted to hear from the crew. There was a very loud klaxon. And then there was a male voice which said jump. John had the information, and he was not that troubled.
There was a chance for a misjump. The effects of a misjump are mainly for those jumps that started in the hyperspace exclusion zone. All misjump indicated was that they had made better time. No doubt as soon as the liner landed on Faraway the engineers would be going through that ship's systems.
The first officer finally got on the passenger communication speaker. "I am sorry that you went through that. We have been training the watch standards here, and the misjump was indicated by the software. We looked at the so-called misjump and realized that we are actually going to be six hours ahead of schedule. If you would all calm down. I am going to have about three hours worth of work to do. If Faraway is your final destination, please have a great trip."
John smiled at the first officer. There could be worse things ready to happen. It just happens that the most likely thing might simply be being early. Knowing that he was aware that minded when a ship got in early. He did not have the same relish. He had to figure out if someone was doing a not recommended procedure. And if that was true he had to eliminate it. This would have been the third time, so he decided that it would be the last time.
Two hours later the ship came out of hyperspace. John tried to figure out. If they actually hit the Faraway system. Without the equipment that usually was on the control deck, all that he could do was verify that the star was an actual star. It was indeed the correct star, blue, primary sequence. That was why Faraway was even bearable because it was so far from the star. It received sufficient heat and light. However, it still had that blue tint which put everything into a perpetual sundown or sunrise.
The ship oriented itself. Then it began to accelerate towards the planet. After a few minutes, it hyped again. There is always the last hyper. This occurred from the ll heliopause. The destination was far away, but they are not going to go all the way to Faraway. Some remained on the ship and went to the next planet on a circuit.
The hyperspace signature that appeared in the Windows was suddenly gone and replaced with the grandest picture one could see in space. The objective planet was moving along its orbit. If you look closely, you could see some of the system boats running about the orbitals. Boats were simply ships that did not have a hyper capability in many ways boasted the hard work of the system it was the lure of the tramp freighter pilot that drew him into cargo transport. It was also the view that he saw outside of the lounge window that made them desire to be a freight pilot. Own your own ship, and you could go anywhere you wanted for which there was cargo.
Through the deck on his feet, he could feel the thrum of the great engines that thrust the liner forward. Occasionally a flight of system boats that were nothing more than fighters without hyper generators came out to see who the ship was. They went around the ship, and when they came away from the ship, they waggled their wings sponsons.
The ship's captain could not leave the beauty of that maneuver alone. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the space fighter contingent of the Faraway government. They came out to see who we were and once they knew they flew away. Such beauty in motion."
This was the first inkling that John had that other person had the same love of travel in a starship. It was those individuals who did not have a love of travel in a starship that required the gambling games, and the titillation of the hostesses. It was unbelievable how much the dark black grabbed hold of someone and what let them go.
The liner was designed to be a lift off and land only craft. It was tough to fly a ship in an atmosphere, but those pilots could maneuver. He knew that he did not want to see a captain or pilot maneuvering this kind of a starship. Their control deck action was on the top of the sphere and faced along the long axis.
John walked back to his lounge chair that he claimed from the very beginning of this trip. Some of the other people were finding it simpler to follow what John did. The hostesses only indicated what they might want to look at, not what was important during the flight. If people asked John what was going on, he would give them the answer.
* * * On this last day, John wore the suit that he wore onto the craft. Just about everyone else was on vacation and wore what people on vacation wear. John looked at one apparent husband. He had worn a flowered monstrosity of hideous color. When John wanted to be relaxed, he put on his golfing clothes, a knitted shirt, and golf pants. For shoes, he wore leather loafers. If he wanted to be a little more colorful, he would use the knit shirts that were peach, green, or yellow. Each piece of this ensemble could be a different color. The reason he wore this clothing is that it felt like a uniform. When he had his weapon in his belt line, it really did feel like an outfit.
The hostesses picked up all of the glassware. John could feel the subsonic thrum of the Radamite Jets. Depending on how well this company maintains its jets, there could be anything from shaking of the classes to fullfledged throwing people around. John rather doubted that the firm that was making business in this middle line wanted to take on litigation. He had every expectation that they would maintain the Radamite jets at a proper level.
