by Clay Moore
When the transmission was complete John held his slate up and towards Jeff. He understood that to mean that he had received the information. With well over 100 colony worlds all of the shortcuts for communication were in fact been transmitted to all the worlds. English may be degraded from the world to world, but not Slate language. He imagined that if English is being taught as if it were slight language, then the degradation of the tongue would be moot. No one, however, wanted to charge the integrity of the word to 12-year-olds.
John stepped out of the hotel at the front door. He opened his slate and touched the address that he received. Immediately a map to the store was displayed before him. Also was an indicator that the warehouse was open for about 30 minutes so far. John walked the streets of the settlement, and he came to the Grav-rod shop. In Eridani as well as other worlds the culture of the Grav-rod had some allure to people who were not born to be Grav-rod riders. If you wanted to feel like one, then you had to buy the costume. John pushed the door open to the shop.
A woman who wore black leather skin tight pants and a top that had an industrial-strength zipper waited behind a counter in which there were knives, telescoping batons, cuffs and a couple other devices that he had an idea what they were for but he didn't know for sure.
* * *
John knew exactly what he needed. He needed a black leather jacket. It had to be completely dark, no chrome on the jacket. He found that jacket almost immediately. All the other jackets had some sort of trademark logo. A logo lists product meant a little more expensive. He took down the black leather jacket. He tried that on over his shirt. The jacket fits exactly the way he wanted it to.
Now he had understood the pants. Those come in two different types the full on pant and the chaps. He turned to the woman now behind the register. The zipper was a little bit lower now.
“I'm not looking for style. I'm looking for protection and stealth."
"I would recommend that you get a black pair of slacks and where the chaps." John put the chaps on the counter where the woman stood as well as the leather jacket. He went back to the displays on the wall. John found a nice pair of Nomex black gloves. He also found a good pair of Grav-rod boots and total black. The fittings also were black. Then he started looking through the helmets and did not find what he wanted. He went back to the woman. Her leather jacket zipper pull was now halfway to her belly.
“I'm looking for a total black helmet.” "I might have something for you. It sounds like you're building a suit to be stealthy in. Would you like an Eridani High Guard helmet?”
“How did you manage to get one of those?” “When the Eridani High Guard brought its Marines here, they thought that they were under a deployment. And that meant certain pieces of equipment were superfluous."
"And you and your husband Rode out and glean the field of this equipment. However, you found that the Grav-rod community would not want a government item.”
“Well, you are very well-informed. Grav-rod culture is something that I wife and I kept up with. We actually didn't really join a club, but we were invited to a lot of rides. Is that helmet and AN-10 helmet?”
"Yes.”
“Does it at least turn on."
“The one I think that's in your head size does turn on."
“I'll take that."
“I have an extra battery.”
“You can never have too much power. I'll take the battery to."
* * * John managed to get out of Grav-rod bike shop for right around 600 credits. Why John was so excited about having the helmet was that it had sensors in the crown of the helmet. These sensors would be even better than the binoculars. It would show him every contour the ground, and every pursuit vehicle. John Rode in his Grav-rod. Keeping the Grav-rod upright was a challenge when one arm was holding a bag full of his goodies. He came to the hotel and parked in his spot. He flung down the cradle which held the Grav-rod up when it was not powered. He got off the Grav-rod and went into the hotel. Gave Jeff a slight wave of his hand as he walked past the check-in desk. When he arrived at his room door, he opened it because his key was in proximity to the door.
John did what he always did whatever he was in a hotel room in a different area of the galaxy. He dropped whatever was in his left hand and reached for his blaster. Then John went through the series of rooms to ensure that nobody was there. He then also checks to make sure all of his tell tales were still in place. Everything was normal which was the way that John liked it.
John grabbed the bag and all of his goodies. John tossed it on the bed. He took off his suit coat and put it on the hanger of the hangar tree. Then he took out a pocket knife from the bag and also brought out the leather jacket. There was a few tag sewn into the scene that had a fluorescent color. With the pocket knife, he was able to cut these fluorescent flags. He went through the leather jacket removing any kind of tag that was either fluorescent or white. He was trying to re-create lights-out.
The next thing that he had to deal with was the black utility pants. There were just a couple of tags that had to be removed for this. Then there were the leather chaps. The chaps were for protection from a hot engine and any stray blaster bolts. He went through the chaps and removed all of the tags. It seemed that manufacturers could not create that piece of clothing without adding 10 tags to it.
Then he put on the clothes. The black T-shirt was especially interesting. It was soft like some of his welllaundered T-shirts. The main difference was that this shirt was black he had removed all of the soup clothing. He even removes the sling for his blaster. He put his blaster in the selling holster. It was expecting no problems because he could drive faster than those problems could pursue him. He was now ready to go with the one exception. The sun was still above the horizon. He knew that he would be a dark bump on the landscape, but that was not what he wanted. He wanted to be invisible. The black clothing and the black paint job on his grab rod are all one idea of being able to not be seen. He understood that he was dealing with people who were not idiots. When they saw him riding around on their property in black clothing and black paint that there was something amiss.
