Greener Green I: Where Does the Circle Begin

by Peter Sowatskey

  “Yes.”

  “Have to have some failsafe/ some wipe mechanism/ some magic pill.”

  “Yes.”

  “Write up a complete battle plan, transportation, weapons, training, etc?”

  “Yes.”

  “Get whatever help you need. Tell anyone that your project is Priority One. Let me know daily what you’ve done. We have to finish it before we get back. Thelma will have a plan too. When we mesh the two, we’ll have a better chance of success. Oh, and by the way get a replacement for yourself and train them.”

  “I understand. I’ll start both tasks now.”

  Turning back to my Journal, I got a few pages done when Tilda stuck her head in the door. “Molly said you might not mind if I used your hot tub for a soak?”

  “Sure, help yourself.”

  “She also said you might scrub my back?”

  “Be glad to, about ten minutes.”

  She turned in the direction of the exercise room. I congratulated myself on my aplomb. Then asked what Molly was up to. She never did anything without a reason. Ask her later. I seemed to be more willing and able than before. Maybe this was one of Thelma’s surprises. I wouldn’t put it past her.

  The next morning, 0800, I found Ranger Erlo sitting by himself at a table with a huge umbrella near the pool area in Central City. Whatever the use thereof, décor? He noticed me and waved. “That café over there has the best cream filled rolls.”

  “Now that you mention it, one or two would be nice.” I changed course, but he waved me to have a seat. “They’ll bring them over in a minute. I asked the nice lady behind the counter to monitor me. Said I was a VIP.”

  “She said she’d heard. How do you get used to no secrets?”

  “Takes doing, but if you have no secrets, no problem.” I commented.

  “Everybody has secrets, ah, here we are, rolls, perhaps you’d bring some more coffee. See, I told you I was a VIP,” he said to the server.

  She, a short middle aged lady, just smiled, “Your special coffee, XO?”

  “Thank you, nice of you to be prepared.”

  I think I heard ‘we aim to please’ as she went off.

  Erlo said, “I haven’t slept so well in decades. You have the softest pool side lounging chairs I've ever experienced. Someone even put a cover over me while I slept. When you realize what your enemies would have to do to get to you here, you sleep like a babe.”

  “I’m pleased to hear that. That scene on the Bridge last night was a bit strained. Walter said you’d placed him on notice. What does that mean?”

  He bit into his roll before answering. “It means I’m going to kill him. I know he’s not responsible for everything, but he should be. Maybe the next leader will be. If not--”

  “I told him I would plead his case. Does he have one?”

  “No. The last drop that made the dam overflow was his criminal Cousin and this Bren situation.”

  “Can’t you just punish the Cousin?”

  “The Cousin and his helpers have been collected. You want them?”

  “We’ve developed some special techniques.”

  “They will be in orbit when we get to Bren. I suggest you put them in the Brig.”

  “Do we even have a Brig?” I asked. "It wasn't on the tour I took."

  “Certainly, it used to be at Zero point, probably still there.”

  The waitress came back with my Kenyan coffee and a note. It read ‘Brig still there—Paula assumes responsibility’ I pushed it across the table to Erlo and he said, “Done deal.”

  “Perhaps Paula would look at Walter too. She’s qualified.”

  “I know what she is. The wonder is that she would stoop to care. Maybe I will ask her for some time too. Yes, I’ll do that.”

  I received, 1200, SAME TABLE.

  “She says she will meet you here at 1200.”

  “You a telepath, too?”

  I smiled, “One way, they say it should develop later. No matter. What I first of all wanted to ask you, is when did you first see a vessel like the ARK?”

  “Long time ago, I was another person, involved in a great migration between another Universe and this one. I don’t know, or don't recollect whether Thelma’s Elders were involved or not. It’s all rather vague. I recall I was Maintenance Supervisor of something.”

  “We have recall processes that would help.” I offered. "Ranger HQ might benefit from that knowledge. We might also, if you'd care to share."

  “I’ll ask your Paula, when I see her.’

