Book 7 of The traveler.

by Robin Miller

  I said, "time again, to show the galaxy what kind of people live on this planet we call Laureate."

  I ended my speech with that, and hoped it would get things started. The Twins and I then went to the club for something to eat, we had not had much in the way of snacks this morning so we were plenty hungry. We knew we were having a BBQ for supper, so we ordered the seafood platter and did away with a plate of cheese while we waited, as well as some nuts and a piece of fruit each. As our order came Muser, Kitty's new music teacher, stopped by.

  He said, "I was told I could find you here at thistime."

  I said, "hello, please join us, what's on your mind?"

  Muser, "I paid my landlord last night, and found myself out of credits for food again, and thought about your offer. I'm thinking it may be best to take you up on your offer, if it's still open."

  I said, "of course it is, move your things today if you like."

  Muser, "yes, it would be best if I didn't owe any more rent."

  I said, "and I'll tell my help here you eat free. Talking about eating, do you like seafood?"

  Muser, "very much sir."

  I said, "well then, by all means join us. There is plenty, and always more." So he ate with us and we got to know him better, and like so many others his father was from another planet but he grew up here. He had always loved music, and make it a part of his life from an early age. He taught at the government school of music until just a few years ago, then went on his own, and though things have been a bit rough he still enjoyed the freedom to teach in his own style.

  I said, "well kitten seems to enjoy your style, and your friendly attitude is what got you the job. I like people that are happy in theirwork."

  Muser, "well, it's never been about the money, it'sthe music that makes me happy."

  I said, "well what better place than the back of a music store to make music, and it's a good place to meet new students."

  After we were done eating I introduced him to the bartender, and told him Muser eats free and to pass the word along to the other chef. I asked if it would take long to move his things, and he said, "not at all, I only have two trunks and they have wheels."

  I said, "well then kitten can help you, then you can give her a lesson." He said that would be fine with him, and they left to move his things. I called the store and I toad Miss Juniper about our new music teacher. She thought it was a great idea to have a in-house music teacher. Prowler and I then went across the road to my book factory to see how things were going. Arty was just getting the morning orders together, and he said there had been a lot of orders since my last book came out. I said that will slow down soon. He said, “I heard the news, what are fighting now, metal eating robot spiders? I sure hope none of them find their way in here.”

  I said, “I hope none make it to the planet, but we need to be ready if they do.” Arty said, "does this mean we all need to bring weapons to work with us?" I said, "I’m hoping a good club will do the job, but it don't hurt to have an EMP rifle close by."

  Arty, "by the way, we are down to just five barrels of ink, should I order more?" I said, "my suppliers will be busy for the next week, if we run out just hold all orders until we get more ink."

  Arty, "oh, my parents want me to thank you again for introducing me/us to your banker. Things are a lot better for them now that they sold off the crystals under their land."

  I said, "yes, there are a lot of people saying the same thing. Everybody wants to the crystals under their land before the market is gone. But I think the market will hold for at least a few more years."

  Arty, "the first thing my father did was go out and buy himself a small tractor, so he can work more land and have more food to sell."

  I said, "well good for him, a lot of people are trying to get out of the farming, now they have the credit. I think your father will find the market will be kind to him." Prowler and I then went to story land park to check on things. The freezer was still running well and the new furniture was in place. All we needed was food and people to run the park. There would be three morenights of story tellers on the radio, then I would hire the best 10. The rest I would put on a callback list, in case someone does not work out or I start a new story hour on the radio. Of course it just would not be right to open the park until after this new war was over, people will have other things on their minds, and I don't want a poor showing on opening day. Just after we kill the robot spiders would be a good day to open and celebrate. I would try to get people to start then.

  I said to Prowler, "we need to check out the lights one of these nights." He said, "the ones on the trail in the woods as well."

  After admiring the view for a moment, we left to go to the port and see how things were going. We did a fly over to see what we could see, and because my liven the ship made no noise or disturbed the air, most did not even know we were above them. After landed we went to the dock master's office. Owsee’s assistant was on the line with someone that wanted to give their old ship for the cause. But like most, that would be donated, it would not fly without some parts. He took the information and said he would see what he could do. He then said to us, "if you're looking for our chief dock master, Owsee, I think he is out mining." I said, "been getting many calls since my announcement?"

  Dock master, "oh yes, and even if I could find theparts to make all those old ships fly again, my men are here and the ships are all over the place."

  I said, "well, my big ship Tubby can move anything up to four stories high. You're welcome to use it to get the ships you think you can fix."

  Dock master, "it's a step in the right direction. Who will be doing the flying?" I said, "Gripper is a good pilot, and I can't think of anything better for him to be doing. These ships will be very important in the war effort. I'll give you his computer's address and you can tell him about the ships you want. We will take it from there."