If it was him and he saw something like that near a place that he was protecting, he would sound the alarm. He was thinking that the genetic robot factory was using genetic robots as security forces. One of the techniques that they used to keep these people biddable was that they air intelligence was less than normal. Unintelligent genetic robots were easier to manipulate and to control. In some of the establishments where female genetic robots are used, the un-intelligence is used as a trait.
John understood what made this attractive to most human males. Most human males do not want to have a wrestling match. The complete conditioning for those kinds of workers was to teach them that they enjoyed the act, and every male was very good looking. When they did this, they actually had more business per day for the hostess stepped had that training.
John picked up his helmet and walked out of his room. He decided that he was going to have a little dinner. Luckily for him, they did not have dress codes. Now some of the guests might have their own dress codes. He walked up to the maître d' desk. Jeff was looking rather dapper in his tuxedo. Jeff said nothing to him about how he was dressed.
"Do you have a place that you would like to sit?" "Probably someplace in the back of the dining room. I think some of your guests probably find their meals a little more palatable if I was not an open site."
"They have not had the pleasure of your acquaintance. If they did, they would like you."
"Jeff, I did not know that you had that thought. I thank you for it."
* * *
"This is the thing that you are going to do that you do not want me to ask you about, correct?" What amazed John was that he was able to get that all in one breath. "You would be in most respects correct. Other than that I cannot confirm."
Jeff absently fanned the menus and then snap them close in his left hand. "I think you would like to be able to get out of the
restaurant quickly. So, I'm going to put you in the back near the door."
"Just how long were you an enlisted man?" "I was a sergeant for the Starlight brigade. I had goofed up and was cashiered. PI had offered me a sergeants billet. I ended up commanding the company. PI always seemed to be low on officers. There were also flat on very good noncoms. I was given two ranks."
"And you fell in love with Elaine, the daughter of the planetary administrator. I don't think that he would've liked that."
"He told me where she was singing. I decided that I wanted to go, and some of the men went with me. It took me three times going to hear her sing before I fell in love. Only later did I realize that the man who accosted me was the planetary administrator, and he was telling me about his daughter."
* * * "This whole story makes a lot of sense now. I saw how much he was talking to the enlisted men from the battle cruiser. I saw that he was trying very hard to win the hearts and minds of the human crew. What he really didn't know was that the majority of the team were genetic robots. You cannot make an appeal to humanity to something that doesn't feel human."
Jeff said: "Yes, that is Elaine's father to a T. He had one big deal and you, and he made other little deals to either help you or to help them."
"I need to get the Grav-rod out and see what it can do. Do you think I look the part?" "If you're trying to look like somebody who is trying to seem like a Grav-rod club member then you succeeded in trying to seem like a Grav-rod club member."
"You really don't have a Grav-rod club here do you?" "Not that I know of. It order to have a grab club you have to have somebody who doesn't feel like a member of the organization. That's one thing that Mr. Johansson does. He makes everybody feel like they are a member of the club Faraway. Alienation is required for there to be a Grav-rod club."
"I'll have some lunch here. I'll take the Grav-rod out after that." John ordered a sandwich and some soup. The soup was not canned soup in any way. Jeff must make all of the soup on a daily basis. If he stayed here much longer, he was going to turn into an epicure. After John had finished just one, John walked out through the main door of the hotel. In his space, John saw the Grav-rod. As he looked into the Grav-rods design. John could see the lifting services as well as the control surfaces that gave this limited vehicle flight. John knew that he did not want to ride this Grav-rod at high altitude for extended periods of time. For one thing, he did not have oxygen.
John mounted the Grav-rod. He put his foot on the right foot pedals and the left foot on the left foot puddles. He operated what petals discovered that the control services were controlled by these checks. The throttle was on the left control handlebar. The right control what set all of the control surfaces to prevent any kind of takeoff. It was an air brake sorts. Whoever had designed this Gravrod had made it a very useful Grav-rod. John straddled the Grav-rod and turned on the engine.
There was a problem in the old Grav-rods. Since this device only had one engine and it turned in a particular direction. This gave the Grav-rod a tendency to turn in the opposite orientation of the turbine. From the very beginning of Grav-rod design, a compensating weight set opposite to the turbine. This counterweight made it possible to fly a Grav-rod without one more control required. John felt the pull and then filled it release as the counterweight started to move. He also felt the null grav. With no grav on John could swing up the sling. He walked the Grav-rod out of his parking spot. Then he brought up the throttle and drove down the road. It had been a while since he had driven a Grav-rod. It was about a year. He and Vivana had to utilize the Grav-rods as an escape back to the ship. That was another thing that he chose to add to the ship. There was a place to put a grav-car in what he called the grav-car garage over the center point of the cargo hold. If he had put in a grav-car that the one vehicle for both of them. They couldn't go their separate ways to obtain information. That was when he put into mil-spec Grav-rods in the garage.