  I let ‘my' Paula go by without comment, and I felt her smile.

  Erlo continued, “I do recall though, that we had a problem with storage. The potential capacity wasn’t going to be enough so we developed something I call today, 'right angle space'. I use it in my library. You tend to collect a lot of data in 400 years.”

  “You’ve been in this region of space 400 years in this body? Amazing!”

  “Yes, one could say that, if one were not informed, regardless, I would like to share this 'space' procedure with you. I can foresee a time that you will need to store a lot of munitions.”

  “I have not thought much beyond the Earth problem, but if we can’t reclaim the planet we will wander. For sure someone will get in our way, sometime. Let’s do this. You talk with Paula; she’ll connect you to the Engineering Section, Maintenance, and Housekeeping. I can see several ways we could do it.”

  “Fine, 1200 it is. That gives me time for another swim. Care to join me?”

  “Wish I could. Duties call. It’s been pleasant, maybe tomorrow?”

  “0800, I’ll be here.”

  I went to my office/dining room on board my ship and started through the daily reports. The Ship’s Status one said, ‘All Green.’ and nothing else. I was going to be a successful ARK Captain with reports like this, but in reality that’s all there was to it. If something went wrong, it got fixed. I touched a button on the wall. A small 3D of our position appeared. It showed the planned three days arrival time. We were on schedule. Thinking of schedules, I picked the phone off the wall and touched Molly’s number. Her voice came on line, “How can I help?”

  “A place for a 1200 lunch with Walter, you and Betty if she's free, inside, get him there and me.”

  “Done, I’ll be by at 1130 for you.”

  The next report was from General Niken at Bren, he’d had contact, no penetration, one ship shot out of space—total burn-up—no chance of poisoning—what did I want done with a space station and a fully equipped Landing Ship Transporter?

  I grabbed a blank message form and wrote, 'leave the station,— and prepare the LST for insertion into ARK IV’s main dock--'. I put the message in the out box and thought, It might be useful as a model. I’ll have to ask Walter what he wants for it.

  A message from Thelma said, --One space station/Moon had been brought out in the open and after two days Prestrillo had declared it free of traps—initial survey conclusion, useable--, more to follow.

  I felt a yearning to be onboard it right now. First things first. Time for power nap. It was something I’d learned from Thelma and seldom had free time to do. I got in my zone and dreamed of vast nothingness spaces and a sense of impending doom. Molly’s voice saying, “XO, XO, 1130”, brought me out of it. Erlo must have affected me, or maybe it was a premonition. I put a smile on, but Molly looked at me questioningly.

  I touched her shoulder, “It’s nothing. Let’s go, we don’t want to keep Walter waiting.”

  “Betty is going to pick him up, no problem.”

  “No problem is not a description of this situation.” I said as we walked toward the strip. “Erlo is going to kill Walter. Evidently Rangers assign responsibility to the highest person involved. Walter is responsible for Bren, by what he didn’t do, so he’s dead if we don’t come up with a plan. If he dies here, we will have major public relations problems, intra galactic public relations problems.”

  “Can’t you do anything?”

  “Shor
tly put, no. Except shoot Walter myself. It’s not just Bren, but that was the icing.”

  “How long do we have?”

  “I wouldn’t bet on anything past dessert.”

  “Oh, I’ll do a wide send.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Sort of a group mind problem resolution.”

  “I learn more and more.”

  Walter and Betty were already seated when we entered the restaurant, they waved. I saw they had drinks already, so I stopped at the bar to get some for us. I said, We’ll have whatever the couple over there had, make mine a double.” He didn’t blink and wasn’t stingy. Hell, If the XO couldn’t drink on duty what was this man’s Navy coming to?

  We sat. Walter appeared happy. I made a toast to happy journeys and suggested I order. Everyone agreed and I took the roast beef with juice and an assortment of side dishes. We listened while Walter told us of the things he’s seen already around Central City. I was all ears, because I hadn’t seen ten per cent of what he had. I was waiting for him to wind down, but he didn’t. Maybe that was due to Betty’s influence. The topic of scenery came up. Evidently we had murals city blocks long, which changed every so often. That fact gave me an Idea.

