TheTraveler - book 1

by Robin Marienus Miller

  I said, "I'll go in with you, I need some undergarments anyway."

  Owsee, "what are undergarments?"

  I said, "just as the name implies, they are the garments you were under something else."

  Owsee, "why, are you cold?"

  I said, "no, they just feel good to me. And I may not always want to wear my cloak."

  Owsee, "and you do not want to run around without clothes on. I understand."

  I said, "there is something I think you should know. I think I may have gotten her pregnant."

  Owsee, "good, she has been wanting to get pregnant for a long time now. AI does not work on her kind. She will be grateful to you for this. I knew she liked you."

  “Nibor gets a new suit”

  We walked into the store together and Kitty said, "what can I do for you men today?"

  Owsee, "I need three new shirts."

  Kitty, "you have arms now. Why did you do that?"

  Owsee, "I wanted my arms back, that's all."

  Kitty, "I never knew you lost them. Help yourself. And you, just tagging along, or can I get you something?"

  I said, "I also need a shirt, and a pair of pants."

  Kitty, "how about some no friction pants?"

  Owsee, from across the room said, "you won't like them. When you go to sit down you will fall on the floor."

  Kitty, "how about some spray on clothes?"

  Owsee, again from across the room said, "they stink after three days."

  Kitty, "oh be quiet."

  Owsee, "I'm just trying to help."

  I said, "just something simple and inexpensive."

  Kitty, "I know, Elvin ware."

  Owsee, "the most costly thing you can buy."

  Kitty, "oh will you shut up."

  Then she said to me, "it's flexible, never needs cleaning, will stop a blade and some low energy weapons. I have some in the back. Let me see if it’s your size."

  She went in the back to look and Owsee said to me, "she is trying to sell

  you the most costly thing in the shop."

  I said, "so far I have gotten a good deal from her."

  Owsee, "yes, but now that she is pregnant she no longer needs you. Elvin ware is good stuff for sure, but I can't even tell you how much it cost. It's like buying battle gear, but it looked better."

  Kitty came out with a pair of pants and a pull over shirt.

  She said, "it only comes in this gold and silver weave, but this will fit you. And it is near zero friction, but not so much that you will slide off your seat."

  Owsee, "I found three shirts I want, how much do I owe you?"

  Kitty, "you know your money is no good here, just take them."

  And I said, "how much does this cost?"

  Kitty said, "your credit is no good either, at least for today."

  I said thank you, as she gave me a big smile.

  Owsee, "let's take these things back to the ship. I need to sit down for a bit."

  Then Owsee and I left with our new clothes.

  “A trip to the ice mines”

  Owsee, "I have never seen her so generous. I understand my free shirts, I set her up here, I always get free stuff. But to just give you the Elvin ware? If she had asked for 1000 credits I would say it was still a bargain. I don't understand, unless she is picking you as a life mate. What do you think about that?"

  I said, "well, she seems pleasant enough, and passionate. But if she is going to get pregnant every time I'm with her, or each four to six weeks, I'll need my own planet before long."

  Owsee, "no, no, it does not work like that for her race. She may be in heat two days a week, but she can only get pregnant once a year."

  I said, "how many children do they have at a time?"

  Owsee, "two or three, sometimes up to five. They grow up very fast, and reach adulthood in a year, but only live to be about 45; most a good deal less."

  I asked, "how old is Kitty?"

  Owsee, "Kitty, so that's what you're calling her. I don't know how old she is. But she has been here for a good seven years. You'll have to ask for yourself."

  After getting to the ship, we went up to the front observation room. He let out with a moan as he sat down and said, "it's good to have my arms back. I should have done this years ago. I'm more administrative these days than hands on. I have one creature working for me, that calls himself, "Do do," that has 14 tentacles, and he can control each one to do something different all at the same time. But he has a small brain. If he goes a week without doing a certain kind of work, he forgets what he had learned; he just can’t retain it. It's too bad that brain boosting chips don't work on his kind."

  I said, "I've never heard of them, what is a brain boosting chip?"

  Owsee, "for a small fortune, maybe 100,000 credits, you can have a chip put in your brain. It makes you a lot smarter because you can remember everything you see or hear. But most say they get bad headaches and it takes away your dreams. I would not want to lose my dreams. Sometimes I think they are the best part of my life."

  I said that dreams are the inspiration for creativity, and that I would not abandon them for mere intellect.

  Then Owsee said, "as long as I must sit for a bit, let's go see my ice mine, watch this."

  And he flipped up a control panel from the table, then started to input commands.

