by Robin Miller
She said, “not just yet, thank you.”
I asked how her day was, as she put some vegetables in a pot to cook. She said she spent most of the day with hat orders, and that it was good she had Loquacious to watch over the store.
She asked about my day and I said, “not much to tell, we did what we could with the ships and ammo we had, then came home.”
Kitty, "well every little bit helps I guess. How long did you say before the things get here? Four days was that?"
I said, "four more days at least, they will hit Tronex next."
Kitty, "is there anything we can do to protect the house from them?" I said, "short of putting up a force field there is nothing to do but smash the robots if they come around.”
Kitty, "well, as long as there are not a great number of them at a time, we should be okay. Do you think we should teach the twins to shoot a gun?" I said, "I much rather everyone just use a club, but they are old enough to learn to fire a blaster, maybe tomorrow."
While I was setting there with my drink, I thought about the broken robot I brought back the other day. It did not seem to be watertight, and I wondered what it would take to short it out. I mentioned it to Kitty, and she said maybe we could protect the house and factory with a sprinkler system. I said I would have to capture one of the robots and test it to see if just a little water would do the trick. And if it did, we could just have one of my tanker ships hover over the farm and dump water on to it. The tanker ships hold so much water, they could rain down on the farm for days before the need to refill. Kitty said that sounded like a good idea if it worked on the robot spiders.
I then went out to the porch for a smoke and to do some writing. It didn't take much to get caught up, as I truly didn't do much today, did I?
I closed my ThinkPad, and as if on cue, Owsee came walking up the drive. I said, "your working late hours for a banker."
Owsee, "If I was just a banker I would agree with you, but I have too many other jobs: I am a miner, a port owner, and a chief dockmaster of the space station. Each of these requires a part of my time, so I do what I can where I can, at each of them."
I said, "and which of your many jobs are you coming from?"
Owsee, "the bank, I needed to approve a few loans."
I said, "like I said, late hours for a banker."
Kitty came to the door and called us in for supper. As we sat down Owsee asked what we were having. She said veggies and Flarn.
Owsee, "Flarn, I've heard about that. A lot of people seem to like it, but no one knows just what it is made of."
Kitty, "neither do I, but it's very good," she said as she put a big bowl of it on the table. It was white, and looked like cheese curd. We each took just a little too try, except for kitty who knew what it tasted like, and half filled her plate with it. After trying it we all went for a larger portion. It was sweet, with a light, yet hard to describe spice flavor to it. With each bite I wanted more, the big bowl was soon empty but we were not full yet.
Kitty said, “that's the mystery about Flarn, you don't seem to get full on it,” and she opened the other can. We split it up as even as we could, and it was soon gone as well. We then ate our vegetables. Owsee said he could eat nothing but Flarn for the rest of his life.
Kitty, "that's the one problem with it, even though it has no fat, it also has no nutritional value. So it's not good to be eating it all the time, without other foods.”
I said, "so we can eat as much as we want, and never get full or fat. How's the price?"
Kitty, "each unit cost 20 credits."
Owsee, "not bad for something that tastes so good."
I said, "where does it come from?"
Owsee, "the monks of Silestra make it to support themselves."
I said, "well I don't know what it costs them to make it, but they will have no problems selling it here."
Owsee, "that's the one problem with Flarn, the monks only make enough to pay for what they need for the year, then they stop. The planet is a long ways off the trade route, and everyone wants the Flarn. As a matter of fact, the last time I ever heard of Flarn I was just a boy. It don't make it this far very often." I said, "well, after the war, I'll have to try to make a deal with the monks. This stuff is too good to go without, for years at a time."
Owsee, “you may find that a bit tricky, Silestra issmall but protected by a force field around the whole planet. They don't like people just dropping by." I said, "it's force field is not a problem with my living ship, we can phase out and pass through anything, even a sun."
Owsee, "that's right, I forgot she could do that."
I said, "so what else do you know about Flarn? Does it keep well?" Kitty, "the man at the store said he was told it will keep up to a year, in a unopened can."
I said, "well then let’s try to buy up a year’s supply for us. A can a day times the five of us, times let's say 300 days. I make it out to be 1500 cans. You know the docks Owsee. Can you find out who is bringing it in, and make a deal?" Owsee, "I'll look into it tomorrow, but you may as well buy out the stores supply just in case the trader is out already."
Kitty, "I'll do that tomorrow."
Kitten, "maybe we should not eat so much of it, it may have some long-term effects we don't know about yet."
Prowler, "we could ask the doctor to run some tests. Maybe ask the Plexons about about Flarn, they got hi-tech medical equipment."
I said, "why not, but we can also buy a lot of it,as the price is only going to go up and we can make it up on the resale. The fact thatit has been around for such a long time, tells me it can’t be all that bad for you, and anything that is in demand with short supply will make money fast."
We had some ice cream for dessert, and Kitty took some brownies out of the freezer and warm them up in the oven. They hit the spot and helped to fill us up. Then Banger-do came over to play with Prowler, and teach him some new beats on the drum, while Kitty, Owsee and I sat on the front porch with a bottle of wine. The children played on the back porch, and before long were jamming pretty good, and once again I was grateful to have a house that was a mile from town. Sipping my wine I turned Owsee and said, "you know, now that I'm no longer hungry, I think that Flarn may be a bit narcotic. We went crazy in there, not stopping until all the Flarn was gone, and we had plans to buy all their ever would be."