Whenever Vivana found herself with a wish ful filled she would show John the meaning of her being female and he is male.
John drove his Grav-rod to a farm that he knew nearby. He had already contacted the farmer there, who told him that what of his field areas was lying fallow. He told John that he could ride as fast as he wanted to and break all of the rules because this was private property.
John increased the height of the ride so that he would jump the fence. Then he brought the Grav-rod down and let it ride on its terrain following system. He soon discovered that the speed that the Grav-rod could obtain was faster than what he would really want to drive. That speed would be for escape.
It took John about 2 1/2 hour to get a good feel for the Grav-rod. He did manage 300 m height. He drove the Grav-rod back to his friend's Starport. The pump for the Radamite fuels can also be used to put fuel into a vehicle. John took his position in line. Daniel noticed that there was a Grav-rod waiting for fuel. That was unusual. Gravrods were not normally a useful vehicle on Faraway. John was writing on no grav through the battery. The battery could actually run the Renaud graph for quite a long time. The thing it couldn't do is move up and down in the terrain following system.
John reached the top and Daniel unscrewed the Gravrods tank he put in the nozzle for the Radamite flow. Daniel got the surprise of his life when the writer spoke to him.
"Hello, Daniel. like my Grav-rod?"
"I knew that you were going to use Grav-rod. But that's one of those 5000 models. It can fly."
"In some of the planets on which megacities are flying is the only way to get around in town." "You will agree that settlement is nowhere near a megacity. We have a way to go, but one of my ideas for my Starport to be a full-service Starport in the middle of a mega-city. This would entice freighter pilots to land in my Starport, rather than landing rough."
Daniel saw that the tank for the Grav-rod was now completely full. He stopped the flow of Radamite and hung up the nozzle. He reached over and grabbed a blue towel and rubbed his hands on it.
* * *
"You didn't do much in the way of writing that Gravrod. Probably just enough to wake up your skills. I know this is not the part where you are actually planting the bombs. You will mind if we pray for you even today."
"Even today. Everyone has a lucky shot once. You just don't plan for it." John walked his Grav-rod off of the metal surface that starships land on. You turn the Radamite jet on and drove to the hotel. He was going to wait there until dark that evening.
CHAPTER EIGHT STEALTH BY NIGHT
John entered his room. He stripped off his clothing and set the Grav-rod gear on the bed. He didn't do much in the way of sweat, but some sensors can actually smell the sweat. That left them around in his room completely naked. Then his door opened again against his will.
The woman that he knew to be Dolores walked into his room and stood there with her right hand on her hip.
"Look, we want the same thing. We want for this issue with the genetic robots to be gone." Apparently, Dolores did make her mark on him, because he was responding to her presence. She could see that he was responding to her she raised her right eyebrow gave a crooked smile.
"What you want from me? What I would like from you is what you're showing me there. But I for you to call off whatever doom you have for me. I would like for you to keep me in the loop."
"And why would we believe anything that someone from Alphacent said?" "Okay, you have it right I'm leaving tomorrow. And I know who you are. You know who I am. I think that any time where the same area we should spend time in the bedroom."
"Why should I believe you about that. It is like you think you could spread your legs and get anything you want to be done."
"Oh, honey let me disabuse you of that notion. I just want to spend time with you in your bedroom. Last night was a lot different. We were two spies playing a role. Who knew who was being played and who was the player. Got a distinct impression that I was being played."
"You are being played. You had your bag open while we we
re dancing at one point and I noticed that you had a diplomatic passport. You are not given this foreign passport unless you are either a diplomat, or you are a spy. What you hope is that you will get picked up by anti-spies who will accept that passport."
She opened her clutch and saw that it had her diplomatic passport. That was not necessary on Faraway. It would be required on Eridani or any of the other two Giga planets. She showed John the foreign passport.
* * *
"Yes, that was the one I saw while we were dancing. When you were asleep, I opened up your clutch and confirm that you did have a diplomatic passport. Since there's no Embassy here from Alphacent, that meant it was issued to you to prevent people from being too personal. I'm a diplomat don't you know."
"And you're telling me that the Eridani Secret Service does not use diplomatic passports to provide cover for some of their agents."
"No, we expect our agents to be skillful."
"You are still playing a legend what you?"
"What legend?" "They said that you and another agent put holes in the roof and buildings of the existing buildings. Then they also state that you went on a battle cruiser and blew it up?"
"That is correct, and it is not secret anymore."
"How did you do that?" "As you build bigger ships you will need larger tankage for that ship. All I did was put in a few limpet mines on the tankage. The lipid mines had a time fuse, and they all went off at the same time. In essence, the primary damage was heat. The Radamite in the tanks were wet on fire at 5000° and burnt the interior of the battle cruiser. My partner and I got on our starship, and we took off out of there."
"How did you stay alive inside the ship?" "My partner and I were Marines. I made sure that we were to take two officers Marine Battlesuits. Pretty much anything less than a 30 mm blaster we would not get hurt."