The liner was now oriented with its struts spacing down along with all of the jets. What this did was leak some of the ionized gas from the Jets around the side of the liner. Most people are surprised when they see the outside skin of the ship that it is very smooth. What bumps and imperfections did was provide an area for these ionized gas. Most people forgot that a plaster really is a way of delivering ionized gas to its target. That ionized gas had a way of cooking people from the inside out. The sa
me thing could be said of the eddies of gas that collects in the nooks and crannies of a non-smooth skin. John blamed the media for dredging up old images of what the future would look like from the 21st century. There was something called a movie, and that only meant a two dimensional projected entertainment. Star Wars was the worst for trying to get people to understand real space travel. Getting them to understand hyperspace for real was also a major problem. In Star Wars you can get anywhere in the galaxy for less than a day. Maybe even less than a couple of hours. There is no rhyme or reason necessary for how fast people traveled in hyperspace. Most people when they are told that it is going to take them three days to get from point A to point B act as if they had just been poleaxed.
As John came back from the argument he had in his head, he noticed that the atmosphere outside was getting noticeably thicker. He could no longer see forever. Within a few moments, they pass through the permanent overcast sky. Most of the world of Faraway is in the sun. Where the one place that they built a settlement it was overcast and cold. John heard some people refer to it as being almost like the English weather. He did not know whether that was true or not because he never landed on Earth. All he knew was that settlement both times he was there had overcast skies and cold temperatures. Based on the number of people on the starship Faraway was starting to also get to be a reputation as a place to take a vacation.
John already had a signi ficant number of people as friends. Part of that was the fact that he and Vivana went dancing. Vivana was trying to get him to use his dance skills at every chance she could. There was something he could not refuse. John could hear church the Radamite Jets slowing down. He could feel the struts taking the weight of the liner. As soon as possible the Jets stopped began a five-minute countdown. This will allow the jet engines to cool down sufficiently to keep from burning people. They had to do this because of Radamite jets being perpendicular to the ground. The rose did not necessarily need to do that five-minute cool down because the Radamite jets oriented transverse to the ship itself. Also, the Jets had a huge metal shroud. That protected all people from a potential burn.
John got up and retrieved all of his hand luggage. He exited with the other passengers. We got down to the ground he saw that his stuff had been all piled in an area underneath the ship. Whoever they had as cargo hands were excellent. John looked around to see if there were any kind handcarts we found a cart. He put the golf club bag on the cart. Then his two pieces of luggage. He brought his cart with him into the actual terminal building. That was something new. The first time that he was here there was no terminal building. It also meant that the owner of the Starr report, Daniel Kreis, was doing well for himself. John noticed that Daniels asteroid hopper took up one of the landing spaces of the starport. John knew that he was down on one, so he wondered if Daniel was in the starport.
John pushed his car all around the terminal building. It was only when he turned around to go in the reverse direction that he had found that Daniel Kreis had followed him. The very open face of Daniel was covered with a smile. John returned Daniel's smile. Both men then exchanged embraces. Daniel only looked a fraction cleaner than he did when John first met him. Daniel might be the owner of the store worked, but he was also the chief bottle washer, and repair technician.
"This is something that you need for me now?"
"I need a place that is secure. You have someplace where I can lock up some equipment.”
"Does this have to do with those dead two identical twins?"
"Daniel, I really can't say. Not authorized to read you in.”
"Can I be read in by the planetary director?"
“He is the one that referred this matter to us. I think he is one of the few who could read person in.” "Okay, here is the deal. I'll take care yours storage needs. In exchange for bringing with you and go visit our esteemed planetary director."
“I'm going to need a lot more support than what I have with me, so I agree that you will act the sort of my armorer."
“Now that is very heavy." * * * “It’s not more more than 100 kg." Daniel chuckled very loud. "No John, that's a phrase that the young say here. It means weighty. If you are talking about awaiting subject in they would say that's heavy."
"How are you privy to what young people say?" "Most days I am dirty by 10 but in the morning. That sort of puts me in the common section of the workforce. Most of the upper-level children just ignore me. I don't think most people, not even the planetary director, knows what my net worth is once this Starport was completed.”
"When I got the landing fees, they were very reasonable. my fees were about the same throughout the known universe.”
"When you first landed I thought you were going to be able to put us back on the map. Sorry gave you discounted fee in hopes that you might come back and bring with it additional business. Little did I know that you would bring back a lot of business. We had real businesses that actually produced products that we could sell. But the one thing that we do very well fix massive starships. First, there was the Eridani High Guard. Then the Starlight brigade started to show up. We knew that the Eridani High Guard and the starlight brigade did not much like each other."