Owsee, "I don't remember swallowing. I think it just turned to vapor in my mouth, but the taste was good."
I said, "now that I'm thinking straight, I say don't buy any until we analyze it, I want to know what we are eating."
Owsee, "it's just as well, by morning you probably will not be able to find a can of Flarn anywhere."
I said, "there should be enough trace in the cans to test."
Kitty, "I've been resisting licking them clean, I'll save one for you. Better put it in your office for safekeeping."
I said, "yes, my writing room is a good place to put it."
Owsee, "your ship is so fast you could just take it to the station. It would take you less time than it would for me to get up and get another bottle of wine." I said, "oh I doubt that, I can get to the station fast, but then I need to take it to the lab and tell them what I want to know, that takes time."
Owsee, "you’re forgetting your ship can pass through matter, it can take you right to the lab, and let you step off as if you came from thin air."
I said, "that's right, I forgot I could do that, but I still don't think I could do it in less time than you could get a bottle of wine. Although I may as well not put it off." Kitty, "I'll get the can."
Owsee, "I'll get the wine."
I said, "and I'll take my time, thank you very much."
Kitty brought the can, and I took another drag or two on my pipe before getting up and walking out into the yard and on my ship. At the speed of light we were at the station in a heartbeat, she then went cloak-phase and brought me right to the lab. I stepped off her and into the lab with the can, and told the technician what I wanted. H
e asked to take a scan of my body, to see how the Flarn had affected me.
I said, "okay, but you should know I've been drinking and smoking as well." He said, "that will not affect my analysis."
I laid down on the table, a flash of light and a short hum later I was done. He said thank you, and that he would have the test results of the Flarn by morning. I said thank you and stepped out of the room, and onto my ship, disappearing from site and returned home in a flash.
As I stepped off the ship and into the yard Owsee was just coming onto the porch with the wine.
He said, "see, that didn't take long."
I said, "I would have come back sooner, but I stopped for a body scan." Owsee, "I need to put that on my list of things to do as well."
I said, "any idea on how we are doing on building radio stations?"
Owsee, "as a matter of fact, I was talking to the contractor today. He said the buildings are up, but the electrician is still working on the transmitters. He also said he has a crew working at the capital city site where the hole for the hotel is already dug."
I said, "did he say anything about the club? Because I only want Digger to pour the stone for the clubs."
Owsee, "he only mention the hotel."
I pulled out my ThinkPad and gave Digger a call. I wrote him, “my main contractor should of talked to him, but just in case he did not, I had 19 others sites for bunkers. The first one is ready to work on in capital city near the port. Please confirm you get this.”
I put my PC down and said, "there, that takes care of that."
Owsee, "only 101 more thing to do now."
I said, "and one more after that, there is always one more thing."
Kitty, "with this war on your mind, I can't see how you can get anything else done."
I said, "it's not easy, I try not to forget the important things. By the way Owsee, did you get the message about the website to give the remote control codes to for the ships we will blow up?"
Owsee, "yes, I got that. But why send the information to a website instead of just calling the station with it?"
I said, "because there are over a thousand ports like yours that will call in. The website will make it easy to download all the information or request more." Owsee, "that's right. I forgot for a moment about all the other ports." I said, "with any luck the smaller ports and repair shops will jump in, and donations as well, that's a lot of data."
Owsee, "have you given thought to how we will deploy them?"
I said, "if we have as many as I'd hoped, I'll send them in waves of a thousand at a time. The space station computer can handle that many but, no more." Kitty, "a thousand flying bombs is a pretty good wave."
I said, "I think so, especially if we can do it over and over again. We will just have to see how many ships we get."
Kitty, "it's too late now, but what if all the civilian ships were to join a planetary reserve for us, and we armed them. Now that could be a big wave as a last resort."
Owsee, "we would be talking about 100,000 or more ships."
I said, "let's try to put that together for the next war, shall we."
Kitty, "how will you keep our ships safe from the mines we put up there?" I said, "I'm putting the mines around lunar-two, as it will be in the outside path of the debris field, and we don't want the M.E.R.S. landing their then coming here. Lunar-one will be out of the way when they get here, if things don't change much. The model in the astrophysics lab is becoming more solid each day. At the moment we will get hit by only one side of the field, the rest will pass us and head for our sun. So if we keep hitting that side of the field, there will be less to get us when it gets here."
Kitty, "what about this debris field, is there any big rocks that will hit us?" I said, "there are a few, but we cut them down each time we hit it. I'm hoping it will all be just small stuff by the time we're done with it."
Owsee, "do we know what part of the planet will get it?"
I said, "that's not real clear yet, but it looks to be the South East."
Owsee, "that's the coast. I hope the robots can't swim."
I said, "I'm thinking they will short out. Can't be sure without burning one back to test it. Even then it don't matter if there is no way to make sure they get wet. We can't even be sure yet just how many may make it down to the planet or where, I still think the best weapon will be a good club."