  Dock master, "now if you could only create a worldwide database for all the ship parts, we would be gold."

  I said, "this planet does not already have one?"

  Dock master, "it would take a large computer like the World Bank. So people just have to check each site one by one. There are at least a thousand of them, so you can see how long it can take."

  Prowler, "I can write a program that will locate all the sites, and put them on one database on the space station."

  I said, "well, it looks like we are going back to the station for a while. We will call you so you can access the program, as soon as we have one."

  Dock master, "that would be great, thank you."

  Prowler and I then went to the space station.

  After we landed I saw Gripper over by the fighters, so I sent Prowler to do his work in engineering while I talked to Gripper.

  As I walked up to him he saw me and said, "some of the extra pilots have called in, but it looks like three days to get all the ships ready, maybe two if we're lucky." I said, "talking about ships. People are calling into the shipyards to give up their old ships, but a lot of them will not fly without some new parts, and the dock master tells me he can't start sending his work crew out to fix them up. So we need to move the ships to him. Tubby should be able to hold all but the largest ships, and I need you to do the flying. I told the dock master to send a list to your computer."

  Gripper, "moving ships that have no power is going to be a hard job, even for the cargo robots."

  I said, "I can only hope that I can help with the load. Once you get to the yards they will have no problem getting it out. I don't know how busy I am going to get, or I would promise to help with each one. There may be some that just can't be moved without my help, I'll just have to find the time. Believe me, you will be on my list of things I rather be doing."

  Gripper, "well, with the speed of your ship and the communication badge we/you always have on, we can make it work."

  I said, "well, there are a few that need moving right now, so check your computer and figure out which one we are going for f
irst. I need to get Prowler from engineering, then pick up kitten from her music lessons. So just call me and let me know what things look like."

  So I went to engineering to see how prowler was doing. Why he had to work from engineering instead of one of the computers up here I don't know. It was not to get help from the chief engineer, he was working up here on the fighters. When I got to engineering Prowler was on one of the main computers, still putting in data for the program. I asked why he had to use the computer down here, and he said, "you can't just put a new program in the computer from anywhere, safeguards prevent that. This computer checks to make sure the program will not hurt other programs on the ship, before it lets the new program into the main system. Matter of fact, you can't even use this computer without the Plexon encryption code, that I figured out. So we should not be able to do this, but you can keep a secret."

  I said, "not a problem, just make a copy and I’ll hide it in the computer under Captains eyes only."

  Moments later he was done and said, “it will take the computer a while to download the parts list of every dealer on the planet, but after that it will update itself each day. What name shall we give the program so people can use it?” I said, "call it the world parts list."

  We then went to get kitten. When we got to the store kitten and Muser were jamming in the back. Miss Juniper, my store manager, said, "your daughter is very good."

  I thanked her for the compliment and asked if it was going to be too noisy. She said, "not at all, and it lets people know we now give lessons." I went in the back to see how things were going, and after they stopped playing I said, "this place is going to need some fixing up if you're going to live here." Muser, "I've done a bit of construction, all I need is supplies and some tools." I said, "just make a list of what you need and I'll call the order in. As far as tools go, I have some at the book factory I can bring over, but for today I think we need to get you at least a bed and a table with chairs. Are you sure you want to live here? I can put you up at my hotel."

  Muser, "I like to play late at night, kind of hard on the neighbors unless they are empty stores."

  I said, "I understand. My home is a good mile from a town east of here. If we had close neighbors my son would not be able to bang on his drums without disturbing them. Don't worry, we will get this place fixed up proper." We called the furniture store, and I told them to bill me for whatever Muser needed. He then went to pick out his new things while the Twins and I went to help Gripper. I called him, and he told me where he was, and it didn't take us long to get there. He had a towing cable on a small ship only 60 feet wide and 40 feet high, and it was slowly being pulled in. We watched as it made a terrible screeching sound as it was pulled. Gripper stopped as soon as it cleared the doors and said, "I don't think that wrench was made to pull so much, but we got away with it this time."

  We then took the ship to the port and dropped it off, then we went to get another. The next two were almost as big, but with the help of my telekinetic enhancer we loaded them up without a problem. And it was good exercise for me, as I didn't use my telekinetic abilities much, but I would soon need to in a big way. By the time we dropped them off it was almost dark, so we left the big ship Tubby at the yards, and went home on my ship. Whenwe got there Nursa was already there with the triplets. I sent the Twinsto gather some dry sticks to start the fire in the backyard pit.

  Nursa, "those two have grown in just the past two weeks."

  I said, "they wake up every day to a different size in clothes , it's a good thing Kitty has a shop."

  Kitty, "now now, they don't grow that fast. As a matter of fact I think it's slowing down, soon they will stop eating so much."

  Gripper, "I'm looking forward to the triplets eating, maybe then they will start sleeping through the night."