  “Walter.” I said, “We have a special projector which helps a person recall any scene he has ever seen. I imagine you’ve seen some very pleasant scenes in your past. Why don’t you go with Betty and make a recording and we’ll play it during dinner this evening.”

  “Good idea. I’ll do it. It won’t be an imposition, Betty, will it?”

  “I’ll be glad to, Walter, you’re finished? We’ll go do it right away.”

  They left and the waitress cleared things away. I said, “It might result in good scenery.”

  “Anyway, I now understand that command isn’t always giving orders. That’s a gain for me.” Molly said.

  We left the restaurant and started around the fountain area. I thought I saw Erlo and Paula through the crowd, maybe not. I’d forgotten to ask Walter about the LST, later.

  I went back to the office/dining room. Molly was to meet Tilda. I hoped my ears wouldn’t burn. Mid afternoon Paula came by.

  “I just came from my time with Erlo. He has gone back to his pool, says he feels safe. We got it done." She plopped on a couch against the wall and kicked off her shoes. “Amazing, truly amazing, his track goes back longer than Prestrillo. We recorded the data on the right angle space, amazingly simple, you just spin one of four anchor points out of alignment and a solid object bends around its self and takes up almost no space. Doesn’t matter if it’s a living thing, person, or whatever, same result. Doesn't cause any damage to anything living, or change anything material in any way. Our Engineering has put prototypes together already. Erlo said he’d look at them tomorrow. I hope we continue to deserve his trust.”

  “We may not. Betty is with Walter now. He’s scheduled to be executed by Erlo.”

  “Oh damn, this I spend my Eternity on. I’d better go see what’s happening, and then I promised Bernice a tour of the Hydroponics Gardens. See you later.”

  I looked up Hydroponics Farm in the ships computer, just to be sure. Quite an undertaking. Maybe we could get some dirt farmers onto ARK IV too, like on Thelma’s ARK.

  At 1900, I pushed the door bell of the VIP penthouse, Molly at my side. A uniformed Security Officer opened the door and said, “Everybody's here. I'll be outside.

  A waitress saw us and asked, "What can I get for you?”

  “Bourbon and branch, no ice, Molly?”

  “I'll have the same, with ice, tall glass, thank you.

  I’d half thought that Bernice wouldn’t include Erlo and Tilda. I noticed their gun belts hung in a hall closet. It was a small gesture which they were not expected to make, but a nice one. We walked into the sitting room and got various greetings but no one got up, which made me happy. Bernice waved us to a love seat and our drinks came. “And when we got to the hydroponics farm I expected to see a couple of rooms growing vegetables. But they gave us a two seated cart and a map and said, ‘the tomatoes are about forty miles in that direction.’ I almost didn’t believe them. Truth to tell, I absolutely didn’t. But you can ask Paula, forty seven miles later we came to tomatoes. So we’ll be having several kinds of them with our meal.”

  Paula added, “It was a surprise to me too. I had just never given much thought to what you’d have to do to feed 80,000 people and set some aside for storage rotation.”

  Walter said, “Yes. It’s a big province like I mentioned. But let’s share what we’ve done Betty.”

  The lights dimmed slightly and scenery appeared on all four walls.

  Betty explained, “These are some of the many places that Walter has seen throughout his life times. We’ve tried to not be repetitive.”

  Walter added, “Some of these scenes I don’t recall, but they were among the others which I do, so I must have seen them at some time. Please enjoy, and if you see something of interest say so and the montage will stop and I’ll explain. With that going let’s move to the table. Bernice has been in the kitchen all afternoon, such pleasant smells.”

  I thought the meal was special. Maybe I would steal the cook? No need, already a crew member. Erlo seemed to relax a bit and engage in different conversations. I didn’t envy him anything he had. I believed hard decisions were no stranger to him. He glanced at the montage occasionally but as the evening progressed he seemed fixated on it.