"The reason you got so much business from the start brigade was that there wasn't deemed a battle with them. The action on the ground and a fight in space. A bit off more than they can chew. So they ended up with just about every ship damaged in some way. That is why you got the repair of the starlight brigade."
"What was its primary weapon?"
“The only thing I could think of is a ship torpedo based on Radamite enhancement of a high explosive.” Daniel whistled in and appreciation of the kind of explosive being used in that battle. " You were in that battle were you?"
"Vivana and I were part of the ground campaign. Mostly they dropped a brigade of Eridani High Guard Marines in full battle suits."
"I'm going to leave this alone for now. I know what it's like to lose a will love wife. It may be over a year since you lost her, but there is no time limit on the need for grief. My house is a safe refuge for you if you require shedding some tears."
"Did Elaine say something to you this morning? That sounds exactly like something coming out of her mouth.” "Yeah, Elaine made me promise that I would say something like that to you. I feel a little bit less of a man by having to say it, but it would not be worth my peace with her if I did not mention it. You will back me up on this right?"
"Let's just take care of this thing that needs to be stored."
"Okay," said Daniel, "follow me." Daniel led John through the terminal building as if he owned it. The emergency doors were all connected to steps. However, for the technical staff, there were four elevators. Daniel reached into his left pocket and pulled out his ring of keys. Daniel recognized that key as one of the dual-mode keys. There was the real motive which affects look like an old-fashioned key for a lock. The second mode was a presentation core. All you had to do was put the key close to the lock, and it would open it. Which is what Daniel did with the key. Daniel pushed open the elevator door while John pushed in his luggage.
Daniel touched the button that said bottom floor. The door closed and then the ground came up at them. Daniel didn't think that John had any kind of ear protection, so he grabbed a pair that was a safety announcement. Before he allowed John out of the elevator, he gave John the hearing protection. John took the idea and put the hearing protection on immediately. Then John followed Daniel to a locked room. Daniel opened the door by lifting it up. What John saw was nothing more than a workshop.
“I'm afraid that what I'm going to be storing here won't take too kindly to open flame, blaster fire, or even outright vibration."
* * *
"That's ominous."
"You don't know the half of it. Come with me to the planetary director, and you will know the half of it."
"Do you want me there, or do you need me there?"
"Want you." “Okay, what we will do is will put your stuf
f in the paint locker. Most everybody is used to having to come to me to get the paint. For however long you need it it’s your personal locker."
John rolled his suitcase caddy into the machine shop. He navigated the tables and machinery with a luggage cart. Daniel moved ahead of him to open the paint locker with his key. John kept the cart outside of the paint locker, he lifted the golf club holder off the wagon. He then put the golf club holder on the floor extremely gingerly. John backed out of the paint locker while Daniel closed the doors and relocked the paint locker. Daniel led John out of the sheen shop. Once John was past the doors, Daniel closed those doors and locked them.
“When do you expect to need them?." "I need to make sure that this is an illegal genetic robot situation. That I need to know where the Genetic Robots are being manufactured. Then I need to know if there is a secondary support system. Something like a corporate headquarters."
"I can't believe we are having this issue again.” "The problem isn't that we didn't do something. We did something. Vivana rained down as much plaster fire on the manufacturing building still existing. For all intents and purposes, we killed the genetic robots. I think that we need to kill the head, the scientist who developed that abomination."
"If you need me for anything…" "You want me to make a widow of Cherie. I know you may be the second grand Wizard of the People's Army of to Faraway. This is not that kind of battle. This is a fight in the shadows. You hope to get away with it, but some of the counter officers out there know who you are. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get to the Vibrant Chord to get my room set up."
Daniel put another smile on his face. " That's Jeff and Maranda's place. You remember them right?"
"Jeff was one of the security guards for the battle cruiser. Somehow he changed sides." "You didn't have much time to do a lot of socializing, but Miranda was known as Miranda Johansson. That's right the daughter of the planetary director. I don't expect the planetary director knew that his daughter would fall in love, all that mattered was they were on your side when he had made that run to your ship. Then you told them to get the hell off the ship. The way they tell it the Dark Star broke open like in an egg."