  Nursa, "as if you're the one that has to get up to feed them."

  Gripper, "it would just be nice to sleep through the night with my wife." Nursa, "I'm not your wife."

  Gripper, "that's right, you're just the mother of my children and the woman I'm playing house with."

  Kitty, "now now you two, this is a party, let's play nice."

  She then turned to Nursa and said, "we can rag on them when they go in for a drink."

  I said, "good idea, then we will see to that fire."

  So Gripper and I went in and got a glass each of mybourbon liqueur. Or, "bunk a de bunk" as Captain lunatic calls it. Lunatic, ha! A strange name for a man to make a form himself, but then if you knew him, oh well. We took our drinks out back and got the fire going. Owsee soon joined us on the back porch and we watched a large fire as it burned down to a pile of coals. We spread them out and put the grill over them, then laid out the meat. Kitty and Nursa took it from there, turning the meat over and making sure it didn't burn. They even roasted some large potatoes and a few fish. Which I thought was overdoing it, but somehow everyone found room. And if all that was not enough, Nursa brought some pastries, which went slow even though they were good. All in all it was a feast. But no one ever left Kitty’s table still hungry.

  We listened to the storytellers on the radio while drinking some wine, but not much wine as we were all very full, and not very thirsty. With an hour of storytellers still left on the radio, Nursa called it a night for her and the babies, and Gripper went with her.

  I said, "drop by after the sun comes up, and we will go get some more ships." He said he would and bid us a good night. Owsee sat down, on the front porch, and said, "how many of them old ships do we have to fix, so far?"

  I said, "six, and more to pick up."

  Owsee, "do you think the other ports will pitch in,and fix some ships for us to use?"

  I said, "I'll shame them into it by talking on the radio each day about how many you fix."

  Owsee, "finding the parts in time is going to be a problem."

  I said, "the space station has a new program with a list of every ship part, from every dealer on the planet. Just tie into the station’s computer and run a request for program "world parts list."

  Then ask what you're looking for. If it's on the planet it will tell you where." Owsee, "now that will come in handy, not just for this job but anytime." I said, "well let's hope we get a big response right off, as we don't have a week, when you figure in the remote controls and wiring them to blow." Owsee, "how many do you think we need?"

  I said, "I have no idea. It depends on how well they work, the more the better. Remember, what we don't kill up there, we will have to deal with down here. And talking about things to deal with, I would like to ask two flavors of you in case of my death. I want you to smash the telekinetic enhancer I wear so no one else will ever use it, and I want you to know what is in my deposit box." Owsee, "so what's in the box? Don't make me use mymaster key to find out." I said, "a synaptic reader for making replicator chips."

  Owsee, "with that you can make just about anything you can think up." I said, "how do you think I got the program for coffee?"

  Owsee, "brain readers are not forbidden on this planet, yet. But it could be dangerous in the wrong hands."

  I said, "that's why I'm telling you about it, just in case."

  Owsee, "not a problem my friend, and if I should go before you take care of my bank and port, you're in my will. I would not trust anyone else."

  I said, "if, is the key word we are both using. Lately I have been living dangerously, not always by choice. Trust me when I say I would love to live a long and happy life, but destiny is written in the stars, and I'm not sure what she has in store for me. I have already been dead once, the next time I may stay that way." Owsee, "I told you the laser saw had a kick to it, if we didn't have a scan record of you, even the Plexons would not of been able to bring you back."

  I said, "yeah but I lost all my memories from the station on that moon until that day you brought me back."

  Owsee, "that will teach you to get scanned more often."

  I said, "and when was your last scan?"

 
Owsee, "around the beginning of the war with the swarm."

  I said, "guess we are both due for another one."

  I let my pipe then said, "I've decided to open story land Park the day after we defeat the metal eaten robot spiders."

  Owsee, "sounds like a good day for it. Will you have a party at the club as well?" I said, "of course I will. I better book the band ahead of time, just to make sure I get the one I want. I'm thinking of making the acoustic 10 my house band, and have them play at the club at least one night a week."

  Owsee, "they are a good band, but with 20 clubs you're going to need a number of bands. Unless you only want to hear from the band only once a month at each club."

  I said, "I was thinking of four bands doing five clubs a week, with a day off, because your week has only six days."

  Owsee, "it's good to have live music at least once a week."

  I said, "say, now that there will be at least a week before any more crystal trade with Plexon, what will you do about the mining? Will you stop for a week?" Owsee, "not at all. Just like the government, I will mine and stack until we can take them up again. I have a spot deep in the desert with two armed guards and a camera to keep an eye on things. You, by the way, have five cities where the crystals have been removed from your land, so you can build on them now." I said, "are they sand or dirt?"

  Owsee, "two are sand, the other's dirt. Thinking of making the foundation holes yourself?"