  He said, "separation sequence engage," and the room began to shake a bit.

  He said, "hover mode on," and the whole room started to go up.

  He said, "forward thrusters on," and we were on our way.

  He said, "destination locked and that's the way we do it."

  The observation room was now flying high above the ground, and on its way to the mine. Two thirds of the front of the room and the top was all transparent.

  I said that the view was amazing, and he said, "this is just technology, learning to read and write stories, that is amazing I think."

  I said it was still a thrill, and he said, "yes, I enjoyed it myself. And it is so easy to fly, it even has a voice interface. With the help of your translator even you could fly it."

  I thought it was interesting he would share that kind of information with me, considering he had only known me for less than a day.

  We were now entering the dark side of the Moon, and he told me it would take another hour to get to his mine.

  Owsee, "how about you show me how to read your language while we’re waiting to get there."

  I said, "tell me why it is so important to you, when you could just record my stories on a data chip?"

  He said, "my planet has a pulsar nearby. Together with certain minerals in our soil, a wave from time to time runs through, and around my planet. It's harmless to life forms but causes problems with data chips, they just don't last long. Even ships that land there must leave within a day, or pull all their chips and put them in storage."

  I said, "then what good will it do you to learn to write, how will you record it?"

  Owsee said, "with art, we have a rich culture of art. I can paint or print your words. It will be a new art form, stories in print."

  I said, "for a long time my people on earth used paper to write on."

  Owsee, "what is this paper you speak of?"

  I said, "it’s like this roll out view screen, you write on it but it has no chips."

  Owsee, "I would like to find some of this paper to see how you do it."

  I said, "I have not seen any paper in a long time. Maybe one of the other races, around here that writes, has something like it."

  Owsee, "maybe, but for now show me what you can."

  So I showed him the alphabet and how to sound out words. We practiced with it until we get to the mine.

  The mining operation was enormous. With large machines cutting pieces of the ice mountains apart, and ships coming and going.

  Owsee, "these mountains are all ice, glaciers from long, long ago. When I first moved here I bought the mining rights to them. They were covered with 10,000 ye
ars of dust, and no one thought I would find anything of value. The rest of the Moon has no precious metals or minerals. But one day, while doing some blasting, I found that the mountains on the dark side of the Moon were made of ice. The water on the fourth planet is all under guard, and they don't sell much of it. They want to keep their world green. I can't blame them. After all, once it's gone, it's gone forever. This makes water so costly around here they all come to me. I have been selling water or ice for over 20 years. And I have not sold half of it yet. I bought the mining rights to the dark side of the Moon for 100,000 credits, a lot of money for me back then. But I made it all back on my first shipment of ice. After that, the moon became a main port for water, and to make repairs. I supply the only water to the station at cost. That is why went something like that creature, that tried to hit you in the bar, happens -- they get their head stopped in. Even med lab could not put him back together. I have had many offers to buy the operation from me. But that would have changed things too much. I started most of the shops here, and took a loss until they were on their feet, so to say. When I sell the mine, the shops may find it cost too much to stay open for long. I admit I will miss this place when I go, but there is no place like home."

  The lights moved from one spot to another as the ships came and went. I could not imagine this had been going on for 20 years, and they had only taken half or less. As a laser cut through the glacier, the whole mountain lit up with different colors. It was beautiful, but I felt sad to think one day it would all be gone.

  I said to Owsee, "seeing all this reminds me of the lakes back home on earth. We had so much water we would swim in it for fun."

  Owsee, "you can swim? Me too. I even have a pool in my ship. It's really just a water storage room, but you can swim in it. When we get back I will show it to you. Maybe we go for a swim."

  I said I would like that.

  After another pass over the mine, we headed back. Owsee showed me how to fly. He was right about how easy it was. He pointed out where we were on the screen and the ships locator beacon. The return controls were just point and click. I tapped in the information and we were off, on our way back to the main part of the ship.

  On the way back I worked the vowel sounds with him and tried to remember the rules. He picked it up very fast, he had a good memory. He was soon sounding out words, and writing short sentences.

  When we got back the small ship turned around and docked automatically.

  Then he said, "let's take a swim."

  As we walked to the water storage area he would point to things like the wall, floor, or a door, and try to spell them. He did very well. When we got to the, so-called, pool. I found it to be 50 feet wide, 30 feet deep and a good 100 feet long.

  He said, "you can swim in your clothes if you want, but I don't like to walk around in wet things."

  "Neither do I," I said.