Kitty, "well if their landing so far away, we won't even need that." Owsee, "unfortunately with a field that big, theremay be some in orbit coming down for days, all over the place."
I said, "Owsee’s right, we can only predict where the main part will come down, the rest could be anywhere."
We then decided to listen to the radio for a bit. The storyteller was talking about a man that could tell no lies because they had cut his tongue out, for lying. It was an interesting little story. Then the next storyteller talked about a great man that helped unite the planet into one government, and the use of the Galactic credit. He made trading with other planets much easier. Before that story was over Banger said goodnight, and the Twins joined us on a front porch to listen to the story tellers. Owsee said he was going to talk to Goo da wa a bit, and I said I was going to listen to another story or two before going to bed. The next storyteller was a woman, which was unusual because by tradition only men became storytellers on this planet. But she was good, and had a pleasant voice. Her story was, by her own admission, merely based on facts that she had found and may not be 100% accurate. It was a re-creation of how the first settlers came here, and what happened to them and the brave children. She did a very good job on the story, and it was as close to the truth as I think anyone could come, with the records this planet had keep. I was not sure if it was going to offend anyone, but I wanted her as a story land storyteller. I hoped there would be a great number of people calling in to vote for her, that would tell me whether or not she would be accepted. It would still be okay if her numbers were a bit low, I know a good story when I hear it. The next story teller made a derogatory remark, before starting his story, about how all stories should be completely true like reading the news. Then he started to tell a poor rendition of the boy who cried wolf." He spoke as if he was reading it off a page, and did not know how to read well, I went to bed just so I did not need to listen to him anymore. Kitty and the children stayed up to hear the rest of the story. I was still awake when Kitty came to bed, so we took advantage of the fact that we were both in bed and awake at the same time.
As I've said before, "need say no more."
And I fell asleep in her arms to the sound of her purring. There was something about the purring of a Cadillac that could put you right to sleep, it was more than just a sound, it had a feel to it. Before I knew it I was dreaming, and it was the same dream I had before. I'm in the desert with my hands raised to the sky and lightning comes out of my fingers, the heavens are full of fire and I fall to my knees, then I wake up with a cold sweat on my head.
Day 94
Kitty got up the same time I did, and started breakfast while I took a shower. Now that I think about it, finding Kitty still in bed when I woke up was unusual. Most of the time she got up during the night and did not want to wake me by climbing back into bed. Even after my shower I could still feel a tingle in my body left over from my dream. Maybe in the circle of time, this was something I had already done in the future, a few more days and I would know for sure. Fried potatoes, sausages and eggs was for breakfast, and the scent of cooking did not escape Owsee or the children; which were at the table by the time I got out of the shower. There was a cup of coffee waiting for me, as well as toast and jam, and the rest was on its way.
Owsee, "so my friend, how did you sleep?"
I said, "the sleep was good, it's the dreams I could do without."
Owsee, "bad dreams?"
I said, "not so much bad as powerful, maybe a little disturbing."
Owsee, "is it the same dream over again?"
I said, "yes, but a l
ittle fuller each time."
Owsee, "must be something you did or need to do. Your subconscious is talking to you."
I said, "tell me something I don't know."
Owsee, "you can control your dreams by bringing something with you, like a rock in your hand in the dream. As long as you have something you have taken with you, you will have control."
I said, "I've heard of a controlled dreaming, does it work?"
Owsee, "for some, it's really up to you. No fear is the key."
The food came and we passed it around. Owsee asked the twins if they would help out at the Port today, getting the ships ready to fly. They said yes, and I said to Kitten, today you go to your music lesson. She said it’s so close to the port that she could walk there. I glanced over to Kitty for an opinion, and she said, "hard to get lost walking in a straight line. She is old enough for a short walk on her own." And thus a new boundary was set, with more freedom and more responsibility for the Twins.
Gripper stop by for a cup of coffee, and to find out if I was going with the fleet this morning. I told him I would not be of much use, soI would stay behind to get a few things done. I told him to hit the right sideof the debris field, as that would be the part that would hit us. I also said for him to take a tracking beacon and put it in a plastic barrel of water, then send it into the field to see if the M.E.R.S. would go to the trouble to get to it. He said he would take care of it. After he left and we were done eating, Owsee said he could take the Twins with him to the port. I said that would be fine, and that they would probably learn how to fly his ship by the time they got there. I asked Kitty if she needed a hand in getting the scarf order ready, and she said she would not mind help. So we went to the factory while the others went their way. The orders were small, people tend not to spend much during a war, even if they're not in it. In less than a week or two orders would be back up again. When we were done my ship and I gave her a lift to work. We dropped her off by the back door of the shop then were on our way. Our first stop was to go to a club and hotel site, where it was still very early morning, and no one was around. I wanted to exercise my telekinetic abilities, and moving the dirt where the club and hotel would be was a bit of a workout. I then went to another one that had already been mined and moved the dirt. It really drained me this time, but at least I knew I could do it. I then went to the capital city site to see how the work was going. Digger was laying in the reinforcement bars for the floor, and as I walked over he said, "another fine hole you have here."