  Finally he said, “Scene stop. Walter would you tell us about that port city and the river coming down to it?”

  Walter stopped in mid sentence and said, “Sure, it’s-------, I don’t know. Betty said it was from five lifetimes back. Sketchy back there.”

  Erlo said, “Prylorn Town.”

  “Yes it is, isn’t it? Yes that’s the name. But I can’t tell you anything about it. It was just in my mind. Betty and I weren’t going to include it but it gave me such a warm feeling I said, include. Isn’t it a special place? There’s more if we can go on.”

  Erlo said, “Forgive me, please do.”

  The montage resumed, and the conversation with no one but Erlo paying much attention to the scenes. He couldn’t take his eyes off the room’s walls which were showing places with the port in the background. He had an air of loss about him. This should be looked into in more detail I thought. I caught Betty and Paula’s gaze and saw they thought the same.

  As soon after dessert as was barely polite Erlo asked to be excused. When Betty asked him to escort her for a walk he nearly refused, but evidently he recovered as he said, “It would be my pleasure. Thanks again Bernice. It was truly special.” His tone was so earnest that I believed him.

  “0800 XO.” he said, on his way out the door.

  About twenty minutes later, I looked at Molly, when she nodded I said, “We’ll be along also, Bernice. This has been an outstanding evening. Walter, thank you so much for sharing your life with us.”

  It was after our night came down, 2100, but before the 'street lights' dimmed at 2400, so Molly and I wandered through the shop areas. It came to me I had no idea of the ships economical system. I guess people got paid. I asked, “Molly, if I wanted to buy gift could I get credit in a shop?”

  Was she stifling hearty laughter? “I think the shop owners would extend you credit. What did you have in mind?”

  “No idea, what would you like?”

  The next morning, 0700, my feet were still tender despite Molly’s rubbing. I think we went to all the shops in Central City. About midnight when most of the shops close Molly allowed me to buy her a short heavily beaded vest. It was unique, but two hours of walking? The shops around the lake proper stay open all night. Thank goodness she didn't insist on going in all of them too. Good training I guess. Thinking of training, we were going to need some ears/eyes on the ground, fact gatherers. I considered what would be needed for a half hour or so and on a whim phoned Molly. “Good morning. Can you see in my mind back from present time?”

&nbs
p; “Only an hour or so.”

  “I’ve been thinking about training Scouts. Could you put those thoughts in a format?”

  “You’ll probably have to fill in some gaps, but I’ll do my best.”

  “Thank you. I have to meet Erlo.”

  "He was acting strange last night . I’d be interested why.”

  “Me too. Fill you in later. Anything planned today?”

  She said, “Not today, but tomorrow we arrive at Bren. I’d say get a hammock today and relax.”

  Chapter 34

  Rafe

  Erlo had already ordered cream rolls and coffee for me when I got there. He said, “I’m trying this mixture, Kenyan, I could make a small fortune on it.”

  “I didn’t know Rangers went in for business.”

  “No? Mmmm. That’s understandable, but you’re looking at the fellow who owns half of the Second Galactic Fed. And I know who owns the rest.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Look at me.”

  He had a point. When was he ever not serious? I said, “All due to four hundred years of reinvestment?”

  “That and investing the seizures of illegal goods, drugs, weapons and such.”

  “I can see where it would add up, and timely introduction of advanced technology.”

  “Yes. But all of that doesn’t stack up to Walters pictures. That Port was where I was born and grew up 413 years ago.”

  I just said, “So where does that leave us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Alright.” I offered. “Help me with a problem, maybe yours will be solved.” He nodded while the lady refilled our cups. “I don’t want anyone from the Second Federation coming to Earth over this Bren situation. So I’m going to pick up some hostages/Diplomatic Legation Personnel, if you wish, on the way back, for insurance, some favorite sons, and daughters of the rulers. They will be treated well and educated. The question is who and which adults should come along to supervise them. This is not open for discussion. Our Rail gun docks can burn through your planet from way out in space. Before I worry about someone coming after us I’ll do that.”