  So we stripped down and jumped in. The water was not too cold, and felt great. We splashed about and showed each other the different ways we could swim. Then he said, "watch this," and he climbed up a stairway to a platform 20 feet above the pool and jump off, going in feet first. Not to be outdone, I went up to the platform, and dove in headfirst; then swam underwater to him.

  He said, "I don't think I will try that."

  We then sat on the side of the pool for a time and talked about the places on our own planets where we had been swimming.

  I asked him if he had a towel, and he said, "what is a towel?"

  I told him it was something you used to dry off with. He said, "come with me." And we went to a corner of the room where a 5 foot hose hung from the wall. He hit a button and warm air blew down on us.

  He said, "I can make it stronger."

  And he turned a knob until we almost fell down.

  Then he said, "I think we are dry," and turned it off. "Was that a towel?" He asked.

  "No," I said, "that was a blow dry."

  He said, "I have many handy things on this ship. I will teach you about all of them, as we have time."

  We were putting our clothes back on when he said, "I think you have already noticed that in the waste disposal rooms they are locked on storage."

  I said, "yes I saw that. So I guess you're not hooked up to the stations waste systems."

  He said, "no, I never got around to it, I'll have to do a purge after I take off. However, for now we need to just leave the control on storage. As I teach you more about my ship, I will need to give you override control. So, remember not to purge the system until we are in space. Or many years of waste will be dumped on the station. I am not sure how deep it will be, but it sure would be a stinking mess."

  I said, "I sure would not want to be responsible for that."

  We then walked about the ship as he showed me different workstations and crew quarters. There were 20 separate rooms of different sizes for the crew.

  He said, "take your pick, I never used them."

  He talked about how bad it would be here after he sells the mine. And that some of the people will want to go with him, even if it was just to be dropped off somewhere else.

  He said, "I have been thinking about it for years. The ice mines will only last another 20 years anyway, and then there will not be much of a reason for anyone to come here. Everyone knows that. And I think I can make a better deal if I sell now rather than later. But it really depends on you."

  "Why me?" I said.

  Owsee, "I have collected many stories during my stay here, but I think you could be the key to much more if you are as good as I know you are. I will make you a bargain. Keep teaching me and come with me to my home world; it's only three days away with this big ship. If you don't like my world I will give you the ship I confiscated and all the supplies you can carry. If you do like my planet, I think in less than a year or so I can guarantee you ownership of the big ship. What have you got to lose?"

  I said, "it sounds good to me, but it still seems like a dream. I've been lucky a time or two in my life, but something always comes up to knock me down. What the hell, I may as well give it a try."

  Owsee, "good, let's go to the Drink Drunk and celebrate. I'll get my bag and meet you at the airlock by the receiving bay."

  When I got to the receiving bay I saw a flashing light, indicating there was a delivery while we were gone. I opened the door and saw five barrels of the orange rum from the Drink Drunk. One had a tap on it but was still full; it was not the one we were drinking from.

  Then Owsee showed up, and looking at them said, "look, the labels on them are a medical supplies seal. The bartender is a smart one I think. We shall need to thank him."

  “Back to the Drink Drunk”

  As we walked along the docks Owsee got a call on his com-badge and started telling workers what to do. As we passed one worker, with a laser torch that was cutting a piece of metal, my cloak brushed too close to his work and was cut a bit.

  The worker shouted out something that my translator interpreted as an apology, and an accusation of blame. I looked at the cut in my cloak, which was Silver side out, and it healed itself in seconds. But not fast enough to prevent the worker from seeing the silver/gold of my Elvin ware. The worker then took a step back, made a very gracious gesture with his hand, and said, through the translator, "forgiveness."

  I only looked at him for a moment before just walking on. The man looked at Owsee for a moment, then went back to work.

  Just before we reached the door to the station I could see two workers, about 50 feet away, arguing about something. I sort of wished I could hear what they were talking about, and the ear piece, that I had forgotten I had on, gave me a translation. Something about the wrong tool for the job.

  As we walked into the station I mentioned it to Owsee and he said that all I needed to do was to concentrate, and I would be able to hear anything I could see, no matter how far it was. He said I could also get instant translation as someone was talking, just by looking at them.

  Just before we went in
to the Drink Drunk, we stopped as Owsee pointed at one shop then another, and so forth, telling me what kind of store they were and what they sold.

  Then he said, as we turned to go inside, "but we will see them all later I think. Right now, I feel like I need to sit down again. I think the swim got the best of me."

  We walked to the same table we had the last time we were at the bar.